2012 Albums of the Year

Today seems like a fine day to kick off a thread for the gratuitous listing of everybody's favorite albums of 2012. What did you love? How much bullshit was that other guy's list that said some terrible garbage was the best thing ever? What are you looking forward to in 2013?

I refuse on principal to start writing up my own list until 2013, but the top two spots are already spoken for, and if any of you steal my thunder I will a) silently congratulate your excellent taste and b) curse you for stealing my thunder. Still need to check out a couple of releases as well before I round out the top ten.

I have listened to approximately two new albums (plus one track off of Dylan's latest) this year, and they were Rush's Clockwork Angels and Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Psychedelic Pill. Maybe there's one more I forgot, but I doubt it.

Anastasis by Dead Can Dance was an excellent follow up, coming a mere 15 years after their last album.

King Animal by Soundgarden is another excellent example of a band reinventing themselves after being written off as dead.

Man, as big of a music dork as I am, I don't keep up very well, and I don't tend to consider myself an authority on what was best. On the whole, I didn't listen to many new albums that blew me away.

Two exceptions, and they're both METAL:

Pallbearer and Converge both put out really impressive records

Of all the albums I've picked up this year, 24 of them were actually released in 2012 (according to my Windows Media Player library anyway). Of those two dozen albums, there are only a few that truly blew me away, and are what I'd consider to be on a whole other level compared to the rest. Although I enjoy many many more of the albums than I've listed here, these are the most remarkable releases I've heard this year:

In order of greatness:

1. The Devin Townsend Project: Epicloud
2. Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do.
3. Baroness: Yellow & Green
4. Converge: All We Love We Leave Behind
5. Tetrafusion: Horizons

I have something like ten others I'd consider close runners up; but for all those other albums not listed above, although they might be completely and thoroughly enjoyable to me, and wholly demonstrative of their respective artist's competency and talents, most of them represent more of an artistic stagnation than growth.

P.S. Some of the immediate runners up whose albums I'm thankful for, but don't quite make the cut for various reasons:
Esthero
Meshuaggah (This one is about as close to being on the list as an album could get without actually being on the list)
Gojira
Regina Spektor
Testament
Smashing Pumpkins
High on Fire

P.P.S. Top song of the year:
Meshuggah: Marrow

There's a ton of music that was new to me this year, but for stuff that came out this year apparently the top two albums I've listened to were Night Visions from Imagine Dragons and Loveblood from King Charles.

I so wanted the new Soundgarden album to be awesome but it just left me completely flat.

New records actually released this actual year? Yeesh. I'm not sure what of my music collection was released this year. I want to say that He Think He #Rapgod dropped in January, but I might be confusing that with He Still Think He Raw, and I haven't yet had the opportunity to process Respect Game or Expect Flames. I know that JJ DOOM dropped this year and that was pretty excellent (with the exception of GMO, which is concentrated misinformation, but it's hard to tell whether Dumile believes anything he says or if he's just doing his villain routine). I also know that Don Williams did his big comeback record and it wasn't really worth the effort of him coming back. Did Skelethon come out? Wow - I really need to actually listen to the music that I buy.

So, Key to the Kuffs? I guess? 2013 is shaping up to be much bigger, since Madvillainy 2 and Deltron Event 2 should both be out at some point, and if we're exceptionally lucky there's an outside chance that DOOM will get off his ass now that he's actually back in the U.S. and finish Swift and Changeable before we're all dead. It's been a long damn time since I got some good Dan the Automator produced material.

In no order:

Redd Kross - Researching The Blues
Bob Mould Band - Silver Age
Ty Segall - Twins
Swans - The Seer
Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet On Sky
Adrian Sherwood - Survival & Resistance
High On Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
Pharoah Overlord - Lunar Jetman
Thee Oh Sees - Putrifier II

madkevin beat me to a few of those. Screw you, guy.

jsbx - Meat and Bone
Dan Sartain - Too Tough to Live
Obits - Refund b/w Suez Canal
Mind Spiders - Meltdown
Neil Young - Psychedelic Pill
Mrs. Magician - Strange Heaven
Chubby Checker - Chequered!

Posted this on my blog back in December and at QT3. Since it fits with the thread, I hope you'll pardon the cross post.

