(t5!) My Year In Lists 2012: Albums!
Reductive descriptions of the fifty best albums of 2012…Go!
When indie bands were lining up to revive post-punk a few years ago, I thought they did justice to the darker side of the genre, but the lighter, sunnier side may have been overlooked just a tad. Diiv's Oshin is an album full of shimmering guitars playing breezy major 7 chords and it wouldn’t be out of place sitting beside 80s bands like The Cure, Joy Division, and Jesus And Mary Chain.
Human | Earthboy | Home
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I’ve given metal multiple chances, but we just haven’t clicked. Baroness knows this; they understand that if their wishes to be in the (t5!) My Year In Lists: Albums! be granted, they would have to compromise their metal aesthetics a little bit and release an album with more melodic harmonies and stronger vocals. In 2012, they gave me Yellow & Green, a relatively stormless, phosphorescent, more-rock-than-metal double album that deserves to be included in this list. You’re welcome, Baroness.
Twinkler | Eula | Green Theme
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If you’ve dismissed Carly Rae Jepsen as nothing more than a one-hit wonder for “Call Me Maybe”, then I’m sure that you haven’t given her album Kiss a proper listen. Kiss sees the former Canadian Idol participant maintain her effervescent style, that sound that could be describe as the hybrid of Taylor Swift and Robyn, for twelve tracks. Not just “Call Me Maybe” with a bunch of clones either, Carly Rae’s second album shows range, proving that she won’t fade away after 2012.
This Kiss | Call Me Maybe | Guitar String/Wedding Ring
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The “G.O.O.D.” in Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music stands for “Getting Out Our Dreams”, but they might as well be completely forthright and let it stand for “good”. It’s mainly due to Kanye West, leading by example with his impeccable work ethic and pop sensibility. All of the artists involved in Cruel Summer steps up their game because their boss Yeezy is leading by example.
Clique | Mercy | New God Flow
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These kids from Leeds are too clever for their own good. Ok, so naming your band after the Mac keyboard shortcut for the delta symbol is oozing with pretention. But this desire to be different shows its benefits on Alt-J’s music. An Awesome Wave have rhythms that change out of the blue, they have references in their lyrics that come from left field, and they have sounds influenced by an unorthdox source. Alt-J is the remedy to the occasional dreariness in indie rock.
Breezeblocks | Dissolve Me | Ms
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So much of the discussion before the release of Natahsha Khan’s third Bat For Lashes full-length was the promise of an NSFW album cover. When The Haunted Man was released, it turned out that Khan wasn’t as naked as
All Your Gold | Laura | A Wall
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Four years ago, Santigold’s glamorous reggae and dancehall-induced pop/rock rightfully accumulated second-rate M.I.A. designations on her first album. On her second effort, Master Of My Make-Believe, she demonstrated that, though the M.I.A. comparisons are still valid, she seems to excel more in creating island versions of Yeah Yeah Yeahs tracks.
Disparate Youth | This Isn't Our Parade | The Riot's Gone
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Why bands employ two drummers is beyond me; it just seems like a waste of space on stage whenever they perform live. It’s most likely that they had two drummer friends and didn’t have the heart to pick only one. Poliça has two drummers, and what amazes me about their dueling drum kits in Give Me The Ghost is how organized their arrangements still are. Throw in the multiple vocal layers that Channy Leneagh is able to produce digitally and it’s almost improbable that they sound this focused. The product of careful design and fervent planning, I guess.
Amongster | Wandering Star | Leading To Death
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Critics often talk about the dread of a sophomore slump, but there are instances when an artist uses the second album to correct the mistakes of the first one. Julia Holter’s debut Tragedy received critical praise but it was difficult to break through its ostentatious ambience. In her follow-up, Ekstasis, she displayed that she can be just as palatable as she is complex. There’s a catchiness here that wasn’t present on her debut, one that convinces that some ambient musicians aren’t content with making music suited for the background.
In The Same Room | Four Gardens | Goddess Eyes I
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Just because it’s formulaic, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t great. Just because it’s done before, it doesn’t mean it’s not done well. Allo Darlin’s Europe is typical indie pop containing harmless guitars and fronted by a cutesy female vocalist. Where the London-based quartet lack in ingenuity, they make up for in tunefulness and charm. Haven’t all the trails been blazed anyway?
