Best Music of 2012

Cornfed Hick

Cornfed Hick

Ancient Mariner
Post your favorite albums/songs from 2012 here. (Yes, I know albums are continuing to be released this year -- add them if you love them!) I thought about splitting into metal/non-metal categories, but figured the non-metal would get short shrift here.

In alphabetical (not ranked) order by artist, here are a few of my favorites from the past year:

Baroness, Yellow and Green - Baroness doesn't get a lot of attention on this forum, not sure why. These guys are really good. Complex, heavy rock -- sometimes it crosses the line to legitimate metal -- with a strong attention to melody. Sort of like a band we all know and love. Worth a listen. Reminiscent of Mastodon, but better and more musical, IMO. Here's a link to a song.
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Bat for Lashes, The Haunted Man - Anyone who has read my stuff on this section of the forum knows I'm a sucker for girl singers with pretty voices. This falls into that category. Bat for Lashes is the stage name of Natasha Khan, and everything about her is gorgeous: her voice, her melodies, her rhythms, her lyrics, you name it. Plus, she looks like a supermodel. She's just ridiculously talented. Here is a link to a video for one of the better songs on the album. Not metal at all, but I'm listening to this a lot.

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First Aid Kit, The Lion's Roar - More girl singers with pretty voices. I've posted about them here before. Swedish sisters singing American folk/country music. Again, not for everyone on this forum, but at least you can appreciate the vocal gifts these young ladies possess. Here's a pretty cool video for the title track.

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Led Zeppelin, Celebration Day - If you like Zep, you'll love this. Yes, they are old. But they sound awesome here. Much tighter than you typically see in old 70s footage (Page actually hits the notes!), and Robert Plant by and large sounds like his old self. Check out this stirring version of Kashmir.

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Rush, Clockwork Angels - If you haven't heard this already by now, you probably don't belong on this forum.

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Jack White, Blunderbuss - Best pure rock album of the year. For fans looking for the closest thing this generation has to Zeppelin, The Band, Neil Young, and the other legends, Mr. White is probably your guy. Album sounds really good too -- expertly recorded, mixed and mastered. Here's a link if you want to get funky.

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Flying Colors - Flying Colors

This is the result of a bunch of prog all stars getting together and making a pop rock album. A very fun listen and probably my favorite album of the year. All the songs are catchy and accessible with prog elements thrown in. Think 80's Rush with less synthesizers and more prog. Anybody into good guitar playing needs to hear Steve Morse, amazing player. The singer, Casey McPherson was unknown until now, but he's got a great voice and I look forward to seeing where his career takes him.

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Chalk Dinosaur - Sediment
Self described as "eclectic rock", this album covers a lot of different styles. From surf pop to prog, and everything in between. It's a really fun album with no bad songs. I'd say it has something for everyone. And you can even listen to it for free here: http://chalkdinosaur.bandcamp.com/album/sediment

There's others that I'll post about sometime later this month, but these two, along with Clockwork Angels, would probably be my favorites.
 
Well I haven't listened to much new stuff this year but I think I'd be fair to say that Tortured Tone by Primal Rock Rebellion is my favorite song of 2012.
 
I'd have to say Awoken Broken is really the only thing this year that has caught my attention. Otherwise, I haven't been into any new music and nothing else has really interested me. Although, I've been meaning to check out Clockwork Angels.
 
I should probably give PRR another listen. My recollection from when it was first released is that the guitar stuff was great (natch) but I REALLY disliked the vocals, which I found distracting to the point of irritation. Haven't listened to it since.

Wondering whether anyone will put British Lion on this list...
 
Steve Harris - British Lion
*ducks for rotten tomatoes*

No seriously, this album isn't the greatest I have heard this year, but I think some songs are really good.

That title would go between......

My Dying Bride - A Map of All Our Failures
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Great doom metal album with memorable atmosphere, melodies and the best singing of Aaron Stainthorpe as of yet.

......and

Rush - Clockwork Angels. Rush made their best record since the mid eighties.
Primal Rock Rebellion comes after these two. Like mckindog I haven't heard many new albums.

Cornfed Hick said:
Bat for Lashes, The Haunted Man - Anyone who has read my stuff on this section of the forum knows I'm a sucker for girl singers with pretty voices. This falls into that category. Bat for Lashes is the stage name of Natasha Khan, and everything about her is gorgeous: her voice, her melodies, her rhythms, her lyrics, you name it. Plus, she looks like a supermodel. She's just ridiculously talented. Here is a link to a video for one of the better songs on the album. Not metal at all, but I'm listening to this a lot.
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I heard this (my wife bought it) and it's really good. Khan has a gift for strong songwriting. Really nice to discover all the layers she puts in the songs. Lots of details, without lacking the importance of making catchy stuff.
 
