And just like that, after so many years and so many songs and so many more songs, I have reached my last AEFAE. Series finale. Or whatever. I started this partly because I realized I had an excessive amount of music but couldn't decide what to listen to. And now I'll come right back upon that conundrum. I think now that I'm a bit older though I'll spend more time listening to stuff I just know I like. There is a lot of that and it is a place to begin.
What happened in 2017...hmmm...for some reason there was a lot of protest music. Yeah. And my wife got pregnant with our son. He was born this February so he has been taking up most of my energy for the past 3 months. But that's 2018. Which will not be written about here because it's not over yet.
Music was good in 2017. I came around to the fact that in general, hip hop has been more groundbreaking lately than the rock I have held so dear. But there was some top notch music from both camps. But why am I separating them? Music is easy to categorize as this or that but there can be thematic threads through different genres and eras and time is a loop!
Music was not as good as I would hope though. Because all of the '7s in this thing have been exceptional, but 2017 was the exception to that. Still a good number of good-to-great albums came out.
Is this the longest intro thing I've done? I gotta save some bytes for the outro!
Lots of bytes have been spent on the Our First 100 Days collection (compilation?), consisting of 100 songs that were released a day at a time for the first 100 days of 45's presidency. As would be expected from 100 songs, there are hits and lesser hits. Angel Olsen and Jens Lekman were the highlights for me. And there was the Battle Hymns compilation which had a bunch of artists I like singing songs that were a bit on the nose for the most part.
A much more relevant protest album to me was Nothing Feels Natural by PRIESTS. I missed their live show last night because I have a cold. Just thought I'd throw that in here since I'm writing about them today. But this was the most interesting rock album of the year for me. Just a wild ride.
Priests "Appropriate"
Jesca Hoop followed up her collab album with Sam Beam with Memories Are Now. I came back around to Jesca Hoop recently. I've always been into her music but it started to blur together for me for a bit, but this one sounds special to me.
Nicole Atkins had a very similar trajectory to Jesca Hoop in my eyes. I discovered both around the same time, and while they are not very similar in style they both fell off briefly with me before coming back with a vengeance in 2017. Goodnight Rhonda Lee is a simply great album. "A Little Crazy" is instantly in my top Nicole Atkins songs, as she really wails as only she can.
Nicole Atkins "A Little Crazy"
Life Will See You Now, the latest from Jens Lekman, was one of my favorites. As his albums always are. I don't know how to explain how this one is special, it's just a bunch of slices of people's lives told in beautiful ways. When "Evening Prayer" came on while I was driving, it just hit me so strongly that I teared up a bit. It's just so relatable that I could put myself into the story and then be devastated by it.
Dirty Projectors' self titled album was interesting. It gets ruined a little by the condescending tone of the lyrics, but the music is really cool. It had contributions from Tyondai Braxton and that blends really well with the vocals and other experiments.
Stephin Merritt's latest project as The Magnetic Fields was his 50 Song Memoir. It was interesting to hit that as part of my musical memoir-ish project. It is a great collection of songs, some of which are amongst my favorite Merritt tracks. That alone is quite an accomplishment after all these years.
Spoon continues to astound with Hot Thoughts. I listened to it a bunch last year and when I revisited it here I realized that they had secretly thrown in a bunch of new Spoon classics. I was so used to songs like Shotgun and Can I Sit Next to You that I didn't realize they were new ones. Spoon, the most consistent band in rock. Pretty sure.
Another favorite indie band of a few years ago that put out more music in 2017 was Fleet Foxes. Crack-Up was a lovely album that I really need to spend more time with than this project allowed. One thing I'm looking forward to with the freedom of not doing this is listening to stuff like this more.
Deerhoof never goes out of style for me. Mountain Moves was their most overtly political album with covers of songs like Freedom Highway by The Staples Singers and Small Axe by Bob Marley. It also has a bunch of guests, something Deerhoof hasn't really done before.
LCD Soundsystem reunited and put out an album called american dream. It seems like it's theoretically as great as their older albums but has not reached those levels for me. Maybe I just need to give it more time. Or maybe it's just great, not exceptionally great?
Sleep Well Beast is one of the more inventive albums The National has put out. And that one song sounds like a really good Pulp song. That's what I remember I wanted to write/joke when I first heard it.
