25
H Hawkline - Black Domino Box
A bleak, darkly comic video brings this austere, wry song to deathly life. A compelling live performer Hawkline is also a member of Cate Le Bon's travelling band, cosmic folkists who trade Hawkwind guitars with Goth bucolic Welsh traditions. Solo, Hawkline takes on all comers, so talented it's frightening.
EP : Black Domino Box
24
Craig Finn - Rented Room
Away from the compressed full tilt bustle of The Hold Steady, Craig Finn's solo album allowed him to stretch out and let his insightful lyricism breathe. This is just the wrong (good) side of seedy, a neon lit reflection of an outsiders look at love.
Album : Clear Heart Full Eyes
23
Lightships - Sunlight To The Dawn
In a Teenage Fanclub-less year I had to console myself with Gerard Love's side project. He delivered an album capable of going head to head with some of the Fannies' best. His delicacy and finesse, the ear for a shard-like melody that lingers on the rim of the brain like a waking dream - serendipity brought to the senses - is encapsulated in this song which is beyond beautiful.
Album : Electric Cables
22
Plank! - La Luna
A track that pre-dates this year but now found on Plank!'s debut LP in a new version. A surging instrumental that gets into the bones, it has a propulsion seldom heard this side of CAN - clearly an influence but who cares when the motorik groove is this addictive.
Album : Animalism
21
Jason Lytle - Get Up And Go
A live highlight this year was the (temporarily) re-formed Grandaddy. A few weeks later came Jason Lytle's solo album, parts of which compete with some of his former band's best work, including this sublime 2.16 of glitchy chamber pop.
Album : Dept Of Disappearance
20
Pond - Leisure Pony
I was gripped by Pond's album over the summer. They sound like Headonists on the verge of spontaneous combustion. Psych has taken over this year, with a slew of daring, multi-coloured stabs at capturing that chemical rush. Pond's instinct for a good song sets them apart.
19
Nat Lyon - The Gardener Waits For Winter
I wrote about this album here :-
http://swiftysteve.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/nat-lyon.html
since when it has continued to unfold and reveal its layers in a way that promises true longevity. This is no disposable piece of work but a finely-wrought suite of songs from the gut and the heart of an artist who deserves a much wider audience.
The song is available for free download here:-
http://natlyon.bandcamp.com/track/the-gardener-waits-for-winter
Album : LCRV
18
Elephant Micah - If I Were A Surfer
Joseph O'Connell is Elephant Micah and a more understated yet pregnant with below the radar profundity piece of music I haven't heard all year. The yearning gives way momentarily (more than once) to fragile beauty that departs as soon as it arrives. It's intriguing, beguiling and stunning.
Album : Louder Than Thou
17
Zachary Cale - Mourning Glory Kid
Complicated things presented effortlessly always have me scratching my head, bemused and baffled at the instinctive knack some people have for displaying unadorned, natural talent. It's easier to embellish and gloss, braver just to be live or die on what you have - not a bad motto for life itself but put a guitar in this young man's hands and the depth of simplicity is just breathtaking.
In September I wrote a bit more about him here:-
http://swiftysteve.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/zachary-cale.html
Album : Noise Of Welcome
16
Sun Kil Moon - Sunshine In Chicago
(One of) the alter egos of Mark Kozelek, a virtual airbrush of a song that slips by on the outer reaches of the consciousness until the intensity of the lyrics, and a sudden expletive, focus the breezy refrain as something else - the ruminations of a man not sure about fame, or the lack of it. Kozelek has a devoted following - he refuses to compromise and his delicate guitar picking and fragile voice disguise a real-time punch that sets him above and beyond the ambitions of the vast majority of other songer songwriters.
Album : Among The Leaves
15
Dark Dark Dark - Tell Me
Occasionally a song will emerge that seems greater than the sum of its parts, that has been carefully crafted and which is sincere and the very best statement that the artist can make of themselves at the time. These lyrics appear to me to be universal yet deeply personal - a genre defying, possibly timeless piece. The drums are heavy yet gentle, the voice dreamy yet seemingly rooted in uncertainty. There is no question mark after the title, presumably because the questioner already knows the answer.
Album : Who Needs Who
14
Thee Oh Sees - The Dream
Just the two albums this year, then. Occupying that place between CAN and the Banana Splits belies the intelligence and nous of these almost veterans. As a live outfit they are as good as music gets and this near seven minute mangum opus is a sustained adrenalin rush of trademark false-setto yelping and drum skitter.