There are many things I am not good at doing. One of them is telling people how much I appreciate the posting links to videos and songs and whatnot in twitter and facebook posts, or just dropping me a line about something they’ve heard. What you all may not realize is that I make a point of listening to each and every piece of music I’m hepped to in those ways. No really, I do! I figure if someone is moved enough by a song or an artist to post about it that there’s probably something there worth my five minutes to listen to. I’ve heard a lot of music that didn’t click with me by doing that. The great thing is, I’ve also heard a lot that did move me.

What this is is a summary of 50 songs from 2012 that moved me enough to want to hear more. They’ve become representative of my favorite records and artists of 2012.

I could spend days telling you about the music so many of you have told me about this year (in what was a rich and amazing year for great tunes), but instead I’d like to show you. Better yet, I’ll let you listen to them!

I won’t use the same words and phrases you’re used to hearing from me to say how much I liked certain stuffs in 2012. Rather, I figured I’d get back to my roots and just do a music mix of my favorite songs and artists from the past year. Been about six or seven years since I’ve done this, but I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out. Additionally, thanks to Spotify, Turntable.fm, and Twitter I feel like I heard so much good music by so many great artists in 2012 that trying to pare things down to just 20 records would be an impossible chore.

So what’s all this then? Let me try to explain.

1. I broke the 50 tracks down into two separate mixes of 25 songs each. The mixes are interchangeable. I just separated things by how the flow goes. Each one is about 90 minutes. Each is crossfaded and normalized and one big mp3 file. The idea is, listen to all of it or come back to it, do whatever. That said, the object isn’t “Hey, how can I grab these songs?!?!” If you try, you’ll be stuck with the crossfaded bits and bytes from the beginning and end to each song. Instead of going to that trouble, throw some worthy artists some money, huh?

2. These go in order. That order has nothing to do with chronology or perceived quality. The order is: these mixes need to flow, one song into the next. Each one is autonomous. There should be a beginning, a middle, a few peaks, a few valleys, and then a wrap up. When you get to the end of one of the mixes, it should feel like you’re at the end, y’know?

3. Finally, thanks are in order: everyone who contributed to the “What are you listening to” 2012 thread at Quarter To Three (or, if I'm being honest, Broken Forum too!), anyone who’s ever pm’d me or emailed me with a song or record or artist to listen to, anyone who’s ever posted a music video on my Facebook timeline, anyone who’s ever DJ’d in a room in Turntable, anyone who’s contributed a record to our Bitches Brew Spotify playlist….THANKS!!!!! This mix is as much all of you, and a tribute to all your good taste, not mine. I just manage to occasionally shut up long enough to listen when someone says that they like a song and then find the time to go see if I like that song, too.

These are the songs I liked off records I liked by artists I liked this year. They’re probably not the “best” of 2012; there’s probably not much crossover in the venn diagram of “stuff I really liked” and “stuff that sits on most critics’ lists”. I didn’t always choose the “best” song off a record I liked, either, necessarily. I picked songs in a lot of cases that I thought were representative of an album I liked a lot, and gave special consideration to songs that fit with a mix better, too. At any rate, I hope y’all will hear a few tunes you like, too!

“50 Smash Hits From 2012!”

Gangnam Style:

(Right click and “save as”…or just click to stream)

1. Japandroids “The Nights Of Wine And Roses”
2. Ty Segall and White Fence “Easy Ryder”
3. The Brian Jonestown Massacre “Viholliseni Maalla”
4. CaveofswordS “Ghryme”
5. Disappears “Replicate”
6. Weird Dreams “666.66″
7. A. C. Newman “I’m Not Talking”
8. The dB’s “Send Me Something Real”
9. Frank Ocean “Bad Religion”
10.Lee Fields “You’re The Kind Of Girl”
11.The Bamboos (Feat. Tim Rogers) “I Got Burned”
12.Rodriguez “Can’t Get Away”
13.The Dum Dum Girls”Season In Hell”
14.The Human Eyes “Born To Die”
15.Diiv “How Long Have You Known”
16.The Delta Spirit “California”
17.The Blakes “Narwhal”
18.Sharon Van Etten “Serpents”
19.The Cheatahs “The Swan”
20.I Was A King “Indiana”
21.The Mark Lanegan Blues Band “Leviathan”
22.The Cloud Nothings “Wasted Days”
23.Jack White “Hypocritical Kiss”
24.Euros Childs “These Dreams Of You”
25.George Harrison “All Things Must Pass (Demo)”

