The Top 20 Albums of 2012

I have to say, the 2012 musical output felt mediocore for many months.  I was consistently underwhelmed by quite a few offerings and too often disappointed by the good records that I expected would be great.  But ultimately, the year redeemed itself in the last third, and when the dust settled, there were once again plenty of terrific records.   I would not say that there were any particular genres or musical trends that captured my attention this year and I was pretty much all over the place, covering folk-hippie, garage-pop, electronic, shoegaze, indie-rock, and heavy post-punk. 

My Top 20 surprised me with 8 or so brand new (to me) bands entering the fray at the expense of a number of bands I may have taken for granted.  So let’s start with the disappointments.  Note that these are relative to previous outings and the general awesomeness required for Top 20 placing.  These weren’t all bad albums, but ones that fell short of expectations:  Sigur Ros, Animal Collective, Spiritualized, Stars, Here We Go Magic, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Magnetic Fields, Titus Andronicus, Silversun Pickups, Sun Airway, Best Coast and Ringo Deathstarr all put out good albums, but not great and not on par with their history (although Stars seem to be carving out a history of mediocrity).  These are some of my most favorite bands, so this was distressing. The category of “crappy”, on the other hand, was visited by usual luminaries Cat Power, Bear in Heaven, Ariel Pink and, well, Rush (a purchase based on vast respect, not expectations).   Ariel Pink was especially awful and it felt so intentional that I don’t think I’ll be paying much attention to him anymore.  Memoryhouse (from hometown Guelph!) sort of disappointed too…had high hopes for a Cocteau Twins/Lush renewal.   It was not to be.  And I will not understand all the Cat Power love.  The new album is a shadow of her previous The Greatest.  I’m glad Chan Marhsall seems to be happier, however. And there will be no Frank Ocean on this list, a perennial number 1 in the press.  Exceptional voice, slick production, some innovation – yet boring as fuck.

A list limited to 20 spots of course has some casualties and, by tradition, it is only fair to name those bands with records that by my estimation warranted an 8/10 or better (i.e., excellent!).  Non-list making excellence goes to Patrick Watson, School of Seven Bells, Beach House, Merchandise, Fang Island, Frankie Rose, The Heart Strings, The Shins, Metz, Wintersleep, Grizzly Bear, Sleigh Bells, James Blackshaw, Lavender Diamond, and Snowblink.  Triumphant records!

On the EP front, a large shout-out goes to the horribly named Gashcat, who had a full-length last year (which I missed) and a new e.p. this year, Devil Kid Demos.  Gashcat is the second coming of Neutral Milk Hotel (with a bit of Mountain Goats) and is seriously amazing.  This is list of long-players, but this EP deserves mentioning.  As do Shadow by Ringo Deathstarr and State Hospital by Frightened Rabbit.

And now, the Top 20 of 2012!  

20. Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball

While I am certainly not a rabid fan, I have a definite respect for what I know of Springsteen’s canon.  I’m not sure why I have not gone deeper.  Hardcore Springsteen fans blanch when I notify them that my favorite album is Born in the USA and that “Glory Days” ranks as one of my favorite songs.  Personal history, I guess.  Anyhow, I keep loose tabs on the man.  Wrecking Ball caught me by surprise.  It is a definite departure from his regular fare.  It is a shit-kicking, foot-stomping, old folk revival.  I could certainly do without the vacuous religiosity, which I find curious coming from a man who routinely confronts oppressive power structures.  But the attraction is in the music itself – a tremendous, raucous populism that is as angry as it is celebratory.  Kudos, Boss.  Choice track:  “Death to My Hometown”.

19.  The Mountain Goats – Transcendental Youth

There is currently a petition to the US government to name John Darnielle the Poet Laureate.  I know little of contemporary  poetry  and so cannot comment on the legitimacy of this request.  But I care about poetry in the vehicle of song, and John Darnielle is an American giant.  He retains his minimalist approach, largely sticking to catchy acoustic (and often frenetic) strumming, bass, and drums, but with some added piano lines and occasional brass.  Over straightforward progressions he weaves profoundly clever meditations on love, life, and loss.  Every song is a penetrating and captivating story.  Choice track:  “Harlem Roulette”.  

18.  Chester Endersby Gwazda – Shroud

Gwazda is a Baltimore compatriot of electro-dance geek Dan Deacon, co-producing/engineering the latter’s America album (#14 on this list) and serving as band member on the 2012 tour.  When I saw Deacon in Toronto, Gwazda opened.  It was a catchy little set, with some prepackaged samples, his guitar, and some pleasant singing.  Enough for me to check him out online.  His bandcamp page yielded Shroud, which was an unexpected treat.  It sounds a lot like Deacon in some ways, and one suspects they shared equipment.  The difference is that while Deacon defaults to hyperactive dance beats and krautrock freak outs, Gwazda reels it all into a catchier pop form, with better and more prominent singing, guitar centrepieces, and clearer song structures.  Dan Deacon meets Panda Bear meets The Beach Boys.  Choice track:  “Skewed”.

