Top 100 Songs of 2012

I limited myself to a maximum of 3 songs from any one album, which was rough when whittling it down to 100 songs. Some amazing songs are left off for that reason, but that's what the albums list is for.

In alphabetical order, by song title:

Flying Lotus - "All the Secrets"
Elite Gymnastics - "Andreja 4-Ever"
Tame Impala - "Apocalypse Dreams"
Chromatics - "Back from the Grave"
Twin Shadow - "Be Mine Tonight"
Soundgarden - "Been Away Too Long"
New Build - "Behind the Shutter"
Purity Ring - "Belispeak"
Soundgarden - "Bones of Birds"
Lower Dens - "Brains"
Alt-J - "Breezeblocks"
Sinkane - "Caparundi"
Passion Pit - "Carried Away"
The Antlers - "Crest"
Miike Snow - "Devil's Work"
of Montreal - "Dour Percentage"
DIIV - "Doused"
The Antlers - "Drift Dive"
Porcelain Raft - "Drifting In and Out"
Flying Lotus feat. Thom Yorke - "Electric Candyman"
Tame Impala - "Elephant"
Cloud Nothings - "Fall In"
Tame Impala - "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards"
Purity Ring - "Fireshrine"
Yeasayer - "Fingers Never Bleed"
Twin Shadow - "Five Seconds"
Hot Chip - "Flutes"
Opossom - "Fly"
Jack White - "Freedom At 21"
Grimes - "Genesis"
The Hives - "Go Right Ahead"
Twin Shadow - "Golden Light"
Grizzly Bear - "Gun-Shy"
Grizzly Bear - "Half Gate"
Yeasayer - "Henrietta"
Beach House - "The Hours"
The Weeknd - "House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls"
Japandroids - "The House That Heaven Built"
DIIV - "How Long Have You Known?"
Passion Pit - "I'll Be Alright"
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "I'll Come Back 4 U"
AC Newman - "I'm Not Talking"
How to Dress Well - "& It Was U"
Sinkane - "Jeeper Creeper"
Lotus Plaza - "Jet Out of the Tundra"
Crystal Castles - "Kerosene"
Chromatics - "Kill for Love"
Chromatics - "Lady"
Lower Dens - "Lamb"
Hot Chip - "Let Me Be Him"
Yeasayer - "Longevity"
Passion Pit - "Love Is Greed"
Alt-J - "Matilda"
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Mature Themes"
New Build - "Medication"
Animal Collective - "Mercury Man"
New Build - "Misery Loves Company"
Animal Collective - "Monkey Riches"
Lotus Plaza - "Monoliths"
Roman Ruins - "Mother's Day"
Hot Chip - "Motion Sickness"
Divine Fits - "My Love Is Real"
Grimes feat. Majical Clouds - "Nightmusic"
Soundgarden - "Non-State Actor"
Grimes - "Oblivion"
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Only In My Dreams"
Beach House - "Other People"
Miike Snow - "Paddling Out"
Crystal Castles - "Plague"
Porcelain Raft - "Put Me to Sleep"
Frank Ocean - "Pyramids"
Bear In Heaven - "The Reflection of You"
Gauntlet Hair - "Righteous Black"
Sinkane - "Runnin'"
How to Dress Well - "Set It Right"
Bear In Heaven - "Sinful Nature"
Jack White - "Sixteen Saltines"
Le Common Diamond - "Softbeat"
Lemonade - "Softkiss"
Wye Oak - "Spiral"
Cloud Nothings - "Stay Useless"
Frank Ocean feat. Earl Sweatshirt - "Super Rich Kids"
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Swim and Sleep (Like A Shark)"
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Symphony of the Nymph"
Jack White -'"Take Me With You When You Go"
Moonface - "Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips"
Alt-J - "Tessellate"
Frank Ocean - "Thinking Bout You"
Animal Collective - "Today's Supernatural"
Purity Ring - "Ungirthed"
Porcelain Raft - "Unless You Speak From Your Heart"
Miike Snow - "The Wave"
Divine Fits - "What Gets You Alone"
Roman Ruins - "Wildflower"
Beach House - "Wishes"
Bear In Heaven - "World of Freakout"
Divine Fits - "Would That Not Be Nice"
Crystal Castles - "Wrath of God"
Japandroids - "Younger Us"
The Antlers - "Zelda"

