Van Halen, Paul McCartney lead pack of February music releases

While December and January tend to be traditionally slow months for new releases, the music industry seems to come out of its shell by February, and 2012 is no exception to that trend.

The next month will find a slew of releases arriving on store shelves (and the virtual shelves of online retailers), led by a pair of still-powerful lumbering dinosaurs ( Paul McCartney and Van Halen) and a pack of eager hopefuls (Air, The Fray, Ben Kweller).

McCartney's unfortunately-titled "Kisses on the Bottom" (actually a quote from the album's lead track "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," originally a hit for jazz great Fats Waller in 1935) will turn up Feb. 7 on Starbucks' Hear Music label, and is the former Beatle's first studio effort since 2007's "Memory Almost Full." While not entirely a covers album (only two original Macca compositions are featured, "Valentine," which features a guest harmonica spot from Stevie Wonder, and "Only Our Hearts," which includes some guitar work by Eric Clapton), the set concentrates on jazz standards and material from the Great American Songbook.

Also due on Feb. 7 is "A Different Kind of Truth," Van Halen's long-awaited return to the hard rock fold with original singer David Lee Roth. The band's 12th album is its first of all-new material since 1998's "Van Halen III" and the first since 1984's "1984" to feature Roth, who famously departed the band during an acrimonious split at the height of its popularity, which led to Van Halen's second incarnation as a Sammy Hagar vehicle. The set doesn't quite involve a complete VH reunion, however -- original bassist Michael Anthony has been replaced by Eddie Van Halen's son, Wolfgang.

Other releases of note for the month include French electric duo's Air's "Le Voyage Dans La Lune." The set, which follows up on 2009's "Love 2," takes its inspiration from the 1902 silent movie of the same name ("A Trip to the Moon" in boring English). The band also created a new original score for the 16-minute film, which will be included on limited editions of the album.

A sampling of notable new releases during the coming month -- which also includes The Cranberries' "Roses," the Irish alt-rockers first new studio effort since 2001 and indie rockers Of Montreal's latest, "Paralytic Stalks" -- is shown below.

Editor's note: The information about Paul McCartney's album was edited to correctly credit Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton.

Air - Le Voyage Dans La Lune
Amos Lee - As the Crow Flies (EP)
Amy Ray - Lung of Love
Archer Black - Forgiveness Is A Weapon
Ava Luna - Ice Level
Band Of Skulls - Sweet Sour
Barry Adamson - I Will Set You Free
Ben Kweller - Go Fly A Kite
Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny - Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose
Big Sir - Before Gardens After Gardens
Breag Naofa - Breag Naofa
Carolina Chocolate Drops - Leaving Eden
Cheap Girls - Giant Orange
Corrosion of Conformity - Corrosion of Conformity
The Cranberries - Roses
Cursive - I Am Gemini
Damien Jurado - Maraqopa
Dark New Day - New Tradition
Dead Fingers - Dead Fingers
Dierks Bentley - Home
Dr. Dog - Be The Void
Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
Emma Lee - Backseat Heroine
Escape Club - Celebrity
Estelle - All Of me
Exdetectives - Take My Forever
Field Music - Plumb
Fionn Regan - 100 Acres of Sycamore
Frankie Rose - Interstellar
Garland Green - I Should've Been the One
Galactic - Carnivale Electricos
Gary Husband - Dirty And Beautiful: Volume 2
Grimes - Visions
Howlin Rain - The Russian Wilds
Heartless Bastards - Arrow
Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting
Ja Rule - Pain Is Love 2
Jonquil - Point of Go
Lambchop - Mr. M
Liam The Younger - After the Graveyard
Little Barrie - King Of The Waves
Liz Green - O, Devotion!
Lyle Lovett - Release Me
Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral
Memoryhouse - The Slideshow Effect
Mitch Ryder - The Promise
Mouse On Mars - Parastrophics
Morbid Angel - Illud Divinum Insanus: The Remixes
My Best Friend - In Ghostlike Fading
Napalm Death - Utilitarian
Nneka - Soul Is Heavy
Of Montreal - Paralytic Stalks
One Finger Riot - Come Drag Me Down
Orange Goblin - A Eulogy for the Damned
Patrice O'Neal - Mr. P
Paul McCartney - Kisses On The Bottom
Plants and Animals - The End Of That
Pretty Good Dance Moves - LIMO
Primal Rock Rebellion - Awoken Broken
Psycroptic - The Inherited Repression
Rita Wilson - AM/FM
Roberta Flack - Let it Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings the Beatles
Robert Deeble - Heart Like Feathers
Rotary Club - Second Year In Swine
Royal Baths - Better Luck Next Life
School of Seven Bells - Ghostory
Scott Matthew - Gallantry's Favorite Son
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Shearwater - Animal Joy
Silver Swans - Forever
Silverstein - Short Songs
Sinead O'Connor - How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?
Sleigh Bells - Reign Of Terror
Sophie B. Hawkins - The Crossing
Steve Tyrell - I'll Take Romance
Tennis - Young And Old
Terrorizer - Hordes of Zombies
Terry Malts - Killing Time
The Chieftains - Voice Of Ages
The Dunwells - Blind Sighted Faith
The Explorers Club - Grand Hotel
The Fray - Scars & Stories
The Lemonheads - Hotel Sessions
The Menzingers - On The Impossible Past
The Phenomenal Handclap Band - Form & Control
The Saddest Landscape - After The Lights
The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know
Tindersticks - The Something Rain
Tonight Alive - What Are You So Scared Of?
Tyga - Careless World: Rise of the Last King
UFO - Seven Deadly
Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth
Veil of Maya - Eclipse
Vintage Blue - Strike The Mics
We Have Band - Ternion
Young Magic - Melt
Yuksek - Living On The Edge Of Time