January will play host to some rather well anticipated album releases, including new music from The Shins, Of Montreal, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and an iTunes exclusive EP from Yo La Tengo. We'll let Puddlegum give you the full list, but we're here to hit the high points.

You may remember The Shins new album Wincing The Night Away being passed around like a doobie at a Pink Floyd show just a few months ago, much to the shagrin of their label, SubPop. The first single, "Phantom Limb" is now up for grabs with the approval of the label. It's good, frankly not great, and I find it to be lacking a lot of the raw quality that I really love about The Shins. I've been a good boy, refraining from downloading the advance copy which is circulating so, I'll save the remainder of my they-got-big-and-sold-out disdain for release day, which happens to be the 23rd.

Also floating around in the ether are two tracks from the upcoming Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Of Montreal's difficult to pronounce single "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse." The new Of Montreal is bouncy and catchy with lots of synth piano, and plenty of mood swings.

Also releasing a new album and deserving of quite a bit more attention are Ohio's Six Parts Seven. The Washington Post says about Six Parts Seven "Their tunes are sweetly folkish in mood but rather than verse – chorus – verse song structure that might make the absence of a vocalist noticeable the music gently swells towards peaks keeping the focus on the guitar interplay." We just call them, "Gooder than some other bands," and, "Kinda like Beulah." Snag a copy of their song, "Stolen Moments" while it's hot.