Every now and then I take on stupid little projects for myself as relates to music. I keep up with music pretty well I think. I bought something like 30 or 40 albums that came out in 2012 and yet Pitchfork's "Top 50" was still full of stuff I wasn't super familiar with (and my tastes are fairly non-mainstream I'd say.) So, I'm going to listen to their Top 50 straight through and add some commentary (going from 50 to 1) and hopefully y'all will be entertained.
50. LAMBCHOP - Mr. M (2012) Prior to listening to this album, my only experience with Lambchop was seeing bandleader Kurt Wagner perform solo under the moniker Lambchop while opening for Yo La Tengo. It was a peculiar performance that was mostly enjoyable but had some odd staged elements that left me kind of ultimately shrugging my shoulders about it in a "I can take it or leave it" kind of way. This album is somewhere in the neighborhood of Bonnie "Prince" Billy's ode to grandiose Nashville days record "Plays Greatest Palace Music" and later Calexico. I still don't know if I'm totally sold on it, but I'll definitely check it out some more.
49. CRYSTAL CASTLES - III (2012) I'm a Crystal Castles fan, but haven't given this album the attention it deserved this year so another excuse to listen is welcomed with open arms. I remember being absolutely floored when their first album in came out in 2008. The song "Crimewave" blew my mind. Anyway, I've kept up with them, although not passionately as nobody else I know is really into electronic music so it's kind of something I do on my own. Because of that, it's easy for me to lose track of sometimes since I'm into so much other stuff and music's a huge social outlet for me. Anyway, I've really enjoyed this record and would place it higher than 49, but hey, different strokes for different folks. I loved this excerpt from the original review: Figure I ought to start including a sample on these pages, so here you go for #49:
48. PEAKING LIGHTS - Lucifer (2012) Not sure what to make of this record. Some of it really grabs me and some of it strikes me as quite pedestrian. Some of it just sounds like watered-down dub over watered-down downtempo, but at other times there's this intrigued ethereal vocals or weird disco beats or gamelan like tinges thrown in. I'd never even heard of this band until I pulled this list up. Will perhaps give it another listen or two.
47. PALLBEARER - Sorrow and Extinction (2012) I undertake goofy little projects like these to find records like this. I'd never even heard of this band and I'll probably be ordering this album soon. I got into metal in the 90s like a lot of folks and first dug into the big staples of thrash: Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, etc. My tastes changed and evolved but I never lost the taste for metal despite virtually ceasing to explore it past some of my thrash heroes. I've been checking more of it out over the years. I've really gotten into sludge metal and stoner metal, but haven't really explored doom metal. Wow. This is a great record. It's heavy, but unlike a lot of metal it's really soulful and you could almost say even pretty at times. This is apparently their debut album and it'll be tough to live up to in the the future. Very impressed.
Earlier this year someone played this (probabli nicodemus). While browsing a local record store recently. I saw this and had to get it. Rautavaara: Kaivos (The Mine) - Hannu Lintu: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Kaivos Chorus (2011) samples
46. RUSTIE - Essential Mix (2012) This is the first thing on the list so far that I'm going to wave the bullshit flag on. This isn't really even an album. It's a live over the air DJ set this guy did that hasn't even been released in physical format...or really any format. It's on his SoundCloud page. It's cool, I had fun listening to it, but it's essentially a two hour long spliced-up mixtape with some production added. One review called it the future of music, but I don't even hear how it's anywhere near on par with DJ Shadow's Endtroducing. Cool, but by no means essential stuff for the year and a real headscratcher of an inclusion. Rustie - Essential Mix