Patatoa
It's time! It's time! It's finally time! I am very excited to share with everyone my top 50 albums of 2012! Before I get down to business I wanted to say that this was an awesome year for music. So many good releases; there were albums I couldn't rank as highly as I wanted due to the sheer number of great albums. There were also albums I greatly enjoyed that I couldn't fit into this list or in my honorable mentions. I had a blast making this list. It was a lot of work, basically November 1st until right now were devoted to this task. Alot of listening to new records, records I skipped, re-listening to albums, and lots of writing. Plenty of surprises for me, hopefully you find one or two. Needless to say, I recommend every one of these albums to anybody. I know there were people that questioned whether there were even 50 albums worth talking about — believe me, finding 50 was the easiest part.
I will be posting this in 5 posts to hopefully manage the walls of text.
50 The North – Stars
"Yes I do, yes I do”
A surprise pick for me. An 80’s throwback sparkly pop act is not my usual fair. This was an album I kept returning to; Stars can make a pop song. On this album they cover as much ground as I’ve ever heard a pop act successfully try. They cover dance songs, slow croons, power pop, moody Chromatics-esque ballads, and my personal favorite: “Do You Want to Die Together?” which is 50’s doo-wop meets The Flaming Lips. Gotta love it!
49 Hospitality – Hospitality
“You traded all your time for money and the blues”
This was on and off my list constantly during my revisions process, but I kept coming back to this jangly indie pop album. Belle and Sebastian fans will not be lost on this album. Amber Papini’s sweet songs about post-college youth are infectious and are sure to charm. While this record isn’t anything that is a revelation, it is a record where once you start on “Eighth Avenue” you just have to hear the next song, and the next song. Not every song has to be a punchy, cheeky, college radio hit (though most are,) the slow building “Julie” is delicious and the listless “Argonauts” is a personal favorite.
48 Half Way Home – Angel Olsen
“Half way sane, and half way home, in your arms”
You are going to listen to this album for Angel Olsen’s distinct voice. Her vocal style is a throwback to the early country singers where their singing reflexes into a slight yodel. Her songs are equally thrown back. Songs of heart ache, loving criminals, etc. The songs are pretty simple, acoustic guitar, occasionally a bass and drums – but as I said, Olsen is the undeniable star. On songs like “Acrobat” and “Safe in the Womb” where her voice reaches as low as it can before sharply careening up into a screech are exhilarating.
47 Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors – Big Boi
“If you don’t know me by now…”
Is Big Boi’s latest the SMiLE to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s Sgt. Pepper? Big Boi doesn’t play quite as fast and loose with hip-hop conventions, but rises far above normal tropes. There’s the posse track, songs about his lady, his mom, his city, etc but told with Big Boi’s rhymes and flow and, above all, production. This time around, Big Boi turned to the indie scene for inspiration in a big way. He collaborates with Little Dragon, Wavves, and Phantogram. The Phantogram songs in particular standout with the sweet dichotomy of Boi’s spit and Sarah Barthel’s harmony not heard since Eminem teamed with Dido. Vicious Lies shows Big Boi is still one of hip-hop’s star MCs and producers with an album that pulls less than obvious influences and remains unmistakably hip-hop.
46 Holiday – Port St. Willow
“We´re the same mistake”
The album opens with a Godspeed! “Arco AM/PM”-like musique concrete piece before Nick Principe’s ethereal voice pierces the fog. From there, the song, and the album, expands ever so slowly to reveal triumphant and soulful moments in music. Principe gives each song room to breathe with very understated guitars and synths, as constant, thundering drums make the songs march to an inevitable close. The whole album is reflected in the cover art. Even if you are on the island alone, trying to take in as much as you can and holding on to the moment, nothing stands still.
45 Held – Holy Other
Electronic soul and digital breath
Last year popularized the RnB and soul revival, and many 2012 acts sought to explore the soundscape. There were even a number that did so in an ambient, electronic way. None as well Holy Other. What Holy Other brings to the table is a sensuality that other DJs seem to misplace in breathy vocal samples. Every song on this evokes imagery like a shadowy bedroom or a cab ride through the lit city for a hook up. The production is very clean, the tracks aren’t too busy, and the bass is thick and inescapable.
44 Devotion – Jessie Ware
“Promises, will they unfold?”
As other performers revive the masculine form of RnB, Jessie Ware resuscitates the late 80’s-90’s sultry, female counterpoint. Sade, Jodey Watley, Pebbles were all artists that were in my mom’s cassette rotation back in the day, and I can easily hear their influences on Ware’s music. It is very welcoming to hear this kind of music again. What I find to be most novel though is how Ware contemporizes the sound. Where The Weeknd may put the music’s narrator through a drug haze, or Frank Ocean may run the genre through the filter of adolescence, Ware keeps the core message very traditional – but radicalizes the instrumentation. The opening sounds of the record smacks of Actress’ R.I.P. The track “No to Love” sounds like it has taken more than a few cues from Flying Lotus. Nostalgia is a big part of today’s mindset, and while there are definitely some gems held over, the biggest impression of Devotion is how fresh it sounds.
43 Sweet Heart Sweet Light – Spiritualized
“Be my Aeroplane. Fly me to heaven and never again.”
