While there's still snow on the ground in some places, eagerly anticipated albums from the likes of Weezer, PJ Harvey and Underworld should warm you right up.
Death and despair have always been central themes with Nick Cave. But on his 1996 opus, he and the Bad Seeds delve into darkness in beautifully gruesome fashion.
Just as an album's opening song plays a pivotal part in a record's cycle, the closing track serves a similar and not totally unrelated purpose.
In a way, the final song is the summation of an LP's musical and thematic themes, a final word on the past 45 or so minutes...