Bloggy's 50 Favorite Songs of 2012

Alright, this is my final music-related list of 2012. I'll be posting at least one from Mr. S. as well but the official Bloggy music lists for 2012 will be concluded with this one. As I mentioned before, I've decided this year that none of my lists will have any sort of overlap. That makes this, my songs list, simultaneously the most indie and the most mainstream. This shall serve as my favorite EPs and singles as well and will also represent songs from albums I really enjoyed but just missed the cut of 50 favorites. With my previous lists, you were able to click pictures and jump to the full albums but since this one is more song-oriented I've just made one all-encompassing, 3 hour long Spotify playlist. I know some of these choices will be controversial and many will be unfamiliar but I think I have a fairly good balance. I had to include some inescapable radio-pop hits but I have placed them lower on the list since they are less important for you to hear than the more indie stuff. I hope you enjoy them, either way feel free to let me know via social media.


St. Lucia - Closer than This (acoustic version) video via YouTube

50-41

• St. Lucia - Closer Than This
• Foxygen - Waitin' 4 U
• Blood Orange - Dinner
• How to Dress Well - Running Back
• Daughn Gibson - In the Beginning
• Trust - Sulk
• alt-J - Tessellate
• Field Music - Guilotine
• Yellow Ostrich - Marathon Runner
• Princeton - Florida

Royal Canoe - Hold Onto the Metal video via YouTube

40-31

• Local Natives - Breakers
• Chairlift - Always Crashing in the Same Car
• The Babies - Alligator
• Royal Canoe - Hold On to the Metal
• Oberhofer - Away Frm U
• Ra Ra Riot - When I Dream
• White Blush - Without You
• Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
• Suckers - Chinese Braille
• Beach Fossils - Shallow

Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless video via YouTube

30-21

• M.I.A. - Bad Girls
• Widowspeak - Ballad of the Golden Hour
• Perfume Genius - Dark Parts
• Nada Surf - Waiting for Something
• Earl Sweatshirt - Chum
• Geographer - Lover's Game
• Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless
• Terry Malts - I Do
• Generationals - Lucky Numbers
• Nite Jewel - One Second of Love

THEESatisfaction - QueenS video via YouTube

20-11

• Kindness - Gee Up
• Empress Hotel - Bells Ring
• Saint Motel - Puzzle Pieces
• Robert Glasper ft. Erykah Badu - Afro Blue
• Sam Palladio/Clare Bowen - Fade into You
• Little Boots - Every Night I Say a Prayer
• Chet Faker - Solo Sunrise
• Young Buffalo - Hold Me Back
• THEESatisfaction - QueenS
• Schoolboy Q ft. A$AP Rocky - Hands on the Wheel

Peace - Bloodshake video via YouTube

10-1

• CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share
• Best Coast - The Only Place
• Azealia Banks ft. Lazy Jay - 212
• Icona Pop ft. Charli XCX - I Love It
• Usher - Climax
• Danny Brown - Grown Up
• Charli XCX - You're the One
• Peace - Bloodshake
• MS MR - Hurricane
• Solange - Losing You

Solange - Losing You video via YouTube

Other lists you may have missed:

• Bloggy's 50 Favorites Albums of 2012
• Bloggy's 25 Favorite Austin-Area Releases of 2012

Bloggy's 25 Favorite Austin-Area Releases of 2012

My list of local favorites includes albums, EPs, and singles. It seems a bit unfair to include artists like Gary Clark Jr along side unsigned artists but I have weighted the list to compensate. In other words, I put some of the more well-known acts lower on the list not because they are lesser but because they don't really need the exposure as much.

Like with all of my lists I recognize that ranking art is silly and subjective and I'm sorry if this list offends you. In case you missed yesterday's favorite albums of 2012 list, I'm doing this differently this year and trying to avoid list overlap. So, any album on this list was not eligible for yesterday's list and won't be eligible for my favorite songs list either. If you click any of the album covers you will be taken to either Bandcamp or Spotify where you can listen to the release. I decided not to make a singular Spotify playlist to accompany this list since so many of the artists wouldn't be represented. Feel free to share your thoughts with me via social media.

25.

Gary Clark Jr. - Black and Blu

24.

Knifight - Fire EP

23.

Balmorhea - Stranger

22.

A Giant Dog - Fight

21.

Foreign Mothers - DUH

20.

Hundred Visions -

19.

My Jerusalem - Preachers

18.

The Golden Boys - Dirty Fingernails

17.

Boyfrndz - All Day Pass

16.

The Couch - The Couch

15.

Leatherbag - Ditto Time

14.

Zlam Dunk - Balcones

13.

Agent Ribbons - Let Them Talk

12.

Grape St. - A Date With You

11.

The Young - Dug Egg

10.

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Untogether

9.

Roger Sellers - 8 Songs

8.

Markov - The Flatlands

7.

OBN III - OBN IIIs

6.

The Calm Blue Sea - Arrivals and Departures

5.

The Eastern Sea - Plague

4.

Literature - Arab Spring

3.

Major Major Major - Major Major Major

2.

Dana Falconberry - Leelanau

1.

Deep Time - Deep Time

I didn't intend to make a Spotify playlist for this list since at least 10 of these releases aren't on Spotify. However, a couple of people asked for one so I made it anyway. Here you go, 15 of the 25 artists. Click the album covers above to go to those albums in full.

Bloggy's 50 Favorites Albums of 2012

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.