Am a little late with this, but hey, it’s not like we’re waiting on the apocalypse or anything…
In any event, I’m always happiest when compiling lists, especially when it concerns something I have quite the obsessive penchant for like music. So please indulge me, as for the second part of my End Of Year blog malarkey, I publish my Top 9 EP’s and Top 49 Albums of 2012, complete with Spotify links where available for those with subscriptions.
Top 9 EP’s Of 2012
9. End Of Daze by Dum Dum Girls
Dreamy surfer-chic rock from American four-piece girlband, all lush harmonies, heady guitars and torch anthems perfect for campfire cuddles and making out on the beach.
8. True by Solange
Beyoncé’s little sister collaborates with Lightspeed Champion and comes up with a clutch of songs so good (including the excellent Losing You) that they decided to release them all as an EP all on their own.
7. Upcoming Legendary by Dubplate Dionysius
Debut free-to-download effort from retro-dance duo in the USA bringing dub back to the dancefloor, taking inspiration from Paris Is Burning (as some of the most fabulous things often do).
6. Undersea by The Antlers
Indie’s most miserable champions continue their seemingly endless downward emotional trajectory with a valuable mini-collection of soothing-yet-bracing heartbreak.
5. You Know You Like It by AlunaGeorge
Oh yes, I really, really do. Re-release of criminally-ignored London-based R&B/electro duo’s first EP; title track sounds like All Saints partying in a zero-gravity space shuttle (i.e. awesome).
4. Armor On by Dawn Richard
Protégée of Diddy goes out on her own and wastes no time marching her wondrous mix of empowering dance/R&B into the world; standout track Faith is actually the best dance anthem of the year no one likely heard.
3. 1991 by Azealia Banks
Infectiously nasty hip hop that feels just as at home at the indie disco as it does at a rap show featuring a gorgeously heavy ‘90s vibe and a mercurially likeable young woman spitting quality verses throughout.
The most club-friendly release in this famously publicity-shy post-dubstep pioneer has yet wrought, its three tracks consisting of over thirty minutes of typically sublime, heady inner city grit and soul.
1. Danger by Katy B
All I’ll say is that, if our dear Katy sees fit to release these four excellent tracks for free via her website, her second album due for release next year should be nothing short of monumentally fucking amazing. Crammed to bursting with collaborators (Jessie Ware, Wiley and Diplo among them), it’s got more punch, pizzazz and play than any other R&B effort to find its way into 2012. Long live Queen B!
Top 49 Albums Of 2012
49. Love At The Bottom Of The Sea by The Magnetic Fields
A welcome return to trenchantly witty, aesthetically bouncy, gender-bending synthpop for Stephin Merritt’s twenty-three-years-young indie institution.
48. Young Man In America by Anaїs Mitchell
Indie folk singer/songwriter gets broody to thoroughly disarming effect on new collection of charmingly wistful ditties.
Recently-rejuvenated alt-rock masters return with more foreboding, sinister soundscapes that are as beautifully arresting as they can be sonically challenging, as well as a handful of special guests.
46. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
Electro-psych-pop from Brooklyn-based noiseniks that reinforces their reputation for delightfully bonkers tunes, even if it’s finer moments aren’t quite as galvanizing as their previous efforts.
45. SÓLARIS by Ben Frost & Daníel Bjarnason
Icelandic classical duo compose ambient alternate soundtrack to Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci-fi existentialist drama; chin-strokingly worthy, perhaps, but still beautiful.
44. Shrines by Purity Ring
Auspicious alt-electro-pop debut from Canadian duo that justly got more than a few tastemaking-tongues wagging earlier in the year; definitely ones to keep an eye out for in the future.
43. Mr. M by Lambchop
Another venerable American institution sagely makes their mark on this list, courtesy of Kurt Wagner’s ongoing musical project and its eleventh album; alternative, soulful, panoramic country at its most beatific and stately.
42. Sweet Heart Sweet Light by Spiritualized
After thankfully surviving the traumas laid bare on previous album Songs In A+E, Jason Pierce returns to the fold with another round of gorgeously emotional, death-tinged alt-rock.
41. Life Is Good by Nas
American hip hop’s most celebrated MC returns fresh from a very prickly divorce with equal amounts vitality, rumination and, of course, lyrical bravado.
