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My Top Albums of 2012 #s 11-20 (and some honorable mentions)
I hope you all have survived the Mayan apocalypse and are reading this. Some of these came very, very close to making my Top 10 for this year. It has been a very strong year for new releases. Next week’s list will comprise my 10 favorite live shows of 2012.
I also wanted to list some very honorable mentions for this year that would’ve made it had there been room for 25 or even 30 entries: Swearin’, OFF!, Ty Segall Band, Redd Kross, Honeychurch and Converge (amongst others) all released excellent albums this year as well.
The dB’s – Falling Off the Sky (Bar/None)
Please see my full review here.
Japandroids – Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl)
Sounding like an updated take on Andrew W.K.‘s I Get Wet and its party aesthetic, but with Chicago punk style “whoa” choruses galore and a sobering realization that the party won’t go on forever, this is without a doubt one of the year’s catchiest and most enjoyable releases. They even cover The Gun Club‘s “For the Love of Ivy” and do it justice and their live show is incendiary as well. It has been quite a year for this Vancouver duo.
Screaming Females – Ugly (Don Giovanni)
Please see my full review here.
Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music (Adult Swim)
The best hip-hop album I’ve heard in recent memory, Killer Mike namechecks Public Enemy and NWA while updating their political polemics with the stunning “Reagan” and the storytelling of tracks like “JoJo’s Chillin’” while showing off his roots as part of the Outkast collective on “Southern Fried”. The rapping on this is outstanding (to put it lightly) and with El-P handling production duties, you know it’s gonna sound good.
Neneh Cherry and The Thing – The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound)
Please see my full review here.
Royal Headache – Royal Headache (What’s Your Rupture?)
A raw, raging Australian punk stomper very much in the vein of The Saints, Radio Birdman and the many bands influenced by them in the ’80s, anyone listening to this will be enchanted not just by vocalist Shogun‘s fiery soul-punk voice (think Faces-era Rod Stewart meets Chris Bailey) but also by the catchiness of tunes like “Really in Love,” “Psychotic Episode” and “Down the Lane”.
Wild Nothing – Nocturne (Captured Tracks)
Talk about a grower. At first, this record disappointed me as it’s nowhere near as immediate as their Jack Tatum‘s incredible debut Gemini or the wonderful 7” singles that came out around that same time period. With more listening, though, the pleasures of not just pre-album single “Shadow” but longer, more complex cuts like the stunning “Through the Grass” will come to the core. Patience is definitely worth the effort with this one.
Lee Ranaldo – Between the Times and the Tides (Matador)
If Lee Ranaldo continues to make excellent records like this and if his band mates do as well (see Thurston Moore‘s Demolished Thoughts from last year as well as their many one-off, more experimental projects), I think I’ll be OK with The Eternal being Sonic Youth‘s last record (at least for a while, if not ever though of course I hope they make another one some day). This is Lee’s All Things Must Pass (though he insists these songs were all written within the last few years), creativity and incredible songwriting that perhaps didn’t fit onto Sonic Youth’s Lps coming to the fore here as evidenced by cuts such as album highlight “Xtina As I Knew Her” and “Stranded”.
The Babies – Our House on the Hill (Woodsist)
On their second full-length, The Babies far outclass their debut with the help of incredible producer Rob Barbato (of Darker My Love and also the producer of La Sera‘s incredible Sees the Light). I still wish Cassie Ramone would sing more, but her incredible “Baby” and Kevin Morby‘s “Moonlight Mile” (also released as a single) are among the year’s best songs.
Sharon Van Etten – Tramp (Jagjaguwar)
Please see my full review here.