The Hanged Man by Ted Leo is an interesting one. It's less punk and more...Elvis-Costello-or-Nick-Lowe-esque? He experiments with some weird harmonies and choruses and toward the back half of the album I just realized it really sounded like those favorites of the late 70s.
St Vincent! MASSEDUCTION was an odd one. It's nowhere near as great as her s/t album but I appreciate her direction on this one. But the sexy sounds of half the album just really brings attention to how great her ballads are. Songs like New York and Happy Birthday, Johnny remind me of great Tom Waits or Lou Reed songs. But I want her to shred some guitar on her next album.
St Vincent "New York"
One more indie band I feel kind of obligated to write about is Arcade Fire. Helloooooo, backlash. I was lashing back at these guys back at Neon Bible, but now that everyone has caught up and hated on Everything Now, I kind of want to defend them. Oddly, when I listened to it first I got through the first 4 tracks (including the title track, Signs of Life, and Creature Comfort) before I got to work. At that point I was ready to say that this is a solid album and people are getting picky about silly things. Then Peter Pan came on on the drive home and it felt like a slog through the middle section of the album before ending somewhat strongly for the last couple songs. What I wanted to say early though was that you just have to take this band on their terms. You can't cynically go in with a bad attitude, you have to just immerse yourself. That's how Reflektor was to me. But this one...yeah, hit and miss.
Kendrick Lamar has yet to miss and he hit us all pretty hard with DAMN. (how's that for a segue?) When I first heard the album, I was mostly taken by how much it just sounds like a collection of songs. Of course, that was all surface level and it turned out to be another masterpiece with themes running through it and a flow. Plus all the bangers on it. Plus the whole thing where playing it with the track order reversed makes it make even more sense front to back (I ended this project by listening to this album backward. I think I preferred it this way).
I can't say why I enjoy Oddisee so much, but The Iceberg is a special album to me. It almost reminds me of some of the indie 90sish hip hop I used to listen to.
Shabazz Palaces only reminds me of Shabazz Palaces, even though dude was in an actual 90s indieish hip hop group. The two separately released but complementary albums Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star and Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines are very dense but I think I'm finally starting to get to where I can appreciate them. So again, more music to listen to more!
Vince Staples continues the trend of hip hop that's not even really hip hop at this point other than the rapping. Big Fish Theory is a straight up great electronic album.
Open Mike Eagle continues to be the rapper I most enjoy lyrically, and Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is just another pile of reasons for that.
I listened to a few things only once, since I had acquired them at the end of the year and I was trying to get this project done. But I need to pay a lot more attention to the following: Waxahatchee Algiers Charlotte Gainsbourg (really excited about this one, IRM was one of my favorites) Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (rest in power, Sharon Jones! I am not happy that there is no more new music to hear from you.) Slowdive gSp
So that's it. Thanks for reading. What have I learned?
Not as much as I was hoping to learn. When I was working through the 70s I was excited that I was becoming so aware of what albums came out in what years, but I've lost all that knowledge among the mess that was the 21st century. There's just way too much.
I learned I have more music than I can listen to in 4 years (was it 4 years?)
The early 70s weren't so bad and 1973 was actually very great!
Even 1997, the one that I thought was going to break my theory of '7s, was when I really got into independent music and it also had OK Computer.
I need to listen to an album repeatedly to really "get" it. It's hard to write about something after I listened to it once 4 weeks ago.
I am excited to listen to whatever I want to. New and old. Shuffling stuff.
That new Janelle Monae album has been waiting for me.
See you in December when I say something about 2018! But it won't be An Ear For An Era! The end of an.......................era.
Reader, can I call you Reader? 2015 was a year, you see, where we were all so innocent (not really) and things were so much simpler (or more complicated) and we hadn't yet entered the hellscape of a Bowie-less world (and other such disappointing developments of 2016). 2016 is modern music, current music, in 2018. But 2015 is the end of an era.
Another randomly sorted list of things. Well the sorting is more or less similar to release date, in that my stuff is sorted by quarter. So alphabetically by album, but divided by quarter. That's how I've been doing this thing for a while now.
Most notably these items:
I guess I'll just happen to start off with what is likely #1 album of the year for me. It was for a lot of people I think. Sufjan Stevens' devastating Carrie & Lowell. Sad sad songs about a mother or the idea of a mother or something, of confusion and growing up. The thing that was most striking listening to this album now was that in the time since, I have seen him live twice, and he's put out a live album and a kind of remix mixtape thingy. New and exciting interpretations of these songs that I love. And then you come back to the original takes, the spare arrangements of this album and it just makes it hit that much harder.
