We here at WSN know what you’re all thinking: it’s a shame the world didn’t end last month in a Roland Emmerich fever dream. Now we have another challenging and demanding semester ahead of us, sure to be fraught with stress, anxiety and even more poor decisions than those of years past. Thankfully, the future is not without a silver lining. Many of our favorite musicians, including Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Justin Timberlake, are posed to release new, long-awaited albums this year. Additionally, the legendary David Bowie will grace us with his holy presence in 2013, and newcomer Azealia Banks looks to add something other than “participant in moronic Twitter feuds” to her resume. In celebration of this newly discovered reason to live, we’ve curated a Spotify playlist featuring 13 tracks from artists releasing new material this year to get you psyched for 2013. Your semester will probably remain stressful, but at least you’ll be listening to good music. Hopefully that will get you to the next doomsday with relative ease.

5. “& It Was U” — How to Dress Well Tom Krell successfully combines lo-fi and R&B with this TextSpeak-titled track. 6. “Van Vogue” — Azealia Banks Harlem’s rap princess plans to release her full-length debut, “Broke With Expensive Taste,” in 2013. 7. “Suit & Tie” — Justin Timberlake feat. Jay-Z JT and Hov. It’s a wonder how the world is still standing after this star-studded collaboration. 8. “Heroes” — David Bowie One of the most covered songs of all time, “Heroes” still sounds the best when sung by Ziggy Stardust. 9. “Heads Will Roll” — Yeah Yeah Yeahs After working with Trent Reznor and creating an opera, Karen O is back with her art-punk bandmates. 10. “A-Punk” — Vampire Weekend NYC’s smartest band looks to cement their status as indie rock all-stars with their third record. 11. “The Suburbs” — Arcade Fire The opening track from Arcade Fire’s Album of the Year Grammy winner established the Canadian band as an indie rock powerhouse. 12. “Some Nights” — fun. The band that was everywhere in 2012 hopes to be even bigger in 2013 with their follow-up to “Some Nights.” 13. “Anything Could Happen” — Ellie Goulding After two albums in two years, Goulding may replace Adele as America’s favorite British pop-star. Alexandria Ethridge is music editor. Josh Johnson is arts editor. Email them at [email protected].