Call Me Maybe:

(Also to make with the right-click and save as or left-click and stream)

1. The Men “Open Your Heart”
2. Ex Cops “The Millionaire”
3. Lotus Plaza “Eveningness”
4. Sinead O’Connor “The Wolf Is Getting Married”
5. The Resonars “Sit Right Down”
6. Snake & Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band “Black Egg”
7. Randy Michael & The Well Dressed Lads “The Face”
8. Sleepy Kitty “Don’t You Start”
9. Toys That Kill “Stye”
10. Giuda “Number 10″
11.Nada Surf “Jules And Jim”
12.Tame Impala “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”
13.The Allah Las “Don’t You Forget It”
14.Twelve Thousand Armies “Darling Let’s Breathe”
15.Nude Beach “Some Kinda Love”
16.Redd Kross “Stay Away From Downtown”
17.The Mountain Goats “Cry For Judas”
18.The Amazing “Flashlight”
19.Lightships “Silver And Gold”
20.The Royal Headache “Down The Lane”
21.Bob Mould “The Descent”
22.Richard Hawley “Down In The Woods”
23.Aimee Mann “Soon Enough”
24.Woods “Is It Honest?”
25.Spiritualized “So Long You Pretty Thing”

My not very well thought out list, based on what I probably listened to the most:
Andrew Bird, Break it Yourself
AC Newman, Shut Down the Streets
Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory
Passion Pit, Gossamer
Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
Perfume Genius, Put Your Back N 2 It
Japandroids, Celebration Rock

I really need to listen to that AC Newman record.

It's very good. I prefer it to most of his recent New Pornographers stuff...and as a bonus, you still get Neko Case singing anyway here.

I am also sadface for not hearing the latest Gojira yet.

As promised, here is my stupidly self-indulgent list, cross-posted from my blog. Kindly forgive any formatting errors, as I stripped all formatting in copy/pasting and have manually added back. Also kindly forgive any, you know, shittiness; I'm still trying to get my head around writing about music.

--

It is that time once more. 2012 presented more worthy contenders for this list than did 2011, and thus entailed more painful eliminations. Because I am a wimp and cannot stomach cutting a few records, I am using a very thin justification and doing the top 12 of ’12. Without further ado:


Housekeeping: 2012′s 2011 Album of the Year

Awarded to the best 2011 album that I didn’t catch up with until 2012, and the prize is easily captured by Rising’s To Solemn Ash. Mildly goofy vocals aside, this is an accomplished, assured retro-metal outing. There is no fat on the record: basic instrumentation, guttural vocals, and standard rock structures are the order of the day. These ten songs breeze past with sharp hooks and crunching guitars. “Passage,” in particular, is a perfect piece, with its rumbling verses, airy chorus, and killer guitar solo sounding fresh despite following all the usual conventions. While not the most ambitious record ever made, there’s certainly room for a well-executed romp like To Solemn Ash. I’ll also mention Deafheaven’s Roads to Judah, which holds the distinction of being the first black metal album I ever liked.

And with that out of the way, let us turn to the year that was.

12. Nadja - Dagdrøm

At once in the same vein as, and wholly different from, last year’s True Widow record. Dagdrøm moves with a pace and sound best described as glacial: sheets of thick distortion punctuated by simple drums power opener “One Sense Alone” as it winds through nearly eleven minutes of looming doom. “Falling Out of Your Head” works with the same sonic palette, but takes a vastly different dynamic approach. Dagdrøm is not an easy listen, as its four tracks average well over ten minutes each. At the same time, it’s a great record in which to lose oneself.

11. Torche - Harmonicraft

A fine follow-up to 2010′s excellent Songs for Singles, Harmonicraft delivers an occasionally indulgent but primarily infectious forty minutes of bubblegum sludge. Torche come roaring out of the gate with three barnstormers: “Letting Go” sets the pace with Steve Brooks’ anthemic vocals soaring over the band’s trademark crunch; “Kicking” has the power and hooks to be an arena-rock superhit; and “Walk It Off” ups both tempo and technique, allowing new guitarist Andrew Elstner the space to flex his chops. From there, things don’t go exactly sublime, but they do go pretty goddamn good. “Reverse Inverted,” for instance, lumbers its way into an enviably huge outro, while “Sky Trials” careens every which way, reveling in the two-guitar attack enabled by the addition of Elstner and absent from Songs for Singles. While occasionally bogged down by repeated motifs, all in all, Harmonicraft is a splendid work.

