Rolling "favorite music of 2012 so far" thread (albums and/or tracks edition)

The Mike Delinquent Project feat. Lady Leshurr - Step in the Dance

mmmm yes. thanks for the tip mercer

The National Jazz Trio Of Scotland's Christmas Album

Have been seriously anticipating the fuck out of this.

The end of Hospitality's "Monkey" genuinely sounds to me like a previously unreleased bonus track recorded for the first Psychedelic Furs album but never used. Not saying that's necessarily good or bad.

Glad to see an early release of 2012 like Habits & Contradictions still getting mentioned because I think it is better than m.a.a.d. city. Someone said the same on the Kendrick Lamar thread and I think they got away with it! It's a fucking dope album.

Lot of ppl dismissing "Hands on the Wheel" but that song is way cool by me

Just added this to my list:

Mahsa Vahdat and Mighty Sam McClain-A Deeper Tone of Longing

An Iranian singer and a Louisiana born deep soul singer alternate verses and languages and music styles, within each song, with the aid of a Norwegian guitarist. It might sound whirled music gimmicky but it works. They previously worked together in 2010. Vahdat still lives in Tehran where she is barred from singing in public (she teaches music and gives private concerts there)

http://open.spotify.com/user/djperry1973/playlist/7Hi5uKSCgKZM5doRaEIDOz

recently added:

Kylie Minogue - The Abbey Road Sessions

Things I like recently:

The Crystal Ark - s/t
Maria Minerva and LA Vampires - Integration
Emeralds - Just to Feel Anything
Anna Meredith - Black Prince Fury
Bee Mask - Vaporware/Scanops

All the Morton Feldman releases and reissues
Catherine Ribeiro boxed set
Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe
Mingus box on Mosaic (new arrival but amazing)
Actress album er... mildly diverting
New Ariel Pink
That is all

kinda bummed how little loud rock music is on my best of 2012 playlist

have you heard hank wood & the hammerheads album? my favourite loud rock album of 2012

http://www.mediafire.com/?y6h7z37b04dds0p

^uploaded by label no ysi

man all I am listening to this year is loud rock music it seems

new stuff* to add to my list

Aluk Todolo, Occult Rock
Fushitsusha, Hikari to Nazukeyo
Beak>, >>
Gunn-Truscinski Duo, Ocean Parkway
Moon Duo, Circles
Melody's Echo Chamber, s/t

*late pass plz, apparently I can't be on time for work and on time for ILX at the same time

Dead Sara's self-titled is def my favorite loud rock album of the year. some other favorites that haven't been mentioned in this thread yet:

Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears
Meek Mill - Dreams And Nightmares
Ichicuts - Filthy First Year
Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet On Sky
Pink - The Truth About Love
ZZ Top - La Futura
The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
Eleni Mandell - I Can See The Future
E-40 - The Block Brochure: Welcome to the Soil 1, 2 & 3
Say Anything - Anarchy, My Dear

i mean loud rock pretty broadly. like i've got future of the left, screaming females, oh sees, jeff the brotherhood, fake limbs, and mind spiders on my list but i don't know if i out and out love any of those

my fave stuff that isn't obvious stuff that everyone else loves too:

dustin wong - dreams say, view, create, shadow leads <- maybe my fave album of the year?
serengeti - c.a.r. and kenny dennis EP
the chap - we are nobody
chris cohen - overgrown path
fake limbs - man feelings
lambchop - mr. m

I love the Chris Cohen album.

this is my singles list as of right now:

Scott Walker – Epizootics!
Dirty Projectors – Gun Has No Trigger
Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
Barbara Morgenstern – Sweet Silence
Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)
Peaking Lights – Beautiful Son
Vum – Laura Palmer
Psychic Ills – Take Me With You
Santigold – Disparate Youth
David Byrne & St. Vincent – Who
The Soft Pack – Saratoga
Mirel Wagner – No Death
POP ETC – Keep It for Your Own
Mark Stewart – Stereotype (feat. Factory Floor and Keith Levene)
NZCA/LINES – Airlock
Rufus Wainwright – Jericho
Sky Ferreira – Everything Is Embarrassing
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
The Fresh & Onlys – Presence of Mind
Psy – Gangnam Style (강남스타일)
Todd Terje – Inspector Norse
Cate le Bon – Fold The Cloth
Julia Holter – Goddess Eyes I
Farrah Abraham – On My Own
Rhye – The Fall
Masha Qrella – Fishing Buddies
Christina Aguilera – Your Body
Miguel – Adorn
Adult. – Shari Vari
Lana Del Rey – Bel Air

Adult. covered Shari Vari too?

yup!

My singles list is so near but with zero overlap. Fight

!

xp Very good year for loud-rock albums IMO

I love the new Roc Marciano album Reloaded. The guy is master at what he does and the album has a cool, understated Liquid Swords type quality.

