Top 40 songs of 2012.

I was so disappointed in the 2011 new music crop that I didn’t do any ranking of the year’s best songs at all, but 2012 was so fertile that I planned to do a top 20 that became a top 40. One way in which my list differs from many others you’ll find, besides the fact that it’s one person’s opinion rather than a staff’s collective thoughts, is that I’ve got several artists represented more than once. If an artist was good enough to produce one of the five or ten best songs of the year, there’s a decent chance the same artist produced another pretty good track along the way too, right?

Each song title is followed by links to purchase the song from amazon and from iTunes as well as a link to a video on Youtube, using the official video wherever possible. And I’ll apologize in advance for overlooking “Gangnam Style.”

UPDATE, 12/2013: I’ve created a Spotify playlist with most of these songs plus a few I should have included but didn’t hear in time for the original rankings.

40. Stars – “Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It.” (amazoniTunesvideo) This is New Order all over again – if I played it for you and told you the song was a late cut from Substance, you’d be hard-pressed to dispute it, although the lead singer sounds more like a cross between Bernard Sumner and Paul Heaton of the Housemartins.

39. Atlas Genius – “Trojans.” (amazoniTunesvideo) This song almost out-indie-rocks itself both in lyrics and in sound, especially bringing indie darlings the Strokes to mind with its persistent guitar riff (but without hiding behind distortion). It’s one of the few songs on the list I didn’t like when I first heard it but grew to appreciate after hearing it several times.

38. Of Monsters and Men – “Lakehouse.” (amazoniTunesvideo) My second-favorite album of the year had a number of songs I could have considered for the list, but I ended up with three, including this one, probably the best song of the concert I saw them play in Tempe back in May.

37. Two Door Cinema Club – “Sleep Alone.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Reviews of this band’s second album were mixed, but I preferred the stronger guitar influence here to the heavier electronic sound of their debut. I was originally convinced after first hearing their debut single, “I Can Talk,” that this was just another Ben Gibbard side project.

36. Arctic Monkeys – “R U Mine?” (amazoniTunesvideo) I admit to missing the younger, snarkier Monkeys, but this single is at least closer to the sound they had on their second disc.

35. alt-J – “Dissolve Me.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Easily my favorite album of the year, and maybe the best I’ve heard since Radiohead’s OK Computer, alt-J cross genres and blend sounds within three- to four-minute songs that boast intelligent lyrics that often tell complex stories. This song’s closing line, “She makes the sound the sea makes, knee-deep in the North Sea,” is one of the album’s more poignant images, behind a track that opens like twee-pop until the heavy bass line storms in to dispel that notion.

34. Soundgarden – “Been Away Too Long.” (amazoniTunesiconvideo) And it is damn good to have you back, boys.

33. Divine Fits – “Like Ice Cream.” (amazoniTunesvideo) I’ll credit Nick Piecoro for introducing me to this supergroup, starring the lead singer of Spoon. I saw the final show of their tour in LA in November and the best track from their set was a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Sway,” which was tighter than the original. “Like Ice Cream” wasn’t released as a single but is my favorite track from the Fits’ debut album.

32. Grouplove – “Tongue Tied.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Fun and poppy despite the worst female rap interlude since Prince’s “Alphabet St.” Also, did you know tongue-tied is actually a thing? It’s called ankyloglossia and refers to a condition where the frenulum below the tongue is longer than normal, reducing the tongue’s mobility, sometimes as far as its tip. I only learned this because a friend of mine had a baby this summer who was born with the condition, which they promptly fixed through surgery.

31. Bat for Lashes – “Laura.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Bat for Lashes is Natasha Khan, who is nuts, in a good way. This goth-tinged piano ballad involves a plea to a friend who fails to recognize her own self-worth to see herself in a new light, not as someone who’s only good as the life of the party.

30. Ben Howard – “Only Love.” (amazoniTunesvideo). Howard’s album Every Kingdom was nominated for the Mercury Prize, losing out to alt-J’s debut, but was my second favorite disc of the nominees, sounding like a smarter, more honest David Gray.