Album: Carrion Crawler/The Dream
13
Calexico - Splitter
A more intelligent, self-aware, ego-less band anywhere? Probably not. Yet Calexico continue to challenge and ask questions. Their album of this year - Algiers - is named after the neighbourhood in New Orleans in which it was recorded although their message goes out across the deep south or North Africa and beyond.
Album : Algiers
12
Go-Kart Mozart - Retro-Glancing
Lawrence from Creation's 1980s babies Felt, basically. Tesco Express rap, the melody is in the amazing bass line and the clue is in the title, a nostalgic yearning for a bygone era - which wasn't really much fun anyway. If there's a more infectious pop song this year, please show me it.
Album : On The Hot Dog Streets
11
Dirty Projectors - Gun Has No Trigger
Of all the brainy Brooklyn popsters Dirty Projectors are the only outfit that tug at the non-cerebral bits of my music sensibilities. They invoke the intellectualism of Talking Heads in their precision-led beats but when the choruses ascend - as they do on this amazing record - it's a bit like Handel's Messiah. Controlled passion, and music so intricately constructed that there's little point in working out HOW they do it, just rejoice that they DO.
Album : Swing Lo Magellan
10
John Murry - California
Murry's album is hewn from granite, shot through with biographical newsreel that tells his tale, the point of which is that he's glad to be even alive to open his voice to let the demons out. It's also a very optimistic LP (although this track isn't) that will resonate with survivors everywhere.
Album : The Graceless Age
9
Dan Deacon - Lots
Like nothing else this year, Dan Deacon raged against the state of his country. Like nothing else insofar as his rage was set to beats so brutal, with interludes so tender, that it could either have been read as a state of the address, or just the opportunity to have a good time
Album : America
8
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Arrived At Upside Down
English and brainy with feet in plenty of eclectic camps, this album continues to floor me with its pained incredulity, music that tries to make sense of the grey areas meaning it can mean as much to you as your open mind will allow. Banjo as well.
Album : Crown And Treaty
7
Guided By Voices - Waves
Three albums in a comeback year, each steadily more addictive than the last - 61 power pop nuggets from Robert Pollard's conveyor belt pen and at 3.23 the third longest, a relative wig-out that thankfully grinds out the propulsive groove towards a major chord denouement. Guitars never sounded this good.
Album : Let's Go Eat The Factory
6
Bruce Springsteen - Jack Of All Trades
Album : Wrecking Ball
http://swiftysteve.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/jack-of-all-trades-bruce-springsteen.html
5
Chuck Prophet - Castro Halloween
Album : Temple Beautiful
http://swiftysteve.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/chuck-prophet-castro-halloween.html
4
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ramada Inn
Where to start with this? Well, it's too short. It's a spun-out tale of a couple lost towards the end of their lives - like the record their lives are going in one direction. For a man not personally blighted by the illness of addiction Young shows incredible insight into the minds of his characters. As importantly, he wages heavy war with the guitars, making this the most memorable track of his best album for many years.
Album : Psychedelic Pill
3
Bill Fay - Cosmic Concerto (Life Is People)
A fascinating back story of redemption and a first record for 40+ years was enough to grab the attention. What had been doing all that time? Finding peace and making sense of the world is what - big things that are communicated with sincerity and a fracturing voice that tugs at the senses. The most uplifting, joyous and life-affirming set of songs - this being its spiritual zenith.
Album : Life Is People
2
Jonah Tolchin - Godforsaken World
I wrote about Jonah's album in April :-
http://swiftysteve.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/jonah-tolchin.html
since when he's toured the US relentlessly and recorded a fantastic session for the Daytrotter people. For one so young it's silly to jump to conclusions but as you can see from this performance of 'Godforsaken World' he not only means it (man) but his instinctive confidence and belief in himself means that pencilling him into the lineage of boundary-pushing American singer songwriters might not just be an act of premature wishful thinking.
Album : Criminal Man
1
Dexys - It's OK John Joe
From the opening Moonlight Sonata-style bars to the Sinatra-style croon Kevin Rowland deploys vintage vehicles to put across this inner dialogue, a confessional conversation with an alter ego - maybe his soul - to climax this perfect album. He's learnt to be kind to himself, to get that elusive perspective which finally sets his spirit free. To call this track honest is to belittle the addictive granite he's chipped away at for so long, finally revealing a human being he's happy to live with.
Album : One Day I'm Going To Soar