10. Beth Orton - Sugaring Season

I will be candid: I have not followed Beth Orton’s solo career, and this is the only album she’s released that I’ve heard. For now, at least; Sugaring Season is enough to warrant a back-catalog dive. Sugaring Season opens with a deceptively simple acoustic guitar lick that’s quickly embellished by Orton’s confident vocals and a super-slick drumbeat. “Dawn Chorus” follows with much more restraint but equally tight execution. On album highlight “Something More Beautiful,” Orton puts everything on her voice in the verse, then brings in huge orchestral stabs in the chorus to match the urgency of the melody—and then smartly fades down into the effervescent “Call Me the Breeze.” Album closer “Mystery,” also a highlight, brings everything full circle, as it drifts along over the same type of unadorned acoustic guitar figure that opens the proceedings. Sugaring Season is packed with brilliant songs, but the revealing track-to-track flow demands front-to-back listens.

9. Split Cranium - s/t

2012 was a banner year for Aaron Turner; this is the first of three appearances for him on this list. On Split Cranium, he and co-collaborators Jussi Lehtisalo, Jukka Kröger, and Samae Koskinen take no prisoners. This is a lean, mean collection of six crust punk bruisers, with a couple of longer detours (“Blossoms from Boils” and “Retrace the Circle”) that defy easy description. Take the former: it opens with a minute of the same straight-ahead pummeling that characterizes the first three songs on the album (none of which makes the two-minute mark), then slows down for a southern-rock lick, occasional shouting, and meditative drones. Frankly, I don’t care what you call it. This is an album that I can, and did, listen to over and over again all year long.

8. Caspian - Waking Season

Waking Season breathes life into the flagging post-rock genre. As with their previous record, Tertia, Caspian are all about patience on Waking Season. The eponymous opener takes nearly two minutes to get going, and on the whole serves largely as an introduction to their sonic recipe for the album: twinkling guitars and ambient synth beds soaring above military-sharp drums. The album peaks early, with the epic “Gone in Bloom and Bough” and ebullient “Halls of the Summer.” “Gone” again exemplifies the band’s patience, with a lengthy reverse-guitar intro building into a measured verse, which builds for several minutes into the kind of booming, post-metal tinged chorus that has helped elevate Caspian above the Explosions in the Sky-aping sound typical to the genre. And that’s only half the song! The back half resets and builds up into a lovely synth wave before fading one last time. “Halls of the Summer” then eschews that patience, launching quickly into a glitchy, stuttering verse that turns on strident, echoing arpeggios. Midway through, the glitching beat gives way to typical Caspian drumrolls and bass stomps, which, three albums into their career, I still find myself loving. Waking Season fades a bit in the back end, but gorgeous soundscapes “High Lonesome” and “Collider in Blue” make the journey to savage closer “Fire Made Flesh” worth it all. And, good lord, what a closer: after a quietly sinister opening three-and-a-half minutes, on the last track of what has been to that point a very pretty album, everything fades away but a single, distorted guitar chunking away at the low end. This begins the album’s final movement, and this time, Caspian build to an explosive riff that is abruptly cut off by a squeal of feedback. At the end of an album that seems mostly a refinement of their previous work, it’s a thrilling development that shows the band evolving creatively.

7. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

While Caspian were showing that post-rock’s still got legs, Converge came roaring out to prove that hardcore isn’t just a young man’s game. Twenty-plus years and eight albums in, All We Love We Leave Behind announces itself immediately with thrashers “Aimless Arrow” and “Trespasses,” with all the furious drumming, demonic screaming, and staccato guitars you could ask for. On “Sadness Comes Home,” the band mix things up with a deceptively slow intro; by the time they’re a minute in, that’s abandoned for a ripping chorus full of double-bass and group shouting. Front-to-back, it’s an electrifying listen, although few of the individual tracks stand out. Those that do, however, are monsters: the aforementioned three tracks, plus “Coral Blue” and the title track will be in heavy rotation for me for quite some time.

