Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Best of 2012 so far

It's that time of the year again: the temperature's rising to dangerous levels (at least here, at Europe's Dirty South) and just before we take a brief summer break during which we'll fly over to Lisbon, Portugal for the Optimus Alive festival (check out the line up here and expect a full report next weekend), we have for you today our traditional mid-year report with our favorite albums and singles of the year so far. For even more recommendations, you can check out here the lists we post every two months in our Listening Habits series.

Keep in mind that the order in which we present these albums and singles is not random at all, but for these lists we prefer to avoid using numbers as the ranking is particularly fluid at this point in time, with new entries changing things around all the time (hello A Place To Bury Strangers and Metric). It's safe to say though that "Visions" by Grimes and "Bloom" by Beach House are clearly leading the album pack at this time and Cloud Nothings along with Mark Lanegan Band are following close behind. Cat Power's brand new song "Ruin" is our current obsession which brings it straight at the top of the singles' pile with a bullet, although there are several other equally worthy entries as you can see below:

Top 30 Albums (January - June 2012)

  • Visions - GRIMES
  • Bloom - BEACH HOUSE
  • Attack On Memory - CLOUD NOTHINGS
  • Blues Funeral - MARK LANEGAN BAND
  • Blunderbuss - JACK WHITE
  • Cancer 4 Cure - EL-P
  • Worship - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
  • 2:54 - 2:54
  • Kill For Love - CHROMATICS
  • Reign Of Terror - SLEIGH BELLS
  • Give You The Ghost - POLIÇA
  • Synthetica - METRIC
  • Django Django - DJANGO DJANGO
  • Ekstasis - JULIA HOLTER
  • Between The Times And The Tides - LEE RANALDO
  • Sweet Heart, Sweet Light - SPIRITUALIZED
  • Open Your Heart - THE MEN
  • Tramp - SHARON VAN ETTEN
  • Europe - ALLO DARLIN'
  • Ghostory - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
  • Manifest! - FRIENDS
  • The Only Place - BEST COAST
  • Nootropics - LOWER DENS
  • Animal Joy - SHEARWATER
  • Interstellar - FRANKIE ROSE
  • The Horror - POP. 1280
  • Let's Go Eat The Factory - GUIDED BY VOICES
  • With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery - MOONFACE
  • Port Of Morrow - THE SHINS
  • Master Of My Make - Believe - SANTIGOLD

Top 30 Singles (January - June 2012)

  • Ruin - CAT POWER
  • Genesis - GRIMES
  • Fineshrine - PURITY RING
  • The Gravedigger’s Song - MARK LANEGAN BAND
  • Love Interruption - JACK WHITE
  • Lazuli - BEACH HOUSE
  • Know Me - FRANKIE ROSE
  • Creeping - 2:54
  • The Only Place - BEST COAST
  • Youth Without Youth - METRIC
  • Stay Useless - CLOUD NOTHINGS
  • My Heart Beats - VERONICA FALLS
  • Capricornia - ALLO DARLIN'
  • Lay Your Cards Out - POLIÇA
  • Brains - LOWER DENS
  • Off The Wall - LEE RANALDO
  • The Night - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
  • Mind Control - FRIENDS
  • Default - DJANGO DJANGO
  • R U Mine? - ARCTIC MONKEYS
  • Chocolate Boy - GUIDED BY VOICES
  • You Are The One - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
  • The House That Heaven Built - JAPANDROIDS
  • Krokodil - ST. VINCENT
  • Leonard - SHARON VAN ETTEN
  • Little Girl - SPIRITUALIZED
  • The Rifle's Spiral - THE SHINS
  • The Full Retard - EL-P
  • Disparate Youth - SANTIGOLD
  • I Want You - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL

Grimes - Nightmusic ft. Majical Cloudz 

Beach House - Lazuli

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