I'm making a list of my favorite 2012 albums.
I'm also gonna make a compilation of my favorite songs/recordings released this year and upload it to YouTube as a full-album video:
Should be about 80 minutes long, including songs released this year, and live recordings released this year (but only recent recordings - not recordings recorded 25 years ago, but released this year), 1-2 songs per band.
So if anyone wants to do it too, it would be cool :)
 
Sorry if I’m subverting this thread a bit, but it’s too good an idea to let go to waste.
Just because I bought very little new music this year, doesn’t mean I didn’t fall in love with a fistful of music that was new to me — much if it introduced through this forum.
These are the top 12 songs I discovered in 2012.

12. Stranger Things Have Happened — Foo Fighters

You are not alone dear loneliness

Even though my post-The Colour and the Shape Foo Fighters knowledge was largely limited to their radio hits, I liked the band enough to join Mosh’s recent Survivor. I really hit the jackpot with Echoes Silence Patience and Grace. This album consistently and brilliantly finds real emotion inside some of the virtues catalogued in the album title — most particularly in this restrained yet intense acoustic track. It’s got that great live-off-the-floor feel, from the way it winds up in the intro right though to the way it winds down in the denouement. The guitar sound has just the right touch of dirt in the verses framing the quiet pain in its typically gripping Foo’s melody, before bursting into the gorgeous swelling chords of the chorus. Grohl sounds so raw and honest, keeping tight control on his emotions, letting just enough peek through the bars to keep you enthralled.
11. You I Need — Amorphis
To go with my story, I also need to have your words

I have always been a sucker for a medium-to-fast rock song with a melodic solo and a ridiculously hooky chorus — especially if it showed some musical maturity and was driven along by a catchy keyboard riff. This is the kind a song that Dio and Journey killed with in the ‘80s and I thought bands simply did not make them like that anymore. The bad diction in the vocal part only adds to its charm.
10. Sea of Life — Saxon
Someone has to pay the ferryman

This is a bit of a cheat because I met this song years ago. But buried behind a run of mediocre tracks on its album, I never gave a proper hearing until this year’s Saxon Survivor. Huge and majestic, powered by an irresistible signature lick, this track combines the best qualities of two of Saxon’s best ‘80s songs: the sludgy power of The Eagle Has Landed and the melancholy melody of Broken Heroes. The first solo is heart-wrenching mix of perfectly held notes and cascading runs. Like Grohl in Stranger Things, Byford sings like a grizzled veteran, a wise man who has seen the wars and survived. The extended ending might be too much for some, but I can’t get enough of that lick.
9. At Transformation — The Tragically Hip
A pinch, a sting, I don’t feel a thing

Now For Plan A was a disappointing effort from this, the second-best band my country has ever produced. But when the Hip get it right, the rhythm section locks into a relentless groove, the guitars slip their way in and around that bedrock, and Gord lets loose with his brilliantly obscure stream-of-consciousness poetry. That gravelly, eclectic baritone provides the necessary, intriguing, dancing counterpoint to what is essentially a singular wave of musical feel. And we get a song like this.

 
Part II

8. The Afterman — Coheed and Cambria
If he’s not here, then where?

One of a handful of genuinely new tracks on this list is this beautiful piece of progressive pop in the midst of a progressive metal album. The main guitar lick dances like bubbles on bitter sparkling wine, slowly building with string accents as it moves along. By the time you get to the point where the full orchestration kicks in, you are immersed, breathless in an illusion of heaven. The whispered vocal delivery of the gorgeous melody just adds to the ethereal quality. When it is over (too soon) you’re left wondering what just happened.
7. Mirror and the Moon — Primal Rock Rebellion
I felt some joy that I wanted to share with her, but it seemed like my sadness connected more

I’m not sure if a song can be intimate, gritty and epic at the same time. Ugly and beautiful. But if it could it would sound like this — so many textures, so many emotions. This is Adrian at his best as both a composer and at making his playing match the composition. Mikee sounds so unconventional, yet so good. And his poetry is so evocative. They need to do another album.


6. Clockwork Angels — Rush
As if to fly…

It’s as if everything Rush ever tried in its career came together on this album — brilliant lyrics, brilliant playing, brilliant compositions, progressive structures, great melodies, heaviness and light. Each of those elements is also evident in this one, single song. The foreign-sounding, muted, intro vocal, the grand entrance of the guitars, the settling into something almost familiar, then a sonic punch that jars you back into a feeling of almost losing control. All that happens in just the first two minutes, putting you firmly into the album's story. You can see the country rube staring slack-jawed in awe at the wonders of the capital. After dozens of listens I’m still discovering new elements to this magnificent song.


