10. "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" - Tame Impala
If you're like me, you got on the Tame Impala train this year, and for the longest time, I definitely underestimated their song-writing abilities. Their 2012 sophomore album Lonerism was an extravagant trip through psychedelic pop music that left my brain in a cloud of pink mist. The single from their album "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" has some of the smoothest transitions between chorus and verse that I've heard, and sometimes you can't even notice them if you aren't paying too much attention to it. On the surface, it seems like a very simple pop song, but delving deeper into the track, you start to notice more subtle details that make the track so great. The track has the lightness to make you feel floating, but yet the density to make you feel grounded at the same time, and that's what is so attractive about this song.
9. "M.A.A.D City (Feat. MC Eiht)" - Kendrick Lamar
Imagine how you would feel if people were proclaiming you to be the next Tupac. These proclamations are what Kendrick Lamar has to face all the time. But honestly, I think that's really stupid to say an up and coming rapper is the next whoever. They represent themselves, not previous rappers. Although these proclamations are kind of flawed to begin with, he does deserve these types of proclamations. He'd definitely proved himself to be the best rapper out there with his 2012 release of good kid, m.A.A.d city. The album itself is a modern rap masterpiece. Good kid documents Kendrick's life while growing up in the most dangerous city in America; Compton. But the self titled track on the album was the most striking to me. The track starts with the haunting lines of "If Pirus and Crips all got along, they'd probably gun me down by the end of the song". And then Kendrick continues to confess who he thought murdered his cousin, describe an instant where he saw someone get shot in the head, and how his mother would tell him and his family to duck whenever they were in a public place. Then for the second half of the song, the beat switches to a total west side beat, while Kendrick says Compton made "me an Angel on Angel Dust" (m.A.A.d). This in reference to his first blunt being laced with cocaine. Wow, if you're looking for a real MC, look no further. Kendrick really is "Compton's human sacrifice".
8. "Flowermouth (The Leech)" - Code Orange Kids
America is a great place for aggressive music. There are a lot of things to be pissed off about for one, and there's also a great community for the scene to flourish in. Code Orange Kids are four recently high-school graduated Pittsburghians that have been together for a few years. What's really interesting about the band, is that they blew up. This summer, my band played with the Ohio screamo band CityCop and we all got to know each other pretty well. They told us about how there was a high school graduation party that they played, and that an unknown band called Code Orange Kids were to open the show. This was probably two years ago. Now flash forward to 2012. Code Orange Kids just released their first full length which was recorded by Kurt Ballou of Converge and was released on Deathwish Records (one of the biggest modern hardcore label in America), they just finished up a huge tour with Gaza and Full of Hell, and their name is about everywhere on tumblr. All this, while at the age of 19. That's impressive. But I've had a soft spot for the band because they were originally the band that got me into hardcore, and their first track off their album Love is Love // Return to Dust further reminded me why I fell in love with the band to begin with.
7. "Midwest Living" - Dowsing
What's not to love about the band Dowsing? They're all the coolest dudes (and girl), They crank out club bangers like none other, and they originate from one of my favorite cities, Chicago. They've only been a band for about two years, and since then they've released an EP and a full length on the midwestern emo label Count Your Lucky Stars. The full length, It's Still Pretty Terrible, was one of my favorite albums of the years, combining elements of modern emo and 90's pop-rock and produced by none other than Chris French (formally the guitarist of Joie De Vivre who also released an amazing album this year). Fun fact, French joined Dowsing for about a month and then quit, but it's alright, Dowsing seemed like a better four piece band anyway. The lead single off their album, "Midwest Living", quite possibly is the catchiest song of the year; with everything from Marcus killing it on the drums, to Delia's mad keyboard skills, to Erik's shout-a-long chorus.
Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love Danny Brown. Anything he touches is gold. Literally anything! It was really hard to choose from his 2012 singles that he came out with, but I went with my gut and picked the song that stuck with me the entire year. This track comes off of Heems solo mixtape (as you may have heard, Das Racist has called it quits, but both Heems and Kool A.D. released solo mixtapes this year, so I don't think they will be slowing down anytime soon). It starts with a 30 second, nearly incomprehensible sound clip of a foreign woman explaining how to survive in the place she's native to, and then the beat drops and Danny Brown lays down the best verse I've ever heard from him (which is really impressive). His raps about an asian orgy, Louis C.K., Mortal Kombat, and watching Teen Titans while receiving a bj. Then the baton is handed off to Mr. Muthafuckin Exquire who has one of the craziest word play this year. "Some rotten chicken to insert enemas to my friends, makin' my inner enemy into my insecurities."...yeah. And then to cap it all off, Heems gives the final blow with his verse. A great example of a great rap collaborative.
5. "Northern Lights" - Kate Boy
Since when did dance music become so soulless, so shallow, so watered-down, and so dumb? Our obsession with technology has taken over and desensitized everyone in order to get immediate enjoyment. This whole new fad of immediate enjoyment is quite annoying, because nothing is sacred anymore. And now every dance song that plays on the radio has a pulse, but no heart behind it. Luckily, once in a blue moon, a dance song comes along to reassure me that the whole genre hasn't gone to shit. "Northern Lights" by the Swedish/Australian band Kate Boy was the first song anyone has ever heard by the group, and everyone instantly fell in love with it. For one, the song makes it really easy to fall in love with. The production on this track is like gold, the darkness of the track itself is quite attractive, and the vocalist has a voice that shows obvious strength and longing. With their very first single, Kate Boy show a promising future, but hopefully it's not a beginner's luck sort of deal. "Northern Lights" is a song from the future, with alien synth sounds and melancholic feels to it, but also with this song, Kate Boy assures us that even though the future is surrounded by technology, they want us to know that the future is still human.
