(All week we’re counting down the top albums of 2012. If you missed our previous entries, you can check them out here.)
40. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
Perhaps overshadowed by R&B acts like Frank Ocean and The Weeknd, Miguel is another soulful singer who blends multiple genres to create a cohesive sound. Kaleidoscope Dream’s drug and sex infused tales like standouts “Use Me” and “Do You…” offer something both traditional and personal, as Miguel wears his heart on his sleeve. There isn’t a weak track on this album. -JM
39. Django Django - Django Django
Let’s just start with the obvious: these guys sound like Devo. You know Devo – the band you just dug because they were through being cool, and because once they started clanging and clamoring and Mark Mothersbaugh started talk-singing in that wacky, wonderful way, like a robot with a nasal drip, you simply couldn’t fight it. Django Django have had criticism lobbed at them for a debut record that was simply a repackaging of the past (because there’s puh-lenty of brand new ideas in music all the time, right?! No one ever revisits anything!) What they haven’t received their due for is making one of the most fun albums to come out in 2012, period. Just listen to the wind up on “Hail Bop” and try to keep your head from bobbing, with each body part soon to follow suit. If you’ve not succumbed to some kind of Elaine Benesian full-body jerk thirty-five seconds in, you need to put a red flower pot on your head and totally loosen up. -TH
38. The Menzingers - On The Impossible Past
The Menzingers are a Scranton, PA working-class Warped Tour-sounding band that has toured with the likes of The Gaslight Anthem and, um, Taking Back Sunday. It beguiles me that they could have made an album like On The Impossible Past, one with the lyrical ingenuity of mid-2000s Hold Steady. In a year that has seen a resurgence of guitar rock, OTIP has gone criminally unnoticed by hype machine publications like Pitchfork and Stereogum. It’s not often I go to Absolute Punk for my music coverage, but it’s also not often an alternative rock album is played with such skill, delivered with such genuine urgency, and written like it was taken straight out of your emo, bleeding heart. -JM
37. Spider Bags - Shake My Head
A wondrous cross between The Replacements and Uncle Tupelo, Spider Bags are perhaps indie rock’s most underrated band. The Bags may wear their influences on their collective sleeve, but then they have no intention of breaking new ground. They just want to make some kick-ass rock n’ roll, and on Shake My Head, they take a drunken motorbike ride through your eardrums. Songs like “Friday Night” and “Quetzalcoatl Love Song” are the absolute epitome of bar-band rock, dripping with emotion and power and glorious rebellion. An album so intoxicating, you’ll have spilled whiskey on yourself by the end. -LVL
36. Titus Andronicus - Local Business
I’m actually pretty bummed this record is so far back on our list, but the group has spoken, and here we are. Local Business is proof that reconstruction after devastation is not an impossible feat, but a rocky road to acceptance. It’s certainly a less consistent record than The Monitor, but the risks taken indicate a band open to the promise of growing old. And the opportunity to grow old with Patrick Stickles is one we should all be proud to have. HOT DEUCE! -PTL
35. BBU - bell hooks
Chicago hip-hop act hits hard. Like, really fucking hard. With an eclectic use of samples and original beats, a collab with Das Racist, and lyrical honesty that points the finger back at the listener, it’s not for the faint of heart. -AH
34. High On Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
The musical equivalent of “Beast Mode.” -PTL
33. Ed Schrader’s Music Beat - Jazz Mind
The fact that Ed Schrader can find the dynamism he does in his music is proof enough of the brilliant mind he has. Manning only a floor tom and backed by Devlin Rice on bass, the duo creates sounds ranging from haunting and ominous to wistful and harmonious. -AH
32. Sufjan Stevens - Silver & Gold
Only one man would dare release a box set of Christmas music before Thanksgiving –and only one man could pull it off. With his typical mix of earnestness and irony, Stevens puts his stamp on classic Christmas songs and original holiday-themed compositions with his usual lush orchestral arrangements, female chorsues, banjo, and his distinct voice –sweet, sappy, and just shy of saccharine. In support of the album, Stevens has embarked on The Surfjohn Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long, a month long tour that began in late November and culminates on December 22 at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. Looking ahead, Stevens will perform Planetarium, an evening of “songs inspired by our solar system,” at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) with Nico Muhly Bryce Dessner of the National. Before that, expect to hear Stevens’ version of “Auld Lang Syne” at the FP New Year’s Eve party. -KLM
31. A.C. Newman - Shut Down the Streets
As the mastermind behind The New Pornographers, A.C. Newman was pretty much the best at building towering castles of indie pop perfection. Turn out he’s just as good (if not better) at writing simple, heartfelt songs and singing them well. At turns cheeky, wistful, sardonic and triumphant, Newman’s third solo album shows the singer-songwriter accepting loss, navigating fatherhood, and embracing change with a better sense of humor than many comedians and an ear for melody that makes his future look very bright. -TH
Check back tomorrow for #30 – 21.