Direckshun's Favorite Music, 2012
 

I don't have very good taste in music, but here's what I did like this year:

Vijay Iyer Trio's Accelerando

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A quietly flawless jazz album. Peerless composition. It was a good year for jazz but this album moved into my head and rearranged the furniture.

Regina Spektor's What We Saw from the Cheap Seats

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Spektor is a really good songwriter, and she puts together a relatively oddball collection narratives on this album. I love this piece, and it's indicative of what her album does so well.

Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid: M.A.A.D City

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I'm one of those guys who think that Kanye West's insanity is what's finally pushing rap music into fascinating directions. Lamar doesn't quite amp it up to West's degree but he's got a lot of really great ideas that leak into this album.

Matthew Dear's Beams

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There's a handful of electronic producers out there who are thinking on planes no other genre is really considering just yet. Dear's Beams is a flashlight for the rest of the genre to follow.

Rhosyn's Elbow of Capture

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This is like the Apocalypto of music -- just ideas, pared down to their most basic, not an extraneous sound to be heard. Challenging listen, though.

James Lidell's James Lidell

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Totally obnoxious shit that owns your ass if you blow it up on some speakers.

Project Trio's When Will Then Be Now

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This actually a 2010 album, but I ran across them this year. Chamber music with some balls.

FaltyDL's You Stand Uncertain

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There is an amazing R&B album in here somewhere, but it's covered in smog and Aphex Twin.

Lake Street Dive's Fun Machine

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Brand new swing jazz outfit, totally chill and muy perfecto. A couple originals on this album, but the rest are these flawless covers.

Bobby Womack's The Bravest Man In The Universe

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Dusty, smokey soul, some of the best I've heard.

I'll be back with more later. For now, enjoy if you can.

How do you find this stuff? It's not on the radio. Music blogs? Read reviews from a magazine?

2012 for me in music has been Call Me, Maybe and Somebody that I Use to Know. And some hits from 2011.

Sirius XM, music blogs, and some NPR.

I'll probably neglect my list in music, but Kendrick Lamar's album was really good, and my list would have a lot of hip hop in it, as it was another good year, imo.

I think that Killer Mike's album was probably -my- favorite hip hop album this year, though I recognize that Kendrick's is probably more of an accomplishment, the Death Grips pushes the envelop more, and El-P's was probably more of a phenom... but damn I loved Killer Mike's album. Listened to the shit out of it.

I guess I did hear about this guy on NPR this year. Upbeat 1950s-like dance tune.

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Yeah, Killer Mike's album was great. I think I'd put Ab-Soul up there with Kendrick, I loved that album. Macklemore's album is growing on me as well. It was another good year for hip hop.

jesus, we've been listening to the same things

i'm still hung up on death grips though...killer work out music as well

Shit yes, that Ab-Soul album was great, as was Schoolboy Q's. Fantastic year for Black Hippy/TDE.

To test the limits, here are some of my non-hiphop favorites from this year:

Grimes
Father John Misty
Tame Impala
Dirty Projectors
Beach House
DIIV
GOAT
Twin Shadow
The Weeknd (really a 2011 release, but whatever...)
Frank Ocean

NPR always has cool stuff. World Cafe is especially good, IMO.

Grizzly Bear and Dr. John both have outstanding new albums that I learned about on NPR.

I really like Regina Spektor, just started listening to her late this year. My favorite so far:

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^^^Love Regina.

Some more I loved from 2012 (will be added to the OP soon):

Patrick Watson's Adventures in Your Own Backyard

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I forget how I ran across this one, but this is a phenomenal mood album. Fills your heart just listening to it.

Parov Stelar's The Paris Swing Box

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Another album from a couple years ago -- I'll let this piece of awesomeness speak for itself.

YUKSEK's Living On The Edge Of Time

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Just really solid pop rock. Smart, crisp, with no hint of snobbery.

Neneh Cherry & the Thing's Cherry Thing

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Finally, somebody bringing the free-er parts of jazz to the world in ways that are accessible while still being very, very strange.

Sky Ferreira's Ghost EP

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Dreamy pop with irresistable hooks. I've had a pretty stressful year and this album brought me down more times than I can mention.

Low Roar's Low Roar

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Some more mood music -- more brooding, with some menace. I actually prefer the longer forms of the songs.

OK GO's Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky

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Guilty pleasure.

definitely swerving there...i tend towards shitty garage punk/rock, and hyper-local bands outside of hip hop

I haven't listened to a ton of albums that were released this past year. But far and away the best one I've heard is Generals by The Mynabirds.

My favorite new band of the decade. So far. Both of their records have been phenomenal. And they put on one of the better live shows I've seen in a while.