12 Halcyon - Ellie Goulding
As is often the case, break-ups are the source of fodder for some of the best albums. On album number two, Goulding grows some balls and delivers an album that would make her debut album Lights quiver in its boots. Halcyon is less polished, dirtier, and grittier than its predecessor with a focus on a harder, more electronic sound, gifting Goulding with one of the best electronic albums of the year. Don’t be fooled by the shiny pop of lead single Anything Could Happen, because Halycon is a dark beast of an album.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Only You, My Blood, Hanging On, Anything Could Happen
11 Gossamer - Passion Pit
Gossamer is a contradictory album: on the one hand we have big, glossy, jubilant-sounding indie pop songs; however, on the other hand we have a dark break-up album which plumbs the depths of despair, heartbreak, and breaking under the stress of life's everyday pressures. Oddly, the buoyant pop aspect of the album and the tortured inner monologue that informs the lyrics seem to feed off each other - as much as they shouldn't - creating a group of songs that can only be described as having a split personality. And it's for this reason, strangely enough, that Gossamer works as a record.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Take A Walk, Carried Away, Love Is Greed, Where We Belong
10 Coexist - the xx
There was a lot of expectation heaped on the xx’s sophomore album – the follow-up to the universally acclaimed xx. And while Coexist never really meets the standard of its predecessor, it has a bloody good go at it, and denotes a subtle shift in sound for the British threesome, most notably, a subtle early nineties house influence. While the production is less glossy, and the sound is more minimalist, the elements that made their debut such a unique and compelling debut are still there. As a result, Coexist is a warm, tender, and earthy album that is more a refinement than a complete overhaul.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Sunset, Swept Away, Tides, Chained
09 Fragrant World- Yeasayer
Yeasayer’s third album is a fidgety, restless, and sometimes anxious collection of tracks full of shifting melodies and a plethora of hooks, with every percussive sound known to man thrown in for good measure - a case of everything including the kitchen sink. The end result could have been a hot mess; however, in the Brooklyn trio’s expert hands, it is nothing but absorbing. Yes, it’s dirty, messy, and ugly, but that's what makes it endearing. An interesting and addictive album that simultaneously pulls you in and repels you at the same time. Sometimes throwing in the kitchen sink really does work after all.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Reagan’s Skeleton, Fingers Never Bleed, Folk Hero Shtick, Blue Paper
Reagan’s Skeleton, Fingers Never Bleed, Folk Hero Shtick, Blue Paper
08 Born To Die - Lana Del Rey
Unfortunately, there has been a lot of negative press surrounding Lana Del Rey, some of which has been so vicious that many have forgotten what is important: that her music is really rather good. Regardless, Born To Die is a gorgeous, cinematic debut that sounds unlike anything else out there at the moment. Del Rey sounds like Nancy Sinatra on crack, and has perfected the art of producing songs that sound simultaneously joyous and depressing, all delivered with a certain measure of steely detachment which just makes us want her all the more.
STANDOUT TRACKS
National Anthem, Summertime Sadness, This Is What Makes Us Girls, Born To Die
07 Channel Orange - Frank Ocean
Weeks before this album’s release, Frank Ocean released a bold statement revealing that his first love was a man. For this reason alone, Channel Orange is an extraordinary album because it is perhaps the first urban/hip-hop album to deal with homosexual feelings in an honest and vulnerable way by a member of a music community that has traditionally been criticised for being homophobic. Aside from this, musically, Ocean’s debut is a modern urban masterpiece which positions itself nicely next to classic R&B albums such as The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, CrazySexyCool, Homebrew, Maxwell’s Urban Suite, and Purple Rain. And if you have been waiting for a modern-day take on Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, this is it.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Sweet Life, Super Rich Kids, Forrest Gump, Thinkin Bout You
06 The Temper Trap - The Temper Trap
Aussie indie rockers The Temper Trap will forever be known for their worldwide hit Sweet Disposition. Perhaps because of this, the band’s sophomore album was always going to be a difficult prospect. But what’s most commendable about The Temper Trap is that it rectifies the flaws that were present on their debut album Conditions. Where the latter was a bit all over the place and could often border on repellent melancholia, the new album is a tight, cohesive, and mostly upbeat album, despite it dealing predominantly with heartbreak and love lost. Where Conditions was the sound of a band trying to find their feet, The Temper Trap is the sound of a band standing strong on solid ground.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Trembling Hands, Miracle, Dreams, Leaving Heartbreak Hotel
05 Here We Are - Citizens!
It’s hard not to listen the debut album from London five-piece Citizens! without listening out for the influence of producer Alex Kapranos, the Franz Ferdinand frontman. But for those hoping for a Franz-lite album to fill the gap between Franz albums, you will be sorely disappointed... and simultaneously delighted. While Here We Are is nothing like a Franz album, it is a loveable pop album nonetheless, and an album that one could argue is a far more cohesive and enjoyable record than anything Franz has ever released. A stunningly good debut from a band that are yet to hit their stride. And we can't wait until they do.
