Albums of the Year 2012

Every December, I have this really long and boring internal argument about the best albums released the previous year. This time, I actually have a blog so now I have somewhere to write it all down where nobody's going to read it anyway. Here goes.

10. Metz - Metz
  9. Grizzly Bear - Shields
  8. Jessie Ware - Devotion
  7. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
  6. Tame Impala - Lonerism


5. Friends - Manifest!
I kind of want to put this at number one simply for the fact that it's got a FUCKING MAGIC EYE FOR THE COVER ART. You know, the things that look 3D when you cross your eyes. It's actually amazing. But I digress. Manifest! is summer in twelve tracks, singer Samantha Urbani's laid-back vocal style oozes the kind of casual cool we all wish we could achieve, while a vast array of musical styles blend into a perfect pop album. 'Sorry' features Carribean-inspired steel drum sounds, while lead single 'I'm His Girl' is bass-heavy and minimal while Urbani puts the world to rights lyrically. A solid set of 12 sassy, summery, pop gems. Let's be Friends.


4. Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (Paradise Edition)
Lana Del Rey is essentially just another pop Barbie. She's not a person, but a product marketed at teenage girls who wish they could be anybody but themselves. However, beneath the exterior lies Lizzy Grant, whose music evokes nostalgia for some kind of lost Americana where the men are tough and the streets tougher. Although much of the album's lyrical narrative is far fetched, Del Rey's soft voice and quivering vocal evokes an honesty and naivety that, as a teenage girl, it's hard not to connect with. 'This Is What Makes Us Girls' and 'Video Games' are perhaps the best examples of this, where Del Rey seems small and vulnerable even behind the hard plastic exterior. The Paradise Edition has to top the original, however, if simply for the stunning cover of 'Blue Velvet', synonymous with the David Lynch film of the same name. In fact, the album itself is reminiscent of Lynch's favourite small-town-with-a-seedy-underbelly theme, where high school girls are hookers and stay out drinking with the police til 7am in their underwear. And somehow, Del Rey makes it all sound so beautiful.

3. Future of the Left - the plot against common sense
Future of the Left's latest offering continues in much the same vein as their previous work - littered with pop-culture references and cutting satire whilst straddling the fence between melody and noise. But this time, the fuzz and noise is as tight and deliberate as the musicianship itself, the comedy in the lyrics is more obvious ('Girls Aloud were the new Nirvana, then any old shit was the new Nirvana' springs to mind) but instead of creating a parody of themselves, Future of the Left have merely made themselves more accessible to anyone who will listen. Their last-minute set at Beacons Festival secured this, as the band who was due to play pulled out and were replaced by the Cardiff 4-piece who began their set with a half-full tent of soggy, maudlin-drunk punters. Twenty minutes and at least three Mclusky covers later, the tent was full, pints were flying and for the first time that rainy weekend, it felt that the crowd really cared about something. Although not quite the next 'Do Dallas', 'the plot against common sense' really deserves recognition for one of the most innovative yet accessible of 2012.


2. Rufus Wainwright - Out of the Game
For me, one of the most important aspects of an album is coherence. A collection of twelve or thirteen fantastic but vastly different songs does not necessarily make a great album (Belle & Sebastian's 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress' springs instantly to mind) but here, Rufus Wainwright proves that coherence does not necessarily mean a common sound or theme - each song sounds like an entirely different genre, from Broadway-esque, dramatic and sweeping 'Montauk' to the indie-disco gem 'Perfect Man'. But in the case of 'Out of the Game', the stark contrasts have almost the opposite effect, tying together each track with a sense of the unexpected and absurd, and proving that Wainwright is most definitely still in the game.



1. Japandroids - Celebration Rock
An aptly named collection of soaring highs, this is the album so many had waited for for so long - nothing 'experimental' or pretentious here, just pure and unadulterated joy. Two people with a real lust for life coming together to create music for music's sake. Somewhere between Blink-182 and The Hold Steady lies a band who can write about youth with an exuberant passion without sounding like the soundtrack from a 90's gross-out comedy, or nostalgic middle-aged parents reliving 'the good old days'. Tracks 'Younger Us' and 'The Nights of Wine & Roses' showcase Japandroids' ability to take sentimental and nostalgic feeling and bring it straight into the present tense, the here and now. This immediacy translates perfectly live, with Celebration Rock anthems and their singalong choruses becoming instant crowd-pleasers. With a near-perfect mix of emotional depth and rock & roll energy, 'Celebration Rock' is truly an album to be celebrated.

You can argue with me on Twitter at @harriethey and listen to all the albums HERE. Enjoy!