This year's wrap includes two guests with their favorite albums. XUnderwood's and XO'Barr's lists, with their respective comments, appear below. A big thank you to these two anonymous contributors.
The embedded Spotify player at the bottom of the page will play all the available albums on all three lists, just remember not all artists license to Spotify.
Miles of Trane's Favorites of 2012
Fist up is Miles of Trane's favorite albums of the year, listed alphabetically by artist, linked to any prior post on the blog. The ones I especially favored are *starred and bolded.
Advance Base: A Shut-In's Prayer ||| On Spotify
*alt-J: An Awesome Wave ||| On Spotify
*Andy Stott: Luxury Problems ||| On iTunes
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Mature Themes ||| On Spotify
Battles: Dross Glop ||| On Spotify
Blondes: Blondes ||| On Spotify
Brad Mehldau: Where Do You Start? ||| On Spotify
Can: Lost Tapes Box Set [no blog post]||| On Spotify
Cashmere Cat: Mirror Maru EP ||| On Spotify
Claro Intelecto: Reform Club ||| On Spotify
Cloud Nothings: Attack On Memory ||| On Spotify
*Cooly G: Playin' Me ||| On Spotify
Crystal Castles: (III) ||| On Spotify
Crystal Stilts: Radiant Door ||| On Spotify
*Dan Deacon: America ||| On Spotify
**Daughn Gibson: All Hell [my favorite album of the year] ||| On Spotify
*Four Tet: Pink ||| On Spotify
* Frank Ocean: channel ORANGE ||| On Spotify
Future of the Left: The Plot Against Common Sense ||| On Spotify
*Goat: World Music ||| On Spotify
Godspeed You! BlackEmperor'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! ||| On Spotify
Grimes: Visions ||| On Spotify
Grizzly Bear: Shields ||| On Spotify
*Karriem Riggins: Alone Together ||| On Spotify
Matthew Dear: Beams ||| On Spotify
*The Men: Open Your Heart ||| On Spotify
Metz: Metz ||| On Spotify
Miguel: Kaleidoscope Dream ||| On Spotify
The Shins: Port of Morrow [no blog post] ||| On Spotify
Trish Clowes: And in the Night-Time She is There ||| On Spotify*The Men: Open Your Heart ||| On Spotify
Metz: Metz ||| On Spotify
Miguel: Kaleidoscope Dream ||| On Spotify
The Shins: Port of Morrow [no blog post] ||| On Spotify
XUnderwood's Favorites of 2012
Fav discs:
- Grimes -- Visions: Otherwordly quirky. With range. "Vowels = Space and Time" one of my favorite songs of the year. On Spotify
- Beach House -- Bloom : Not as strong as Teen Dream but filled with delicious dream pop goodness. Several stand-out tracks. My favorite: Troublemaker. On Spotify
- Dirty Projectors -- Swing Lo Magellan: Eccentric as always, but irresistible for first second to last this go round. Better than Bitte Orca. On Spotify
- Grizzly Bear -- Shields: Flawless in spots, builds to powerful ending. Precision.On Spotify
- Frank Ocean -- Channel Orange: Consensus pick as best album of the year, though not mine. (Nite Jewel did a great take on "Thinking About You") On Spotify
- Tame Impala -- Lonerism: The Beatles and Pink Floyd rolled into one and (thankfully) transported to a new century. On Spotify
- Andy Stott -- Luxury Problems: Mesmerising. Not kidding, this puts me in a trance. Vocal treatment is brilliant; music is relentless. On iTunes
- The XX -- Coexist. This is the music of longing, of failed romances. Part 2. On Spotify
- Passion Pit -- Gossamer: Just fun. Nothing else needed.On Spotify
- Chromatics -- Kill For Love. Every electronica fan dreams that the soundtrack of his life sounds like this. (Johnny Jewel makes some dynamite mixes, too. ) On Spotify
- Tennis -- Young & Old: Beach pop forever. On Spotify
- Hospitality -- Hospitality: Thoroughly groovy On Spotify
- Fiona Apple -- Idler Wheel: Didn't hear this enough to put on my list, and she is a bit of a downer. What I heard though was powerful. On Spotify
- First Aid Kit -- The Lion's Roar: Country I could actually listen to. On Spotify
- Yeasayer -- Fragrant World: Way better effort than the savage Pitchfork review gave it. "Glass of the Microscope" was one of favorite songs of the year. On Spotify
XO'Barr's Favorites of 2012
In order of preference:
- Hounds of Love - Kate Bush: Yeah, I know it's 27 years old, but I finally got a digital version and hadn't heard it since I ditched the turntable. Perfection. On Spotify.
- Luxury Problems - Andy Stott: My favorite actually released this year. On iTunes
- Cosmogramma - Flying Lotus: I just got around to buying this one. On Spotify. [omitted from playlist below -- See Best of 2010 playlist]
- Department of Disappearance - Jason Lytle: I love his melancholy pop so much. Do you think he would be my friend? On Spotify
- Nine Types of Light - TV on the Radio: Just got around to buying this one, too. On Spotify
- Channel Orange - Frank Ocean: A little overrated but still pretty great. Definitely the best thing to come out of OFWGKTA so far. As if I've heard everything that's come out of OFWGKTA. On Spotify
- Information Retrieved - Pinback: Sounds like comfort. On Spotify
- Shields - Grizzly Bear: I hated Veckatimest and hated Yellow House even more, so was surprised they lost the twee and grew some balls. On Spotify
- Until the Quiet Comes - Flying Lotus: Maybe I would have liked this one better if it weren't released so closely on the heels of Cosmogramma. On iTunes
- Love This Giant - David Byrne and St. Vincent: Who'd a thunk? On Spotify
- Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors - Big Boi: Critical reception of this one is a mystery. Solid songwriting and very musical. I suspect it'll rise on my list over time. On Spotify
- XO