29. Jack White – “Love Interruption.” (amazoniTunesvideo) White continues to mine old genres of popular music and find new ways to express himself without making the style he’s borrowing unrecognizable. This folk-rock duet has that typical Jack White unforgettable melody as well as the perfect line “I won’t let love disrupt corrupt or interrupt me” in its chorus.

28. Best Coast – “The Only Place.” (amazoniTunesvideo) You know, I think I’m detecting some west coast bias here.

27. Hot Chip – “Don’t Deny Your Heart.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Not quite as good as their magnum opus, “Over and Over,” but even more upbeat overall. I want to compare these guys to Erasure, but Hot Chip’s music is more layered and less overtly poppy.

26. Imagine Dragons – “It’s Time.” (amazoniTunesvideo) This might be the most overplayed song on the list – I think it ended up on an episode of “Glee,” which is the kiss of death for any song – but I’m trying to remain at least somewhat objective here, and I liked the song quite a bit before it crossed over, as did my daughter, who heard it just once and asked me to put it on her iPod.

25. alt-J – “Taro.” (amazoniTunesvideo) A song about the photojournalist Gerda Taro and her ill-fated love affair with Robert Capa – Taro was the first photojournalist to be killed in action, dying while covering the Spanish Civil War – over a two-part suite, one half sounding almost like a Belle & Sebastian track while the other draws on Indian rhythrms, like the score from a Bollywood film.

24. Ben Gibbard – “Oh, Woe.” (amazoniTunesvideo) My favorite track from the solo debut by Baseball Today listener and Death Cab for Cutie frontman Gibbard. The album version is great, but the live version I linked in that video, just Gibbard and his guitar, is really superb.

23. M83 – “Midnight City.” (amazoniTunesvideo) There’s something abstract about “Midnight City” with the deemphasis on its vocals and the repetition of a short hook that sounds like someone stepping on a clown’s horn, but I had to concede to my own brain on this one after I couldn’t get that hook out of my head for several weeks.

22. Tanlines – “All of Me.” (amazoniTunesvideo) I tend to put these lists together pairwise – would I rather listen to track A or track B? – and had to put “All of Me” over all other electronic/dance tracks save one because it’s a cleaner listen with more resemblance to a traditionally-recorded song. I have no objection to synthesizers, drum machines, and other tools of the trade; progress is wonderful, but I will likely always favor songs that at least structurally resemble the music I grew up listening to. Tanlines definitely draws on that early Depeche Mode sound and even some of the edgier New Wave stuff that defined my musical tastes in the early to mid-80s.

21. Ben Howard – “Old Pine.” (amazoniTunesvideo). The first track from Howard’s Every Kingdom album has three fairly distinct parts, with the middle one, where the lyrics begin, the one that drew me not just to the song but to the disc as a whole, one of only about a half-dozen albums I’ve purchased in full this year. The production here absolutely makes the track, as it sounds like Howard is in the room with you playing the acoustic guitar.

20. Black Keys – “Lonely Boy.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Actually released in late 2011, but it’s my list and I’m including it because I want to talk about Black Keys. Other than the National, I doubt readers have recommended any artist to me as much as they have the Black Keys, and I get it – I probably should like them more, as they draw so heavily on classic rock and hard-rock traditions that characterized most of my music collection from high school through my freshman year of college. But I find Black Keys’ music so derivative of its influences that I find myself separated from their music by a wall of disdain – if other artists on this list, like Jack White, Tame Impala, and Richard Hawley, can draw on the same influences but add new insights or flourishes to create something new, why are Black Keys so satisfied to imitate rather than innovate? “Little Submarines” is just “Can’t Find My Way Home” revisited. “Gold on the Ceiling” sounds like a T-Rex B-side. If anything, Black Keys became less creative on El Camino, since at least the two main singles from Brothers, “Tighten Up” and “Howlin’ for You,” brought something new to the blues-rock table. Black Keys are more Whitesnake than Led Zeppelin in the end.

19. Django Django – “Hail Bop.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Another track from a Mercury Prize-nominated album in a very strong year for candidates after a disappointing crop in 2011. I know “Default” is the hit single and the critically lauded track, but I prefer “Hail Bop” for its better balance between its psychedelic-rock roots and the electronic elements Django brings to all of its tracks. I wonder if I’d like “Default” better if it were exactly the same track but without the muddled sample of the lead singer saying “default” all over the song.