6. The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet

A transcendent drummer is a rare thing. Somehow, however, Noctourniquet sees The Mars Volta employing a third such god behind the kit: Deantoni Parks, who succeeds the inimitable Thomas Pridgen, who succeeded the superlative Jon Theodore. Brilliant drumming, then, continues to be a given with TMV. More impressive, though, is that Noctourniquet sees the band take an evolutionary step comparable to that taken by Messrs. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala when they formed TMV from the ashes of At the Drive-In. Bixler-Zavala consciously avoids the stratospheric vocals he’s traditionally employed for a more mid-range croon that allows more nuance; witness the jaw-dropping beauty of “Empty Vessels Make the Loudest Sound,” which moves straight into the venomous, spitting funk of “The Malkin Jewel.” Rodriguez-Lopez, meanwhile, deemphasizes standard guitar sounds to a degree not heard before on a TMV release, preferring wild noises of all types—for instance, the rising/falling pings of “Dyslexicon”; the gentle synths of “Empty Vessels”; and the Flaming Lips-like oscillating weirdness at the heart of “Vedamalady.” If this is truly the final TMV album, it’s a fine way to go out.

5. Jodis - Black Curtain

This is a six track paean to the awesome power of the electric guitar. We’ll get to the vital contributions of Aaron Turner and Tim Wyskida in a moment, but Black Curtain begins and ends with James Plotkin’s thunderous axe. It is all-consuming in its volume, its reverb, its blessed distortion. There are few finer ways to spend forty-ish minutes than awash in the sea of meditative bliss created by this record. And, mesmerizing guitar now given its due, that’s due in large measure to Wyskida’s restrained yet cavernous drumming and Turner’s lofty vocal incantations—all combine to deliver an air of patience and reverence. Best of all: it’s nothing like what I expected out of a band comprised of members of ISIS and Khanate.

4. High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis

I defy you to find a better opening track than “Serums of Liao.” Des Kensel’s pummeling drum roll perfectly sets the stage for Matt Pike’s massive riffs and growling vocals. The entire aesthetic of the album is established in those first few seconds; the band then spend the rest of the album exploring the nuances of their particularly brawny brand of sludge, from the urgent riffing of “Fertile Green” to the lumbering of “Madness of an Architect,” the raw ferocity of “Spiritual Rights” to the dirge of “Warhorn.” High on Fire manage both to thrill and to punish throughout De Vermis Mysteriis, delivering an album long on ideas yet devoid of filler.

3. Marriages - Kitsune

Side project or not, Marriages’ debut is a wonder, with six songs flowing seamlessly together to deliver a brooding, almost cinematic piece of experimental rock. Emma Ruth Rundle’s spare guitar work ranges from haunting to ecstatic, given room to roam at the high end over Greg Burns’ atmospheric bass and Dave Clifford’s inspired drumming. Rundle’s vocals are also used to great effect, while revealing the group’s grounding in instrumental music (all three are members of brilliant experimental/post-rock outfit Red Sparowes). For instance, on opener “Ride in My Place,” Rundle’s voice blends with the rest of the instruments during the verse, then gives way in the chorus to a siren-like guitar melody. From there, the band float into the excellent “Body of Shade,” which itself fades on the lovely chiming sound that forms the centerpiece of “Ten Tiny Fingers,” itself the centerpiece of the album. “Pelt” serves as an interlude and extended opening to “White Shape,” the most straightforwardly rocking song on the record—for its first two and a half minutes, at which point it loses cohesion and speed, its constituent parts drifting apart spectacularly into the low drone that begins the album’s closer. “Part the Dark Again” finally emphasizes Rundle’s vocals, which carry the song through its stunning second movement on the way to a collapsing, feedback-laden conclusion. Kitsune feels cohesive in a way that few albums manage, its every twist carefully planned and perfectly executed. It’s enough to make me long for a sophomore effort, even if it means putting Red Sparowes (who I love) on the back-burner.

