Whole stack of brand-new albums to hit our shores....

With a whole stack of brand-new albums soon to hit our shores, we thought that it would be appropriate for the feature review to provide a preview of some of the hot new music that is just around the corner.

In terms of top artists, you can look no further than a man who loves coming to Australia, the charismatic Goran Karan. After four successful studio albums, Karan's fifth offering called ''Dite jubavi'' looks set to join the artist's exceptional back catalogue. Featuring a host of top guests, including Oliver Dragojevic, opera star Sasa Jakelic, an internationally renowned Turkish singer and 15 new songs; Karan's latest has enormous appeal for a wide audience.

The same can't be said for fallen superstar Severina, whose new offering ''Zdravo Marijo'' is sounding like the flop of the year. A one time golden girl on the Croatian music scene, Seve enlisted the help of controversial Serbo-Croat musician Goran Bregovic (who was the head of the Serbian Eurovision entertainment last week).

Having heard the album, I can safely say that this is going to further decrease Severina's appeal with the Croatian public.

Another songstress that has been relatively quiet of late, Danijela Martinovic, has bounced back with a tribute album to the late composer Dorde Novkovic. ''Nek zivi ljubav'' features four well composed mega-mixes, as well as several singles including the fantastic ballad ''U po mi srce zivi'', which, alongside the entire song list on the album, was penned by Novkovic.

Staying with the Novkovic name but focusing on Dorde's rocker son Boris, who has just released what looks set to be a hit album called ''Zapisan u tebi''. Featuring 12 new songs, the album initially sounds a hell of a lot better than Novkovic's last effort ''Ostvaren san''.

Pop-rock fans will also be rejoicing with the release of the four-CD compilation of the latest Hrvatski Radijski Festival contest, which this weekend enters the Grand Prix stage. All the top artists from all of the top record labels are featuring on this year's edition, which has already churned out some top hits.

Finally, to what promises to be the must-have DVD release of the year, the double disc Tose Proeski concert tour from 2007. The posthumous release has been flying out the doors of record shops in Croatia and indeed the entire Balkan region, and Australia will see the DVD in coming weeks.