I'll be honest, before this year I had never heard a Spriritualized album. I was caught off guard at how inviting, bouncy, and anthemic their music is. I've said it before: Oasis with indie cred. Jason Pierce has this strung out, drugged out vocal style that pairs intriguingly with the melodramatic and large arrangements. The gem of Sweet Heart, Sweet Light is the ambitious album opener, "Hey Jane." It starts out like your boiler plate pop-rock song, charged guitars, quick to focus on the hook. By the two minute mark, the song sounds like it builds to its climax. Instead the song deconstructs and rebuilds into the space gospel second half of the song. Even if "fun" isn't a word to describe this album at all, I find it to be a very fun listen, a huge rock gospel to life and death.
42 Years Past Matter – Krallice
Incinerate
Bold, ambitious, self-assured: These are qualities I love to see in music. All of which are demonstrated in Krallice’s latest LP. You have to be sure of yourself to bust out 10-minute long black metal bests. The songs of Years Past Matter are much like the album art: lava from the earth’s core that flows, takes upon different formations, black, and ever seething. There is much to absorb, and it can be taxing to parse at times from its unyielding nature. However, for all of its intensity, I find it to be a very breath taking and polished listen where you might expect it to be unforgiving.
41 BBNG2 – BADBADNOTGOOD
“Thanks to our friends, family, loved ones and anyone who fucks with us”
The only album that champions “No one above the age of 21 was involved in the making of this record,” BBNG2 is a showcase of musicianship. BADBADNOTGOOD is an improvisational jazz trio that blends hip hop and beat music into a sharp, powerful, sometimes dark and heavy, listen. On this album not only do they cover (and riff on) hip hop acts like Odd Future, but they even do a pretty wild cover of My Bloody Valentine’s “You Made Me Realize.” Their version of “CMYK” has to make James Blake blush. Their originals too hold some stellar drums (“Vices”) and bass (“CHSTR”.) For those that like to move and feel something hefty (if not heavy) BBNG2 is the way to go.
40 Sugaring Season – Beth Orton
“You don’t need to break your heart.”
Allow me to play my fanboy card for the year? I didn’t realize how badly I missed Beth Orton’s voice until this album dropped. After a six year hiatus, Beth sounds rejuvenated. Sugaring Season touches upon some of the highlights of her career to the point with the Alt-Country “Dawn Chorus” nodding to her two previous and the earnestly picked opener, “Magpie” with its tailing vamp evoking Central Reservation. She also pulls some new tricks, the sing songey “Call me the Breeze” and the chamber pop sweetness of “See through Blue.” There are also some dark jazzier moments on here like the song “Candles” and the first song to drop, “Something More Beautiful.” It is good to have Beth, not just back, but making the best music she has in a decade. This is an album made by an artist out of love and mind – not obligation.
39 Kin – Iamamiwhoami
“Can we start giving and receiving?”
Iamamiwhoami is an act with which you can easily lost in “image” as they released artsy videos witch each song they dropped over the course of the last few years. Also the semi-mysterious nature of the act garnered a lot of buzz. In truth, iamamiwhoami is an act that wasn’t supposed to release albums like a traditional band. It was vehicle for Jonna Lee to trickle out small music video projects with original songs. People liked the songs so much an album was demanded and an album was delivered. Kin had every reason to be a disjointed, half-assed mess. While the songs had been available before release, the music holds up and is sequenced exceptionally well. Lee’s vocal add a weird timbre and delivery that is off-putting at first, but just as intriguing as the filmed visuals. Some very sharp and polished melodies don’t hurt either.
38 Open Your Heart – The Men
“When I hear the radio play I don’t care that it’s not me”
The second track on the Men’s sophomore album opens with the singer hollering “I’m an animal!” which is followed by a female singer’s dreamy, doo-wop answer of “He’s an animal.” There’s punk attitude and aggression, immediately chased with something pretty and soothing -- the perfect image of this album. The Men wear their punk commonality pretty openly, just as must as their desire to fully explore the guitar rock soundstage. “Country Song” feels like a country song, steely and twangy, yet there is a coat of grime and an incessant vibration throughout and a drone outro, as if to say “this is what country should sound like.” The Men run the rock and roll gamut in this fashion. They take on love songs, shoegaze, arena rockers, a little bit of hardcore, and they take them all on with very tight performances and infectious energy.
37 Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose – Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny
“I’m not saying that I would, but I just might”
The opening track “Sweet Tooth Bird” includes a triumphant trumpet call. Baroque pop has not been this earnest in a long time. Beth Jeans puts on an enormous pop show on her debut album. She veers from intimacy to orchestral swells from measure to measure, from straightforward western pop to eastern European tinged segues. Beth Jeans Houghton plays with the pop construct at a dizzying rate. While she can be disorient you in the moment, when the song finishes, all you are left with are the delicious melodies, harmonies, and hooks and can’t help but want to ride again. Whenever I listen to this album, I can’t help but question why this isn’t what all pop music sounds like. It should be everywhere, but as long as Beth Jeans Houghton is at it, I will be satiated.
36 Duality – Captain Murphy
“They’ll hate you for it, but that’s the point of CAPTAIN MURPHY”
The anonymous music project is the new “in” thing. Wu Lyf, iamamiwhoami, Death Grips, and then Captain Murphy: all have been unmasked upon popular acclaim, but none did people wonder about more than the Captain with his who’s-who list of features and guest producers. No unknown could get Clams Casino, Madlib, Tyler, Earl, and more on their record. Not that Murphy’s music needed any help. The beats and the production are the best I’ve heard all year (and this has been a fantastic year for hip-hop production.) Sample selections from tv, movies, video games with the breadth of youtube, dense and progressive structures and seamless transition. When it was revealed Murphy was Flying Lotus, everything made perfect sense (not that it was a complete surprise either.) Murphy’s flow bites from Wu-Tang, Quazimoto, Tyler the Creator – I still find it difficult to believe FlyLo is the only voice behind Murphy – and spits just as impeccably and as charming. (More so, in the case of Tyler.) Captain Murphy may be a side-project, but hopefully one whose charm has not worn out on its creator just yet.