2. Old Man Gloom - NO

Finally, a supergroup worthy of the term. With members Aaron Turner (ISIS), Nate Newton (Converge), Caleb Scofield (Cave In), and Santos Montano (frequent collaborator of the preceding three), about all you can expect from an Old Man Gloom is heaviness. That’s exactly what the group deliver to begin NO, with the two minute ambient dirge “Grand Inversion” paving the way for the sinister, chunking guitar riff that opens “Common Species.” When the full band comes in, they come in impossibly heavy, with Aaron Turner’s trademark howl presiding over locked-in guitars, bass, and drums. At that point, it’d be fair to expect NO to consist of straight-up metal, but Old Man Gloom immediately subvert that expectation as the song splinters apart, slowing to a thunderous crawl for a few minutes before settling into indistinct screaming and echoing, tremolo-picked guitars. And so, at that point, it would be fair to expect NO to consist of aggressively challenging noise, but Old Man Gloom immediately subvert that expectation by kicking off “Regain / Rejoin,” a short song with variations on a catchy, cycling, uptempo riff, by the end of which you should be prepared for anything. Anything is what you’ll get: “To Carry the Flame” and “The Forking Path” are relatively simple, punishing outings that see Newton and Scofield, respectively, take the lead on vocals; “Shadowed Hand” and “Rats” both open with long dirges before vicious riffs take center stage; and “Crescent” delivers a southwestern-tinged post-apocalyptic acoustic ballad of sorts.

And then arrives “Shuddering Earth,” a song for the ages. Turner does not fuck around, opening the song alone and nigh-demented, screaming: “The earth is shuddering/Faces pushed into the ash/Bodies are trampled/Smoke chokes the stars.” In comes the full band with a huge, driving riff, followed by an equally urgent verse. Turner becomes more and more unhinged, as does the band, on a chorus that gives me chills when it crashes to a halt. Following that, we get a lengthy interlude of solo guitar and distant Turner shouting, eventually leading to a haunting full-band anthem of infinite patience and poignancy finally fading out on several minutes of intense noise. Tour de force does not even begin to describe it.

Like Kitsune, NO is an album with a purpose, thrilling to listen to and infinitely rewarding. Unlike Kitsune, it’s a challenging album, and for that reason reaches just a little higher.

1. Baroness - Yellow & Green

From time to time, a band takes the leap, simultaneously fulfilling the promise of their early releases while developing beyond anything I could have expected. Examples from my personal pantheon include The Smashing Pumpkins on Siamese Dream, The Flaming Lips on The Soft Bulletin, and ISIS on Oceanic—three of my all-time favorites. Baroness have now demonstrated that they deserve a place on that list.

Yellow & Green is an album of unbridled ambition. First, the numbers: two discs, eighteen songs, seventy-five minutes. Certainly a bold statement in the supposed post-album era. But more impressive is Baroness’ stylistic shift. Their first two albums, Red Album and Blue Record, hewed closely to a progressive metal sound, punctuated by southern-tinged acoustic interludes. On Yellow & Green, their metal leanings are almost entirely abandoned in favor of a wide-ranging aesthetic. They do ease into it, as “Yellow Theme” is similar in character to the interludes on the band’s previous albums, and is followed by the reasonably heavy “Take My Bones Away.” From there, however, all bets are off. To be sure, certain Baroness trademarks are present throughout: John Baizley’s and Pete Adams’ tasty guitar interplay and Allen Blickle’s ferocious drumming are in full effect on Yellow & Green. But the band take their sound down to those foundational elements and rebuild it in myriad unexpected ways.

For all the words I’ve spilled about different albums here, I can find few to describe the majesty of Yellow & Green; the album is far more eloquent than I. A few highlights: “March to the Sea” is almost effervescent, anchored only by Baizley’s growling voice; ”Twinkler” is simply gorgeous; “Sea Lungs” moves with unparalleled urgency; disc one closer “Eula” menaces with the best of them and disc two opener “Green Theme” takes away the pain immediately; “Board Up the House” should be heard blasting from every radio; “Psalms Alive” sounds for all the world like folk Aphex Twin; “Stretchmarker” sparkles with life; and the end of “The Line Between” is a moment of sublime devastation, with Baizley delivering, in a killer chorus, a perfect lyric: “Feel the light of day/Feel it fade away/Walk the line between the righteous and the wicked/And tomorrow I’ll be gone.”

