December of 2008 was an all talk and no walk album month. No one seemed to be releasing but everyone was talking about, "in 2009." In 2009 indeed, the first week of January was hit hard by the music scene. All the Best Of of 2008 articles got washed by headlines about Animal Collective's new masterpiece, then Kanye West was making a scene blogging about Peter Bjorn and John's melodies and since then it's been band after band. She & Him aren't even waiting for their best album of the year declaration from Paste magazine to fade before they're making it known they're in the studio again. However, amidst this flurry of new sound bites, there are a few albums that I am more than excited about.
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