Sufjan Stevens "Blue Bucket of Gold"
Belle & Sebastian seemed to be trying to shed their twee image once and for all with Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance. (Aww, remember peacetime but not really peacetime, let's not romanticize that time too much now?) Not that they'd been particularly twee for some time by now, but this one had moments where they just straight up played dance pop. Good times. This was also the album that I finally saw them on tour for, and it was a show at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Which was awesome. Charles Bradley opened for that show, which was about as amazing as you could want. But I'm talking about Belle & Sebastian. They are a perennial favorite.
That reminds me of something I wanted to talk about for 2015. Not that it was some great revelation, but 2015 really seemed to mark the point where I spent most of my new music budget on those perennial favorites, regardless of what all the cool new critics were saying was cool and new. I still checked out a few new critical darlings probably, but I'm getting older and only have so much time and I know what I like. (Breaking the format of going in that order now to talk about things). Bands like The Go! Team, Modest Mouse, The Mountain Goats (though they keep changing things up and putting out albums about wrestling and whatnot), Calexico, Jim O'Rourke, Hot Chip, Built to Spill, Battles, Wilco, !!! and Mercury Rev didn't get a ton of critical attention but they are part of the class of bands/musicians that I feel like will never let me down and put out solid B+ albums on a regular basis forever.
I'm going to talk about Sleater-Kinney separately here because No Cities to Love did not feel like a band that has put out a bunch of albums. And it was something of a reunion. But it has such freshness about it. The Woods probably would have counted in that other category, but No Cities to Love sounds almost like a debut album with its energy levels and complete awesomeness (though with some veteran musicians at the top of their game).
Courtney Barnett sure is a fresh voice in this world, isn't she? She seems to share a lot of DNA with Jonathan Richman, from the high level of wit in the lyrics (with a good amount of heart) to the speak-sing vocals to the long album titles (Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit). I just thoroughly enjoy just sitting and listening to her music.
The other highly regarded album of the year shortlister was of course Kendrick Lamar, whose To Pimp a Butterfly was some next level stuff, particularly in the mainstreamish line he tows. All of the Thundercat jazzy stuff, recurring motifs, thoughtful interludes and bursts of creative energy, it really is something special. I remember in 2015 I thought it was a good album but that it didn't have enough songs that could qualify as straight-up songs to quite stick with me. The revisit I just did with this project changed my mind though, as things do. Everything had stuck into my mind and unearthing that was really cool.
There was another very special record that I insisted on listening to twice (as I put it in a Facebook post, revisiting 2015 requires listening to it more than once), and that was E-mo-tion by Carly Rae Jepsen, and I don't even care what that looks like. Yes, she is hipster-approved pop, so it's not like I'm super courageous to be declaring my love for it, but damn does it sound good. To sing along to, to exercise to, to let it just dig into your brain and hum it all day. You gotta listen to it more than once.
Carly Rae Jepsen "Run Away With Me"
My final major highlight, from the final quarter of 2015, was Art Angels by Grimes. At first I was skeptical when this great experimental producer/musician went all-out pop, but it is so infectious that I don't mind. And there are still interludes and postludes and odd song structures that prove her avant bonefides and keep me wanting more and more.
Other highly notable items
THEESatisfaction - EarthEE - Bold, engaging, I think it matches the last album in terms of quality. they will be missed!
Father John Misty probably counts as someone who was new and cool with critics even though he came from the world of Fleet Foxes (who were still relatively new compared to those 20 year old bands). I Love You, Honeybear is a pretty great record. I like his ranty old man character he takes on.
John Carpenter's Lost Themes is an awesome collection of jams.
The Sonics came back after forever and put out This Is the Sonics, which is a title that reminds me of their album titles from the 60s. Lots of fun garage rock as one might expect from the almighty Sonics.
I picked up Apocalypse, Girl by Jenny Hval because I apparently had money to burn at the record store (and the cover amused me, and it was on the reliable Sacred Bones records, and I looked it up really quick and it had good reviews, and I like nordic stuff in general). But was I ever glad I did. This album sounds great on headphones, reminds me of Laurie Anderson or something.
