Each December I find it kind of incredible when zines, blogs, and radio stations publish their top 10 or top 50 albums of the year. A search of Wiki Answers estimates that 50 albums a week are released in the United States, meaning that about 2500 albums are released in a year. I would say this number is low, considering that many albums are being released via sites like Bandcamp without any label involvement. Bandcamp themselves claim, “There are hundreds of thousands of albums on Bandcamp.” So, to pick 10, means to pick an impossibly small percentage of those albums. How many albums do you think you even heard a cut from last year?
I am a complete music geek and I am going to estimate that I listened to about 200 of 2012’s albums – and it has taken me six months of 2013 to get to that number. The number would swell if I was tracking how many bands or artists that I listened to a couple cuts from their albums, but I’m old school and still believe there is nothing like listening deep into an album and sharing in an overall impression a band or artist can make given 30-40 minutes. The bar also is raised quite a bit, since many artists are now producing a few swell cuts and surrounding them with underwhelming fodder.
It takes some serious talent to produce 8-10 cuts that hang together and beg the listener to return again and again. Here is a list of my ten favorite albums of 2012 (in no particular order) and a couple extras.
Andrew Bird – Hands of Glory
Classically trained and a multi-instrumentalist, Bird has shifted and changed his music through the years, but has always drawn the attention of a variety of musicians, songwriters, and collaborators like Dosh and Haley Bonar. Maintaining his Chicago roots, he has developed a cult following that thrives on his improvisational live shows, where he has been known to rework the same song night after night. The music has been referred to as: indie rock, indie folk, folk rock, and chamber pop. He has recorded for Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, Fat Possum, and most recently with Mom + Pop Music. Hands of Glory, along with its predecessor, Break it Yourself, delve into a more Americana sound for Bird. Hands of Glory, in particular is a stunner, and deserves to spin on many a record player during summer nights.
Artist website: http://www.andrewbird.net/
Video of “Three White Horses” from Hands of Glory
Cat Power – Sun
If you have fallen in love with Chan Marshall’s dusky vocals and down-tempo musings, Sun will come as quite a surprise. Equally praised and panned by music critics and fans, the album is by far her most electronic and up-tempo. Six years since her last album, Marshall played almost all the instruments on all 12 tracks and was also by and large the recording engineer and producer (it’s been reported that she actually abandoned some of the early material when a friend told her it sounded too much like her old stuff). There is some decidedly funky material on here; my two-year old loves many of these upbeat tracks, which are filled with lyrics about autonomy and independence. If you are a traditionalist when it comes to your Cat Power feed, I would steer clear, but if you can come to this with an open mind and embrace an artist in transition – wow, this was a break out.
Artist website: http://www.catpowermusic.com/
Video of “Cherokee” from Sun
Dr. John – Locked Down
Who hasn’t grooved to “In the Right Place”? I mean even if you didn’t know you were listening to an early 70s cut of a six time Grammy winner and hoodoo legend of New Orleans, you would be hard pressed to keep your booty planted. Born Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack, Jr. in 1940, Dr. John started hanging with Professor Long Hair when he was 13 years old, and borrowed his moniker from an 1860s voodoo guy. After battling years of drug addiction and mental illness, he has become prolific in his projects and collaborations with younger musicians. Locked Down is produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys (who also plays some sweet leads) and sounds as fresh as anything Dr. John did back in the 1970s.
Artist website: http://www.nitetripper.com/
“Locked Down” from Locked Down
Goat – World Music
Goat is a Swedish experimental fusion and psychedelic band. The band’s own publicity mentions that they hail from an area that has a history of voodoo worship that stems from a witch doctor who once lived there in the wake of a plundering by Christian crusaders. The core of the band starting playing together when they were children and have continued to play in different incarnations over the past 30 years. 2012’s World Music is the first recording released by the band, and much press has followed – they garnered a choice spot at Austin Psyche Fest this spring, and by all accounts lived up to the hype. To add to the funky, at times afro-beat psychedelic groove of the music, the band dons strange masks for all performances and indulge in extended jams that allow for the theatrical nature of the band to really come alive.
Artist website: http://goatsweden.blogspot.ca/
“Run to Your Mama” from a live show in Stockholm
Farrar, Johnson, Parker, Yames – New Multitudes
Many are aware of the excellent Mermaid Avenue sessions that brought Wilco and Billy Bragg together to record scraps of songs written by Woody Guthrie. Last year, Nora Guthrie gave Jay Fararr full access to the archive of Guthrie’s reportedly 1000s of scraps of songs that were left unrecorded – apparently it was Guthrie’s early writings when living in L.A. that he focused upon. Fararr (Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt) and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket) are pretty much household names in the music world, but Will Johnson (Centro-Matic) and Anders Parker are storied Texas singer-songwriters in their own right. Critics were hot and cold to this collaboration, and criticism mostly was leveled at the album not staying to true to Guthrie’s spare folk stylings, which frankly isn’t what I would expect from these artists. My one beef from Mermaid Avenue was the obvious split in the styles that Bragg and Tweedy had in approaching Guthrie’s material. New Multitudes holds together in a more coherent way, as the four songwriters collaborate on each tune and leave the listener feeling more like they are listening to one band. I had this double album on repeat in the car for weeks.
