Your 23 favorite albums of 2012

1) Of Monsters and Men - "My Head is an Animal"
2) Lana Del Rey - "Born to Die"
3) Beach House - "Bloom"
4) First Aid Kit - "the Lions Roar"
5) Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra - "Theatre is Evil"
6) Lower Dens - "Nootropics"
7) Santigold - "Master of Make-Believe"
8) The Lumineers -s/t
9) Best Coast - "The only place"
10) Le Sera - "Sees the Light"
11) Magnetic Fields - Love at the Bottom of the Sea"
12) Edward Sharpe and Magnetic Zeros - Here"
13) Rufus Wainwright - "Out of the Game"
14) Here We Go Magic - "A Different Ship"
15) Bear in Heaven - "I love you, it's cool"
16) Alabama Shakes - "Boys and Girls"
17) Sharon Van Etten - "Tramp"
18) M. Ward - "A wasteland companion"
19) Bowerbirds - "the clearing"
20) Chromatics - "Kill for Love"
21) Allo Dahlin - "Europe"
22) Islands - "A Sleep and Forgetting"
23) Bat for Lashes "The Haunted Man"
24) Alt J - an awesome wave
25) Django Django -s/t

All things Gary Clark Jr and Dan Auerbach

There were only maybe six albums this year that passed the "I'll listen to this enough times that the artist deserves my money for it" test.  Not that it was a bad year for music, I just didn't get into much new stuff and went to more shows as opposed to bought music.

That being said, of the albums I bought this year my favorite was…

Future of the Left - the plot against common sense

So you only added six albums to your collection?

imbecile wrote:
There were only maybe six albums this year that passed the "I'll listen to this enough times that the artist deserves my money for it" test.  Not that it was a bad year for music, I just didn't get into much new stuff and went to more shows as opposed to bought music.

That being said, of the albums I bought this year my favorite was…

Future of the Left - the plot against common sense

how cute . . . he trying again.

Trust - TRST (album of the year)
Ssion - Bent
Swans - Seer
Mount Eerie - Ocean Roar
Daughn Gibson - All Hell
Tift Merritt - Traveling Alone
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Chromatics - Kill for Love
Lower Dens - Nootropics
Jessie Ware - Devotion
GY!BE - Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Deep Time - self titled
The Walkmen - Heaven
Cat Power - Sun
Wild Nothing - Nocturne
U.S. Girls - Gem
Liars - WIXIW
Matthew Dear - Beams

may add some more

James wrote:
So you only added six albums to your collection?

imbecile wrote:
There were only maybe six albums this year that passed the "I'll listen to this enough times that the artist deserves my money for it" test.  Not that it was a bad year for music, I just didn't get into much new stuff and went to more shows as opposed to bought music.

That being said, of the albums I bought this year my favorite was…

Future of the Left - the plot against common sense

Yep, I usually preview stuff on Spotify or something and then buy it if I'll listen to it more than a few times.  I do believe my cd collection only increased by 6 albums this year.  Might have been a few more, but I can't think of any. 

I went to 4/5 shows a month, so I had to save money somewhere.

1.) Beach House - Bloom
2.) School of Seven Bells - Ghostory
3.) Deftones - Koi No Yokan
4.) Tame Impala - Lonerism
5.) Band of Skulls - Sweet Sour
6.) Cat Power - Sun
7.) MNDR - Feed Me Diamonds
8.) Bloc Party - Four
9.) Gary Clark Jr. - Blak and Blu
10.) Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light
11.) Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania
12.) Justin Jones - Fading Light
13.) Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts
14.) Jack White - Blunderbuss
15.) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Meat + Bone
16.) Glen Hansard - Rhythm and Repose
17.) Local H - Hallelujah! I'm a Bum
18.) Ty Segall - Twins
19.) Shearwater - Animal Joy
20.) David Byrne & St. Vincent - Love This Giant
21.) Metric - Synthetica
22.) Milo Greene - Milo Greene
23.) The Avett Brothers - The Carpenter

No order (and well short of 23):

Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
Young and In the Way - Amen/I am Not What I am
Devalued - Plagues
Tresspasser - Wages of Faith
DIIV - Oshin
Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal
Father John Misty - Fear Fun
Dads - American Radass
Gaza - No Absolutes in Human Suffering
Aunt Martha - La La Lonesome
Ceremony - Zoo
Swans - Seer
Killing Joke - MMXII
Ty Segall - Slaughterhouse
Dum Dum Girls - End of Daze
Double Negative (singles)
The Men - Open Your Heart

No way I could come up with 23 records for this year.

