Well, I’m
a little late on this, but since they’re just getting rolling out there in
awards season land, I figure I can still sneak in my review of the best music of
the past year. This is the list of music that I listened to this year, the great, the good, and the okay. I don’t
put anything out and out bad on here, so don’t talk to me about Jack White or
Rihanna or Linkin Park, okay? So, the best music of 2012.
The Best Album of 2012
Oceania by Smashing Pumpkins
I’m as
surprised as you are. Billy Corgan has been pulling an Axil Rose for the past
decade. From breaking up his band twice, to taking out an ad in a Chicago paper
declaring that they would reunite, to whatever the hell Zwan was, to last year’s
42-song online free Teargarden by
Kaleidyscope (11 songs of which were actually released), to these massive
box set remasterings of their 90s vintage, to this, an album featuring only him
of the original SP line-up. And it’s fantastic. Some of the best guitar work
and arranging he has ever done, crafty songwriting. It had all the makings of
an unmitigated failure, and it turned out to be one of the greatest SP releases
ever.
Choice
track: “Chimera”
Honourable Mention 1
Some Nights by fun.
I
listened to a surprising amount of pop this year (more of a rock man, me), but
there was some good stuff, and this was the best of it. A friend put me on this
band, and to my surprise I was more than hooked, I was overwhelmed. What a
voice! And then the pervading family motif through the whole album makes you
think that, yes, sometimes people still actually write songs.
Choice
track: “Some Nights” is the best song released this year. If you have the album
version and you’re a parent, you may have my creative methods in drowning out
the one F-bomb as you listen to this track incessantly.
Honourable Mention 2
Clockwork Angels by Rush
These
guys just don’t let up. They still rock hard after nearly forty years, when
most of their peers have gone over to easy listening. That they can create some
of the best prog/rock going, putting it together on a steampunk concept album
with a novelization tie-in just goes to show that they are the smartest and
most talented hard rock band going. Way to crown it all with a long-overdue
Hall of Fame induction, fellas.
Choice
track: “Headlong Flight”
Honourable Mention 3
The 2nd Law by Muse
Even
though my band had been playing “Uprising” for three years, it’s taken me until
this album to get into this band, but I’ve really been making up for lost time.
This is a brilliant album, but if you’re like me and new to them—because apparently
we North Americans have not yet realized that this is the greatest band in the
world—do check out their past couple. Superb. These guys blend touches of
Radiohead, U2, Queen, and Pink Floyd to create a very un-2012 sound, yet they’re
not afraid to mix in the technology.
Choice
track: “Madness”
Honourable Mention 4
looking for an accomplice by Aaron Krogman
The best
entry from a really rich indy music scene this year. Gentle and thoughtful,
singer/songwriter Krogman studies common themes—loss of love and life, aging—from
self-aware and fresh angles. It’s guitar and voice, yes, but there is some stellar
arranging on this, adding just the right touches of added vocals, full band,
orchestration, fiddle, banjo, and anything else suited. Grab it at: http://aaronkrogman.bandcamp.com/
Choice
track: “Stay Soft”
Honourable Mention 5
The Sheepdogs by The Sheepdogs
Well,
they done did it. Last year the Saskatonians made headlines for making a cover,
not music. Even though they released a good album, it was hard to hear through
all the hype. Was it all just flash? Was there any follow-through? This LP
shows that these furry fellas are for real, and their swamp rock sound has
matured into its own sound, rather than “it’s just like [insert 70s band name
here].” They have proven to be bigger than their origin.
Choice
track: “The Way It Is”
The Rest of the Good
Making Mirrors by Gotye
Looks
like it’s a one-hit wonder, and the song that started your year shows no sign
of abating on the radio or at the mall. However, it means a great pop album
will be forgotten in the wake. Worth a full listen.
Choice
track: Actually, go get Kimbra’s “Settle Down.” She’s the lady that makes “Somebody
I Used to Know” a duet.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Original
Soundtrack by
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Though not
quite the caliber of their Oscar Winning The
Social Network soundtrack, Reznor and Ross continue to create some of the
best electronic ambiance going. It’s cool when Nine Inch Nails grow old.
Choice
track: “Immigrant Song”
Dead Silence by Billy Talent
I cannot
believe this band. Rock solid. And if you think it’s just power-chord punk, why
don’t you go make your fingers and brain break and try to learn to play one of
their songs. They have so much pluck that chickens avoid them by forty miles.
