The Hawk Is Howling is the sixth studio album by Scottish post-rock band Mogwai, expected to be released on September 22, 2008 through Wall of Sound, Play It Again Sam, and Matador in the UK, Europe, and the USA, respectively.

The album was recorded in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire at Chem19 Studios with producer Andy Miller, whom the band had previously worked with on their early releases from 1997—1998. Mogwai recorded the album from September 2007 to February 2008, mixing the album in March with Garth Jones at the band's own Castle of Doom Studios in Glasgow.

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Amazon.co.uk Review
You could never accuse Damon Albarn of resting on his laurels. Whether it's forming supergroups (The Good, The Bad & The Queen), working with cult animators (The Gorillaz) or making music with musicians from Mali, the former Blur frontman has nurtured a restless, questing spirit not normally encountered in Britop stars. As if to underline his diverse interests, he now turns his attention to Chinese theatre. Monkey: Journey to the West is a theatrical collaboration between Albarn (music), Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz fame (designs, costumes) and Chinese opera specialist Chen Shi-Zheng. The show itself is an explosive 90-minute circus featuring Chinese acrobats, martial arts experts and contortionists, though the album condenses the experience into 22 songs lasting an hour or so.

Recorded in London and Beijing with a mix of European and Chinese musicians, Monkey ... is a genuine attempt at East-West fusion. Featuring a dizzying array of instrumentation--rock guitars, electronics, harps, mandolins, drum machines, strings, plinky-plonk keyboards, giggling girls, chants, even pigs--it's the sort of project that could so easily have gone awry. Yet Albarn, who allegedly mastered the Chinese pentatonic scale, seems to have made it work. Songs like the fluttery "Heavenly Peach Banquet" and the wistful "The Living Sea" are utterly beguiling, and stand in stark contrast to guitar-heavy behemoths like "Battle in Heaven" and the climactic "Monkey Bee." These longer songs are punctuated with incidental pieces such as "Iron Rod", "Into the Eastern Sea" and "Out of the Eastern Sea". While such interludes may distract from a 'normal' album experience, there's enough melodious charm and imaginative whimsy scattered throughout to satisfy even ardent skeptics.

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The Age of the Understatement is the debut album by The Last Shadow Puppets, featuring Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, Miles Kane of The Rascals and Simian Mobile Disco member James Ford. It was released on 21 April 2008 in the UK, following the release of their eponymous single in the previous week. It entered the UK Album Chart at #1 on 27 April 2008. The album has so far sold 128,358 copies in the UK and was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.

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Amazon.co.uk Review
You can teach attitude for interviews, you can stage and tweak it expertly for photo shoots, but Little Man Tate – and particularly gobby frontman John Windle – don't leave it that long. "Don't talk to me about money, don't talk to me about fame, don't tell me about your lyrics because your songs are all the same," he chirrups intently, taking out most of his peers in one fail swoop seconds in, "you've got to understand, man I hate your band!". His uncorked belligerence is infectious, driven hard by that honest, witty northern twang previously heard rebounding off the likes of I Am Kloot, The Cribs and, yes, yes, those Arctic Monkeys. His gall at ripping apart the London A&R scene's pretentiousness on their opening three and a half minutes has surely won more friends than it might had it not been attached to such a belter of a tune.

As right as he might be, he's probably not entirely immune to its criticisms. They slam into the record with such a head full of steam and testosterone that they were always bound to be winded by the end of its 11 tracks. But while it lasts it really is enormous fun. The choruses to 'European Lover' and 'Sexy In Latin', and the holler-along outro to 'House Party' are furiously sweet like a confectionary box featuring The Jam truffles, brandy snap Buzzcocks and mostly Libertines choc chip creams. Not exactly for savouring, hardly a delicacy, more just treats to chomp right down.

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In a phone interview with Pete Tong, on June 20, 2008, Tom from The Chemical Brothers confirmed that a compilation album of all of the singles and Electronic Battle Weapons will be released later this year. In a fan email on 24 June 2008, it was announced that the double album collection would be called Brotherhood and would be released on 1 September 2008. Disc one would include 14 singles, including new track 'Keep My Composure'. Disc two will include all ten Electronic Battle Weapons. A tenth "Electronic Battle Weapon" has surfaced and is titled "Midnight Madness". The track will be available as a downloadable single from 18 August 2008. To date, this has been a very anticipated single from the group.

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Konk, the second album from indie pop starlets The Kooks, will appeal to those who enjoyed the catchier, hookier elements of their best-selling debut Inside In/Inside Out. For the band are more "pop" than "indie" this time around, and Konk is an overt attempt at winning even more chart-topping kudos: and it's not a bad attempt at that. Recorded over a six-week period at the end of 2007 (in Ray Davies' Konk Studios in London), the album's first single "Always Where I Need to Be" is as insouciantly catchy as a contemporary rock band can get, while tracks like opener "See the Sun," and "Mr. Maker", with its infectious hand claps, are equally accessible. There's tougher fare like "Sway", which show the boys can blast it when they want, but the album generally plays it safe, grappling (clumsily in places) with themes of love and sex, and revealing not a great deal of musical or lyrical depth in the process (see "Do You Wanna"). The album runs out of steam towards the end, and though fans of their earlier material will love it, fussier indie fans will probably point their ears towards something less contrived.

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Blind is the second full-length album by The Sundays. It was released by Parlophone on October 19, 1992 in the UK, then in the US by Geffen the following day, October 20. Often considered the darkest and most experimental of The Sundays' albums, noted for its melancholic lyrics and closer resemblance to the darker dream pop work of artists such as the Cocteau Twins.

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'Chemical Chords' is the ninth LP from multinational indie-pop stalwarts Stereolab. After a long and varied career thathas seen myriad sound evolutions, the band has uncluttered their sound somewhat with this release, with shorter songs and a more direct approach in the studio. The songwriting product of very tight time constraints, 'Chemical Chords' is leaner and poppier than recent albums. The remaining constantsare still Laetita Sadier's cool vocals, warm washes of Moogsynthesizers and, notably, auxiliary instrumental arrangements by former Stereolab/current High Llamas member Sean O'Hagan.

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