There seems to be a lot of artists at the moment where I seem to have been awaiting new albums from them for an age. So this week's TT is based around the idea of bands we'd like to return with a new album, or "overdue" new albums…
The longest wait that I can think of for any "active" band's next album is that for Portishead. Their last studio album Portishead was released in 1997 – yes, that long ago – and the new album is at long last due on 14-April (There is a tour in the meantime, too). Quite whether they can reach their nineties heights is another question, of course, although the fact their sound is, you could say, "timeless" may well work in their favour.
Talking of long waits, it has now been seven years since debut album Spray, and there is still no sign of the long-promised album Delete. It looks set to be even further delayed with Rob from the band being Marilyn Manson's touring guitarist in the US during 2008. Will it ever arrive? Who knows. mp3 snippets were posted late-06, but that is all we have ever heard of it, and to be honest, they weren't especially encouraging compared to the first album. Perhaps their time has passed…
An artist with a devoted but still small fanbase, Rico's last album was Violent Silences, released in summer 2004. The long gap between albums (he debuted new material on his last tour back in autumn 2005) is perhaps to be expected – there was after all a four/five year gap the first time around…
Hardly prolific in recent years anyway – last album Pulse, released in 2003 was itself nine years after the last album proper – I have to say I'd be surprised to see another 242 album in the near future. At least, there certainly seems to be no inclination to do so, with them seeming to be happy to tour their hits each year (even if an appearance in the UK would be nice). The other thing is, Pulse was a hefty change in direction that in my opinion, was not very good: and if it was another album of aimless techno, would anyone care anyway?
Another important artist where there appears some doubt over whether another album will appear or not. Although a couple of compilations of rare, unreleased and remix material have been released in the meantime, it is now four years since Exit Ritual's unsettling sound was released, and there appears no inclination of new Converter material since. Here's hoping that new material does arrive – Converter remains, even now, probably the most innovative "industrial/noise" artist of recent times.
Talking of noise, Panic DHH's brutal assault of a debut album, as well as their unbelievably loud live gigs, pointed to an interesting follow-up album, that was being promised well over a year ago. That is, if it ever happens. Both the panicdhh.com and hatechannel.com domains have expired, and the myspace has not been updated (other than adding a couple of older videos) in some time.
A seemingly constantly active band, but one that haven't released an album of new Collide material in nearly five years: Some Kind of Strange dates from 2003, and since then there has been a hefty remix album (Vortex), and a live album/DVD. And, indeed, a side-project in The Secret Meeting. We are apparently promised a new album for 2008, hopefully…
Yet another artist to have last released a new album in 2003 (Wrack and Ruin, of course), there has been material since, but only odds'n'sods. A new album would be nice, but again there is no comment on it on their website (that doesn't appear to have been updated for some months), so god only knows how much longer we will have to wait…
We can perhaps let Tricky off for the delay in a new album from him – after all, with a reasonably busy movie career amongst other things, there has perhaps been no rush to record a new album. However happily enough the follow-up to Vulnerable (from, yep, 2003), is finally on the way, and apparently will be out in April.
Let's be honest – this band are the least likely of this entire list to release a new album. The last album (Vision Thing) arrived just over seventeen years ago, at the end of 1990, one more new track appeared on the "best of" in 1993, and since then Andrew Eldritch has continued to tour almost yearly since, seemingly both mocking and trying to disown his "Goth" origins along the way. New songs have been reported as appearing in the live sets, but still no new album. The thing is, would anyone really care if they did release a new album anymore?