Best albums of 2012: a top 25 list

I spent this year buried amongst music, I heard 220 albums and could not find a pure 10/10 amongst them, although I still think it was a strong year. The problem is that there were a lot of quality releases and I rated a lot of them 7/10, and any big list would end up being a multiple way tie for 26th place or something. If you want to know more about albums that I have rated throughout 2012, you should explore the posts tagged Albums of the Month. Anyway, although I am fairly clear about my top 5, it has been a very tough process to limit this to a top 25, a lot of good ones have slipped off the page, but here is my final list. I think most of these won't come as a surprise to regular readers.

1. Chromatics 'Kill For Love'

The album that defined 2012 for me. It emerged in March as a delicately sequenced 91-minute file on soundcloud and has stayed with me throughout. It manages to sound cinematic and epic whilst retaining the thrill of well crafted synth-pop songs. The more I explored this, the more I heard. Each piece is like a small-scale movie in itself, evocative and vivid.

2. Sharon Van Etten 'Tramp'

my review (slowthrills.com)
I think that this was perhaps the first album I heard this year and it has also stayed with me all year. Some of the lyrics are extraordinary in the way they focus on the minutae of relationships.
"There is an old adage about albums "growing on you" or "warranting repeated listens". In my experience this is very true of Tramp. Brutally honest and self-analytical, it sounds best when you are on your own late at night. I'm reminded of that old discussion about “who sings better in the dark?” The answer, at the moment, is Sharon van Etten."

3. Swans 'The Seer'

my review (the 405)
"The Seer is a superlative album which ranks with the very best work released under Swans name. With its excessive length it effectively gives two fingers to the commercial music industry. It is simply too much to take in a few sittings, but it is so rich and varied that every new listen reveals more. Thirty years on and Swans are growing, developing and building on their rich legacy."

4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!'

"The overdose of exclamation marks in the title is at odds with the
low key nature of the release, when you consider that their first new
recording for a decade was announced by slipping it onto
the merch table at the first show of their current tour. Maybe they
felt that because the core of the music had been previously heard by
anyone who saw them on their reunion tour and earlier,as the two main
tracks were widely circulated by audience tapers under the titles
'Albanian' and 'Gamelan'.That shouldn't matter,as this is one of the
best things they have ever released, and I cannot stop listening to
it."

5 Sun Kil Moon 'Amongst the Leaves'

my review (slowthrills.com)
"The collection is laced with regret, sadness and quite a bit of humour....
Even way back with Red House Painters, Kozelek has a skill for dropping in little scenes that made perfect sense to the song. Here, that would-be artist or poet is sleeping alone with her laptop beside her, and he admits using up all his minutes in pursuit of the woman in 'Greatest Night'. The little details are set against something which could be life-changing."



6. Lower Dens 'Nootropics' (my review)
7. Woodpecker Wooliams 'The Bird School of Being Human'
8. Dirty Projectors 'Swing Lo Magellan'
9. Meursault 'Something for the Weakened' my review
10. Lost in the Trees 'A Church That Fits Our Needs'
11. Mountain Goats 'Transcendental Youth'
12. Human Don't Be Angry 'Human Don't be Angry' my review
13. RM Hubbert 'Thirteen Lost and Found'
14. Gravenhurst 'The Ghost in Daylight'
15, Julia Holter 'Extasis'
16. Piano Magic 'Life Has Not Finished With Me Yet'
17. Woods 'Bend Beyond' my review
18. Japandroids 'Celebration Rock'
19. Andy Stott 'Luxury Problems'
20. Grizzly Bear 'Shields'
21. Angel Olsen 'Half Way Home'
22. Dead Mellotron 'Glitter'
23. Liars 'WIXIW'
24. Goat 'World Music'
25. James Yorkston 'I Was a Cat from a Book'

For the benefit of the extra-inquisitive people, here is a picture of all the albums I considered for the final chart.

Listen: 10 of the best releases of the month, March edition

I'm enjoying wading through albums to try and pick ten or so for this page every month. March wasn't as strong a month as January or February in my opinion, and it's the first month I've been unable to pick ten albums with Spotify links. Happily, the three non-Spotify albums that I have included are fantastic and well worth seeking out.

Chromatics 'Kill for Love'
*no UK spotify available* but the album is still streaming via soundcloud, click here for more. This long awaited, highly anticipated album from the Portland based synth act is well worth the five year wait. Over the 91 minute running time it manages to sound cinematic and epic whilst retaining the thrill of well crafted synth-pop songs. It's early days but I've already heard the word "masterpiece" applied to this by a few people.

