This, my friends, is well overdue. So I'll just get down to it! Presenting first, the top TWENTY albums of 2012. Yes, I personally felt that 2012 delivered so many goddamn good albums that it warranted extending a top 10 into a top 20, just to fit the awesomeness in! And even so, there are still some more that didn't quite make the cut that should've! Anyway, due to this being so late, I'm going to add reviews at such a time when I can be bothered, which might not actually happen ever. Who knows? Anyway, let's get cracking.
20. The Beards - Having a Beard is the New Not Having a Beard (Australia)
19. Redcoats - Redcoats (Australia)
18. Dead Can Dance - Anastasis (Australia/UK)
17. Future of the Left - The Plot Against Common Sense (UK)
16. Adrift for Days - Come Midnight... (Australia)
15. Jack White - Blunderbuss (USA)
14. The xx - Coexist (UK)
13. The Siren Tower - A History of Houses (Australia)
12. OFF! - OFF! (USA)
11. Maximum Wolf - Spacescapes (Australia)
.....................................
10. Breaking Orbit - The Time Traveller (Australia)
9. Okera - A Beautiful Dystopia (Australia)
8. Dirty Three - Toward the Low Sun (Australia)
7. Tame Impala - Lonerism (Australia)
6. Saskwatch - Leave it All Behind (Australia)
5. Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (Australia)
4. Alcest - Les Voyages de l'Âme (France)
3. Twelve Foot Ninja - Silent Machine (Australia)
2. Swans - The Seer (USA)
1.Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light (UK)
Whew. What a quality year it was; like I said, there was so much good music that it just seemed like a top ten wouldn't cut it, in terms of fitting everything in. Something that's definitely notable about this year, like it was in 2010, is that bands from Australia made some fucking great albums! And it's a complete coincidence too; I don't favour a band any more (or less) just because they come from my home country, but it turns out that a LOT of the best albums released were from Australian bands. Thirteen out of the top twenty albums were from homegrown bands, and even more impressively, SEVEN of the top ten were Australian acts. Local music is good music! Anyway, so now we turn our attention to the best five EPs of the year... they were...
5. Birds of Tokyo - This Fire
4. High Tension - High Tension
3. Maximum Wolf - ii
2. Sheriff - Sheriff
1. Sub Atari Knives - Sub Atari Knives
These always seem to be local acts, don't they? I think it's something to do with the size of the acts - the bigger overseas acts are less likely to release music in the shortened form once they've established themselves, and tend to focus on producing actual albums. Whereas the local acts represented here (with one slight exception) are in a pretty early stage of their career, and at this point it seems to be better to just give everyone a quick taste of where they're at and what they're about, rather than put all their time and effort into making an album when most people in the music community aren't even aware they exist yet. Anyway, that's just my take on things! It's great to see once again that local talent ruled this countdown!
The year's top five songs:
5. Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
4. Saskwatch - Your Love
3. Twelve Foot Ninja - Coming for You
2. Spiritualized - Hey Jane
1. Swans - The Seer
And the final award for best live release... a definite no-contest here!
The Chemical Brothers - Don't Think
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