It became impossible not to hear that line differently in the wake of the band’s near-fatal bus crash—particularly as it’s followed by the heavenly instrumental “If I Forget Thee, Lowcountry”—just under a month after the album’s release. As incredible as anything on Yellow & Green are the piece Baizley wrote about that accident in October and the acoustic rendition of “Stretchmarker” performed by Baizley and Adams in December. Baizley recently wrote that the public response to the band’s crash “has furthered my own faith in the communicative and universal strength of music.” I can only say that, in 2012, Yellow & Green stood unrivaled as a testament to that strength.

Honorable Mentions

Even expanding this list to twelve albums didn’t allow me to include everything I loved last year; the following several albums, discussed in no particular order, are deserving of several listens.

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead returned to form with Lost Songs, an album of joyous noise. The raucous “Catatonic” in particular holds up well against any other song released last year; other highlights include “Up to Infinity,” “A Place to Rest,” and “Bright Young Things.”

Local H delivered an unexpectedly strong seventh album, Hallelujah! I’m a Bum. The overtly political lyrics, while not particularly insightful, still manage to be quite catchy—take the chorus on “They Saved Reagan’s Brain”: “It’s no use runnin’/With the Chinese comin’/And I don’t want to see this world burn no more.” Scott Lucas’ songwriting is as strong as ever, with perfect alternative-rock pieces like “Cold Manor,” “Blue Line,” “Say the Word,” and “Sad History” scattered among the album’s seventeen tracks. Local H also employ an old trick to great effect, as album opener “Waves” is a shortened take on brilliant closer “Waves Again,” just as “Manifest Density Pt. 1″ and “Manifest Density Pt. 2″ bookended the band’s best-known album, 1996′s As Good As Dead.

Post-metal elder statesmen Neurosis show no signs of weakness, as Honor Found in Decay, their tenth album and first in five years, further refines their singularly weird sound. The album mostly backs off the sinister mood of 2007′s Given to the Rising in favor of the occasional transcendent coda, as on the staggering “My Heart for Deliverance” and “Casting of the Ages.” Not that they’ve gone soft—that sinister feel is present in spades on “Bleeding the Pigs,” as one might expect from the title.

Justin K. Broadrick, as usual, cannot be stopped. No Jesu album in 2012, alas, but his electronic outing Posthuman, released under the name JK Flesh, is fantastic. It is best described as abrasive (even for him), but if you’re in the mood for aggressive, loosely structured noise, Posthuman is the way to go.

Finally, as a matter of principal, I don’t include EPs on my albums of the year list. It’s maybe a silly principal, and this time around it leads to the exclusion of Pelican’s stellar Ataraxia/Taraxis, which represents the most exciting development in the band’s sound in years. Bookends “Ataraxia” and “Taraxis” skew acoustic and ambient, while “Lathe Biosas” and “Parasite Colony” stick close to the band’s established sound. While 2012 saw the departure of founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, I remain hopeful for whatever the band release next. And while I’m on the subject, do check out Gmaj7 from Pelican guitarist Trevor de Brauw’s side project Chord—there is such a thing as power ambient, and it is good.

Things to Come

I am always looking to the future. Not everything I had been hoping for in 2012 saw release, but it’s all coming. The promised Jakob album is still on the horizon. The band formed by ISIS alums Aaron Harris, Cliff Meyer, and Jeff Caxide with Deftones’ Chino Moreno got a name (Palms) in 2012, but their debut album got pushed to 2013.

Elsewhere, True Widow have hinted that a new album is coming soon, which gets me all aflutter. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has put The Mars Volta on hold to focus on a group called Bosnian Rainbows with Deantoni Parks and members of Le Butcherettes; I’ll follow that guy anywhere he goes, and presumably he is going toward a debut album with that group. Other than that, because I am lame, I am reduced to hoping that the bands responsible for my 2011 favorites will be putting out new records: I’m looking at you, Tombs, Mogwai, Boris, And So I Watch You From Afar (who I see now have announced a new album, !), Asobi Seksu, Sloan, Cave In, Jesu, and Russian Circles. Especially you, Russian Circles. Stop touring so much and get back in the goddamn studio.