18. Gotye – “Eyes Wide Open.” (amazoniTunesvideo) I hate Gotye’s Big Hit, enough that I’m not even going to say its name. This is a way better song, mostly because it’s not annoying, but also because it shows the multi-instrumentalist can rock out a little bit.

17. Mumford and Sons – “I Will Wait.” (amazoniTunesvideo) I liked Babel, Mumford’s new album (reviewed here), but didn’t think it was as novel as their debut – they cover a lot of the same ground with better production values and some improved quality in the lyrics. I can’t blame them for following a successful formula, but they’re going to have to try something new on disc three. Anyway, “I Will Wait” has been a huge hit single and earned them some Grammy notice, although it’s my second-favorite track on the album.

16. Capital Cities – “Safe and Sound.” (amazoniTunesvideo) This is an unabashed retro New Wave track, something Men Without Hats might be proud of, but again, there are tiny details (like the horn sample) that make a familiar sound seem fresh.

15. Tame Impala – “Elephant.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Really liked this Australian group’s psychedelic-rock debut, featuring Solitude is Bliss, but haven’t spent enough time with their follow-up aside from this bass-heavy track – like driving behind a steamroller on a desolate highway – and the spacier track “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards.”

14. Richard Hawley – “Leave Your Body Behind You.” (amazoniTunesvideo) The former Longpigs guitarist was nominated for the Mercury Prize for the second time this year for his uneven but occasionally brilliant album Standing at the Sky’s Edge, featuring this song, reminiscent of some of the Stone Roses’ early material.

13. Jack White – “Sixteen Saltines.” (amazoniTunesvideo) When Jack White wants to rock, he rocks. He crafts heavy guitar lines that seem so familiar yet are indisputably his, and he doesn’t hide them behind other instruments, nearly always including a section where he’s playing with no vocals or instruments alongside him.

12. Bat for Lashes – “All Your Gold.” (amazoniTunesvideo) A faster-paced, more layered track from Khan’s Haunted Man album, “All Your Gold” would fit as well on adult contemporary radio as it would on alternative radio – and I do mean that as a compliment.

11. alt-J – “Breezeblocks.” (amazoniTunesvideo) The nasal vocals aside, this is a brilliant track that describes a lost love affair, possibly with a violent ending, and then goes on to quote Where the Wild Things Are (something most reviews I’ve seen of the song seemed to miss entirely). It also utilizes some of the recurring lyrical motifs on alt-J’s album, including the image of two adversaries “toe to toe,” and fugal vocal lines that also appear on “Dissolve Me.”

10. Cloud Nothings – “Stay Useless.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Dylan Baldi’s one-man project is now a full-fledged band but he retains his lo-fi garage-rock stylings, just opting for a harder sound on their second full-length album Attack on Memory, led by this standout track and potential slacker anthem.

9. Of Monsters and Men – “Mountain Sound.”(amazoniTunesvideo) I loved Of Monsters and Men’s debut album pretty much start to finish, but I’ll concede the lyrics here might fit in a greeting card. It’s incredibly catchy, though, and my daughter and I have been singing the call-and-response chorus together in the car for months.

8. School of Seven Bells – “The Night.” (amazoniTunesvideo) The lyrics, both in content and in sound, are absolutely haunting: “Our ending/lit a fuse in my heart/Devoured me.” The video is nuts, by the way – they held a contest and the linked entry, starring a girl of maybe eight who is far too good at her role, was the winner.

7. Passion Pit – “Take a Walk.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Loved their single “Little Secrets” from their previous album, but this looks like it’s going to be the far bigger hit and I’m just glad to see this inventive synth-pop group getting more mainstream attention. No truth to the rumor that this is the theme song to the forthcoming film Moneyball 2.

6. Mumford and Sons – “Lover of the Light.” (amazoniTunesvideo) My favorite track from the new album, in part because there’s a little more going on here musically than anywhere else on the disc. And the video has Stringer Bell.