35 R.I.P. – Actress
Dance music from the middle of nowhere
Darren Cunningham (aka Actress) deconstructs techno to the point where it is unrecognizable. Throughout the album you feel you are not hearing all of the song. Occasionally, you may think you are missing an ending or a beginning; more often than not though what you are missing are the mids or the lows. I get the impression that we have to read between the lines while listening. Actress explores territory further and further away from his debut release; he experiments with an increased number of ideas and a decreased number of elements per song. I fell in and out of love with this album constantly this year and I have found the choice of headphones to be the biggest influence on my enjoyment. (Preferably, use something open backed!)
34 De Vermis Mysteriis – High On Fire
“The fiend within my rage”
De Vermis Mysteriis is a smokey, sludgey bludgeoning. Where Krallice’s Years Past Matter could be described as “beautiful” High on Fire’s 2012 record is everything else. The monsoon guitar riffs rise under the crack of drum’s thunder, the immense storm of noise towers and crashes over you, propelled by the mighty wind of Matt Pike’s vocals. Tame Impala may have written a song called “Elephant,” but High on Fire made songs into mammoths. Underneath the massive riffage are mighty hooks that ensnare any listener as they acclimate to the enormity of the High on Fire sound. This was not a likely pick for me pre-2012, but since getting over my heavy-phobia, I’m glad to have this album in my library.
33 Fear Fun – Father John Misty
“Let’s just call this how it is”
I nearly forgot how much I really enjoyed this album. This year featured a lot of really good folk, alt-country music, but how could I forget the one that best infused it with grandiose arrangements and melodies along with pop hooks? At times, Father John Misty’s electric guitar channels 1964’s George Harrison. Where other singer-songwriter’s of this ilk go for quieter moments to achieve introspection, J. Tillman isn’t afraid to go big and chaotic. Like the climax of “This is Sally Hatchet,” the vortex of guitars and violins reveals rather than obscures. Even more chamber music moments like the aching chorus of “Now I’m Learning to Love the War.” Tillman explores bluegrass, country, pop, psychedelic, as well as folk moment-to-moment. As I reviewed the track “Tee Pees 1-12” my fiancé confronted me, “Are you listening to country?” To what I feebly qualified as the song being more of a hootenanny. She laughed, “I guess I’m not a hipster in country either.”
32 Transverse – Carter Tutti Void
Alive and Unnatural
The hardest part to believe about this album is that it is completely live. (Apart from a studio bonus track,) the likely sole collaboration session between Nik Void of Factory Floor and Throbbing Gristle’s Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti is a perfect storm of noise, an industrial hymn. The four tracks that make up the album are all one in the same idea; one hypnotic, mantra-like, almost danceable beat provided by Carter that allows for Void and Tutti to build upon. Like any spontaneous performance, each version is a different interpretation – a different moment – of that idea, like a particle only found to be in a certain state because of it being observed.
31 Yellow & Green – Baroness
“When my house becomes a cage”
This year the Smashing Pumpkins reissued their magnum opus, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It’s fitting then that Mellon Collie is the first cousin I think of when I hear Baroness’ ambitious double album. While Baroness doesn’t try on many different approaches, they are not afraid to drift from their metal and hard rock roots. Are those acoustic guitars and synths I hear? Baroness starts off heafty with the yellow half of the record with barn burners “Take my Bones Away” and “March to the Sea.” But from the midpoint of yellow through the duration of the green half, Baroness puts a premium on the chill and the beauty – and to great success. Baroness settles into nice grooves on this record, like the funky “Cocanium” or the depression anthem “EULA”. “Board of the House” has Baroness sounding like Torche, possibly more convincing too. By the end of Green you might think Baroness might have opened MTV’s 120 Minutes a few decades ago. The album finishes miles from where it started and may leave metal-heads and metal-phobes alike perplexed, but this is what Baroness embraces.
30 Ballads of the Research Department – The Boats
You are never empty
This is an album I inexplicably have not been able to say no to. I have tried on my share of neo-classical albums this year, and none have moved me like Ballads of the Research Department has. The way the piano dances around the violin and drums on “Ballad for the Girl on the Moon” makes me pause as I hear it steel from a drag to a march as the synths on the track intensify. Then, everything trails off as if it was a passing thought before sleep. And yet the song it proceeds, “The Ballad of Failure” sounds like it could have been a very deft piece omitted from The Soft Bulletin. The Boats paint very surreal scenes that remind me of the space on Earth I occupy and the space –in space—I occupy. I find as this album makes the listener feel very small and powerless at times, it reassures that we’re all unique experiments in this sea of reality.
29 Natural History – Dope Body
“I am contemplating override all the time”
Natural History is one of the most primal and exhilarating rock records of the year. It’s hard and nasty, but I wouldn’t call it something that you couldn’t play around your mother. Equal parts silly and earnest, Dope Body combines punk, metal, hard rock presented in a caveman stomp and a suburban sneer. It’s pretty difficult not to bang along tracks like “Road Dog” and “High Way.” Dope Body brings charisma and aren’t afraid to play to entertain. In a music scene that is filled with terror and dread, Dope Body throws an un-controllable party.
