1. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, MAAD City 2. Taylor Swift - Red 3. The Early November - In Currents 4. Tame Impala - Lonerism 5. Jack White - Blunderbuss 6. John Mayer - Born & Raised 7. Vacationer - Gone 8. Alt-J - An Awesome Wave 9. Ingrid Michaelson - Human Again 10. Passion Pit - Gossamer 11. My Chemical Romance - Conventional Weapons 12. Regina Spektor - What We Saw From the Cheap Seats 13. Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania 14. Blink 182 - Dogs Eating Dogs 15. DIIV - Oshin 16. Childish Gambino - Royalty 17. The xx - Coexist 18. Bloc Party - Four 19. Basement - Colourmeinkindness 20. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Honorable Mentions to Ben Folds Five and Japandroids
Pye Corner Audio - Sleep Games Deftones - Koi No Yokan XXYYXX - XXYYXX Honourable Mentions Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage Death Grips - The Money Store Beak> - >> CFCF - Exercises Brian Eno - Lux Raime - Quarter Turns Over A Living Line Evil Needle - Cirrostratus
1. Menzingers - On the Impossible Past 2. Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet on Sky 3. Deftones - Koi No Yokan 4. Less than Jake - Greetings and Salutation 5. Hot Water Music - Exister 6. Millencolin - Meloncholy Connection 7. Astpai - Efforts and Means 8. The Holy Mess - Cande Ru Las Degas 9. Soundgarden - King Animal 10. Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania
That first album is like if Chvrches went full goth. It's such a fucking delight. Second album leaned heavier into an almost edm sound. Everything since had been pretty good but doesn't touch those first two.
Thanks to this thread for reminding me about celebration rock. Currently blasting it down the highway, screaming my lungs out.
1. Japandroids - Celebration Rock 2. Grimes - Visions 3. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, MAAD City 4. Taylor Swift - Red 5. Death Grips - The Money Store 6. Chromatics - Kill for Love 7. The Menzingers - On the Impossible Past 8. Beach House - Bloom 9. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange 10. Purity Ring - Shrines 11. Passion Pit - Gossamer 12. Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It 13. The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten 14. Grizzly Bear - Shields 15. Killer Mike - RAP Music
Ah wow I totally forgot about Grimes. I played the shit out of the album, definitely should’ve been in my top 10.
1. The Menzingers - On The Impossible Past 2. Dry The River - Shallow Bed 3. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city
Never done any of the other years so apologies for just hopping in now but 2012 is such a weird year for me to look back on musically speaking. 2011 was stacked comparatively but I was also still pretty close-minded with my listening so a lot of bands weren't even on my radar until a few years later. I listened to mostly warped tour pop punk/metalcore and was just getting into the emo revival wave. I really don't care about most of what was in my rotation anymore outside of emo stuff. Parkway Drive, Amity Affliction, The Ghost Inside, Enter Shikari all dropped LPs in 2012 for instance and I couldn't care less about any of them at this point. Basement - Colourmeinkindness Circa Survive - Violent Waves Wild Nothing - Nocturne ________________________________ Title Fight -Floral Green DIIV - Oshin Deftones - Koi No Yokan Tame Impala - Lonerism Daytrader - Twelve Years The Menzingers - On The Impossible Past Mac Demarco - 2
Definitely a lesser year for me but still plenty of gems: 01) THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - Handwritten Merging their love of Springsteen and Pearl Jam, TGA made a bid for the big leagues and while it may not have found them headlining arenas, it was my most enjoyed release of the year. 02) FUN - Some Nights A well-derverd mainstream breakthrough, Fun essentially set the template for alternative radio for the decade 03) ALT-J - An Awesome Wave Nerdy and studious indie rock which unfolds in an amazing way and is still a record I often return to 04) HOT CHIP - In Our Heads Hot Chip's finest release stacking one banger after another with effortless hooks and shiny keyboards 05) FOXY SHAZAM - Church Of Rock & Roll Though they never got anywhere close to headlining arenas, this was Foxy's big for Queen-inspired stadium rock 06) JAPANDROIDS - Celebration Rock A "Dudes rock" legend, this album still sounds amazingly powerful with just guitar, vocals and drums 07) PASSION PIT - Gossamer Michael Angelakos apparently labored over this nearly to death and it sounds like it, given the note-perfect modern indie/R&B pop set to some dark lyrics 08) ALABAMA SHAKES - Boys & Girls Soul-driven rock and roll led by Brittany Howard's amazing vocals chops. 