Depeche Mode are preparing to record a new album, which they are “hoping to be finished by the end of the year”, the band’s Martin Gore has revealed.

Gore was actually speaking to The Quietus about ‘SSSS’, the debut album from his new collaboration with Vince Clarke, VCMG. He said of the techno project: “It was a nice break for me to be able to go and do something completely different that doesn’t involve poring over lyrics and having to think about vocal melodies. I think I went back to actually writing for [Depeche Mode] with much more vigour afterwards, because I had taken such a break. It gave me a real creative impetus”.

He continued: “I went straight from finishing the VCMG record into writing for the band. I think even though I used a lot of the same kind of instrumentation, I immediately went into a completely different headspace. The stuff I’ve been doing for the band is completely different to VCMG. Apart from the fact that I came back to the actual songwriting with more energy, you have to remember as well that I’m also a guitar player. Working on the VCMG record, obviously I didn’t look at a guitar for that whole period because it just wasn’t right – so the moment I started getting back to writing songs for the band then I’m picking up the guitar, I’m going on the piano, working on chords, just working completely differently”.

‘SSSS’ is due for release on 12 Mar, and Depeche Mode are due to head into the studio to work on that new album later the same month.

One Direction want more creative involvement in album number two, by which they mean they want Ed Sheeran to write it for them, because then they’ll have a “grungier sound”. Well, it’s a plan.

Sheeran did contribute some songs to the recording sessions for the X-Factor boyband’s first long player, and one of his tracks appears on the deluxe edition of that record I believe, but 1D-er Liam Payne reckons that if Ed was to work with him and his bandmates on more songs for album two then that could work out nicely.

Payne told the Daily Star: “Ed is such a talented guy. We spoke to him about helping again for the next album, which we want to actually write with him this time. He gave us almost a whole album of songs to choose from last time; there were so many of his songs that we wanted to record”.

Asked about the sound of that second record, Payne’s 1D bandmate Louis Tomlinson continued: “We want to take the next album into a different zone – more guitars and grungier. We like the sound of a real guitar on tour, we beefed up the live show so now we want to take it onto the album”.

Of course, while both Sheeran and the 1D boys will be at the BRITs tonight, the boy band will be otherwise fully occupied for the foreseeable by their bid to break America, which seems to be going pretty well by all accounts, the older end of the Bieber teen market seemingly perfectly primed for some more lacklustre pop tunes, but this time sung by boys who like talking about shagging and getting pissed. Of course they probably need to cash in quick on that crowd, before the teeny pop fans graduate on up to the next level, which is probably Chris ‘Fuck You’ Brown. Or maybe Odd Future.

Though certain critics have concluded there’s barely an album’s worth of album-worthy material on Lana Del Ray’s debut LP ‘Born To Die’, it appears the singer has a high-quality cache of surplus tracks in waiting, should a deluxe edition of the record ever be released. And indeed, such a thing seems quite likely to materialise, given hints dropped by Del Rey’s label boss, Ferdy Unger-Hamilton of Universal subsidiary Polydor.

Describing Del Rey as “a really talented writer and a remarkable lyricist”, Hamilton has told MTV: “She had three CDs’ worth of songs written, with loads of brilliant tracks. Enough for us to do the album and a deluxe edition and still have stuff left for later records”.

Del Rey, however, has previously said she’s not keen on making a sequel to ‘Born To Die’, despite the LP becoming the fastest selling album of the year upon its release earlier this month. “I don’t think I’ll write another record. What would I say?” she asks of Vogue. “I feel like everything I wanted to say, I’ve said already”.

Rap auteur Busdriver, aka Regan Farquhar, has revealed he’s been working on an EP with US MC Del The Funky Homosapien, which is superb news for those of you who prefer your hip-hop to err on the alternative side.

Says Busdriver, who last collaborated with Del on Flash Bang Grenada’s 2011 album ’10 Haters’: “Its happening. Del The Funky Homosapien and I are back in gear to finish these handful of songs together. It’ll most likely be an EP. Stay tuned”. We will Bus, we will.

In the mean time, why not tune into the Q&A Busdriver did with CMU Editor Andy Malt last month.

Folk troupe Mumford & Sons have so far kept fairly, well… mum on the subject of a sequel to their 2009 debut ‘Sigh No More’. Well, no more. The band’s Ben Lovett has told us all. Well, he’s spoken in very vague terms about some of the new songs they’ve written, many of which have been previewed during recent live shows.

Lovett told MTV: “We are in the final stages. We’re not finished; we don’t quite know the exact tracklisting. But we have kind of road-tested some songs, and we have picked up some new songs, and dropped some ones that people might have thought we were going to be putting on the record. We just want to make a record that’s cohesive and one that we feel represents us best right now”.

