It's that time of year folks when there are lists upon lists, lists about lists, lists as far as the eye can see. I simultaneously love and loathe it. I love to read lists and I love to think of lists but I also feel like whenever you're including one thing you're excluding another thing. I'm also of the school that ranking art is subjective, ridiculous and super-fun! I've done things a little differently this year. I'm going to have three separate lists; A list of albums, a list of songs and a locals only list. I don't want any overlap on these lists to help expose the maximum number of artists. That means if an artist made my favorite song list they won't make my favorite album list. This also means that no local artists are eligible for my favorite albums list. Certainly there are artists who would have been included on every list if I decided not to have overlap but that is my decision and damnit, it's my blog! You'll also notice that I am saying "favorite" not best. I think the most controversial thing about this list (other than the overlap rule) will be the ranking I've chosen. I know that there will be people who say, "I can't believe you think X is better than Y." To those people I'd like to point back to the opening of this paragraph. Ranking art is subjective, silly and fun so chill-out, have fun and if you're a Spotify user click the album cover to go to the album on Spotify. Hopefully, all of these images don't make your computer crash, if they do I'm sorry. Happy listing!
50.
POP ETC -
POP ETC
49.
Teen Daze - The Inner Mansions
48.
The Helio Sequence - Negotiations
47.
Lower Dens - Nootropics
46.
Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts
45.
John Talabot - ƒIN
44.
Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action at a Distance
43.
Hot Chip - In Our Heads
42.
Gossip - A Joyful Noise
41.
Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal
40.
Memoryhouse - The Slideshow Effect
39.
The XX - Coexist
38.
Ava Luna - Ice Level
37.
Young Prisms - In Between
36.
Tanlines - Mixed Emotions
35.
Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d. city
34.
Django Django - Django Django
33.
Friends - Manifest!
32.
Frankie Rose - Interstellar
31.
Cat Power - Sun
30.
Hospitality - Hospitality
29.
Twin Shadow - Confess
28.
Jack White - Blunderbuss
27.
Lianne La Havas - Is Your Love Big Enough?
26.
Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
25.
Races - Year of the Witch
24.
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
23.
Port St. Willow - Holiday
22.
Holy Other - Held
21.
Lee Fields & The Expressions - Faithful Man
20.
El-P - Cancer 4 Cure
19.
Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship
18.
Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
17.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Trouble
16.
Beach House - Bloom
15.
Tennis - Young & Old
14.
The Walkmen - Heaven
13.
Tame Impala - Lonerism
12.
Toy - Toy
11.
Grizzly Bear - Shields
10.
Sports - Sports
9.
Teen Daze - All of Us, Together
8.
Team Me - To the Treetops!
7.
Wild Nothing - Nocturne
6.
DIIV - Oshin
5.
Weird Dreams - Choreography
4.
Lightships - Electric Cables
3.
Stealing Sheep - Into the Diamond Sun
2.
Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
1.
Purity Ring - Shrines
So, there it is folks 2012 in 50 records. As I mentioned, you can click any album cover to open the album in Spotify. I've also created a playlist with one highlight song from each of these records that you can listen and subscribe to here. Feel free to tweet or Facebook me your thoughts.
