Guardian Music — Damian Lazarus reworked his album to meet his fans' original expectations, Franz Ferdinand did it to defy them. Whatever the reason, they should be applaudedIn last year's Smoke The Monster Out [STMO], DJ/producer Damian Lazarus delivered, arguably, ... more info

411 Mania — Band writing follow-up to Tonight: Franz Ferdinand... more info

Undercover, Australia — Franz Ferdinand have started work on a new album says Alex Kapranos. more info

Spinner.com — Getty Images Edwyn Collins has announced he'll be hitting the road in November for a national tour. The six-date jaunt kicks off on Nov. 5 in Oxford before winding up in Birmingham on Nov. 15, the NME reports. Collins, who was forced to take a pr... more info

BBC 6 Music — Alex Kapranos is working on the band's next album more info

Gigwise — Singer Alex Kapranos confirms... more info

Guardian Music — The 'top 40 singles @ 40p' offer marks HMV out as a major MP3 provider. But once the offer ends where are the cheapest deals? Nabeelah Jaffer tracks them downYesterday saw the launch of hmvdigital, the high street retailer's online music store which ... more info

NME - The Daily Download — Another legend makes his return today. Orange Juice man Edwyn Collins is set to release his first album since his serious illness in 2005, and it's a star-studded affair. As previously reported, 'Losing Sleep' (out on Heavenly on September 13th) feat... more info

The Vinyl Villain — I didn't realise until I put a list together the other week of all the singles featured so far that I hadn't included anything by Josef K.While Orange Juice and Aztec Camera went on to enjoy commercial success after the demise of Postcard Records, t... more info

Guardian Music — This year's Mercury Prize shortlist is out, but who has won the award before, and who tops the all-time sales chart?• Get the dataThe shortlist for this year's Mercury Prize was released yesterday, offering a mix of established artists (Paul Weller... more info