Favorite Albums of 2012

2012 has been the busiest year of my life (I couldn't even tell you another year that I would even come close to classifying as "busy"), and thus, the opportunity to write about unimportant things has pretty much vanished. However, I will never be too busy to rank and list unimportant things that I love because that's the way my brain works.
If discovery is the purpose of reading year-end lists, read Can You Still See The Sunset. I've been exposed to far more new great things from their lists over the last couple of years than any other site's. As always, the purpose of mine is documentation because I don't want to forget anything ever.
I turned 30 this year and my priorities were skateboarding and wrestling. Seriously, next year, books/movies/diet/exercise.

Albums I liked okay:

Casket Lottery - Real Fear
Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
David Byrne & St. Vincent - Love This Giant
Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan (Was the "short film" not the most hilariously pretentious thing that could ever be made in 2012?)
The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn't
Sun Kil Moon - Among The Leaves
The White Wires - WWIII

Albums by some of my all-time favorite artists that I did not like at all:

Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet On Sky
I don't know how you screw up such a simple and successful formula, but they totally blew it here. Time for another 10 year break.
Forgetters - Forgetters
What happened? There's difficult, and then there's "difficult." If you wanna be antagonistic, just don't make music. Don't dump on your legacy.

Top Twenty:

20. Sebadoh - Secret EP
I don't even like these guys!
Jam: "I Don't Mind" 

19. South South Million - Wind Hand Caught In The Door
Otherworldly. Ethereal. Drugs.
Jam: "Baff Speech"

18. The Sea & Cake - Runner
This is an album by The Sea & Cake.
Jam: "A Mere"

17. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes
This might be better than I am aware of it being, but at this point, I don't totally "get it."
Jam: "Farewell American Primitive"

16. Frankie Rose - Interstellar
On my first few listens, I enjoyed this, but lumped it in with other Captured Tracks and Slumberland stuff, and filed it away with the other trendy, non-essential post punk/new wave-revival stuff of the last few years. But after a few months, it just hit me that I need to listen to this album again and it was way better than I remembered it. Texture and Thomas Dolby. Thomas Dolby's textures, the textures of Thomas Dolby.
Jam: "Apples For The Sun"

15. Sundials - When I Couldn't Breathe
Weird how everyone latches onto something like this all at the same time and just agrees that it pretty much rules.
Jam: "Seventy-Five"

14. Sneeze - I'm Going To Kill Myself
These guys'll give ya the fuzzy business. It's tricky trying to understand what it is exactly that makes a song sound like the summer of '93, but Sneeze seems to have a pretty good clue. Also, great title.
Jam: "Quit Shitting"

13. Snooze - Dwell & Dwell
4 heartwarming/-breaking songs that were perfectly recorded with a unique stylistic range. "My Cyclic Heart" totally needs to end up on a CW teen drama.
Jam: "My Cyclic Heart"

12. Nada Surf - The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy
I'm glad they put out a straight up rock album where they eliminated the really overwrought ballads. I thought that was going to make this their best album, but it didn't. In fact, I like almost all of their other albums more. Maybe I like slow songs?
Jam: "Waiting For Something"

11. Japandroids - Celebration Rock
This was my favorite 2012 album in June. But after I settled in with it, it seemed too grandiose to go back to. I think it demands a degree of emotional investment to listen to, and sometimes (most of the time) I just want to listen to something awesome that I don't have to feel affected by. "If I had all of the answers and you had the body you wanted / would we love with a legendary fire?" isn't a line you can listen to casually; it's aching for something...I mean, arena rock "whoa-oh"s, Mutt Lange drums, fireworks for chrissakes...I feel a little overwhelmed and maybe a little guilty that I don't always have the passion to respond to that. But when I do, Celebration Rock is unstoppable.
Jam: "Fire's Highway"

10. The Fencemen - The Times Are Alright
This wasn't supposed to happen. This was supposed to be a Small Brown Bike side project that sounds like Small Brown Bike, but nowhere near as good. But it turned out to be very much it's own thing; literary lines, dischordant guitars, excellent sax and Lemmy vocals. A wonderful, gruff, wonderfully gruff surprise.
Jam: "Century Blues"

9. Lucero - Women & Work
I try to be as much of a feminist as I can reasonably be. I will always push for women to have every opportunity and equal treatment that men have. That being said, this album sounds like a celebration of being just a regular dude, and it gives incredible feelings. Obviously, there are plenty of female Lucero fans, as there should be. But personally, W&W hits on something in me that I don't think would strike me the same if I were a woman (though I'm certain there are plenty of women who enjoy this album at least as much as I do). And maybe writing all this out is missing the point of enjoying a Lucero album, but I'm trying to say "Guy stuff!" without being offensive.
Jam: "On My Way Downtown"