Andrew Bird 'Break it Yourself'
listen via Spotify
My review
'Break it Yourself' sits together very well as a set of songs. It's not a concept album but there is a sense that it is loosely about the passage of time, the ageing process and our own personal memories.
This time around he has recorded it mostly himself in his barn outside Chicago and at the heart of it, like most of his albums, is his deceptively simple song writing which gets constructed into something complex and clever because of his work with loops and his interweaving melodies.

Lee Ranaldo 'Between the Times and Tides'
listen via Spotify
my review (the 405)

This is a strong solid rock album that warrants repeated listens. It has enough familiarity for Sonic Youth fans to latch on to, but it also has plenty of surprises. If you were expecting an angry, experimental record in the aftermath of that group's demise you will be disappointed, because Lee Ranaldo has produced something that embraces his new solo status with an exuberance few would have predicted.

Julia Holter 'Exstasis'
*no UK spotify available*
An album which gathered such over-the-top gushing reviews that I couldn't bring myself to add to them! It is a beautiful album, a collection of experimental, ambient pop apparently inspired by Greek mythology. It would sit nicely between Joanna Newsom and Mary Margaret O'Hara, whilst not really sounding like either of them.

THEEsatisfaction 'awE naturalE'
*no UK spotify available*
Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White made their presence felt on the best hip-hop record of 2011 (Shabazz Palaces 'Black Up') and now they have come into their own on this brief but very impressive debut. With 13 tracks in just 30 minutes, it's a jazzier, more fun, flipside to the Shabazz Palaces album.

Grimes 'Visions'
listen via Spotify
Still only 21, this is Clare Boucher's third record as Grimes, and the first to get a major release (on 4AD). It's an impressive, genre-defying album, which manages to combine the sound and feel of left-field indie bands (Cocteau Twins in particular) with commercial RnB and underground lo-fi dance music. This is another one that is going to be around all year.

Fanuelle (re-issue)
listen via Spotify
I wouldn't normally include re-issues in this, but as this is a re-issue of an album from 2005 hardly anyone ever heard I reckon I'm allowed. This was the debut album by Matthew Fanuelle which disappeared soon after release, and it has been found and remastered by Swedish label Emotion. It's a mix of great songwriting, lo-fi production, movie samples and a wall of Casio keyboards. Imagine Daniel Johnson, Momus and the Magnetic Fields as a starting point, then go and investigate this lost gem.

Lost in the Trees 'A Church That Fits Our Needs'
listen via Spotify
A haunted but stirring album, written as a cathartic experience after the suicide of frontman Ari Picker's mother - that is her face staring out from the cover. It's a very beautiful, musically complex album. As you might expect given the subject matter, the lyrics are personal and very impressive.

White Hills 'Frying on this Rock'
listen via Spotify
my review (the 405)
I didn't rate this as highly as their last couple of albums, but there are enough highlights to warrant its inclusion here.
"Some of the song structures remind me of the likes of Loop, Hawkwind and Monster Magnet, although it is on the extended pieces that White Hills become something more distinctive and start to forge their own identity. "

The Bowerbirds 'The Clearing'
listen via Spotify
This is a more expansive and more strange than previous Bowerbirds releases, and none the worse for that. Apparently the couple behind the band, Beth and Phil, separated and got back together during this album's gestation period and Beth also suffered a mystery illness which nearly killed her. THey have been able to turn those hardships into something pretty beautiful.

WATCH/ LISTEN special: Chromatics (full album), Francois and the Atlas Mountains, Lee Ranaldo, Julia Holter, Grinderman RMX feat Matt Berninger

Since I've been poorly and house bound for a lot of this week I have had plenty of time to catch up with new album streams and promo videos,so I thought I'd collect a few of them on this page.
First up is the long awaited double album from Chromatics, which was released this week via iTunes, with a vinyl release to follow I believe. The Portland band have taken the bold step of streaming the whole 90 minute album from soundcloud and it can be heard on the embed below.



Next up is a new video from Francois and the Atlas Mountains. The song is 'City Kiss' from the recent album 'E Volo Love' and the video features some clever shots and Francois falls asleep on public transport a lot.



Another fine video, this time for the new Lee Ranaldo song 'Angles', it is directed by his wife, the artist Leah Singer. I loved this one, the reverse shots near the end are from cameras on helium balloons apparently.
http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/vulture-premieres-lee-ranaldos-video-for-angles.html


Julia Holter has been getting lots of praise for her new album 'Extasis'. This video for 'Moni mon Amie' is delightfully unusual, and suits her music very well.


Finally, from the Grinderman remix album (2 RMX) here is a stream of Silver Alert's remix of 'Evil' featuring Matt Berninger of the National. This has been around since early February but apparently it is being specially issued as a limited 12" for Record Store Day.