Best LPs of 2012

[wherewereuin82]

Not a disappointing year at all for me. Some really good EPs too. I should get around to going through them.

Sure I've missed one or two:

The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know
White Rabbits - Milk Famous
Holograms - Holograms
Breton - Other People's Problems
Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra - Theatre Is Evil
The Audience - Hearts
Creature With The Atom Brain - The Birds Fly Low
Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits
Rangleklods - Beekeeper
Matthew Dear - Beams
Disappears - Pre Language
PiL - This Is PiL
Cygnets - Dark Days

[popreactor]

1.Chromatics- Kill for love
2.Trust- Trst
3.Lebanon Hanover- The World Is Getting Colder
4.Innergaze- Mutual Dreaming
5.Ultraista- s/t
6.Tame Impala- Lonerism
7.Grizzly Bear- Shields
8.Twin Shadow- Confess
9.The KVB- Always Then
10.A Place to Bury Strangers- Worship
11.Amanda Mair- Amanda Mair
12.Rufus Wainwright- Out of the Game
13.Chairlift- Something
14.Kontravoid- Kontravoid
15.Liars- WIXIW
16.Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti- Mature Themes
17.Group Rhoda- Out Of Time - Out Of Touch
18.Linea Aspera- Linea Aspera
19.Featureless Ghost- Personality Matrix
20.Get Well Soon- The Scarlet Beast o’ Seven Heads
21.Disappears- Pre Language
22.iamamiwhoami- kin
23.Zambri- House of Baasa
24.Felix Kubin- Teenage Tapes
25.Light Asylum- Light Aslylum
26.Tindersticks- The Something Rain
27.School of Seven Bells- Ghostory
28.The Phone- Songs for This Nuclear Age
29.Lust For Youth- Growing Seeds
30.WAZU- Robobo
31.Dead Can Dance- Anastasis
32.Lower Synth Depratment- Plaster Mould
33.The Wake- A Light Far Out
34.Ice Choir- Afar
35.Two Wounded Birds- Two Wounded Birds
36.Islands- A Sleep & A Forgetting
37.The Raveonettes- Observator
38.Beach House- Bloom
39.Bat For Lashes- The Haunted Man
40.Lescop- Lescop
41.Atrocowboys- Olympic
42.John Foxx & the Maths- Evidence
43.Magic Wands- Aloha moon
44.Bear in Heaven- I Love You It's Cool
45.Who Made Who- Brighter
46.The Macabees- Given To The Wild
47.Ultravox- Brilliant
48.Porcelain Raft- Strange Weekend
49.Night Jewel- One Second of Love
50.The Irrepressibles- Nude

http://www.burningflame.biz/2012/12/bur ... -2012.html

[Frau_Blucher]

I've thought out my opinions on the state of albums in 2012 and can firmly say upon lots of reflection that it was definitely a down year. Not a single one that I'd rate a 9.0 or better, which is usually my threshold for saying "yeah, I'm gonna remember this album for years to come." After some years which I'd considered better album years than singles years, I'm definitely reversing that for this year. The best bang is in the singles I think.

There's plenty of good though, don't get me wrong. My list below however isn't necessarily a "top" albums list, because in fact, many of the ones I rated just weren't that good. I also thoroughly listened to less than a third of the albums compared to last year - about 45 instead of 150+. I just realized there was too much noise-to-signal out there, and the energy I used to try to keep up just wasn't worth it. This year, if it started sounding like shit, I immediately dumped it. That means there's probably some good stuff in my mine tailings pile that I simply missed in haste, but so be it. That's why i'm eager to review everyone else's list.