Nice write up sinfony! I wish I liked Yellow & Green as much as other people seem to. I loved the combination of prog metal and hardcore going on in their previous records. Yellow & Green just made me think of Alice in Chains. It's probably something particular to my ear and my dislike for that period of early 90's grunge rock, but I was disappointed in the record after loving both their previous ones.

Still, it's nice to see such a well thought out post in this thread.

I haven't really put a lot of thought into this, but a handful of highlights from 2012 for me:

- Love This Giant - David Byrne and St. Vincent.

- You Me Bullets Love - Bombay Royale. (This is so awesome. It's like the Budos Band meets Bollywood.)

- Hot Cakes - The Darkness (at some point I stopped liking this kind of stuff ironically and now I just like it)

- Muse - The 2nd Law (yeah, I know, but I love me some prog and when it is really Queen-y prog all the better)

In no particular order, my more pedestrian/mainstream list:

Chromatics- Kill for Love
Goat- World Music
Ebo Taylor- Appia Kwa Bridge
Tame Impala - Lonerism
Future of the Left- the plot against common sense
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Liars - WIXIW
Felix- Oh Holy Molar
Killer Mike -R.A.P. Music (might be replaced by Skelethon when I get around to listening to it, I have a soft spot for Aesop).
Mark Lanegan- Blues Funeral

Album that should be on here but that burnt me out with pure aggression:
Death Grips- The Money Store

Best news of the year:
New Broadcast album (soundtrack for Berberian Sound Studio. Makes me even more upset I missed it in on initial release).

AWWW YISSS. This was also the year I got to see him and his grumpy disposition live, which was totally awesome!

I can't keep it to ten, so it's going to be a big old three-part Top 15. To those (all of you) appalled by my attitudes toward 80's music and rap, the OZ-shaming will proceed apace, because this is basically a list for all of your indipop needs, whether you have them or not.

The first two entries really are tied at No. 1, and by a substantial margin over everything else.

Allo Darlin' -- Europe. Jangly, girl-driven pop (this will be a theme), but with ambitions.

Of Monsters and Men -- My Head Is An Animal. Just stunning pop music, full of hooks and harmonies, and quirky boy/ girl vocals.

The Garlands -- The Garlands. Pure girly indiepop.

Good Old War -- Come Back As Rain. Men! Folky, hook-laden bliss.

The School -- Reading Too Much Into Things Like Everything. Girls. Indiepop. Yes. Not quite as good as their debut album.

Azure Blue -- Rule of Thirds. Electro-tinged, poppy pop (that's a thing) from Finland.

It's A Musical -- For Years and Years. Bright, whimsical, happy pop gems.

Hospitality -- Hospitality. You know the drill.

Jens Lenkman -- I Know What Love Isn't. Sweden's foremost melancholy folkboy.

Burning Hearts -- Extinctions. Possibly 80's influenced, but we deny it.

Stars -- The North. Yeah, overwrought bedroom anthems for 15 year-old girls. Wanna make something of it?

Seapony -- Falling. Yes, another of those groups.

Liechtenstein --Fast Forward. There are four of them. Girls.

Chairlift -- Something. Boys and girls living together! With electronic instruments! Dancing!

Felt Tips -- Living and Growing. The title of this song rather gives away the entire plot.



Honorable Mention: Beach House -- Bloom; Bruce Springsteen -- Wrecking Ball; Freelance Whales -- Diluvia; Tennis -- Young and Old; Lightships -- Electric Cable; Ben Gibbard -- Former Lives

I go through phases. This year was darker than most.

Pinback - Information Retrieved
Swans - The Seer
Firewater - International Orange
Baroness - Yellow & Green
Wo Fat - The Black Code
Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
Bell Witch - Longing
Royal Thunder - CVI

Honorable mentionables:
Southern Lord's re-release of Sleep's Dopesmoker
High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis

I don't put re-releases in my best of the year, but if I did, Dopesmoker would sure as shit be high up on it. It's a masterpiece.

Goddamn, that A.C. Newman record is fucking great. It blows my mind how much talent is embedded in The New Pornographers.

Also, feel free to tack on one more great record of 2012: A version of the three Guided By Voices records released this year, if you were to take all the good songs from each and put them on one album. A taste:

Mostly just Swans for me this year. All of the other stuff I really loved was released previously.