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Are you ready for some ALBUMS? 15 days into 2013 (geez), it's finally time to crack open my top 40 albums of 2012.
I often like to kick off the top 40 with a fun one, so it's no surprise this compilation of the best musical comedy moments from
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon fits the bill. It was great to see the show in person at the Super Bowl -- that experience added some actual meaning to this album. From the "History of Rap" with Justin Timberlake, "Balls In Your Mouth" with Eddie Vedder, and "Friday" with Stephen Colbert to Jimmy's versions of "Tebowie", "Reading Rainbow" as The Doors, and bookend Neil Young impersonations, this collection has it all. My favorite track is "Scrambled Eggs" with Paul McCartney, as he and Jimmy sing the original, legendary, and quite silly placeholder lyrics to "Yesterday" (along with some extra made-up verses) with such absurd sincerity.
Previously known for being a finalist on
Canadian Idol several years ago, Carly Rae Jepsen suddenly took over the world with her earworm-tastic, ubiquitous hit "Call Me Maybe" this spring. But it didn't stop there -- with other addictive tracks like "This Kiss", "Good Time", and "Curiosity", many of us had these songs from
Kiss in our heads all year. The best track on the album if you ask me is "Turn Me Up", a more daring, Robyn-esque electropop masterpiece that was never released as a single but would have been #1 on all the charts if I had been running the show. Carly perfected the craft of bubblegum pop in 2012, and (my favorite part) she pulled it off while being older than me! Hallelujah, I'm not ancient just yet. Thanks, Carly!
This indie punk-ish rock band from New Jersey entered my radar a while back and I'm glad I finally took the time to appreciate one of their full-length efforts.
Ugly is kinda gritty and in-your-face, and I like it that way. Marissa Paternoster and crew know what's up and get the point across. This one is really a front-to-back listen, but if I had to single out a couple tracks I'd go with "Rotten Apple" and "Doom 84", which both really get it going. If you're new to Screaming Females you should listen to the whole thing and go through the same epiphany I did. You won't regret it unless you don't like great music.
Ty Segall is a force to be reckoned with. This guy put out 3 albums under 3 different projects all in 2012:
Hair with White Fence,
Slaughterhouse with the Ty Segall Band, and this one
Twins billed as a solo effort. Of those, as you can see from its spot on this list
Twins was the one I kept coming back to the most. Other reviews have described Ty Segall as everything from indie to garage to psychedelic to lo-fi. That's about right! The album gets off to a roaring start with "Thank God For Sinners", which became a bit of an obsession of mine after he showed up to perform it on
Conan in the fall, and it never lets up from there. I look forward to exploring and appreciating Ty Segall's catalog further in the years to come.
A sleeper of an album in my world,
Our Version Of Events was released in February but I didn't register it until later in the year. I first took notice of Emeli Sandé during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, where she performed one song and had another, "Heaven" (the first track on this album), featured during the tribute to Tim Berners-Lee. I was taken by her grace -- though young, she comes across as an old soul with such sophisticated style and presence in her music and performance. As soon as I heard the pounding percussion and choir-influenced delivery and positivity of "Next To Me", which became my favorite song off of the album, that sealed the deal --
Our Version Of Events was headed to my top 40.
Let's keep it going with the sophisticated and soulful with this entry from Jessie Ware, another new artist from the UK stretching the boundaries of pop. Listening to
Devotion from beginning to end is a bit of an experience. It never goes four-to-the-floor, but there's an undercurrent of dance and electro influence present in its more down-tempo tracks. There's a certain restraint and elegance that makes the album stand out from the sea of popular music we have right now. It's a nice break from the bombastic, and it's truly top quality. "Running" and "110%" are good starters released as singles, but listen to the whole album for highlights like "No To Love" and "Swan Song" as well.
Devotion is ready for you if you're ready for it.
Hospitality is a trio from Brooklyn that basically has my name written all over it. To try to sum it up in one sentence, here you've got clever, infectious, jangly indie pop driven by a female lead singer with a quirky, meandering vocal style and an incredible amount of energy. That's definitely a me type of band. The standout "Friends Of Friends" is the track that got me hooked from hearing it on Sirius XMU all year (which you'll find will be a trend throughout several albums on my top 40). Other really great songs here are "Betty Wang", "Julie", "Liberal Arts", and "Eighth Avenue", but who am I kidding? You'll want to give Hospitality a legit chance and queue up the entire album.
Where would we be without Norah Jones? From the first time I heard her beautiful, graceful voice and music in 2002, I knew she would become one of my favorite artists right away. Here we are a decade later and that's as true as ever. Her newest album,
Little Broken Hearts produced by Danger Mouse, tells a story from beginning to end of anguish and vulnerability that ultimately led to Norah finding herself better off after ending a failing relationship. The album art is an homage to the poster for the classic film
Mudhoney, a really nice artistic touch that made it stand out on my virtual shelf. Another work best appreciated as a whole, the single "Happy Pills" is a great place to start if you're short on time. I love it how Norah switches it up a bit with every new album -- she's one of the world's best talents.
Drawing influence from country, pop, indie, and straight up rock-and-roll from the music capital of Nashville, I'm pretty sure Those Darlins also got on my radar thanks to that fancypants satellite radio I keep talking about. I heard the title track from this album "Screws Get Loose" early in the year and I loved it. I'd describe Those Darlins as a bit discordant and raucous, but that's all the better. I love the attitude, forthrightness, and eccentricity that comes out in tracks like "Be Your Bro" and "Fatty Needs A Fix", a couple of my favorites from the album. This is just a really great piece of work. The songs are short, punchy, and weird. I like it. Spend a half hour with Those Darlins and you'll see what I mean.
First off, let's establish here that Regina Spektor is great and I've enjoyed her quirky anti-folk stylings going all the way back to
Soviet Kitsch in 2004, and I always look forward to her new albums. With that said, I wasn't sure if
What We Saw From The Cheap Seats should be part of my top 40 -- the material's great, but most of it isn't new. Although the songs were never recorded and released properly on an album until now, Regina has been performing them live for years, hence the title. Ultimately, the sheer quality of this album was enough to get it onto my top 40 anyway, so, crisis averted. Among the best songs here are "Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)", an amped-up re-recording of a decade-old original, along with "All The Rowboats", a longtime entry on Regina's setlists.
The time's getting away from us! Our next installment will take us from album #30 to #21 (if anybody's still around).