Top 30 Albums of 2012

In ranked order:

01) Tame Impala - Lonerism
02) Yeasayer - Fragrant World
03) Hot Chip - In Our Heads
04) Beach House - Bloom
05) Twin Shadow - Confess
06) Frank Ocean - Channel ORANGE
07) Grimes - Visions
08) Purity Ring - Shines
09) Crystal Castles - (III)
10) Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
11) Porcelain Raft - Strange Weekend
12) Sinkane - Mars
13) Soundgarden - King Animal
14) Jack White - Blunderbuss
15) Animal Collective - Cenitpede Hz
16) New Build - Yesterday Was Lived and Lost
17) Miike Snow - Happy to You
18) Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes
19) Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits
20) Passion Pit - Gossamer
21) Bear In Heaven - I Love You, It's Cool
22) How to Dress Well - Total Loss
23) DIIV - Oshin
24) Grizzly Bear - Shields
25) Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action At A Distance
26) Lower Dens - Nootropics
27) Lemonade - Diver
28) Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
29) Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes
30) The Weeknd - Trilogy

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - 'II' Tracklisting

Unknown Mortal Orchestra have announced their 2nd LP will be called II.

II will be released February 5th on Jagjaguwar Records. Tracklisting below.

There seems to be a 'time of day' theme running through the song titles - dawn, morning, afternoon. Only missing night, unless that's considered 'the opposite of afternoon'.

01) From the Sun
02) Swim and Sleep (Like A Shark)
03) So Good at Being in Trouble
04) One at a Time
05) The Opposite of Afternoon
06) No Need for a Leader
07) Monki
08) Dawn
09) Faded in the Morning
10) Secret Xtians

"Swim and Sleep (Like A Shark)" is available NOW as a digital single on iTunes.

Yeasayer - "Reagan's Skeleton" (Live Video)

Antlers - 'Undersea' and Le Common Diamond

These aren't on my Top 25 Albums list because they're EPs, but both of these are also must-listens.

Antlers - Undersea

Le Common Diamond - Le Common Diamond

Top 25 Albums of 2012 (as of October)

It's October. Tame Impala's long awaited Lonerism has finally been released. There are no announced releases for 2012 left that I'm looking forward to. New records from Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Toro Y Moi have been announced, but they're coming out next year (they might leak this year, but technically that wouldn't count). I'm eagerly awaiting the next release from MGMT, but I expect it will slip into 2013, at this point.

There could be some surprise music releases in the next few months, but typically there isn't too much. Maybe a surprise release from Bradford Cox (Deerhunter / Atlas Sound). He hasn't released a record yet this year! If he doesn't, this will be the first year that he hasn't in a long while. 

There could be an album that's been released already that I haven't discovered, or could yet discover a greater appreciation for. But anyway, here's how my personal rankings for the Top 25 Albums of 2012 are shaping up so far.

Yes, I love the Yeasayer record that much. I could easily have it at #1, but Hot Chip's In Our Heads remains so utterly enjoyable to listen to that it's currently holding on to the top spot. Yeasayer's Fragrant World must be ahead of its time. The instrumentation on that record is so interesting, every song is a gem. Tame Impala's Lonerism is the newest entry on this list, but it's easily a Top 5 record, got it at #3 for now.

Antlers' fantastic Undersea isn't on here because it's an EP. I was hoping to make that a separate list for the best EPs of the year, but so far I've only got that and Le Common Diamond's self-titled EP. Not much of a list. At any rate, I'll have to give both of those records separate recognition.

01) Hot Chip - In Our Heads

02) Yeasayer - Fragrant World

03) Tame Impala - Lonerism

04) Beach House - Bloom

05) Twin Shadow - Confess

06) Grimes - Visions

07) Purity Ring - Shrines

08) Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

09) Miike Snow - Happy to You

10) Porcelain Raft - Strange Weekend

11) New Build - Yesterday Was Lived and Lost

12) Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

13) Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes

14) Grizzly Bear - Shields

15) Jack White - Blunderbuss

16) Frank Ocean - Channel ORANGE

17) Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits

18) Passion Pit - Gossamer

19) Bear In Heaven - I Love You, It's Cool

20) Lotus Plaza - Spooky Action From A Distance

21) How to Dress Well - Total Loss

22) Lower Dens - Nootropics

23) DIIV - Oshin

24) Lemonade - Diver

25) Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

Grimes - "Genesis" Video

Passion Pit - Constant Conversations (Video)