Capricornia | Europe | Tallulah
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They say the eighties were responsible for the worst music of all time, and I tend to agree with them. But it’s just a matter of time until a savvy musician who liked his Genesis, Don Henley, and Michael Sembello unironically takes these shameful contributions to music history and spins them into pop we can respect in 2012. Songs off Twin Shadow’s sophomore album Confess could’ve traveled in time and soundtracked a couple of John Hughes movies and it wouldn’t have broken the space-time continuum.
You Call Me On | Five Seconds | Run My Heart
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Before the turn of the millennium, when electronica was delimited to late night raves, Orbital was one of the few acts who broke through. However, thanks to the Internet, the zeroes saw the arrival of strong techno artists, depreciating the value and the freshness of the Hartnoll brother’s brand of techno. In 2012, we saw them reemerge with Wonky, their eighth studio album, and you hear them do what they have always done best: relentless beats and beatific moments. All is right with the world when one of the originals sound this masterly in spite of all the competition.
Straight Sun | Never | New France
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You can lose an instrumentalist and your band’s life goes on, that’s an easy replacement. But say farewell to your lead singer, the face and personality of your band, and you might as well deactivate your band’s Facebook page. Dream pop band School Of Seven Bells was able to endure the loss of their singer Claudia Deheza, but that’s because they had a spare Deheza. Twin sister Alejandra took over the frontwoman duties and declared with Ghostory that they didn't lose a step.
Love Play | Lafaye | Reappear
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“Two Weeks” from Vecktamist was the song that made the world pay attention to these Brooklyn hipsters in 2009, having featured in several advertisements and movie soundtracks. If you’re looking for a song that sounds as jubilant as “Two Weeks” in the follow-up Shields though, you won’t find any. But this fourth studio album succeeds on its own merits; the folk-pop tracks here are maybe not as instantly gratifying as “Two Weeks”, but they’re just as harmonic and colorful.
Sleeping Ute | Yet Again | What's Wrong
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When Swedish psych rockers make a proclamation, they truly mean it. World Music, Goat’s debut, is not just an empty promise. They explored music all over the world to find elements that will able to disassociate their beefy stoner rock from the herd, spanning from 70’s West African rock to Indian folk to Spanish flamenco to full-on tribal Afrobeat. With World Music, you can travel the world, all from the comfort of your own home.
Goatman | Goathead | Let It Bleed
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Japandroids is big and loud, which is an admirable strategy to employ. The majority of the rock bands of today want to be minimal and efficient, so why not go the opposite route and become unapologetic maximalists? With their cacophonous arena rock guitars and fist-in-the air choruses, Celebration Rock is able to celebrate both being young and alive and being old enough to exist during a time when records like this ruled the rock charts.
Fire's Highway | The House That Heaven Built | Continuous Thunder
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Just when you think electronica has dried up the well of inventiveness, along comes an album to shatter your pessimism. Darren J. Cunningham, also known as Actress, releases an album that has very few peers. His alloy of mechanistic beats, rhythmic synths, and muddy overlays in R.I.P. can be best described as ambient house, a lively dance party you attended in a dream once.
Shadow From Tartarus | Caves Of Paradise | The Lord's Graffiti
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There’s no denying the eloquence of this current trend of spaced-out rap and R&B. What's more, the downtempo production is so arresting that it can go without the verses of Drake, A$AP Rocky, and Lil’ B. As a matter of fact, the collection of woozy and dysphoric hip-hop beats in Clams Casino’s Instrumental Mixtape 2 is probably even better without vocals. The haziness and density of his production has a tendency to drown rappers, but as a standalone instrumental, it's free to expand towards the unoccupied pleasure centers of your brain.
Palace | Swervin' [Remix] | I'm God
I don’t know if you can write a review on Siberian-born Nina Kraviz’s self-titled album and not mention how unmistakably attractive she is. But the image of a Russian ice vixen spinning these candle-lit subterranean deep house tracks in an after-hours lounge does help when acknowledging their sultriness and intimacy. If you can translate whispered sweet nothings into electronica, these would be it.
Ghetto Kraviz | Love Or Go | Petr
Musicians, take note. It’s one thing to say your sound is influenced by world music; it’s another to go to that part of the world, immerse yourself in the music and the culture, and let it change your sound. That’s what UK dubstep Mala did, his trip to Cuba gave his style an unexpected invigoration, The elements of Cuban music such as ominous trumpets, effusive piano loops, and playful Afro-Cuban percussions infusing itself into his wintry brand of industrial music.