40. Lawless: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
Messrs Cave and Ellis continue their professional relationship with filmmaker John Hillcoat to provide a soundtrack for his prohibition-era set gangster epic featuring work from Mark Lanegan and Willie Nelson.
39. Tetra by C2C
French big-break-beat disco posse picking up where the poppier works of Norman Cook, Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx left off back in the late ’90s; big, boisterous and a lot of fun.
38. Reservation by Angel Haze
Second and best mixtape of the year from Detroit-hailing wordsmith that is also one of 2012’s better calling-cards for imminent stardom, featuring some of the most honest, unflinching and technically superlative rap verses of the year.
English folk at its most beautifully dreary and emotional; spare arrangements make way for bracing songs of pure heartbreak from its beleaguered progenitor.
36. World, You Need A Change Of Mind by Kindness
One-man-band Adam Bainbridge finally gets around to releasing his debut LP, featuring warm-electro covers of English soap opera themes and some of the best funk-dance-pop the 90’s never saw.
35. The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do by Fiona Apple
Whilst clearly still a fan of those cumbersomely-long album titles, Miss Apple at least manages to deliver moments of leftwing pop genius, her voice as rapt as ever before and musicianship growing ever more febrile and head-turning.
34. I Know What Love Isn’t by Jens Lekman
Troubled troubadour from Sweden releases follow-up to one of the best albums of the last decade after near-catastrophic illness and heartbreak; rather awesomely, he can still see the wistfully funny side of it all too.
33. Top 10 Hits Of The End Of The World by Prince Rama
Concept album that has two sisters impersonating fictional pop bands from the future who happen to feature on a mixtape made just in time for the end of days. And as try hard as that concept sounds, it’s still rather infectiously enjoyable.
32. Held by Holy Other
Debut album from Manchester-based electronic producer who shares label-space with Clams Casino over at Tri Angle; gorgeous, urban sounds.
Debut album from the fabulous Eurovision 2012 winner that is awash with intoxicating with trance-heavy dance-pop; if Leona Lewis‘ team knew what they were doing, her third album would have sounded like this.
30. Galaxy Garden by Lone
Fifth album from dance producer that is one of the finer “I have arrived” statements of the year; by turns spectral and heady as well as propulsive and shape-throwingly good.
29. Be Strong by The 2 Bears
Joe Goddard’s first mention on the chart with fellow production-cohort Raf Rundell offers some of the most innocuous, danceably buzzing tunes of the year; feeling good never felt so, well, good.
28. Elysium by Pet Shop Boys
Elder statesmen of synthpop rope in one of Kanye West’s most trusted right-hand men to help conceive a grand, arch collection of songs. It’s all rather typical of them really, but no less wonderful for being so.
27. Words And Music By Saint Etienne by Saint Etienne
More refined, English synthpop from a similarly-esteemed group, this being the trio’s first album in seven years and has them rather fabulously showing ‘current’ pretenders how swoonsome and lovely pop can really be.
26. Beams by Matthew Dear
Wonkily-brilliant work of retro-dance from one of America’s most intelligent producers; Talking Heads in particular can be felt all the way through this, which is no bad thing right?
25. Devotion by Jessie Ware
Debut album from R&B’s most garlanded upstart of the year and rightly so, its progenitor mixing in emotional pop ballads, spacey late-night vibes and ambient electronics into a consumingly-good concoction.
24. Confess by Twin Shadow
Sophomore album from one-man-army George Lewis Jr., who reinvents himself as an oversexed jerk who happens to be so alluring and charismatic with it, you are left wanting more of his anti-romantic soft-rock wares.
23. In Our Heads by Hot Chip
Joe Goddard’s second placing on the chart comes courtesy of his day-job band at their most ebullient, their fifth album unfettered with drama and light-as-a-feather with feelgood guile.
22. Nina Kraviz by Nina Kraviz
Russia’s leading female DJ releases eponymous debut after years of notice-making single releases; if all late-night post-club sessions sounded as sultry and blissed out as this, there would be a lot less wrong with the world.
21. Attack On Memory by Cloud Nothings
Third time’s a charm for this rabble-rousing indie rock quartet who are as hardworking (this third album was released a day shy of a year after their previous) as they are full of boundless energy.
20. Kings And Them by Evian Christ
Debut mixtape from young amateur-footballer-turned-producer/cutie, who did prodigiously well to get signed to Tri Angle this year and celebrated with the release of this mix of ambient electronica, industrial synths and rap samples.