Anyway, here's my full list with comments at RateYouMusic:

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/blirbis/top_albums_2012/

Here's just the list below. Stuff that's 7.0 or lower are just alphabetical rather than fully ranked:

Rating - Band - Album
8.5 - Shrag - Canines
8.5 - Lost in the Trees - A Church That Fits Our Needs
8.0 - Holograms - Holograms
8.0 - Swans - The Seer
8.0 - Tamaryn - Tender New Signs
8.0 - Stars - The North
8.0 - Islet - Illuminated People
8.0 - Whirr - Pipe Dreams
8.0 - Strawberry Whiplash - Hits in the Car
8.0 - Dinosaur Jr - I Bet On Sky
7.5 - Metric - Synthetica
7.5 - Saint Motel - Voyeur
7.5 - Cold Showers - Love and Regret
7.5 - Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Untogether
7.5 - Wild Nothing - Nocturn
7.5 - The Vaccines - The Vaccines Come of Age
7.5 - Sharon van Etten - Tramp
7.5 - pg.lost - Key

7.0 - Band of horses - Mirage Rock
7.0 - Chairlift - Something
7.0 - Collapse Under the Empire - Fragments of a Prayer
7.0 - Dexys - One Day I'm Going to Soar
7.0 - Diiv - Oshin
7.0 - Ladyhawke - Anxiety
7.0 - Little Gang - Half of Everything
7.0 - Mission of Burma - Unsound
7.0 - Now, Now - Threads
7.0 - Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal
7.0 - The Sea and Cake - Runner
6.5 - Cloud nothings - Attack on Memory
6.5 - Human Tetris - Happy Way in the Maze of Rebirth
6.5 - Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral
6.5 - St Vincent - Strange Mercy
6.5 - The Dig - Midnight Flowers
6.5 - Two Wounded Birds - Two Wounded Birds
6.5 - White Rabbits - Milk Famous
6.0 - Divine fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits
6.0 - Saint Etienne - Words and Music by Saint Etienne
6.0 - Toy - Toy
5.5 - The Ting Tings - Sounds From Nowheresville
5.5 - Two Door Cinema Club - Beacon
5.5 - White Hills - Oddity III: Basic Information
5.0 - The Maccabees - Given to the Wild
5.0 - The Shins - Port of Morrow
5.0 - The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know

[MikeP]

Down to the wire, but here is my run down for 2012, rated based on average song ratings of each album (maximum score of 5). Not really a Top 140, since it's nearly every album I listened to this year in its entirety.

Comments/Observations:
-It was another great year, maybe just a notch below 2010 and 2011.
-Lots of mellow, more folk-leaning artists breaking my Top 20 (Husky, Crybaby, First Aid Kit, Jessie Baylin, Lord Huron)
-Keane surprised me -- was expecting a decline in interest akin to Coldplay
-The Fixx put out an incredible album this year that made my Top 25.
-Critic/hipster darlings of the year like Dirty Projectors, Sleigh Bells and Cloud Nothings failed to impress me, even if they weren't necessarily awful.

1) Scars on 45 - Scars on 45 (4.7)
2) Beach House - Bloom (4.64)
3) The Raveonettes - Observator (4.61)
4) Keane - Strangeland (4.54)
5) Husky - Forever So (4.54)
6) Barcelona - Not Quite Yours (4.5)
7) Crybaby - Crybaby (4.5)
First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar (4.5)
9) Jessie Baylin - Little Spark (4.5)
10) The Frank and Walters - Greenwich Mean Time (4.5)

11) Metric - Synthetica (4.45)
12) The Helio Sequence - Negotiations (4.45)
13) Two Door Cinema Club - Beacon (4.45)
14) Human Tetris - Happy Way in the Maze of Rebirth (4.45)
15) Lord Huron - Lonesome Dreams (4.45)
16) Sea Wolf - Old World Romance (4.45)
17) Sugar & The Hi Lows - Sugar & The Hi Lows (4.44)
18) Gary Clark Jr. - Blak And Blu (4.42)
19) Groove Armada - No Ejector Seat EP (4.42)
20) Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man (4.41)