I meant to say Cuban Linx not Liquid Swords!

Raime - Quarter Turns Over A Living Line. Late contender for album of the year methinks

I thought I liked the UFOmammut album, but then I went back and listened to their earlier stuff and I prefer it a lot more. Recent one sounds like an extended take on Battle by Blur.

The new Justin Townes Earle record, Nothing's Going to Change The Way You Feel About Me Now, is good.

2012 record I had heard was great but just got around to listening to it in the past few days and what I had heard was correct: new Redd Kross

(you can hear it at the Merge site if you want)

tbh I'm not sure I enjoyed much new music this year. Have been struggling putting together faves. Is this just me?

I feel the same. There's plenty of things I liked, but no real stand-outs. There's always somebody in this position every year but it's a first for me that I'm actually the guy.

2012 was a good year for my wheelhouse, i feel like i found more to love this year than in the last few.

Mostly the disappointment comes from fact that there were no real movements this year... everything felt like an extension of something we had last year. Chillwave is exhausted (or was), Crystal Castle's latest feels like B-sides to their last record, Cat Power went route of adult friendly listening experience. Key exception would be Grimes, who didn't entirely change up her sound from last albums but definitely made her most declarative record this year. Those are the scenes I follow, anyway.

the album that i think is gonna top an awful lot of lists, kendrick lamar's, felt more a 90s revisitation than anything. everything this year was too overtly comfortable, less influenced by past eras and more happy homage. i'm a bit needling w/ this opinion tho, as i've yet to make a clear sum-up of everything i've listened to this year. wish spotify had a feature for every album listened to.

I didn't have any trouble finding music I liked this year, but I wasn't looking for it as much. I feel like when it comes time to round everything up, I'm going to be at more of a disadvantage than usual. Lots of "oh, I've heard of that, but haven't actually listened to it" and the like.

Just added Zombie Zombie - Rituels d'un nouveau monde to my best of 2012 playlist

I will say that the best thing Grimes was involved with this year wasn't her own album, but the "Phone Sex" single by Blood Diamonds on 4AD.

Grimes is such ridiculous DJP bait and yet I really, really could not get into that album at all

There's always somebody in this position every year but it's a first for me that I'm actually the guy.

Yup, immediately the same after my post. Ah well, I'm sure once I get a list together I'll feel different about things.

I feel good about this year, lots of albums and tracks I'll come back to. Big-picture-wise idk, but "scenes" and "movements" have never really played a central role in how I engage with music.

same, demanding scenes to be perpetually revolutionising music just seems to be setting oneself up for disappointment. like, demanding a certain thing to happen when that's mostly not how music works. i guess that's what leads to the kind of old person mindset that none of this new stuff is as good as music used to be, it's all corporate and beige and plastic now &c &c

i listened to grimes once and was "well ok" and then i put it away for awhile, came back to it and loved it.

my favorite release is unsurprising, 'words and music by saint etienne'. also not particularly revolutionary.

same, demanding scenes to be perpetually revolutionising music just seems to be setting oneself up for disappointment. like, demanding a certain thing to happen when that's mostly not how music works. i guess that's what leads to the kind of old person mindset that none of this new stuff is as good as music used to be, it's all corporate and beige and plastic now &c &c

well no, what leads to the kind of old person mindset you're talking about is being around long enough to watch kids regurgitate variants of shit you've been listening to for 15-20 years as if it was new, amazing revolutionary music no one had ever conceived of before

need to revisit 'ghosts' by monolake. probably going to feel best about emeralds, majeure, steve hauschildt, wild nothing, swans, holy other, donald fagen, DIIV, chelsea wolfe, allo darlin, julia holter, john talabot, tindersticks, at the end of the year.

also: alcest

feel like the julia holter is the wild card on my list, like something better could bump it off. i enjoy several of the songs but don't know if i have the patience for it as a full album.

well no, what leads to the kind of old person mindset you're talking about is being around long enough to watch kids regurgitate variants of shit you've been listening to for 15-20 years as if it was new, amazing revolutionary music no one had ever conceived of before

Unless they were around in the 60s and 70s, I'd say that most people's experiences of "amazing revolutionary music" are completely personal - music that they had never conceived of before. Once you've been around for a while you have a fair idea of the various directions music can take. The last thing that completely blew my mind and changed the way I listen to music was discovering Arthur Russell in 2004 or 2005 but again that wasn't new, just something I hadn't heard before. So the "old person mindset" I'd talk about is simply having had the opportunity to listen to a lot of different music.

I feel about Holter like DJP feels about the Grimes: should be Sanpaku-bait, but most of it just rubs me the wrong way.

Grimes was real LeRoo bait and I got hooked! I already loved her "Vanessa" single last year and the new album really delivered on my expectations.

Seconding Roc Marciano - Reloaded. Stream is here: http://stereogum.com/1198722/stream-roc-marciano-reloaded/album-stream/