28 Centipede Hz – Animal Collective
“This is the new Centipede FM”
Animal Collective dauntingly followed up their monumental Merriweather Post Pavillion with the loud, messy, explosive Centipede Hz. Fans of Merriweather would be pleased to hear AnCo doesn’t stray too far from that sound, while adding more energy and the greater feeling of being a band. Centipede Hz is explosive and spastic with some very catchy tracks. Panda Bear’s harrowing “New Town Burnout” is a standout with its walls of synths that tower over anything else on the track. Avey Tare can hardly catch his breath in the freak out of “Today’s Supernatural.” Even returning guitarist Deaken gets a lead on the track “Wide Eyed” which has every reason to be an “Octopuses’ Garden” but stands toe-to-toe with his more seasoned band mates. As far as Animal Collective albums go, there are definitely a lot of sounds to take in, but I find it to be a straightforward outing for them.
27 Lonerism – Tame Impala
“Just like an elephant shaking his big grey trunk for the hell of it”
To be honest, I wasn’t in love with Innerspeaker. I liked it well enough; it had many qualities that appealed to me: The Beatles-ness, the psychedelica, the guitars, the way Kevin Parker sounds just like John Lennon. All that and Innerspeaker hasn’t been a record I ever thought about loading up out of the blue. Lonerism ups their game. Tame Impala find their own voice on this record where it sounds more like they make music and it is psychedelic, rather than making psychedelic music. If you catch my drift. From midway through “Apocalypse Dream” on through the rest of the album, it is just one rocking song after another. The groove Kevin Parker settles into in “Mind Mischief” is simply unstoppable. “Elephant” is a lumbering stomper. “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”…I could go on about every song.
26 Music for the Quiet Hour / The Drawbar Organ EPs – Shackleton
“Music is the weapon of the future”
There are two parts to this release, The Drawbar Organ EPs which is presented like a traditional electronic album and Music for the Quiet Hour which is one, hour long beast. Quiet Hour feels less like a piece of music and more like some thing in the room with me, breathing, watching. The dub beats sound more like steps or bones curdling in the pit of this musical monster’s stomach, the pops and clicks forming the movements or spittle oozing from its jaw, and the high pitch drones form the creature’s thoughts. Quiet Hour phases in and out of more recognizable techno sections and back into ambient drones and eventually decays entirely in the piece’s 5th part. The Drawbar Organ EPs songs are shorter, but require almost as much work to digest. Shackleton paints a very surreal, organic landscape that is not only overwhelming but engaging.
25 Put Your Back N 2 It – Perfume Genius
“I am done, I am done”
Rev up those feels… Perfume Genius’ sophomore record is one for those that love to feel sad. The album start to finish busts with emotion. Lyrics about sickness, loneliness, abandonment, comfort presented through Mike Headreas’ often shaky and broken vocals. Hadreas often backed predominately by his piano, is accustomed by strings or percussion only to set ambiance or mood. There are fuller, more straightforward, but no less emotive, like “Dark Parts” or the sweeping “Take Me Home” that are equally moving. If you want to feel energized, this may be an album to save for when you drive through rain, or write in your journal, or do something nostalgic. For a guy like me who likes to pluck evocative lyrics and paste them out of context for dramatic effect, this album is a goldmine.
24 La Grande – Laura Gibson
“If you’re drawn to the flame, be not afraid of the fire”
It is no secret that I am partial to the female-lead folk act. Laura Gibson brings a distinct Americana feel to the stage, augmented with electric embellishments such as the screeches and wails on “Lion/Lamb” or everything about the title track. Laura Gibson’s gentle voice on many of these tracks is compressed, as if sung through a Leslie speaker John Lennon style, which brings texture to the vocals. For a folk album, there are a lot of big sounds: thundering jungle drums, a locomotive, swirling guitars; but one of the most striking moments on the album is the smaller “Crow/Swallow” with its defeated refrain, “I am no dreamer.” Gibson hits all the right moments.
23 An Awesome Wave – Alt-J
“She makes the sound, the sound the sea makes”
Here’s the thing about Alt-J, they may be turning heads today, but I can imagine a world of tomorrow where the Alt-J’s replace the Rob Thomas’ of the white-folk adult contemporary world. I realize this isn’t the most flattering way to introduce An Awesome Wave, but I feel a work this successful and forward thinking must be easily corrupted. Alt-J offers a unique, seamless blend of rock, blues, jazz, soul, and even hip-hop – just about every genre you can think of. All brewed into a silky fusion. Singer Joe Newman delivers the songs with an equally uncommon timbre that can be a hurdle at first, but indispensable. Most songs have a smoky “cool club” feel to them, with smooth tasty grooves. The penultimate track, “Bloodflood” rises and crashes like the titular wave referenced within. Hopefully they can keep up this kind of standard so I don’t have to be proven right. (A rare occurrence at any rate!)
