Some 2012 albums that float my boat [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Mike
07-26-2012, 08:59 AM
Soulsavers – The Light the Dead See
Features the vocals of Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) but don’t expect electronic doodlings. Someone suggested this has a likeness to Beck’s Mutations one of my all time favourites and they weren’t far wrong, very moody and sombre with lots of strings.

Polica – Give You the Ghost
Best album of the year for me, I usually don’t like over processed vocals but this just sounds so right, hypnotic bass and drums almost dub sounding in places.

Jack Carty – Break Your Own Heart
If you want to delve into the world of indie folk/pop (think Ed Sheeran, Ben Howard, Glen Hansard) this is a good place to start.

Purity Ring – Shrines
Nice sounds from this duo with deep bass and dreamy vocals mixed over punctuated beats, and like a lot of decent bands these days their Canadian!

Lake Forest – Silver Skies
Mainly consists of simple picking acoustic guitar with bits of other instrumentation but the blending of multitracked vocals works brilliantly, a late night album to drift off to sleep to.

Silversun Pickups – Neck of the Woods
Ok so they sound like the Smashing Pumpkins but this album has enough quality and variation to stand up there with the best

Cheers
Mike

Jack in Wilmington
07-26-2012, 09:36 AM
These two are spending a lot of time on the turntable.

8790

8791

Jim Clark
07-26-2012, 12:45 PM
mike,

I've got Purity Ring, Silversun Pickups, and Polica. Looks like I need Soulsavers for sure so thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely look up Lake Forest before the day is done. Thanks.

BTW, just listened to the Violent Blue by Electric President during todays workout. I've thoroughly enjoyed this band. Thanks for the rec so many years ago!

jc

nobody
07-26-2012, 02:20 PM
Didn't realize Electric President had something new out. I liked their debut a few years back. Will have to check it out. I'm actually playing that Poliça right now. Dig it.

Mr MidFi
07-27-2012, 05:37 AM
I'll be seeing Poliça in 9 days, and I'm looking forward to it. If I like what I see/hear, I'll prolly pick that one up. (I liked the track on that group comp.)

So far, it's been sort of a lackluster year for me. I like the Jack White disc and the White Rabbits' Milk Famous album best so far, but that leaves some room for improvement. I'm still getting used to the Walkmen's new one. And Jim Clark's recommendation of DIIV's Oshin is working great for me in small doses at a time. The Decemberists' double-live album, We All Raise Our Voices to the Air, is well worth owning as well.

I still need to listen to the latest ones from The Shins, Of Monsters & Men, Sigur Ros and Smashing Pumpkins.

Davey
07-27-2012, 08:03 AM
Well, if we're tossing out our owns lists, I don't have much, but these are some I've been hanging out with lately ...

I've really been liking that Julia Holter Ekstasis we talked some about in another thread. Just a very nice mix of ambient electro-organic pop styles, reminding at various times of Eno, Laurie Anderson and Enya.

Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel continues to grow on me, and is really a pretty amazing record. Not many hummable melodies, but enough quirkiness to make it worth the exploration. Great production, and one of the best sounding new pop CDs in recent times, at least from a dynamics view.

And while I criticized it for the compressed sound (and it does detract a lot from what she is doing in my mind), I do still really like the new Carina Round Tigermending quite a lot. Very dramatic, actually kind of melodramatic, but works well. Big sounding, that's for sure. The opener is a knockout, dark subject and sound, very ambitious, and up at song of the day now.

And the live Swans We Rose from Your Bed with the Sun in Our Head is destined to be a big favorite this year. Only just started exploring it, but highlights while this may just be one of the best reunions any band has managed. The songs are given a lot of room to develop in the live setting, building to some pretty climactic moments. Requires some patience, but Swans' fans are used to that, no quick payoffs, takes time to set up this kind of space. And like their last couple studio records, sounds great.

Mr MidFi
07-27-2012, 09:31 AM
I'm not sure how I forgot to mention Andrew Bird's Break It Yourself... and apparently, so did others. I think it's a measure of how much we have come to take him for granted.

nobody
07-27-2012, 10:33 AM
I've got a bunch I've liked this year so far, actually. Here's a few:

<b>Ian Martin: Mechanical Rain</b> Really good, moody, atmospheric minimal electronic music from Rotterdam.

<b>Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas</b> You already know if you're a fan or not and if you are, he is in fine form. The vinyl sounds fantastic and comes with a CD as well.

<b>Chuck Prophet: Temple Beautiful</b> The former front man for Green on Red releases another strong solo album. If you're into roots-inflected, traditional rock music, this is great.

<b>Off!: S/T</b> If you were a hardcore punk fan around 1981 ans miss that sound, Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame is back with some top notch cohorts to serve it up on a platter.

I also really like The Chromatics, Traxman, Mind Spiders, Kadavar, Paco Sala, a pair of albums from Panabrite, the aforementioned Poliça record, The Men, Crusaders of Love, Actress, Sleigh Bells, The residents, Mark Lanegan Band and several more from the year so far.

jonnyhambone
07-27-2012, 01:40 PM
That Swans is pretty great. Their live show from that tour was amazing but so brutal that it was hard to take it all in. This recording is really well done and lets you bask in the aural pummeling. Their new studio double disc should be out soonish too. Picked up the massive Codeine vinyl box set too - Número did a great job w this one...all remastered from analogue tapes and beautifully packaged. Good to revisit these guys.

Slosh
07-27-2012, 01:45 PM
Three Mile Pilot has a new EP called Maps. I haven't heard it yet but their last album is still in heavy rotation here so I'm sure I'll like it.

edit: I just checked into ordering this but $11 shipped for a 5 song EP is a bit much. I'll wait until I can get it locally for a more reasonable price.

Davey
07-28-2012, 06:10 PM
Three Mile Pilot has a new EP called Maps. I haven't heard it yet but their last album is still in heavy rotation here so I'm sure I'll like it.

edit: I just checked into ordering this but $11 shipped for a 5 song EP is a bit much. I'll wait until I can get it locally for a more reasonable price.

Hey, that is good news, love these guys. That is kinda steep, but I just sprang for a bunch of Three Mile Pilot vinyl, including this (in transparent blue) and Chief Assassin (and you know that is a huge favorite), so I'm all in. Grabbed the debut vinyl too. Lots of overtime lately :)

Yea, I do like that last album a lot, just didn't like the mastering, so I ordered that vinyl too. Still listen to the CD a lot, I'm not that bad, be fun to hear if it's better mastered. Saw them a couple years ago and it was a fun show (wow, just checked and it was almost exactly 3 years ago). Apparently they are hitting the concert trail again.

Davey
07-28-2012, 06:24 PM
That Swans is pretty great. Their live show from that tour was amazing but so brutal that it was hard to take it all in. This recording is really well done and lets you bask in the aural pummeling.

Yea, it does sound a lot better in the quieter parts, when it gets loud it kind of runs out of room and gets squashed, loses some of the atmosphere, at least the CD set does. Still pretty amazing stuff.