New Multitudes website: http://www.newmultitudes.com/
“Hoping Machine” from New Multitudes
John Spencer Blues Explosion – Meat and Bone
I have been listening to Spencer and the Blues Explosion since the early 90s. In my opinion, nobody dirties up and psyche-a-fies the hill country blues sound like John Spencer. The band once cut a record with hill country legend R.L. Burnside, A Ass Pocket of Whiskey, and continues to burn with its own brand of f$#ked up garage rock. If you are feeling like getting revved up for any reason, drop the needle or push play on Spencer’s Extra Width or Orange – Yeoww! Meat and Bone comes after a long hiatus from recording and intermittent live performances (live, these guys are nothing short of incredible) by the band. They certainly have not lost their step.
Artist website: http://thejonspencerbluesexplosion.com/
Performing “Strange Baby” off of Meat and Bone on Letterman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebQgPt8x2RY&feature=youtu.be
Sam Dorres, Riley Downing, and the Tumbleweeds – Holy Cross Blues
Every couple of weeks I find someone completely new via Daytrotter. I relish listening to those first 30 seconds of a song and realizing, wow, this sounds great. Sam Doores and Riley Downing and the Tumbleweeds met as part of a growing conclave of songwriters inhabiting the 9th Ward of New Orleans post-hurricane Katrina. Look for more interesting bands and musicians coming out of these reportedly epic campfire songwriter blow-outs. These guys mine the deep river of old country and honky tonk writers that have made the south famous for music. If you can ever find anything by him, check out Alabama legend Cast King – the band reworks his “Wrong Time to Be Right” to perfection. Unfortunately, these folks seem to play mostly in the south, but hopefully someday they will venture up the river.
Artist website: http://www.samdoores.com/home
Performing “Wrong Time to Be Right” off Holy Cross Blues
Shovels and Rope – O’ Be Joyful
Would you believe that a year ago Shovels and Rope were playing to a small crowd at the Root Note in La Crosse? These two have really blown up in 2013. Now they are playing Letterman, supporting Dave Matthews Band and Dawes, and holding down choice spots from Coachella to the Newport Folk Festival. A testament to grinding it out on the road – they reportedly played 250 shows in 2012. Shovels and Rope are a duo in the vein of the White Stripes – drums and guitar. They flip instruments throughout the show, share songwriting credits, and ooze down home creativity and charm. Cary Ann Hearst has become a darling to the musician world in the same way that Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard has stormed aboard. She lives into the heart of every song, giving authentic oomph and sass in way that can only be pulled off by someone that has played a thousand shows and come up through the school of hard knocks and six person dance floors.
Artist website: http://www.shovelsandrope.com/
“Birmingham” (Live on KEXP)
Tame Impala – Lonerism
I saw this band for weeks on the college radio charts and listened in a few times without getting it. When one of my main Asheville-based music pals asked me if I had heard the record yet, I figured it was time to give the whole album a listen. A psychedelic rock outfit from Perth, Australia, they are at home driving a dreamy melody past the five-minute mark. Lonerism ended up on many of the Best of lists in 2012 and it looks like they are going to make a stop in Madison in October.
Artist website: http://www.tameimpala.com/
“Elephant” off Lonerism
Woods – Bend Beyond
Several albums in, Woods, in my opinion, is really starting to take shape. Bend Beyond is their break out seventh album. Pitchfork described their sound as, “a distinctive blend of spooky campfire folk, lo-fi rock, homemade tape collages, and other noisy interludes, all anchored by deceptively sturdy melodies.” If you are a fan of other lo-fi bands like Califone, early Iron and Wine, or Calexico, this latest batch of songs by Woods should be right in your wheel house. While the Brooklyn band has been a fan of tape hiss recordings in the past, Bend Beyond is decidedly cleaned up and much more polished than earlier work. Most reviews have ditched the lo-fi tag and called this album’s warm acoustic sound as folk-pop.
Artist website: http://www.woodsist.com/woods/
Title track from Bend Beyond
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI9RHUpJWTY&feature=youtu.be
Honorable mentions:
Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield is an East Coaster who sounds like she could have been making music along side Kurt Cobain and Mary Lou Lord during the advent of grunge in the early 1990s. The 2012 album was American Weekend.
“Be Good” from American Weekend
The Haunted Wind Chimes were one of the standout bands at 2012 Boats and Bluegrass. Out With the Crow was their 2012 release.
“Make it Rain” from Out With the Crow
Father John Misty was too hyped for me, too much press about being the Fleet Foxes drummer, etc. Fear Fun however ended up spinning again and again on the record player.
Father John Misty – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)