Blog neglect! Yes it's been far too long, mostly on account of... you know... life... vacation... the summer... July and August are usually slow months on this blog, but here's a half-assed attempt at making up for a few weeks of lean posting!
Yes, it's my favourite albums of 2012 (so far) partway through the year!
I had briefly (very briefly) considered doing a five day series sort of thing with this, but I have made blog-promises before and broken them. I dare not continue that trend, dear reader.
And so here it is... five albums plus some honourable mentions that you should definitely go get legally, in my opinion. I won't bother linking to your favourite review site or YouTube, since I don't know what your fav review site is, nor do I care for presenting these fine albums and their great cuts in crap compression YouTube formats... I digress.
5) Chromatics - Kill For Love
A double album, which usually means lots of filler. In this case even the filler is highly listenable. Kicks off with a Neil Young cover, furthering the group's reputation for great covers.
4) Japandroids - Celebration Rock
I loved their last record, and this one is right in the same vein. The only knock would be that it sounds mostly like Post-Nothing, but more developed. It's also pretty abrasive, and doesn't exactly reward repeat listens. Or maybe I should just listen to it more. To be played at maximum volume, for sure.
3) Joel Plaskett Emergency - Scrappy Happiness
The return of the Emergency. It's a spontaneous, playful rock album with great songs, great performances, and monster riffs and solos. Not much I can say really... c'mon, it's Joel, and he never disappoints.
2) The Darcys - Aja
I hadn't heard any of their songs before this album, but a Steely Dan cover album is enough to make me take notice. I was skeptical at first, but the band won me over. It's a solid update of a timeless classic, and they made it their own by bringing it into their musical space and giving it a distinctive spin. Well worth it, and free. You don't have to be familiar with the original, but it'll definitely help with your appreciation of what the band has done here.
1) Hot Chip - In Our Heads
The cold hard fact of the list format structure would suggest that I think this album is one better than the #2. This is actually far and away my favourite album of the year.
Before this record, I felt like Hot Chip was a great singles band with hit-and-miss albums, some cuts too quirky, other cuts made me just want to go grab my Devo LPs. All that has changed with In Our Heads. It's a cohesive, unified collection of very strong songs that really feels like an 'album', in that its whole is greater than the mere sum of its parts. And oh the parts, how they are amazing. "Flutes" is my standout favourite, but the whole thing is filled with bangers, ballads, and epic tracks. Fantastic production, interesting ear candy, killer musical performances, hooks upon hooks, and timely, contemporary lyrics, this one has everything that I could ask for in an album.
It will be interesting to compare this list to my end of year list, but something is going to have to knock Hot Chip off with a vengeance because I can't say enough good things about this one.
Honourable mentions category:
-Patrick Watson - Adventures in Your Own Backyard
-Twin Shadow (aka Twin Shadbro) - Confess
-Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