My list includes:

The Evens – The Odds
Chromatics – Kill For Love
Best Coast – The Only Place
Dinosaur Jr. – I Bet on Sky
OFF! – OFF!
The Hives – Lex Hives
The Young Evils – Foreign Spells EP

I still need to get the last XX record, and I'm sure there are a few more. Best thing I've heard all year is that Evens record though. Love it.

bearman wrote:
Dinosaur Jr. – I Bet on Sky
OFF! – OFF!

Forgot about those.

Geez, my list is horrific.

I usually say "this is not in order" but as I look at it, it's pretty much in order.

Capsule ? Stereo Worxxx
Chromatics ? Kill for Love
Dizzy D ? The Huntsvillain
Grimes ? Oblivion
High on Fire ? Devermis Mysteriis
The Caretaker ? Patience (After Sebald)
Killer Mike ? RAP Music
Bob Mould ? Silver Age
Daughn Gibson ? All Hell
Ty Segall Band ? Slaughterhouse
Fat Trel ? Nightmare on E Street
Chains of Love ? Strange Grey Days
Crystal Castles ? III
Mr. Motherfuckin Exquire ? The Man in the High Castle
DIIV - Oshin
?Trail of Dead ? Lost Songs
Kendrick Lamarr ? Good Kid MAAD City
Taylor Swift ? Red
Azoic ? Gateways
Fight Amp ? Birth Control
Six Organs of Admittance ? Ascent
Place to Bury Strangers - Worship
Nas ? Life is Good


And then I have to recognize this last album. It's a complete clusterfucked trainwreck of a hot mess that bears no resemblance to music or even sound for that matter. I first listened to it as an ironic lark, just to hear it and couldn't believe what I was hearing. It's past camp and beyond so-bad-its-good, it's Metal Machine Music for 11 year olds. According to iTunes, I listened to it all the way through 53 times (takes a long look in mirror).

Farrah Abraham ? My Teenage Dream Ended

Relaxer wrote:
And then I have to recognize this last album. It's a complete clusterfucked trainwreck of a hot mess that bears no resemblance to music or even sound for that matter. I first listened to it as an ironic lark, just to hear it and couldn't believe what I was hearing. It's past camp and beyond so-bad-its-good, it's Metal Machine Music for 11 year olds. According to iTunes, I listened to it all the way through 53 times (takes a long look in mirror).

Farrah Abraham ? My Teenage Dream Ended

"The accompanying album has been widely criticised for its extensively autotuned vocals and bland production. Her single On My Own was derided as one of the worst works of pop music ever made, eclipsing Rebecca Black's Friday. But despite garnering mockery in the popular media, the arrhythmic and cheaply digitized presentation of deeply confessional lyrics was bewildering enough to lead some to instead view it as a contemporary example of outsider art. Writing for The Atlantic, David Cooper Moore suggested that the album "is to teen angst what Eraserhead was to domestic angst", making it "a dark and compelling experiment in abstracting and compressing the vicissitudes of 'high school drama.'" The Guardian ranked it 32 on their list of best albums of the year" (wikipedia)

now i can't look away.

It's definitely in the 'hurts so good' category. Plus I get kinda hot about the idea of a 42-year-old man really digging on an album called 'My Teenage Dream Ended'.

Mine too Farrah. Mine too.

I bought the Ke$ha album yesterday.  I feel your pain.

I have the Ke$ha album and am looking forward to hearing it. There was some really good pop this year. Carly Rae Jepsen's album is great and I easily could've included that in my top 23. And I've never liked anything Taylor Swift has done before, and I think her media persona is absolutely eye-rolling, but half the songs on Red are great pop music.

Relaxer wrote:
I have the Ke$ha album and am looking forward to hearing it. There was some really good pop this year. Carly Rae Jepsen's album is great and I easily could've included that in my top 23. And I've never liked anything Taylor Swift has done before, and I think her media persona is absolutely eye-rolling, but half the songs on Red are great pop music.

I was at trivia the other night and we had a series of pictures of children and we had to identify the famous person that they are now are as an adult.  I got them all except the Taylor Swift one.  I said to my teammates I don't even know what Taylor Swift looks like and they said she looks like you. 

So I just looked it up and she is hot.  I was expecting something much worse. I can deal with being a male taylor swift.

Relaxer wrote:
I have the Ke$ha album and am looking forward to hearing it. There was some really good pop this year. Carly Rae Jepsen's album is great and I easily could've included that in my top 23. And I've never liked anything Taylor Swift has done before, and I think her media persona is absolutely eye-rolling, but half the songs on Red are great pop music.

The album is really good power pop radio music.  I love it.  I love that Iggy Pop is on it.  It's fun.

Taylor Swift is adorable, but I haven't bought any of her music.

Flag on the play - improper use of the term power pop - The new Shoes record is a perfect example of radio ready power pop, if it were the 70s of course ;)

i lost relaxer amongst the rough seas