5. Civil Twilight – “Fire Escape.” (amazoniTunesvideo) I thought this song had disappeared without a trace until hearing it last week at Fido in Nashville; I immediately found its pulsing guitar lines, with a syncopated beat that gives the song a slightly funky groove, unforgettable, even to the point of forgiving the hackneyed reference to pharmaceuticals in the bridge.

4. The Vaccines – “Teenage Icon.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Post-punk and snarky, The Vaccines’ best song is either self-mocking or a vicious attack on the couldn’t-care-less ethic of many current rock heroes.

3. Bombay Bicycle Club – “Shuffle.” (amazoniTunesvideo) Released in the UK in June of 2011, although it debuted on the US Alternative charts on February 20th of 2012 and I didn’t hear it at all on the radio (specifically XMU) until March. The slight transposition of the recurring piano riff to keep it a quarter-beat off from the percussion gives the entire song the kinetic energy of a trip down a long flight of stairs…

2. Of Monsters and Men – “Little Talks.” (amazoniTunesvideo) The exclusion of these guys and of alt-J from the Granny nominations was an absolute embarrassment; I thought we’d turned a corner when Arcade Fire won in February of 2011, but that was the Felix Hernandez blip on the radar. OM&M love call-and-response tricks and they employed it most effectively here in a sunny song that masks the sad conversation between two lovers, one of whom is losing her memory or her mind.

1. alt-J – “Tessellate.” (amazoniTunesvideo) The best track on the best album of 2012, “Tessellate” takes a trip-hop beat with vivid imagery and nods to geometry and computer-aided design within a story of the end of a love affair. Any best-of-2012 album list that doesn’t include alt-J’s An Awesome Wave is invalid. It’s a groundbreaking record, a deserving winner of the Mercury Prize, and produced what was easily my favorite song of 2012.

Comments

  1. Nicholas Manna

    I like the list! I actually haven’t heard of alt-J til a few days ago, but now I keep seeing their name and have to check them out.
    If you haven’t already, check out Freelance Whales and Geographer, I saw them a couple months and they were both phenomenal.

  2. Idris Elba actually directed that Mumford music video.

  3. have you listened to any of The Sheepdogs or Howlin’ Rain?

  4. Nice work Keith. Check out Polica “Give You The Ghost” and Tennis “Young & Old”… both pretty brilliant (GYTG would be my #1 in 2012) and right in your wheelhouse, I think.

  5. Sheepdogs lean more towards the rock you’d hear in Almost Famous. Howlin’ Rain is somewhat close to that. I compare them musically a mix of Sheepdogs, Japandroids, and vocals (sound wise) of Widespread. I like them even not being a Panic fanl.

  6. Solid list KLaw- here some I’d recommend checking out:
    Japandroids- Evil’s Sway
    Beach House- Troublemaker
    Beg for the Night- Twin Shadow
    Dirty Ghosts- Ropes that Way and Shout it in

  7. I wish I liked your music lists as much as your book/boardgame lists (and baseball insight and restaurant reviews).

  8. No Dave Matthews?

  9. Not listing Frank Ocean on a best of 2012 list is worse than not voting Trout for MVP. If they listed a music WAR, he’d be ~18.4

  10. Nice list. I hadn’t listened to alt-J or Of Monsters & Men but I’ll definitely have to check them out after hearing the songs you posted. Also have you heard Hallelujah the Hills? They seem like a band you would like.

  11. Keith, based on your professed tastes above, can I recommend the newest album from the Punch Brothers? (Came out in February) Some excellent music.

  12. I hate to be that guy, but “Midnight City” was 2011.

    Cheers on including Cloud Nothings.. I saw these guys perform in the WRUW studios, crammed in there with a few other people after their free show on the Case Western campus was rained out.

  13. I tweeted these to you (sorry if they were a bit much), but some recommendations from my personal top 5 albums of 2012.

    “The Glorious Dead” by The Heavy. Neo-soul British group with rock, blues and R&B influences. You’ve heard the song, “How You Like Me Now” from “The House That Dirt Built” (another fantastic album), but it’s nowhere near their best track.

    “Tales From the Thames Delta” by The Milk. Another neo-soul Brit group. Very strong album. One tune features your boy Idris Elba.

