(All week we’re counting down the top 50 albums of 2012)
30. Jessie Ware, Devotion
The day will come when Jessie Ware is so famous that an appearance on lists like this will seem trivial. Maybe that day is already here. Regardless, once Ware becomes a household name, her fame will erode our ability to evaluate her music objectively. So, if you haven’t yet heard Devotion in all its sultry pop glory, I advise you to listen right now. When the day comes that she’s all over your favorite magazine cover, when she’s walking down the red carpet at major event X, you can say you knew her when. -LVL
29. Chromatics, Kill for Love
The new Chromatics album starts with a remake of the Neil Young classic “Hey Hey My My (Into the Black).” It’s a bold move to open a record with a cover, much less a cover of such a seminal rock anthem. Yet the Chromatics cover works both in its own right and as a prelude to the rest of Kill for Love. Singer Ruth Radelet replaces Young’s nasal earnestness with her ethereal tone and narcotic delivery, the anthemic A minor guitar riff survives, and percussive squeaks foreshadow the album’s hypnotic electronic melancholy. While there are standout tracks, Kill for Love is best savored as an album, a 90-minute trance. -KLM
28. Anais Mitchell, Young Man in America
Following her Greek-myth-featuring, Justin Vernon-featuring Hadestown, Anais Mitchell returned this year with a more accessible album rooted in American musical tradition. Young Man in America doesn’t necessarily tell a specific story, but is a timely album in that it attempts to explore the American spirit of storytelling on a conceptual level and in the context of the difficulties of the recession. Mitchell may have narrowed her lyrical scope, but the album sounds absolutely huge. When I saw her and her band play these tracks in front of Bon Iver in September, the noises emanating from the stage filled the Providence Performing Arts Center just as well. -JM
27. Dan Deacon, America
Baltimore-bred electronic composer Dan Deacon makes patriotism cool – and not just kind of cool, either. I mean really freaking cool. A follow up to 2009’s equally ambitious Bromst, America rarely comes within a glancing blow of a salient political message, although “True Thrush” does caution us not to “…touch the flame of the burning decay / With the lies you’ve been sold, let the nightmare unfold, if you don’t mind.” Too smart for pulpit proselytizing, what Deacon’s second masterpiece really gives us is the feeling of getting lost in – being lost in – America. From sonically pixilated views of heartland on “Prettyboy” to the majesty of lakes and rivers and big Texas sky on the album’s closer and four-part suite, America glows with a warmth and depth hard to come by in the genre. -TH
26. Lana Del Rey, Born to Die
Who cares that music tastemakers made Lana Del Rey an overnight star, then tore her to shreds before she released her debut album? Who cares about her fake name or fake lips or her disastrous SNL performance? Who cares if her lyrics are vapid? Born to Die contains enough pop gems – anchored by trip-hop beats, strings, and splashes of reverb soaked guitar – to overshadow her reputation as “Britney Spears for hipsters.” Admittedly, there are some clunkers on Born to Die. But the first five songs alone are worth the price of admission. Pass the Diet Mountain Dew. -KLM
25. Grimes, Visions
Clearly indie’s “it-girl” of the year (and cheap HRO bait), it’s hard to argue against it. With Visions and a live show that’s perpetually evolving, Claire Boucher has helped bring the Canadian DIY electronic scene above ground. Call it witch-house, call it darkwave, call it whatever, just call her deserving of all the attention. -AH
24. Lower Dens, Nootropics
Were the webs guilty of a collective brain fart this year, hailing first Liars’ WIXIW (#15) and later Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave as the year’s best “Radiohead” release? A thrillingly transgressive stylistic shift, the sound of an underlying rage made beautiful through its shaping by unlikely forces, Nootropics felt much closer in spirit to the ghost of Kid A than either Liars’ or Alt-J’s effort. Pair an unmistakable Krautrock influence with bandleader Jana Hunter’s androgynous moan, and Thom Yorke’s voice never sounded so good coming out of a woman. Yet Nootropics clearly stands the test of authenticity with one preposterously good song after another, far from imitating though branching gracefully from an influential family tree, never duplicating on a record that pulses mantra-like with repetition. -TH
23. Japandroids, Celebration Rock
Celebration Rock is open road music. It’s whiskey-and-beer music. It’s the sound of youth, the sound of hope, the sound of naïve and unbridled optimism. It’s the sound of young people mistaking lust for love, mistaking camaraderie for friendship. mistaking euphoria for happiness. It is the sound of invincibility, of the illusion of invincibility. In other words: it’s pretty fucking great. -LVL
22. Punch Brothers, Who’s Feeling Young Now?
My brother spent the last several years making How to Grow a Band, a documentary film about Punch Brothers –the not-bluegrass quintet led by Chris Thile, mandolin virtuoso and former leader of Nickel Creek – so it’s impossible for me to be objective about their third album. Bias notwithstanding, Who’s Feeling Young Now? is a welcome reminder that superior musicianship and pop music are not mutually exclusive. While bass wunderkind Paul Kowert is the only Brother who qualifies as young, the album’s title speaks to its vitality and playful vibe, an eclectic hodgepodge of Bill Munroe, Radiohead, and sports metaphors. And if you haven’t had enough holiday cheer from Sufjan, dig the PB’s track on a certain ubiquitous coffee chain’s 2012 Christmas album, which also features songs by FP heartthrobs Sharon Van Etten and Andrew Bird. Who’s feeling venti now? -KLM
21. Action Bronson & Party Supplies - Blue Chips
To quote a text from Keith Meatto: “This dude is on time!” Punctual or not, Action Bronson knows what makes great hip-hop and exploits that depravity for our benefit. -PTL
Action Bronson – “Steve Wynn”
Action Bronson – “Tapas”
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