Another batch of albums of 2012 I listened to:
- 2 by Mac DeMarco (nr 11 on the overall BEA top chart of 2012): the repoman himself predicted I would like this one and I did. He got better later but this is already vintage Mac DeMarco.
- Shields by Grizzly Bear (nr 12): I have mixed feelings about this band. I feel that I could like them better if I would do more effort but somehow it doesn't click completely while I do feel that tracks like Sun In Your Eyes certainly have a certain quality. But finally I decided not to include it in my personal top chart of the year
- Blunderbuss by Jack White (nr 13): I have less doubts about this album. I always have been a lukewarm fan of the man and on this album I'm very convinced it's not what I like in music. Of course Jack White is a real musician but somehow the songs nor his singing are not good enough.
- The 2nd Law by Muse (nr 16): and I have no doubts about this album. There are some songs with a bit of quality but most of them are just bombastic and pointless shit.
The next album to listen to is Fear Fun by Father John Misty.
And in between I have listened for the second time to the new Sebadoh album Act Surprised There's not a bad track to be found on this album and it's all very much Sebadoh with equal contributions by Lou and Jason but people who claim this is one of their best and comparable to Bakesale or Harmacy should go back and actually listen to these albums.
And here is a feature on two very underrated bands which had their heyday in the nineties but that I only just now discovered: Arcwelder and Silkworm.
They are both US guitar bands the first more linked to Hüsker Dü (the singer even sounds like Bob Mould) and the second maybe more linked to Pavement but they both have a fairly unique sound.
Arcwelder was a Minneapolis band started in 1988 and their first real album, This, is not very easy to find and sounds a bit underproduced as many of these indie bands at the time. But their next 5 albums were all very good in my opinion. I'll just quote the best three:
Pull by Arcwelder (1993)
Jacket Made In Canada by Arcwelder (1991)
Entropy by Arcwelder (1996).
Their last album, Everest, dates from 1999 (so they really were a band from the nineties) and was by many critics just written off as being the same as their other albums but in my opinion it was still very good.
The second band I discovered is Silkworm, and it started in Minnesota in 1987 and while it had many line-ups they still had a kind of signature sound which was guitar based but in which the bass and the drums also played a special role. I listened to all their albums and nearly all their EP's, 11 in total and they all have something special in my opinion. Here are again the best three:
...His Absence Is A Blessing by Silkworm (1993): in fact only an EP but a good introduction the band
Firewater by Silkworm (1996): generally acknowledged as their best
In The West by Silkworm (1994): a bit more of a rough diamond then the previous one but that's in fact the quality of this band.
Their last album was released, It'll Be Cool was their last complete album of 2004 but was that was mainly caused by the fact that their drummer died in a car crash. In 2005, part of their unfinished album was released as an EP, Chokes!, and it was a worthy ending to a very fine but forgotten band.
I was relistening to my favorite album of 2019: Eraserland by The Strand Of Oaks and I realised I had only listened to three of their albums so I decide to take in the whole of their regular records and this is my final ranking:
And here is a feature on two very underrated bands which had their heyday in the nineties but that I only just now discovered: Arcwelder and Silkworm.
They are both US guitar bands the first more linked to Hüsker Dü (the singer even sounds like Bob Mould) and the second maybe more linked to Pavement but they both have a fairly unique sound.
Arcwelder was a Minneapolis band started in 1988 and their first real album, This, is not very easy to find and sounds a bit underproduced as many of these indie bands at the time. But their next 5 albums were all very good in my opinion. I'll just quote the best three:
Pull by Arcwelder (1993)
Jacket Made In Canada by Arcwelder (1991)
Entropy by Arcwelder (1996).
Their last album, Everest, dates from 1999 (so they really were a band from the nineties) and was by many critics just written off as being the same as their other albums but in my opinion it was still very good.
