The Year In Music

This year was an interesting music year. I’m going to tackle this chronologically, as it was added to my library, not the year it was released. I’m not as “on it” as I used to be, so it takes a while longer for me to find stuff. In fact, most of the music that I found this year was through turntable.fm. These aren’t really “reviews”, as you can find better reviews from professionals or even on Pitchfork.

January

I bought The Wombats Proudly Present…This Modern Glitch by The Wombats. I haven’t listened to it a lot since then.

That was it for January.

February

This is when I finally broke down and accepted LCD Soundsystem into my life. Steven made sure I kept my Britpop membership up to date with The Big Pink (Future This and A Brief History of Love) and Sleigh Bells released a new album, Reign of Terror. I’ve been listening to all this all year long.

March

The 20th Anniversary of Nevermind was released, making me feel old. I yelled at some kids to get off my lawn and felt a lot better. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to pick up Siberia by Lights. Other than that, not much happened.

April

Future Islands was new to me, as was their album In Evening Air.

May

My friend Angela really wanted to go see AWOLNATION, and Megalithic Symphony was on special at the Amazon MP3 Store. After that, it was mostly bands I heard on turntable.fm: Eight And A Half with their self-titled debut, Miike Snow - Happy To You, Oberhofer - Time Capsules II, and Santigold - Master of My Make-Believe. I also added The Sounds - Dying To Say This To You and Garbage - Not Your Kind of People.

June

At long last, The Hives graced us with a new album, and what an album it was. Lex Hives was easily my most listened to new music in 2012. Overshadowed by this towering release of rock ‘n’ roll was Metric - Synthetica, Japandroids - Celebration Rock, and Fun. - Some Nights. I also finally got around to adding M83 - Hurry Up We’re Dreaming to the collection.

July

I added nothing to the collection in July. Well, that’s not entirely true. I downloaded the free track Lots from the then upcoming Dan Deacon album America. It’s really good.

August

Bloc Party - Four was an interesting release. I got immediately hooked on a couple of tracks but the rest of the album didn’t seem to click. It quickly fell by the wayside. Spector - Enjoy It While It Lasts gets my Britpop Album of the Year award. It’s fantastic. I heard of the Neon Trees because they were on tour with The Limousines, so I picked up Picture Show. Yeasayer - Fragrant World was mostly purchased because they were using TopSpin Media. This allows them to sell direct to fans, so they get the bulk of the profit from their work. I love this model. I also got the vinyl.

September

Indie supergroup Divine Fits (I bet they hate the reference “supergroup”) released A Thing Called Divine Fits. It’s pretty good. The Killer released Battle Born. I’m still getting used to it. The Vaccines release Come of Age. I’m still getting used to it.

October

Matt & Kim release Lightning and I’m still dancing. Passion Pit drops Gossamer and I was already tired of Take A Walk. I grabbed Cassius - The Rawkers EP because I <3 U SO.

November

A new to me band, Hooray for Earth and their album True Loves, brought back glorious memories of late 80’s/early 90’s pop music. Amazon finally had a sale on Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal and I’m already tired of Little Talks. You should also pick up any Swim Deep you can find.

December

This is always Amazon MP3 blowout month. So, I typically pick up a few more albums than I normally would because they’re only $5 or less.

French Reform is actually a Chico band and they’re quite good. I wouldn’t have heard Dan Deacon if it wasn’t for turntable.fm. Bob Mould can still rock. The xx can still calm you down. Crystal Castles can still make you wonder why they don’t fix their equipment. Paul Banks still isn’t Interpol.