Top 45 Albums Of 2012: 20 - 16

Crackin' the twenty.  After this I only liked fifteen more albums from last year (but I liked them incrementally better).  This portion of the list contains a lot of mellow, except for the Casket Lottery who louden it all up.  There are also a few albums that signal triumphant returns for old friends who fell off the grid for a while.  Musical prodigal sons are the best kinds of prodigal sons.

20) Bowerbirds - The Clearing

I may soon burn out on indie folk rock, but Bowerbirds broaches the genre so directly that they avoid sounding like everybody else even if there isn't anything radically different about their music.  That's the power of good songwriting.  The Clearing has that woodsy feel to it and the lyrics are full of nature imagery.  This is an album for sunsets on the trail, introspective and safely wandering (and wondering).

19) Beachwood Sparks - The Tarnished Gold

Years ago my wife tried to tell me how awesome Beachwood Sparks was.  She said they're a band I would really like, but I ignored her because I'm a fool.  Then they dropped off the map and never crossed my mind again.  Until now.  In June the band released their first full-length album, The Tarnished Gold, in eleven years.  I decided to give it a spin because, hey, weren't these the guys my wife tried to tell me about a long time ago?  I will never doubt my woman again.  Mellowfied west-coast alt-country goodness right here.  You can hear the influences, from Gram Parsons to Jackson Browne to Uncle Tupelo, and it melds together warmly and wonderfully.

18) The Casket Lottery - Real Fear

The most pleasant surprise of the past year was the release of a new Casket Lottery album.  The band broke up (or went on hiatus or whatever) back in 2006, its members wandering off to concentrate on other projects.  But, unbeknownst to myself, they got back together in 2011 and set to work recording a fiery set of songs fit for an uprising.  Real Fear is The Casket Lottery taking a mature step forward, focusing on uniting melody and atmosphere.  What we get is something a little more sonic but no less devastating.

17) Beth Orton - Sugaring Season

You know who else we haven't seen in a while?  Beth Orton, who hadn't released anything since '06.  There were good reasons for this, but it is great to have her back.  In fact this could be my new favorite Orton album.  Sugaring Season is sultry, serious without being depressing, quiet but not hushed.  Croony, but too rich for lounge.  One song is a William Blake poem.  Another was co-written with a member of the Chemical Brothers.  And somehow it is all distinctly Beth Orton, and it all cohesively fits the album.

16) Stars - The North

The North is so ear-friendly, so easy to get along with.  This album is comparable to middle-era Death Cab (you know, before Ben Gibbard became a little too bothersome), though Stars focuses more on gentle catchy hooks and sounding nice.  There are synthesizers and hints of 80s, but these things give the music a fuller sonic feel as opposed to directing the music into fashionably retro directions.  Of all the bands who employ turn-taking male and female vocalists, Stars is the only one where I find the dude and girl equally listenable.  Great album from a great band.  Also, Canada.

Top 45 Albums Of 2012: 25 - 21

I don't know about you but I've already had a year's worth of crazy stuff happen, and we're only just breaking into February.  I'd like to say that music helped me through the tough times, but honestly things were so manic I didn't have time to listen to anything at all.  Maybe some radio tunes while driving around, but it was background noise.  Nothing to explore.  Nothing mind-blowingly new and awesome.

But I'm floating back to earth now, and music IS helping with that.  Lots of oldies, the good stuff from the 1950s and 60s.  I've listened to that all my life, and it keeps me connected somehow.  I don't know... I'm less interested in why that kind of music effects me the way it does and more interested in letting it work it's golden magic.

And I'm also coming back to my favorite songs from 2012.  These albums will certainly have very specific memories attached to them, and maybe in some years I'll look back at them with bittersweet fondness.  But for now they're my soundtrack, and this movie ain't over yet.

25) Titus Andronicus - Local Business

 

Titus Andronicus is not at all interested in nonsense, no matter the album.  "Here's a big juicy plate of meat and potatoes," each song says.  "It's five minutes long and you must eat it all right now."  And then the song ends, and another starts, and the force-feeding begins again.  It's all quite wonderful.  Though not quite as ambitious as The Monitor (which was a punk rock 'n' roll ode to the American Civil War, so really, what could possibly top that?), Local Business is still a great album full of east coast swag and knowing nods to old-school punk.

24) Two Gallants - The Bloom And The Blight

 

I like rock 'n' roll duos.  Two performers doing all the instrumentation, keeping it stripped and real.  Two Gallants, comprised of a pair of San Franciscans with musical chops, shred it on The Bloom And The Blight.  Blistering passionate vocals, tumbling drums, the crunchy guitar, all awesome when things get revvin'.  But hold up, aren't these guys folkish?  They sure are, and when they bust out the acoustic and the harmonica and the tambourine you get the best rootsy folk-rock this side of Bringing It All Back Home.  But really it's about those loud songs.  Crank it.

23) Chris Staples - American Soft

 

Probably the most apt album title on this whole list, the songs of American Soft are gentle introspective little ditties.  They are very straightforward and it's easy to overlook the intelligence of Staples' lyrics.  In fact everything is so low-key it's nearly so easy to overlook entire songs.  But Staples has a knack for hooks and something on this album will make a cozy little home in your brain, a welcomed guest you're not so anxious to shake out.

22) DIIV - Oshin

 

Oshin is the first full-length release from DIIV (pronounced "dive" I think, as the band used to be called Dive).  It is dense and hazy yet upbeat and rhythmic, the soundtrack to a brooding, busy apocalypse.  The vocals are sparse, and even when they are present they are sunk so far back into the music that the lyrics are not easily discernible.  I'm okay with that.  Vocals here work like instruments contributing to the atmosphere and FEEL of the music.  And there is indeed a lot of atmosphere and FEELIES fogging up those sound waves.  Oshin is good for a sundown drive or background filler for 2 a.m. music blog writing.

21) The Mynabirds - Generals 

 

I don't know much else about The Mynabirds short of what I just looked up on Wikipedia.  The band is signed to Saddle Creek Records and have released two full-length albums.  Generals, album number two, is a triumphant and moving little collection of songs.  Think a relaxed Florence + The Machine.  Think twee pop too serious to be twee pop.  And oh man, did somebody sneak synthesizers in there?  And oh man, did somebody sneak Richard Swift in there?  Double yeses.  Also, mastered by TW Walsh.  More icing on the cake.