CREDIT: DAN MANGAN + BLACKSMITH
This year kicks off with a few highly anticipated albums from musical acts worth listening to.

I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. This past holiday, I started a new tradition. In 2014, I became a member the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), so last month, as I sipped eggnog and watched Die Hard, I set about voting on the first round of categories in the 2015 Juno Awards.

You’re not at all close to choosing a winner in the first round of voting, but spending time familiarizing myself with all the music in consideration was quite the task. More than anything, it afforded an opportunity to look back on many of the successes in the industry over the last year, one that served only to underline the diversity and scope of the music and artists Canada has to offer the world.

Before one even has the chance to dwell on 2014, the New Year has come crashing in with a few huge releases. Believe it or not, January is supposed to be a slow month for new music releases, but here are three new albums so fresh off the presses that you might smear the ink on the cover.

Uptown Special – Mark Ronson

Perhaps the most widely anticipated album release of the month, Mark Ronson’s latest delve into solo territory is his first record in five years. Uptown Special features a star-studded cast of guest musicians, including Bruno Mars – the pair’s single “Uptown Funk” has been burning up the charts since it debuted in November – and Mystikal and Kevin Parker, with whom he also previewed singles in the previous weeks.

Ronson has had an astonishing career as a musician and producer, working with a dizzying number of artists in hip hop and pop – Sean Paul, Macy Gray, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Paul McCartney and many more – and his musical vocabulary is unparalleled. Add it all up and you have the makings of a smash album, listen to this one soon.

Club Meds – Dan Mangan + Blacksmith

After his last full-length album earned him two Juno Awards in 2012 – Oh Fortune earned trophies for New Artist and Alternative Album of the Year – Dan Mangan stepped back from touring to focus on his young family. Rather than rushing new material, he instead explored new sounds with a collective of Vancouver musicians and has crafted something equally familiar and fresh, reminiscent of ‘80s art-rock but also unmistakably Mangan.

The group premiered its album on NPR a week early, and the response from the singles “Vessel” and “Mouthpiece” in advance of release has been incredible. Club Meds has all the wit and insight you’ve come to expect from Mangan, yet paints a backdrop that is eclectic and diverse as well as appropriately restrained. It’s been a long wait in between records, but the result is well worth it.

Absent Fathers – Justin Townes Earle

Another record sure to have people talking, Justin Townes Earle’s Absent Fathers is actually a companion and bookend piece to his recent full-length Single Mothers, released back in the summer. Perhaps not the best choice for date night, the new album was recorded in the same sessions as its predecessor yet held aside, because Earle felt it would make a stronger statement as a companion piece.

Earle, who celebrated his birthday just after the New Year, has an interesting Americana folk heritage; though his father, Steve Earle, obviously passed on superior musical talent, there is an unmistakable disconnect between him and his lineage. Absent Fathers closes the chapter that Single Mothers opened – a personal opus more than 30 years in the making – and will be on a lot of a lot of folks’ minds in the coming weeks.

What’s more, with new albums by Belle and Sebastian, Sleater-Kinney and The Decemberists coming this week and albums by Father John Misty, Silverstein and even a collaboration between Badbadnotgood and Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah around the corner, there is going to be no shortage of music to talk about this year.

For more of the latest in music news or album streams, follow this column on Twitter @fsu_bobbyisms. What do Kiesza, Nickelback and Tanya Tagaq all have in common? They’re all unapologetically themselves, and if there is any one characteristic I’ve come to note about Canadian music, it is that. Support local music, I’m out of words.