11 Albums to remember of 2012

I promised to myself not to write a list of “Best Albums of 2012” but I could not resist.

More than a complete list this is just a reminder of the records I liked most. I found out that the lists published on the other websites are just biased by marketing (the best album for Rough Trade is Grimes’ Visions and, according to the Guardian, Lana del Rey is just 3 positions away from Grizzly Bears). So if you need some ideas this list is as good as all the other ones. Or probably better because nobody is paying me for it!
I actually had to buy those albums with my own money dammit!

For fairness I will also list the “Albums I must listen to before the end of 2012” “Biggest disappointments of 2012″ and “What’s all this fuss about? 2012″.

I don’t even try to sort the albums, I just write them down as they come to my mind.

Tame Impala – Lonerism

One more great chapter from the Australian outfit led by the genius of Kevin Parker. For their second album the move towards more pop-ish melodies. I found it a bit less accessible than the first, hence my scarcely enthusiastic reception, but it builds up with time in your mind and it hasn’t left my mp3 player so far.

Read the review of Lonerism

 

 

Alt J – An Awesome Wave

An obvious and deserved Mercury Prize for these nerds based in Cambridge. Finally something sounding really fresh. The influences from the various musical genres are so harmoniously melted together that you can barely distinguish. I’m so looking forward to their next work…are we assisting to the beginning of something here?

Read the review of an Awesome Wave

 

 

The Soft Moon – Zeros

With this dark, cold second album Mr.Soft Moon Luis Vasquez confirms my suspicions he was frozen in 1984 and defrosted now to give us this beautiful soundtrack for our more miserable mornings.

Read the review of Zeros

 

 

Django Django

These guys really made one of the best albums of the year, their self titled debut. Unfortunately they committed the mistake of releasing it in January so most of the websites making serious “Best of 2012″ lists probably forgot about them. And it’s a real shame, here’s a reminder for you check them out:

 

 

 

Melody’s echo chamber

What’s sexier than a french lady playing psych 60s pop? I think the answer is: a french lady playing psych 60s pop produced by Kevin Parker.

Read the full review and listen to the album streaming here

 

 

 

 

Sharon van Etten – Tramp

If the 2012 best album chart was based on the ratio (quality of the record)/(shit given to the record), Sharon van Etten would win hands down with Tramp. So intense and packed of emotions that people didn’t even notice. It’s a great album, form the pjharvey-esque chord strokes of Warsaw, to the heartbreaking voice of Kevin’s. And when I say heartbreaking I mean it, if you can’t handle it just listen only to the first of these two songs.

 

 

Sharon Van Etten – Kevin’s (play) 

By the way I didn’t even bother writing a piece about this. But honestly I couldn’t find the words. If you still to read something, the review on Drowned in Sound is spot on.

 

Goat – World Music

This is another great album I didn’t write anything about, got stuck in the words. How can I describe this? It’s dark, it’s rock…take the Dark Horses but with some freaky voodoo tribal taste added to it. To further define this mysterious atmosphere the band didn’t divulge much information about them. They wear masks and they come from a little village (Korpilombolo) in the frozen north of Sweden. I’ve also read about some creepy magical tradition they’re carrying on but I think the point here is not to focus on their personal details, but just on their music

 

Drink to me – S

This is a sweet album that also wins the shortest title prize 2012. A very good collection of pop song mixing dreampop, showgaze, post-rave and whatever else reminds you of the past decade. The only problem that really stood between this record and international success is that these guys are Italian.
But hey, they deserved way more coverage than they actually did as they’re much better than lots of stuff I’ve seen in the Top 10s this year:

 

 

Bat for Lashes – The Haunted man

As long as I like this album I wouldn’t have placed it here until I saw Bat for Lashes live. She managed to convince me that she really believes in what she does and there’s so much feelings to her songs than you can actually get from the studio recording. And that means a lot.

 

 

 

Liars – WIXIW

I nearly got to the end of this year without having listened to this album. Fortunately I managed to buy it and I have to say I would have missed out a lot. Well, I could have listened it to it next year, no harm done, but it’s just to say.
WIXIW (pronounced, apparently, “wish you” ) sounds nothing like Liars‘ previous albums, which is not surprising consider their adventurous minds. This time they also produced it and it sounds amazing! Needless to say but listen to it with some proper headphones or speakers, forget your smartphone speakers!

Astro

These guys from Chile managed to pull out of the hat a magnificent electro-indie pop record, to put them straight away on the shelf next to MGMT, M83 and Justice.

 

Alright kids, I got your christmas shopping sorted!