The Top Ten Albums of 2012

This might well be one of the more eclectic lists of the top albums you will find for the year 2012. In order to qualify for my list the album must be one that I reviewed earlier in the year, that is, one that I was interested in enough at the time to listen too. In this way I know that I am not mirroring any of the more conventional lists that we all find this time of year.


10. The Once and Future Carpenter by The Avett Brothers - The Avetts as well as their compatriots Mumford and Sons released new albums this year. While the latter received more press it is the Avett's who make my top ten list. While the Mumford's first single I Will Wait might be the best of the lot it is the Avett's album that is broader and more balanced. Doing nothing more than what they do album in and album out The Avett's show why they are one of the most popular touring acts today.

9. Red by Taylor Swift - I cannot really call myself a Taylor Swift fan but one does have to recognize her ability to turn anything into a song. Watching my daughter skip and sing around the house this fall in her thirteen year old way I remembered how much music means to someone at that time in their lives. For millions of young girls and older girls too Swift makes the music that means the most to them. And it is intelligent music. For all of the adults who spent the fall trying to get " We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together " out of there head accept that it is hopeless. Swift can craft a tune like few today.

8. Born and Raised by John Mayer - Mayer coming off a year of bad publicity showed that when he stops talking and start singing all will be ok. With nary a bad song on the album and many like the title cut and Shadow Days are long to be remembered.

7. That's Why God Made the Radio by The Beach Boys - With a 50th anniversary tour and a new album it was an exciting year for the boys. It might well be that we do not want to know what recording methods made the music sound like the sixties version of the band but what there is no doubt of is that the harmonies on this song are as good as they have ever done. Pacific Coast Highway and the other songs of the second side of the album make this a true work of art similar in type of not in scope to the second side of Abbey Road.

6. Heroes by Willie Nelson - On this album which on many of the cuts Willie is joined by friends and members of his family Nelson's voice is still a treasure. Singing covers such as Just Breathe by Pearl Jam and Coldplay's The Scientist Nelson never sounded better. When he is joined by Billie Joe Shaver and Jamey Johnson on Hero and Snoop Dogg on Roll Me Up it is clear that Willie has friends in high places indeed and they all add to the fun of the album. Come On Back Jesus is another song of strong note.

5. Gospel Plow by Elizabeth Cook - I have just reviewed this in depth but suffice to say that I have listened to no album as much as this all year.

4. Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance by Patterson Hood - This solo effort by the lead singer of The Drive By Truckers was one of the strongest albums of the year. The title cut is one of the best tracks of the year, Hood's mumble drawl fits perfectly. After the Damage and Better Than the Truth are both great tracks and of course no Patterson Hood/Drive By album would be complete without a talk song, this album features another Alabama history lesson called Untold Pretties. A truly great album.

3. Tempest by Bob Dylan - One of the few albums in recent years to receive five stars from Rolling Stone Dylan's new album was superior. With the only song that made me get caught in public rocking out behind the wheel, Early Roman Gods, along with a tribute to John Lennon called Roll on John the album was an instant classic. Dylan's thirteen minute tale of the sinking of The Titanic, the albums title cut mixes truth and Dylan fiction in a classic way that is perfect the whole way through.

2. Battle Born by The Killers- It has to be considered true that The Killers are very good at copying the art of Springsteen and to some extent U2. Still sometimes the followers better there leaders and on The Killers later effort they have completed a supremely confident album. With song after song that one can imagine on the radio, if FM radio still played rock music, and that additionally you know would be perfect in arenas all around the country. Brendan Flowers has cut his hair, he looks like a male model, but there is no denying one thing, he can sing like few others. This is a very strong album, perhaps not as classically influential as some of the others but sometimes precision and perfection of the type displayed here but must be acknowledged.

1. Channel Orange by Frank Ocean - Truthfully it was not even close. I am not a rap music fan. I am not a connoisseur of blues, funk or soul. I know an album of incredible depth and magic when I hear it however. Orange's album is a salute to it seems each of his predecessors from Marvin Gaye to James Brown to certainly Prince. With songs such as Forest Gump, Pyramids and especially Thinking About You and Super Rick Kids Ocean proved himself a force beyond all forces in music this year. This was clearly the most influential and superior album of the year.

More in depth reviews of all of these efforts can be found on this blog from earlier in the year.

Babel by Mumford and Sons

Continuing this very fruitful fall in new books and music Mumford and Sons released their followup album to last years breakthrough effort. Babel promised to stay true to the original sound with perhaps just a little more fire and rock in some songs, to make them more friendly to the arenas that Mumford's popularity is bringing them to.

I cannot listen to Mumford and Sons without thinking of The Avett Brothers. I suppose just as forty years ago The Beatles and The Stones had separate fan bases one gets the sense that for this new popular sect of music who you prefer of these groups defines you.