As to a release date: “We can’t tell you. There just isn’t one yet. We can’t even say that any particular song is definitely on the record, because we just don’t know. But we’re being urgent with it, we’re trying very hard”.

Young Justin Bieber has relayed a little in-studio information on what we can expect from his new LP ‘Believe’, which upon release will represent his first non-festive album since 2010′s ‘My World 2.0′. And apparently, when it comes to ‘Believe’, the credo is to expect the unexpected.

JB took to Twitter yesterday to share this message with fans: “In the studio making some tracks about to figure out these melodies and lyrics”. Done with pleasantries, he then tried a little ‘idea outsourcing’, inviting fans to tweet their suggestions as to what they’d like to see and hear on the new record. “You guys got any ideas. Put it with #BelieveIdeas”, he wrote.

As for other facts on the latest recording sessions, he revealed he was working with one of his “favourite producers of all time” and that “this album is not what you are expecting…”

Personally, I’m anticipating a selection of preteen-suitable pop, a smattering of slick R&B production, plenty of Autotune, and maybe even a couple of Biebs’ infamous ‘raps’. And possibly a timely sequel to Busta Rhymes’ eggnog verse on Justin’s Christmas album ‘Under The Mistletoe’. A recipe for tropical fruit punch, perhaps. Prove me wrong, Bieber, I double dare you.

So, songwriter Ryan Tedder, also of US band OneRepublic, has revealed he has been working with a post-baby Beyonce on a double album (hers, not his), seemingly set for tentative release in 2013.

Tedder, who composed ‘Halo’ for Beyonce’s 2008 double LP ‘I Am… Sasha Fierce’, says this of the R&B star’s potential next moves: “The conversations about her next album literally just started and there [are] two projects happening. All I can say is you kind of feed her the best that you have and she’s this phenomenal filter and she takes it all in”.

He continues: “She’s not interested in 2012, [she's interested in] what’s [going to sound good for] 2013. Without question she steers the ship. [With] Beyonce, you just let her go, she’s ridiculous, she’s the best”.

As for the inspiration behind the new records, Tedder claims he has already suggested to Bey that she might like to write about the miracle of motherhood. “I would say that goes without saying”, he adds.

This Ryan Tedder character does say a lot of things, though, which recently include that he has collaborated with both Lana Del Rey and Azealia Banks. He’s so very in demand, that Tedder. Or so he says.

So, when Tyler, The Creator ended a list of collaborators who have been working on new Odd Future material last week with “and uh… hopefully… ya know”, did you guess Kanye West? If you did, give yourself a gold star. Yesterday a series of photos appeared on the group’s Tumblr blog featuring none other than Kanye hanging out in their studio, and in one of them he seems to be recording some vocals. So that’s fun. Take a look.

Graham Coxon has said that Blur will “definitely” release another album, though hasn’t yet appointed even a vague date by which such a thing might happen. I’m guessing it’ll be at some stage before the end of time. Which is preferable to afterwards, I suppose.

Speaking to The Daily Record about the band’s impending BRITs appearance in honour of their being awarded the Outstanding Contribution To Music gong, he says: “We haven’t planned the rehearsals yet, but there will definitely be another Blur album”.

He continues: “We’re always going to meet up and want to play things. We do like recording. Eventually, even if things aren’t around the corner, Blur will do more recordings together. We all love each other and still like making music so that’s not a bad start”.

As previously mentioned, Coxon will release his latest solo LP ‘A+E’ on 2 Apr. Feel free to glance through the full Daily Record interview, in which he touches on the album, bad oysters, and getting “gyp” from Liam Gallagher, here.

Efterklang have announced that the band’s core membership now stands at three, after drummer Thomas Husmer quit in order to pursue other projects. However, as they announced this news, the remaining trio – Casper Clausen, Mads Christian Brauer and Rasmus Stolberg – also revealed that they have been working on their fourth album for the last six months.

In a statement, the band said: “Our dear friend, great musician and Efterklang drummer/trumpet player for over ten years, Thomas Husmer, has decided to seek new adventures and is no longer a member of the band. He will be dearly missed in Efterklang, but we fully support and understand his decision … Please also note that this is not the end of Efterklang. We (Casper, Mads and Rasmus) have been working on a new Efterklang album as a trio for six months now and we are very excited to report that it is going well with many new songs in progress”.

Husmer added: “I feel so genuinely privileged to have been part of the Efterklang family and the whole Efterklang project … It’s difficult for me to explain in a few words why I’ve chosen to step back from something so dear to me. And I don’t expect anyone to fully understand. Lately my priorities in life have changed. I’ve felt the urge to dedicate myself to a more simple and domestic life closer to my family. And I’ve found it impossible to combine this with my life in Efterklang. This has been a very tough decision for me, but I feel good where I am right now. I’m a happy man with a rich past and an unrevealed future”.

The band stressed that Husmer has not left the music world altogether, and is looking for a new Copenhagen-based project. Read the full statement here.

