Happy New Year! 2010 was a brilliant year for music – fresh sounds from new faces and new sounds from old faces. We saw Keith Richards promote the second installment of the Wingless Angels album series. In my opinion, this was the best album released in 2010. The sweet honey sounds of Justin Hinds on vocals was a delight to any music lover. We heard jazz legend Dave Holland release one of the best Flamenco albums put down on wax. We saw the XX redefine low-fi and we gave you the sounds of Janelle Monáe way before she was nominated for a Grammy! Not a bad year at all. All of that and we even started a new music program – Ultimate Ears Presents... dedicated to bringing you even more sounds from around the globe.

Which brings us to now – January of 2011. This month, we have music from S. Carey and Two Door Cinema Club. Both acts released brilliant albums last year and caught critical praise for their work. And I have a feeling that we’ll be hearing from both of them in the not-so-distant future. Before we know it, festival season will be right in front of us and you can always count on Ultimate Ears to give you sneak peaks into SXSW, Coachella, the CMJ Music Festival and so much more. Keep your eyes and ears open. 2011 will be filled with great music!

Happy New Year!