Downtown Boys are real good.
Old reliable Kermit Ruffins put out a hashtag album called #imsoneworleans and I don't even care. The music's great so whatever!
Desaparecidos came back so I'm sure everything was going fine politics-wise.
Vince Staples deserves more than a bullet point for his double album but I'm neglectful.
Georia Anne Muldrow actually rapped on her album A Thoughtiverse Unmarred. And I dig it quite a bit!
Both Beach House albums made for some good headphone listening.
CHVRCHES are real good too y'all. More of that pop music.
MEOW THE JEWELS.
One tragedy of this strategy was that the really dense albums I couldn't give enough time in 2015 didn't get any less dense, so they still didn't get enough attention on revisit. Remind me to give The Most Lamentable Tragedy by Titus Andronicus a lot more attention in the near future (and yes, I know they have a new one coming out!)
Dilly Dally is a very interesting band that I'm hoping to hear more from soon.
Next Time:
I feel like 2016 was pretty epic, if nothing else. Many terrible things happened. Lots of great music came out though. Bowie of course, De La Soul, Danny Brown, Frank Ocean, Blood Orange, The Falcon, Open Mike Eagle, Run The Jewels, Solange, Nick Cave, A Tribe Called Quest, Avalanches, Leonard Cohen, Bon Iver, et al.
And thus, we wrap around to where we started. Kind of. I started this thing in 2013. Which kind of means 2012 was the original planned stopping point. Kind of. I didn't think I'd get it done in a year. But what I'm getting at is that while this is not the last one of these I'm doing, it's the last one that will really be tied in to my life. Because my musical memories of 2013-2017 consisted of going through this project and sneaking in some new music in between. So I'm continuing this project just because 2013-2017 were neglected and I might as well listen to that stuff one more time and give my thoughts on it, whether they are interesting or not! Luckily, doing this project also kept me from acquiring as much new music as usual, so it should speed up a bit here.
So 2012 was a significant year for me and for music. The last "big one" you'll see on this blog. Maybe going forward (and I'm thinking way ahead now, since I have a bunch more entries to do), I'll turn this into an ongoing blog about my relationship with music. Whatever that means. And 2013-2017 will be that black hole.
I forgot to get started in that last paragraph. Too bad I don't know how to edit what I've written to make those two paragraphs one coherent thought. Oh well.
Oh, here's my 2012 list from 2012. I decided to stop ranking things that year because it was too hard to compare Frank Ocean to The Dirty Projectors. But seriously, read that. I read it after writing this and it was eerie how many things I described the exact same way 5 years ago. And some things I described much better there than here.
In 2012 I got married. That was the main thing. So my relationship with music was mostly in the fact that I was particularly sentimental toward love songs and such and was seeking them out for perfect wedding playlist choices. And then memories of driving around Napa Valley on our honeymoon listening to The 2 Bears. That's probably the definitive music memory for 2012 for me. Napa Valley and into San Francisco, listening to "Bear Hug" and going over the Golden Gate Bridge. See, that album Be Strong was a good one for both of us to like because it was the dude from Hot Chip but nobody knew about it. My wife (wife!) had reviewed it for a website she was working for at the time, gravitated toward it due to a love of said Hot Chip. It's basically Hot Chip but with more silly songs and guest vocalists. They also had a song called "Ghosts & Zombies" which worked for the wedding thing since wedding was horror themed. But I think my favorite song off that album was "Time in Mind."
The 2 Bears "Time in Mind"
I just jumped in there, didn't I? I mean, once I actually jumped? When I was listening to music this time I was thinking about themes and how I'd summarize the year, but I just put that there. And there's no turning back now. My backspace key is broken. It's a good thing I don't make typos.
2012 was characterized by some very straightforward music. Most of the best music of the year was pretty unambiguous. Usually my favorite music kind of hops genres and is hard to define. Not this year.
Of course, I'll start (not counting The 2 Bears) with the exceptions to that. There are a lot of releases in a year and they're not all going to fit into these boxes.
One of the hottest songs of the year to me was sponsored by Converse and it brought together some favorites that aren't that far apart but still not usually interacting. Three giant personalities that are usually enough on their own. I'm talking about a song that had contributions from Gorillaz (the official "artist"), Andre 3000, and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. It was a thing that Converse had them do, and let me tell you, it is an entertaining track. Especially the long, uncensored version (which really has the LCD Soundsystem influences go off the rails along with Andre). If you didn't hear this in 2012, or you just forgot about it, here is a treat for you!