22 Breakup Song – Deerhoof
“Muscle in the heart”
Deerhoof’s approach to music can only be described as schizophrenic. The rate Deerhoof sifts through and discards ideas on their records can often make a listener feel lost. Especially on this record though, even lost, you are having a blast at any given moment. Deerhoof phases in instruments, beats, and melodies that evoke rock shows, dance parties, and above all funk. This is a difficult album to pin down even because you can’t say “this is the chill out track, this is the barn burner, this is the experimental piece” because every song has all these parts and more woven into them. Recall The Matrix where Neo “learns Kung-fu” in a matter of seconds. This album is a Matrix-brain-dump of the art of the party
21 Cover & Flood – Katie Kim
“Build me a place for home, for friends, for fading”
Katie Kim is a young artist I intend to keep tabs on. With her ambitious sophomore album she bests the biggest names on the gothic folk scene in recent output. Kim has a bright, mysterious voice; on “The Feast” when she says “See how your bones can break you” she says it in a creepy, child-like “I told you so” way. For a smaller release the album is very well produced. What you may mistake for “lo-fi” sounds like intent so there is an added layer of grime and browned edges to even the brighter songs on the record. The record sounds as if Katie has snuck into the attic of an old abandoned and decided to play her tunes to a found reel-to-reel amongst the former owner’s belongings. While there is a dark aesthetic, this is a very accessible record: charming melodies, personality, and plenty to chew on. As my obscure-core choice for the year I urge you check this out on Katie Kim’s bandcamp.
20 Foreign Body – Mirrorring
“Earth has grown so cold”
This is such a low key album; it is very easy for me to want to put less-subtle “ka-pow!” albums above it. But when I revisit, I remember all the reasons I love it. This is a very soothing, but ominous, airy and glacial release. Like the over art would suggest, the music within feels like the dawn sun thawing you after a cold night. Mirrorring is collaborative between singer-songwriter Tiny Vipers and Grouper whom specializes in ambient music. The product is both what you would expect and striking. Every song at its core is an acoustic song but performed in slow motion and allowed to bounce in the atmosphere created by Grouper to showcase Tiny Viper’s sweetly folksy voice. While this is a very slow and relaxed album, the details and the mere sounds engross me. This is can be an album you can put on as soothing background noise, but you will more likely drop whatever else you were doing to focus on Foreign Body.
19 There’s No Leaving Now – The Tallest Man on Earth
“You treat me like a mountain, stranger”
Tallest Man on Earth, aka Kristian Mattson, crafts a rooty, antique sound that evokes a man on his acoustic guitar playing to passersby while shaded under an oak tree. To be more exact, it sounds like what this street player imagines in his head: his guitar and voice reverberating over a crowded wall, masking a second guitarist and percussion that may be there or not, he’s not too sure. The spotlight is definitely on him and he gives it all. He mistakes rustling leaves in the cool breeze for applause. Should I ever encounter such a street singer playing songs of this quality, I’d be sure to tip.
18 Tramp – Sharon Van Etten
“I want to be over you. I want to show you”
Boy was my relationship to this album a rollercoaster. My body was ready, but after my first listens I was incredibly underwhelmed. Months later, I would revisit it and pick up one song, maybe two, but decree that the album was “boring.” Finally, in November I gave Sharon Van Etten one last chance, fortuitously on the first cold day of the fall. The chill on my skin suddenly related perfectly to the icy situations Van Etten finds herself in on Tramp. The way se howls on “Leonard” plays so honest as she moans “I am bad at loving you.” The raucous “In Line” sounds like she took a page from Feist’s Metals and perfected that metallic and cavernous folk sound. Sharon starts out the record with gusto and determination to turn around her life, and be the end of it sounds beaten and listless.
17 Kill for Love – Chromatics
“You are the black sky always running from the sun”
Kill for Love can be summed up in one word: mood. The whole album has a constant smolder underneath that gives every song urgency. A smolder too that keeps otherwise inclusive, dancey songs like the title track and “Back from the Grave” distant and aloof. Throughout the record there are constant rumbles and vibrations, incessant that make me imagine that this is the soundtrack for a 20 year old jet setter in the city desperate for something to do one night. If that is the case, then “The River” is this person as they surrender to the morning. Chromatics become masters of atmosphere on this record and nowhere is that clearer than the longer, looser songs like “These Streets will Never Look the Same” or the epic “No Escape.” The synths and thick strums of muted guitars splash and paint an atmosphere you can relax to and be viscerally entertained at the same time.
16 Shrines – Purity Ring
“Ears ring and teeth click and ears ring and teeth click”
At first glance, Purity Ring looks like every other dream pop act out there, female fronted boy-girl band, heavy influence by electronic music. Yawn. But when I cracked into the album, I heard something very special. While Megan James does bring sugary vocals to the fold, the songs feel sinister. Rumbles and drum cracks along with crackling synths are permanent fixtures in the album’s soundscape. The lyrics obsessively mention body parts like “I’ll stick red toothpicks in my dirt filled heart,” and “Drill little holes into my eyelids that I might see you when I sleep.” Throughout this year I felt like the popular indie scene shifted away from the cute and well-put-together pop acts that comb their hair, wear Polos, and sing quirky anthems (Passion Pit, Best Coast, etc.) That sound and aesthetic seems to be losing ground to dirty, grimy acts with heavy music. If that’s the case, Purity Ring both nearly missed the boat and is ahead of the game.
15 Moms – Menomena
“I wish I could remember if my last words were sincere”
I slept on this album far too long. So long that I’m not even sure what inspired me to give it a spin. Menomena put together a pop record with some tasty beats, beautiful hooks, and pathos that cut to the core. Before Moms, there hadn’t been a pop record in a while that I enjoy singing along to as much as it makes me emotional. While the songs can be depressive at times, there is an overall feeling of joy to the music, like the bright horns on “Pique.” To me, this is the kind of record that is timeless. It plays today, it could play 20 years ago, it could play 40 years ago. It may be pop, but there is nothing light on this record; pop music with feels. Go call your moms, kids.