Top 10 Albums of 2012 (So Far)

01) Hot Chip - In Our Heads

02) Beach House - Bloom

03) Purity Ring - Shrines

04) Grimes - Visions

05) Passion Pit - Gossamer

06) Miike Snow - Happy to You

07) Porcelain Raft - Strange Weekend

08) Twin Shadow - Confess

09) Jack White - Blunderbuss

10) Bear In Heaven - I Love You, It's Cool

DIIV - "How Long Have You Known?" Video

Top 50 Songs from 2012 So Far

01) Animal Collective - "Gotham"
02) Bear In Heaven - "Idle Heart"
03) Bear In Heaven - "The Reflection of You"
04) Bear In Heaven - "Sinful Nature"
05) Bear In Heaven - "Kiss Me Crazy"
06) Bear In Heaven - "World of Freakout"
07) Chromatics - "Into the Black"
08) Chromatics - "Kill for Love"
09) Chromatics - "Back from the Grave"
10) Chromatics - "The Page"
11) Chromatics - "Lady"
12) Chromatics - "Birds of Paradise"
13) Cloud Nothings - "Wasted Days"
14) Cloud Nothings - "Fall In"
15) Cloud Nothings - "Stay Useless"
16) Grimes - "Genesis"
17) Grimes - "Oblivion"
18) Grimes - "Circumambient"
19) Grimes - "Vowels = Space and Time"
20) Grimes - "Be A Body"
21) Grimes - "Nightmusic" (feat. Majical Clouds)
22) Grimes - "Skin"
23) Jack White - "Sixteen Saltines"
24) Jack White - "Love Interruption"
25) Jack White - "Take Me With You When You Go"
26) Lotus Plaza - "Strangers"
27) Lotus Plaza - "Out of Touch"
28) Lotus Plaza - "Monoliths"
29) Lotus Plaza - "Jet Out of the Tundra"
30) Lotus Plaza - "Remember Our Days"
31) Lower Dens - "Alphabet Song" 
32) Lower Dens - "Brains"
33) Lower Dens - "Propagation" 
34) Lower Dens - "Lamb"
35) Miike Snow - "The Wave"
36) Miike Snow - "Devil's Work"
37) Miike Snow - "God Help This Divorce"
38) Miike Snow - "Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)"
39) Mike Snow - "Archipelago"
40) Miike Snow - "Paddling Out"
41) of Montreal - "We Will Commit Wolf Murder"
42) Porcelain Raft - "Drifting In and Out"
43) Porcelain Raft - "Shapeless & Gone"
44) Porcelain Raft - "Is It Too Deep for You?"
45) Porcelain Raft - "Put Me to Sleep"
46) Porcelain Raft - "Unless You Speak from Your Heart"
47) Sharon Van Etten - "Leonard"
48) The Shins - "The Rifle's Spiral"
49) The Shins - "Simple Song"
50) The Shins - "Port of Morrow"

Bear In Heaven - "Sinful Nature" (Video)

Bear In Heaven's I Love You, It's Cool is one of the best albums of the year so far, and this selection is probably the best track. A must-listen.

Top 25 Albums of 2011 - Just the List

01) Cut Copy - Zonoscope

02) Toro y Moi - Underneath the Pine

03) Neon Indian - Era Extraña

04) Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

05) Atlas Sound - Parallax

06) M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

07) Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

08) The Antlers - Burst Apart

09) Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair

10) Nerves Junior - As Bright As Your Night Light

11) TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light

12) Starfucker - Reptilians

13) Mother Mother - Eureka

14) Handsome Furs - Sound Kapital

15) Youth Lagoon - The Year of Hibernation

16) Destroyer - Kaputt

17) Washed Out - Within and Without

18) Active Child - You Are All I See

19) Mister Heavenly - Out of Love

20) Radiohead - The King of Limbs

21) Caveman - CoCo Beware

22) James Blake - James Blake

23) Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver

24) Wild Beasts - Smother

25) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical

Porcelain Raft - "Unless You Speak from Your Heart" Video

Unless You Speak From Your Heart from Porcelain Raft on Vimeo.

Porcelain Raft - 'Strange Weekend' Album Stream

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Ffunny Ffriends" Video

Youth Lagoon - "July" Video

Youth Lagoon - July from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.