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-   -   Music Reaper's Favorite Albums of 2012 (https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=267678)

Reaper16 12-14-2012 08:07 PM

Reaper's Favorite Albums of 2012 (full list posted!)
 
As always, this is a list of my personal favorite albums of the year. It's not meant to be an objective "best-of" list, because while I listen to hundreds of new albums each year I still fall far short of listening to enough to feel comfortable making an objective claim. My usual genre tendencies towards metal and hip-hop are as present as ever. Hopefully you'll find some albums you will come to dig through this list.

I'll be posting it out over the next day or so. I'm doing 30 albums this year.

30.) Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
29.) Kamelot - Silverthorn
28.) Monolithe - III
27.) Arjen Anthony Lucassen - Lost in the New Real
26.) Tame Impala - Lonerism
25.) Heems - Nehru Jackets
24.) Panopticon - Kentucky
23.) Anathema - Weather Systems
22.) Brother Ali - Mourning in America, Dreaming in Color
21.) Dan Deacon - America
20.) Sigh - In Somnophobia
19.) El-P - Cancer 4 Cure
18.) Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud
17.) Ondatropica - Ondatropica
16.) Death Grips - No Love Deep Web
15.) First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar
14.) Pharaoh - Bury the Light
13.) Krallice - Years Past Matter
12.) Enslaved - RIITIIR
11.) Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
10.) P.O.S. - We Don't Even Live Here
9.) Royal Thunder - CVI
8.) Lazerbeak - Lava Bangers
7.) Swans - The Seer
6.) Mgla - With Hearts Towards None
5.) Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
4.) Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Âme
3.) Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
2.) Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d. city
1.) Death Grips - The Money Store

Reaper16 12-14-2012 08:08 PM

30. Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dream

In a year where Frank Ocean’s album is topping many year-end lists, it was Miguel’s R&B album that I returned to the most. Miguel’s album is not nearly as personal as Ocean’s, and it’s more fun as a result. This is a sleek album, futuristic but only by a few years. It’s far sexier than the rest of 2012’s R&B. And Miguel can flat-out sing. Lead single “Adorn” is full of, as the kids say, eargasms.

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 08:09 PM

29. Kamelot – Silverthorn

I thought I was done with Kamelot. I’d always loved their mid-paced, symphonic power metal because of their vocalist, Roy Kahn. He’ll always been one of my favorite singers ever. But he left the band a couple of years ago, after Kamelot put out a very lackluster album. I don’t even know why I gave this new album a listen. But I’m glad I did. The songwriting has an urgency that the band has been lacking for 5 years, and new vocalist Tommy Karevik fits into the band seamlessly. No, he’s not Roy Kahn. But he’s damn good in his own right. The single, Sacrimony, is basically a quintessential Kamelot track. Ignore (or delight in) the cheesy lyrics – this song’s chorus is the worst-written thing I’ve heard all year; its utterly meaningless – and get caught up in the melodies. Eh, this is the sort of thing I have a soft spot for.

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 08:10 PM

28. Monolithe – III

Monolithe are a French doom metal band whose previous two albums, I and II, were a lot like this new one: a single, 50+-minute song. How does a doom band, especially one with a fondness for slooooooooow funeral doom, maintain a single song for nearly an hour? It’s hard, but Monolithe has found the answer: you have to somehow feel like a jam band. There are these organic, almost spontaneous shifts in the song and when one happens it feels like a spark of inspiration. The band rides those moments like a jazz improvisation before returning to the refrain. It’s a remarkably easy listen for an hour-long song. Nothing feels forced or strained. It doesn’t reach the highs of longlonglong songs from bands like Persefone, but for doom fans this is an hour well-spent, and well worth returning to. YouTube doesn’t have this song/album up for listen, so the best I can do is link you to an album preview. :(

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 08:11 PM

27. Arjen Anthony Lucassen – Lost in the New Real

Arjen Lucassen is the mastermind behind tons of prog-rock projects that I love: Star One, Ambeon, Guilt Machine, Stream of Passion, and most importantly, Ayreon. He has an incredible range of aptitude across musical genres, and this solo effort (his first since 1994) puts that aptitude to the test. It’s a double album, in which the first disc tells the story of a Rip Van Winkle-like man from the 21st century revived in the future, and his process in therapy to come to terms with his new reality. The 2nd album is all cover songs. What I have linked is one of my favorite tracks of the year – Arjen’s cover of Led Zepplin’s “Battle of Evermore.” In it, he uses some “When the Levee Breaks” style drums and some haunting female vocals and dulcimer playing from an unknown Dutch musician (Arjen has always been so good at finding obscure musicians and using them to extraordinary ends). Mostly this album is a diverse couple of hours of songwriting that I find comfortably familiar. It’s a decent holdover until the next Ayreon album.

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 08:11 PM

26. Tame Impala – Lonerism

Imagine if Kula Shaker or a similar psychedelic rock band learned the lessons of modern electronic pop bands like Animal Collective or Beach House. That’s pretty much what Australia’s Tame Impala is. It’s the Beatles most experimental phase meets oldold Pink Floyd meets Pitchfork-era buzzbands. Those comparisons to The Beatles are both obvious and welcome; the songs here are breezy and accessible despite their lavish electronic complexity. These soundscapes are begging to be sampled by other projects too. This is just a really nice sunny day album; a light but always interesting touch.