4. "Climax" - Usher
I think we can safely say that Usher has one of the best voices in American pop music history. He once was the king of R&B, with songs like "Confessions" and "Burn". There was a little bump in his career where he released songs like "OMG" that kinda made me want to throw up or stab my ears. But earlier this year, I was surprised when I happened to listen to this track, and upon my first listen, I played it over again at least seven more times. The song definitely wouldn't be what it is without the amazing production provided by Diplo, who creates somewhat of a post-dubstep instrumental, that focuses on building through the verse and then immediately dropping back down in the chorus to let Usher's falsetto shine through. One thing I love about this track, is that it's basically an open letter to mainstream music telling them to get their shit together. It proves that in this day and age where all popular music is made through a computer, that you can still have an amazing love song with a sound that even Skrillex fans can appeal to. Unluckily, Usher's other material that was released this year wasn't nearly as impressive as "Climax". But nonetheless, if 2012 had a metaphorical time-capsule of things to remember the year by, no doubt in my mind "Climax" would be a perfect candidate.
3. "Laura" - Bat For Lashes
The song "Laura" is based on a true story, and true stories make the best songs. It describes the life of a party girl, appropriately named Laura. She lives a life of glamour and good times, but is crushed by the live fast die young lifestyle. Laura eventually pours her heart out to Natasha after a long night of partying. I think there are a lot of people in the world, specifically America, who can relate this. Living in a college town, all I hear about constantly is how "we should get fucked up tonight". This is the thing that upsets me the most about this mindset. Don't get me wrong, it's fun and exciting to party, but people are completely missing the point of it. The point isn't to get so drunk you can hardly speak, but to bring people together and meet new people and share each other's stories. Laura is a person who has these motives mixed up, and I feel Natasha wrote this song to let her know there's more to all of this ("you're more than a superstar"). "Laura" is like the one special moment in the night you have with another person that you remember for the rest of your life. Almost like a turn of fate or a rite of passage. It's one heart going out to another, not to mention one hell of a piano ballad.
2. "Thinkin' Bout You" - Frank Ocean
Channel Orange is a modern day masterpiece. I'm just going to get that out of the way. Frank Ocean slowly became one of my all time favorite song writer over the year. The first time I listened to it, I was very underwhelmed and didn't find what was so special about the album. But then I listened to it every night before I went to sleep over the summer, and with every time I listen to the album now, I love it more and more. "Thinkin' Bout You" is the prologue to this masterpiece; with it's heart-stopping string opening and beautiful falsetto chorus. Earlier this year, Ocean got a lot of buzz for posting on the internet about how his first love was a man. And just now when I Googled an image of him, one of the first results is "Frank Ocean gay". I was also talking to one of my brother's friends about Frank Ocean and he said he doesn't listen to him, insinuating, but not ever saying, it was because he had relations with a man. This really needs to stop. To not listen to a person's art because of their sexual orientation? Who gives a fuck! The music is fucking beautiful! Homophobia is a very real thing in America, and slowly it's starting to become a better handled problem. But "Thinkin' Bout You" breaks barriers. I'm assuming he wrote the song about the man he fell in love with, but I wasn't even able to tell when I listened. It's a song about anyone's universal lover, and it's stronger than any force imaginable.
1. "Christmas Unicorn" - Sufjan Stevens
This is my song of the year, and it only pertains to one of my least favorite times of the year. Christmas is alright, but as I get older, I seem to dislike it more and more. Plus it's in the middle of the winter in which I always find myself being on the verge of depression. But what helped me out this winter, was Sufjan Steven's Silver & Gold, a 58 song compilation of (Anti)-Christmas songs. The last of which was a 13 minute Opus for a Christmas Unicorn. This as you can see is somewhat of a paradox, but yet not. The two terms have nothing to do with each other, but both pertain to a world of fantasy. It seems like something of a joke, but the way the song is presented, Sufjan screams "I'm a Christmas unicorn" more times than you can count, almost to the point of obsession. This is what makes the song so charming, interesting, weird, crazy, exciting, and about every other adjective you can think of. The song is divided in two. The first half of the song, Sufjan Stevens explains, in detail, what a Christmas Unicorn is, and what both terms separately mean. Then almost exactly half way through the song, a drum fill kicks in and the song is launched into joyous celebration of the Christmas Unicorn. Then even later the song uses the famous chorus from Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart"; everything you could ever possibly want in a song.
We are still left with this 13 minute song about something illogical and fantastical at the same time. But what does it all mean? Well, I personally think Sufjan Stevens has gone a little crazy. I mean if you read the liner notes to Silver & Gold, you will be completely perplexed. Although the whole compilation is Christmas themed, it's mainly apocalyptic themed. Yeah, you won't expect that from your average Kenny G Christmas album. And Sufjan is kind of on this apocalypse roll here, with his last masterpiece Age of Adz having the apocalypse be kind of the center theme of the whole album. Well, 2012 was the year that a lot of people thought the World was going to end. It didn't, and American's were fools and ignorant to make such an extrapolation from an artifact of a different culture, the Mayan's to be specific. But like you know, the World didn't end, but what does this make of Silver & Gold? Guess it will be a big mystery that only Sufjan Stevens knows the answer to, or maybe not even that. But in the mean time, "Christmas Unicorn" is the ultimate example of celebration. Maybe why it was put as the closing song on Silver & Gold was to celebrate the fact we're still here. Who knows what Sufjan will do next? That's the billion dollar question, but don't worry, the Christmas Unicorn is here to stay.
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