Choice
track: “Viking Death March” got me in on name alone.
Away From Here by The Dave Matthews Band
After a
decade and a half, these guys reinvented themselves in with their 2009 release Big Whiskey and the GrooGux King,
probably their best album since Crash.
This set the stage for a bright future. Does Away From Here live up to the potential? Well, it’s not as
mind-blowing, but just okay DMB is still better than 90% of everything else out
there.
Choice track:
“Gaucho”
Babel by Mumford & Sons
When you
release one of the best albums of the decade, and you single-handedly revive
the folk music scene, your follow-up is guaranteed heavy scrutiny. Babel is good because it sounds a lot
like Sigh No More, but with more
stand out tracks and less end to end killer. However, they’ve taken a lot of
undeserved flack for the consistency of their sound, so here’s hoping #3 either
raises the bar, or people recall how many other bands have been rehashing
themselves forever. I mean, AC DC . . .
Choice
track: “Below My Feet,” but be sure to check out the cover of Simon and
Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.”
Now For Plan A by The Tragically Hip
I spent
August rediscovering these guys, walking in the great music of my youth, but
also with their latest albums. Plan A
came at just the right time. They still have it.
Choice
track: “At Transformation,” but don’t miss the live version of “Grace, Too”
from a Calgary show. Gord Downie is the best improve storyteller in Canadian
music.
. . . Thank You and I’m Sorry by the Trews
I love
this band, though their latest release Hope
and Ruin fell short of past glories. Apparently this EP is to tide us over
until their next album. If that’s the case, they should only release EPs, it’s that good. But what blows me away is one
song, an instant classic.
Choice
track: “. . . And We Are the Trews.” A band road song culminating in two
minutes of shout-outs to the best in modern Canadian music, including all those
Gordies.
King Animal by Soundgarden
After
all the hype, all the waiting, it came out pretty well. It was exactly what
they promised, pretty much sounding like Soundgarden did when they broke up in
1996. Kim Thayil appears to be the most excited to be going again, the guitar riffs
being the indication. But why would you leave your best song off the album?
Choice
track: “Non-State Actor”
Celebration Day by Led Zeppelin
This
live cut of their one-off reunion at the O2 Arena is already five years old, so
it’s hardly news. What makes it so surprisingly brilliant though, is after
thirty years of aborted and failed quasi-reunions, this one comes the closest
to Zep returning to grandeur of old.
Choice
track: “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”
Which Side Are You On by Ani DiFranco
She
continues to write unabashedly political songs and rip the hell out of a guitar
on it in the meantime. The title track is a no-holds-barred dance on the grave
of the Republican dream.
Choice
track: “Which Side Are You On?”
Americana and Psychedelic
Dream by Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Had Pill not have been released later in the
year, I’d have been right pissed at Mr. Young, new book or no new book. I didn’t
need a whole album of American folk favorites, even though “God Save the Queen”
was alright. Thank God he harnessed the Horse and set about noodling in his signature
plink-a-plink for several 10+ minute songs.
Choice
track: “Driftin’ Back”
Cabin Fever by Corb Lund
It didn’t
convert me. I just don’t like much country, even Lund’s thinking-man variety.
But this will be a crowd pleaser at parties of varied cliques.
Choice
track: “Gravedigger”
ⁱUno!, ⁱDos! and ⁱTre! by Green Day
Did we
need Green Day to release three albums this year and then for Billie Joe
Armstrong to flip out on stage, cancel a tour and go back into rehab? No. Green
Day makes great music, but it all sounds pretty similar, and so I haven’t been
able to get these down and really decide what’s killer and what’s filler. One
great album in here, for sure. However, the choice track is one of their best
recordings ever.
Choice
track: “Oh Love.”
Songs Not Albums
In a
year of great albums, I found myself downloading a lot of great music, but not
whole albums. This is rare for me. I mean, I needed to get “Gangnam Style” for
the kids, right? Anyway, here’s a short list of the stand out single releases
or songs that didn’t warrant me buying the album this year.
“Faultline
Blues” by Sam Roberts
“Inside
Out (Acoustic)” by Eve 6
“Stick
It Out” by Florence + the Machine
“Midnight
City” by M83
“Abraham’s
Daughter” by Arcade Fire
“Live to
Rise” by Soundgarden