17.  Melody’s Echo Chamber – S/T

The name chosen by band lead Melody Prochet is appropos.  This is heavily reverbed, airy, and ethereal guitar-based pop, recalling The Cocteau Twins and Lush, and aligned with a number of contemporary acts like School of Seven Bells, Little Scream, and Washed Out.  Gossamer and woozy with angelic, laid back vocals that, well, kind of put you in some sort of echo chamber.  A great debut.  Choice track:  “Endless Shore”. 

16.  Lightships – Electric Cables

Lightships is the debut solo outing by Teenage Fanclub’s bassist Gerard Love.  I’ve always been a TFC fan and was understandably curious.  The signature voice is there, but this is a much more toned-down, mellow album than typical TFC fare.   And it works wonderfully.  Catchy, melodic folk-pop reminiscient of Mojave 3/Neil Halstead, The Kingsbury Manx, and Kurt Vile.  Love has a decisive knack for spinning nostalgia-inducing gems.  Sit back and visit your distant memories.  Choice track:  “Muddy Rivers”.  

15.  Trail of Dead – Lost Songs

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead seem revitalized and somehow set free from the endless queue of detractors who seem to love to lambaste them at every turn (“bombastic”, “self-important”, “bloated”, blah blah blah).  Lost Songs, their 8^th full-length, sounds like a triumphant return to the excellence of Source Tags and Codes, their 3^rd record and venerable indie-rock favorite.  And for this reason, the are favorable comparisons to early Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Built to Spill, and Pearl Jam’s heavier rants.  But they mostly sound like early Trail of Dead, and that’s a damn fine thing.  Anthemic, pounding, and gritty.  Choice track:  “Opera Obscura”.  

14.  Eternal Summers – Correct Behavior

This Virginian duo turned trio produce that delicious brand of infectious indie pop popularized by bands like The Pastels, The Aislers Set, The Concretes, Vivian Girls, The Wedding Present, and The Go-Go’s.  And at times, they throw a few curveballs that remind of The Sundays, early Yo La Tengo, or Run On.  They been quoted as calling their style “dream punk”.  This seems to fit their upbeat, three-chord rave-ups with trebly, over-driven  guitar and sassy bubblegum vocals.  Heavy on the reverb, light on the pomp, but all rock , Correct Behaviour is happy-go-lucky while substantive.  This year, it’s essential listening.  Choice track:  “Heaven and Hell”. 

13.  Dan Deacon –  America

This year’s concert of the year was Dan Deacon.  There is something special about Deacon’s participatory populism of “music with the people” and there are very few artists who could get this 40-something into a seething dance pit of electronica rave geeks.  But that’s what happened.  Mind-blowing live show (and audience smartphone lightshow) aside, Deacon’s new album is wonderful, provided you dig 180 bpm, vintage 8-bit sonics, chipmunk voicings, and a brilliant use of repetition and release.    While modern dance music is diverse, the bulk of it leaves me profoundly bored.  Not so with America, an authentic tribalistic dance freak out that welcomes one, welcomes all.  The fact that the record is an explicitly political document is an added feature that I haven’t even begun to sort out.  I’m too busy bouncing around.  Choice track (and great video!):  “True Thrush” 

12. A.C. Newman – Shut Down the Streets

Leading off with one of the best songs of the year (“I’m Not Talking”) Carl Newman does what he does best – creates a New Pornographers album without any distracting Dan Bejar songs.  While admittedly the New Pornos are often more peppy and louder, Newman’s lead songwriting influence repeats itself in  all his solo work.  With brilliant, crystalline production, every track is an ear pleaser. A great pop song should grab you with the verse, trip you up with a well-timed bridge, and then pin you down with the chorus.  Doing this consistently is a difficult art, and so many tunes fail to bring all the moves together.  Carl Newman demonstrates once again that he is a true master of the art-from and, in 2012, a revered grandfather of indie rock.  Choice track:  “I’m Not Talking” 

11.  Sharon Van Etten – Tramp

I struggle to identify the music that Sharon Van Etten plays.  It seems old, classic, and timeless but I am wary of calling it folk, blues, country, or rock.  Sometimes it’s these things, I suppose.  But to sum it up better, she has a tremendous voice and presence over top of a compelling mix of mournful, chiming guitars (that sound like they were recorded in a cathedral), disciplined, spare drums, and Van Etten’s acoustic strums that keep it all together.  With a gaggle of indie-rock luminaries contributing (members of The National, Wye Oak, The Walkmen), the songs are woeful and lamenting, but never whiny and almost always powerful.  She clearly has some shit to work out.  Regardless, her future looks bright, as she is poised (along with Annie Clark of St. Vincent) to be one the greatest and influential female rock voices of the 2000’s sophmore decade. Choice track:  “Leonard”. 