The second band I discovered is Silkworm, and it started in Minnesota in 1987 and while it had many line-ups they still had a kind of signature sound which was guitar based but in which the bass and the drums also played a special role. I listened to all their albums and nearly all their EP's, 11 in total and they all have something special in my opinion. Here are again the best three:
...His Absence Is A Blessing by Silkworm (1993): in fact only an EP but a good introduction the band
Firewater by Silkworm (1996): generally acknowledged as their best
In The West by Silkworm (1994): a bit more of a rough diamond then the previous one but that's in fact the quality of this band.
Their last album was released, It'll Be Cool was their last complete album of 2004 but was that was mainly caused by the fact that their drummer died in a car crash. In 2005, part of their unfinished album was released as an EP, Chokes!, and it was a worthy ending to a very fine but forgotten band.
Nice! I really like both of these bands.Pull by Arcwelder has a special place in my heart actually. 😎
And after a bit of a pause here is another round of 2012 albums I listened to:
- Fear Fun by Father John Misty (nr 17 on the overall BEA top chart of 2012): Overall this isn't a bad album but not enough tracks did it for me with This is Sally Hatchet as the positive exception.
- Swing Lo Magellan by Dirty Projectors (nr 18 ): not enough good quality songs
- Babel by Mumford & Sons (nr 19): I don't know if it's the banjos but I just find this band and this album to be utterly boring
- Coexist by The xx (nr 20): and I can say the same thing about this band and this album and I don't even have any banjos to blame
- Jake Bugg by Jake Bugg (nr 21): Bob Dylan very light
- Valtari by Sigur Rós (nr 22): and this is Sigor Ros light. I very much like a lot of their albums but this one is a bit to much muzak for me.
- Django Django by Django Django (nr 23): I suppose I heard this album but after to relistening to it I overall quite like it. I like them more on their calmer stuff, ie when they turn down the rockabilly knob a bit like on Hail Bop.
- Koi No Yokan by Deftones (nr 24): I see in nearly every review of this album that this is the one where they definitively said goodbye to their nu-metal roots, but to me this album still sounds very nu-metal which to me isn't a good thing. After listening to a few of their album I think I can safely say I'm not a fan of them.
The next 2012 album to listen to is Red by Taylor Swift (or wouldn't/shouldn't I ?).
I was listening to the new album of Metz which is in fact a series of outtakes and so on and I think I'll need another listening session before I really appreciate it because especially the songs at the start of the album sound a bit bad.
But then I realised that I had only listened to the first of their three regular album and had really liked that so I decided to relisten to that one and also to the other two. And I can tell you they are all really good: it's not only real good and gritty Canadian postpunk like many of the current bands do but on top of that they really emit a lot of adrenalin while still writing good songs and riffs.
An allmusic quote on their last album sums it all up:
"a nonstop barrage of razor-sharp guitars, rumbling bass, and drums that go off like cannon fire."
The three albums are really good so it's difficult to make a choice but their second aptly title album maybe has the least filler:
II by Metz
And here are some more albums of 2012 I listened to:
- Red by Taylor Swift (nr 29 on the overall BEA top chart 2012): I enjoyed some of the non-dance tracks on this album more than I thought I would but it's still not the type of music I enjoy (I hear enough of that on daytime radio).
- Boys & Girls by Alabama Shakes (nr 30): no song on this a bit boring album grabbed my attention
- Night Visions by Imagine Dragons (nr 31): not my thing
- Kindred by Burial (nr 32): not my thing
- Kill For Love by Chromatics (nr 33): The opener Into The Black is a good tracks and there are more OK songs to be found on this album but overall not enough for me
- Port Of Morrow by The Shins (nr 34): this is the fourth album of this band I listen to and they all feel like they could be appealing enough but somehow they miss some grit.
- No Love Deep Web by Death Grips (nr 35): not my thing
- Weather Systems by Anathema (nr 36): this band gives me exactly the same feeling as Steven Wilson and his band: you feel you have to listen to this twice to appreciate it and in many ways you do although I always ask myself if it isn't a bit overdone. But finally I fall for it because of a number of really good tracks like Sunlight and The Beginning And The End. I suppose these kinds of albums will never be my top albums but they do deserve a place in the somewhat lower parts.
