Hiro11

Really liked that album, it's just off of my list.

CRM114

Holy shit, Red Kross is still around? We listened to them in college in the 80's.

bunkaroo

You are just fascinated with bands enduring past your younger years, aren't you?

Quake1028

Haven't gotten to Big Boi or Ab-Soul yet, unfortunately. channel.ORANGE is a snoozefest.

nodeerforamonth

Me too!

Yeah, they're around and better than ever! Their new album is the best yet.

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cungar

Along with The Beach Boys, Redd Kross are Hawthorne, CA boys.

stvn1974

Bob Dylan- Tempest
Neil Young - Americana
Neil Young - Psychedelic Pill


Yep, I like old fogy music. That new stuff the kids today listen to is just noise.

starman9000

Really digging The Bloom and the Blight by Two Gallants.

bearkiss

this year I loved:

ultravox - brilliant
rush - clockwork angels
pink - truth about love
muse - 2nd law
dead can dance - anastasis

I liked:

pet shop boys - elysium
kiss - monster
killers - battle born
patti smith - banga
green day - uno & dos - for some reason can't get into tre

Quake1028

I might have to revise my list. Koi No Yokan is really soaring up my rankings.

Dan1boy

Reposting my list from FB:

Top Ten Albums (no particular order):

1. Garbage - Not Your Kind of People
2. Metric - Synthetica
3. The Ghosts - The End
4. Green Day - Uno!
5. Imagine Dragons - Night Visions
6. The Vaccines - Come of Age
... 7. Two Door Cinema Club - Beacon
8. Spector - Enjoy It While It Lasts
9. Bloc Party - Four
10. Eve 6 - Speak In Code

Honorable Mentions:

1. Assemblage 23 - Bruise
2. Citizens! - Here We Are
3. Keane - Strangeland
4. Plushgun - Me.Me.
5. Parov Stelar - The Princess
6. Morning Parade - Morning Parade

Quake1028

Updated my list so it now includes my Top 50.

pezsoup

1. A.C. Newman - Shut down the Streets
2. Joe Pug - The Great Despiser
3. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Live From Alabama
4. Patterson Hood - Heat Light Rumbles in the Distance
5. Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
6. Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet on Sky
7. Sara Watkins - Sun Midnight Sun
8. Justin Townes Earle - Nothing;s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About me Now
9. Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral
10. The Heavy - The Glorious Dead
11. Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
12. Lucero - Women & Work
13. Tift Merritt - Traveling Alone
14. Gaelic Storm - Chicken Boxer
15. Ryan Bingham - Tommorowland
16. Kelly Hogan - I Like to Keep Myself in Pain
17. Shearwater - Animal Joy
18. The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know
19. Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur
20. Alan Doyle - Boy on Bridge

TripWire

Always gotta participate in the DVDtalk Top album List, sorry for the length!

1. Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
This album came out in the beginning of the year and I knew it was probably going to be #1 on my list at the end of the year. I never really like the Cloud Nothings before this album. But put Steve Albini on the helm and actually recording with the touring band and it changes this band's game. This album crosses so many genres and it has the right amount of dark tone to keep me listening song to song. No lengthy review of this album, it's the best of the year hands down.

Best Tracks: No Future/No Past, Wasted Days, Seperation

2. Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania
I was totally just ready to hate on this album. When I just scanned through it song by song I did think it was total shit and laughable. But then I actually gave it a chance and listened to it and realized I was totally wrong. This is the most focused album since Mellon Collie and the new band actually sounds like they have come into their own rather than just a Corgan project. Of course it has its cheesy moments, but Mellon Collie had moments also. Get past that and you begin to realize that musically it's very strong and the new drummer is less predictable than Jimmy Chamberlain. I am looking forward to see what direction they go to in the future (as long as it's not electronic).

Best Tracks: Panopticon, Oceania, Inkless

3. White Lung - Sorry
Holy shit, this album is only 19 minutes and 12 seconds long spanned across 10 songs. It is the most badass riot girl punk crazy guitar lined angry album ever put out. It's also awesome I can listen to this album in a single commute. The guitar lines have awesome harmonic tricks mixed with double picking randomness, I really dig it all.

Best Tracks: Take the Mirror, Glue, Those Girls

4. Jeff the Brotherhood - Hypnotic Nights
I first heard Six Pack and thought wow this shit is so simple but so catchy. Then I figured out it's just two guys and one guy is playing a 3 string guitar and I had to check out the album. It really is great redneck simple trash rock. Songs about drinking beer and living in the south, with even some not so bad ballads thrown in. Kinda reminds me if Weezer lived in a trailer park.

