James: "'Alleujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" - Godspeed You! Black Emperor
2012 saw the overdue and welcome return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. In epic and confident style, Godspeed have stormed back into our ears with a record of menace, beauty, swagger and strangeness. They remain masters of getting the absolute most out of each musical idea, without the music ever feel like it's drifting or outstaying its welcome. Which is impressive for an album composed of four tracks, two at the twenty and two at the six minute mark. It's also a reassurance for this conservative that there are still bands willing to assert the primacy of the album in a musical landscape of individual tracks and Youtube clips.
Sophie: "Bloom" - Beach House
I think for me, this year has been all about getting into albums I bought last year but didn’t get around to listening to. But from 2012’s selection, I enjoyed releases from Chromatics, Lower Dens, Sleigh Bells, Perfume Genius and First Aid Kit. As for the winner, it has to be Beach House’s "Bloom": mainly because three of my absolute favourite songs to come out of this year are ‘On the Sea’, ‘Myth’ and ‘Wild’; for them to be all on one record is a pretty triumphant achievement.
The soundscape they create is particularly evocative – the vocals derive lonely warmth – there is distance and isolation in there too, as well as a feeling of lucid buoyancy. Weirdly their music always reminds me of water – I think that’s because when I first listened to "Teen Dream", I was in, well, I guess you could call it a rainforest, driving towards Melbourne during the 2010 floods. Our car was on the brink of running out of petrol, our roof was leaking and we were coasting down hills, sploshing through massive puddles, to try and pick up enough speed to get home. Similarly, I first listened to “Bloom” in spring this year, and again, the record acted as my ‘friends together, lost in the wilderness, trying to get where they’re meant to be going’ soundtrack. No floods this time though – just a lot of good times with a backdrop of miserable British rain…
Alwin: "3D Opera Whale" - Buttonhead
Can't quite believe a record like this can get made and barely make it into mainstream consciousness. It's a wonderful concoction of pop melodies, soaring and intricate arrangements, creativity, beautiful vocals and fun. People, give this record a listen, and see why I won't stop banging on about them.
Miranda: "Lonerism" - Tame Impala
Psychedelic Rock has to be one of my favourite music genres. The subliminal lyrics of languid social philosophy, embedded into that distinguishable "swimming in the sky' feeling; I love that shit. Lonerism is every bit the heaving bass vibrations across light headed waves of vox and riffs, and Tame Impala's sophomore album fairs nicely as the second chapter to their highly acclaimed 2010 debut "Inner Speaker". (Kevin Parker is genius; the milieu surrounding everything he's touched in the Australian music scene of late is defining a new standard and identity of music in the country - check out Canyons, Pond and Melodies Echo Chamber). Opening with the Sergeant Pepper's-esque 'Be Above It', they once again allow you to fall far down their sonic chasm into peaceful solitary, so the album title could not be more suited. There is a defiant freshness to the production that removes this album from playing too close to the 70's core. It's a road trip for feet or bikes, and rolling around in the grass (a completely underrated past time).
'Apocolypse Dreams', 'Elephant' and 'Why Won't They Talk To Me?' are important tracks, but the flow of the whole album relies intrinsically on the next track, as any good psych rock albums should. Tame Impala are truly one of the best bands to have ever emerged from Australia, and a front runner for the genre in my mind. I unabashedly love these guys.
Runners Up: M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion, Heaven - The Walkmen, Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II.
Duncan: "Celebration Rock" - Japandroids
"Celebration Rock" may not be my most played album of 2012, but it’s the one that that I turn to time and time again to give me a lift – and to wake me up in the morning.
How the ‘droids’s still have audible voices after all that perpetual shouting and ‘woahing’ is one of life’s many mysteries; they must have larynxes like little knotty tree stumps by now.
"Post-Nothing" was a tough act to follow, and thankfully the band managed to resist over-embellishment on their second album. It remains warm and fragile, but also the music of a band that have grown in confidence, and aside from limited overdubs, the production on the record remains faithful to the band’s live two man set up, fusing fuzzy and thick guitar rush, with frenzied punk drumming and vocal opining.
The love of life, wide-eyed charm and poetic lyricism that Japandroids have managed to squish into "Celebration Rock" eight lean party rock songs make this record vital and warm. In less wily hands this may have been another dumb power-chorded album for emo-pop-punkers, but there is always a poignancy and intelligence lurking amidst the feedback. Best of all; there are no flabby moments indicative of a band trying overstretch themselves – we just got more of the same... but better.
In a year which saw further interbreeding between genres and hybridity between electronic and guitar-bands, and a fuzzing up of boundaries, there is something oddly compelling about the simplicity of this project. And when Japandroids let loose, they manage to sound like a band twice the size.
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