Unlikely Friends may just become your best friends.

You gotta love the old school stylee promo photo.

D. Crane of BOAT and Charles Bert of Math & Physics Club (MAPC) make up the core of Seattle's Unlikely Friends. As a side project Unlikely Friends is a hell of an offering, and has leaped to the front of the pack as far as my favorite records being released in January is concerned.

Crooked Numbers, their new album out January 12, is a collection of of scrappy, fuzzed out indie power-pop that doesn't have a stinker in the bunch. It's been a long and desolate winter, and while their is a yearning to Unlikely Friends' music, it's ultimately the sort of thing that lifts your mood, despite the sometimes downbeat lyrical matter.

If Midwest guitar pop is all about concise hooks and glistening edges, the Pacific Northwest counters that with just as many hooks, but they're delivered in an envelope with slightly worn and ragged edges. And Unlikely Friends has mastered that latter approach. Which means Crooked Numbers is joy to listen to over and over again; and believe me, I have. Every song gets in, makes its mark, and then exits before you have a chance to get tired of it, which means once you get to the end of the 14 tracks every thirty minutes you find yourself doubling back and restarting the whole thing all over again.

Stream two of Crooked Numbers' songs below and then pre-order the album right away. I bet you're going to want to.