A few bits and pieces...

This is really a small collection of things that I have heard about recently, been "told" or have previously forgotten to mention.

Several people have asked me/arrived at this blog seeking an answer to this question:

• Is 'I Speak Because I Can' - Laura Marling available on 12" vinyl LP?  Well I could not find it either but, let me tell you this, it will be available within the next month or two.  The exact release date has, to the best of my knowledge, not yet been announced.
• On the same theme; the third Laura Marling album, originally and rather optimistically pencilled in for 2010, is still in the works. My hunch is that an early summer 2011 release is a good bet.

The end of 'blue January' is when new releases really start to pick up and in some ways define the direction of 2011. I have mentioned some of these already and Adele's '21' is certainly shifting units in the UK this week: it had sold more than 100,000 copies in its first two days of release and by the midweek  Top 10 album chart-preview it was comfortably out-selling #2 - #10 even if their individual sales were totalled!

My first 2011 12" vinyl acquisition is 'Violet Cries', the début album from Esben and The Witch (UK: 31/01/2011).  If you can make it then they are marking the event in their home city of Brighton the following evening.

It is an album that, in an interesting twist, eschews the inclusion of the singles 'Skeleton Swoon' and 'Lucia At The Precipice', but if you have seen E&TW live then you will know just what to expect.

If you wondered why I didn't make a specific post about where I think (live) music is heading in 2011, in contrast to previous years, then this is what I have to say.
I think 2011 might just possibly be a turning point. If it were to be so then I think that the result will not be the dominance of any particular genre but rather the acceptance of many that co-exist and can intermingle influences.  I believe that, as a result of many circumstances, the seeds of this change were first sown a few years ago.