{"id":342,"date":"2013-01-15T04:04:35","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T04:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/?p=342"},"modified":"2013-01-15T04:09:15","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T04:09:15","slug":"top-10-albums-of-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/2013\/01\/top-10-albums-of-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 Albums of 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About a week ago I posted a list of my top 5 video games of last year.\u00a0 This post is going to cover some top albums.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a lot easier to listen to a larger number of records than to play video games, so this list is going to be twice as large at 10.\u00a0 I&#8217;l try and describe in a paragraph or two why I like each album and link to a song on it that I hope you&#8217;ll enjoy.\u00a0 This&#8217;ll go in reverse order, starting at 10 and leading up to my favourite album of the year.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>10. <em>Wish Upon A Blackstar<\/em> by Celldweller<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is a bit of a weird one on this list.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not really into a lot of electronic music and the electronic music that I am into tends to be on the ambient side of things (The Field, for example).\u00a0 On the one hand I kind of want to hate this album for reminding me of dub-step, but it has a few things going for it that dub-step doesn&#8217;t:<\/p>\n<p>1. It&#8217;s very melody-driven.<\/p>\n<p>2. There are lots of guitars and live drums.<\/p>\n<p>3. It&#8217;s not shit.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s entirely possible that a big part of why I like this is that Celldweller is an act that I was introduced to around the time I started university and I&#8217;ve been waiting to hear this album, much delayed, for several years.\u00a0 Odds are pretty good that you&#8217;ve heard Celldweller even if you don&#8217;t realise it; check out <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Celldweller#Licensing\">the list of films, video games, and TV shows<\/a> his music has been licensed for.\u00a0 Anyway, I&#8217;m not really sure what to say about the album other than the fact that I&#8217;m not entirely sure why I like it, but like it I do.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5UPCLR8-Aeo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>9. <em>Sweet Heart Sweet Light<\/em> by Spiritualized<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not really sure what the deal is with Spiritualized.\u00a0 I like pretty much all of their albums, but I never seem to listen to them.\u00a0 Then every once in a while they&#8217;ll put out a new one and I&#8217;ll go, &#8220;Oh yeah, these guys.\u00a0 They&#8217;re good!&#8221;\u00a0 Plus, I mean, the guy who writes all the songs calls himself J. Spaceman, so there&#8217;s that.\u00a0 If you&#8217;ve heard any Spiritualized before then you&#8217;ve more or less heard this album.\u00a0 It still works as well as it ever did, but there&#8217;s not much here you&#8217;ll have not heard before.\u00a0 If you haven&#8217;t, Jason Pierce (Spaceman) writes big orchestral arrangements one instrument at a time by playing them on piano, then enlists people who play other instruments to play the real thing on his albums and on tour.\u00a0 Most of the songs tend to be centred around piano or guitar, which Pierce plays, but they tend to be pretty . . . big.\u00a0 He creates an interesting fusion of psych-rock and gospel that doesn&#8217;t really sound like anything else.\u00a0 As the name implies, the songs frequently deal with themes of faith and God, but in a personal rather than evangelical sense.\u00a0 The album itself sits near the back of my list at #9, but this song may be my favourite of the year:<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VesyhH8zams?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>8. <em>Mr. M<\/em> by Lambchop<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lambchop are another strange band who don&#8217;t really sound like anything else, always sound like themselves, and keep putting really good music.\u00a0 The lyrics continue to be wry and insightful, telling interesting stories about fairly normal people.\u00a0 The music continues to be beautiful and calming, but there are offbeat undercurrents running through most of the songs.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t have much else to say about this one, but it&#8217;s worth a listen (as is the rest of their back catalogue if you&#8217;ve not heard them before).<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MMFi2OaXiI8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>7. <em>Attack On Memory<\/em> by Cloud Nothings<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I suspect that if I had first heard this album 6 or 7 years ago I would have liked it much more.\u00a0 It&#8217;s an album that reminds me a lot of the feeling that you first get when you leave university; the world seems open to you in ways it hadn&#8217;t before, and yet it seems so closed off at the same time.\u00a0 You begin to realise how many of the goals that you set for yourself haven&#8217;t been reached and probably won&#8217;t be.\u00a0 This could lead to quiet reflection, reassessment and adjustment, or it could lead to raging at what&#8217;s been lost, or what never was but seemed like it might be.\u00a0 Cloud Nothings have clearly chosen to rage.\u00a0 Choruses on this album are often simple, repeated lamentations like &#8220;No future! No past!&#8221; or &#8220;No one knows our plans for us\/We won&#8217;t last long&#8221;.\u00a0 But despite that, the album feels too restrained.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a lot of shouting, but the music never quite seems to match the intensity of the lyrics or the vocals.\u00a0 This is a band that could really use a DOD Grunge pedal.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kwG-DTIczAk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>6. <em>Rooms Filled With Light<\/em> by Fanfarlo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Rooms Filled With Light<\/em> is probably the best pop album released in 2012, so it&#8217;s unfortunate that it seems to have been pretty overlooked.\u00a0 I talked about it on Twitter one day, and a number of people checked it out and told me that they really enjoyed it.\u00a0 I suspect it&#8217;s one of those albums that nobody knows about but everyone would love if they just gave it a listen (The Delgados&#8217; <em>Hate<\/em>, one of my favourite albums ever, is another great pop album that seems to fall into this category).\u00a0 <em>Rooms Filled With Light <\/em>is that strange brand of Scandinavian pop music that works so well combining pianos, strings, electronic instrumentation, and the occasional brass instrument.\u00a0 The lyrics are often ambiguous criticisms of modern life, as with the incessant sarcasm of the album&#8217;s catchiest track, &#8220;Shiny Things&#8221;: &#8220;Let&#8217;s not worry about going extinct\/We&#8217;ll be preserved on a shelf somewhere&#8221;, &#8220;It&#8217;s as if nothing happened, as if it was enough\/Think we rolled over gladly, thinking of shiny things&#8221;.\u00a0 It&#8217;s catchy but never simple, inventive but never indecipherable, the perfect kind of pop album for someone who likes their pop music to be a little more smartly composed.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/26_J5vaoXVU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>5. <em>Threads<\/em> by Now Now<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I really, really like this album.\u00a0 But I kind of feel guilty about it.\u00a0 In contrast to Fanfarlo, who I like because their music is complex and creative, Now Now have written an album full of simple indie rock melodies, standard song structures, and straight-forward lyrics.\u00a0 But as those things sometimes do, in this instance they work together really well.\u00a0 There are times when the more rock-oriented songs on this album remind me of another album full of simplistic guitar parts &#8211; Interpol&#8217;s <em>Turn On The Bright Lights<\/em>, which is a masterpiece.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t want to get ahead of myself here, as this is no <em>Turn On The Bright Lights<\/em>.\u00a0 But I&#8217;ll be damned if I haven&#8217;t listened to it a lot in the past few months.\u00a0 The guitar parts are simple, but they&#8217;re often just <em>really<\/em> <em>good<\/em>.\u00a0 Something about them just clicks with me.\u00a0 And then there&#8217;s the lyrics.\u00a0 They&#8217;re simple and often repetitive (3\/4 of the songs must mention difficulty sleeping), but they&#8217;re earnest expressions of young love and its loss, and there&#8217;s something about that that always stirs up powerful nostalgia in me.\u00a0 Consider, for example, the opening lyrics to &#8220;Wolf&#8221;: &#8220;I would kill to be your clothes\/Cling to your body and hang from your bones\/But I could make a mark if you would let me start&#8221;.\u00a0 So it all works.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not sure why, but it does.\u00a0 Plus the lead guitarist is really cute.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yfi_WUxfKP4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>4. <em>Kitsune<\/em> by Marriages<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now we get to the part of the list where the Isis influence begins to make its presence.\u00a0 Isis was a metal band that put out some of the best metal albums of the 2000s.\u00a0 Their members have been prolific, with numerous side projects.\u00a0 One of those was instrumental rock band Red Sparowes.\u00a0 Two of the members of Red Sparowes (though none of the ones from Isis) formed a new band this year, Marriages.\u00a0 They&#8217;re not quite a metal band, but they&#8217;re definitely on the harder end of the rock spectrum.\u00a0 This is an album filled with great, swirling, melodic guitar leads and rumbling, driving bass lines.\u00a0 It also contains what may be the only metal song ever written about being pregnant.\u00a0 It&#8217;s also the rare hard rock band with a female vocalist who has a great rock voice rather than a highly melodic one that contrasts with the more edgy music.\u00a0 At risk of wandering into cliche territory, it&#8217;s also got a really atmospheric feeling to it.\u00a0 These songs are dense.\u00a0 This is the kind of album that doesn&#8217;t get written often enough anymore, one with consistently great, loud, crunchy guitars.\u00a0 I&#8217;m embedding one song here to keep with the format of this blog entry, but all of <em>Kitsune<\/em> can be listened to free and legally <a href=\"http:\/\/marriagesmusic.bandcamp.com\/\">on the band&#8217;s page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0gMah11oXr4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>3. <em>No<\/em> by Old Man Gloom<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Round 2 of the Isis connections, this time much more closely.\u00a0 Old Man Gloom is an experimental metal band fronted by former Isis frontman Aaron Turner.