5. Song of Yesterday — Black Country Communion
Don’t know where the end begins and the truth starts

A brilliant bluesy riff, passionate singing, and layers of orchestration alternating with power chords? Yes, please. Bonamossa’s solo is a thing of absolute beauty and the rhythm section build into the up-tempo back section of the break is irresistible. This is such a mammoth, old-school track, worthy of standing alongside the work of legends like Zep and Purple.

 
And the finale

4. There Was a Time — Guns and Roses
I woooouuuuld do anythiiinnng for yoooouuuuu!

I deliberately went out of my way to avoid Chinese Democracy for a long time, until this one smacked me right between the eyes right here on this forum. I like Guns best when it goes over-the-top with sweeping landscapes, orchestrations, piano fills and Axl emptying his lungs into grand, big-screen melodies. This song has all that, topped by glittering, twin-diamond guitar solos (particularly the first one). This stands with the band’s best.


3. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here — Porcupine Tree
Never look for the truth in your mother’s eyes

After falling for In Absentia last year, I decided to give its follow-up Deadwing a try and struck gold with this song. Think of Pink Floyd on steroids — 12 minutes of progressive brilliance. This one is a seamless, awe-inspiring journey, from its ambient intro to its out-and-out metal heart and beyond. Lyrically hypnotic, musically adventurous, perfectly composed and flawlessly recorded. I have a feeling that after time goes by this will have cemented a place among my favourite tracks of all time.
1. (tie) The Anarchist — Rush
The missing part of me that grows around me like a cage

For me, the perfect track is neither a Rime-style epic, nor a tight, catchy, fast-paced, fist-pumper like Aces High. It has to have elements of both. There needs to be multiple parts without totally abandoning a conventional song structure. There needs to be high energy with moments to breath. There needs to be great playing totally in service of the song. There needs to be a soaring melody, an irresistible signature riff, a kickass solo, poetry in the words and a few flourishes judiciously sprinkled throughout. This song has every necessary element. It is so good it has carved a comfortable spot in my Rush top ten, something a new song hasn’t been able to do in 20 years.
1. (tie) Tortured Tone — Primal Rock Rebellion
Under your wild skies the rain waits for thee

The adjective “atmospheric” was created for this song. During the first section, Adrian sets the stage to some brilliantly blended multi-tracked vocals, as the cello provides some alternately barbed and smoothing accents. The build in tension perfectly leads into the release of the chorus, then returns hauntingly in the epilogue. The recording quality is stunning, the lyrical images vivid and the performance exact. This is right up there with the best compositions H has ever done.

 
Very interesting!

One of the songs that I discovered in 2012, although it's from 2010 really, was Buried Alive by Avenged Sevenfold. I love it, it has everything - a slow, melodic intro, heavy riffs, catchy vocals, great guitars, time changes - you name it.

 
Ariana said:
Very interesting!

One of the songs that I discovered in 2012, although it's from 2010 really, was Buried Alive by Avenged Sevenfold. I love it, it has everything - a slow, melodic intro, heavy riffs, catchy vocals, great guitars, time changes - you name it.
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That was very classic Metallica and not what I expected the band to sound like. Quite good.

Cornfed, I liked every link you posted.
Killdevil, I would never go out of my way to listen to Carrie Underwood, but I would never change the channel on a voice like that on a song like that. It was surprising how much I liked it.
Mosh, I'll have to chase a link down for the first one you posted, description sounds intriguing.
And Foro, I'm still intending to give My Dying Bride another listen, maybe this weekend.
 
Wow, you've put some time in that mckindog. Still haven't read and heard it all, but I will.
Same goes for other contributions.
 
Awesome list mckindog. I know/like all the songs, except 9 (never heard of the band), 8 (still need to get into this band) and 3 (CAUSE PORCUPINE TREE AND STEVEN WILSON SUCK :P). The Anarchist and Tortured Tone will probably end up on my compilation too:)
 
Cool to see you liked Echoes so much, Dog. I also heard that Amorphis song this year and really liked it.
I'm not a big fan of Buried Alive but I do enjoy the rest of that album. It has some great songs.
 
Mucho props for #4 Mckindog!

I honestly don't think I've picked up any new music this year, or even been to any gigs... not even WASPS 30yr anniversary tour :/
 
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