so according to london's telegraph: "After more than 10 years' mysterious silence, a new album by Kate Bush is in the works". i'm not really into kate bush (yet?) but she interests me, and her version of elton john's "rocket man" was very excellent. speaking of kate bush, i heard excerpts from two tracks from tori's new album the beekeeper due out in february. i hate to say it, but i've finally resigned myself to the fact that she jumped the shark at least three albums ago. i hate that soporific, easy listening, sarah mclachlan-esque junk. whatever happened to the angry, piano-pounding banshee? it's so annoying when people become caricatures of themselves. ah well. in contrast, bjork's medulla this year proved she's still going strong, and the tracks i've heard from ani's new album knuckledown (due jan 25) are promising. she's working w/ a co-producer for the first time ever and he can prob. be credited w/ the very professional and interesting string arrangements i've heard which automatically give ani a new sound. sondheim's cast recording of the frogs (a curio, feat. nathan lane) is due out jan. 25 also, which i'm prob. going to hold off on for a while b/c i already have the other studio recording (also feat. nathan lane). in an interview with playbill.com, audra mcdonald said she hopes to have a new record out in the spring. although i'm incredibly wary of non-pop singers doing pop songs (her repertoire apparently includes songs by paul simon, elvis costello, stevie wonder, and prince), i'm semi-hopeful that audra won't disappoint. we'll just have to see. so far that's what i'm looking forward to on disc for 2005.