21) Best Coast - The Only Place (4.41)
22) Deacon Blue - The Hipsters (4.41)
23) Hot Chip - In Our Heads (4.41)
24) The Fixx - Beautiful Friction (4.41)
25) Van She - Idea of Happiness (4.41)
26) Wild Nothing - Nocturne (4.41)
27) AC Newman - Shut Down The Streets (4.4)
28) Foy Vance - Melrose EP (4.4)
29) Grant-Lee Phillips - Walking in the Green Corn (4.4)
30) Ladyhawke - Anxiety (4.4)

31) The Temper Trap - The Temper Trap (4.4)
32) Saint Etienne - Words And Music By Saint Etienne (4.38)
33) Tennis - Young & Old (4.38)
34) Maxïmo Park - The National Health (Deluxe Edition) (4.38)
35) Allah-Las - Allah-Las (4.38)
36) Dead Can Dance - Anastasis (4.38)
37) Dexys - One Day I'm Going to Soar (4.36)
38) Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits (4.36)
39) Jeff Lynne - Long Wave (4.36)
40) Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again (4.36)

41) Sun Airway - Soft Fall (4.36)
42) Nada Surf - The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy (4.35)
43) Pinback - Information Retrieved (4.35)
44) Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls (4.35)
45) Shiny Toy Guns - III (4.35)
46) The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Throw it to the Universe (4.35)
47) Fanfarlo - Rooms Filled With Light (4.33)
48) Lindstrom - Smalhans (4.33)
49) Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio (4.33)
50) School of Seven Bells - Ghostory (4.33)

51) The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know (4.33)
52) Chairlift - Something (4.32)
53) King Charles - LoveBlood (4.32)
54) Ravi Coltrane - Spirit Fiction (4.32)
55) The Crookes - Hold Fast (4.32)
56) The Shins - Port of Morrow (4.32)
57) Andrew Bird - Hands of Glory (4.31)
58) Stars - The North (4.31)
59) Dead Can Dance - Live Happenings - Part V (4.3)
60) Electric Guest - Mondo (4.3)

61) The Tallest Man On Earth - There's No Leaving Now (4.3)
62) thenewno2 - thefearofmissingout (4.3)
63) Passion Pit - Gossamer (4.29)
64) Twang - 10:20 (4.29)
65) Emeli Sandé - Our Version of Events (4.29)
66) Quantic & Alice Russell - Look Around the Corner (with The Combo Barbaro) (4.29)
67) Tindersticks - The Something Rain (4.28)
68) Aimee Mann - Charmer (4.27)
69) Melody Gardot - The Absence (4.27)
70) Django Django - Django Django (4.27)

71) The Walkmen - Heaven (4.27)
72) Lana Del Rey - Born to Die (4.27)
73) Mumford & Sons - Babel (4.27)
74) Guillemots - Hello Land! (4.25)
75) HAL - The Time the Hour (4.25)
76) Imagine Dragons - Continued Silence EP (4.25)
77) Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance (4.25)
78) Madness - Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da (4.25)
79) Miike Snow - Happy to You (4.25)
80) Pet Shop Boys - Elysium (4.25)

81) Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires (4.25)
82) Stan Ridgway - Mr. Trouble (4.25)
83) Tame Impala - Lonerism (4.25)
84) The Cult - Choice of Weapon (4.25)
85) The Ting Tings - Sounds From Nowheresville (4.25)
86) Ultravox - Brilliant (4.25)
87) Chromatics - Kill for Love (4.24)
88) Asia - XXX (4.23)
89) Black Moth Super Rainbow - Cobra Juicy (4.23)
90) Mystery Jets - Radlands (4.23)

91) Lawrence Arabia - The Sparrow (4.22)
92) Benjamin Gibbard - Former Lives (4.21)
93) Bill Laswell - Means of Deliverance (4.2)
94) Shoes - Ignition (4.2)
95) The Presets - Pacifica (4.2)
96) The Stranglers - Giants (4.2)
97) Santigold - Master of My Make-Believe (4.18)
98) The xx - Coexist (4.18)
99) Amadou & Mariam - Folila (4.17)
100) Photek - KU:Palm (4.17)

101) Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes (4.15)
102) Ian McCulloch - Pro Patria Mori (4.15)
103) Morten Harket - Out Of My Hands (4.15)
104) Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself (4.14)
105) Steven Wilson - Catalogue / Preserve / Amass - Live in Europe Oct 2011 (4.14)
106) Fun. - Some Nights (4.14)
107) Nits - Malpensa (4.14)
108) Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light (4.14)
109) The Dandy Warhols - This Machine (4.14)
110) David Byrne & St. Vincent - Love This Giant (4.12)

111) Madonna - Mdna (4.12)
112) Sigur Ros - Valtari (4.12)
113) A Fine Frenzy - Pines (4.12)
114) Jack White - Blunderbuss (4.12)
115) Hue and Cry - Hot Wire (4.1)
116) Hugh Cornwell - Totem and Taboo (4.1)
117) Chairlift - Chairlift at 6:15 (4.08)
118) Tom Tom Club - Downtown Rockers (4.08)
119) The Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania (4.08)
120) Men Without Hats - Love in the Age of War (4.07)

121) Steve Roach - Back to Life (4.07)
122) Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Here (4.06)
123) The Futureheads - Rant (4.05)
124) Paul Weller - Sonik Kicks (4.04)
125) Animal Collective - Centipede Hz (4)
126) Dalis Car - InGladAloneness EP (4)
127) Field Music - Plumb (4)
128) Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel... (4)
129) Sounds From The Ground - Widerworld (4)
130) The Orb featuring Lee Scratch Perry - The Orbserver in the Star House (4)

131) Air - Le voyage dans la lune (3.95)
132) Yann Tiersen - Skyline (3.94)
133) Zombie Zombie - Rituels d'un nouveau monde (3.94)
134) L A N D - Night Within (3.93)
135) Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan (3.92)
136) Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror (3.91)
137) John Foxx and The Maths - The Shape of Things to Come (3.91)
138) Toro Y Moi - June 2009 (3.9)
139) Momus - Bibliotek (3.86)
140) Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory (3.75)

[SallyLightfoot]

[quote][i]Originally posted by MikeP[/i]
29) Grant-Lee Phillips - Walking in the Green Corn (4.4)
[/quote]Whoa! Didn't realize he put anything out last year. Gotta check that out.

[SallyLightfoot]

[quote][i]Originally posted by MikeP[/i]
5) Husky - Forever So (4.54)
[/quote]This album reminds me quite a bit of the terrific-but-overlooked Archer Prewitt album 'Wilderness' from 2006. Check it out if it's not already in your collection.

[thegoldenyear]

I was embarassed about posting this until I realized I was even later last year. The new year doesn't begin until Bowie's birthday, anyway.

Plus, the year-end lists always make for good threads, and maybe this'll shake a few more lists out of the tree.

My top 25 for 2012:

http://thegoldenyear.wordpress.com/2013 ... lbums2012/



Disappointments, slight and/or significant: Twin Shadow (#32), Craft Spells (#35), Presets (#36), PiL (#37 - Johnny sounds like Feargal now), Crystal Castles (#42), and Diamond Rings, which really was a piece of shit.

I liked the Byrne/St. Vincent collab (#29), although David's forever stuck in his "Nothing But Flowers" voice, which grates sometimes.

Didn't get to the Bry Ferry Orch in time, but I'm game to hear it.

Two nice under-the-radar records: Chris Cohen (#26), Dylan Ettinger (#34 - recommended to the "Being Boiled" set; also check out Steve Hauschildt's [i]Sequitur[/i]).

I'd grade the year a solid B. Haven't had an A- since '04, and that was more top-loaded than deep for me.

[Frau_Blucher]

Lots of goodies to track down Mike and Goldie - thanks!