Gorillaz featuring Andre 3000 and James Murphy "DoYaThing" (short version, sorry! couldn't find the long version on YouTube anymore!)
THEESatisfaction melded together some different things as well. I call them hip hop, but it's more of a neo soul thing I guess? I don't know. Just spiritual and honest and smart and moving. Maybe? Check out awE naturalE, it is a great record and features Palaceer Lazaro (of Shabazz Palaces), the closest spiritual partner to this wild music that I can think of. Meanwhile, Robert Glasper fused together jazz and R&B and some hip hop on Black Radio. Such great soulful performances on there from the likes of Musiq Soulchild, Bilal, Erykah Badu, etc.
I just keep finding exceptions! I think my rule is nonsense but still a convenient way to break this up. But pop/R&B singer Neneh Cherry teamed up with avant-jazz group The Thing for The Cherry Thing and it is such a unique, special....thing. It's got covers of great songs by The Stooges and Suicide and Madvillain, and that Madvillain cover in particular ("Accordion") I love because it brings out MF DOOM's lyrics in such a new and unique way, more like poetry than rap, and I'd love to hear such a treatment of more rap songs because I appreciate his lyrics that much more now.
Kid Koala, ever unclassifiable. I generally put him under hip hop because turntables, but 12 bit Blues is straight up a turntable blues album. Like, classic blues. That guy! If you check out one song off this album, make it "8 bit Blues (Chicago to LA to NY)." Heavy Chicago blues. And turntables. And area codes. Just...the area codes. For Chicago, LA, and NY. That guy!
Deerhoof firmly belongs in the "undefinable" category, but Breakup Song is kind of their pop album anyway. They have always been gleefully weird and catchy, but Breakup Song might be their catchiest without making a whole lot of concessions to their signature weirdness. Does that make sense? Of course that makes sense. It's Deerhoof.
I think Swing Lo Magellan is my favorite Dirty Projectors album. It might be their most mature. With enough weird creative energy for me to list them next to Deerhoof but also enough pretty vocals, it i s a very realized sound from what seems to be a bunch of experts. But they have fun with it. Amber Coffman takes the lead a couple times on vocals and they are some of my favorite moments. And then the playfulness of songs like "Unto Caesar" where they kind of take on a looseness not unlike "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys, where they're just kind of showing off how easy it is for them to hit those perfect harmonies when they feel like it. And then on other songs, there is an intensity that the harmonies just amplify. It really is sad that the personal and professional relationship of David Longstreth and Amber Coffman fell apart as it did, but we'll always have this album.
Dirty Projectors, "Gun Has No Trigger"
I skipped out of the UMS for the night Saturday night to see Dirty Projectors that year. No regrets at all.
And now the straightforward stuff that I swear was the whole point I was getting at, I'm sure this is the focus!
Rock and roll just went straight out rock and roll in 2012. Cloud Nothings' Attack on Memory reminded me of Bleach era Nirvana, the changeups, the passionate grungey vocals (Cobain-style, not Vedder-style), and just the way they pushed everything to its limits, it really is one of the best pure rock albums of the past decade.
Similarly, The Men went balls-to-the-wall on Open Your Heart, OFF! had a self titled album that was just exactly what we needed, which is what OFF! is always best for: short fast punk songs, preferably under a minute but sometimes as long as a minute 37 seconds. Ty Segall Band put out Slaughterhouse which I think is the only Ty Segall album I have. They cover "Diddy Wah Diddy" by Bo Diddley, so that's great. Dinosaur Jr continued their reunion hot streak with I Bet On Sky. Screaming Females delivered big time on Ugly with the best vocals and guitar licks one could want. Even Titus Andronicus simplified their formula as well with Local Business, a decidedly not conceptual album (while fitting in a couple characteristically long confessional tracks). And METZ.
Jack White's solo debut Blunderbuss was I guess slightly more complicated than The White Stripes, but pretty much straightforward blues rock. I saw him at Red Rocks as well as at a tire shop in Denver on this album. My last hurrah of working weekends (oh yeah, I switched to weekdays in 2012!) was the ability I had to chase him down to see an intimate show at a random tire (was it a body shop? I don't know, something car related) on West Colfax and be in like the 2nd row. That was a thrill, let me tell you. Then Red Rocks that night. Oh, and our "end of the night" song from the wedding was his "I Guess I Should Go to Sleep." Good song!
