January Favorites

January and myself didn't get along very well. Things that had potential to go wrong, made sure they did. This probably had a large influence on my listening habits, as I spent a lot of time listening to songs that I can take comfort in. Here's what last.fm says about that...

Of course my top two, Sharon Van Etten and Damien Jurado, had new albums that weren't available to me until late this month but I fell hard for both of them when I finally did get to hear them. You can pre-order both albums and get the tracks now. SVE's Tramp is due out February 7th and Damien Jurado's Maraqopa will be released on February 21st and both are heartbreaking and stunning to say the least.

Sharon Van Etten - Serpents
Damien Jurado - Museum of Flight

As for albums that were actually released this month, First Aid Kit's Lion's Roar was my favorite. They just learned today that the first week of US sales of the new album surpassed their total sales of their debut album. I'm so happy to hear that their fan base has grown that much and that they are receiving the sale numbers and attention they deserve. You can listen to it in it's entirety here.



Other notable releases this month include the following:

Bro. Stephen - Baptist Girls
The rate at which blogs picked up on this album was astounding. The first place I read about it was the trusty folk blog, Common Folk Music, and you can read April's interview with him here. You can stream the album on bandcamp.




Laura Gibson - La Grande (buy)
Laura Gibson - La Grande

Kingsley Flood - Colder Still EP (buy)

Cheyenne Marie Mize - We Don't Need (buy)
Cheyenne Marie Mize - Wishing Well

The Maccabees - Given to the Wild

Chairlift - Something

Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur

John K. Samson - Provincial