Following yesterday’s first instalment, here are our remaining 10 albums of the year. There will be one track from each of the top 20 on the Broad Church radio show from 9pm (GMT) tonight on Strangeways Radio.
BEACHWOOD SPARKS ‘THE TARNISHED GOLD’ (SUB POP)
The Sparks – finally, after 10 years – flew again! Now all we need is for them to play some shows in the UK…
GRAVENHURST ‘THE GHOST IN DAYLIGHT’ (WARP)
Nick Talbot’s finest album to date. Why he isn’t a national treasure and counting his Mercurys we’ll never know.
MELODY’S ECHO CHAMBER ‘MELODY’S ECHO CHAMBER’ (WEIRD WORLD)
The Tame Impala album was B-O-R-I-N-G, but this Kevin Parker-produced beauty was like a Gallic Broadcast.
TY SEGALL ‘TWINS’ (DRAG CITY)
Ty’s third album of the year sounded like The MC5 covered by The Beatles. Every song an instant classic.
DIIV ‘OSHIN’ (CAPTURED TRACKS)
DIIV’s debut did that neat trick of taking totally familiar influences and making them into something new and exciting.
DISAPPEARS ‘PRE LANGUAGE’ (KRANKY)
Brilliant Steve Shelley-featuring album. Like Television on steroids, or The Stooges with Neu! as their rhythm section.
LOTUS PLAZA ‘SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE’ (KRANKY)
Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt made an album as good as anything Bradford Cox has ever done. Praise indeed.
LIARS ‘WIXIW’ (MUTE)
‘Liars’ was throwaway and ‘Sisterworld’ impenetrable. This was their finest record since ‘Drum’s Not Dead’.
FRANKIE ROSE ‘INTERSTELLAR’ (MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES)
The former Vivian Girl/Dum Dum Girl/Crystal Stilt went M83-style widescreen. The results were wonderful.
LOWER DENS ‘NOOTROPICS’ (RIBBON MUSIC)
While Beach House just repeated themselves, their fellow Baltimoreans showed them how it should be done.
So, there you have it. Don’t let anyone tell you that 2012 has been a bad year for music. It hasn’t. It’s been great – and this isn’t even counting the FOUR albums that came out on Sonic Cathedral over the last 12 months. But have we missed anything? (Probably!) Don’t agree with our choices? (Almost undoubtedly!) Let us know…
Good stuf,a bit of fun and some new things to discover. Thanks.
So,now the cheeky…”wot no”… John Talabot? I know he is not Shoegaze, but his melancholic structures share the vaules of this site. As a personal reflection, it has have been a favourite of mine for this year.
Surprised you missed alot of these:
Acid Mothers Temple – Son of a Bitches Brew
Asobi Seksu vs Boris (Split)
Astrobrite – All the stars will fall
Bardo Pond – Yntra
Bonnie Prince Billy – Hummingbird (ep)
Brian Jonestown Massacre – Aufheben
Chain and the Gang – In Cool Blood
Dead Can Dance – Anasthasis
Dirty Three – toward the low sun
The Evens – The Odds
Future of the left – The Plot against common sense
Go Kart Mozart – On the hot dog streets
Godspeed you Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
Guided by Voices – The Bears for Lunch/Class Clown spots a UFO
Hive Dwellers – hewn from the wilderness
Laetitia Sadier – Silencio
Lovesliescrushing – Shiny tiny stars/Glinter EP
Mono – For my parents
Off! – S/T
Redd Kross – Researching the blues
Richard Hawley – standing at the sky’s edge
Robin Guthrie – Fortune
Scott Walker – Bish Bosch
Spiritualized – Sweet heart sweet light
Swans – The Seer
it’s impossible to hear everything though – i did like the bjm album. can’t get into scott walker and thought spiritualized only had the one good song.
and sheldon, good call on john talabot. been meaning to investigate that one!
i’m sure with more time and more £££ this list would look different
Don’t forget Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, they did a shoegazey single that got in the charts