2012.5 - The Best Records of the Year (so far...)

 

Special Mentions (Reissues / Compilations / Mixes / Live Albums):

• Azusa Plane / Where the Sands Turn to Gold [Rocket Girl]
• Captain Beefheart / Bat Chain Puller [Zappa]
• Cleaners from Venus / Blow Away Your Troubles/On Any Normal Monday/Midnight Cleaners [Captured Tracks]
• Codeine / When I See the Sun [Numero Group]
• Donnie & Joe Emerson / Dreamin' Wild [Light in the Attic]
• The Flaming Lips / The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends [Warner Bros. / Lovely Sorts of Death]
• Medicine / The Buried Life [Captured Tracks]
• Moss Icon / Complete Discograhpy [Temporary Residence]
• My Bloody Valentine / EPs 1988 - 1991 [Sony]
• Porter Ricks / Biokinetics [Type]
• Rustie / Essential Mix [BBC]
• Sentridoh / Weed Forestin' [self-released]
• Sleep / Dopesmoker [Southern Lord]
• Swans / We Rose from Your Bed With the Sun in Our Head [Young God]
• The Wake / Here Comes Everybody [Captured Tracks]

Honorable Mentions (Not exactly #s 16 - 25, but ten other records I've spent a lot of time with this year):

• The Congos / Sun Araw / M. Geddes Gengras / Icon Give Thanks [Rvng Intl.]
• Hospitality / Hospitality [Merge]
• Liars / WIXIW [Mute]
• Lotus Plaza / Spooky Action at a Distance [Kranky]
• Pop Winds / Earth to Friend [Arbutus]
• Shackleton / Music for the Quiet Hour [Woe to the Skeptic Heart]
• John Talabot / ƒIN [Permanent Vacation]
• Sharon Van Etten / Tramp [Jagjaguwar]
• The Walkmen / Heaven [Fat Possum / Bella Union]
• Zammutto / Zammutto [Temporary Residence] 

The 15 Best Records of 2012 (so far...#1 in red):

• Actress / R.I.P. [Honest Jon’s]
• Beach House / Bloom [Sub Pop]
• Burial / Kindred EP [Hyperdub]
• The Caretaker / Patience (After Sebald) [History Always Favours the Winners]
• Neneh Cherry & the Thing / The Cherry Thing [Smalltown Supersound]
• Chromatics / Kill for Love [Italians Do It Better]
• Cloud Nothings / Attack on Memory [Carpark]
• Grimes / Visions [4AD / Arbutus]
• Keiji Haino / Jim O'Rourke / Oren Ambarchi / Imikuzushi [Black Truffle]
• Julia Holter / Ekstasis [Rvng Intl.]
• Japandroids / Celebration Rock [Polyvinyl]
• Laurel Halo / Quarantine [Hyperdub]
• The Men / Open Your Heart [Sacred Bones]
• Spiritualized / Sweet Heart Sweet Light [Fat Possum]
• Dustin Wong / Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads [Thrill Jockey]