#1 - Beach House – Bloom

#1 - Beach House – Bloom

Beach Housealways know how to deliver dreamy music that you feel deep in your heart. While some of their earlier work had the tendency to get bogged down in moodiness, they've outgrown that in their last two records.

Bloom has the whispery vocals that are standard to a Beach House album. Like they're telling you a secret. But it has a brighter tone to it than Teen Dream did. It always feels like there's something going on in the subtext that only they know. Because of that, this is a record that evokes a sense of loss and gain at the same time. It really just depends on the mood of who is listening.

The thing that always stands out is how the lyrics are arranged. Victoria Legrande is a master of phrasings that are no more than a few thoughts per breath. What she accomplishes by doing that are a few words that get trapped in your head at a time. That makes all the songs stay with you well after they’re done. 

I once described Beach House as what I would imagine listening to a cloud would be like. Bloom is no different. It’s what I thought was the most beautiful music of the year – and for that reason, my favourite record of 2012. 

Top Tracks: Lazuli, Myth, New Year, Irene (this is a record worth listening start to finish each time)

#2 - Grizzly Bear – Shields

#2 - Grizzly Bear – Shields

At times, this record feels like something a band like Pink Floyd would have put out. It does that in the way it carries your mood both up and down. With Shields, Grizzly Bear drifts each song into the other in a way that makes it flow unlike any other record this year.

This was the record that made me the most nervous this year. The band's last release Veckamatist was so good, topping it almost seemed impossible. The Fleet Foxes had a similar problem with Helplessness Blues; how do you follow up an amazing record while still pushing the band forward? Unfortunately for them, it didn't work out.  Shields however, does not not fall victim to the same trap.

It's a new record that feels like the band has grown, but not like they have started over. I've always felt it was important for bands to move forward, but remain the same band. In this instance, Shields feels like a natural progression for a band to take. 

Top tracks: Sleeping Ute, Yet Again, Sun In Your Eyes, Speak in Rounds

#3 - Grimes -Visions

#3 - Grimes -Visions

While Madonna pranced around arena shows in a cheerleader outfit - Grimes was tearing up small gigs with little more than her synth set-up.

Why invite the comparison between the two? Well there is the obvious juxtaposition of one act struggling vainly to stay in the spotlight, while another career takes off. But, if you listen closely, you can hear the early Madonna influence inside Visions. It’s a record built on strong vocals and incredibly catchy songs. But that's ultimately where the comparison ends.

I'll admit that more than half of the time, I have no idea what the lyrics are. In fact, I've been guilty of singing along "meow, meow, meow" during some of the higher pitched sections. Despite that lyrical ambiguity, this is an album that makes you want to sing along with the words you don't know.

From all accounts I've seen and heard, Grimes is one of those perfectionists that wants you to hear what she does. I’d like to think she accomplished that with most of us.

Top Tracks: Genesis, Circumambient, Oblivion 

#4 – Father John Misty – Fear Fun

#4 – Father John Misty – Fear Fun

 

J. Tillman is the funny one. I once spoke to him after a solo gig in between Fleet Foxes albums, and he claimed he didn’t do it intentionally. But whether he likes it or not, he's hilarious.

That sense of humour doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of letting up either. Found inside the best looking album cover of the year, where you would typically look for the lyrics, is something completely different. Two massive posters containing what is best described as a short story called “Mostly Hypothetical Mountains.” Amazing.

Once you get through all of that, there’s the music. Fear Fun knocks the socks off anything Tillman ever did with Fleet Foxes. It’s full of bright and often strange tales that are only appropriate after the small novel that accompanies them.

It’s great to hear Tillman’s voice on the entire record too. The main reason Helplessness Blues ended up being so boring, was that it didn’t feature enough of him singing behind the drums. Back in the spotlight on his own project once again, he shines. 

I almost wore out a Sub-Pop sampler on record store day this year thanks to a sneak peak of FJM. Luckily there wasn't too much time in between it and the full record.

Top Tracks: Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings, Misty's Nightmares 1&2, This Is Sally Hatchet, Well, You Can Do It Without Me

#5 - Japandroids – Celebration Rock

#5 - Japandroids – Celebration Rock

From the first crackle of fireworks, to those that fizzle out at record’s end – this album starts and ends with a bang. 

Vancouver’s Brian King and David Prowse have pulled-off what is easily the best rock album of the year. Managing to work in light and shade some two-piece backs just can’t. Celebration Rock does it with an energy that doesn’t quit, but never tires you out. With lyrics revelling in the ability to take whatever you love out of life - it’s classic, but never overindulgent. 

I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to hear a slower paced song on a rock record that isn’t a power ballad. In the year of Chavril, these guys are may be the glue holding Canadian rock music together. I can’t wait to hear what they do next. 

Japandroids are the real deal. And that is something worth celebrating.

Top Tracks: The House That Heaven Built , The Nights Of WineAnd Roses, Fire’s Highway, Continuous Thunder , Evil’s Sway

#6 - Purity Ring – Shrines

#6 - Purity Ring – Shrines

It’s a good thing this album came out when it did. In a year when I was looking forward to the fellow-up to Passion Pit’s Manners, only to be immensely disappointed, Purity Ring gave me what I was looking for. Shrines is full of melodic and infectious songs that leaves you yearning for more.

This album shares only a portion of the levity Manners did. While upbeat, the tracks are quite dark. Like dancing with your shadow, it’s cheerful, but not overwhelmingly so. It also manages to be contain some of the sexiest music of the year.   

What really makes Shrines stand out though, is how it feels like it’s breathing. Waves of cascading synth could easily become annoying, but instead it links each song to one another.  The lungs on the front of the album cover are well placed. 

As far as album art goes, Shrines contains some of the year’s best . Bewilderingly cute and haunting characters – not unlike those found in the music.

Top Tracks: Crawlersout, Ungirthed, Lofticries, Grandloves, Belispeak, Saltkin

#7 - Bahamas – Barchords

#7 - Bahamas – Barchords

Afi Jurvanen knows how to write a love song. Instead of the fluff, he writes about what’s real. The dirt and grit found between the cracks that eventually form in many relationships. Barchords is a record about the fights, the fuck-ups, the longing, and sometimes - even the forgiveness. 

But where others could take those experiences and make them bitter, Bahamas forms them into the type of songs the blues were built for. 

Like love itself, it has its ups and downs. Barchords is full of cheerful tempos, sorrowful guitar plucks, and even the occasional punctuating trill of an organ. Every now and then back-up singers peek out from behind the curtains adding one more layer. Everywhere else is Jurvanen’s amazing voice carrying each song along.

These are the songs for the morning after. The ones where you reflect and sometimes realize it was your fault. And the other times when you know it wasn’t. 

Top Tracks – Lost In TheLight, Caught Me Thinking, Never Again, I Got You Babe, Your Sweet Touch