05 Here We Are - Citizens!
It’s hard not to listen the debut album from London five-piece Citizens! without listening out for the influence of producer Alex Kapranos, the Franz Ferdinand frontman. But for those hoping for a Franz-lite album to fill the gap between Franz albums, you will be sorely disappointed... and simultaneously delighted. While Here We Are is nothing like a Franz album, it is a loveable pop album nonetheless, and an album that one could argue is a far more cohesive and enjoyable record than anything Franz has ever released. A stunningly good debut from a band that are yet to hit their stride. And we can't wait until they do.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Reptile, True Romance, Let’s Go All The Way, (I’m In Love With Your) Girlfriend
04 An Awesome Wave - ALT-J
Who would have thought that one of the year’s most interesting and surprising albums would come from a bunch of maths geeks named after the Mac computer keyboard command for the delta (Δ) symbol (pressing the 'Alt' key and the 'J' key at the same time gives the 'Δ' symbol)? The Mercury Prize-winning debut from this Cambridge foursome had us rubbing our ears with joy long before its Mercury nomination and subsequent media interest. An Awesome Wave was recorded in the band’s basement and is a genre-defying mix of electronica, trip-hop, dubstep, and folk that has been hailed by critics as revolutionary, sparking comparisons to Radiohead, Wild Beasts, and the xx. A compelling album that sounds too well-rounded to be a debut.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Something Good, Breezeblocks, Tesselate, Taro
03 Devotion - JESSIE WARE
03 Devotion - JESSIE WARE
Not many artists could use club culture as a starting point to make a sophisticated soul-pop record, but that is precisely what 27-year-old South Londoner Jessie Ware has done. Best known for her edgy collaborations with post-dubstep types including SBTRKT, Ware take elements of dance music, including drum ‘n’ bass, trip-hop, and dubstep, distils them down to their most basic units, and infuses them through this collection of smooth, seductive, and soulful tracks. The end result is an album that single-handedly resurrects the British neo-soul genre and manages to sound classic and contemporary at the same time, rather like a more hushed, downbeat version of Katy B’s debut album.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Running, Still Love Me, No To Love, What You Won’t Do For Love
02 In Our Heads - HOT CHIP
This is the album Hot Chip were always destined to make and will forever be known as their watershed album, the album that all of their future releases will be compared to. And what makes this even more exciting is that based on lead single Night And Day, many (including us) thought this album was going to be a bust. Instead, In Our Heads is an indie-pop masterpiece where the band manage to maintain their indie integrity while being unashamedly pop. The only problem being, if this is their career zenith, that means it’s all downhill from now on – a thought, we’re happy to banish to the furthermost recesses of our mind for now.
02 In Our Heads - HOT CHIP
This is the album Hot Chip were always destined to make and will forever be known as their watershed album, the album that all of their future releases will be compared to. And what makes this even more exciting is that based on lead single Night And Day, many (including us) thought this album was going to be a bust. Instead, In Our Heads is an indie-pop masterpiece where the band manage to maintain their indie integrity while being unashamedly pop. The only problem being, if this is their career zenith, that means it’s all downhill from now on – a thought, we’re happy to banish to the furthermost recesses of our mind for now.
STANDOUT TRACKS
Flutes, Don’t Deny Your Heart, Look At Where We Are, Always Been Your Love
01 Happy To You - MIIKE SNOW
Well this is a bit of a surprise then. If anyone told us in January that our album of the year would come from this two-thirds Swedish pop trio (a combination of Swedish producers Bloodshy & Avant and American musician and producer Andrew Wyatt), we would have told them to, er, re-evaluate their prediction. But lo and behold, here we are, Happy To You is our album of the year for 2012. The trio’s second studio album builds on all the good points about their self-titled debut, while retaining their unique sound which fuses elements of electronica with real live instruments (a genre that some would call indietronica) and beats that demonstrate a hip-hop sensibility - all produced to perfection by two of Sweden’s best producers (Bloodshy & Avant have worked with the likes of Madonna, Kelis, Depeche Mode, Britney Spears, Kylie). A corker of an album from start to finish, a rare commodity in this iPod-shuffling age.
Well this is a bit of a surprise then. If anyone told us in January that our album of the year would come from this two-thirds Swedish pop trio (a combination of Swedish producers Bloodshy & Avant and American musician and producer Andrew Wyatt), we would have told them to, er, re-evaluate their prediction. But lo and behold, here we are, Happy To You is our album of the year for 2012. The trio’s second studio album builds on all the good points about their self-titled debut, while retaining their unique sound which fuses elements of electronica with real live instruments (a genre that some would call indietronica) and beats that demonstrate a hip-hop sensibility - all produced to perfection by two of Sweden’s best producers (Bloodshy & Avant have worked with the likes of Madonna, Kelis, Depeche Mode, Britney Spears, Kylie). A corker of an album from start to finish, a rare commodity in this iPod-shuffling age.
STANDOUT TRACKS
The Wave, God Help This Divorce, Bavarian #1 (Say You Will), Devil’s Work
Honourable Mentions
The albums that placed from 13-20 on this year's list.
- Swing Lo Magellan - DIRTY PROJECTORS
- Bloom - BEACH HOUSE
- Visions - GRIMES
- From The Roots Up - DELILAH
- My Head Is An Animal - OF MONSTERS AND MEN
- Sheilds - GRIZZLY BEAR
- Deep Heat - OH MERCY
- Hurry Up, We're Dreaming - M83
No comments:
Post a Comment