My Top Albums 2012: Number 1

The Walkmen – Heaven

David Byrne once described heaven as “…a place where nothing ever happens” – this is not your typical Heaven, and yet I suppose it could be. A diverse collection of slow, mid and up tempo songs that subtly utilise jangly guitars, dreamy ‘50s piano and the belting pipes of lead crooner Hamilton Leithauser. Full of depth, clarity, maturity and warmth, and with an unashamed love for melody, simplicity is the key. An album that contemplates big adult themes: fatherhood and how there’s so much more to lose; the weight of responsibility; loyalty to loved ones over momentary passion; the ordinary every day chores which make up life. Sounding muscular and feisty, rich with emotion and engaging intelligent lyrics, the process of growing older is making the music so much warmer and more optimistic. Perfection and flawlessness may not be truly attainable but this is pretty close.

We Can't Be Beat 

Heartbreaker

Heaven

My Top Albums 2012: Number 2

This Many Boyfriends – This Many Boyfriends

Lyrically and sonically an audio compilation of the band’s record collections, with a thoroughly healthy obsession for the homemade magic of ‘80s Indie, this album is packed with wonky wheeled melodies, jingly-jangly guitars and wonderfully wry lyrical observations. Whilst not exactly revolutionary, this is an album with an earnest heart that likes to dream big. Short, sharp and sweet, this is pure Indie Disco gold.

 

(I Should Be A) Communist

My Top Albums 2012: Number 3

Django Django – Django Django

Incorporating the Spirit of Beta with tribal chants and extravagantly dressed pop, this album is jam-packed full of spiky, light-handed catchiness and verve. Featuring percussive and beat-driven tracks seemingly crafted for freaky dancing, along with consistently clever wordplay and well-crafted harmonies, listened to as a whole this is an album that creates a perfect soundtrack for a giant and cohesive dance party.

 

Silver Rays

My Top Albums 2012: Number 4

Yeti Lane – The Echo Show

Their first album as a stripped down duo and a challenge met with sumptuous harmonies, minimalist Krautrock, repetitive tranquil keyboard loops and effects heavy vocals that finely balance chaos with melody to create an epic work. Drawing from a diverse range of inspirations, this is an inspiring melting pot that flits between genres with random aplomb. Seductively majestic and proof that sometimes less is more.

 

Analog Wheel

My Top Albums 2012: Number 5

The Cribs – In the Belly of the Brazen Bull

Displaying ever-increasing maturity and greater craft, The Cribs are masters of their own ideals and defiantly against the grain, producing an album that explodes with immediate attention-grabbing riffs. With an embarrassment of riches at their disposal and even their own ‘Abbey Road’ type medley at the end of the album, aggression is blended with thoughtfulness, bare-faced determination and wry melodies.

Pure O

My Top Albums 2012: Number 6

Islet – Illuminated People

Islet have a knack for oddball soundscapes akin to Can. Percussive rave-ups, jerky serrated riffs, infinite guitar loops, tribal drums, along with vocal and electronic effects, all spattered Pollock-style onto the canvas, sounding fresh and impulsive. Melodies are buried in fuzz and surrealism but still glow from within. Forging a sprawling and unpindownable path, this is thoroughly modern and bizarrely brilliant.

A Bear On His Own

My Top Albums 2012: Number 7

Paul Weller – Sonik Kicks

An edgy and vibrant affair, featuring backwards guitars, old-school synths and special effects galore, but not experimentation for the sake of it. Displaying a great sense of energy and enthusiasm from start to finish, this is a hazy but deeply satisfying album that widens upon the usual set of influences. His Modjesty continues to grow old, not particularly gracefully but with no small amount of style.

Green

My Top Albums 2012: Number 8

Frazer King – Idle Class Debris

OK, not an album as such but rather a mixtape collecting rarities, live recordings and excerpts from police interview tapes. Caustic, vital and free from the allurement of passing trends, this is a showcase of songs about life, politics and the effects of alcohol, at times being moving and truly emotional and underlining the band’s great passion for song-writing. Out of step with everything else out there and that’s no bad thing.

Mother Mary (Live)

Buy it here: http://frazerking.bandcamp.com/album/idle-class-debris

 

 

 

 

My Top Albums 2012: Number 9

The Magnetic North – Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North

An album devoted to the magic and mysteries of one of Britain’s northernmost points, the inspiration having come from a particularly vivid dream during which singer Erland Cooper was visited by a long dead resident of the islands. The songs benefit from local knowledge and the fresh eyes of incomers, with languid, slowly infectious melodies portraying both bleakness and beauty.  

Hi Life

My Top Albums 2012: Number 10

Spiritualized – Sweet Heart, Sweet Light



Sticking to the usual sonic template, this is not so much a drastic transformation as an acute refinement of the Spiritualized sound. Employing reverb-laden guitars, flights of strings and booming choirs to take their rock ‘n roll gospel way on past the crossroads, this album stands apart from the pop landscape and is all the better for it.

Hey Jane

My Top Albums 2012: Number 11

Jim Noir – Jimmy’s Show

Genius offhand melodies and harmonies mask misery and alienation. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to British Psychedelia. With a nice cup of tea laced with magic mushrooms.

The Cheese of Jim's Command

 

My Top Albums 2012: Number 12

Echo Lake – Wild Peace

Fallen-choirgirl-in-a-rainstorm vocals, underscored by treble and reverb-heavy guitars. Packed full of ideas and chiming nursery rhyme melodicism.

Last Song of the Year

My Top Albums 2012: Number 13

Grizzly Bear – Shields

Strange depths and unexpected touches. Beautiful, strident and undeniable tunes. Progressing at their own pastoral pace.

Sun In Your Eyes

My Top Albums 2012: Number 14

Scott Walker – Bish Bosch

Demanding but ultimately rewarding. Monstrous yet strangely giddy. Astronomy meets bodily abjection. A style completely at odds with his Sixties persona.

 

Epizootics!

My Top Albums 2012: Number 15

Peter Broderick – http://www.itstartshear.com

An interactive piece intended to blur the boundary between album and website. Fragile acoustics and feathery quietness. Part of the family.

Asleep

My Top Albums 2012: Number 16

Melody’s Echo Chamber – Melody’s Echo Chamber

Traces of Sixties’ kitsch, the influence of 1991 shoegazing and the salient grace of M83. Inherent sadness beneath a sugar-coated sheen.

Endless Shore

 

My Top Albums 2012: Number 17

Sleep Party People – We Were Drifting on a Sad Song

 

 

Hidden behind rabbit masks, the backbone is woozy synths, half-heard vocals and ambient beats. Music which assists a getaway to another world.

Chin

My Top Albums 2012: Number 18

Lone – Galaxy Garden

Providing flashbacks to hyperactive rave anthems of the early 1990’s. Both a sit-down and a jump around album. A dancefloor puzzler.

Dream Girl / Sky Surfer

My Top Albums 2012: Number 19

A Whisper in the Noise – To Forget

Caught within the wake of emotional destruction, a band whose name quite appropriately describes the music. Touching, stark and cold with warm melodies.

Every Blade of Grass

My Top Albums 2012: Number 20

The British Expeditionary Force – Chapter Two: Konstellation Neu

A confident, warm and organic record despite its groundings in electronics. Created by men with backgrounds in Science and Physics. Consume in one sitting.

 

When All of This is Done