Certainly The Avett's have been releasing albums longer than the Mumford Boys. Building a fan base through constant touring and incredible live shows as opposed to having a singularly, surprisingly, breakthrough album probably gives a band more street cred but what is obviously clear is that the quick success of Mumford and Sons can only help The Avett's and the now slew of bands replicating their sound.

The Babel album and The Carpenter albums being released within two weeks of each other gives us a rare chance to critique the leaders of this music as they mirror each other. The Avett album which I reviewed previously was strong and in truth when I reviewed it I think I might not have praised it enough. It's variety of styles and lyrics even in the last two weeks have aged well on me.

The Babel album is also strong. What is clear is that the best songs on the Mumford album have a commercial element, a bigness about them, that the songs on The Avett album do not.

The album debuts with Babel and then two songs later we get the first single I Will Wait. This song is the best song that Mumford has written thus far and with it's demanding guitar work and hallowing choruses is a song that might well top the charts and bring even more fans to this type of music. Lover of the Light is another strong song but the truth is that I have listened to this album at least seven times in the last three days trying to get a sense of it. Much of the time from one listening to the next I do not even remember the songs and their distinctions.

This album is in no way as diverse as what the Avett's are doing and a good number of the songs should be considered no better than filler. Near the end of the album we do hear another very strong song called Below My Feet which will also earn much deserved praise. For me as much as I love I Will Wait and, as I have been singing it all week my kid will attest that it is captured my attention, the most remember-able song on the album is Broken Crown. The song is strong with the violent guitar strumming that Mumford is well known for, their signature sound as it is, and in it they make good use of the f word. They did this on a song in the first album and certainly they are aware that a good segment of their target audience will enjoy hearing a song with the singer frustrated with f-ing things up. The Avett's to my knowledge have not yet made a habit of this strategy. I do not have an opinion either way, it is a difference between them.

This is a very good album, it will easily and deservedly appear on many Top !0 lists later this year. For me, however, the verdict is clear, in any so called competition between Mumford and The Avett's I fall into the Avett camp. With them you get a much stronger sense of who they are and quite sure that success or not they will be who they are. Perhaps it is unfair but I do not know the life expectancy of Mumford and Sons in comparison with the Avett's. Love them both and this is a great album that you should enjoy but my position is clear.

The Carpenter by The Avett Brothers

A week from tomorrow The Avett Brothers next album will be released. Thanks to the good folks at NPR we are able to stream the entire album and get a preview. As the Avett's have , for the last year or so, and currently continue to do so, sit at the top of our favorite current artists this album has been much anticipated in our house.

We discovered the Avett's early in the year 2011 when the Palladia network aired the DVD of their recent concert album Live Volume III. The performance was so spellbinding that it was almost impossible to not recognize that this was a rarity, a band that wrote beautiful, insightful lyrics, and yet was as much fun to see in person as any band that you will see.

In listening to the new album, which is very good, what becomes apparent quickly is that living up to Live Volume III might well be impossible. For those fans of the Avett's who had discovered them long ago, the live album was a recording of songs they already knew, just in live format. For latecomers like myself the album was just an album that was fantastic beginning to end. It was, however, a greatest hits package.

Still the new album as I am on the third listen is certainly to be on heavy rotation on our house station this fall. Some of the initial buzz said that this album is a little more rock oriented but in listening to it I do not find that to be the case. There are a couple of songs that do so, including the album highlight " Paul Newman vs the Demons which surely does not sound like anything I have ever heard from the Avett's before.

Paul Newman vs The Demons harkens back to REM, and early nineties rock. Certainly it's background Yeah chorus sounds like a song far from 2012. Truly a fantastic song.

The first single Live and Die is easily likable and certainly could fit on any previous Avett album. Another soon to be classic song entitled " Down with the Shine" shows off the lyrical ability of the brothers as well as their harmonies. It is easy to forecast the popularity of these three songs in concert.

Where the album might suffer a bit is in the uniformity of many of the remaining songs. They are all strong, all offer their own special features but they are quite similar. Songs such as The Once and Future Carpenter, Winter in Our Heart and Through My Prayers are all beautiful songs. If an album had any one of these songs it would be blessed, the effect of having all three however shows the ever so slight danger of The Avett's losing some of the fun dance folk music and not being perhaps just a little too much singalong with lighters ( or if you prefer cell phones) in hand.

The album is an embarrassment of riches most bands would welcome. Still in order to make sure each new fan hears the Avett sound I fell in love with they do need to be careful not to become too one dimensional.

The Avett Brothers Live at Meadowbrook NH

Having discovered The Avett Brothers last spring I have the love of a convert. The music is strong, the energy is amazing so my wife and I were very much looking forward to seeing them last weekend.

Making a day of it we drove down leaving Sunday around eleven. The drive was nice, the day was nice and when we got to Dover where we stayed we went to my Papa Geno's. Anyone who knows me knows that I always bemoan how there is no Papa Geno's in Maine. The steak and cheese there is always head and shoulders above any others I get. Of course a couple hours later I was sick, but most anything makes me sick and this tasted very good.