14 Motion Sickness of Time Travel – Motion Sickness of Time Travel
Space is only orchestra
The first of two records this year from Rachel Evans is stellar. If there is such a thing as drone-pop, this could be classified as that. The four mammoth twenty minute tracks on this record take their time to bear fruit but also move non-stop as they jump from one idea to the next. Each song has two, maybe three, melodies but each melody mutates into three or four distinct moments. Sometimes the songs develop abruptly, sometimes so subtly you’re not even sure how you got from A to B. Evans varies between poppier melodies and graceful drones and most importantly takes her time.
13 Paralytic Stalks – Of Montreal
“A vulpine act of hostility”
The first great album I heard in 2012 stuck with me for all 12 months. I think this is an amazing record, and sometimes I feel alone on this one. I love big, experimental, explosive pop music. Kevin Barnes brings funk and soul to the table that permeates each track. I also kind of love how distinct the two halves of this record are. “Dour Percentage” sounds like it could have come from last year’s Destroyer album, sounding like an 80’s song by someone who didn’t once lay off the coke throughout the recording process. “Spiteful Intervention” and “We Will Commit Wolf Murder” are some of my favorite songs to sing along to with their crazy vocals, words, and asides. The latter I love how it shifts into its different segments and into the following song, “Malefic Dowery,” the most sentimental song on the album. “Ye Renew the Plantiff” is the most rocking and funky track on the album and is also what hinges together the albums two halves. It too has a straightforward, bombastic half and looser more experimental half. My favorite aspect of the second half is how unexpected it is with little songs peppered throughout, like the end of “Wintered Debts” and “Authentic Pyrrhic Remission.” A great listen, don’t let a bad Pitchfork score blind you. Who are you going to trust?
12 Bend Beyond – Woods
“It’s so fucking hard to see”
Another record I criminally slept on this year. Woods ups the production values and puts out a crystalline record that you could take out to the desert with you as you take drugs and appreciate nature. I say this as a guy who is too sober and always looking for pavement. This sounds like a more subtle version of Tame Impala’s Lonerism. There is a focus on harmonies that is appreciated, and a strong set of acoustic guitars to lead most of the songs. This isn’t anything radical and mind blowing, this isn’t a challenging. This is just an impeccable set of damned catchy, psychedelic acoustic rock songs.
11 The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords will Serve you More than Ropes will Ever do – Fiona Apple
“Nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key”
Fiona Apple also staged a triumphant return this year complete with drama, public defamation, a breakdown, and amazing music – normal Fiona Apple shenanigans. Fiona understands her voice so well, she sings sweetly like on “Anything we Want,” big sweeping choruses like in “Daredevil,” even singing through her teeth on the album opener “Every Single Night.” The song “Werewolf” is one of the finest songs Fiona has written. The way the melody dances and sways before relenting into the memorable closing line of the song is something that will stick with you. Fiona still has plenty of venom in her spit. On the song “Regret” she sings about using white dove feathers “to soak up the hot piss” that comes from her lover’s mouth -- that about says it all. One aspect of this record that didn’t strike me immediately was something my fiancé pointed out. Her being used to bigger sounding songs like “Criminal” or “Paper Bag,” she was quick to point out how simple the production is. This record sounds like it was recorded live from her living room with maybe one or two other musicians. Even when there are extra flourishes like on the song “Anything We Want,” it sounds very organic and live.
10 Swing Lo Magellan – The Dirty Projectors
“Onward through the murk and the uncertainty”
The Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective both followed up their colossal 2009 releases this year. I was at first apprehensive thinking either act was going to ramp up the strangeness. The opposite happened; both added extra shine to their approach. While AnCo through “more” into the track, the Projectors streamlined their sound heavily. The arrangements pared down to that of a standard rock band on most tracks, David Longstreth’s trademark erratic guitar playing is only hinted at. About all that remains from the traditional Dirty Projectors sound are the jazzy rhythm section and Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle’s wonderful harmony. This sounds like the Projectors abandoning their sound in the face of popularity, but what I hear are the Projectors, now with caught attentions, free to make a small, intimate pastoral record in the vein of Paul McCartney’s Ram. Most of the songs sound inspired by the album’s production site, Delaware County, New York (reportedly, they stayed in a haunted house.) Many of the songs are flat out love songs. Perhaps the stripped arrangements are more due to the personal nature of the songs this time around. There is nothing personal, or even human, about the sounds heard in songs like “Cannibal Resource” and “Stillness is the Move.” However, you can picture Longstreth swaying to “Dance For You,” and the band lounging and jamming to the impromptu-sounding “Unto Cesar,” complete with mid-song directions and interruptions. To criticize the Projectors for not sticking to the script is to disallow any experimentation, and to dislike some of Longstreth’s best pens.
9 Dripping – Pile
“I’ve been making friends outside. I’m finally alone.”
Pile is a Bostonian rock outfit that plays within the rock and roll sound with each release. On Dripping they arrive at a distinctly alternative rock destination, and they bring much needed freshness to the field. Freshness and alternative have not been bedfellows since "Paranoid Android." Needless to say, I was smitten on first listen. Rick Maguire's flat singing and ferocious screams take me back to a day when guitar music on the top 40 station was not unheard of. It's not just their throwback sound or attitude, but Maguire presents some very punchy, earnest songs. However, unlike most boiler-plate rock bands past-and-present, Pile has very progressive tendencies. The songs ebb and flow rather than race to the finish or stick to any formula. I felt like a kid again as I listened to this album. Alternative nation is alive in Pile.
