Top 20 Albums of 2012

My track record for year-in-retrospect lists is not great. It's rare that I've finished one before the year is out, and last year I failed to even put a formal list together. 2012 continues my trend of spotty year-end lists, as I'm turning this one in almost a month into the new year and devoid of individual album descriptions in interest of finishing it before February. The list itself is relatively unordered, but see the below paragraphs for a taste of what these records are about.

Hip-hop has been on a creative upswing in the last year or so, evidenced by the fact that 3 of the year's best rap albums, the records from Black Hippy members Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q all didn't make the cut. However, the year also saw the first truly great album from Outkast/Dungeon family affiliate Killer Mike, produced entirely by alt-rap wunderkind El-P, an influx of awesome gay and lesbian rappers, the most exemplary being rapper/producer and Das Racist affiliate Le1f, producer Flying Lotus putting on his rapper cap for an album of stoned, pitch-shifted psychedelic rap that recalls MF DOOM, Quasimoto and elements of Odd Future as Captain Murphy, Meyhem Lauren puting together a hard, funny, classic-sounding and mostly-overlooked second album of 2012 (the first being this summer's solid Respect the Fly Shit) and 16-year-old Barbadian/Brooklyner Haleek Maul teaming up with Chicago production duo Supreme Cuts for a dark, moody future trap album, all of which I could by no means exclude from my year-end list.

Black metal has shown itself to be more than a one-trick-pony over the last 20-plus years, and the black metal records that I loved this year came from pretty much ever corner of the genre. The doomy Coloradans in Velnias brought a folk-flavored, ancient-sounding brew, while Nihill's Verdonkermaan was a lo-fi, occult tornado of riffs and blasts and Ash Borer turned in another LP of long-form, almost post-black metal brilliance (I'd say "transcendental black metal," if that term hadn't taken on a tainted character in the last few years).

The doom-and-drone-influenced post-whatever of Canadians AHNA and Californians Wreck and Reference came out of nowhere this year, and while similar compared to other bands on this list, each band took a unique and unexpected path to turn in an awesome album. AHNA's crusty, drone-sludge howl took my ears hostage with its bass-heavy, dirge-to-blast approach, and Wreck and Reference delivered a jaw-dropping, almost unclassifiable mix of post-punk, Swan-esque doom, drone, and noise that includes clean singing and replaces the usual guitar with an electronics-centered approach.

Grindcore and powerviolence continued their proliferation with another strong year that showed bands looking both backward and forward for inspiration. Cellgraft turned in an Insect Warfare and Assück-reminscent final release of ear-shattering traditional grind, Black Hole of Calcutta mixed the traditional grindcore approach with black metal and thrash for their satisfying second self-titled record, the Canadian newcomers in Violent Restitution blasted on to the scene with a gut-level LP that made them my favorite new grind band of the year, and Sakatat unfortunately heralded the end of their era as a band with their short-but-sweet first full-length. Dephosphorus transcended grindcore with their magnificent, skyward-looking debut LP, Column of Heaven mixed powerviolence and grindcore with noise and unusual instrumentation to tell a disturbing tale about a serial killer that's made more disturbing by its scope and basis in reality, The Kill delivered the snarling, blistering, no-nonsense breakout album I'd always been willing them to make and the Australians in thedowngoing continued their growth as an angular, tech-noisegrind duo with an equal interest in art and destruction.

While (good) indie rock was not as prolific as in years past, a few standbys brought creative and memorable albums to the table. Electronics weirdo Dan Deacon continued his avant-garde mixing of goofy electronic pop and classical composition with a warmer, more expansive album that's presented as a love song to the American landscape, and Ariel Pink (also a weirdo) brought an album that bridged the unrelenting strangeness of his older bedroom-pop material and the higher fidelity and tighter construction of last year's Before Today as well as paid reverence to lost-in-the-shuffle rockers Donny and Joe Emerson.

See below for album streams and samples, and keep your ears tuned in this year for a ton of great announced and already-released albums.

1. Killer Mike- R.A.P. Music (Sample tracks: "Untitled," "Reagan," "Big Beast")
2. Nihill- Verdonkermaan
3. Column of Heaven- Mission from God
4. The Kill- Make 'em Suffer
5. Dephosphorus- Night Sky Transform
6. Wreck and Reference- No Youth
7. Meyhem Lauren- Mandatory Brunch Meetings
8. Velnias- RuneEater
9. Cellgraft- Cellgraft LP
10. Dan Deacon- America (Samples: "True Thrush," "Lots," "USA Parts I-V")
11. Sakat- Bir Devrin Sonu
12. Violent Restitution- Violent Restitution LP
13. Supreme Cuts and Haleek Maul- Chrome Lips
14. Captain Murphy- Duality
15. LE1F- Dark York
16. thedowngoing- ATHOUSANDYEARSOFDARKNESS
17. AHNA- Empire
18. Ash Borer- Cold of Ages (Samples: "Phantoms," "Convict All Flesh")
19. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti- Mature Themes (Samples: "Kinski Assassin," "Symphony of the Nymph," "Baby (Donnie and Joe Emerson Cover)")
20. Black Hole of Calcutta- S/T #2

Light Pollution- 'Apparitions'

This has probably been my most listened album in the past week or so besides the Morning Benders' new one, Big Echo. Both albums share a similar almost-summer vibe, which has helped fuel my wishful thinking for ever-increasing warm weather. Unlike that record, though, this one really hasn't garnered a ton of attention yet. That's not to say it won't -- the tracks on here are of such a quality that I doubt it's going to be ignored for very much longer.

To describe it by musical touchstones, one could say it's a combination of the lo-fi, blue-collar indie of Real Estate, the blissed-out, psychedelic drone sections that Animal Collective and Panda Bear frequently indulge in, those Beach Boys harmony sections that are all the rage recently, and even some anthemic, drum-led sections almost reminiscent of Arcade Fire. That's kind of what makes this so compelling, the band's ability to apply a variety of styles across a record and still come up with a style that sounds like theirs.

While there's certainly nothing on here anywhere near dead weight, if I had to pick standouts I'd go with opener "Good Feelings" and the swirly, mid-album "Bad Vibes," both of which exemplify the variety of styles on this album (the former a better example of the similarities to Real Estate and the latter a great example of the Animal Collective comparisons.)

I hope I'm not the only one excited about these guys (or the only one prematurely excited for indie rock summer albums, something which I'm a huge fan of.) Don't be surprised if, by the time that hot weather rolls around, this album is pulsing from the crappy laptop speakers of indie rock slackers everywhere.