I’m mostly curious to know what current (i.e., released in 2012) album people think is the year’s best, but I know that sometimes the best album I buy in a given year was actually released the year before and I just didn’t get around to buying one until after 1 January, so I’m leaving wiggle room for people in case the best album they bought this year is from a previous year.
Please only name one album and tell us what year it was released. If you’d like to wax eloquent about the various merits of said album, feel free.
I had never heard of this band when I found the album in my local Zia Records, but something about it said “yes… yes… pay the full price; you won’t regret it” so I did. I haven’t stopped to listening to it in over 3 months.
The band is from Australia, and they are a progressive death metal band. They’re unusual tho in that they have 2 vocalists and a violinist in their ranks. One of the vocalists handles the growly CMVs and the other has one of the clearest voices I’ve ever heard in metal; somehow he manages to avoid sounding saccharine tho. The violin is NOT used sparingly, and manages to not only fit in but at times to control the melody and pacing of the music. It’s mind-blowingly awesome to hear this band traverse from guttural pounding to chamber music and back again, sometimes in the space of just a few seconds.
The band apparently spent 5 years perfecting this music, and I do mean perfecting: this is an album without flaws or blemishes. Nothing is hurried or incomplete. There are no wasted opportunities. The musicianship is stunning, the songwriting is complex yet accessible, the production on the album is fantastic (bar-raising, even)… this is, IMO, a perfect album and easily the best thing I’ve bought all year.
I am the single reason the record companies will all go bankrupt. The only album I purchased this year was a Christmas present for hubby (I do buy many, many digital singles).
He loves Cee Lo Green’s Mary, Did You Know? Plus the album’s got a version of You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch featuring Straight No Chaser. For me.
Don’t worry Biggirl, I’m taking up the slack for you. I spend enough on music that when I tell people how much (and how many albums I buy per year) they recoil in horror as they realize they are dealing with someone who is decidedly not normal (in an even bigger and stranger way than they previously thought).
It’s tough to narrow it down to one. Hmm, I’ll have to go with ZZ Ward - Til the Casket Drops. She reminds me of a newer, funkier Adele. Not every song on the album is great, but the ones that are good are so good.
I bought only a single album this year, Alex Clare’s The Lateness of the Hour. Originally released 2011, released in the U.S. this year (or so Wikipedia says).
I checked it out after hearing Too Close on the IE ad. It’s not the kind of thing I’d normally listen to, but I really love almost everything about the album.
Highlights: Too Close, Relax My Beloved, Sanctuary.
If it’s 2011 or 2012 it becomes difficult. I guess I’d have to go with Clumsy Words and Bad Pickup Lines by Junior Doctor. It’s lighter, yet still straight-ahead, pop-punk with slight acoustic influences. The standout song from the album. If I had to pick from only 2012, they would be lesser choices because I’ve only picked up a couple of albums, both scene-influenced emo which seems to be what all the kids like these days but which I don’t like as much as straight-ahead.
My favorite album this year is Ugly by Screaming Females, which sounds gloriously like the product of a sexual union between two of my favorite classics, You’re Living All Over Me by Dinosaur Jr, and The Woods by Sleater-Kinney. Loud, thrashy, punky indie rock with wailing female vocals and messy guitar. And [del]produced[/del] engineered by the great Steve Albini, one of the rare few who can do this kind of music justice.
I didn’t buy anything this year because I’ve been mostly broke and unemployed, but the best album I’ve heard this year has been 151a by Kishi Bashi, which was released early in 2012. Nothing came out afterwards that topped it.
Well, I didn’t buy it, I checked it out from the library and burned it to CD, but since the artist has been dead for over 100 years I hope it isn’t that big a deal…
Franz Liszt, Annees de Pelerenage, vol. 1. Published in 1842, you wouldn’t think it would have any juice left. Instead, it is just about the greatest thing I have ever heard! I think my gf is getting tired of it, but that is probably only because she doesn’t get it. I bet if she hears it one more time, Then she’ll get it and will understand why it is so great.
I haven’t heard all the various performances of this work but it does seem to matter who plays it. So far I like the Jean Jando version. Somebody buy it to redeem my behavior.
My tastes in music are very, very mainstream. This year I bought:
Wrecking Ball - Bruce Springsteen
That’s Why God Made the Radio - The Beach Boys
Analog Man - Joe Walsh
La Futura - ZZ Top
Music From Another Dimension - Aerosmith
I would say Analog Man has been my favorite album I have bought this year, with That’s Why God Made the Radio running a close second.
If I were to obey the thread title (vs. the OP, which says something different), it would definitely be Steve Kilbey’s Unearthed (released late 80’s), which is echoing a ton of current themes in my life. But I guess that’s off-topic, so, whatever…