09) TAME IMPALA - Lonerism Pyschedelic rock driven by a lonesome studio rat made for an excellent listen 10) DEFTONES - Koi No Yokan This could be titled Diamond Eyes pt 2 based on how it sounds but the Deftones continued their excellent run with this 11) FIONA APPLE - The Idler Wheel... Fiona comes out of hiding to give us another modern pop masterpiece 12) NEON TREES - Picture Show Following up a big debut with an album that sounds both bigger and more intimate, it's a shame Neon Trees weren't bigger than their two hits 13) THE XX - Coexist A natural continuation of their excellent debut giving us a lovely set of dark and dreamy songs 14) SIGUR ROS - Valtari This Icelandic group is simply unable to NOT make beautiful music and Valtari demonstrates what they do best. 15) ANBERLIN - Vital Major label swan song for Anberlin but one of their fiercest and most biting releases since since their days on Tooth & Nail 16) GARBAGE - Not Your Kind Of People 90's legends roar back after a long hiatus with a modern sounding collection of powerful electric-tinged hooky rock. 17) BEACH HOUSE - Bloom Building and refining off of Teen Dream, Beach House soundtrack another hazey afternoon and/or late night stoned dream 18) GREEN DAY - Uno! Dos! Tre! Grouping these togther as they function well as a whole. Some dips but more or less a snazzy collection of power-pop, pop/punk, garage rock and Green Day's new love of stadium bombast 19) THE DARKNESS - Hot Cakes Somehwat of a comeback after their hiatus, this record didn't make much of a dent in the US market but it's a nice return to form for those who loved Permission To Land 20) SCISSOR SISTERS - Magic Hour NYC'S kings of glammy camp come with another hook-heavy release 21) JACK WHITE - Blunderbuss Breaking out on his own allows Jack to layer his songs with more instrumentation as well as his most personal collection of songs. 22) FATHER JOHN MISTY - Fear Fun The funniest and most talented guy from the Fleet Foxes breaks out and begins his legacy a folk-y irreverent wiseass 23) MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK - Go Apparently Justin Pierre's least favorite of MCS's discography, Go is probably their most singer/songwriter-driven album bust still great 24) OF MONSTERS AND MEN - My Head Is An Animal Folk-rock was huge in 2012 and this debut was the best it had to offer in 2012 25) MARINA AND THE DIAMONS - Electra Heart As Stereogum noted, this was a key contributor "Tumblr pop" in 2012 26) WALK THE MOON - Walk The Moon Catchy and dance-y pop/rock labeled as "indie" was hugely en vogue around this time and Walk The Moon's debut is a great collection of song. 27) MUMFORD & SONS - Babel Probably the biggest band of 2012, Babel takes their folky banjo tunes and injects them with enough power to reach the cheap sheets 28) SEIGH BELLS - Reign Of Terror A logical next step after Treats, while it didn't match their debut it came close 29) LINKIN PARK - Living Things Coming back to earth after their big proggy experiment, Living Things is a well-rounded synth-heavy version of Linkin Park 30) THE BIG PINK - Future This More indie landfill but some big hooks and cool synth-pop songs on this one
Man, where's the discussion?! Let's talk about what songs we don't like on Celebration Rock or Channel Orange and get it popping in here! I remember when the song Bad Religion came out I was mildly upset that it would now come up every time you'd google the band (this was in the height of my Bad Religion fandom).
I don't see it making people's lists but 2012 was also when Imagine Dragons "Night Visions" was released which was a HUGE record.
Although they're pretty much the same length I think Blonde feels like a more succinct record than CO for sure. I think both are pretty great though!
I like Blonde more, but I don't think he's made a (or his) masterpiece yet. He has it in him, though.