The beginning of the year is always a great time to be a music fan. Albums released in 2013 are already considered old news (cough-Beyoncé-cough) and every preview we've glanced at touting newness coming in 2014 no longer seems like ages away.

Holy hell, it’s 2014 already – and we’re pretty sure we accidentally put 2013 on the rent check we just sent out. Who still writes checks? We do, we write checks, because we’ve mastered the art of ‘floating funds’ – respect the game.

But really, we’re excited about a lot of artists this year releasing new tunes. Honestly we can say that it’s been a while since we’ve had this many on our mind so early on. Overly hyped behemoths the likes of Kanye and Daft Punk will hopefully stay out of the marketing mania and allow other artists a small share in the industry. One that recently came through our desk was a 4 song EP from Semi Precious Weapons that’s acting as a precursor to their new full album out in April 2014 (that's this year!).

“Aviation” consists of 4 songs that will be included in the final album, but acts as its own EP for the course of the trial period. It’s a bold glimpse into what the act has been working on in the past few years and touches on just about every genre in the game. The display of such a broad undertaking was a purposeful one by the band and one singer Justin Tranter says in a recent press release that was as inspirational as it was unbinding:

Our goal for this new album was to just write the best songs we could, and have the sound be whatever it needed to be to serve each song. Working with our dream producer Tricky Stewart gave us the inspiration to use textures from all the different kinds of music we love, not just straight up rock and roll, which was really freeing. It made it so we didn't have rules while writing, it was just about what felt right.

The sound of the band is one that appreciates the greatness of all genres of music. Their records are made organically and what's heard is unobstructed to the fans. This is absolutely one of the most important projects of my career. It gives you a glimpse not only into my past – but my present, and future. I feel like we've created something special that will stand out in the world!