Recently seen frequenting a number of LA studios, hip-pop type Tulisa Contostavlos has reportedly enlisted the expertise of one Jean Baptiste Kouame – an American record producer famed for his work with Madonna, Rihanna and Contostavlos’ ‘X-Factor’ predecessor, Cheryl Cole – for the initial stages of writing her solo debut.

The pair first collaborated back in 2010, when Kouame was credited on N-Dubz’s third and final album ‘Love. Live. Life’. Def Jam’s Max Gousse, also involved in the making of that N-Dubz LP, is said to be managing the A&R aspect of Tulisa’s solo venture.

Despite rumours that progress on the unnamed LP had stalled due to Contostavlos’ split with one-time N-Dubz affiliate, solo album collaborator and boyfriend Richard ‘Fazer’ Rawson, it remains slated for a May release.

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver has revealed that he has been writing songs with Alicia Keys, with an ultimate aim to one day collaborate with other artists en masse.

Speaking to USA today, the singer-songwriter says: “I have a big idea to do an American songbook of the greatest women singers. There are so many: Casey [Dienel] from White Hinterland, Bonnie Raitt, Alicia”. He also adds that he’d like to release an all-star “one-off charity album”, since such a project would offer “an excuse to work with a bunch of people that I’d [like] to work with, all at once”.

Though partial to the odd well-chosen studio partnership (Vernon shares various co-credits with St Vincent, Lia Ices, James Blake, Kanye West and, most recently, the Flaming Lips), it seems he and his Bon Iver bandmates didn’t take to the idea of performing with a fellow artiste at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony, at which they are nominated in four categories.

He tells Billboard: “We wanted to play our music, but we were told that we couldn’t play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else. And we just felt like it was such a large stage. We’re getting nominated for this record that we made, me and Brian [Joseph] and a bunch of our fucking friends, and we were given accolades for it. And all of a sudden we were being asked to play music that had nothing to do with that. We kind of said ‘fuck you’ a little bit and they sort of acted like they wanted us to play, but I don’t think they wanted us to play”.

Vernon, who in the past has been very vocal (and not to mention, less than complimentary) about his personal attitude towards all-things Grammy, also passed comment on an advert, as soundtracked by Bon Iver’s ‘Holocene’, that’s set to air during a commercial break in the TV transmission of the awards show.

He says: “There’s a big misunderstanding – I don’t want to sell music. But if people are going to be selling music, and they want to sell our music without disturbing the medium of what it actually is, we want to fucking do that. I want people to hear the music that we make. I don’t want to do it in any shitty way”.

You’ll find these, and many more baffling remarks, in this here Billboard interview.

Britney Spears and Shakira are the latest guests to join the all-star line-up on Will.i.am’s fourth studio album, ‘#willpower’, which is due out later this year.

Mick Jagger and Jennifer Lopez appeared on the recently released single ‘THE (The Hardest Ever)’, and Alicia Keys, Swedish House Mafia, Swizz Beatz, Eva Simons, and LMFAO will also feature on the album. Oh, and Busta Rhymes is on there somewhere, but that’s pretty much a given these days, there are few albums he doesn’t appear on in some capacity.

Speaking to Capital FM, Will.i.am said: “I have a song with Alicia Keys – me, Alicia and Swedish House Mafia. Me and Shakira have been trying to finish the stuff we started, and me and Britney is really crazy. So we got a song with me, LMFAO and Eva Simons. A song with me and Busta Rhymes and Swizz Beatz. I got a whole other bunch of collaborations”.

Discussing the album’s social networking-ready title, he explained: “#willpower is just a reminder to myself of staying consistent with the dream – keeping the dream alive. It was all a dream when I was fifteen years old – 20 years later I managed to take the dream from an idea to physicality. So #willpower is uplifting songs, encouragement for those that need it”.

Joy. In other Shakira news, the Colombian singer has been made a Chevalier De L’ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres (or Knight Of The Order Of The Arts And Letters) by the French government. So that’s nice.

Work has started on a sequel to These New Puritans’ much-acclaimed second studio LP ‘Hidden’, the band have announced.

The new record will come out on London-based independent Infectious Music (Local Natives, Temper Trap) rather than via the band’s former label Angular Records, a move that has seemingly involved a lot of tedious legal shenanigans.

A TNP tweet reads: “We are making a new album. We spent months with lawyers and are pleased to have moved to Infectious Music for its release”.

So, that’s that.

Ben Folds Five were a little coy about the prospect of a reunion last year. Folds told Spinner in September that after sessions to record three new songs for the singer-songwriter’s forthcoming career retrospective compilation went well, they would “probably” regroup for a full album. And earlier this week Folds confirmed it, announcing via Twitter that recording sessions had begun.

