The 111 Best Albums of 2012

Thanks to all those who voted!

Here are the 111 Best Albums of 2012:

1. Japandroids - Celebration Rock (Bonus Track)
2. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange (Bonus Track)
3. Jack White - Blunderbuss (Bonus Track)
4. Kendrick Lamar - g.o.o.d. kid, maad city
5. Grizzly Bear – Shields
6. The xx - Co-Exist
7. Alabama Shakes - Boys and Girls
8. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel
9. Sharon Von Etten - Tramp
10. Beach House - Bloom
11. Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits
12. The Lumineers – Lumineers
13. Tame Impala – Lonerism
14. Bob Mould - Silver Age
15. Ben Folds Five - The Sound of Life of the Mind
16. Shins - Port of Morrow
17. Grimes - Vision
18. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist
19. Silversun Pickups - Neck of the Woods
20. Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal
21. Soundgarden - King Animal
22. Chromatics - Kill For Love
23. Lana Del Rey - Born To Die/Paradise
24. The Walkmen - Heaven
25. Jimmy Cliff - Rebirth
26. Father John Misty - Fear Fun
27. Andy Stott - Luxury Problems
28. First Aid Kit - Lion’s Roar
29. Burial - Truant/Kindred EP
30. Bahamas - Barchords
31. Swans - The Seer
32. Pinback - Information Retrieved
33. Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania
34. Bloc Party - Four
35. Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
36. Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet On Sky
37. Lord Huron - Lonesome Dreams
38. Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light
39. Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
40. Bob Dylan - Tempest
41. Fun. - Some Nights
42. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
43. TY Segall – Twins
44. Bobby Womack - Bravest Man in the Universe
45. Passion Pit - Gossamer
46. Liars - WIXIW
47. Gary Clark Jr. - Black and Blu
48. The Corin Tucker Band - Kill My Blues
49. Olafur Arnalds - Another Happy Day
50. Wintersleep - Hello Hum
51. Matt Skiba and the Sekrets - Babylon
52. Titus Andronicus - Local Business
53. Crystal Castles - III
54. Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
55. Hot Chip - In Our Heads
56. Jesse Ware - Devotion
57. Four Tet - Pink
58. Glen Hansard - Rhythm & Repose
59. Sun Kil Moon - Among The Leaves
60. Avett Brothers - The Carpenter
61. Band of Horses - Mirage Rock
62. The Lighthouse and the Whaler - This Is an Adventure
63. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Lost Songs
64. The Big Pink - Future This
65. Yellowcard - Southern Air
66. Harold Budd - Bandits of Stature
67. Pilot to Gunner - Guilty Guilty
68. Muse - The 2nd Law
69. Said The Whale - Little Mountain
70. P.O.S - We Don't Even Live Here
71. Fang Island - Major
72. Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas
73. Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
74. Aesop Rock - Skeleton
75. Delta Spirit - Delta Spirit
76. Lambchop - Mr. M
77. Metric - Synthetica
78. Jon Samuel - First Transmission
79. Loscil - Sketches From New Brighton
80. Lostprophets - Weapons
81. Mumford & Sons - Babel
82. Lee Fields & the Expressions - Faithful Man
83. Bad Veins - The Mess We’ve Made
84. Everclear - Invisible Stars
85. Forgetters - Forgetters
86. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
87. Niki & the Dove - Instinct
88. Classics of Love - Classics of Love
89. Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again
90. Yukon Blonde - Tiger Talk
91. Goodnight Lights - As Far As the Moon
92. Joel Plaskett Emergency - Scrappy Happiness
93. Vijay Iyer Trio - Accelerando
94. Marconi Union - Different Colors
95. Purity Ring - Shrines
96. Minus The Bear - Infinity Overheard
97. Chris Robinson Brotherhood - Big Moon Ritual
98. Field Report - Field Report
99. Twin Shadow - Confess
100. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
101. Two Door Cinema - Beacon
102. Rhett Miller - The Dream/The Interpreter Live At Largo
103. Maus Haus - Light Noise
104. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
105. Battles - Dross Glop
106. Minilogue - Endlessness EP
107. Amos The Transparent - Goodnight My Dear
108. Django Django - Django Django
109. Animal Collective - Centipede Hz
110. Jeff The Brotherhood - Hypnotic Nights
111. My Bloody Valentine - The EPs 1988-1991

Buy these albums and more now!!!

The Best Albums of 2012 (12-22)

Merry Christmas to all.

Sometimes Christmas surprises you.  For years I've grown complacent with Christmas presents.  Not for others.  For others I go all out spending most of the year trying to figure out exactly what they want.  What I'm referring to is what is given to me.  I'm not bitching about peoples' generosity, everyone around me is very generous but sometimes their presents miss the mark and I spend most of the day smiling and thanking people for something I'm figuring out how I'm going to return.  This year something different happened.  I'm a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan...if you haven't noticed in my Billy Corgan manlove.  I've purchased all the reissues thus far.The Pumpkins reissues have been one of the best remaster/editions to come out in years.  Though it comes close to the "wall of sound" disaster that ruined Nevermind...it toes close enough to the line to respectfully keep the original sound intact.  Naturally, I admired the Mellon Collie box set from afar.  I thought the Pisces price tag of $40 was steep...but the Mellon Collie set weighs in at over $100.  Granted you get 5 discs worth of material...plus a DVD.  It was still far above what I could handle paying.  I joked with my brother about getting it for me...knowing fair well that he would never cough up the dough for it.  My brother would rather spend $100 on polishing the tires on his Maserati than ever think about doing something like this.  Granted, his tires do get dirty very easily.  I had begun plotting how I might be able to download the bonus tracks though the availability of them was very slim.  I had resigned the fact that this one would be the box set that would just get away.  Then, Christmas morning I unwrapped it.  The last present under the tree happened to be the one thing I wanted that I never thought I'd have.  Though it wasn't from my brother...it was a bit of a Christmas miracle.

A post about this SP set will be coming shortly...

Here are the Best Albums of 2012 (12-22):

12.  Jeff The Brotherhood - Hypnotic Nights 
13.  Chiddy Bang - Breakfast 
14.  Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal 
15.  Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
16.  The Raveonettes - Observator 
17.  Crystal Castles - III
18.  Craig Finn - Clear Heart Full Eyes 
19.  Japandroids - Celebration Rock 
20.  Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth 
21.  The Lumineers - The Lumineers 
22.  Kendrick Lamar - good kid, maad city (Bonus Track)

Buy these albums and more now!!!

Free Music Fridays (The Saturday Edition): The 11 Best Free Albums of the Year

It's that time of the year...the best of the year lists.  As every year...I ask for your help.  Starting next week, I'll reveal my favorites of the year.  But I want your help to make a master 111 Best Album of the year list.

Send me your favorite albums of the year.  Give me your top 20...if you can't think of the 20...then just 10, 5, or 1 is fine...whatever you liked.  I'll compile the list and make a master list just after Christmas.  It's very easy to do...either email me...or just put your list in the comment section below.

Until next week...here's a primer list...

The 11 Best Free Albums of 2011:

1.  The Weeknd - House of Balloons
2.  Wugazi - 13 Chambers
3.  Frank Ocean - Nostalgia
4.  Danny Brown - XXX 
5.  Stroked - A Tribute To The Strokes
6.  Tokyo Police Club - The Polaroid Album
7.  The Weeknd - Thursday
8.  Ondadrops Vol. 4 - One Way Ticket To Nowhere
9.  Gayngs - Remix EP
10.  True Blue - A Tribute to Madonna
11.  Newermind - A Tribute to Nirvana