2012 Favorite Albums
My Top 10 Favorites
-
I have a lot of reasons to love Jherek Bischoff’s album, Composed. First, he’s a Seattle musician, and I enjoy finding great local music. Kate and I saw him live recently, and I find seeing a musician live really does help me appreciate their recorded music. It’s a beautifully composed album with lots of great talent on it like Zac Pennington from Parenthetical Girls, Mirah, David freaking Byrne from The Talking Heads, and a bunch of mostly Northwest musicians. But one of the biggest reasons I love this album is because of the story of how it was made. Jherek was a ukulele playing musician who wanted to compose songs for a full orchestra. He didn’t know how to though, so with some help from a few talented friends, he learned. But he didn’t have an orchestra to perform his pieces. So he visited a bunch of his friends, recorded them in their living rooms, and layered them all together. The result was Composed.
-
There are also lots of great musicians on Sharon Van Etten’s Tramp. There are 2 tracks with some vocals by Beirut’s Zach Condon. Also on the album is Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, Julianna Barwick, Walkmen’s Matt Barrick, and it was produced by Aaron Dessner (from The National) and recored in his garage. Here’s a connection that I kind of love, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) performed the song “Love More” off Sharon’s previous album at the 2010 MusicNOW festival in Cincinnati, which Aaron and his brother started and curate. I know, because I was there :) Then the next year Aaron produced and records Sharon’s next album.
-
Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear produced George Lewis Jr’s 2010 debut album which was really good, but his new album is better. Produced by himself, you really get a sense of his style. Lewis was born in the Dominican Republic, raised in Florida, and is now living in Brooklyn. This album sounds like it came from the 80s. And it’s great! My favorite song is the 3rd track, “Five Seconds.”
-
Saint Etienne - Words And Music
Words and Music is a British pop treat. The first track’s spoken word is a great intro to the album and its theme. If you enjoy this album, check out some of their older stuff, like their 1991 album Foxbase Alpha.
-
This is Chan Marshall’s first album of original songs since her 2006 album, The Greatest. I’ve read a bunch of interviews and articles about the making of this album but to be honest I don’t really understand it all. There are a lot of details about how she recorded the songs and didn’t like them and ran out of money and rerecorded and did another album… I don’t really understand what became of the songs and recordings she was working on for the past 6 years, how much of this album she wrote right after The Greatest, and how much stuff she wrote but never used. All I really understand about it all is that this was an album that took a long time to make and the result is a really great album by a great musician of our time.
-
Moonface - With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery
Moonface is Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake) most recent indie rock project.
-
Mirel is a 23 year old indie folk musician, born in Ethiopia and raised in Finland.
-
Dark Dark Dark - Who Needs Who
Dark Dark Dark is a jazzy folk band. My favorite fun fact about them is their website is brightbrightbright.com.
-
Chairlift is probably most significant for their song “Bruises” from their 2008 album Does You Inspire You, which was featured on an Apple commercial. It was certainly the strongest song on that album. This album is strong all the way through. Different but similar to Twin Shadow, it has a very 80’s feel to it.
-
Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn’t
Another stellar album from an amazing Swedish indie pop musician. I don’t think it’s quite as good as his 2007 album (and my favorite album that year) Night Falls Over Kortedala, but it’s still really great.
Honorable Mentions
All these albums are really great too.
-
Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It (from Seattle!)