Sleeve Notes: New music extravaganza with Tracey Thorn and Kelis

Well, by extravaganza, we really just mean that guardian.co.uk/music was fortunate enough to have not one but two album exclusives this week. Tracey Thorn's Love and its Opposite is an album that beautifully captures the quiet crisis of middle age, which seemed to move most of our readers . On the other end of the spectrum, not only has Kelis turned to banging beats for her new album , Flesh Tone, but she's as happy as a lark with newfound motherhood. Despite her positive tone, many readers were obsessed with how much alimony she is receiving from ex-husband, Nas. All we can say is: forget the gossip and enjoy the music (if four to the floor is your thing, that is). Five things we learned this week Stevie Wonder turned 60 Pop stars who we already knew were gay have come out The Rolling Stones' retirement is even further away than we thought Blur may or may not make a new album Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson's music is becoming so weird, only dogs will listen to it LCD Soundystem in overdrive You'll have to wait until Monday to get your hands on LCD Soundsystem's new album, This Is Happening. Fortunately, James Murphy's band are right up our street here at guardian.co.uk/music. First off, Alexis Petridis gave the album four out of five , but applauded the band for bowing out after album number three (rather than resign themselves to producing an endless stream of releases over the coming years). Secondly, Murphy spoke to Rosie Swash about his new album, and why he's so attached to vinyl, on the Music Weekly podcast .