Reaper's Favorite Albums of 2012

[Reaper16]

As always, this is a list of my personal favorite albums of the year. It's not meant to be an objective "best-of" list, because while I listen to hundreds of new albums each year I still fall far short of listening to enough to feel comfortable making an objective claim. My usual genre tendencies towards metal and hip-hop are as present as ever. Hopefully you'll find some albums you will come to dig through this list.

I'll be posting it out over the next day or so. I'm doing 30 albums this year.

30.) Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
29.) Kamelot - Silverthorn
28.) Monolithe - III
27.) Arjen Anthony Lucassen - Lost in the New Real
26.) Tame Impala - Lonerism
25.) Heems - Nehru Jackets
24.) Panopticon - Kentucky
23.) Anathema - Weather Systems
22.) Brother Ali - Mourning in America, Dreaming in Color
21.) Dan Deacon - America
20.) Sigh - In Somnophobia
19.) El-P - Cancer 4 Cure
18.) Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud
17.) Ondatropica - Ondatropica
16.) Death Grips - No Love Deep Web
15.) First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar
14.) Pharaoh - Bury the Light
13.) Krallice - Years Past Matter
12.) Enslaved - RIITIIR
11.) Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
10.) P.O.S. - We Don't Even Live Here
9.) Royal Thunder - CVI
8.) Lazerbeak - Lava Bangers
7.) Swans - The Seer
6.) Mgla - With Hearts Towards None
5.) 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
4.) Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Âme
3.) Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
2.) Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d. city
1.) Death Grips - The Money Store

[NewChief]

Really excited about the Panopticon album after that description.

[Reaper16]

19. El-P – Cancer 4 Cure

This is Brooklyn-based producer/rapper El-P’s first solo album since 2007, and it comes on the heels of some especially strong years for him. Last year he produced some bangers for New York acts Das Racist and Mr. Mother****in eXquire, and dropped one of THE best rap verses of 2011 on eXquire’s “The Last Huzzah.” This year he produced Killer Mike’s superbsupersuperb album R.A.P. Music, and managed to find time to drop Cancer 4 Cure – a deafening, Def Jux, sonic beatdown of a rap album. This shit puts preassure on you. I feel like I’m being squashed by these echo chambers of drums and steel pillars of heavy synths. This shit comes hard. The first half of the album is especially strong. “Oh Hail No” sounds like a Bond villain, menacing yet supercool. “Drones over Bklyn” is paranoid and powerful. “The Full reerun” is El-P at his best as a producer and a rapper: it’s incredibly groovy, achieving almost a soul music horns-and-drums groove by basically just using distorted bass and various laser sounds.

[Reaper16]

18. Devin Townsend Project – Epicloud

Devin Townsend’s new album was his attempt at making a Def Leppard-style poppy hard rock album. This album is going for poppy hooks and feel-good moments, and it isn’t unlike the previously mentioned Weather Systems by Anathema in its ability to make me really happy. Epicloud is glossy in all of the right ways. The ethereal vocals of Anneke van Giersbergen, one of my favorite singers in the world, is featured on many of the albums track’s. But there’s still plenty of Devin’s thick riffs to ground this thing in hard rock territory. “Grace” is the total package of light, catchy moments in the midst of a hard skeleton, “Kingdom” is a beefed-up cover of an old Devin Townsend song, and the tracks “Hold On” and “Save Our Now” (a reimagining of a Pendulum song) have beautiful crescendos that make me smile like a giant idiot child man. Devin has been resisting an album like this for a long time, by which I mean an album that isn’t sonically unified. There’s industrial tracks here, there’s metal tracks here, there’s tracks that are purely ambient. But it all sounds like Devin Townsend, and this sounds like a perfect lesson for him to learn.

[Reaper16]

17. Ondatropica – Ondatropica

Ondatropica is something of a Cumbia supergroup. Do you know Cumbia? It’s the national musical genre of Colombia, sort of related to salsa. This project consists of over 40 musicians, mostly from Colombia, but also featuring some transplants, all coming together to re-interpret what Cumbia means in the 21st century. There’s tons of traditional instruments, there’s tons of players playing instruments they aren’t familiar with, there’s 80-year-old dudes rapping, there’s bagpipes playing Caribbean music, there’s a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” It’s nearly insane! And yet this project somehow sounds timeless. This, folks, is musical history. This is the past and future of latin music. It’s pan-national in all of the best ways. I defy you not to put this record on while cooking or cleaning or something and not come out of the ordeal smiling. This is infectious stuff.

[Reaper16]

16. Death Grips – No Love Deep Web

You probably know the story behind this, Death Grips’ 2nd album of 2012. They were the most abrasive, unapproachable band signed to a major label. After releasing The Money Store through Epic earlier in the year, they cancelled their tour to work on this album. Epic didn’t want to release it in 2012. So what did Death Grips do? They leaked the album themselves, for free. They actively fought to get dropped from their major label, a label they were extremely luck to get signed with in the first place given that their complex electronic vaguely hip-hop noisy brand of sonic assault is not at all radio material. No Love Deep Web is not as tight or catchy as The Money Store, but it’s also far darker than 2011’s ExMilitary. This album is dripping with pure menace. MC Ride raps so ferociously on opening track “Come Up and Get Me” that he loses his voice but still keeps going. “Artificial Death in the West” slows things down, sounding like a walk through the Vegas strip on codeine. The paranoia and disappointment in this album is palpable. My favorite track is “No Love,” which sounds like you are alone and defenseless and a pack of deranged people are stalking you down to torture and kill you. That’s the kind of intense reaction I had to that track, and it’s these kinds of unique emotional reactions that Death Grips does so, so well.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by -King-

Good Kid mAAd City better be in the top 10...

