2012 Review: Top 60 Albums of the Year (31 to 60)

Last year we published the first version of our year-end album list around Christmas. This time we decided to wait until the very last day of the year before we press the "publish" button, to make sure that as few as possible of the latest incoming records were left out. Seeing the amount of last minute additions to the list, I think it was a good call. Of course there will always going to be a few omissions and this is exactly the reason why we also keep a blog exclusively for our "Best of the Year" lists. To find the final, up-to-date version of any of our year-end lists, just look it up in Cool Music Database - the process of discovery is continuous!

If, however, we momentarily freeze this process on this day, the last of the year, the result we're getting is the list we present to you here and now. Today we are unveiling the second half of Cool Music Central's 60 favorite albums of 2012 plus a few more that deserve a mention and we'll start 2013 with the Top 30. Keep in mind that EPs, compilations and reissues are excluded from this list.

Here are the albums from 31 to 60:

Top 60 Albums of 2012: 31 - 60

31. Django Django - DJANGO DJANGO

32. Synthetica - METRIC
33. Tramp - SHARON VAN ETTEN
34. Ekstasis - JULIA HOLTER
35. Between the times and the tides - LEE RANALDO
36. Kill my blues - CORIN TUCKER BAND
37. Europe - ALLO DARLIN'
38. Nocturne - WILD NOTHING
39. The haunted man - BAT FOR LASHES
40. Sweet heart, sweet light - SPIRITUALIZED
41. Circles - MOON DUO
42. R.A.P. music - KILLER MIKE
43. The money store - DEATH GRIPS
44. Ghostory - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
45. Endless flowers - CROCODILES
46. The only place - BEST COAST
47. Animal joy - SHEARWATER
48. Nootropics - LOWER DENS
49. Centipede Hz - ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
50. Interstellar - FRANKIE ROSE
51. Manifest! - FRIENDS
52. Toy - TOY
53. The horror - POP. 1280
54. Strapped - THE SOFT PACK
55. Tuscon - GIANT GIANT SAND
56. Heaven - THE WALKMEN
57. Port of morrow - THE SHINS
58. Researching the blues - REDD KROSS
59. Confess - TWIN SHADOW
60. Hospitality - HOSPITALITY

What else we liked: Sees the light - LA SERA, Let's go eat the factory - GUIDED BY VOICES, Class clown spots a UFO - GUIDED BY VOICES, With Siinai: Heartbreaking bravery - MOONFACE, Clay class - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL, Future this - THE BIG PINK, Master of my make-believe - SANTIGOLD, Four - BLOC PARTY, In the belly of the brazen bull - THE CRIBS, In time to voices - BLOOD RED SHOES, Something - CHAIRLIFT, Quarantine - LAUREL HALO

And here's just a small sample of the albums that we need to give a few more spins before we can decide where they fit in the big picture of 2012: Oshin - DIIV, Zeros - THE SOFT MOON, Melody's Echo Chamber - MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER, Shields - GRIZZLY BEAR, Until the quiet comes - FLYING LOTUS, Banks - PAUL BANKS, The north - STARS, Don't be a stranger - MARK EITZEL, Coexist - THE XX, Beard, wives, denim - POND, Silencio - LAETITIA SADIER...and the list goes on!

We're signing off for 2012 with our current favorite video (and our last jam of the year), a short fashion film created for The Defiant based on Purity Ring's song "Obedear". Purity Ring have made our favorite debut album of 2012 and, as you can easily guess, they are going to be a part of our next post! Stay tuned for the Top 30... time to get that champagne on ice. Happy New Year!

 Purity Ring - Obedear

2012 Review: Top 50 Singles of the Year

2012 turned out to be the year of the Cat - Cat Power that is. Chan Marshall's triumphant return with "Sun", her excellent ninth studio album, was announced in June with the digital release of "Ruin", the surprising upbeat first single of the record.

Given that usually Cat Power's musical mood falls into the category of "bleak" and "gloomy" (to use allmusic's description) and the fact that this record was written around the time of a bad breakup, "Ruin"'s upbeat pop tempo and uplifting piano melody was certainly not what we had expected. Chan may be singing about "sitting on a ruin" but she's putting things into perspective. The message is simple: before you start bitching and complaining about your life, you better take a look around and see what's going on with the rest of the world. Maybe your situation is not as bad as you thought.

