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.

Battle Born by The Killers

Brandon Flowers of The Killers is a seventies front man in a 2012 band. Nothing Flowers does is small. His voice is Big. Often times people say that his lyrics and style is like an overamped Springsteen but I think that the more you listen to Flowers you can here a plethora of influences. Freddie Mercury, John Waite and Meatloaf all have lent themselves to some of the songs Brandon Flowers sings.

The Killers are from Las Vegas and maybe that in itself tells you all that you need to know about them. They are the quintessential rock and roll band you would expect from Vegas. Bombastic, loud, overdone, and brilliant.

This album has been number one on my hit parade this week. Each time I listen to it I hear another feeling, sound, instrumentation, note, that takes me back to the eighties. It is as if Flowers did not grow up in the eighties so much as breathe them into his cells.

The album is strong all the way through. Runaways is straight ahead rock and roll, the first single and should be enough to get the album some attention. It is also as strong a track as it is not close to being the best song on the album.

Here With Me is a monstrously good song. One can hear Guns and Roses November Rain, Meatloaf and others but perhaps what we should start saying is we can hear Flowers. The line " Don't want your picture in my cell phone, I want you hear with me." If radio still played rock and roll this song would be a huge hit. In my teenage years this song would have been one of the biggest songs of the year, MTV would have had some super over the top video in heavy rotation and girls would have swooned. In today's music scene this might not even be a single.

The Way It Was when I listened to the first few bars, before Flowers voice comes in and I thought I was listening to " We Built This City" era Jefferson Starship. Another strong song.

A Matter of Time goes back much more to The Killers first album, it would fit on Hot Fuss easily. Flowers is actually a very strong lyricist.

Deadlines and Commitments has a chorus which saves it from being an otherwise mundane song. Flowers rings out " If you should fall, upon hard times, if you should lose your way, there is a place here in this house, that you can stay." There is something to be said for having a place we can count on.

Miss Atomic Bomb is another flash of lyrical lightning, with "racing shadows in the moonlight, in the desert on the hot night," Mr. Flowers better make sure he sends the royalty check to the right address for Mr. Springsteen. Still a strong song.

Heart of a Girl again does Springsteen, perhaps better than he has in the last ten years, with lots of " she said and I said" the only thing that makes this more Killers than knock off is the background music of being much more modern and much less sparing than a Springsteen version would be.

Be Still is a typical power ballad. This song is the one in which Flowers uses what sets him apart. His voice rings, almost a capella in parts, " Don't break character, you've got a lot of heart, " with a great note on lot....this song may not be radio friendly but one can imagine a lot of sad young people, those who cannot wait to get out of their all enclosing hometowns, who cannot wait to start their lives, listening to this song and feeling inspired.

This is a, pardon the pun, killer album. Look up all your adjectives for overdone, over the top, bombastic, if not name dropping then sound and riff dropping from classic bands, and you will find a picture of The Killers. On this album it all works. Tremendously.