10.  Lord Huron – Lonesome Dreams

Lord Huron was a great new 2012 discovery, although memory fails as to how they arrived at my ears.  With beautiful, bright and airy production, the band reaches the same stellar heights as Fleet Foxes and Beachwood Sparks.  The songs effortlessly invoke open spaces and natural grandeur, like a soundtrack to a mountain visit or canyon hike.  It’s that sort of feel-good orchestral folk that pairs well with sunny days and solitude.  I look forward to hearing more and don’t be surprised if they begin to enter the mainstream radar in much the same way as Fleet Foxes did.  Choice track:  “Ends of the Earth”.

9.  Plants and Animals – The End of That

After the critical darlinghood of their debut Parc Avenue, Plants and Animals got absolutely panned in their reviews of their follow up La La Land.  While there has been a slight uptick, the reviews for this third album have been similarly crappy (metacritic average of 64%).  I have this to say:  What is wrong with all you jackassess?  Holy shit, this is a great album!  There, my substantless rebuttal is complete.  Seriously folks, we’re back to Parc Avenue standards here, with groovy verse delivery, big swelling choruses, and some great rock musicianship.  Included is an amazing Velvet Underground impression on the title track.  Choice track: “Lightshow”.

8.  Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold

Ah, what a find!  Based on an mp3 post on www.popstache.com, I checked out these precocious youngsters’ bandcamp and was summarily blown.  This is old school power pop, channeling The Modern Lovers and the simple/raw garage/surf rock of the 60’s; and later pop-punk bands like The Feelies, The Muffs, and the Flying Nun Records sound.  And Wire and Pavement. When I listen to this album, I am sometimes embarrassed for my other favorite records that suddenly seem bloated and self-absorbed.  The Parquet Courts are….base.  They are an anachronism, yet their sound is vital to the present.  How have we arrived at this place where putting out a basic (and kind of sloppy) proto-punk record is an acheivement to be lauded? It is what it is.  Long live Parquet Courts!  Choice track: “Careers in Combat”.  Check out the whole album on their bandcamp. 

7.  Japandroids – Celebration Rock

No puffed up irony here.  This is indeed “Celebration Rock”.  Japandroids are an extraordinary Canadian duo that rock as hard as anybody out there, and with a nostalgia for the days of youth long past that is almost anguished.  Every song feels like an eulogy delivered during a post-punk wake.  These boys manage to elicit the same feelings that Billy Corgan used to conjure with his early Smashing Pumpkins.   The idolatary of youth, freedom, recklessness, and celebration, with turned-to-11 power chords and heart attack inducing drum lines.  To think they almost called it quits before their debut.  I hope they never lose that loving feeling.  Choice track:  “Younger Us”.

6.  Freelance Whales – Diluvia

I enjoyed the first couple FW records but was sometimes put off by their “dorkestral” conceits.  Too many instruments with the sort of swelling choral arrangements that unexpectedly become tiresome.  It’s tough to explain, but I suppose it’s the fault of trend-setters Arcade Fire (who are amazing) and The Decemberists (who are not).  A transformation has taken place, however.  Freelance Whales are far closer to Young Galaxy in my estimation (a contemporary favorite of mine) – there is still lots to pay attention to, but you are not hit over the head with it.  It is more measured, refined, and complex in an attractive way.  A surprise showing this year, Diluvia is an incredible restructuring of a good band into a great one.  Choice track: “Spitting Image”.

5.  Woods – Bend Beyond

Woods impressed me with 2010’s Echo Lake, which offered a delightful chunk of lo-fi, 60’s-influenced garage rock.  It was messy and raw, but catchy as hell.  So I was excited for this 2012 follow-up (somehow I missed Sun and Shade, but I will correct that momentarily).  I was not disappointed.  The same formula is used here, but improved somehow.  Maybe just the songs, top to bottom, are stronger.  It feels like a dusty psychedelic/folk garage record that was found and lovingly released by Nuggets compilers.  Akin to the retro-vibes of Black Mountain/Pink Mountaintops and Blitzen Trapper, Bend Beyond is perfect homage to underground rock of yore.  Choice track:  “Cali in a Cup”.

4.  The Men – Open Your Heart

YEAH!  The Men officially kicked my ass in 2012, with diverse rock numbers found on Open Your Heart.  I had to look past the fact that the title track (and the best track) is a massive rip off of The Buzzcocks “Ever Fallen In Love” (listen here).  I got over it.   I know and enjoy bands like The Strokes, Yeah Yeahs Yeahs, Franz Ferdinand and all those early 2000s bands who revived and updated the punk aesthetic (i.e., when grunge ultimately failed us all).  The Men are kind of like that, but better, and not homogeneously so.  There is intriguing diversity on this record, not just the blood and guts.  Insistent, manic, and irreverent with no bullshit.  They just bring it.  Choice track:  “Open Your Heart”.