Changuito | The Tunnel | Noche Sueños
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Nicki Minaj is the obvious comparison here, seeing that she’s the most prominent female rapper currently. But aside from belonging in the same gender, another similarity is that they both have a split personality when it comes to music. Nicki has her street and pop sides, while Angel Haze can go hard or go introspective as proven in Reservations. Angel Haze’s range though is much more impressive, being able to be raw, honest, brazen, and foolish with skills and shrewdness on display.
New York | Werkin' Girls | Castle On A Cloud
If you want quality kimchi, you go to Korea. If you want quality koalas, you go to Australia.. If you want quality synth pop, you must go to Sweden. Niki & The Dove is the newest addition to the long list of Swedish pop acts who have invaded the universe with their haunting melodies and euphoric synth pop fabrications. It’s fitting that the duo named this album Instict; their ethnicity gave them an inborn aptitude for making this type of music.
Tomorrow | Last Night | Somebody
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It’s impossible to not distinguish The Beatles when listening to Tame Impala’s Lonerism, but, really, who hasn’t been influenced by The Beatles at this point? The Australian five-piece’s second album is an incredibly engrossing album, filled with inescapable melodies, multi-colored sound, and buoyant texture. Basically if you like The Beatles, then you’ll like this.
Apocalypse Dreams | Mind Mischief | Elephant
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I don’t know if there’s a correlation between electronic music and food, but Hans-Peter Lindstrøm made the connection anyway by naming his playful nu-disco house (mostly) instrumental tracks after Norwegian dishes. These must be the musical arrangement that goes on in his head whenever he eats raw vegetables or sheep sausages. I never had food from Norway before, but if Smalhans is any indication, then it’s probably simplistic and delightful as well.
Rà-àkõ-st | Ęg-gęd-ōsis | Fāār-i-kāāl
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The idea of a conspiracy theorist in hip-hop would sound at best exhausting and at worst incoherent, but if the American government and the Illuminati needs to be called out, then the rapper that does it has to be adequately eloquent and say more substantial stuff like “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” (Sorry, Kanye). Who better to do it than Ab-Soul, the man dubbed by his fellow Black Hippy peers as “the human dictionary”? And if you want to be effective at doing so, you have to have hooks as catchy as the ones heard in Control System, as well. Whether or not you choose to believe in Ab-Soul’s doctrines, at least you’re bouncing when you listen to him.
Terrorist Threats | Illuminate | Nothing's Something
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Out of all the proficient Black Hippy rappers who released an album in 2012, Schoolboy Q might be the least “hippy”. Ab-soul is disillusioned by politics and Kendrick Lamar has buckets of thoughts; Schoolboy Q though, whether he wants to be or doesn't, is just a conventional goon. He’s a former straight-A student who was distorted into an Oxycontin dealer by the streets, and Habits & Contradictions is a wonderful narration of all the adversity that comes with that.
Hands On The Wheel | Druggys Wit Hoes Again | Nightmare On Figg St.
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Nocturne, the sophomore album of 80s guitar pop homage Wild Nothing, is the aural equivalent of being lonely on a bright sunny day. The lyrics of Jack Tatum, the driving force behind Wild Nothing, seems to be haunted by solitude and romantic failures, but the glittering guitars and cherubic synth bed is doing an admirable job masking the melancholy.
Shadow | Through The Grass | Paradise
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Taylor Swift gets too much flack for opening her diary (a well-written one, to be fair) to the entire world, but her fourth studio album’s biggest revelation is actually how comfortable she is now of her pop star status. Red shows that she is dedicated to perfecting the country ballads that won the hearts of many, but it also exposes that she has ambitions to go ham on other genres such as U2 arena rock, Avril Lavigne bratty pop, Jenny Lewis West Coast alt-rock, and radio-friendly dubstep.
All Too Well | We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together | Begin Again
Seeing that she named her first record in seven years album The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver Of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, and that she clearly takes her time between records, Fiona Apple obviously marches to the beat of her own drum. And when you’re that apathetic about things, you probably wouldn’t care either that you’re this unsettlingly naked on a track. In Fiona Apple’s fourth LP, she kissed Jon Brion and his ornate production goodbye, and instead chose to bare her soul over meager arrangements. With almost everything stripped away, you can feel the entire gamut of emotions she expresses, ranging from despondent, frolicsome, derisive, and lewd.