- Shrines by Purity Ring (nr 38 ): not my thing
The next album to listen to is Centipedes Hz by Animal Collective
Here is my final 4 2012 albums of 2012 albums which I must say I didn't like any of them and maybe I don't do them justice by this but they all have a bit of dancey very superficial atmosphere of ex Phoenix and they all sound a bit samey to me:
- Centipede Hz by Animal Collective (nr 39 on the overall BEA top chart of 2012)
- Gossamer by Passion Pit (nr 41)
- Walk The Moon by Walk The Moon (nr 42)
- Some Nights by fun. (nr 43 and the lowest ranked 2012 album in the overall BEA top 2500).
And this ends this exploration into 2012 albums. As I already said before, the second part of the 2010s are very good but this is to me one of the final years where the music business (and quality of the albums of course) was really at a dead end.
But of course there were still some great albums released in this year and this is my final ranking which still features 49 albums but only 12 of the overall BEA top 2500 with at the start the BEA overall rank and after that the BEA year rank and my personal rank of the year before and after this listening session:
Title By Band BEA YearRank - My Rank before To My Rank after
I Bet On Sky By Dinosaur Jr. 98 - 1 To 1
Get Yer La La's Out By Chris Richards And The Subtractions 894 - 2 To 2
King Of The Sun By The Saints 910 - 3 To 3
Tough Love By Pulled Apart By Horses 742 - 4 To 4
Psychedelic Pill By Neil Young And Crazy Horse 47 - 5 To 5
Slaughterhouse By Ty Segall Band 119 - 6 To 6
Open Your Heart By The Men 155 - 7 To 7
Attack On Memory By Cloud Nothings 14 - 8 To 8
Between The Times And The Tides By Lee Ranaldo 724 - 9 To 9
Class Clown Spots A UFO By Guided By Voices 745 - 10 To 10
Silver Age By Bob Mould 612 - 11 To 11
America Give Up By Howler 287 - 12 To 12
Celebration Rock By Japandroids 15 - 13 To 13
Lost Songs By ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead 844 - 14 To 14
Blues Funeral By Mark Lanegan Band 100 - 15 To 15
Metz By Metz 214 - 21 To 16
Light Up Gold By Parquet Courts 25 - 16 To 17
Leaving Atlanta By Gentleman Jesse 1644 - 17 To 18
The Bears For Lunch By Guided By Voices 877 - 18 To 19
Wrecking Ball By Bruce Springsteen 37 - 19 To 20
Spooky Action At A Distance By Lotus Plaza 475 - 20 To 21
Dept. Of Disappearance By Jason Lytle 1329 - 22 To 22
¡Dos! By Green Day 128 - 23 To 23
2 By Mac DeMarco 11 - To listen To 24
Evans The Death By Evans The Death 1369 - 24 To 25
Standing At The Sky's Edge By Richard Hawley 163 - 25 To 26
The Journey Is Long Ð The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project By Various Artists 2915 - 26 To 27
¡Uno! By Green Day 147 - 27 To 28
Company By Andy Burrows 1926 - 28 To 29
Pre Language By Disappears 656 - 29 To 30
Fence By Fence 269 - 30 To 31
Nocturne By Wild Nothing 26 - 31 To 32
Mirage Rock By Band Of Horses 648 - 36 To 33
Bloom By Beach House 5 - 32 To 34
Banks By Paul Banks 259 - 33 To 35
Weather Systems By Anathema 36 - To listen To 36
Electric Cables By Lightships 633 - 34 To 37
Django Django By Django Django 23 - To listen To 38
Yellow & Green By Baroness 174 - 35 To 39
Oceania By The Smashing Pumpkins 86 - 37 To 40
Given To The Wild By The Maccabees 40 - 38 To 41
Ugly By Screaming Females 483 - 39 To 42
Dark Shores By Strand Of Oaks 2828 - Not yet listened To 43
Following Sea By dEUS 1035 - 40 To 44
Lonerism By Tame Impala 2 - 41 To 45
'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! By Godspeed You! Black Emperor 24 - 42 To 46
And there is only one more year to cover in this long quest: 2017; but I still have lot of loose ends to cover as well after that.
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StefanR10
