The
albums that didn’t make it into the final ten fell into two categories:
firstly, those albums downloaded and binned after a few listens, and secondly,
those albums downloaded/purchased that I actually liked, kept, but didn’t like
enough to include in the ten.
It’s
the first category that provides a surprise or two. Looking back, I was pretty
quick off the mark to download and bin a couple of acclaimed new release albums
that would ultimately prove prominent on year-end lists elsewhere. Albums I had
downloaded on the strength of positive reviews, but nonetheless albums I just
couldn’t gel with.
For
example, the Frank Ocean album wasn’t in my ten, ubiquitous though it was on
any number of other blog year-end lists. Nor the none-too-bad Hot Chip release.
Neither did indie darlings Grizzly Bear feature. New albums by all of the above
were downloaded, listened to (more than once), and discarded.
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| Ocean: an orange shade of purple |
Much
loved though they all were elsewhere, those albums got the recycle bin treatment
because I knew I wouldn’t be listening to them on any regular basis going
forward. But not before I’d extracted the few tracks on each that I’d connected
with (for playlist purposes).
A
friend of mine – even as a fan of the Frank Ocean album – summed it up best for
me when he said (paraphrasing here): “it’s almost as though critics were
shocked to discover a half decent R&B album in 2012 and (over) reacted
accordingly” … but for me Channel Orange remained over-hyped, and Ocean came
across as something of a poor man’s Prince.
I
also (downloaded and) binned new work from past favourites like The Cult, Dandy
Warhols, and Smashing Pumpkins. All were mediocre – at best – when measured
against deeds of yesteryear. And Muse,
past masters when it comes to these year-end lists, well, what they gave us –
odd album cut excepted – was the ridiculous posing as the sublime. It too was
binned.
So
what made it into the second category, albums that made it all the way to the
end of the year, only to miss out? Albums I liked, kept, and will listen to
again. The better than decent also-rans:
Coming
closest of all but just missing the final ten was Leftfield’s Tourism (reviewed here), and it probably rates as my live album of the year. I gave this a
thorough workout through the early part of 2012.
Orbital’s
Wonky, something of a comeback album that, for the most part, lived up to the
best of that pioneering outfit’s past work, also came very close to making the
cut.
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| The Raveonettes: great Danes |
The
Raveonettes featured in last year’s ten, and 2012’s Observator was a similarly
strong release that suffered only from feeling a little too familiar, mainly on
account of sounding a lot too much like 2011’s Raven In The Grave. All the
same, it still rates as another great album from the prolific Danish duo.
And
Paul Weller’s Sonik Kicks didn’t quite win me over enough either, despite it being
another solid release from a man who shows no sign of slowing down.
The
Haunted Man, the latest from Bat For Lashes is also a very listenable body of
work, and the feeling persists that I need to give this one a few more spins. I
really came quite late to this one and perhaps haven’t absorbed it fully. On
any other day The Haunted Man would more than likely have made the ten …
Had
the second half of Bobby Womack’s The Bravest Man In The Universe been anywhere
near as strong as the first half it too would have been a certainty for the ten,
but as noted in my original review (here) it just sort of limps to an
unfulfilling conclusion.
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| Bobby Womack: soul man |
The
Dub Pistols’ Worshipping The Dollar (reviewed here) is another that came close
and it found itself on semi-permanent pod rotation for a month or two mid-year.
Upon
further reflection, I was very tough on The xx’s Coexist, which has appealed to
me a lot more since I wrote my original review (here), but I’m quite sure the
band will console itself with the reality that far more highly regarded critics
(than myself) deemed it a worthy effort, and it doubtlessly features on the
majority of those year-end album lists found elsewhere.
Ditto,
Cat Power’s Sun, another album that kept revealing more and more of its subtle
charms well after my initial review (here) was uploaded. I look forward to her gig in Wellington (tonight already!).
My
‘New Zealand’ album of the year has to be local-boy-done-good Myele
Manzanza’s solo debut effort (reviewed here).
I
also had a fair bit of time for Ladyhawke’s 2012 album, Anxiety, another highly
polished synthpop gem from Masterton’s Pip Brown.
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| Ladyhawke: pomp and polish |
But
those two are merely the tip of the iceberg during what was a great year for
“local product”. My only issue is that I didn’t get around to listening to
enough of it.
Reissue
of the year if only for the fact that I didn’t fully get into it first time
around and it therefore still felt remarkably fresh: Paul Simon’s masterpiece,
Graceland, which came with all the additional bells and whistles offered by
repackaging.
So
that’s “the albums of 2012”. If not the best, then certainly my “most listened
to”. It was a year where more streaming/download options than ever before – not
to mention a procession of different listening devices, each one better than
the last – resulted in instant access to a wider range of music than I could
ever have previously imagined. Right now it’s hard not to feel a little bit
like a lucky old cat licking a super-sized dollop of fresh cream.
Here’s
a clip from one of the albums I binned in haste, and probably shouldn’t have. Hot
Chip’s gem ‘These Chains’, one of my single tracks of the year … lifted from
(the 2012 album) In Our Heads:
