YPOIW TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2012: 10-6

With 2012 coming to a close, YPOIW would like to take the week to showcase our favorite releases of the year. Monday through Friday will be a countdown of our top 25 favorite albums of 2012, starting with spots #25-21 on Monday and continuing until the final #5-1 on Friday. This weekend, we'll also be taking a look at some albums that we feel deserve an honorable mention but didn't quite make it on our list as well as releasing our end of year podcast in which we discussed each and every album on this list. Thanks for reading, and most importantly, enjoy!

10. Loma Prieta - I.V.

Lindsay Weir, a character on the brilliant television series Freaks and Geeks, once said that "every generation is afraid of the music that comes from the next", but I don't think she was talking about screamo. Thankfully, Loma Prieta is probably not the kind of screamo you're thinking of... they stick close to the genre's abrasive roots and draw inspiration from utterly destructive bands like Orchid and Pg. 99; this is not screamo with any mainstream crossover potential. Every facet of this album's production and mixing was designed with the explicit intent of being as loud and abrasive as possible; it doesn't give a fuck to the point where clipping is a common occurrence, especially on "Trilogy VI." The reason I.V. is special is that it mixes all of this abrasion with harmonious and triumphant guitar tones and forces them to coexist. It's as if the band is telling you a disgusting story while wearing an expensive suit. There are moments on this record that I firmly believe are as beautiful as any other album this year; you just have to swim through a river of toxic sludge to get to it. I can say with near 100% certainty to anyone reading this right now: your mom hates this band and her opinion is wrong. -Kyle 

9. Burial - Kindred EP

After last year's disappointing Street Halo EP it seemed like Burial was almost going to just keep releasing the same sort of music, with one pretty great album and one absolutely amazing album under his belt, which is an achievement in itself. Then February rocked around and this was dropped on our heads. This proved that Burial was still ahead of the curve, and Street Halo was merely a place holder. In many respects this feels like the EP that should have come out last year; it shows an obvious stylistic shift in Burial's style. It's more progressive, the tracks stretch out longer, there's more influence pulled from club and dance music, and the melodies are more melancholy and beautiful than ever before. Kindred EP is a testament to the affect that wordless music. -Nick/TTK

8. Titus Andronicus - Local Business

Titus Andronicus had a very specific goal with The Monitor in that they made an expansive and ambitious concept album drawing direct inspiration from the American Civil War. Their 2012 release Local Business does not have any of those goals; in fact, it's as different as any follow-up to a beloved album has been this year. On first listen, I was not sure if there had been a more jarring album this year. It's less concerned with having immense structures and more concerned with getting down. So now I have the difficult task of trying to explain why you should care about a punk band that made a party rock album.

First off, what are you, a square man? Why do you hate fun so much? Do you know another album that has an eight-minute song about an eating disorder with a hair metal solo? Do you know of another punk album with a bunch of dudes trying to mimic a sassy Motown-inspired all girl chorus? If this doesn't sound like your thing, you might want to check to see if you have a pulse. There's a lot more to this album beyond this goofy aesthetic, but I don't care to explain it because I'm having too much fun even thinking about it. Not every album ever put out by every great band has had the explicit goal of being the best album of that year; Local Business is Titus Andronicus settling down a little bit... and that's okay. -Kyle

7. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor is the post-rock band that all of your post-rock, ambient rock hating friends love, and for good reason. They mix the mystery of conspiracy theorists in the underground music world, the politics of anarchic punk rock, and the immediacy of the best alternative rock. Godspeed invigorates the listener with the sort of simultaneous paranoia and hope that most hack post-rock bands attempt[1].

Where this Godspeed’s album shines is twofold: in its release and in its musicality. The release came as a shock to the music industry. The band released vinyl copies of their record to be sold at their concerts. Fans of the band were surprised, posted some pictures on twitter, and there was a simultaneous “WHAAAA?” by thousands of music fans. No one knew that the album was coming out, which is not heard of in today’s 24/7 news cycle. Godspeed managed to release an actually mysterious record—at least for the 24 hours where no one really knew what was going on.

The lasting mystery—not the immediate release strategy mystery—is in the music. Two 20-minute tracks that build into amazing climaxes and two ambient tracks that are a shy under 10 minutes lead to what is actually their shortest record to date. This “brief” excursion into Godspeed’s world is actually their most uplifting. “Mladic” and “We Drift Like Worried Fire” warrant their track lengths, because when those songs hit their stride, the listener is left with their jaw on the ground and their heart racing. These tracks are alive, and the record is a part of a conversation of its own. -TJ

[1] There are plenty of great, awesome post-rock bands, but you know the ambient trash I’m referencing. You know.

6. Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory

Perhaps no other band went through as extreme a transformation this year as Cloud Nothings did. They went into their cocoon as a sweet little indie pop solo project and came out a ravenous, post-hardcore behemoth, which is likely due in large part to working with Steve Albini to produce Attack On Memory.

The album starts off with “No Future/No Past,” a song which evolves from some dark piano into an all out explosion of angst as showcased by frontman Dylan Baldi’s anguished vocals. Attack On Memory hits its high point with the track “Wasted Days,” a nine-minute epic with a tension-filled midsection that builds into Baldi screaming the lyrics “I thought I would be more than this,” something we've all probably felt at some point in our lives.

From this point onward, Attack On Memory takes a decidedly more poppy turn with tracks like “Fall In” and “Stay Useless,” but still maintains some of the edge that was on the first two tracks. I really want to label these tracks as pop punk even though that name already belongs to a genre for 14-year-old girls rebelling against their parents. Attack On Memory is almost a perfect blend of dark and catchy, which are two of the characteristics I enjoy most in music. To make things more exciting, Baldi is only 20 years old, so we’re going to get a ton more music from him in the years to come. -Mark

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YPOIW LIST: Top 10 Albums of 2012 (so far)

The year's about half-over (cut us some slack, we're writers not mathematicians), so we'd like to take this opportunity to highlight ten of our favorite albums of 2012 up to this point in time. Our purpose is not to rank or review, but to recommend for your listening pleasures. Let's dive in, shall we?

BADBADNOTGOOD - BBNG2

Ignoring the lack of a Zelda medley, I find BBNG2 to be in every way an improvement over the already excellent debut from BADBADNOTGOOD. Their fusion of jazz and hip hop is further complimented by more experimentation, guest instrumentalists, and the increasing strength of their songwriting and musicianship. Seriously, my favorite tracks on this album are the original compositions like "CHSTR" and "Rotten Decay," but their interpretations of Odd Future beats and other popular fare are still present and still excellent. Even if you know nothing of jazz, this album is an enjoyable and accessible collection of songs that might just pique your interest in the genre. -Steve

Burial - Kindred EP

Is there any other artist who is pushing the sound of dubstep as much as Burial? I may have only liked Untrue in an appreciative sense, but I love nearly everything about Kindred, which is both steeped in the quintessentially spooky Burial sound, yet also a step in a new direction for the project. Kindred exhibits a new focus on melody and song progression, effortlessly turning the minimally atmospheric nature of his older material into 10+ minute tracks that would work on a dance floor. Granted, it would have to be a dancefloor filled with dust, cobwebs, and dead memories, but it's a fun new direction for Burial that I look forward to following. -Steve

Death Grips - The Money Store

To call the music loud is an understatement in the world of Death Grips, the Sacramento experimental hip hop trio that began turning heads last year with a mixtape that ended up being YPOIW's second favorite album of 2011. The album's aggression should not be confused with mindlessness, however, because within the maximalistic beats, disturbing lyricism, and frontman Stefan Burnett's highly extreme vocal delivery, Death Grips pack a sense of purpose. The group certainly has a statement to make, and with the harsh and uncensored nature of their music, they make it clear that they don't intend to beat around the bush. -Danny

El-P - Cancer 4 Cure

What can Jaime Meline do to innovate hip-hop more than he already has? It looks like he's still finding boundaries and buttons to push on Cancer 4 Cure. This late into an emcee's career, it's not uncommon to find him/her constantly putting out the same mediocre music and struggling for relevancy. This is not so with Meline. That he's released only 3 studio albums in 10 years proves that, for him, quality tramples over quantity. C4C is an album that may confuse and possibly disturb listeners with it's grisly lyrical content; it paints a dark picture of the world around us, a surrounding that can corrupt even the finest of us. But as El chants that he will not hail to this world, we can only hope that he continues to rebel also against the conventions of hip-hop and effectively soar over them. -Robby

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

This is an album fueled by alcohol-soaked youth anthems, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Throughout the entirety of Celebration Rock, Brian King and David Prowse offer up an unrelenting attack of rock. With tons of simple gang vocals like "Oh yeah! Alright!" and even more uses of the word "Oh!" these songs are catchy as hell and will probably stick in your mind like they have in mine. I'm sure Celebration Rock will be the soundtrack to the summer for many people, as I know it will be for me. -Mark

Julia Holter - Ekstasis

Can an album inhabit two worlds simultaneously? Can it be elusive experimental music and accessible indie pop? Can it be beautiful and frightening? Can it be the elements air and earth? Julia Holter proves that it is not only possible to be two opposites, but the state can also be a mastered art form. Wonderful (and not terrible) songs like “Marienbad” and “Goddess Eyes I and II” are Holter’s method of achieving ekstasis (the title of the album) and watching herself via out of body experience. Listening to these well-developed yet ethereal songs is like looking at yourself in the mirror and not recognizing what you see. It is a wonderful feeling of discovery that creates the ecstasy Holter tries to achieve. She succeeds. -TJ

of Montreal - Paralytic Stalks

While there certainly isn't a shortage of tortured artists on this planet, so many of them lack the deranged imagination of of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes. Having killed off his alter ego Georgie Fruit, the middle aged African American transgender he assumed the role of for his most recent efforts, Paralytic Stalks viscerally expresses the devastation of having a part of one's being die and the psychic anguish that brings. Through an awesome array of Beatlesque pop, Floydian bombast, avant-garde classical composition, and aggressively sequenced beats, Barnes has constructed a modern masterpiece that challenges as much as it invites. -Alex

PS I Love You - Death Dreams

Death Dreams isn't an easy album to love; it's a little less frenetic and fast than their debut album Meet Me at the Muster Station, but it makes up for this with a wall of noise and muddiness that bleeds together with Paul Saulnier's often completely indecipherable vocals. Stylistically, the big change on this album is that the songs frequently surpass four and five-minute barriers. On "Red Quarter," a 90-second guitar solo is tacked onto the end of the song, and Paul says more with his guitar than he ever could hope to with his voice. As an album filled with dark themes and an even darker sound, the band calling it their Pinkerton in a recent interview with Exclaim.ca really isn't that far off, and the middling reaction to this album further cements that comparison. Maybe in five years Death Dreams will be considered an under-appreciated classic as well. -Kyle

Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Sometimes albums can leave lasting impact past their notes and sounds. With Sweet Heart Sweet Light, the world has such an album. The power of this record resonates, as shown in the way it begins and ends. “Hey Jane” provides the listener with instant catharsis for incredible pain while “So Long You Pretty Thing” paints a bittersweet picture of the phrase “good bye.” The melodies are powerful, the intense noise-rock sounds are powerful, the guitar solos are powerful, the repetition is powerful, but J. Spaceman sings with a lethargic drawl, tired, but no less full of life after all this time he’s endured the pains of cancer and crisis. The listener leaves Sweet Heart Sweet Light feeling much the same, which says a lot of the way Spiritualized relates human experience to us. This album is beautiful as it is important to rock n roll. -TJ

Zammuto - Zammuto

Much like his previous work with The Books, Nick Zammuto is master at creating records which are unable to be classified as one single genre, let alone any genre at all. On the debut record of his new project Zammuto, he doesn't take The Books sound and evolve it; he starts fresh and creates something entirely original and different. Tracks like "F U C-3PO" and "Weird Ceiling" are catchy like pop tunes, but have rhythms more akin to math rock and layers of sound more like avant garde noise music. Just when you thought the boundaries couldn't be pushed any further, Zammuto gives you something different to chew on. -Nick

We hope you hear something you like. What are your favorites albums of the year so far? Anything we've missed? Let us know in the comments!

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TRACK: Burial & Four Tet - Nova

With the release of his stunning Kindred EP, elusive electronic producer William Bevan, a.k.a. Burial, had already started off the year strong. Fortunately, Bevan chose not to stop there. Enter Kieran Hebden, perhaps best known as Four Tet, a comparably significant electronic musician with whom Burial has collaborated in the past, first on the Moth / Wolf Cub EP in 2009, then on the "Ego" / "Mirror" split with Thom Yorke in 2011. The two have teamed up once again, this time for a track entitled "Nova". You can hear it below via Four Tet's SoundCloud, and judging by a tweet from Hebden himself, a release on his Text Records imprint is to be expected as well.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Burial - Kindred EP

By Steve Jones.

At this point, I don't think I need to tell many people that Burial's new EP is really good and it would behoove any person's music listening habits to hear it.  If you want a recommendation, there it is.

What interests me about Kindred is the question of why I like it so much.  I'm sure this is slightly blasphemous to admit in a Burial review, but I'm not a raving fan of Untrue.  I like it, and I can appreciate it on a detached, impersonal level, but it's never been an album I've ever found myself just dying to hear again.  Its atmosphere is wonderfully bleak, but it is a rare thing when atmosphere alone makes me love an album.  At heart, I'm just a pop harlot looking for a catchy melody with intricate arrangements that I can shake my ass to.

However, that's a large part of why I loved Burial's collaboration last year with Thom Yorke and Four Tet, which gave us the "Ego / Mirror" split.  First of all, Thom Yorke's voice can be placed over anything, and I am pretty much guaranteed to enjoy it.  But Four Tet's contribution was equally important and seemed to ground Burial a bit..  The tracks were still heavily atmospheric, but the composition was less ethereal, more immediate, and more engaging to my ears.

Burial may be all by his lonesome again on Kindred, but he has continued this forward motion into the realm of electronic music I most enjoy: the realm of dangerous, complex, and ever-evolving 10+ minute sonic adventures.  The identifiably ghostly "Burial sound" is still here, but now it is composed around stronger melodies and song progression.  Of course, there had better be some good song structures and upheavals of those structures when you have a 3-song EP with two tracks pushing 12 minutes, and Kindred does not disappoint.  Its songs don't pack in as many ideas as, say, a Max Tundra song, but Burial is certainly pushing his boundaries with a track like "Ashtray Wasp," and it's exciting to hear.

(Side note: pretty much this entire EP reminds me of the soundtrack for the Metroid Prime series.  I'm not implying any kind of connection between the two (aside from both competently simulating the feeling of being lost and alone on a harsh and strange alien planet), but that is where my mind has been going.)

Despite my lukewarmness towards Burial's past work, I have always admired his ability to make his electronic music sound so organic.  Even though his compositional choices often evoke images which are dark, lonely and cold, he retains this warmth of sound which always takes my ears back to the early days of popular electronic music, when it was just a bunch of weird people experimenting with Moogs.  It is quite masterful how vinyl crackling, thin percussion, distantly warped voices, piano, street samples, spooky synths, and many more sounds are pieced together throughout the EP.

I think my favorite parts of Kindred are the rapidly descending synth patterns which are found in "Loner" and "Ashtray Wasp."  They exude a sense of urgency and brightness which sounds completely out of place surrounded by every other sound in the mix, but that is precisely what makes them stand out.  I would never have expected to hear them in any of Burial's previous work, and that's why I love them.

In fact, it is safe to say I am in love with the Kindred EP as a whole.  It is the sign of an artist who is progressing his sound without forgetting his sound, and that is one of the best things an artist can do, especially one such as Burial, who has such a distinctive style and voice.  This move towards more experimental, more melodic, and even more danceable forms of music might disappoint some fans mired in the Untrue sound.  For somebody like me, however, Kindred is an exciting introduction to an incarnation of Burial I look forward to following down whatever dark alley of music he chooses to explore next.

Score: Decent 8

(Steve Jones' personal opinion on Untrue is likely very wrong. Feel free to scold him about it on Twitter.)

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STREAM: Burial - Kindred EP

It always feels like a big event when influential future garage producer Burial, or William Bevan, releases new material. This is partly because his past work, especially 2007's Untrue, holds so much weight in the electronic music community, and partly because after the release of that particular breakthrough record, the frequency at which Bevan put out music became much more sporadic. Fortunately for Burial fans, the producer is releasing an EP via Hyperdub entitled Kindred EP. Don't be fooled by the small number of tracks; the EP's bookends are two tracks that surpass the eleven-minute mark, and even the shortest song spans over seven minutes, which totals up to just over 30 minutes. You can stream the EP over at Hyperdub's website, where MP3 and WAV downloads are also available to purchase.

Track List:

1. Kindred
2. Loner
3. Ashtray Wasp

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