Quite a good one, this week: I think I can be more or less positive about everything here, actually, with the vague exception of the Yellow Swans live comp, which is a bit too industrial for me (John Cale, as it happens, described them thus: “The Swans’ sound grates on your nerves - like you’ve put your head in a jet engine.” Thumbs up!).

It would be a 'publishing dream' for the company to release Morrissey's life story

72-year-old suffering from MRSA bug, speech difficulties and alzheimer's according to her son

Texan dilettantes turn their hand to wintry folk-rock.

In the wake of loss, a half-whispered lament that's strangely sweet and surprisingly optimistic.

Beguiling fourth from the impressively unclassifiable London brainiacs.

He's playing for Teenage Cancer Trust this March

Some albums prove harder to write about than others, for reasons that aren’t always easy to fathom. Others, though, seem purposely designed as hard to pin down: a case in point being Kompakt’s latest “Pop Ambient 2010” comp, which I’ve been listening to a lot for a couple of months now. How do you articulate what music sounds like that exists in such a neutral, undemonstrative space?