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Last year we broke from tradition, joined the list-making masses and gave you the DCist music staff’s favorite albums of 2011. It turns out we like making lists even though we may disagree on whether 2012 was actually a good year for album releases. However, for each of us, one album stood out above the rest, so here is our take on our favorite albums of 2012 and a list of the rest that impressed us.
Benjamin R. Freed
Kendrick Lamar: good kid, m.A.A.d city
Don’t get me wrong. This past year was one of the strongest for pop music that I can remember, but while I could list dozens, maybe scores, of singles I loved (see: Jepsen, Carly Rae; Falls, Veronica; Adkins, Adele; -chunk, Super), I was rather worried that 2012 would finish with a bunch of albums competing for No. 2. And then one Kendrick Lamar Duckworth emerged with good kid, m.A.A.d city, perhaps the strongest breakout hip-hop album since Kanye West’s The College Dropout. But where West appealed to a gilded post-millennial crowd, Lamar took us back to the hardened streets of Compton, a mad city made famous by an earlier crowd of groundbreakers. And while Lamar’s 2011 effort, section.80, was raw and unflinching, good kid, m.A.A.d city is a miracle of major-label productions. The bristling, unsparing lyrics are never lost amid the lush studio sounds; if anything, it’s as wonderful a sonic marriage as we’ll find for a while. No killing this vibe.
Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo, Magellan
Grimes: Visions
The Evens: The Odds
Japandroids: Celebration Rock
Mynabirds: Generals
Frank Ocean: Channel Orange
Spiritualized: Sweet Heart Sweet Light
Tame Impala: Lonerism
E.D. Sedgwick: We Wear White
Ty Seagall: Twins
Sriram Gopal
This year was a fantastic year for the local jazz scene. Here are some of my fave local albums, in no particular order:
Blake Meister: Septagon
Janel & Anthony: Where is Home
Elijah Jamal Balbed: Checking In
Andy Hess
Waxahatchee: American Weekend
“I’m learning how to be alone,” Katie Crutchfield murmurs on the penultimate track of her devastating American Weekend. Buried in tape hiss and gently strummed guitar, Crutchfield recalls early Mountain Goats cassettes on her solo debut. It’s an album full of heartbreak, self-actualization and the little epiphanies one finds during quiet moments by themselves. Rarely have such acutely painful and private vignettes felt so rapturous.
Title Fight: Floral Green
Spider Bags: Shake My Head
Royal Headache: Royal Headache
Swearin’: Swearin’
Now, Now: Threads
Swans: The Seer
Carly Rae Jepsen: Kiss
Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music
fun.: Some Nights
Rohan Mahadevan
Japandroids: Celebration Rock
To me, music should make me feel good. I want to put an album on that I can sing along to and feel something. Celebration Rock does just that. Japandroids took awhile to get this record right, but it feels as if it was composed in thirty minutes of just jamming around. From the fireworks that start “The Nights of Wine and Roses” to the fireworks that conclude “Continuous Thunder” the record is truly a celebration.
Royal Headache: Royal Headache
Jessie Ware: Devotion
Purity Ring: Shrines
Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Carly Rae Jespen: Kiss
Chromatics: Kill For Love
TNGHT: TNGHT EP
Taylor Swift: Red
Ty Segall: Twins and Slaughterhouse
Jacarl Melton
Kendrick Lamar: good kid, m.A.A.d city
From what I can tell through talking to people and various site on the interwebs, Kendrick Lamar pulled off a rare feat for a hip-hop artist or album in the past few years: almost universal praise from hip-hoppers aged 18 to 40. Given us more senior members of the community’s damn near continuous laments about how all the new music sounds like it belongs in a strip club (because a lot of it does) or a general disdain for “trap” music, K-Dot built an album around a coming-of-age concept that older folks might have experienced and the youth could be presently going through. At least for me, it came off like another highly-regarded album chronicling a young man’s growing pains, Nas’ Illmatic. Not to mention, Kendrick built a bridge over hip-hop’s generational gap by including guest spots by the likes of Drake for the kids and under-appreciated G-funk rapper MC Eiht for us older folks. And did I mention Dr. Dre produced some tracks? All in all, it was a great first effort from Compton’s MC heir apparent.
Oddisee: People Hear What They See
Joey Negro: Go-Go Get Down: Pure Ghetto Funk From Washington, DC compilation
Robert Glasper: Black Radio
Frank Ocean: Channel Orange
Jessie Ware: Devotion
Oddisee: Odd Renditions
Uptown XO: The Color Grey
Nas: Life Is Good
Substantial: Home Is Where The Art Is
Valerie Paschall
Ty Segall: Twins
The young San Francisco songwriter is the clear winner of the Bob Pollard prolificacy award of 2012. [Editor’s note: Not a real award.] The 25-year-old Segall released a Singles collection, Hair, a psychedelic collaborative album with White Fence and Slaughterhouse, a seemingly spontaneous album with his touring band that recalls The Stooges at their wildest. However, he saved his best and most eclectic release for last. Every song on the album from the Lennon-esque “Gold on the Shore” to the intense guitar strains of “You’re the Doctor” to the sludgy fantastical “Inside Your Heart,” is immaculately crafted and demands repeat listens regardless of mood.
Grass Widow: Internal Logic
Japandroids: Celebration Rock
Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo, Magellan
Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music
Kendrick Lamar: good kid, m.A.A.d city
Swans: The Seer
Bailterspace: Strobosphere
The Evens: The Odds
Matt Siblo
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: Mature Themes
What a weird, wonderful record. Hailing this as my “favorite” album helps highlight the sheer absurdity of 2012, the year’s erratic moods reflected in Mature Themes’ sordid earworms. With this record, Pink arrived at a curious and delicate middle ground between surrealist bullshit and pop perfection. He also penned my favorite song of the year, “Schnitzel Boogie,” which when sung too loudly on the Metro can lead to some concerned looks. A schizoid anthem for a schizoid year; bring on 2013.
Tame Impala: Lonerism
Cheap Girls: Giant Orange
Titus Andronicus: Local Business
King Tuff: King Tuff
Cloud Nothings: Attack on Memory
Hospitality: Hospitality
Gentleman Jesse: Leaving Atlanta
Japandroids: Celebration Rock
The Men: Open Your Heart