Every Single Night | Valentine | Werewolf
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I don’t know what Frankie Rose is sicker of: the lo-fi reverb aesthetic or the other girls in her past groups. The former Vivian Girl and Dum Dum Girl refused to sound outdated anymore, ditched the 60s girl group style, and recruited synthesizers to accompany her gossamer vocals with modernistic productions for her second solo album, Interstellar. Also she did an elegant job layering her own voices here, creating eruptions of vocal harmonies in your ear. Sometimes you just have to make it on your own.
Interstellar | Know Me | Pair Of Wings
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I have gone through so many boring singer/songwriters and alt-country solo acts that I now have a bias against artists with no aliases, especially if you are relatively unknown and unexcitingly named like Kathleen Edwards. The only reason why I checked out this chanteuse from Ottawa is because she’s dating excitingly named Bon Iver. With all that said, her fourth album Voyageur is a worthwhile voyage, specifically for those whose taste veers towards clean sounding folk-pop with splendid melodies.
Empty Threat | Chameleon/Comedian | For The Record
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iamamiwhoami don’t operate conventionally. Kin, their debut album, was released to the world in the span of two and a half years, their tracks debuting anonymously in the form of mysterious YouTube videos that can be arranged to form a story arc. But that’s not the only reason why the work of this Sweden synthpop duo is worth your attention. These stylish train of synths when paired with Jonna Lee’s Kate Bush impersonation generates such a jubilant aesthetic.
Play | Idle Talk | Kill
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The pairing of Norwegians Knut Saevik and Paul Nyhus called Mungolian Jetset has made a commitment to take themselves seriously in their fourth album Mungodelics. They’ve relinquished the grandiose vocal tracks and playful productions of their last record Schlungs in favor of cohesive and delightful Balearic production and scrumptious interplanetary disco anthems. Mungodelics is effortlessly ever-morphing, tracks that are always opulent and is full of surprising details.
Toccata | Smells Like Gasoline | The Dark Incal
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Even the poppiest rapper could sound turbulent if he enlists El-P as his beatmaker. Killer Mike didn’t need the added help to sound belligerent though—his discography is already full of lyrical savagery—but him partnering up with El-P is like spark mixing with a powder keg. R.A.P. Music is the two pushing each other’s capabilities, resulting in a rap album full of power and infective energy.
Big Beast | Reagan | R.A.P. Music
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My issue with self-released mixtapes like Blue Chips is that it’s pretty easy to appear as if the rapper doesn’t give a fuck. The rappers who make excellent ones, like Action Bronson, sound uncalculated but keeps his audience engaged at the same time. Action Bronson teams up with Party Supplies and raps about blunts, the Galapagos, gourmet cooking, sounding like Ghostface Killah, and all of the insignificant things that enter his ingenious mind. It this is what he sounds like when it seems like he’s not even trying, imagine how marvelous a full effort sounds like.
Hookers At The Point | 9-24-11 | Tapas
I am so in love with “Stillness Is The Move”, the pop classic from their last album Bitte Orca, that I wanted Swing Lo Magellan to be filled with tracks similar to it. Instead it’s an album with a fair amount of peculiar melodies, eccentric time signatures, and inaccessible vocals from Dave Longstreth, the brainchild behind this Brooklyn band. Having said that, it is the least convoluted of all of their albums, and because it’s charming as a motherfucker, it has the ability to win over even the most crotchety listener on the planet. Longstreth has struck a balance between adapting contemporary song structures and gratifying his penchant for experimentation.
Dance For You | Impregnable Question | See What She Seeing
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Making soul or blues-rock compelling in 2012 is admirable, but those who have the boldness to do it also has a pompousness associated with it. What’s even worse, the outcry of “we’re doing ‘real’ music” is implanted onto their fans, and music fans can be an irritating bunch whenever they get self-righteous. Alabama Shakes gives you a sense in their debut Boys & Girls that it’s all about performing a style of music they love and they’re doing it without any sense of pretention. Their fans, on the other hand, are different stories, but Alabama Shakes aren't responsible for that.
You Ain't Alone | Boys & Girls | Be Mine
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Gone are the days when hip-hop is treated as pop/rock’s idiot brother or as a thing that indie hipsters scoff at. Now you actually have indie pop artists like Purity Ring being inspired by the genre’s groove and kinetic energy. Their debut Shrines, with its ethereal melodies, “live” instrumentation”, and intimate lyrics, is still classified as pop by most people. But by combining their ghosted-out aesthetics with blinged-out twitching snap beats, it is definitely closer in texture to Southern rap than the pop regularly hyped recently in blogs.