Best Tracks: Six Pack, Country Life, Staring at the Wall

5. Silversun Pickups - Neck of the Woods
What an evolution for this band. I have been listening to them since the Pikul EP from 2005 and have liked them ever since. With every album they branch out in their sound and aren't afraid to try new things. This is a pretty organic sounding album mixed with a lot of soundscapes but still with a heavy dose of guitar. I really like that they didn't play it safe and just release songs that sound like Lazy Eye to make some cash .I am not a fan of it all but most of the songs pull me in and I can appreciate the direction they are going. That direction is a lot less predicable and I love when a band can throw me off, especially in a 3rd full length album.

Best Tracks: Skin Graph, Make Believe, The Pit

6. Beach House - Bloom
Beach House definitely has a sound, floaty drug induced daydreams type stuff. They never get too epic and sound pretentious, but just put you close to the edge and let you kinda lay there for awhile. It's just comforting to listen to, even if the lyrics can get pretty dark. Maybe eventually I will get tired of them never changing, but for now there is no band that makes stuff like this so they can fill my niche for awhile.

Best Tracks: Myth, Lazuli, The Hours

7. The XX - Coexist
You either love or hate the XX. This album went away from the poppy song structure of the first and focuses more on mood. i think it would be easy to just write off this album based on the lack of guitar lines. It's not even music I would typically listen to, but I dig their voices and I like what they go for. Just another one of those bands that fill a niche and don't play it safe that I keep listening to.

Best Tracks: Angels, Chained, The Missing

8. Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Yeah I know this is at the top of everyone's list and for good reason. It's rare that you get such an honest straight forward rock album. Another duo band on my list, seems like these type bands are good at no bullshit. It's pretty awesome that this guy does vocal takes that is just out of his range, makes me think about the good ole days of emo and Mineral. Tons of stuff has already been written about this album and I agree with all of it, it is their best record to date and you should check it out.

Best Tracks: The Nights of Wine and Roses, Fire's Highway, Continuous Thunder

9. Dinosaur Jr.- I Bet On Sky
I think J. Mascis is basically my Neil Young. When he solos, I listen. In fact nobody emotionally grabs me with a solo the way J. Mascis does. He just plugs a guitar into a amp and makes it sound awesome. As Dinosaur Jr. ages and they still put out albums, somehow their albums get even better. It also helps that he always sounds like a sad bastard because he has one of those sad bastard rock voices. I am thankful Mascis is still around and putting out music, this album moves from old school to new school with signature epic Mascis guitar solos. Love it.

Best Tracks: Don't Pretend You Didn't Know, Watch the Corners, Almost Fare

10. Garbage - Not Your Kind of People
Man, when I heard Garbage was putting out a new album all I was thinking please don't suck. For such a long hiatus Butch Vig and crew has put out a solid comeback album. This is definitely the most poppy thing I listen to in general so that counts for something. I think there is the right mix of synth and old school garbage guitar lines that it gives you enough nostalgia to pull you in and interested in what they can do now with today's technology. There is of course a song or two I hate, I feel like those might be Shirley Manson vehicles rather than something Vig came up with. But hey, at least as a whole it didn't suck. Plus they put on a kick ass live show.

Best Tracks: Automatic System Habit, Control, I Hate Love

Notable Mentions:

Deftones - Koi No Yokan
This album came out so late in the year that I haven't had time to fully digest it. It sounds like a sister album to Diamond Eyes so I am sure it could of been on my list if it would of gotten to me sooner.

Paul Banks - Banks
Still putting out interesting music I like, much more advanced than anything he has done with Interpol.

Toadies - Play Rock Music
Always great to hear a Toadies record, it's definitely not as good as Rubberneck but this is still a solid album."The Appeal" is a great bluesy sad tune. "Laments of a Good Man" is one of the craziest songs they have ever put out.

Biggest Dissapointment:
Muse - The 2nd Law
AWFUL! I HATE IT! WTF! POS PRETENTIOUS OPERATIC CONCEPTUAL PIECE OF CRAP!STOP PUTTING OUT MUSIC LIKE THIS!

auto

Great wrap up!!

TripWire

Thanks auto,
Good job on kicking the thread off. I gotta check out that Divine Fits album, I like Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade, Moonface so I don't know how this slipped past me.