Before we proceed with the presentation of the rest of our Top 50, here are the rules of the game: 1) All tracks included in our list were either released as singles in some shape or form (digital or physical) in the past 12 months or offered as free mp3s. 2) Only one track from each artist or group is included in the Top 50 to ensure a wider musical variety in our selection.

With these rules in mind, it's time to unveil 2012's ultimate playlist! There's no Christmas without a Festive 50, so here is ours:

Top 50 Singles of 2012

1.   Ruin - CAT POWER
2.   The Gravedigger’s Song - MARK LANEGAN BAND
3.   Fineshrine - PURITY RING
4.   Genesis - GRIMES
5.   My Love Is Real - DIVINE FITS
6.   Lazuli - BEACH HOUSE
7.   Love Interruption - JACK WHITE
8.   End of Daze EP ("Lord Knows" mp3) - DUM DUM GIRLS
9.   Onwards To The Wall EP ("So Far Away" mp3) - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
10. Doused - DIIV
11. Creeping - 2:54
12. Lay Your Cards Out - POLIÇA
13. Know Me - FRANKIE ROSE
14. Elephant - TAME IMPALA
15. Keep It In Motion - GUIDED BY VOICES
16. Stay Useless - CLOUD NOTHINGS
17. The House That Heaven Built - JAPANDROIDS
18. Watch The Corners - DINOSAUR JR.
19. The Only Place - BEST COAST
20. Capricornia - ALLO DARLIN'
21. Kill For Love - CHROMATICS
22. Only in My Dreams - ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
23. Gun Has No Trigger - DIRTY PROJECTORS
24. Brats - LIARS
25. Plague - CRYSTAL CASTLES
26. Wet Blanket - METZ
27. The Full Retard - EL-P
28. Put Your Sad Down EP ("Secret Days" mp3) - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
29. All Your Gold - BAT FOR LASHES
30. Youth Without Youth - METRIC
31. Off The Wall - LEE RANALDO
32. Brains - LOWER DENS
33. Lupine Dominus - THEE OH SEES
34. The Hill - TY SEGALL
35. Moonlight Mile - THE BABIES
36. My Heart Beats - VERONICA FALLS
37. Betty Wang - HOSPITALITY
38. Default - DJANGO DJANGO
39. R U Mine - ARCTIC MONKEYS
40. Motoring - TOY
41. Hey Jane - SPIRITUALIZED
42. Comeback Kid - SLEIGH BELLS
43. Big Beast (ft. Bun B, T.I., Trouble, & El-P) - KILLER MIKE
44. Mind Control - FRIENDS
45. Fireflies - STILL CORNERS
46. Shadow - WILD NOTHING
47. Leonard - SHARON VAN ETTEN
48. The Rifle's Spiral - THE SHINS
49. I Want You - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL
50. Octopus - BLOC PARTY

(mp3s via stereogum, 4AD, kexp blog, Sub Pop, Matador, gorilla vs bear, insomniaradio, Rolling Stone)

Next week: We're giving 2012 a proper goodbye with our Albums of the Year list. Keep that champagne on ice!

The Raveonettes, live @ Kyttaro Club (Athens, December 16, 2012)

Our last gig review of the year and a good opportunity to look back on all the live action that 2012 had to offer us:

The Raveonettes, live @ Kyttaro Club, Athens, Dec. 16, 2012)

Looking back on the gigs we've covered this year, I have to say that 2012 turned out to be a surprisingly good year for live music in Athens. Although we're quite a long way out from the established European live music routes, a very interesting mix of up and coming new acts including Ty Segall, Japandroids, The Men, Milk Music and Still Corners made it to Athens for the first time ever, while a handful of our all-time favorites (The Fall, The Afghan Whigs, Mark Lanegan) also made a stop here in the past 12 months.