I think you'll be happy with its placement on my list.

[Reaper16]

15. First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar

I’m a sucker for: a.) harmonized female vocals, and b.) pagan shit. These two Swedish sisters give me all of that that I could ever want. This album is a collection of tight, folk-country tunes. Some of them, like the title track sound more like European folk. Some, like the transcendent “Emmylou” take their cues from old American country. Others still mix the two: “Wolf” is a pagan chant cum Native American song, and “Blue” is the happiest, jauntiest song to ever feature the line “now you’re just a shell of your former you” as its chorus. The primary draw above anything else is the voices of these two singers. They can seriously belt these songs out. The last track, “King of the World,” featuring Colin Oberst, annoys the shit out of me. But all the other songs are top-notch. This is going to remain a frequent listen well into next year.

[Reaper16]

14. Pharoah – Bury the Light

This album is pretty much American power metal at its best. It takes its song structure from Iron Maiden and its hard edge from bands like Jag Panzer or old Queensryche (I mean “hard edge” relatively, of course). Bury the Light will have you in equal measure headbanging and marveling at vocalist Tim Aymar’s deep vibrato. The guitar licks and harmonized parts are pretty unique in the genre. You might not notice if you don’t listen to a ton of power metal, but this album feels refreshing amidst all the stagnant, repetitive albums that the genre has seen in recent years. This is the most straight-up metal album I have on this list. If you are like me than you love harmonized guitar and badass riffs. This album brings you those things. Constantly. It’s a constant stream of melody and rifbundle of stickse from which to lap. Godamn, this album rules.

[Rugby Thompson]

All of those albums are trash, sorry but you don't know what real good rap is. You're stuck on some indie bullshit and it's wack.

[Reaper16]

13. Krallice – Years Past Matter

This album is like an even better version of the previously mentioned III by Monolithe. This album is broken up into six tracks, but it plays like one contiguous album. It’s frantic and unrelenting in all of the ways that the Monolithe album is slow and droning. This is hyperspeed, spacy black metal. Krallice’s album from last year was a bit of Agalloch worship that I felt didn’t measure up to the parent influence. Years Past Matter, however, is completely Krallice’s own thing. This whole album has a drive to it that needs to be experienced. It’s exhilarating in all of the ways that a great action movie can be. We’re talking a Michael Bay-like pace of sonic action (without the shitty characters and writing). This is the heaviest, most intense listening experience I had all year. Sure, there were albums that were heavier. But the songcraft here takes the heaviness from gimmick to legitimate emotional experience. I would do shameful things to be able to hear this whole album performed live. I've linked to the full album.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Rugby Thompson

All of those albums are trash, sorry but you don't know what real good rap is. You're stuck on some indie bullshit and it's wack.

What's real good rap?

[Rugby Thompson]

Smoke DZA, Curren$y, Pusha T, Vado,

[Reaper16]

12. Enslaved – RIITIIR

This is Enslaved’s 12th studio album since 1994, and like all Enslaved LPs it sounds nothing like the other Enslaved LPs. I’ve been calling Enslaved “the Pink Floyd of Black Metal” for years now; this band is simply unafraid to take whatever risks they think up. They’re constantly seeking to redefine the limits of black metal. This album sees the band focus on polyrhythm being played against a backdrop reminiscent of Yes’ best material. 70’s prog with modern American metal sensibilities, basically. But wait, there’s a new wrinkle. Enslaved’s keyboardist is providing clean vocals! And he’s really good at them! These clear, high, super-melodic clean vocals take Enslaved into new melodic territory. They could use this as an excuse to make the most accessible record of their career, but instead Enslaved just uses this as an excuse to make the song structures more dense, ever shifting. Because they know the melodies will ground the listener even as they can’t keep up with the rhythm section. “Roots of the Mountain” is straight-up beautiful (even when it tries to pummel you), and “Thoughts Like Hammers” shows American metal bands how to do repetitive groove riffs correctly without sacrificing edge or melody. Enslaved albums are always eye-opening, this being no exception.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Rugby Thompson

Smoke DZA, Curren$y, Pusha T, Vado,

I love Pusha T as much as the next guy, but he didn't come out with anything in 2012. Vado didn't drop anything this year either (though I had to double-check that). I respect Curren$y, but his albums tend to have too much filler in my opinion to land amongst my very favorite albums of a year. I dug Smoke DZA's album with that Harry Fraud production all over it, but it didn't crack my top 30.

[Reaper16]

11. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!

This band needs no introduction; they’re titans of post-rock. This new album then is a titanic occasion, but not in the disaster sense. There are two 20-minute long songs here (basically entirely written in 2002 and shelved when the band was on hiatus), and they are superb. Moving in all of the best ways that a Godspeed song can be. Truly epic builds into gigantic, explosive, emotional climaxes. Connecting these two tracks are a couple of noise/drone songs that provide texture and breathing room between the two big buildups. This album was written post-9/11, and you can sort of tell in the slight Arab-influence of “Mladic.” Unfortunately for us (but fortunately for the band) the palpable tension and unease over world politics that oozes out of these songs is just as relevant in 2012 as it was a whole decade earlier when the album was mostly written. I don’t need to say anything more here. It’s a new Godspeed album.