Full-time writer, part-time maker of dioramas, New Yorker Sloane Crosley has released a collection of her witty essays entitled I Was Told There’d Be Cake. Recounting tales of plastic pony collections, wanting to raise her unborn kids in Belgium, and locking herself out of her apartment twice in one day, Crosley’s stories will make you think of Larry David if he was a cute thirty year-old woman. No wonder HBO snapped up the rights to the book.

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Teddy Thompson’s fourth album is the reason why I have been ignoring this year’s other new releases. A Piece Of What You Need is teeming with sophisticated pop tunes, such as the first single In My Arms, a song that’s so memorable I may need to go into therapy if it isn’t out of my head by year’s end.

Until recently Trent Reznor has been the Terrence Malick of music. Now he is releasing albums like it is nobody’s business. And free ones at that. His third in just over a year and his second in as many months, The Slip, will keep not only Nine Inch Nails fans satisfied but intrigued as to what is to come next.

A dedicated music teacher leads 70 enthusiastic Year 5 public school kids from New York City in the hope of promoting what is great about the Arts in the education system. I doubt when he began this adventure that his talented PS 22 Chorus would be playing with the likes of Tori Amos and Crowded House but it goes to show what is possible with the power of music.

You want blunt self assessment? Try this from the lead singer, Mark Seymour’s tome about life in the Australian rock juggernaut, Hunters and Collectors: ‘it’s a hard sell. It’s about a rock band with no image’. Seymour certainly begins Thirteen Tonne Theory behind the eight ball, yet it is this refreshing take on the struggles of being in a group that make the story more endearing. ‘(The band) was not that much different to a trade union: useful while the work was around, but a straightjacket once people lost faith in the notion of collective bargaining’. Brutal honesty that you don’t often find these days.

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Every artist has a selling point, from Pete Doherty (smackhead) to 50 Cent (bullet-proof) and even Train (blandness). What separates them from the William Hung’s of this world is that their shtick does not outweigh their abilities as artists. Melbourne’s Rudely Interrupted, a band whose members suffer from a range of intellectual disabilities, play a brand of Killers-esque pop is so catchy that you quickly leave your preconceptions at the door. You may also start to question your own potential in life.

Despite their volatile history, 90s alt-country upstarts Whiskeytown somehow managed to get it together when they were in the studio. Now released in an expanded version, their sophomore album is a lasting testament to the talents of the band’s stalwarts Ryan Adams (then 22) and Caitlin Cary. Memorable tracks like 16 Days and Yesterday’s News are joined by a goldmine of session demos that include covers of Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Cash tunes. One protracted album later, Whiskeytown were no more, but Stranger’s Almanac would stand as a defining album from the No Depression era. [watch Whiskeytown live in concert]

Having called it a day back in 2001 and with no back catalogue available anymore, this fine underrated Aussie band is very quickly being forgotten about and it is high time something is done to fix that. How can we live in a world that can stock Peter Andre albums and nothing from Skunkhour?

Like most people, I first locked eyes on Sanna Annukka’s beautiful designs when British band Keane commissioned her to create the artwork for their second album ‘Under The Iron Sea’. Her silkscreen creations are a cool blend of her Finnish heritage (most notably, the epic poem The Kalevala), as well as the art of the Far East. [read about the behind the scene stories of your favourite album covers]

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Likely lad Dave Gorman is never short of a wacky idea. From seeking out 54 other namesakes to traipsing around the globe guided by a unique internet search, Gorman gives a good anecdote. His latest project — America Unchained — is no less peculiar. But this time he may have hit the sweet spot. His attempt to go coast to coast in the U.S. without giving money to the Man has been captured on film and has already won the audience award for best Documentary at the Austin Film Festival. The DVD is out in the UK, with the book to follow internationally in April. [watch also the Construction of the American Dream]

There are plenty of legendary albums, but few stunning live releases. Sam Cooke’s blistering set recorded in a sweaty Miami Club (pre-dating Live At The Apollo by ten months) could well be the best ever. Mr Soul gives his all through a gig that includes Chain Gang, party rave-up Twisting The Night Away, and the definitive version of Bring It On Home To Me. Cooke’s usually sweet voice is at times raspy, which gives the tunes an added fervor as he brings the audience to the edge of ecstasy like a Southern Preacher conducting a sermon. Most concert albums show an artist performing at their peak of their live career. The scary thing is that this was the norm for a Sam Cooke show. Shamefully unreleased until 1985, Live At The Harlem Square Club is the ultimate testament to the inventor of Soul Music.

If I had waited until I actually finished reading the debut effort from this exciting Australian novelist, I would have well and truly have missed the bandwagon. At over 700 pages long, you will just have to take my word that the decades spanning journey of the Dean family is one of wit and wonder. Mixing the ingenious storytelling of Chuck Palahniuk but with an Aussie flavour that Robert G Barrett once had a monopoly on, Steve Toltz’s A Fraction Of The Whole is one of the most ambitious opening salvos in literature for quite a while.