8. Glocca Morra - Just Married
You can't just do some two-hand tapping to make a good emo album for the twinkle-daddies. And for real, all those notes can get old fast. But these dudes added some excellent melodies and progressions that make them more legit than all the other new nu emo nerds.
Jam: "Irrevocable, Motherfucker"

7. Cheap Girls - Giant Orange
Pretty much as close to the ideal band as any on this list. Riffage.
Jam: "Pacer"

6. Wild Nothing - Nocturne
I think Gemini was my #5 or #6 favorite album whatever year it came out, but this is so much better. I was okay with letting go of these guys, but this album was awesome, and now I'm more interested than I ever was before. A rare instance of an album that I like that starts weak and gets better as it goes. One of the most remarkable moments of the year is the 4:07 mark of "Paradise" after the drone-y section when the drums kick in...so mature.
Jam: "This Chain Won't Break"

5. Joyce Manor - Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired
Best live set of 2012. Highest of hopes for this band. Thank you dudes for having the courage to leave your songs at 1:30. The world needs more of that.
Jam: "Video Killed The Radio Star"

4. Field Music - Plumb
So glad the Brewi returned to form. On par with Tones of Town in every way.
Jam: "Just Like Everyone Else"

3. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
Very similar to Plumb in that the song sections seem to be cut and pasted together leaving each section seeming like its own song; very unique in just about every other aspect. It's unique, visceral and raw. It doesn't really seem like an album you just casually throw on; yet I found myself going back to this album maybe more than any other this year.
Jam: "Every Single Night"

2. Title Fight - Floral Green
#2 for the second year in a row, but Title Fight is an entirely different animal in 2012 than they were on Shed. On Floral Green, they grew, expanded, and sought to cover new ground. It's ostensibly just a melodic rock album, but considering where they've come from, it feels like a revolutionary benchmark for the entire punk genre. The guitars are the perfect equal amount of haze and fuzz playing gorgeous full chords that support excellent shredding vocals. A brilliant future classic.
Jam: "In-Between"

1. Bob Mould - The Silver Age
This is the second year in a row my favorite album has come from a 50-something artist(s). I really love Floral Green and The Silver Age equal amounts; I had to make a decision based on what these albums represent: youth vs. age. Title Fight are genuinely exciting and emotionally dynamic and sort of sexy in the way that they seem to suggest endless possibilities, but I can't deny that I identify more with the old dude. He gets alternately cantankerous (using phrases like "stupid little kid") and stately (in the classic college rock-referencing "Keep Believing") without ever getting too self-righteous. Mould never tries to reinvent the wheel on this album, he just does what he does best. And as far as I know, nobody else on this list made two of the best albums of all time within the same calendar year, so there are very few existing bands, reunited or not, whose best can hang. On my favorite song of 2012, "The Descent," Mould sings wryly about being past his prime, and his acceptance thereof. I know it sounds sulky and pathetic to say that makes sense at 30, but I've been past my prime since 8th grade. This rings true.

Best Butthole Surfers Album Titles

4.  Cream Corn From The Socket of Davis

3. Rembrandt Pussyhorse

2. Hairway To Steven

1. Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac

W.H.

So after going through most of her videos in the few hours since she died, I've come to a few conclusions about Whitney that are too long for Facebook.

- As it was with Michael, ballads tend to be a different animal for the truly Great R&B singers. They're not slow and sensitive; in fact they're more like the opposite. So much goes into singing well - from the notes you choose, to the pacing, volume/dynamics, etc. The Greats use the space and tempo as their playground, and if they're doing it right, they can make a slow song more exciting than an upbeat one.
You have to listen to the full song to appreciate what she builds up to, but check her out here at around 3:52, lettin' it absolutely rip:



- I never saw The Bodyguard, but I listened to the shit out of the soundtrack. I never realized that the chorus rhymed in this song, I had no idea what she was saying. But this is one of the rare cases where knowing the lyrics make the song sound better. I might like this song more than "I'm Your Baby Tonight," which I had previously thought was my favorite Whitney song.

- Death is sad, and I feel bad for Bobby B. But if I'm being completely honest, the only way Whitney Houston's death affects me is that more media attention is drawn to her and her music. It'll be nice to recognize and celebrate her career for the next few weeks. I'm not sure that would've happened any time over the next 20 or 30 years if she had lived that long.