Pass my crystal thing - here's what'll be going down this year, pop pickers. It's a long way back for Oasis, after the addled nonsense of their last offering, Be Here Now; but now that they've apologised for the godawful pub rock, they promise much with their February release of Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants. The title, for what it's worth, is a quote from Isaac Newton, who declared at a scientific meeting: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". The same quote appears on the edge of the new British £2 coin, trivia buffs. I suppose Standing On The Shoulders Of The Beatles would have a been a bit too obvious. With only the Gallagher brothers remaining from the original line-up (although Bonehead and the other one did play on the new album) there's a lot resting on this album, but Gallagher Senior says it has "more of a swing, without being too dancey, than the last album". Taste alert: Liam Gallagher has written a song called Little James on the album.

There's something of an historical note concerning the new Primal Scream album, Exterminator (also due in February) as it will be the last ever release on the Creation label. Over the years Creation have brought us acts as diverse as My Bloody Valentine and Nick Hayward (ex Haircut 100) - not to mention William Shatner (that's Captain Kirk to you). Bolshie Scot supremo, Alan McGee, has fallen for all this rubbish about the "Internet being the future" (yawn) and is now only to be found in cyberspace. Oh well. Advance copies of the new Scream album reveal more of a dubby and spaced-out sound than before, and this time out they seem to have broken their one rock record/one dance record routine. Expect Vanishing Point Part Two, basically. And by the way, that's a good thing.

Oasis aside, most attention will be focussed on the first solo album from exVerve man, Richard Ashcroft. After beating The Stone Roses in the "how can we really ruin our career when it's at its height" game, the members of The Verve are now scattered all over the place, sniping at each other in the press. Ashcroft has more or less finished laying down the tracks (man) for his solo opus but don't expect a release date for at least six months. Somehow, though, I don't expect him to be headlining at Slane. By all reports, local lads U2 could have had their new album out by the end of the last year but demurred in favour of a new year release. The word from their Dublin 2 recording studio is that the new work will not be as dancey as their last few outings, but instead will have more of an organic rock sound. Is that a white flag I see in the distance? Also of interest will be Bono's soundtrack album for The Mil- lion Dollar Hotel film, due later in the year. There are no finalised plans to tour the new U2 album, but one thing seems for sure, and that is, it won't be a Zooropa/Popmart-type extravaganza. And five will get you 10 that they'll be headlining Slane during the summer. What else? Paul Weller (who has been squandering his talent in Rod Stewart-type proportions over the last few albums) has got Nick Drake's old string arranger in to work on his new album, Helios Centric. There's also a real hurdygurdy feel to the songs, but because I've no idea what a hurdy-gurdy is, we'll leave that one there.

Hurrah: The Smashing Pumpkins are back (complete with Hole's bassist replacing D'Arcy). Originally supposed to be titled The Sacred And The Profane, the album is now officially called Machina (as in Deus ex Machina, philosophy fans) and Billy Corgan appears to be as up for it as he always as. Great band and very underestimated, if you ask me. Our old friend Morrissey is also back with a new offering, the magnificently titled Irish Blood, English Heart. The only worrying thing here is that the self-confessed Luddite has had David Bowie bending his ear telling him all about how wonderful it is to release records on the Internet (handy tip: no it isn't) and since Morrissey is currently in between record deals, he may well go the information highway route. Is nothing sacred?

Elsewhere, the Divine Comedy brings out his first major label release, Van Morrison will be releasing his Skiffle Sessions and look out for a new Irish act who has just been signed to a mega deal with the Universal (London) label. More about him next week.