As of midnight tonight we’ll be 8.5% of the way through 2008. It’s a scary thought, isn’t it? Scarier still, I’ve only truly immersed myself in three 2008 albums. Not a particularly impressive strike rate for the editor of an online music magazine, I’m sure you’ll agree. I must try harder.

I spent most of last night sorting out my stash of promos. Even in this digital age, I still get between twenty to thirty promotional CDs every week. You might think this is great – actually it is pretty amazing – but it is a genuine nightmare managing these; I must have had about 200 to sort out last night, some of which must have been gathering dust under my desk for the best part of twelve months.

I managed to clear out quite a few – contrary to what a lot of bands write on their press releases, most unsigned artists are without record deals for good reason – and I’ve allocated some of the more interesting ones to various No Ripcord writers. A handful, though, are keepers. I need to get my new music fix as much as the next guy. I figured I may as well share these titles with you – think of this as my musical to do list for February:

1) Evangelicals: “The Evening Descends” (Dead Oceans)

I’m listening to this right now. It’s an interesting left-field indie-rock record with plenty of extravagant lead guitar phrases with even the odd big of finger tapping. Pitchfork loved it and I’m sure that given time it’ll be among my favourites this year. http://www.myspace.com/evangelicals

2) Vampire Weekend: “Vampire Weekend” (XL)

Everyone’s talking about this record and for good reason. I can see these New Yorker’s being one of the year’s success stories. http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend

3) Lionheart Brothers: “Dizzy Kiss” (Racing Junior)

Proof that there’s more to Scandinavian music than Swede-pop (although it is pretty damn good). Norway’s Lionheart Brothers have already been compared to artists as diverse as the Beach Boys (listen to To Make You Love Me and you’ll immediately see why), Secret Machines and compatriots Serena-Maneesh and surprisingly all of these are valid. One of the best psych-pop bands I’ve heard in a while. http://www.myspace.com/lionheartbrothers

4) Lupe Fiasco: “The Cool” (1st & 15th)

My promo copy hasn’t actually arrived yet but I’m looking forward to the day it finally does (and currently resisting the urge to just go ahead download it). The reviews have been pretty impressive which bodes well. As ever, I feel a burning need to get into more current hip-hop – I feel like I’m forever chasing that particular ball around. http://www.myspace.com/lupefiasco

5) Beach House: “Devotion” (Bella Union)

I’m a new to this dream-pop duo from Baltimore but I love this kind of music and have high hopes for their second LP.    http://www.myspace.com/beachhousemusic

There are plenty more I could list but I don’t want to just set myself up to fail.