He tweeted: “It’s happening fo sho – day one in studio with Robert [Sledge, bass] and Darren [Jesse, drums] through March #NewBenFoldsFiveRecord”.

The album will be the band’s first since 1999′s ‘The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner’.

While an official announcement on the Babes v.1 reunion is still not forthcoming, Emeli Sandé has confirmed that she has written new material for the original Sugababes line-up. As previously reported, Popjustice revealed the original Babes had reunited in the studio earlier this month.

Asked about rumours that she has been working with the group, Sandé told MTV: “Yes, that is true. I’ve written for the original line-up of the Sugababes, which I’m very happy about because I just loved them when they first came out. I loved their sound, it was so cool. It was very different, so I’m happy to kind of be involved in what started the whole Sugababes journey. It sounds amazing”.

Meanwhile, an unnamed source claimed in The Mirror recently: “The girls are very much back to their soulful roots, but this time around it’s far more innovative. They’ve recorded more tracks too – and they’re working hard to get a body of new work. Siobhan has left her job in the City and they are concentrating on getting material together for an album. They are very dedicated and it’s working well”.

It’s still not clear what the group plan to do about a name, given that the current Sugababes line-up is using theirs.

Hey you, album reviewer. That copy of the new Spiritualized album you’ve been listening to isn’t even the new Spiritualized album. Well, it is. But it’s not the finished version. Bet you feel silly now. No? Oh, right.

Anyway, new Spiritualized album ‘Sweet Heart Sweet Light’ was supposed to be released in March, but has just been pushed back because, it turns out, mainman Jason Pierce hasn’t finished mixing it yet. Even though review copies have already been sent out. And, says Pierce, this was his plan all along. He told SPIN: “I had the rather foolish idea last November that I could deliver the record that’s been sent out and keep working on the real version. I’d meet the delivery date they need for reviews and things like that and nobody would be any the wiser that I’d be carrying on with the mixing”.

As for how different the final version will be, Pierce said: “I think it’s quite different. People say that all the little mixing moves I’m doing now are just for myself, but to me they’re no different than the mixing moves I did at the start of the process. Balancing things is what mixing is. Some bits are more realized and closer to what I wanted them to sound like, but I’m in the unenviable position now where the [album] that’s out there isn’t finished”.

He added: “[But] with the reviews, sometimes it’s like they’ve got a different album anyway”.

The headline sort of says it all… but I’ll elaborate somewhat by saying that proof has emerged of a partnership between The Flaming Lips and US electro-pop tart Ke$ha.

Already rumoured to be courting the ‘Tik Tok’ singer to appear on their album of collaborations with other artists (which also features Bon Iver, Neon Indian and Nick Cave), Wayne Coyne et al and have since shared a number of videos proving that it’s all, in fact, true. They posted a bizarre series of photos and in-studio clips in which Ke$ha is seen at work on several psychedelic Lips confections, while Coyne tweeted: “She’s crazy… But shit! She can really fucking SING!”

Wow, an endorsement that’s inappropriate on so many levels. And yet, accurate in parts. That’s assuming he means that Ke$ha is shit.

A new album from jazz songstress Norah Jones is set to surface in March, EMI has revealed.

Jones co-wrote and performed various instrumental parts on ‘Little Broken Hearts’ in collaboration with Danger Mouse, also the LP’s primary producer, having encountered the Gnarls Barkley man when she was invited to contribute to his – and Italian composer Daniele Luppi’s – ‘ROME’ album.

The LP was recorded at Danger Mouse’s studio in Los Angeles, with Jones playing piano, bass and guitar while he – real name Brian Burton – added drums and strings.

Jones is now expected to tour around her latest release, with international dates due in the coming months.

Right, if Blur are going to do something, I wish they’d just get on and announce it. All this ‘oh yeah, we’ll probably do some sort of thing at some point one day’ nonsense is getting incredibly tedious. Now William Orbit’s got in on the act. Though to be fair, I’m fuelling the fire by reading things into abstract tweets on this occasion. Oh well, let’s just get on with it, shall we?

Orbit may or may not be working with Blur on a new album, or song, or something. He certainly seems to have done something with both Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon recently. On 16 Jan, he sent a message via Twitter to World Circuit Records about one of their artists, saying: “I just found out that [Fatoumata Diawara] has done track with Damon A, who I’m in the studio with from Wednesday!”

Yeah, that could be any Damon A, and Damon Albarn does have about 300 projects besides Blur. But then on Sunday Orbit sent a message to Graham Coxon saying: “Hi Graham! Loving the guitars you laid down! Vocal sesh 3 Mar!”

Could it be coincidence that he apparently worked with both Graham Coxon and someone called Damon A in the same week? Maybe. Although a year ago Coxon did tell NME: “Every now and then we like to meet up and record a few things. I suppose it might turn into an LP in six years or something”. So there you go, Blur fans, only five more years to wait. Possibly.