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The Lumineers - The Lumineers

In the line of increasingly popular indie folk outfits, the key aspects are sentiment and charm. It’s the formula that builds the fundamentals for your Edward Sharpe’s, Mumford and Sons, Head and the Heart’s, Avett Brothers, etc. Whether or not their approach to the basics of folk is watered-down, uninteresting or artistically imprecise, without appropriate adoration and theatrics in a band’s performance, the act will crumble in a thousand pieces. And on all points on this basic criteria, The Lumineers fall short by a mile. A near half dozen listens through their self-titled debut record induces nothing but cringe-worthy lyrics, laughable vocal performance and a snooze-fest of “deep cuts”. Upon adored records, I’m always ready to hear a hardcore fan’s over-drawn opinion so I can assess from both ends of a spectrum. But for my sake, “The Lumineers” will be this year’s fair exception. I see no potential or scope for anything creative to grow from, it’s impossible to make a case against that, for me. The Lumineers are the poorest American band of this year, both in musical ability and ideas. (5/10)

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Top 50 Songs of 2012: #4, Tindersticks - Chocolate

His eyes were still beautiful, deep brown, his lips still chocolatey and orangey.

Tindersticks’ “The Something Rain” was one of the first records of 2012 I reviewed and “Chocolate” being one of the first opening tracks. It’s a nine-minute spoken-word/jazz essay that set the coolest first impression for experimental music this year. With its lush instrumentation and immersive prose, “Chocolate” delivers as the album’s stand-out track by a long shot and even offers the best lyrical plot twist in spoken word this year. I couldn’t stress it enough, but the nine minutes are worth it. 

(Source: Spotify)

Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man

U.K. indie pop queen Natasha Khan returns as Bat for Lashes with an emotionally stunning 3rd LP, “The Haunted Man”: a breath-taking baroque pop record sculpted from some of the most mature, detailed and innovative musicianship and dramatic potency we’ve heard from Khan as well any other poet this year. (8/10) 

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Top 50 Songs of 2012: #15, The xx - Angels

If someone believed me, they would be as in love with you as I am. 

The first time I listened to The xx’s “Coexist”, I was in downtown walking alone in pouring rain, miserable and cold. It was one of those romantic existential moments. The opening track “Angels” features as a spot-on accompaniment for such a scene, with its modest instrumentation, thick dollops of bass and heart-stopping lyrics delivered by Romy Madley Croft’s alluring whisper. As far as love songs go this year, “Angels” hit home the closest. 

Top 50 Songs of 2012: #26, Cloud Nothings - Wasted Days

I thought I would be more than this. 

Through all the genres Cloud Nothings incorporated on “Attack on Memory”, everything from indie rock, punk, old-school emo and post-hardcore, the most cohesive track is the nine-minute slow-burner “Wasted Days”: a fiery, hustled-up roller-coaster ride of a performance featuring timid grooves, heavy instrumental variety and profusive technical ability; I’ll call it the jam of the year. 

(Source: Spotify)

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

With its urgent reverb and crunchy guitar riffs, 2010’s “Astro Coast” is a memorable and catchy surf-pop record with plenty of lo-fi indie rock ready to fill soundtrack gaps on summer beach parties filmed through Polaroid sepia lenses. (8/10)

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Band of Horses - Mirage Rock

After three blissful records and a solidified place in the hearts of indie-rock worshiping couples swooning in the nighttime or sensitive, existentially concerned lumberjacks, Band of Horses returns with their fourth LP, “Mirage Rock”: a truly tone-deaf combo breaker in the group’s formulaic alt-folk rock style, this time, going all sorts of haywire with cringe-worthy vocal harmonies, throwaway compositions and deeply disappointing lyrical quality. Like Weezer’s “Raditude” or Guns N’ Roses “Chinese Democracy”, add “Mirage Rock” to that pile of shit. (4/10)

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Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

An unforgettable chamber pop record that unorthodoxically brings those two words: “chamber” and “pop” into a stellar merger of something stunning, heartbreaking and devilishly catchy. (9/10)

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Deerhoof - Breakup Song

With their queer eccentricities and upper-echelon quirkiness, the noise pop weirdos Deerhoof follow suit with their 12th album, “Breakup Song” in their colorful 15 year career. Featuring schizophrenic grooves, angular guitar riffs, samba-based samples, idiosyncratic sonic textures and nearly child-like vocals: it’s easy to say “Breakup Song” is in an element of its own, almost as if Bjork did a rendition of Dirty Projectors’ “Bitte Orca”. Only then would we have something comparably weird and delectable. (8/10)

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Top 50 Songs of 2012: #42, Father John Misty - Funtimes in Babylon

Look out Hollywood, here I come. 

