Pedestrian’s Top 10 Albums Of 2012

It’s almost the end of the year. Literally, some people have left the office and are officially on Summer Holidays.  Let’s not waste time then. Here are Pedestrian’s Top 10 Albums of 2012.

10. HOLY BALM – IT’S YOU
It’s hard to nail down exactly what
kind of music three-piece Sydney jam crew Holy Balm actually makes.  The
best way we can think to describe it is: DIY psychedelic cowbell dance mess or maybe Electrospazz.
A wonky melding of post-punk kick drum-driven noise, Italo Disco synthy
grooves, bouncy dancefloor hooks, techno and acid house elements, and
the crowning single “Favourite Sweater” whose totally relatable lyrics
are SO right on.  It’s madness and a whole lot of fun. It’s You.

9. JAPANDROIDS – CELEBRATION ROCK
Canadian duo Japandroids could
not have made a more appropriate title for their punk-geared record of
power-pop riffage than Celebration Rock. A tremendous 35-minute edit of
bombastic classic rock hooks that are so fucking infectious and ballsy
it demands that you act like a dick and either punch a stranger in the
face or drunkenly hug someone.  Fist-pumping blazing rock glory that
made us feel like teenagers again.  A celebration indeed.

8. BOOMGATES – DOUBLE NATURAL
Featuring members from Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Twerps and
Dick Diver, Boomgates is an example of when a ‘supergroup’ actually is
as good as the sum of its parts! Or is greater than the sum of its
parts? Fuck me, it’s almost time for vay-cay, so the concept of strong
emergence is not computing today. Anyways
what I’m saying is, Boomgates is a really excellent band.  Double
Natural is crammed with terrific guitar jams (“Laymen’s Terms”, “Flood
Plains” and “Hanging Rock” are highlights), the wonderful duelling
vocals of Brendan Huntley and Steph Hughes, and endless replay-ability. 
In terms of infectious slacker charm, nothing topped Boomgates’ debut.

7. BEACH HOUSE – BLOOM
Singer/keyboardist Victoria Legrand had this to say when we asked about that ineffable otherworldly quality driving the work of the Baltimore dream pop duo. “The feeling you just described is something that I’m always striving for. Always. I can’t put words to it but it’s something that I genuinely feel. It’s indirect but it’s somehow going to connect with somebody in some way.” We feel much the same way that she does. Bloom’s most dramatic moments are so small and so subtle that the magnitude of its beauty/force/craftmanship can be appreciated only after repeat listens over an extended period of time. Put in the work and it’s the most luscious way to go – death by a thousand cuts.

6. DIRTY PROJECTORS – SWING LO MAGELLAN
It took a little while to get into the sixth album from New York’s art pop darlings, but after repeated listens Swing Lo Magellan and its intricately woven web of rock instrumentation and vocal polyphony became one of the most wonderfully strange and surprising pop records of 2012.  Compared to previous albums, this time around Dirty Projectors mastermind and key songwriter David Longstreth seemed less focused on creating rhythmic anarchy and ear-challenging melodic chaos and moved towards a more accessible MO of tremendous guitar flourishes, exciting hooks, catchier beats, and great use of the lovely vocal prowess of Amber Coffman.  The same crazy collection of influences is there but the result isn’t crazy-crazy, more great-crazy.

5. KENDRICK LAMAR – GOOD KID, M.A.A.D CITY
Kendick
Lamar, for reasons beyond any superficial similarities as West Coast
twenty-somethings who released solo albums featuring voicemails from
their mothers, was to hip hop in 2012 what Frank Ocean was to R&B.
An artistic new voice armed with an exciting new blueprint. 2012’s
rapper du jour sounded familiar but differed wildly from his peers by
nimbly denouncing (with Larry David levels of meta self-awareness) that
which they glorified – fame, the music industry, binge drinking and hip
hop’s culture of misogyny – through lyrically considered, G Funk
indebted earworms disguised as chest thumping jock jams about how fun it
would be brah to drown to death in Grey Goose and inflate your penis to
the size of a monument. A neat trick. The results felt like an
astrophysicist explaining the mechanics of a Blake Griffin dunk.
Cerebral, visceral and highly replayable.

4. JESSIE WARE – DEVOTION
We got a lot of
mileage out of the astonishingly accomplished debut by British
singer-songwriter Jessie Ware in 2012.  Not your typical pop record, Devotion
features brain-penetrating pop melodies intermixed with dubstep
production, interesting electronic elements and dark shoegazey ambience,
all highlighted by Ms Ware’s breathy soul-laced voice. It’s the kind of
voice you don’t tire of.  And it’s not just a few great singles
packaged amid a bunch of stuffy filler (although there ARE great
singles: “Wildest Moments”, “Night Light”), but an engaging and cohesive
album throughout.

3. CHROMATICS – KILL FOR LOVE
From the hushed opener – a gorgeous cover of Neil Young’s “Into The Black” – Chromatics linchpin, producer-writer-synthgod Johnny Jewel, along with singer
Ruth Radelet create an extraordinarily cinematic
synth-pop masterpiece. The record unfurls track by track, from the
haziness of its down tempo title tune “Kill For Love”, to the New
Wave-informed “The Page”, slow burning  8-minute dance track “These
Streets Will Never Look The Same” and string-enhanced closer “The
River”, it’s a genuinely gripping and engrossing listen.

2. TAME IMPALA – LONERISM

Not only did Tame Impala manage to hurdle the precarious ‘sophomore slump’ crevass with ease (and more than likely without wearing shoes), but they somehow produced a record that is actually superior to their universally praised debut Innerspeaker.  Taking cues from late Sixties and early Seventies sounds of bands like Cream, Revolver-era Beatles and early Pink Floyd, the Perth dudes made an opus of complex evocative psychedelia and sprawling rock, capturing a palette of different moods in every track. The best band in Australia right now.  We think so.

1. FRANK OCEAN – CHANNEL ORANGE
Even in the midst of the Odd Future Swag Crisis of 2011, the talent of soulful vocalist, Frank Ocean, stood out of the rest of the collective’s lineup like Andre the Giant on kindergarten picture day.  When it comes to Ocean’s solo album it isn’t just that sublime falsetto that has made it one of the year’s best, but also his clever multi-genre composition and experimental song structure, and the compelling storytelling in his songwriting.  And perhaps not since Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours has a record been received with such fascination based on an artist’s personal relationship to the material being performed.  The lyrics contain confessional stories of heartbreak, sex and waxing existential (“Super Rich Kids”, “Bad Religion”) as well as richly imagined fantasies that transport the listener (“Pyramids”).  From beginning to end channel ORANGE sucked us in and owned our attention – like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy but through an epic R&B lens.

Highly commended include:
Bruce Springsteen
TOPS
Father John Misty
Inner Tube
Flume
Divine Fits
Purity Ring
Grizzly Bear
Wild Nothing
Rick Ross
Nas

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