Flavorwire

Good news, music fans: The industry’s annual November-January dry spell is over, and our cup runneth over with promising new releases in February. In fact, if we enumerated everything we were looking forward to this month, we’d have a list three times as long this one. So, as always, we’ve narrowed it down to the ten albums you absolutely need to hear in the next 29 days. From indie stalwarts issuing hotly anticipated new records to frontmen gone successfully solo to oh my God, the new Sleigh Bells album, you guys, there’s something for everyone — except maybe Nicki Minaj fans, because she pushed her Valentine’s Day album back to April — after the jump.

of Montreal — Paralytic Stalks (February 7)

“The general theme of the whole record is trying to keep myself together when I’m faced with all this madness, trying to keep my relationships together,” of Montreal main man Kevin Barnes told Spin in a recent interview. In that sense, Paralytic Stalks is reminiscent of the band’s best album, 2007′s shape-shifting Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? But it’s also very much its own wounded animal, packed with lengthy songs that borrow bits from pop, prog-rock, and even classical music.