    “Blak and Blu” by Gary Clark Jr. Insane blues and rock guitarist. Very talented writer.

    “Circles Around The Sun” by Dispatch. Arguably the biggest indie band of all time (they hold the record for biggest independent concert ever), with no label or radio hits, they became known via word of mouth and Napster. Their most famous song is “The General”.

    “Radio Music Society” by Esperanza Spalding. The gal that beat out Bieber for the Grammy’s “Best New Artist”, she’s fantastic.

  14. I turned this into a Spotify playlist for my own future listening. Ben Gibbard’s album isn’t on Spotify, but the rest should be there: http://open.spotify.com/user/121179914/playlist/3ZRhncaP6RbxeFS5AREiVL

    And, yes, I now realize that “2012” is meant to be taken liberally and withdraw my previous note on M83.

  15. “Take A Walk” drives me crazy in every negative way imaginable.

  16. WHERE’S ALL THE BEACH HOUSE

    In caps, because.

  17. With you on Django^2. Actually thought the back half of their album, Django^4, was better than the front, and thought that Default and Love’s Dart were the two weakest tracks.

    I saw this girl on Letterman recently. Not sure that I like anything else of hers, but this song stuck with me –
    Lianne La Havas – Is Your Love Big Enough? – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcXl6CDqpvY
    Catchy tune, and she’s beautiful.

  18. I was definitely won over by Of Monsters and Men after some time. Lots to check out on this list. Normally I know at least a good half of the songs on your list, but not so this year.

  19. Honest question, Keith. What does this comment mean? “I liked the song quite a bit before it crossed over”? As in, you liked it until others liked it?

  20. I tried the Alt-J record and didn’t dig it nearly as much as you. But I do like the #1 song very much, so I’m going to have to revisit it. The overall vibe reminds me a bit of a record from a number of years ago – Notwist – Neon Golden. Check out “One with the Freaks” and “Pilot” as two of the top tracks. I’ve been in an old school kick this year but some top songs without a lot of thought are:

    Bob Mould – Star Machine
    Cat Power – Cherokee
    Black Keys – Gold on the Ceiling
    Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks
    Sharon van Etton – Warsaw
    Mark Lanegan – Gravedigger’s Song

  21. Pretty good list; I’ve been working on my own, and we have some overlap (particularly glad cloud nothings got on there). Biggest omission is probably japandroids and titus andronicus

  22. @Chris: I mean it ended up overplayed and I got tired of it.

    @Brian: Frank Ocean’s disc is not my kind of music at all.

    I appreciate all of the recs. I just haven’t gotten into Japandroids at all – don’t dislike them, just had nothing grab me.

  23. I know you’re already bombarded with recommendations but seeing as so much of this is in line with my tastes as well; Of Monsters & Men and alt-J’s offerings were my two favourite albums of the year without question too.

    This – http://youtu.be/lmc21V-zBq0 – is my song of the year; no doubt. The sense of scale it creates as it goes along is fantastic; as is the video which the artist also directed.

  24. Keith, just curious – who’s your favorite band of all time? Or who is the greatest band of all time in your opinion?

  25. Thanks for the list Keith, I really enjoyed listening to them on the spotify list today.
    I think Laura, Bat for Lashes is my song of the year, and I was glad to see it on your list. A beautiful song.

  26. Real question: how did you know a song made it onto Glee?? Are you a closet fan of the show?

  27. @JR: No, saw it on a commercial during MLB postseason coverage.

  28. I love the list Klaw, I made a spotify playlist for it if folks are interested.
    http://open.spotify.com/user/blotzphoto/playlist/1pOUYkEMwy51VibZoOHHAG
    Everything but the Ben Gibbard is available.

  29. Lou,

    Thanks! Saved a bunch of work.

    Keith,

    Why “Tongue Tied” over “Itching on a Photograph” or one of Grouplove’s other songs? I heard the latter and enjoyed it a ton and was sort of surprised to find out that the previous “hit” was by the same band.

  30. I love your baseball writing. I like your food writing a great deal. I enjoy your perspective on literature.

    I despise your taste in music.

