We tend to avoid making best-of lists when it comes to music because there is no way to have heard everything, and it is so subjective. Below are the five we each found to be our favorites of the year. We would all agree that while we liked them, none would bump any CD or album off of our all-time favorites.
1 BASSNECTAR. “Vava Voom.” – Easily my favorite of 2012, “Vava Voom” is meant to be played as loud as you can stand it and you need to have a decent set of speakers with plenty of bass, but you really should have a quality subwoofer. If you don’t feel it in your chest, move on to any of the next four recommendations.
2 OF MONSTERS & MEN. “My Head Is An Animal.” – The sound that Ragnar Pohallsson and Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir create vocally is weird, ethereal and almost magical. The video for “Little Talks” is just weird.
3 SHOVELS & ROPE. “O’ Be Joyful.” – The last three albums on my list are somewhat similar in styles and honestly not what I was listening to a year ago, but I like the simple honesty in all three and Shovels & Rope is my favorite of the three.
4 ALABAMA SHAKES. “Boys & Girls” – They were the big “new” discovery band at this year’s Bonnaroo for a lot of people and rightfully so. Singer Brittany Howard is a joy to watch and listen to.
5 MUMFORD & SONS. “Babel” – I like the way this band sounds whether I’m just looking for background music or something to pay a little more attention to. Who knew a folk band with bluegrass tendencies and an English lilt could work this well?
HONORABLE MENTIONS: FUN. “Some Nights.”: VAN MORRISON. “Born to Sing: No Plan B.”: THE LUMINEERS. “The Lumineers.”
– Associate Features Editor Barry Courter
“Best” being a totally subjective term, I simply offer these albums up as the 2012 releases that I returned to time and again. In no particular order:
1 KORITNI. “Welcome to the Crossroads.” Banging around Australia for several years, Koritni (named after the lead singer) is a mix of AC/DC raw wattage and INXS crunchy funk with lyrics that, while not Mensa, won’t make you feel like you’re losing IQ points just by listening.
2 IAN HUNTER AND THE RANT BAND. “When I’m President.” Former Mott the Hoople leader may be 73 years old, but that hasn’t cramped his ability to write pointed, deft lyrics with sturdy, tuneful arrangements. Almost revelatory and not a bad song here.
3 UFO. “Seven Deadly.” Decades past their prime but still light years ahead of most other hard-rock acts. Fist-pumping music.
4 ALABAMA SHAKES. “Boys & Girls.” Old-style soul that wanders through the studios in Muscle Shoals and Memphis’ Stax Records, picking up bits and pieces, before landing in its own spot.
5 THE BLUEFIELDS. “Pure.” With resumes from Georgia Satellites, Jason & the Scorchers and Royal Court of China, the members of this Nashville-based band doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it simply pulls together all the rock, blues, country, soul and gospel sounds they’ve heard all their lives and weld them together.
Honorable mentions: JOHN HIATT “Mystic Pinball,” RIVAL SONS “Head Down,” HOWLIN RAIN “The Russian Wilds,” BLACKBERRY SMOKE “The Whippoorwill,” THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM, “Handwritten,” DWIGHT YOAKAM “3 Pears.”
– Features Editor Shawn Ryan
1THE MENZINGERS. “On The Impossible Past.” – Lead singer Greg Barnett alternates between sounding wistfully depressed and as if he’s inciting a riot as he leads the Scranton, Penn.-based punk rockers through their third album. This a fiercely emotional collection of angry, beautiful songs about love, heartbreak and growing up. By far the album I’ve listened to most this year.
2OF MONSTERS & MEN. “My Head Is An Animal.” – Maybe it’s all the buried rotten shark (hakarl) they’re eating up there, but Iceland is a musical hot bed. OM&M joins Björk and Sigur Rós on the country’s list of top-tier musical exports. Their lyrics don’t always make sense – ahem “Dirty Paws” ahem – but the haunting harmonic chants and poppy beats are just hypnotically good.
3 KISHI BASHI. “151A.” – This is the debut LP for Of Montreal violinist K. Ishibashi, and it is a doozy. After picking it up at Of Montreal’s Track 29 show in April, it remained on repeat for months. The unimaginably deep, clever production unfolds on the ears like a steadily dissolving musical jawbreaker.
4FUN. “Some Nights.” – Everyone knows this New York trio’s sophomore effort for the hookfest of a title track, but “Some Nights” is a surprisingly faceted project. The trio of singles are all fist-shakers, but the more subdued moments such as “Why Am I the One” are definitely worth stopping for.
5 FREELANCE WHALES. “Diluvia.” – Freelance Whales 2009 debut “Weathervanes” was an amazing Spotify discovery for me earlier this year. The band’s second album offers up the same Shins-like impish infectiousness, hushed vocals, electronic textures and a refreshing dynamic growth I associate with Mumford & Sons.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: MUMFORD & SONS. “Babel.”: TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB. “Beacon.”: JACK WHITE. “Blunderbuss.”
– Staff writerCasey Phillips