Former Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman, going under the moniker Father John Misty, is begging to be heard and, goddamn, you oughta give him the pleasure of being heard. On his debut LP, “Fear Fun”, we follow through the whimsical and ingenuous diary entries in Tillman’s resonant and, quite frankly, under-rated song-writing ability. The album’s opening track, “Funtimes in Babylon”, is a prime example of Father John Misty’s emotional capabilities and often dazzling folk rock production value. It’s an impressive single from a promising poet you should keep your eyes on in years to come. 

(Source: Spotify)

Grizzly Bear - Shields

If there were a book of commonplace indie-rock phrases, “Any Grizzly Bear album is a good Grizzly Bear album” would probably take precedent. The highly talented and visionary Brooklyn quartet make a new mark with their 4th album, “Shields”: the band’s most emotionally absolute and detailed release to date. From the dreamy and thematic lead single “Sleeping Ute”, the heart-wrenching “A Simple Answer” or the complex “Half Gate”, we find Grizzly Bear not repeating past successes like the chilling psychedelic “Yellow House” or the infectiously catchy chamber pop “Vecktimest”, instead rushing past those to make an unadulterated masterpiece record detailing the intricacies of human relations. Certainly, the slow-burner album of the year. (8/10)

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Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

“Centipede Hz” never plays the same way twice. I don’t mean that in a “pick up on new and different qualities upon each rotation”, I mean you’ll be bombarded with so much content, you won’t remember it by the time it starts over. Which in a sense, is an achievement a la Animal Collective fashion. Never does the psychedelic freak pop quartet progress a step forward or back from past records, they somehow manage to defy gravity and side-step to the wall and start running around the room. So “Centipede Hz” shouldn’t come off as a total surprise, with its abrasive, nightmarishly challenging, over-modulated yet drab sonic experimentations. Worshipers and casual fans alike, be warned: ‘Centipede’ is certainly one of Animal Collective’s least rewarding experiences, with little to none repeat value and heaps of un-cathartic headaches ready to be had. (6/10)

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Two Door Cinema Club - Beacon

Is it just me or does preppy non-american indie pop suck this year? (It’s probably just me, I might be a mere asshole) But much in the vein of dismally lackluster sophomore slumps this year from groups like The Temper Trap and Foals, Two Door Cinema Club enters the ring with an equal dose of painfully droll rock compositions, ideas and lyricism that suffices the ear as much as a napkin holds as a paperweight. Nothing offered on a record like “Beacon” could ever suffice even for the likes of contemporary pop junkies, it’s just that weak. (4/10)

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Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan 

It might be far from realizing its own ideas, farther away from establishing motives or artistic direction properly and farthest away from “Bitte Orca”, their 2009 avant-garde magnum opus, but Dirty Projectors’ “Swing Lo Magellan” comes still intact with front-man David Longstreth’s trademark complex melodies and compositions, the album’s ultimate saving grace. If you can forego the record’s anticipatory hype along with the heart-breaking lack of female vocalist Angel Deradoorian, “Swing Lo Magellan” plays out decently in the world of experimental art-pop, decently enough to not get thrown in the bin. (7/10)  

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Liars - WIXIW

In a sense, Liars latest album, “WIXIW”, should be completely forgotten about and scrapped in the dust for being bleak, unrewarding, anti-climatic and the most throughly low-key piece of experimental rock in quite some time. However, that is exactly what these highly-reputed musicians wanted to make: a challenging and dissonant listening experience. So there’s no real meaning in criticizing a technical sonic experimental succeeding to articulate and prove its point, even if it doesn’t remotely amount to pleasurable listening or repeated visits. (7/10)

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