  31. I’m asking Santa for a mixed tape of the Klaw top 40 of 2012 for Christmas.

  32. I’d like to thank you for getting me into both Of Monsters and Men (ended up seeing them four times this year) and Alt-J (just saw them at an early show in SF) Django Django is pretty great (they remind me a lot of Franz Ferdinand) and the Bat for Lashes album is fantastic!

    You might want to check out Chairlift and Lord Huron and though the album is a few years old, The Head and the Heart were one of my favorite live acts this year.

  33. holy shit, that Bat for Lashes song is incredible.

  34. Ben Rothstein

    Two more essential albums of 2012:

    Gary Clark Jr. – Blak and Blu
    Grace Potter and the Nocturnals – The Lion, The Beast, The Beat

  35. The Black Keys are derivative but the first Mumford and Sons album (which is basically one song played slightly differently a dozen times) is novel? I think we’re done here.

    Big fan of your baseball work and literature recommendations, though.

  36. I appreciate all of the suggestions. I went and gave Japandroids’ latest album another listen … but I don’t get it. It’s just bland to my ears, nothing that pulls me back.

    @Patrick: You’ve already made that clear on a previous music thread. Thanks.

    @Nick: I don’t agree on M&S’s first album. One, their fusion of genres was new to my ears and more successful than other acts (e.g., the Avett Brothers) that tried to do something moderately similar. Second, I’m not sure how anyone could argue that, say, “White Blank Page,” “Little Lion Man,” and “Dust Bowl Dance” are the same song played slightly differently.

  37. Thanks Keith, great list. You’ve gotten a ton of recommentdations but check out Local Natives when you find time. Their album Gorilla Manor came out in 2009 but I think you might enjoy it, particularly the song Airplanes. Keep up the great work.

  38. Saw on Twitter that you can’t stand Metric. Since that’s a fairly strong statement, I was curious what about them you dislike?

  39. I’d recommend Menomena’s Moms. Specifically the song “Pique”. Think that’s right up your alley.

  40. In an attempt to be less critical and more helpful, here’s a starting place as to what’s missing –and how to keep the list from becoming the latest Starbucks complication CD.

    To be fair, there are some good ones on there (Tame Impala and Stars stand out).

    Frank Ocean: the album of the year (“not my kind of music” is interesting, since it’s all kinds of music)
    Beach House
    Dirty Projectors
    Father John Misty
    The Walkmen
    Grizzly Bear
    Japandroids
    Ty Segall (THREE records in 2012)
    Purity Ring
    Grimes
    Wild Nothing
    Spiritualized
    Kendrick Lamar
    Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

    Mumford and Sons are as authentic as the Country Bear Jamboree from Frontierland.

  41. * “compilation”

  42. As a big 90’s rock fan I still like to keep up with some of the long forgotten artists from the day like for example, the Toadies.

    Their newer music has really flown under the radar, at least outside of their homestate Texas.

    They released a new album this year Play.Rock.Music. Definitely not may favorite record from them but still a good listen for those who appreciate their edgy hard rock approach. I was disappointed with most of the album until I got to the last two songs, We Burned The City Down (my nominee for most ‘kick ass’ rock song of the year) and the amazing, more stripped down song, The Appeal. I recommend giving both a listen.

  43. As a hardcore fan of Pearl Jam, I felt I had no choice to do this after reading your comment on Alive on the top 200 rock songs of the 90’s list. Just my opinion, but I think you should give their less appreciated work from the past 15 years a chance.

    Here’s ten songs that I’d recommend

    In Hiding – Yield
    Wishlist – Yield
    Light Years – Binaural
    Love Boat Captain – Riot Act
    Thumbing My Way – Riot Act
    Down – Lost Dogs
    Footsteps – Lost Dogs
    Inside Job – Pearl Jam (2006)
    Come Back – Pearl Jam (2006)
    Unthought Known – Backspacer

  44. The M83 track is from last year. In fact it was number 1 on Pitchfork’s Top 100 songs of 2011 (Intro also appears on the list). Its a great track though.

  45. Brian in San Francisco

    Keith I know you’re more of a singles guy than an album guy but “The Bloom and the Blight” by Two Gallants rips from start to finish, totally shreds in every single way and the lyrics are stupid good. Seeing them in February, stoked.