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a super-group of metal\/hardcore bands in a sense, also featuring members of Converge and Cave In.\u00a0 In the past Old Man Gloom&#8217;s music has been difficult and unapproachable, which is probably about what you&#8217;d expect from an experimental metal band.\u00a0 <em>No<\/em> is also a fairly difficult, complex album, but it&#8217;s far more approachable than their previous efforts.\u00a0 The album opens with a two and a half minute track of what is essentially guitar feedback and ambient drones, and the second track ends with 4 minutes of slowly deteriorating noise.\u00a0 But by the third track the album is veering closer into more recognisable metal territory, and the middle stretch of the album is full of killer guitar parts that it&#8217;s virtually impossible not to throw up the devil horns and head-bang to.\u00a0 Even the more straight-forward songs are still pretty unusual, even in the realm of heavy metal, but the whole thing is put together exceptionally well.\u00a0 It might be a difficult album to get into, but it definitely rewards patience and repeated listens.\u00a0 And as I&#8217;ve said, some of the guitar riffs are just killer.\u00a0 The band has released a free stream of the full album, so you should definitely <a href=\"http:\/\/oldmangloom.bandcamp.com\/album\/no\">check it out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BbWXNVsc4qk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. <em>Allelujah! Don&#8217;t Bend! Ascend!<\/em> by Godspeed You! Black Emperor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I find it a bit surprising that a new GY!BE album was released and it wasn&#8217;t my favourite album of the year, but here we are and there that is.\u00a0 <em>Allelujah!<\/em> is a very good album.\u00a0 A great album.\u00a0 But it doesn&#8217;t quite live up to their first few releases.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a far more rock-oriented album than any of their others, and while knowing my taste in music you might think I would appreciate that, in the context of GY!BE I don&#8217;t necessarily.\u00a0 One of the things that has made their music so amazing in the past is its other-worldliness.\u00a0 GY!BE records have always sounded like nothing else on Earth, even though many bands have tried to copy them.\u00a0 Their previous work mixed orchestral arrangements, standard rock instrumentation, and various field recordings in a completely unique, always exhilirating fashion.\u00a0 This album maintains a lot of what made them great in the past, but there&#8217;s just that little something missing.\u00a0 But maybe I&#8217;m being too hard on this album on account of how mind-blowingly good most of their previous work has been (I&#8217;d rate <em>Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven<\/em> among my top few albums ever released and &#8220;Moya&#8221; may just be the best song of all time).\u00a0 This is still a fantastic album, better than all but one that I heard this year.\u00a0 And you should definitely listen to it too, if you haven&#8217;t.\u00a0 It&#8217;s hard to list a sample track since the whole album contains just two 20 minute songs and two shorter interludes, so here&#8217;s the better half of the album:<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RXdF9uhVrI0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. <em>Heaven<\/em> by The Walkmen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And that brings us to #1.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve been asked what it is about The Walkmen that makes them such a fantastic band, and I find it hard to explain.\u00a0 On the surface they&#8217;re just an indie rock band playing indie rock songs.\u00a0 There&#8217;s no one particular thing that sets them apart from all the other bands writing indie rock songs; what makes The Walkmen great is that they do what they do perfectly.\u00a0 Their albums are full of perfectly written guitar parts, catchy and memorable, backed by a lock-step rhythm section that always drives the songs in the right direction.\u00a0 There are no wasted notes, no unnecessary parts in Walkmen songs.\u00a0 While all of The Walkmen&#8217;s albums are excellent, every other album is truly top-notch and <em>Heaven<\/em> falls on the top-notch side of the ledger (along with <em>Bows and Arrows<\/em> and <em>You and Me<\/em>).\u00a0 One of the things that I love about this band is that they do something that almost no other band does: write songs about being a normal person doing normal things.\u00a0 They write songs about things like reflecting on friends&#8217; weddings and how that makes you feel about where you&#8217;re at in your life.\u00a0 The lyrics, like the music, so frequently hit their mark by leaning toward quiet understatement rather than grand posturing.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s how The Walkmen sing a love song: &#8220;You should follow me where it goes\/It might take a while but you never know&#8221;.\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 Everything in its right place.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6QaFK_GvO_s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About a week ago I posted a list of my top 5 video games of last year.\u00a0 This post is going to cover some top albums.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a lot easier to listen to a larger number of records than to play video games, so this list is going to be twice as large at 10.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}