Arriving at the concert venue I found that handicap parking is VIP which I never realized but was a blessing for me to not have to walk through a large parking lot and be sore before we even got there.

The venue is wonderful. About 3000 seats, that may be off a bit as I am not a good estimator, all covered with open sides. We had great seats, fifteen rows back but the overall venue itself was very nice and comfortable.

Nicole Adkins opened and did a good job. Her voice is strong, I am not sure that I thought she was notable but a few of the songs were easy to enjoy such as Maybe Tonight. Her guitar player, I believed named Elena, was very strong. Not often you see the guitar player rocking a solo wearing a tight fusia dress. The highlight of her set was when, acknowledging the twentieth anniversary of Nevermind she performed the Leadbelly song " Where did you sleep last night. " She could not quite scream in a throat shred like Kurt Cobain but she did a good job and clearly has a voice that can sing anything.

The Avett Brothers are hard to describe musically. Viola's, kick drums, guitars, banjo's and more are part of the sound. They are excellent, versatile musicians but are even more showmen. They are all over the stage racing around with such abandon that at times you worry for their safety. The Avett;s have such a huge catalogue that at every show some songs that you wish for will not be played.


In this show they opened with Tin Man and played with abandon for two hours. January Wedding, When I Drink, Head Full of Doubt and Murder in the City were a strong run early in the set coming on the heels of the special Blue Ridge Mountain Blues one of the nods to roots music that the Avett's always include.

Kick Drum Heart and I and Love and You staples of the live shows were done well and a special highlight was a version of Just a Closer Walk With Thee. Clearly hillbilly gospel has a part in the origin of this music.

The crowd was involved, I noticed some college kids around me knowing the words of each song and, in fact, knowing all of the little asides and responses to certain parts of the songs. This feeds the energy which is a large part of an Avett performance. The band played an encore of I Would Be Sad and Slight Figure of Speech but the crowd did not settle. In fact the people to the left of us were frustrated as the crowd was not moving. I myself thought they would not be back, but after five minutes of screaming they did return for another couple songs which were Shame and Colorshow with the ending refrain of " I'm Done." At some point they had to be but clearly this a band you see each time you can,

Great performers. Great show. The best of the year and a great way to end my concert year.

The Avett Brothers/ Four Theives Gone -The Robbinsville Sessions

The Avett Brothers continues to work toward becoming my new favorite band of the moment. This album for a few years ago has many more great songs such as Sixteen in July, Pretend Love, Left on Laura, A Lover Like You, Denouncing November Blue and many others.

The Avetts have a rather unique talent in that the ballads are beautiful and then the can rock out ( as much as you can rock out with banjo's and mandolins ) and have more fun than apparently any other band going today.

Mostly a college town and Southeastern phenomenon the Avett's are growing in buzz everyday. They are the band I would most like to see. This music will capture you. Often times the trendsetter does not have the commercial success of those that come behind and Mumford and Sons being second on the album charts right now might prove this point but few once hearing The Avett's will not recognize them as being the best at what they do right now.

Don't just listen to this. Listen to anything Avett you can.

Avett Brothers/ Three New Downloads

After having discovered the Avett Brothers Live 3 Album last year, and having that become clearly one of our favorite albums of the last few years, we have been looking through their back catalogue.

One thing I am quite sure of is that they are all great albums but I cannot at this point download them all. The fact is there is too much music, too many books, too much everything to read, see and listen to. However because of Itunes nice new feature allowing .90 second previews of songs and with the ratings of most downloaded songs I have downloaded three new ( to me ) songs by The Avetts.

They all are fantastic songs. November Blue from the album Country Was, January Wedding from I and Love and You and If It's the Beaches from Gleam. All these songs are along the same lines, more of the lovely ballad's than the foot stomping instrumentation The Avett's can also kick out.

This band can do it all. If you get a chance to hear the music listen. If you get a chance to go see them go see them. This is a band that can change your appreciation of music.

Consider me on the Bandwagon for the Avett Brothers. These brothers are at the top of my playist.

Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More

In the last year I discovered The Avett Brothers and consider them one of the best bands I have heard in quite sometime. Tuning into the Grammy Awards a few weeks ago we were looking forward to the set with Bob Dylan and The Avetts and were just as interested in our first exposure to Mumford and Sons.

When Amazon cooperated and had this album as a feature bargain album this past weekend and have listened to it several times.

It is wonderful. A sure similarity to The Avett Brothers in style is apparent but the voice of the lead singer actually reminds me on some notes of the lead singer of Blue October. It is clearly very interesting.

Songs such as Little Lion Man, The Cave, and Awake my Soul are clear and accessible. Most of the songs on the album use melodies and lyrics that are strong to make the point.

It is hard to describe. If you are looking for Top 40 music, rap music, or something to dance to you are in the wrong place.

If you want something special and that will never become stale this is it.