Jack White, "I Guess I Should Go To Sleep"
Oh, and remember Alabama Shakes' debut album Boys & Girls? More awesome soulful garage rock! Fairly straightforward!
And finally, Japandroids' Celebration Rock may just take the cake for rock album of the year. Maybe. The pure mass of sound they put out as two people is just phenomenal. The passion, the whoa-oh-oh, it's just pure anthemic celebration. I guess that album title is a pretty good descriptor that I didn't realize was right in front of me. I also remember one night I was listening to it and it ends on a song called "Continuous Thunder" and it ended up being the same night as a huge thunderstorm in Denver. I kind of wondered if the album had called it into being, similar to a rain dance.
Japandroids "Continuous Thunder"
Small section in here for pretty-easy-to-classify Swedish indie pop artist Jens Lekman. I Know What Love Isn't is signature Jens Lekman, just easy songs with some truly insightful lyrics while also staying true and all that. Words. He's better at words than me. But this album has "I Want A Pair of Cowboy Boots" which is one of my favorites. "Just buy me a drink so I can refuse to raise my glass to these sad and worn out midnight shoes..."
And also easy to classify is straightforward pop music. Carly Rae Jepsen'sKiss came out in 2012 and while the album is uneven to say the least (she would get much more consistently great in a few years), it had the smash single "Call Me Maybe" which is great for all the unironic reasons. And that alone makes it worth pulling into the main part of the entry here.
Another usually easy to define genre is hip hop. It was a very good year for hip hop, if you remember 2012. El-P'sCancer 4 Cure saw the beginning of his mutually beneficial relationship with Killer Mike. Or did Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music come first? Either way, before they were Run The Jewels, the two collaborated quite a bit on two of the best hip hop albums of the year (and probably more than just the year). So I'll talk about them together here. El-P's started with an extended instrumental break that I remember people remarking made them think they'd accidentally gotten the instrumental version of the album. He just makes you wait for it longer than you may be used to. But once that hits, the words come hard and he does not let up. I don't know how to explain these albums! In terms of RTJ, they showcase the individual talents more than their combined efforts, and for that I hope they do some more solo material (while not wanting RTJ to end because duh).
Aesop Rock's Skelethon. It has some great moments of creepiness, particularly when they feature his newtime collaborator Kimya Dawson (which almost would put him in the "less classifiable" category, except that she doesn't sway the album out of hip hop territory. I will say that she brings her signature twee in to a great unsettling effect).
Nas put out an album as a reasonably old rapper called Life Is Good. I didn't think I'd be that into it but it must have been $5 or something. It ended up being one of the better "mature" hip hop albums I've heard. Still uneven (particularly when the song about having a daughter is followed up within a couple songs by less than savory language one wouldn't want to use with one's daughter) but there are some illuminating moments for sure.
The Coup made the revolution a party by the way. Sorry to Bother You is THE ONLY album you need for your revolution party.
Kendrick Lamar kind of broke my rating system with good kid, m.A.A.d city. Usually my ratings are there to indicate standout tracks so I know which ones to revisit (in addition to using them so they'll come up on various shuffly playlists, as I do). But the consistency of greatness on this album just kind of means the whole thing is to be revisited. Over and over. It's interesting to revisit this album now that he's put out a couple more. It might be my favorite of the three (not counting untitled unmastered). But it also has had the most time to marinate. I'm excited for the revisiting of TuPAB in the near future. The reason I'm not trying to really write about the music is because so many words are on the internet about this album. I don't really have anything to contribute. But just to say something, it is a refreshingly honest portrayal of life in Compton without being grandstanding. It's about difficulties and it's just about growing up. It's oft misunderstood but wise beyond its years. Or something. I don't know. It's one of the best hip hop albums in existence. And I get to see him live on Saturday (I had to throw that in there).
We can also put Frank Ocean firmly in the R&B category of the record store. Channel Orange is not a typical R&B album though. The pure honest heart on sleeve presentation and the deep, deep levels of creativity make this something truly special and it transcends any genre. Even though it evokes greats like Marvin Gaye and Al Green, it is so contemporary and original. Album of the year? Tough call, due to this year being this year. But maybe.