Another old favorite band, The Raveonettes, made their eagerly awaited come back to Athens last Sunday after a long time, filling Kyttaro club to capacity. Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo accompanied by a drummer gave us a thoroughly satisfying dose of their sweet noise-pop blend, in a well-balanced 70-minute set that mixed the new stuff with the old favorites.

Their simple formula continues to work well a decade since they made their debut with the early '00s classic "Attack of the Ghost Riders", a track that remains one of the highlights of their set. Other high-points of the evening included “My Tornado”, “Love in a Trashcan”, “Dead Sound”, “Aly, Walk With Me”, “She Owns The Streets” and the encore with "The Christmas Song" duet and "Heart Of Stone" which you can watch below:

 

The Raveonettes - Heart of Stone (live @ Kyttaro, Athens, Dec. 16, 2012) 

And, finally, just before we get into the Christmas spirit with our Top Singles of the Year List (coming very soon), here's another 2012 list. This year, we've written about 15 concerts and 2 festivals (Plisskën in Athens and Optimus Alive in Lisbon). These are, according to the statistics from blogger, our 10 most popular live music posts of the year:

1. Plisskën Festival '12 (Athens, May 12, with Dead Skeletons, Forest Swords, King Khan, Male Bonding, Michael Rother, Peaches, The Notwist)
2. The Fall (Gagarin 205, Athens, February 10, with The Mongrelettes)
3. The Afghan Whigs (Vox, Athens, May 29, with Bokomolech)
4. Milk Music (Six D.O.G.S, Athens, May 23, with Pockets Full Of Sand and The Mongrelettes)
5. Mark Lanegan Band (Fuzz Club, Athens, April 5)
6. Shearwater (An Club, Athens, April 21)
7. Optimus Alive '12 (Lisbon, July 13 & 14, with Big Deal, Dum Dum Girls, Here We Go Magic, Refused, The Antlers, The Stone Roses, Zola Jesus)
8. Optimus Alive '12 (Lisbon, July 15, with Caribou, Mazzy Star, Radiohead, The Kills, The Maccabees, Warpaint)
9. Thee Oh Sees (An Club, Athens, June 4, with Baby Guru)
10. Keep Shelly In Athens & Baby Guru (Gagarin, Athens, March 29)

Sune and Sharin getting into the Christmas spirit

2012 Review: Debut Albums of the Year

The preparation of our "2012 Albums" list is well under way and at this point the battle for number one is between two equally worthy candidates. May the best woman win (hint, hint). But until we make up our mind and present the final results in about two weeks time, here’s another one of our mini year-end lists.

Last week we singled out the best albums from the old school, this time we are dealing with the new blood: the best debut albums of the year from new artists and bands. This means that new groups by already established musicians (for example Divine Fits) or first solo efforts by members of well-known bands are not eligible for this particular list.

Although 2012 has not been a vintage year for debuts, we did have a number of highly promising first efforts. The most outstanding of them all came from Canadian duo Purity Ring who released "Shrines" in July, an album that masterfully combines the best elements from the last three decades of electronic music. By the end of summer we were declaring "Shrines" to be our favorite album of the season and now it’s time to bestow upon it the title of "Debut Album of the Year" - well done Megan and Corin!

Here are the twelve debut albums that stood out for us in 2012:

Top 12 Debut Albums of 2012

1.   Shrines - PURITY RING



2.   Give You The Ghost - POLIÇA



3.   Metz - METZ



4.   2:54 - 2:54



5.   Django Django - DJANGO DJANGO



6.   Manifest! - FRIENDS



7.   Toy - TOY



8.   Hospitality - HOSPITALITY



9.   The Horror - POP. 1280



10. Oshin - DIIV



11. Melody's Echo Chamber - MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER



12. Quarantine - LAUREL HALO



Check out below our favorite debuts from previous years:

Top Debuts of 2011
Top Debuts of 2010
Top Debuts of 2009
Top Debuts of 2008

2012 Review: The Old School

The making of and the presentation of the "Albums of the Year" list is always one of my musical highlights of the year and one of the main reasons for starting Cool Music Central in the first place. Our long standing tradition is to unveil this list at the very last days of December or as the first post of the New Year and despite the strong peer pressure to go public with it early, we shall stick to our guns. Although December usually doesn’t have many new releases, there is always plenty of new stuff to listen to from previous months and we want to make sure that nothing important is left out. The fact that so many year-end lists are out there before our own, actually helps us a lot in the process of discovering those records that eluded us so far.