Fineshrine | Ungirthed | Grandloves
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Jessie Ware’s points of comparisons range from the sultry Sade to the mighty Whitney Houston, which could be a gift and a curse. While a singer with this skill set should be ubiquitous, these resemblances could be looked at as an outdated style by casual music fans. Nevertheless, Jessie’s Devotion is taking me over; very few pop stars have been this gorgeous and this comforting on their first time out.
Wildest Moments | Running | 110%
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These days, you hear a precious sounding female vocalist sing hooks over jangly sunny pop and you already want to turn it off before the first track is even finished. It seems like every ad on television features a song like these to infuse a dewy-eyed aesthetic and to embed the catchy melody on the consumer’s head for days.Well, Hospitality’s self-titled debut is jam-packed with songs like these, but don’t dismiss them just yet. The Brooklyn hipster pop trio is demonstrating that when this genre is done correctly, it does have an irrefutable capability to put a smile on your face.
Eighth Avenue | Friends Of Friends | Argonauts
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You can practically take every genre and sub-genre and make it deeply emotive. Electronica made by computers can be heartwarming and affecting; gangsta rap can strip down to its sensitive or contemplative side. But still, the easiest and most guaranteed way to touch someone with music is to take a vulnerable sounding vocalist and accompany him or her with a simple, unornamented instrument. In Put Your Back N 2 It, Mike Hadreas aka Perfume Genius was careful not to add too much to his attenuated sound, regardless of whether it was created by an acoustic guitar, a piano, or synths.
Normal Song | All Waters | Hood
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No one has ever thought of pairing ‘80s and ‘90s R&B slow jam melodies with indolent post-chillwave production, but Tom Krell aka How To Dress Well did it with his 2010 debut, Love Remains. Even with all of that trailblazing though, Krell sounded amateur at times and the album was just too deflated to be taken seriously. But Krell redeemed himself with his sophomore effort, Total Loss. All of the ingredients that made up Love Remains are still present: his shivery falsetto, the R&B make-out vibes, the music that sounds like it’s recorded underwater. But Krell’s vocals are more resolute and the melodies are more haunting, assuring music fans that this unusual marriage of genres is not just a silly gimmick.
Cold Nites | Talking To You | Ocean Floor For Everything
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I’ve been enjoying the tracks John Talabot remixed for a while now, but I was worried when I found out that he was going to release an album of his own. Most producers with a string of outstanding remixes behind them have tried releasing an entire album, but they often sound constrained in it. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case for fIN, the debut album of the Barcelona DJ. fIN confirms Talabot’s exceptional ability to build tension in tracks, keeping them grounded until they’re blissfully released. See it's smart to keep your best ideas for your own full-length.
Destiny | Oro Y Sangre | So Will Be Now
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Grimes aka Claire Boucher has astutely defined her sound as “post-Internet”, and in Visions, it shows. Her debut is the product of a music lover exposed to a diverse assemblage of influences, past and present, popular and obscure. Sure, every track Grimes produces can inherently be boiled down into its underlying elements: playful synthesizers, skittering drum machines, her withered vocals on digital effects. But if you write the Vancouver native off just from that succinct synopsis, you’ll miss out on the wonderful places that she transports her basic idea.
Genesis | Oblivion | Vowels = Space And Time
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It seems like every genre that had a heyday gets a revival at some point, but for some odd reason, no one has ever pushed the kraut rock movement at this present day. So it’s a pretty terrific strategy for Beak>, the side project of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, to capitalize on this untapped oil well. >>, the trio’s second album, is chock-full of properly sinister and hypnotic synth-heavy tracks that stick in your head. Maybe Beak> is the pioneer that krautrockers have been waiting for, and we’re in for a huge rebirth of the genre in the near future.
Yatton | Eggdog | Wulfstan II
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There are numerous things for sure Italians do better at—pasta, Formula One, video game protagonists—but the idea that Italians do electronica better is debatable. The label Italians Do It Better does do the subgenre Italo disco better than anyone, and their most famous outfit Chromatics prove it in Kill For Love. Although to say that Chromatics specializes on Italo disco would be reductive; Kill For Love shows that the Portland group is equally competent at post-punk, Neil Young covers, and heavily reverbed synth-pop if they were sang by Karen Carpenter’s ghost.