    Re: Mumford & Sons. I play guitar (not very well) but a four year old could play those songs, they are Am, C, G, D over and over again. They sound nice and all and I like them (and saw them last year in Santa Barbara and thought they were great) but it’s basically the same chords on a (granted, nice sounding) loop.

    Re: Frank Ocean. Nope. Even suggesting that here is kind of ridiculous.

    Re: Beach House. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
    Re: Grimes. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
    Maybe if my seasonal affect disorder was getting the best of me and I desperately needed to hear some warbly moans…maybe then I’d want to fire up the Beach House/Grimes snoozefest but until then, that’s a pass.

    I saw Of Monsters and Men in Oakland Friday–surprised by how good they sounded, I thought more of their sound might have been more produced but they nailed it and “Lakehouse” was shockingly heavy. Jack White headlined and yes, he did rock; not the hugest fan but was great to see him.

    The new Joshua James album I’d like to recommend, here’s his single but the whole album is pretty good, $10 @ the Google Play store. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0Ktrg4Qvo

  46. Detailed and thoughtful list as ways KLaw.

    Here’s a personal fav of mine from 2012

    Kishi Bashi’s – I Am The Antichrist To You
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EewB7xHHIvE

    Kishi Bashi tours with Of Montreal.

  47. “Mumford & Sons. I play guitar (not very well) but a four year old could play those songs, they are Am, C, G, D over and over again. They sound nice and all and I like them (and saw them last year in Santa Barbara and thought they were great) but it’s basically the same chords on a (granted, nice sounding) loop.”

    Brian,

    I am not the biggest music fan and am even less of a musician, so perhaps you can educate me. Why does the complexity of a song matter when considering its enjoyment? For me, I listen to music that sounds good, that feels good to listen to. Sometimes this is very complex stuff, and sometimes it is very simple stuff. What little I know about technical achievement, I’ll offer far more to the former than the latter. But if a simple song sounds better than a more complex one, than I’m likely going to enjoy that more. Does your experience with guitar alter this calculus for you? Is there something less enjoyable about a simpler-to-write-and-play song? I’ve heard your opinion expressed by others before and recognize it as a common one; it’s just not one I understand. If you can enlighten me, I’d appreciate it.

  48. I am a huge fan of everything Jack White has done and love Sixteen Saltines and Love Interruption, but the one song on the album I can’t stop listening to is I’m Shakin.

    Also missed:
    NOFX – My Sycophant Others
    The Sword – The Veil of Isis
    Band of Skulls – You’re Not Pretty But You Got It Goin’ On

  49. Brian in San Francisco

    @Kazzy: Don’t get me wrong–I *like* Mumford and Sons, I just like them a lot for 30 or 40 minutes once or twice every-other-week (as an aside they have a free session you can stream here at Daytrotter with a fun cover or two: http://www.daytrotter.com/#!/concert/mumford-and-sons/20056077-37383275) as opposed to a band with a more dynamic and outside of the norm song structure that maybe keeps its flavor a bit longer.

    I’d say I’d agree with you if we were talking about ONE song that you might listen to ONCE (or even several times) but upon multiple listenings sometimes that simpleness loses its sheen. I’m not a Bright Eyes apologist but steam/buy “Lifted” if you have a free 45 minutes and can get past the first “song” (he generally starts his albums with some awful collection of noise to drive away casual listeners) and it’s crazy how different everything sounds and it’s an album that you can go to again and again and again and always be surprised (maybe just for fun pull up “Bowl of Oranges”, “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” and “From a Balance Beam” all from that album and tell me if I’m wrong).

  50. mike wants wins

    Thanks to Lou for the Spotify list. Saves us all a lot of work. Very nice. Keith, I’m with you on OM&M, nice album. I also am with you on Japandroids, I’ve tried a couple of times, but I just can’t get into it. Thanks for the list, glad it returned this year. As always, thanks for the book and game reviews also. Checked out your two veggie cookbook recipe books, whose names escape me. The really pretty one by the Jewish English guy had a lot of comments on line that the oils were off. My wife thought the recipes looked pretty unhealthy. But it was a great looking book, and I’m still tempted.