Albums
of the year
2012
So it’s come to this has it? A year of music so good that for the first time I came close to wishing albums would stop being made, as anything new coming out will surely distract and take away time from enjoying the fantastic albums that came out already. I feel bombarded with so much good music, yet time to listen slowly dissolving away (as evidenced by my balding head). Granted, it’s very true that I may not branch out as much as one could, and the most frustrating part is half of what I am into based on this post (and my runners-up post next week) may look like I do nothing but wait for Pitchfork’s daily reviews to guide me on my way musically. Rest assured, that is not the case, and just merely a coincidence. Most of the times I’ve done these posts I’ve just said “HERE! This is where’s it’s at – and listen to this other person tell you why!”. Last year, I took the time to write up my own reviews (who’d a thunk it?), but after looking at my blog stats I saw that it really didn’t reach many people. Your loss! So instead of making this feel like a chore left unnoticed this year by writing relatively long reviews that would fall on deaf ears, I would simplify. In the end, let the music speak for itself, eh? Well, for the most part. So, here you go, my favorite albums of the year. I guess technically they are what I consider to be “the best”, but by saying that it means these then have to be put in some sort of order, and quantified some way. But I really can’t do that. Depending on the mood of the day, each one of these albums is “the best” at one time or another, so really out of all the albums I’ve listened to over the past year, these are my go to albums – my favorites – my “desert island discs” of sorts. I’ve shared one track from each album as well, songs that I think not only represent what is great about the entire album, but what may spark an interest in you to checking out the whole thing, because to me they are all worth your time and quite rewarding indeed. Enjoy with aloha, and as always, turn it WAY the hell up, and for crying out loud use headphones. Laptop speakers = death.
9
Lotus Plaza
Spooky Action At A Distance
Brought to my attention by a good friend of mine, Lotus Plaza’s Spooky Action At A Distance clicked with me immediately, and has never tired on my ears once since then. A side project of sorts from a member of Deerhunter, this is their second album, and it’s 44 minutes couldn’t be more perfect. It’s so good I’m finding it quite difficult to figure out how to describe it without shortchanging it in any way. Let’s say it’s a folky, dream-pop type record if you will, full of big choruses that can put a smile on the face of even the most jaded of us. A few months after hearing it, it became the soundtrack of my first trip to the Pacific Northwest, and it couldn’t have been any more apropos. Vocals so reverbed you could hear them echoing through the mossy forests of Douglas Firs, and guitars so gorgeously airy, distorted, and wispy they could soundtrack the most poignant scene from Twin Peaks. It was fitting that during my trip the band just happened to be playing in Portland at a surreal little place called The Doug Fir Lounge. It was like stepping back into the 1950’s, the setting being a mix of The Jetsons, Mad Men and The Great Northern Hotel from Twin Peaks in all it’s log cabined glory. It was a trippy evening for so many reasons, and hearing this music live, in that setting, it was just exactly the kind of experience you want to have when far away from home. This album is full of so much rain-soaked natural beauty, it is the sound of the PNW, fitting the environs just perfectly. A gorgeous, natural work of art without any sense of pretense – it rocks, it glimmers, it relaxes, it’s absolute perfection, and hopefully the track I’ve shared, ‘Eveningness’, will evoke that.