This means that we are now three weeks away from the premiere of Cool Music Central's "Albums of 2012" list. To build up to the main event, starting today we’ll be presenting mini lists that highlight some of the important releases of the year which have something in common.

For starters, we have the Top 10 Albums of 2012 from The Old School of Rock. All of the following artists and bands have been active since the '80s or '90s and their work has been hugely influential to many of today’s indie rockers. Their latest releases have proven that they still have a lot to offer us; all of these albums are valuable additions to an already formidable body of work, while a couple of them, namely Cat Power's "Sun" and Mark Lanegan's "Blues Funeral", are among their all-time best.

Top 10 Albums from the Old School of Rock

1.   Sun - CAT POWER
2.   Blues Funeral - MARK LANEGAN BAND
3.   Silver Age - BOB MOULD
4.   I Bet On Sky - DINOSAUR JR.
5.   The Bears For Lunch - GUIDED BY VOICES
6.   Meat And Bone - THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
7.   Kill My Blues - CORIN TUCKER BAND
8.   Between The Times And The Tides - LEE RANALDO
9.   Tuscon - GIANT GIANT SAND
10. The Seer - SWANS


Cat Power - Cherokee


Mark Lanegan Band - 4AD Sessions ("The Gravedigger's Song", "St. Louis Elegy", "Riot In My House", "Harborview Hospital")


Bob Mould - The Descent

Coming soon: The Debuts of the Year

Cat Power photo by Indie Design Studio

New Releases: November 2012

November's most interesting new releases featuring Crystal Castles' highly anticipated third album, Guided By Voices' third and best album of 2012 as well as fine sophomore efforts by The Babies, the band formed by Vivian Girls' Cassie Ramone and Kevin Morby from the Woods, and The Soft Moon.

Albums

III

CRYSTAL CASTLES - III
GUIDED BY VOICES - The Bears For Lunch
THE BABIES - Our House On The Hill
THE SOFT MOON - Zeros
INDIAN JEWELRY - Peel It
THE EVENS - The Odds
CLINIC - Free Reign
THE LOVELY EGGS - Wildlife
MUSHY - Breathless
PRINCE RAMA - Top Ten Hits of the End of the World
NEW WAR - New War
ONEIDA - A List of the Burning Mountains
THE BIG DIPPER - Crashes On the Platinum Planet
ROLO TOMASSI - Astraea
VINYL WILLIAMS - Lemniscate
STUBBORN HEART - Stubborn Heart
SINKANE - Mars
X-TG - Desertshore / The Final Report
ZOMBIE ZOMBIE - Rituels D Un Noveau Monde
BY THE SEA - By The Sea
CITIES AVIV - Black Pleasure
LUST FOR YOUTH - Growing Seeds
SONIC YOUTH - Smart Bar Chicago 1985

Singles & EPs

Inhaler

FOALS - Inhaler
POLICA - Lay Your Cards Out
SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS - Put Your Sad Down EP
DINOSAUR JR. - Pierce The Morning Rain
DIRTY PROJECTORS - About To Die EP
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Applesauce
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - Jeremy
DIIV - Sometime
CHILDHOOD - Blue Velvet
TWERPS - Work It Out
YEASAYER - Reagan’s Skeleton
DOLDRUMS - She's The Wave
DAN DEACON - Crash Jam
FATIMA AL QADIRI - Desert Strike EP
HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS_ - An Omen EP 
BAND OF HORSES - A Little Biblical
DAWN MCCARTHY and BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY - Christmas Eve Can Kill You
ALLO DARLIN' - Covers EP
CHEATAHS - Sans EP
TEMPLES - Shelter Song
THE CHILD OF LOV - Heal
DEATH AT SEA - Drag / Selfless
HAPPA - Bring It Back
SAN ZHI - Ice Light
KILO KISH - Navy
KATE NASH - Death Proof EP