8 Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! – Godspeed You! Black Emperor
“With his arms outstretched”
This surprise album starts with squawking strings and rises from there until around the 6 minute mark when we hear our first semblance of melody. Their first album in ten years and they pick up as if it was only a 10 minute break. The band is as incendiary as ever. “Mladic” sounds like an uprising, complete with celebration at the end. “We Drift like Worried Fire” is my personal favorite from the record. The melody the band uses grows from beautiful and innocent to triumphant chaos, mesmerizing. Many sleep on the two drones on the album, but I find them just as nuanced and evocative as the 20 minute focal points. On October 1st at around 5pm the first soft word of this album emerged, by 10pm people were already enjoying the record sold at their live shows. This is in an age where artists with any amount of money pay to have the internet hype machine churn for months leading up to a new release. Not Godspeed though. Welcome back.
7 All We Love We Leave Behind – Converge
“Lost from the start”
I almost missed out on this album, and it has since become one of my favorite records this year. You see, we all have music phobias: maybe its rap, maybe its top 40 radio pop, maybe its music with no lyrics. I have done well to shed most of my hang ups, but one of the last ones that I nearly stayed complicit on was music with screamed, confrontational vocals. This album forced me to confront this fear. Converge is critically lauded and many were amped when AWLWLB became available online; I had to be missing out. Spoiler alert: I was. The music is frenetic and electric, but oh so controlled. As wild as it gets on this record, the musicianship is immaculate. Jacob Bannon hurls himself through every song and it surprised me as I shed my phobia how clear the melodies remained within the screams. Most of the songs are short shots in the arm, but my personal favorites are the longer tracks: the title track, “Sadness Comes Home,” and the slow burner “Coral Blue.” For such a loud and heavy record, it is crystal clear with guitarist Kurt Ballou’s production. Once I had this record under my belt, the world of heavy music was open to me and I could enjoy other Ballou productions like Black Breath’s Sentenced to Life and High on Fire’s De Vermis Mystriis. A very important record for me, and one that has a lot to offer to any listener.
6 Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City – Kendrick Lamar
“Kendrick have a dream”
Can you hear that? It’s the hype train! Kendrick Lamar gained a lot of buzz after his debut last year, Section 80. He has thus far made a career of making songs that are very personal, precise, and story-driven. All of that is on display on this record. Kendrick might as well apply to write for Pixar, because his story-telling game is in top form. This album follows Kendrick through an evening, hooking up with his “hood rat,” breaking and entering with his friends, someone gets murdered after a gang run-in, etc. This is harrowing, immersive stuff. The track “Backstreet Freestyle” seems to be uncharacteristic until you realize that it’s the kind of song rapped by Kendrick and his friends as they cruise. Kendrick Lamar’s beats are trap-ish and sounds like the kind of lowest common denominator rap that can be too popular at times. Of course, Kendrick subverts this all by making an album that’s a morality tale regarding that kind of culture. Stop tripping off those damn dominoes, steer clear of them shenanigans.
5 Bloom – Beach House
“The rest you know”
Dream pop at its most enduring. Beach House continues their exploration into their sound. Fans of 2010’s Teen Dream, and all their previous work, may be put off by how familiar Bloom sounds, but don’t let that exclude the music. Beach House sounds just as ethereal and even more moving than ever. They swell the soundstage and then pop it with an arppegiated melody like in the song “Wild. Beach House is very sparing with their melodies. They keep them short and repetitive and allow them to slowly grow and shrink and…flower. Victoria Legrand sounds superb on this record especially. Her voice is a lullaby and a blanket in one. It may not be the most immediate album on this list, but it is one of the most memorable.
4 R.A.P. Music – Killer Mike
“You are witnessing elegance”
What hip-hop album could possibly top Kendrick’s? Killer Mike and El-P have something to say. Killer Mike’s flow is so smooth, his rhymes are so wordy and specific yet he makes it sound easy. Killer Mike spends a good chunk of the album commenting on society, especially the track “Reagan” which is a track that any other rapper would turn into a farce. Who else could rap about oil lobbies? He muses about his place in society, a story about shooting a police officer that channels La Dispute’s “King Park” from last year, and endlessly about engrained racism in America. Killer Mike has been in the rap game a while now, and never had a record this big before. What’s the missing ingredient? El-P’s production. The production on this record is explosive. The bass is thick like tar. El-P had his own record this year that I couldn’t get into very deeply; there is rare chemistry between the producer and the MC that makes the album more than the sum of its parts. Mike may insist “this ain’t dance music, this is r-a-p,” but I dare you not to get your boogie on to the title track.
3 The Seer – Swans
“On a ladder to God”
Oh man. Swans’ The Seer is a magnanimous summation of everything Swan has done. It is beautiful and punishing. "The Apostate” the 23 minute closure is cacophonous and wretched before rebuilding into psychedelic jam from hell. When I hear this, I imagine Micheal Gira listening to The Flaming Lips’ Embryonic and saying “I’ll show you how it’s done.” The track before, “A Piece of Sky” is also 20 minutes long and takes a different approach to the long form. 10 minutes is a drone leading into a post rock segment that resolves with a very pretty acoustic song, and it is front to back enjoyable. Disc 1’s focal point is the title track, which really includes the two tracks surrounding it. The way the bag pipes at the start of “The Seer” slams into the end of “The Wolf” is jarring and unsettling. “I see it all, I see it all, I see it all” Gira ruminates; the song grows and grows until it literally beats you over the head 20 minutes in. The Seer isn’t all pain and noise. “The Seer Returns” has a chewy, almost funky, groove to it; “Mother of the World” is quite accessible while still having teeth, and a tasty repetition. Of course if its accessibility you want, then you want the gothic “The Daughter Brings the Water” or the gorgeous country “Song for a Warrior” featuring Karen O. There is something for everybody. At first there were rumblings that this would be Swans’ final release. It looks less likely to be the case, but if it were, it would be quite the capstone.
