Albums of the Year 2012

Another year comes to an end, but for Team 7Bit it’s been our first full year… So what have we learnt?

Apart from the usual “I’ll never drink again phrases”, we have found that 2012 has been the year that home grown talent really has excelled and like us, it’s been a great 12 months for debuts and debut releases. Tall Ships and Negative Pegasus in particular have been two outstanding new acts that have grown from strength to strength, with Cinemascopes really starting to appear on the national scene.

Elsewhere, we can see that Blacklisters and Clock Opera have both shown they’re ready to make 2013 their year, but with so many other acts out there who have all had a pretty fantastic run, it’ll difficult for any one of them to claim that 2012 was their year.

There have been many great album releases, but now is the time for us to choose which have been the best for us. Our writing staff have submitted what they consider to be their Top Five albums of 2012. Some found it quite difficult to choose just five; others have made sure to explain their choices.

Let us know what your Top Five are in the comments section, or feel free to tear into our choices.

 

Natt Day

 

Ironically, mine have all turned out to be debut albums. Go figure. 2012 has been a great year for new music in my eyes. And hey, no Alt-J or Django Django in sight, bonus points for that (admittedly top 10 would probably feature them).

1. Howler – America Give Up

Being the first album I actually bought this year, I expected something else to knock it from my top 5 of the year. However America Give Up has lasted an entire year on rotation without me getting tired of it. America Give Up is a gem of an album; full of frayed edges and jaunty angles—it’s a far from polished affair and that’s where the charm lies. Channelling some of the surf-like charm only American bands really can, they couple this with Jordan Gatesmith’s intoxicating vocal tone to make for a debut you’re not likely to forget.

2. Breton – Other People’s Problems

This year’s most interesting album for me came from this experimental art collective that originally started making music to accompany their art/films—which comes across vividly in the album. It’s a swirl of ideas, concepts, experiments and no two songs on the album are alike, actually making for an engaging listen. With elements of indie, electro, rock and even classical; it’s been thrown in to a boiling pot where you feel like the only thing between this being perfect and becoming a disaster is Roman Rappak’s vocals.

3. Cave Painting – Votive Life

Votive Life is a perfectly beautiful, atmospheric album that absolutely perfectly fitted its’ autumn release date and showcased Cave Painting at their best. The album has such a breadth of sound within it and yet, at the same time, feels immediate and close. Cave Painting take you to a soundscape they have created; where it can be woozy and dream-like at one moment and then more powerful and bracing at others—opener ‘Leaf’ is a perfect example of this.

4. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Trouble

This album did something I never thought anything could do—it made me open myself to a whole new genre. Merging soft, vocal house with elements of electro and even, dare I say it, traditional club music—it’s a get up and get your glowsticks on type of affair. At the same time though, he’s found a way to keep it relatable and, most of all, human so you can listen to it and actively feel that it’s more than a mindless four minutes.

5. The Cast of Cheers – Family

Fast, frenzied and fun—this is the indie album of the year. Taking elements of all good indie acts before, The Cast of Cheers have whacked it together and turned the tempo up to 11 and ensured that everything about it is energetic—so you have to dance along. It’s not exactly life-defining or ground breaking, but it might break your ankles from the sheer tenacity for bounce it has. If it doesn’t make you smile or dance then there’s no hope for you.

 

 

Jonathan “Daddsy” Dadds

 

1. Dingus Khan – Support Mistley Swans

Pretty much said all I could about this in my review. It’s not an easy listen, they have three bassists and three drummers, the whole thing is fuzzy as hell. It’s so much fun.

2. Every Time I Die – Ex Lives

Most brutal album start of the year, with the vocals just screaming “I want to be dead with my friends” over until everything kicks in and riffs occur. Variation happens later on with some interesting guitar licks, but this is one heavy mosh of an album.

3. Fang Island – Major

Because it has big guitar parts, complicated keys, silly vocals and more big guitar parts. It just sounds like the band are having fun throughout the entire record.

4. The Travis Waltons – Your Neck Is Bleeding

Fair enough, this was the last week of 2011, but it missed the 2011 list and has well over 100 plays in my iTunes so deserves a mention. Stupidly emotional songs recorded by an unsigned act but with production that destroys most label releases for the year.

5. Bloc Party – Four

Best Bloc Party album in years, with some big riffs (seems Young Legionnaire has rubbed off on the bassist), the usual interesting guitar parts, and a lot less stupid electronic arrangements. Pretty much a band back to their best.

 

Lauren Bridgeman

1. How To Dress Well- Total Loss

Fractured, ethereal and delicate, this debut is stunningly executed with sparse, melodic soundscapes and a vocal which is devastatingly beautiful in tone; crooning’s of love in all its obtuseness, heartbreak, sadness and total loss. The production on this record is subtle, soft and minimalist whilst still holding on to a biting honesty which is direct and touching.