Kill For Love | Back From The Grave | These Streets Will Never Look The Same
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Kendrick Lamar, rap’s newest prodigy, released his debut album this year, and he put on a clinic on how to vary rhyme patterns and how to weave in and out of beats. But good Kid, m.A.A.d city is the best rap album of the year not only because of his incredible skills. The narrative throughout the album of a good kid being warped by the violent environment he is struggling to escape is fascinating, and Kendrick’s storytelling prowess and his ability to organize these tales cohesively from the first track to the twelfth are impressive.
Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe | Backseat Freestyle | Swimming Pools (Drank)
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2010’s Teen Dream was my awakening to Beach House’s delicately haunting dream pop; Bloom was more of the same but slightly better. The Baltimore duo must be getting the hang of creating delicate melodies that connect to the common ear. In this fourth studio album though, they’ve also become experts on assembling their hazy layers on top each other and making them erupt into radiant choruses. If this linear progression continues, pencil in Beach House for the top spot in the (t5!) Albums! list in 2014.
Myth | Wild | Wishes
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In “Bad Religion”, one of the outstanding tracks of channel ORANGE, Frank Ocean sang “I could never make him love me “, and because of that simple usage of the masculine pronoun “him”, rumors of him being gay or bisexual surfaced everywhere. Ocean could have just ignored the people dissecting his lyrics, he could have just made channel ORANGE as wonderfully ambiguous as it is musically rewarding. But because he is still an inhabitant of the world of hip-hop, where the word “faggot” is disappointingly still being used as a filler to complete a couplet, he felt like he needed to address the issue with this Tumblr post. Although the response has been supportive, I don’t think that confession was crucial in the grand scheme of things. The release of this luxuriant album could have been overcome by this transparent window to his personal life, but it wasn’t. The headlines could have been “Frank Ocean: Inadvertent Vanguard”, but they weren’t. Channel ORANGE could’ve been important because it’s the record where Frank Ocean came out of the closet, but that isn’t the reason why it is. Ocean’s skill and restraint as a vocalist and a songwriter transcended all of that. Channel ORANGE is an important because it’s the most beautiful record of 2012.
Thinkin Bout You | Pyramids | Bad Religion
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The most mainstream moment of Miguel’s music career came during this year’s Grammy Awards, when Kelly Clarkson mentioned on her acceptance speech, “Miguel, I don’t know who the hell you are, but we need to sing together…that was the sexiest damn thing I’ve ever seen.”
The thing is though, she—along with the world's majority—really should have known who Miguel is before that night. Let’s set aside the fact that Miguel’s tenor vocals just melts over everything, or the fact that his second album Kaleidoscope Dream (along with the no. 2 album above) is leading a renaissance of sorts for contemporary R&B, a genre currently bogged down by pedestrian Guettafied tracks. Kelly Clarkson should know who Miguel is because unlike pastartists whose ubiquity was questioned during past Grammys, the tracks in Kaledoscope Dream are extremely radio-friendly. Before this moment, Miguel was nominated for five Grammys and was given two-and-a-half minutes on the main telecast, and lead single “Adorn” did go to no. 17 on the Billboard charts and did win Best R&B song. But sadly that little acknowledgement from the inaugural American Idol winner did more for Miguel’s profile that any of his achievements in 2012. In fact, I don’t think “Adorn” is on the playlist of Edmonton's most urban radio station, and of all the people that I know who are “current” with the music scene, only the most hardcore R&B-heads are aware of Miguel’s intimate aural sessions. Truth be told, if Miguel sold these songs to someone prominent like Bruno Mars, it would be R&B’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonley Hearts Club Band.
I may be bitter about this but I’m not completely shocked that Miguel is invisible to Kelly Clarkson and casual music fans. In fact, Miguel is most likely cognizant of the reality that he needs perseverance to break through, given that his own label doesn’t even consider him commercially viable. He admits that he has to do most of the leg work on his own, saying that he is handling his own career like an indie artist. Before the release of this psychedelic R&B album, he had to give away some of the tracks for free in the form of EPs, which is unconventional for an artist deemed worthy of a Grammy. But what Kelly Clarkson proved that night is that sometimes it’s just difficult to deny greatness, no matter how obscure it is. And, hey, Miguel might not be selling out stadiums just yet, but if it’s any consolation, he gets to be (t5!) Album of the Year, 2012.
Adorn | Use Me | Arch & Point
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See you next year!
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