2 Channel ORANGE – Frank Ocean
“My TV ain't HD, that's too real”
Every once in a while an album will be released that has artistic credibility, popular acclaim, and appeal to listeners old and young. Channel ORANGE is this, an instant classic. Frank Ocean shows he has the chops of a veteran. “Sierra Leone” sounds straight out of the Stevie Wonder playbook and Marvin Gaye’s on “Sweet Life.” Frank Ocean is quick to remind us how young he is. As well as intercutting video game sound effects, found audio recorded off a cell phone, and Dragon Ball Z references he also mixes in the hip-hop aesthetic into his music. Most obvious in “Super Rich Kids” which features fellow Wolf Earl Sweatshirt, but also in the nasty beats on “Crack Rock” and “Lost.” “Pyramids” pushes the boundaries of his music with its progressive structures and guitar line provided by John Mayer. “Monks” even sounds like a song that should have already existed. Frank Ocean has set the bar ridiculously high. If he can stay at this level or exceed it, watch out music world.
1 The Money Store / NO LOVE DEEP WEB – Death Grips
“Noided”
Call me a cheater for naming two albums as number one. While these two albums are distinct from each other, together they make up Death Grips ultimate statement of the year – which is the bigger deal. Death Grips is number one for a single reason: my fiancé loves them. Not to say that I’m a pushover, but she doesn’t have that pretentious, know-it-all disposition towards music that I do. Top 40 is fine for her, her most anticipated release this year was the latest Regina Spektor record (a very good record in its own right.) And yet she loves Death Grips and all their nastiness and abrasiveness. One night I played for her Radiohead’s Kid A, which I prefaced as the record most critics agree is “the best of the last decade.” We discussed how revolutionary it was at the time and how many artists have picked off of it since. She then asked if I thought any record has been as influential and new as Kid A for this decade so far. The first suggestion off my tongue was My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. After some muddling, I tossed, “maybe Death Grips’ The Money Store.” Her eyes lit up.
She agreed that Death Grips had no equal. Their blend of rap, hip-hop, metal, hardcore, and electronic music is unparalleled. They are gross and offensive but, as she agrees, completely charming at it. MC Ride has such a unique, dangerous, non-stop flow. He has scream (“Come up and get me”) keep it low key (“Get Got” and “Double Helix”) fun (“Hacker”) and violent (“No Love”.) He can even holler at you, “Suck my dick” and make you think he’s the best MC in the game. The Money Store is the most accessible and apparent record of theirs with very charged production. There are party songs, freak outs, and dirges as well. “I’ve Seen Footage” is my de facto song of the year. It feels like evokes Teen Spirit in me. It’s dancey and fun with an infectious catchphrase while being loud, noisy, with macabre visuals. It is a blast. Not only is their music inventive, but their lyrics are inspired. They could very well just lean on hackneyed, shock lyrics like you’d hear from Odd Future, Death Grips steps up and writes very detailed and specific lyrics. How many other musicians will rhyme about a basilisk?
No Love Deep Web was released that hallowed day of October 1, 2012 (the same day as Godspeed announced and released their new album, as well as the day Converge’s new album became available on the internet,) released at midnight without their labels permission with album art as explicit and in your face as their music. No Love is a much different beat. Where The Money Store is more about the external world, No Love is about the inner world. The instrumentation is dialed down to the point where it is there solely to facilitate MC Ride. His voice is the star of this record; it bounces off the walls and is inescapable. One word to describe No Love Deep Web: paranoid. Ride sounds like he is inches from a breakdown. No Love is an album where you have to infer some of the message, but soon you’ll think songs like “Hunger Games” and “Stockton” are just as catchy and quotable as “Double Helix” and “The Fever.”
The Money Store is their breakout album and No Love Deep Web is the group staying true to their integrity. The Money Store was released in April by Epic and received mass acclaim. The group was set to tour, but their heart was in the follow-up. Death Grips went over the label’s head and cancelled the tour and hopped a plane to China to record No Love Deep Web. It’s hard to say Death Grips ever intended to work with their label on the second record. It was mastered louder than a label would normally permit. And of course, the cover art. It is shocking, it’s a big…middle finger to the label. The album’s title is literally written on Zach Hill’s penis. The band literally forces you to look at a penis. I love this album cover. Death Grips is challenging EVERYTHING. They are challenging the record industry, the media, and society for deciding some genitalia should be celebrated while others should be hidden by literally turning into art. (Of course, I am copping out with the censored art for your sake. As much as I love the message, I don’t need to get anyone in trouble.) By the end of the month, Death Grips was released from their contract, more popular than when they signed. Death Grips beat the industry at its own game.
Can't believe I finished! Sweet chocolate Jesus, feels like I was working on that all year. Did I get something wrong? Is my order a complete mess? Did I leave off an album you think should be on there? Do you, heaven forbid, agree with something I said? Even more shocking, did I introduce you to something new? Please let me know! I didn't write this just to never speak of 2012 ever again!