2. Alt-J- An Awesome Wave

This years Mercury winners could not of been more deserving of the title with their summer debut. An Awesome Wave is a collection of beautifully crafted tracks, collaged with tones, beats and flurrying sonics. The intricacy within the record is something to be commended; scapes which create the tracks with colours, textures and words of art and literature. An Awesome Wave also has one of the best album intros I’ve ever heard. this really is a prolific and innovative piece of work.

3. Tall Ships – Everything Touching

One of the most versatile and loudest three pieces out there, Tall Ships in no way disappointed with their anticipated debut in the autumn. Architects in building and creating powerful walls of sound, the record is brimming with tracks full of heavy scope, Sonics and driven rock which is built around the lead vocal. closing track Murmuraations is a nine minute long world gradually building and erupting in to one of the most incredible bits of music I’ve ever heard.

4. DIIV- Oshin

Riffs, riffs & riffs. Oshin is a shimmering masterpiece, fluid and transcending the melodies crafted are chilled, sensual and dazzling gems but so much more thyan another of your dreamy pop guitar band there is a lot more depth to this record which pulsates throughout, the vocal elusive, drowning in sonic waves and a throbbing bass lines. DIIV have nailed their debut with absolute perfection.

5. Born Blonde- What The Desert Taught You

With a release date so late in the year, after eleven months of incredible record releases beforehand, this was still an absolute must on this list which says a lot about the craft of the record. soundscpaes, colours,tones and patterns Born Blonde manage to create not only great indie rock music, but something that shuns reality in favour of escapism, new surroundings, transportation and a world wherever we want it to be which is the beauty in this powerful debut.

 

David Gould

 

1. Portico Quartet – Portico Quartet

Having set the bar high with their atmospheric, nu-jazz masterpiece Isla, the four piece venture into new electronic sounds with their self-titled third album. Consisting of copious loops, a litany of ambient pieces, and channeling the spirit of Fourtet, Burial and Flying Lotus through the band’s already eclectic idiom, the LP is a thing of beauty and intelligence (you can even dance to it).

2. Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes

Potentially album of the decade, Until the Quiet Comes is an hour-long sonic journey through the colourful dreams (and nightmares) of its creator. Truly wonderful.

3. Death Grips – No Love/Deep Web

The album cover says it all really – a no-holds-barred excursion into the dark sides of the masculine psyche. In one word: angry.

4. The Mars Volta – Nocturniquet

Some long term fans were disappointed with the prog-rock outfit’s newest release, the band choosing electronic atmosphere and a surreal narrative over their usual Santana/King Crimson mix, but it’s nice to see a group stretching out and trying something new, and it’s certainly an improvement on the last album. New band drummer Deantoni Parks’ is the highlight.

5. Storm Corrosion – Storm Corrosion

The long awaited co-lab between Opeth’s and Porcupine Tree’s leading men, Storm Corrosion is a flawless Gothic tapestry.

Antony Lusmore

 

 

1. Coheed and Cambria – The Afterman: Ascension

2. Cold in Berlin – …And Yet

3. Billy Talent – Dead Silence

4. The 69 Eyes – X

5. Dry the River – Shallow Bed

 

 

Ashley “Bash” Brancker

 

1. Kindness – World You Need a Change of Mind

2. New Build – Yesterday Was Lived and Lost

3. The 2 Bears – Be Strong

4. Nick Hoppner – Panorama Bar 04

5. Erol Alkan – Another Bugged Out Mix

 

Rhian Stone

 

1. Crystal Castles – (III)

2. Little Comets – Life Is Elsewhere

3. Grizzly Bear – Shields

4. Passion Pit – Gossamer

5. Beach House – Bloom

Alex Marshall

1. The Maccabees – Given To The Wild

2. The XX – Coexist

3. Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid m.A.A.d City

4. The Internet – Purple Naked Ladies

5. Lana Del Rey – Born To Die

Sarah Louise

1. Shinedown – Amaryllis

2. Garbage – Not Your Kind of People

3. Linkin Park – Living Things

4. Young Guns – Bones

5. Flyleaf – New Horizons

Katy Hatch

1. Blacklisters – BLKLSTRS

2. Castrovalva – You’re Not In Hell, You’re In Purgatory My Friend

3. Reel Big Fish – Candy Coated Fury

4. Futureheads – RANT

5. The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know

Sarah Tennant

1. alt-J – An Awesome Wave

2. Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball

3. Grizzly Bear – Shields

4. Django Django – Django Django

5. Frank Ocean – Channel Orange

 

Harry Bandell

1. Imagine Dragons – Night Visions

2. Tall Ships – Everything Touching

3. Arrow Haze – Music Factory

4. Uncle Lucius – And You Are Me

5. Folks – I See Cathedrals

Mark Platts-Weston

1. Grendel – Timewave Zero

2. Lindsey Stirling – Lindsey Stirling

3. Coheed & Cambria – The Afterman: Ascension

4. The Agonist – Prisoners

5. Emilie Autumn – Fight Like a Girl