Apple Gooncha

I am always so far behind on music and it's been a hectic year.... so probably in 2-3 years I will be caught up with 2012. What I can remember hearing:

Between the Buried & Me- Parallax 2; It has grown on me, still not sure I love it as much as their last couple
The Faceless- Autotheism; Mostly good, but I don't exactly love this one either
Spawn of Possession- Incurso; See above, basically
Panopticon- Kentucky; This is probably my favorite of the year. I don't know how to describe it... black metal with bluegrass influences?A really unique band/album
Minus the Bear- Infinity Overhead; An enjoyable, if not great album. The biggest problem is that I think their first two albums are so good that each one since has seemed a little disappointing initially.
Woods of Ypres- Woods 5: Grey Skies and Electric Light; hard to judge without outside factors influencing it, but I do like it a lot. I enjoyed all of their albums, so, I didn't mind the transition from sort of black metal to whatever this would be considered.

I've heard the new Sigor Ros, but I need to hear it again to fully judge it (I was underwhelmed with my first listen) and I have the new Ulver and Rush albums that I haven't really given fair listens to. I have also enjoyed the new Regina Spektor and Andrew Bird albums, but, again, need to listen to them more.


Edit: Just realized the new Ulver album is a cover album. Whoops.

Also, the Steven Wilson/Mikael Akerfeldt Storm Corrossion album may be my most disappointing of the year. I love that they didn't go the easy route and make an album that sounded like what one would expect them to make, but I also think the album is good background music, at best.


Given all that, my favorite release of the year is probably the 15 disc re-issue of King Crimson's "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" from 1973.

Supermallet

Okay, here is a more comprehensive list, in roughly my order of enjoyment.

Leonard Cohen: "Old Ideas"
Scott Walker: "Bish Bosch"
Sleigh Bells: "Reign of Terror"
Bill Fay: "Life Is People"
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Mature Themes"
Father John Misty: "Fear Fun"
Christian Scott: "Christian aTunde Adjuah"
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!"
Dirty Projectors: "Swing Lo Magellan"
Menomena: "Moms"

Honorable Mentions:
The Mountain Goats: "Transcendental Youth"
Alabama Shakes: "Boys and Girls"
The Smashing Pumpkins: "Oceania"
Deerhoof: "Breakup Song"
Metric: "Synthetica"

Metrodub

Here are my top 25. I'm sure there will be albums that I missed from earlier slip into the list, like the Lord Huron and Big Boi albums, but I feel good about the list. Like TripWire, I was pretty sure that my number one was going to be number one when I first heard it a year ago.

25: Glen Hansard - Rhythm and Repose
24: mewithoutYou - Ten Stories
23: METZ - METZ
22: Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now
21: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
20: Baroness - Yellow & Green
19: Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
18: P.O.S. - We Don't Even Live Here
17: Woods - Bend Beyond
16: Tamaryn - Tender New Signs
15: Father John Misty - Fear Fun
14: Crystal Castles - III
13: Tame Impala - Lonerism
12: DIIV - Oshin
11: Beach House - Bloom
10: The Avett Brothers - The Carpenter
09: Japandroids - Celebration Rock
08: Sigur Ros - Valtari
07: El-P - Cancer4Cure
06: Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
05: Aesop Rock - Skelethon
04: The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know
03: Grizzly Bear - Shields
02: The Walkmen - Heaven
01: Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

starman9000

Alt-J is a great choice there at 6.

Metrodub

The first time I heard the band's and album's name I was convinced that they were some goofball alternative band from California. Imagine my surprise when I actually heard the album and it was far from what I expected.

nodeerforamonth

holy shit... they were on a Redd Kross, Dinosaur Jr, and Mudhoney dvd I downloaded and I don't think I ever heard a worse band in my life!

They made Pink Floyd sound like Slayer. AWFUL!

(sorry, but easy-listening ain't my thing!)

Arpeggi

Best album for me was Flying Lotus-Until the Quiet Comes

Dan1boy

I sampled Alt-J on FB due to all the accolades on NME, here and elsewhere.

Easy listening Indie Pop just isn't my thing either. Like me some bite. This stuff makes me sleepy.

But, as they say, opinions are like a-holes....(fill in the blank)

CRM114

Obscure, irrelevant bands like Redd Kross? Hell yes! Seem to have taken a big hiatus so I wouldn't call it "enduring" more than a comeback.