[Bonjoy]

Above selections not withstanding, it seems like I haven’t had the time to listen to whole albums. New music tends to have been individual or a few tracks here and there. So I can’t really recommend albums as such but here's some artists and sample tracks I’ve been liking. None are 2012 releases, some are deffo a lot older.

Jimmie Spheeris – I am the Mercury from classic 1970 album Isle of View. I don’t think Midlake’s The Courage of Others would exist without this track/album

Judee Sill – Crayon Angels.  Another one from the 70s from a true crazy genius

Jolie Holland – Mexico City. More recent, American country/folk. Great voice.

Sixto Rodriguez – Sandrevan Lullaby. After hearing Radio 4 documentary

Beach House – Myth. Dream pop apparently

This Mortal Coil – The definitive cover of Tim Buckley’s Song of Siren.


As per JB, loving the Fay comeback album.

[fried]

I haven't listened to anything that came out this year.  I thought that l'd get a chance this Week to do a bit of Spotifying but My Internet's gone down.

l did really like Abbey Road by  The Beatles though.

[Durbs]

Inadvertantly ended up on a bit of a folk & electro-swing binge, but the following have been played a fair amount:

The Folkroom Anthology 1 & 2 (Free downloads) - Really nice folky stuff from this new label

Swingrowers / Pronounced Swing Growers - Tasty Italian electro-swing

Caravan Palace / Panic - Nice French electro-swing, bigger beats than their first album

Watsky / Nothing Like The First Time - Fun lyric-driven hip-hop from the kid who bought you the YouTube phenomonemeonomonon "Pale kid raps fast"

Delilah - 2-4am (Free download) - A surprisingly good pop act with nice dub-steppy undertones on many tracks.

[SpanishJuan]

No particular order, and no doubt missing some crackers initially i'm going for:

Grizzly Bear - Shields
Ben Folds Five - The Sound of the Life of the Mind
The Shins - Port of Morrow
Fake Blood - Cells
The Herbaliser - There Were Seven
Django Django - Django Django
The XX - Coexist

more may follow

[jwi]

Don't listen much to albums anymore, have adapted to the modern way of discontinuous listening.

Anyway, some albums I liked (biased on the side of the latter part of the year, who remember what they listened to half a year ago?) :

Bill Fay, Life is People. On repeat for a long time.
Darren Hayman (and the Long Parliament), The Violence. Concept album of the year?
Franc Ocean, Channel Orange. Everyone's album of the year, for good reasons.
Björn Olsson, lite nya melodier.  Bjorn can whistle really well. A hero of the Swedish alt-rock scene.
Amanda Palmer, Theatre is evil. Everyone loves to hate it, I love it!
Elle Varner, Perfectly Imperfect. American R&B free of automatic pitch-controll YYFY.
Bobby Womack, Please forgive my heart. Comeback of the year?
Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball

[r-man]

Enjoying this thread. Not created enough listening time for albums this year, but here are some tracks that have lodged in my noggin. Sorry if these aren't all current, no idea what's new and what isn't.

Ruari Joseph, - Cornish based folky guitar singer-songwriter. Pretty lyrics and a tide-like melody on this song.

Gunner Møller Pedersen, - Danish Composer. Burblings, cracklings and keening brass sections. Minimalist beauty.

Alela Diane, - "Trance-like arpeggios" and a haunting voice, plus catchiness.

Grubby Mitts, - A stripped down intro grows into life-afirming noises of goodness. There's a Free Download too. Check out the cheeky To A Friend's House The Way Is Never Long if you like that.

Jesse Woods, - Music from the poetic side of American hobo life. Catchy too.

Mahalia Jackson, Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho - Gospel legend, voice to knock your socks off.

Karl Blau, That's How I Got to Memphis - gentle, perfect alt-country.  But I can't find a decent youtube version, so here's the very different Into The Nada - a gleeful concoction of drum machine, trumpet and bass.






 
 

[Fiend]

Kasra - FabricLive 61
DJ Hazard - FabricLive 63
S.P.Y. - What The Future Holds
THRASHER - 10 Years Of Prspct Madness
Enei - Machines
Ray Keith - I Am Renegade
Black Sun Empire - From The Shadows

Drum and bass has been the only good music released this year and even then there have been some disappointments (Break, Mindscape, Data, Big Bud).

Edit, my mistake:

Various - Minutes In Ice

Was an excellent techno album.

[miso soup]

http://www.flavorwire.com/357103/stereotyping-you-by-your-favorite-album-of-2012

"The xx's Coexist" was the favourite 2012 album for "interior designers who buy one record a year"

 

[Andy F]

Rush - Clockwork Angels. How on earth 3 men approaching a combined age of 180 can produce possibly their finest (and heaviest) album in a career lasing 40+ years is beyond comprehension 

[SA Chris]

Bobby Womack, Please forgive my heart. Comeback of the year?

Isn't the album called The Bravest Man in the Universe? Either way, yes a good return, exudes pure class.

I forgot I've been listening to Lightships - Electric Cables. Gerald Love (formerly of Teenage Fanclub) grows up and mellows out. Very laid back, but good.

[Fultonius]

Chris, do you read rolling stone?   

[cofe]

http://www.flavorwire.com/357103/stereotyping-you-by-your-favorite-album-of-2012

"The xx's Coexist" was the favourite 2012 album for "interior designers who buy one record a year"

 

'Mumford and Sons' – "Boring English people with beards."