Frank Ocean, "Pyramids"
Also of note:
Grimes' Visions was fantastic. I know she would go more pop and arguably better on her follow-up, but Visions was my intro to her and I love its experimentalism.
Man, there was a giant box set of Bob Dylan covers that I got because it was a benefit for Amnesty International, but was that a slog to get through! No regrets for supporting it, but it had maybe an EP's worth of tracks I actually liked.
John K Samson of Weakerthans fame went solo with Provincial. Definitely consistent.
Leonard Cohen deserves more than a footnote, I'll try to put in a tribute with the 2016 entry. Old Ideas was fantastic though.
Chromatics' Kill For Love. A great album for driving around a big city on a rainy night.
Magnetic Fields checked in with Love at the Bottom of the Sea. As usual, it had a couple great songs and some filler. But I really liked "Andrew in Drag" and "Going Back to the Country."
I'm not sure which category I'd put Sleigh Bells in above (which I guess puts them in the non-straightforward category!) because Reign of Terror saw them going a little more basic, dropping some of the hip hop influences in favor of making it closer to metal. So it's only joining together like three genres now, okay?
Revisiting The Shins' Port of Morrow was quite rewarding. I had thought I'd remembered it being dull, but this time it was a pure delight.
of Montreal had two albums! And many genres as well!
I think Heaven might have been the album that really made me appreciate The Walkmen.
I feel like I didn't like The House That Jack Built by Jesca Hoop as much as I should have, considering it seems to expand on my favorite quirks of her first album. I wonder if it's related to the similarly timed release of Fiona Apple's The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, which touches on similar styles and was just so great that it made others look bad. Not sure. But yes, I put that whole title in here. Confession: I used copy/paste for that one.
Hot Chip also had an album as Hot Chip and it was great. It deserves to be not just a footnote, but I write about them a lot already!
Same with Scissor Sisters. b is more greatness from them.
Is Master of My Make Believe Santigold's best? Maybe, just maybe.
Calexico, man. Calexico. Algiers is just like, what Calexico does. They could put out 10 more albums like this and I'd love them all.
The xx managed to evolve enough for their sophomore album Coexist where I maintained interest, but they were nowhere near the year end list this time. I still enjoy them though.
The Whigs' album Enjoy The Company was included in a random grab bag thing I got at the record store. Two words of advice: when you already have tons of music, don't go acquiring more stuff you've never heard of. However, sometimes you might get lucky and get something awesome.
David Byrne and St Vincent teamed up for a pretty funky collaborative album. It's got hits and misses but the hits hit hard, like good classic Talking Heads. I'd like more of St Vincent's signature oddball guitar work, but the brass sounds good too.
Divine Fits were a good way to hold us over until the next Spoon album.
Big Boi took a step back with Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. But still, Big Boi.
The Evens! The Odds!
Bat For Lashes! I got bored with her other albums for whatever reason, but The Haunted Man is the real deal!
And always The Mountain Goats. Transcendental Youth is typical great Mountain Goats music.
2012 Playlist from 2012:
Comfort in Destiny: It Was 2012
17. David Byrne & St. Vincent "Weekend in the Dust"
18. Jack White "I Guess I Should Go to Sleep"
Next is 2013:
Chance the Rapper! CHVRCHES! The return of Man or Astro-man?! The return of Janelle Monae! DELTRON EVENT II! My Bloody Valentine! (now I feel silly talking about the return of Janelle Monae since the other returns are after much longer hiati) Bowie! Daft Punk! (now I'm realizing that I'm getting older and all the more exciting albums are returns) Run The Jewels! Savages! Deafheaven! (now that's more like it, some new stuff) Elvis Costello with The Roots! Justin Timberlake! And more stuff! But not as much as I started to scale back on my music. Please keep reading this even though I said it would be less personal. You might get nostalgic for music from 4 years ago, right? Remember 4 years ago? Those were the days.
mp3s are for sampling purposes only. If you like what you hear, support the artists using the links provided. If you are the owner of any of the songs I share, you can email me at brandon.horning@gmail.com and demand immediate removal, and I will comply! Otherwise, they last for one week.
An Ear For An Era Playlist!
Check out a spotify playlist of the stuff I post in the An Ear For An Era feature!
