NME announces new look (assuming you never saw The Face)

Here's a sneaky peak at the new-look NME which goes on sale this week:

Oh, hang on, that's not quite it...

Yeah, that's it. Pretty much the same thing.

Aside from the obvious debt to Imperial-era Face, this is quite an interesting sounding reworking of the NME, as it goes beyond the tinkering. Music Week has looked inside:

The Radar section - which focuses on breaking bands and new music – will expand to four pages and feature contributions from columnists including Dave Sitek and Huw Stephens. The Radar section on NME.com will be playlist driven and focus on daily new music recommendations.

In association with the Official Charts Company, the relaunched NME will feature the Official Record Store Chart both in print and online.

New franchises including Soundtrack Of My Life, Anatomy Of An Album and Lost Albums will run alongside more music recommendations via an enhanced On Repeat section.

A Reviews section features analysis of records and gigs over 11 pages in the magazine, a From The Vault section delves into the archive to reprint features from NME’s 60-year history.

Listing gigs on sale that week, a Guide section will also include ‘staying in’ to highlight music radio and TV.

There's a new slogan, too - The Past, Present & Future Of Music - which suggests alongside paper and digital it might be publishing in Christmas Ghost format, too.

Telling that they're relaunching with Bowie on the cover - especially given that this week's issue had McCartney as the cover story. It's not particularly brave - it was a Dave front page that was the only issue in the last ABC period which outperformed the rest; but having the confidence to stick Macca out the back door during wash up is an interesting message.

It sounds like an attempt to restore heart to the title - and coupled with some strong writing over the last few months this could be the start of a new golden age...

We'll see on Wednesday.