2012 in Music

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