If 2012 had a competition of how many different genres you could squeeze into a single album, electronic musician Claire Boucher’s irrepressibly nimble effot would easily take the title; truly too great and varied to sum up in a single sentence.
18. The Master: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood
Radiohead’s Greenwood returns to the task of film scoring with his beautifully-orchestrated efforts for P.T. Anderson’s award-magnet The Master, which is even more grand, sinister and strange than his earlier work for There Will Be Blood.
17. Voyageur by Kathleen Edwards
Produced by good friend Bon Iver, a.k.a. Justin Vernon, himself with a raft of famous dab hands helping in the wings, Canadian folk starlet Edwards’ fourth album is a quietly graceful piece of art.
16. Highwire Poetry by Karin Park
Fourth album from the singer/songwriter/model who has received not-unkind-or-untrue comparisons to Gary Numan and The Knife; her work is certainly poppier than these comparisons suggest, but no less awesome for it.
15. Cut The World by Antony And The Johnsons
Compilation album of highlights from Antony Hegarty’s last tour featuring some even-more-heartrending-than-usual versions of his previous work.
14. good kid, m.A.A.d city by Kendrick Lamar
Even though his name’s been bandying about the Internet for some time, even his most ardent fans were shocked with how sprawling in scope, intense in focus and dramatically assured Lamar’s major-label debut was.
13. channel ORANGE by Frank Ocean
The best reviewed album of the year is also one of the strangest, most beguiling, epic and revolutionary works of any year; it’s nothing less than a trailblazing triumph Mr Ocean, and speaking on behalf of everyone, thank you.
12. Master Of My Make-Believe by Santigold
It’s still bewildering how someone as talented as Santi can still remain pop music’s best-kept secret, especially considering her second album sounds like The Bangles Do Dancehall (oh yes) and still no one really bothered. Grrr.
11. Make Me Believe In Hope by Bright Light Bright Light
Another album that mysteriously didn’t catch fire and burn as bright as it should have done, Rod Thomas’ introductory opus of disco-based love and desire is a must for anyone who says they like pop music. Which is everyone, I guess.
10. ill MANORS by Plan B
A companion album rather than a straight soundtrack to his cinematic directorial debut of the same name, MANORS is the stuff of righteous anger, intelligence and soul from one-man-media-empire Ben Drew.
9. Celebration Rock by Japandroids
Pure, uncomplicated, powerhouse rocking from Canadian duo and their third album; without doubt the most effusive explosion of pure energy put onto an album this year.
8. ƒin by John Talabot
Deep, sumptuous house music from Barcelona is the name of DJ/producer John Talabot’s game, and despite more popular trends attracting more notices, his was the album no dance-music fan could be without in 2012.
7. Born To Die by Lana Del Rey
The most chart-friendly act to make it into my top ten remains one of 2012’s most divisive figures in pop; however, even if the success of this album leaves her with nowhere to go further down the line, her influence over the past year is undeniable.
6. All Hell by Daughn Gibson
2012’s sonic heartthrob is also responsible for the best debut album of the year, his sublime mix of electrified Americana making an impression as sexily iconoclastic as they come.
5. The Lion’s Roar by First Aid Kit
The best folk album of the year belongs to this sister-act from Sweden, who between their tight harmonies and adorable bittersweet folkiness kind of give you an idea of how Agnetha and Frida would sound if they hooked up with Fleet Foxes.
4. Les Voyages de l’Âme by Alcest
The best rock album of the year happens to be something of a wondrous symphonic sojourn into the wide-eyed soul of a French multi-instrumentalist; and what surging, epic, life-affirming stuff it is.
3. The Bravest Man In The Universe by Bobby Womack
After flirting with a fully-fledged return after doing a favour for new best-mate Damon Albarn‘s Gorillaz outfit a couple of years ago, Mr Womack’s first album in twelve years is everything you could want in a futuristic soul album (sorry Frank).
2. ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
As you can tell from my list, Canada had a great year for music, the apex of which being the comeback of these anarchic wunderkinds. Portentous, galvanizing, extreme… It really was like they never left, eh?
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Heh, oh yes, there’s more to come my friends! Keep ‘em peeled for part three soon… xxxo
dibdersbooth 