@djsnack's Dozen Best Albums Of 2012

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]Another year in the books, and another year of discovering great new music.  To me, the trend of the year is the ghostly intamacy of where great new artists have taken R&B and Hip-Hop.  While there were some great Indie and Alternative albums, it really are the bedroom artists that, even as they get bigger, keep creating dance music for the soul.  This trend is reflected in the albums I fell in love with.  Here's my countdown of the top 12, with a Spotify playlist of all 12 at the bottom.  Let me know what grabbed your ear this year.

 

12. The Haunted Man by Bat For Lashes - Best effort yet for Natasha Khan.  The theme of loving a flawed man is interesting, as men in general have to come to grips on their lowering of power and control in this world.  Plus, her adventerous hooks are great.

11. Delta Spirit by Delta Spirit - Saw these guys live at SXSW.  Very fun alternative rock sound.  Sounds great driving down a Texas highway.

10. The Bravest Man In The Universe by Bobby Womack - So brutal are these songs as Bobby looks back at his flawed life.  Daman Albarn breaths new life into his sound through humanistic bleeps and bloops.  

9. Mixed Emotions by Tanlines - Really fun synth pop.  If I had a late night TV show, I'd want them to be my house band. 

8. Kill For Love by Chromatics - Dirty disco that sounds like a late night road to nowhere.  The cover of Neil Young's "Into The Black" should absolutly not work, but somehow it completely does.

7. Put You Back N 2 It by Perfume Genius - My favorite singer-songwriter album of the year.  The topics covered, like child abuse and prostitution, are just brutal.  But the music is just so hopeful that you feel like the song's subjects do find peace.  

6. Celebration Rock by Japandroids - Big, loud beer-drinkin' music.  It really does celebrate the best of a wasted youth.  And that isn't celebrated enough in our culture today.

5. Trilogy by The Weeknd - Technically this is a reissue, as this is the combination of all 3 Weeknd releases from last year packaged as one and remastered.  But hearing all 30 songs together is overwhelmingly powerful.  These tales of casual sex and drug use are gripping because the helplessness is palpable.

4. good kid, m.A.A.d city by Kendrick Lamar - What a debut.  I'd say it's the best one since Kanye dropped College Droupout ten years ago.  He weavs through east coast Native Tounge influence to the clear Dr. Dre gangsta rap ties.  I highly recommend the the delux edition so you can check out the extra bonus cut "The Recipe" with Dre.  Best weed song since Three 6 Mafia's Stay High.

3. Coexist by The xx - The first song, with just a solo female voice and simple guitar pluck sets the mood for this extremely minimal album.  But the highlights are when the production weaves in and out of amazing dance beats muted to a feeling rather than a sound.  It's like being inside the head of someone standing in the middle of a club, wondering how the hell they got there, and where the should go next.

2. Visions by Grimes - I love Claire Boucher because she doesn't hide all her pop influences.  She has no problem saying she wants to sound like Mariah Carey or that her favorite album of the year is Justin Biebers.  She knows there are eternal truths in pop music that make them pleasureful to most people.  But how she took those influences, threw them in a blender, then spit them out with a keyboard and an iPhone are shocking.  This album is both sweet and savory.

1. Channel Orange by Frank Ocean - First, I am so thankful Frank did what he did and came out prior to the drop date of this album.  I can't imagine listening to it, and not imagining the real love and lust he is describing in songs that are clearly about a man.  Gay love is no different than hetero love in my book.  It's universal.  I see it every day with the care and affection close friends have with their significant others.  So Frank being honset in his storytelling makes these tracks that much more emotionally charged.  This soul album is a classic on the level of D'agelo's Voodoo or Marvin Gaye's Here My Dear.  You can play it at a party.  You can play it alone.  You can play it in the company of the one you most want to be with.  It's everything an American album should be in 2012.

If you don't have Spotify, you should.  Once you do, here's a playlist so you can listen to them and tell me with an informed ear I am crazy for loving these albums.