Brilliant.

[andy_e]

http://www.flavorwire.com/357103/stereotyping-you-by-your-favorite-album-of-2012

That reminds me

DJ Rashad - Teklife pt. 1 - Welcome to the Chi.

[SA Chris]

Chris, do you read rolling stone?   

No, although I had intended the Q style "earnest review" tagline to come across in those comments. Maybe I've found my calling?

[jwi]

Bobby Womack, Please forgive my heart. Comeback of the year?

Isn't the album called The Bravest Man in the Universe? Either way, yes a good return, exudes pure class.

Eh, yes. And Mr. Ocean writes his first name Frank.  I was wearing mittens when I wrote my list. And the phone was on auto-correct. And I wasn't exactly sober...

[Jaspersharpe]

I'll submit my annual report tomorrow.

*taps watch*

[Grubes]

I only got 1 new album this year several older albums though

Deftone - Koi No yokan Brilliant album been played on repeat for a couple of weeks since I got it

[Yossarian]

Andy Stott - Luxury Problems
Actress - VIP
Chromatics - Kill for Love
John Talabot - FIN

[Stubbs]

Come on folks, at least some idea of genre next to your albums would be good!

[Yossarian]

Come on folks, at least some idea of genre next to your albums would be good!

OK:

Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Himalayan Storm-Dub-Techno-Wheeze-Phantom)
Actress - VIP (Lo-Fi-Plink-Tech)
Chromatics - Kill for Love (Empty-Synth-Sprawl-Pop)
John Talabot - FIN (Ibero-Stockhausenesque-Plip-Beat-House-Carnival)

[Falling Down]

 

[Boogster]

Burial            Kindred EP

Well, if we're playing it like that...

Burial's Truant/Rough Sleeper EP is even better.

Everything else I liked has already been mentioned (loved Tame Impala) other than El-P's Cancer 4 Cure, which is also amazing.

[Falling Down]

As ever, some great selections from the UKB culture vultures.  My Spotify playlist is expanding with each addition.



New Stuff that's rocked my world this year.

Cerebral Ballzy: Cerebral Ballzy - A blast of 80's style hardcore punkrock with great tunes and  brilliant production.

Burial: Street Halo/Kindred - Streets ahead of any other post rave/dubstep/bass music producers.  Melancholy and exciting at the same time. Listen on a big bass heavy sound system.

The Eccentric Research Council: 1612 Underture - Maxine Peak (Shameless and film actress) and the Sheffield based "All Seeing Eye" conjure up a psychogeographic and contemporary evocation  of the Pendle Witch trials.  Really different and really good.

Ichabod: Dreamscapes from Deadspace - Psychedelic, stoner, sludge rock of the highest quality.

Bob Mould: Silver Age - A return to Sugar style pop rock blasts and a renaissance of sorts for the ex-Husker Du frontman. Sunny day psyche music.

The Seer: Swans - Just awesome, troublesome and epic.

Alexander Tucker: Third Mouth - Beautiful, gentle, finger picked guitar with an electronic backwash.  Introspective, rainy, Sunday afternoon edge-of-sleep listening (and the cover art is great)

Hirsuite Pursuit: Tighten that Muscle Ring - Filthy gay fuck techno disco from Bryin Dall (Thee Majesty), Boyd Rice and Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and Coil).  Funny, hardcore and just Ace.

Dragged Into Sunlight: Widowmaker - Take last year's DIS album and chuck in some Godspeed and the result is terrifying from this bunch of anonymous scouse noise merchants.

Gravenhurst: The Ghost in Daylight - Just lovely guitar and electronica gentleness with a hint of darkness from Nick Talbot.

Rangda: Formerly Extinct - Improv psychedelia from the 'supergroup' of Ben Chasny (Six organs of admittance), Sir Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls) and Chris Corsano.

Pig Destroyer: Book Burner - 19 tracks in 28 minutes. Blistering grindcore.

TurboNegro: Sexual Harassment - This is just brilliant.  Like The Dwarves, Lazy Cowgirls, Cheap Trick and The Stooges got stuck in a mixer with a modern twist.  I'd love to see them live.

Sandy Denny: Box Set - 19 CD's and accompanying books, artwork and other stuff from her entire career.  Has all the recordings with Fairport, Fotheringay and solo performances.  Just stunning.

That's it for new stuff.  Other sounds that have rocked my world this year include:

Rihanna: Can't stop playing her Loud LP.

Phil Spector: Playing all the wall of sound stuff on repeat all year.

Bobby Beasoleil: Scorpio Rising - Soundtrack to the Kenneth Anger movie recorded by BB in prison following the murder of Sharon Tate.

Stephen Stills: Manassas - Country rock at its best.

Roxy Music: CD boxed set of all the albums. Just brilliant.

Liszt: Bartok in the desert - Scratchy recordings of Bartok played on piano by the pyramids of Giza.  Great train window gazing soundtrack.

[SA Chris]

Lovely set of obscurities; only things I ever new existed from the new stuff are Bob Mould and Burial.

[Stabbsy]

Bob Mould: Silver Age - A return to Sugar style pop rock blasts and a renaissance of sorts for the ex-Husker Du frontman. Sunny day psyche music.

Still not as good as Copper Blue though....