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 08:12 PM

25. Heems – Nehru Jackets

Das Racist broke up. I’m sad. But if Heems is going to continue to put out solo work like this then I’ll get over it. This album is exactly what you’d think a Heems solo album would be like: you are never sure when Heems is making fun of hip-hop or embracing it. These tracks frequently act as deconstructions of every convention in hip-hop. Other times they come real, presenting depictions of Indian-American life that I haven’t found in any other music. This album is as much Mike Finito’s as it is Heems’. Finito, who is one of the standout producers of 2012, did all of the beats here, and his glitchy, jarring drums and electronic samples mixed with syrupy pop vocal samples is a very appropriate match for Heems, especially when Finito decides to find inspiration in music from India. This isn’t the most accessible record, and intentionally so. But I returned to it time and time again this year for laughs and for its unique sonic stance.

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 09:43 PM

24. Panopticon – Kentucky

Most black metal fans are familiar with the Pacific Northwest scene and how it evokes the natural surroundings and way of life there. Bands like Wolves in the Throne Room or Agalloch really try to capture the essence of Cascadia in their music. Panopticon, the project of Kentucky’s Austin Lunn, wants to do the same thing with the South. This is hands down the most unique black metal album I heard all year. The concept of the album is to express the conflicted nature of the citizens of Kentucky to coal mining. It’s a struggle of economics and environmentalism. And this is certainly a black metal album. But what other black metal albums use sour-sounding pan flutes and shredding banjos? The way that Panopticon uses Bluegrass on this album is almost startling in how refreshing it is. I do think that the band can in the future work to more seamlessly blend the bluegrass influence into each aspect of their songs, but the tracks on this album get away with a bit of separation because of how delightful and unexpected the whole thing is. This feels like it’s coming from its own place in the black metal universe, as opposed to ripping off the Seattle and Portland bands. The South already redefined what American metal can be last decade, with the Savannah sludge sounds of Mastodon, Baroness, etc. Perhaps Panopticon is the band to bring a truly American sensibility to extreme metal subgenres that have had a hard time divorcing themselves from Scandinavia.

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Pitt Gorilla 12-14-2012 09:44 PM

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Reaper16 12-14-2012 09:45 PM

23. Anathema – Weather Systems

Anathema’s late-career turn from a drone/doom type band to an atmospheric rock band has been pretty fascinating. Mostly because it seems their primary aesthetic these days seems to be happiness. This album, Weather Systems, is drenched in luscious, happy arrangements. It’s an emotional ringer – lots of love, loss, and contemplation of those terms – but ultimately it tries to sound as joyous as possible. The joy and beauty of being alive. Make no mistake: this is one of the most emotionally uplifting albums of 2012. It’s so emotional that it can border on too much, on being overdone. But there’s a time and a place for deep, cathartic music like this. Weather Systems sounds like you’re being hugged by an angel.

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 09:46 PM

22. Brother Ali – Mourning in America, Dreaming in Color

It’s been an intense few years for Brother Ali since his last album in 2009. In fact, the track “Stop the Presses,” (which should open the album but doesn’t) details all of these things: the death of Eyedea, his musical break-up with producer Ant (of Atmosphere), his new, strong commitment to his Muslim faith. Those things combine to produce a radically different type of Brother Ali album. Those Ant beats that Ali rode tight like skin in the past are gone. Instead, this album is entirely produced by Jake One. Jake One’s beats here have a slightly more commercial snap to them, but they’re amongst his most cynical offerings too. These darker, slyer beats bring Ali to some complex crossroads. He’s typically on this album either angry over the state of America, or struggling to be a family man, or trying to calm down that anger through his spiritual teachings. It’s absolutely a portrait of an important American artist at a time of great change in their life. And while I don’t think this Jake One sound works as well for Ali as Ant’s beats did, this album still bumps and still teaches you how to be a better citizen. It will probably be the most enigmatic album of Ali’s career when it’s all finished.

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 09:47 PM

21. Dan Deacon – America

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I wonder what a Tom Petty album would sound like if Tom Petty were a contemporary of Animal Collective?”, well, think that to yourself no longer. You’ve found it! Dan Deacon, using songs that are in turn noisy, glitchy, tribal, marching, building, slick, and chaotic, tries to say something about this nation of natural beauty. The album is mostly instrumental, so the conceptual ties are mostly ambiguous. But there’s something about the instrumentation that seems classic, in a strange way. It’s the way these songs are tight – under 5 minutes, for the most part. It’s the way that they sound distantly like the tracking music for a nature documentary…that someone is watching in the apartment above you as you are listening to a post-rock album while trying to connect to the internet via a dialup modem. This album is a quick listen, fast-paced as an album even though every song feels like it has ample time to breathe and naturally find itself. This is pretty invigorating stuff.

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Reaper16 12-14-2012 09:48 PM

20. Sigh – In Somnophobia

Sigh, those crazy bastards from Japan, are one of my favorite bands. They always, always, bring some fresh, inventive musical concept to their albums. This new one explores dreams, which is not an uncommon theme in their music, but it does so though the lens of circus music. Seriously. This album sounds like circus music meets Camel’s “Lady Fantasy” – which means I love it intensely. This is the best Diablo Swing Orchestra album ever, and I mean that only positively. Sigh takes on dark ambient and drone a bit during the albums middle section, and that falls flat for me. But the album’s bright, insane, jaunty beginning and ending sections are strong enough to land this album in my top 20 favorites for the year. I am genetically disposed to liking prog bands that marry ambition with killer guitar solos. This album’s best moments do exactly that.

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doomy3 12-14-2012 11:01 PM

I always look forward to this thread. While I can't get into metal at all, and many of your favorites are metal, I do like many of your rap favorites. I hadn't heard of Doomtree or Brother Ali, among others, before your thread a couple years ago, and now I really like them a lot.

-King- 12-14-2012 11:02 PM

Good Kid mAAd City better be in the top 10... http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...ingFingers.gif:)


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