Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP
Animal Collective appear to have got 2009 pretty much all sewn up. Featuring strongly in a whole slew of Best of Year and Best of Decade features, along with the incredible Merriweather Post Pavilion they have also set a (re)release date for their debut, Campfire Songs, from 2003. Now, right at "their" year's end, comes this five track EP of new material.

Alicia Keys - The Element Of Freedom
On her fourth studio album The Element Of Freedom, Alicia Keys seems to have taken hold of her superstar status and channeled it directly into her music, turning in a set of arena anthems that find her immediately recognisable diva vocal presence and tender piano playing shining like twin beacons through a barrage of huge drum production, cold, otherworldly synth arrangements and thick big-room reverb. In an R 'n' B world that's gone Auto-tune crazy, Keys proves that she's something genuine among so many mass-produced plastic knick-knacks.

Daniel Johnston - Is And Always Was
There may be just one bi-polar ex-MTV star, a tortured, musical genius who was subject of a Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary. A man who's also found renown as an artist after a lifetime of struggling and whose art was recently turned in to an iPhone game, complete with a soundtrack featuring his own music. And he's probably Daniel Johnston.

Benjy Ferree - Come Back To The Five And Dime
Washington, DC songwriter Benjy Ferree treads dangerous, and potentially ruinous territory on his second album, Come Back To The Five And Dime, Bobby Dee Bobby Dee. This one's a concept album, juxtaposing the Hollywood fantasy of eternal youth against the grim reality of tragic and untimely death, particularly as they pertain to child star Bobby Driscoll. As a concept album, ...Bobby Dee sort of misses the mark; as a rock 'n' roll album, it succeeds marvellously.

The Tailors - Come Dig Me Up
Come Dig Me Up, the second album from The Tailors, plays like an English take on American alt-country spun round through a bit of power-pop with an unshakably sunny disposition. The record's nine songs breeze by in an all too fast, delightfully lazy and hazy 32 minutes but, in that time, The Tailors make a well-weighted case for simplicity as the key to staying power.

Todd - Big Ripper
Todd are not for the faint of heart. They are, indeed, the second coming of The MC5, repackaged for today's metal audience, but no less exciting in their straight-from-the-garage assault as Wayne Kramer and company were when they first kicked out the jams forty years ago. And on their third album, Big Ripper, Todd turn the knobs all the way up and crash and pound their way through some of the most intense and ear-splitting DIY rock 'n' roll in recent memory.

Leona Lewis - Echo
For many, including Simon Cowell, Leona Lewis is the justification for the TV talent contests such as The X-Factor, the ratings bonanza Lewis won in 2006. Since then she has had a Number 1 single and album in America, been nominated for Grammys and Brit Awards and sold over two million copies of her debut, Spirit, in the UK alone.

Codeine Velvet Club - Codeine Velvet Club
Courtesy of an "innovative" online release, the debut album from Codeine Velvet Club is currently trickling out track by track (well, two by two) over the next few weeks until eventually the whole album can be fully assembled like an MP3 puzzle. Alternatively, it's possible to wait for the full release which is scheduled for the end of the year.