3.  Jim Guthrie – Indie Game: The Movie Soundtrack

Hometown Guelphie and former Human Highway and Royal City member has carved out a whole new niche for himself.  Guthrie thankfully has turned his considerable talents away from advertising jingles (e.g., Capital One’s insanely catchy “Hand in my Pocket”) to soundtracking video games and, in this case, a documentary on independent video game creation.  Far removed from his brilliant, orchestral record Now More Than Ever, Guthrie has returned to his original penchant for digitized, 8-bit sounds, but it is more fully updated, cohesive and realized.  Following wonderful concept records Swords and Sworcery (a game soundtrack) and Children of the Clone, Guthrie returns with a soundtrack to the documentary Indie Game.  This is an amazing, compelling doc that I highly recommend to all, regardless of your level of interest in the medium.  The soundtrack provided the perfect expository mood to the film but I wondered if it would stand alone.  It does, and then some.  Guthrie has mastered this form of musical expression, using seemingly archaic tools like a PSone with MTV’s music generator software.  It is at once futuristic and anachronistic – like playing Atari 2600 in 2020.   And through all the bleeps and bloops, Guthrie coaxes out emotional poignant melodies that will stick in your head like pixelated afterimages.  Choice track: “Maybe You’ll Get Some, Maybe You Won’t”.

2.  Dana Buoy – Summer Bodies

I am big fan of Akron/Family and even bigger fan of Animal Collective (although their 2012 entry, Centipede Hz fell short of their lofty standards, IMO).  Here we get both at once, with the solo effort of A/Fs Dana Janssen doing his best impression of Panda Bear.  This one truly caught me by surprise and was immediately slotted into my mental nominations for Album of the Year when I first heard it.  I don’t see a lot of press on this record, which I find surprising given Janseens full-time outfit.  What we have here is a glorious, polyphonic, multi-rhythmic celebration which sources The Beach Boys, Freelance Whales, Yeasayer, and The Dodos, with heady doses of tropicalia, psychedelia, and an exceptional knack for hooky melodies.  Simultaneously, the music feels equally at home with the likes of Washed Out, Small Black, Delorean, and Youth Lagoon.  This is the most quintessentially “contemporary” album within the indie-rock landscape, yet it feels so unique. And definitely undervalued.  Get it.  It’s great.  Choice track: “Call To Be”. 

1.  Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes – Here

I know next to nothing about Alex Ebert’s previous outfit Ima Robot.  Actually, I am youtubing them right now and my initial 3-song opinion is that they are tepid and contrived.  This is relevant because I have been getting the sense that Ebert’s current outfit, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes have been experiencing an awful, petty, and horribly misplaced backlash based on the perceived malignancy of his prior band.  We’ve seen this before – successful but polarizing figure reinvents themselves but fails critically due to the undroppable baggage associated with their previous incarnation – we could call it Justin Timberlake Syndrome, perhaps (this is a slightly different version of the “critically acclaimed artist who reinvents themselves poorly and sours the fanbase” – see Sinead O’Connor’s  Am I Not Your Girl?).   In any case, I am flabbergasted at the widespread panning of the album Here, my undisputed #1 of 2012.  It’s unforgiveable.  Apparently a precocious, image-driven, drug-addict cannot possibly reform themselves and hope to release an album that is accepted on its own merits.  To the cynical and unprincipled music press, ES and the MZs is merely another fabrication of Ebert, another contrived vehicle to woo the susceptible, superficial consumer.  I call bullshit.  I had the exact same experience when Tim Delaughter formed The Polyphonic Spree out of the ashes of pop-grunge outfit, Tripping Daisy.  People couldn’t hack it.  White gowns? Really?  You were MTV pranksters and now you’re preaching communal flower-power love, like some whacked-out cult.  The reality is that the Spree made fabulous music and DeLaughter’s image motivation was irrelevant.  Similarly, Here  is a skilled, joyous, romp down the rusty tracks laid down by old-timey americana/folk artists.  It feels like folk in the most traditional sense – when music had to be consumed live, and shared in a vibrant communal space.  Maybe Ebert IS being calculated in propagating this image – why is he suddenly a roots-informed leader of a hippie collective, transformed from an androgynous pop singer?  Does it matter?  Hell no.  Every song on this record feels authentic, because the authenticity can be found in the sound, the instrumentation, vocals, the choruses, the production, the lyrics…the whole aesthetic.  I think it’s brilliant and this is my anti-review review.  Listen without prejudice. Choice track (and stellar vid):  “Man on Fire”.