Have at you, new year!

The Naked and Famous - Young Blood

It's the middle of winter, and Vancouver has been cold, and rainy day in and day out. That's why you should play this song .really. loudly and let these sweet sunshiny synths wash your blues away. Pretty sure this is what MGMT would sound like if they had a female vocalist.

Pastor T.L. Barrett And The Youth For Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)

To listen to this properly: 1) Put on headphones. 2) Turn it up loud. 3) Let the twin tambourine attack rock your world as Pastor T.L. Barrett preaches the good word. Beautiful. This may have been released in 1971, but it's as good today as it was then.

The Ruffled Feathers - Home

Honest-to-goodness goodness straight from Vancouver. From the newly released Lost Cities EP, Home's sing-a-long chorus, trumpet solos, and syncopated beats do nothing but send out good vibes. There's talk of a full-length album coming soon, so stay tuned!

Dirty Gold - California Sunrise

This is my go-to Sunday morning wake up music. Despite the busy drums, it has such a relaxed, almost lazy feel to it, especially with the airy vocals and minimalist instrumentation.

Twin Shadow - Castles In The Snow

This is the first single from the Dominican Republic's George Lewis Jr., AKA Twin Shadow dark and moody debut disc. Produced by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear, it has an atmosphere eerily reminiscent of the aforementioned's Veckatimest. The full album just works wonders.

Strange Talk - Eskimo Boy

Naming your band 'Strange Talk' is pretty fitting if some of the lyrics in your song go "ooohhh like a jigsaw... It's just another word for an eskimo." Regardless of their comprehension of the English language, they write some damn fine electro-pop.

The Wailing Wall - Bones Become Rainbows

With the background of sitars, tablas, xylophones, tambourines and handclaps this song just feels so good. Add on top of that the vocals reminiscent of the Tallest Man on Earth, or the Cave Singers, and baby, you've got a stew goin'.

Blood Group - My Arms

Blood Group is the Icelandic equivalent to a combination of The XX, and The Knife: dark, strange, electronic, awesome. Their sophomore disc Dry Land has plenty of great moments, especially this slow building track, their first single, My Arms.

The Head and the Heart - Sounds like Hallelujah

A simple boy-and-his-guitar intro quickly shifts into an almost entirely different song at the 1 minute mark as the drums, violin and piano kick in. This Seattle group switches it up again, less than a minute later, as the rousing chorus of "Sounds like Hallelujah" kicks in, complete with handclaps, and great harmonies. A great debut EP.

FM Belfast - Synthia

How awesome of a song can you write when you make the song 90% staccato synth? This awesome. The sparseness of it really makes it jump, accentuating the great beat. With reverse echo's coming straight from the 80's, this FM Belfast track is was introduced to me courtesy of a co-worker.