2012 was a very good year for music. Sometimes it’s difficult to come up with enough albums for my year end list, this year the problem was narrowing down my choices. Click on the album titles to read the full reviews, purchase the albums, and, in some cases, watch videos and/or download mp3s. Then comment with your favorite albums of the year.
“…This brilliant collection of songs beautifully marries modern indie-pop with retro rockabilly and soul. The sound is Sun Records meets Raising Sand.“
24. 
Dala: Best Day
“…Dala’s penchant for peppy country-pop harmonies and melodic folk-pop melodies fall somewhere between Lady Antebellum and Sylvie Lewis…sweet vocals, tinkling piano and buoyant strings…a pop culture cornucopia with references to everything from Shakespeare to Annie Hall“
23. 
Sylvie Lewis: It’s All True
“…Sylvie’s elegant voice and delicate melodies elevate even the most simple of tunes to a higher level…a jaunty fable of star-crossed love with just the softest, lightest hint of jazz“
22. 
Eric McGrath: Little Ripples
“…I expect Eric McGrath won’t be Ireland’s best kept secret for long…McGrath’s intimate singing style and breezy, multi-instrumental compositions often fall somewhere between Bright Eyes and Xavier Rudd, which is an extremely interesting and unique place to be. But even such grand comparisons are tenuous, because Eric McGrath is definitely blazing a creative trail of his own.“
21. 
Julie Lee & The Baby-Daddies
“…this gorgeous, classic folk song cycle sounds like it was recorded decades ago…the entire album is lovely and sure to be on my best of the year list.“
20. 
Bat For Lashes: The Haunted Man
“…atmospheric electronics and somber melodies…brimming with all the emotions of a lifetime of regret and a heart full of love…a very pretty and innovative collection.“
19. 
Regina Spektor: What We Saw From The Cheap Seats
“…Most of it is sheer, breathtaking brilliance…truly exquisite ballads…the spectacular far, far outweighs the bad“
18. 
The Gaslight Anthem: Handwritten
“…Many bands have tried and failed to capture The Boss’ throne, but The Gaslight Anthem have successfully proven themselves to be the true heirs of Bruce Springsteen.“
“…Xavier is one of my all-time favorite artists and his music never fails to amaze, uplift and thoroughly entertain me…Xavier wrote, sang and played every instrument (of which there are many) on this spectacular new collection.“
“…Not only does The 2nd Law continue that grandiose marriage of arena rock and classical music, but its futuristic electronic twist allows the album to stand completely on its alone. Definitely one for the year end list…weaving thunderous rock, classical song structure and instrumentation with operatic backing vocals into a glorious, cross-genre cacophony.“
15. 
Jonathan & Charlotte: Together
“…the teenage opera duo were this year’s Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent…Talent like Jonathan & Charlotte’s and an album like this doesn’t come along often, so I hope they have a long, successful career ahead of them.“
14. 
Leif Ove Andsnes: The Beethoven Journey: Piano Concertos No 1 & 3
“…a very splendid and beautiful collection…elegantly serene…Andsnes and the other musicians do a superb job in their individual performances of each work. Even more noteworthy is their musical coalescescence.“
13. 
Garbage: Not Your Kind of People
“…grandiose, rocked up electro-pop drama fronted by a wailing red-haired banshee. Their new album successfully captures and modernizes their snarling past glory.“
12. 
Cat Power: Sun
“…shockingly upbeat sound…Cat Power is still as sultry and mysterious as she always was, but the music is very much uptempo…There’s just something so unique about Cat Power’s voice, lyrics and song structure. That unusual quality makes what could be, should be pop songs something entirely different. It’s unpop.“
Cat Power: Ruin (mp3)*
11. 
Amanda Palmer: Theater Is Evil
“…The album explores pop, New Wave and synth rock in a way that is quite a departure from Palmer’s old punk cabaret band The Dresden Dolls, but it often has the same twisted wit, high energy and frenetic pace…the bombastic Theatre Is Evil is the best argument for fan-funded albums“
Amanda Palmer – Do It With a Rockstar (mp3)*
Amanda Palmer – The Killing Type (mp3)*
Amanda Palmer – Want it Back (mp3)*
Amanda Palmer – Trout Heart Replica (mp3)*
“…Have I mentioned I love The Mynabirds? The thumping, catchy, claphappy, fiercely femme indie sound of their new sophomore album, Generals, is somewhere between Lykke Li and Bats for Lashes. Thus the love…the album is deliciously rife with the band’s signature blend of synth-pop, rock, wails, hand claps and stomps.“
The Mynabirds – Body of Work (mp3)*
“…a tribute to The Mamas & Papas and The Beach Boys…their harmonies are as lovely as ever and very reminiscent of the two bands who spawned them…a sunny, summery, very catchy and surprisingly well orchestrated collection of classic pop covers.“
8. 
Khatia Buniatishvili: Chopin
“…Khatia Buniatishvili’s Chopin is not only my favorite of the Chopin albums released this year, it’s my favorite classical release of 2012…Her nimble fingers are a perfect fit for the classical piano master’s compositions and her selection from his work is superbly diverse. Buniatishvili’s Chopin is an absolutely exquisite collection.“
7. 
Escort
“…Escort is a seventeen-member “disco orchestra”…definitely one of the more unusual and delightful acts I’ve heard…I can’t imagine a more fun and catchy album being released next year.“
Escort – Makeover (mp3)*
6. 
JD McPherson: Signs & Signifiers
“…Where did this guy come from?…McPherson’s music is a delicious mix of brassed up retro soul and rumbling vintage blues-rock. It’s been a very long time since I was struck by such an intense sense of awe while listening to an album…sound like classics by Little Richard, Jackie Wilson or The Big Bopper with a bit of Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Sun Studios-era Elvis thrown in.“
5. 
Goodnight Texas: A Long Life of Living
“…who is this band and how can anyone make an entire album of music this good? Song after song, I would think I’d heard the best of the album only to be even more amazed by the next track. This is music for any band to aspire to and for any music fan to get very excited about.“
4. 
Norah Jones: …Little Broken Hearts
“…Norah has finally found a dark, dreamy sound interesting enough to successfully break away from those old coffeehouse categories without losing the mellow charm that made her famous. Produced by Danger Mouse, …Little Broken Hearts spices up pretty post-breakup pop anthems with luscious splashes of noirish electro-rock.“
3. 
Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel…
“…Fiona Apple’s first album in seven years, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, weaves the fierce emotion, poetic lyrics and masterfully constructed compositions of her previous releases with a much more rugged recording style and strong splashes of jazz. The collection is somewhat unexpected and strange, but it’s also exquisitely beautiful and brilliant.“
2. 
The Vespers: The Fourth Wall
“…The songs on The Fourth Wall break the barrier between folk and pop and also genre-hop through blues, gospel and rock…all wrapped up in dulcet harmonies and strikingly beautiful instrumentation.“
1. 
Anais Mitchell: Young Man in America
“…Anaïs Mitchell is like a modern day Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan. Her epic lyrical narratives echo Guthrie’s masterful talent for blending the literary with the ordinary, while her fierce and unique vocal phrasing as well as her intricately multi-layered arrangements take Dylanesque to a whole new realm….Young Man in America is both an ambitious recording project and a beautifully rich tapestry of classic folk songwriting. Anaïs Mitchell just may be my generation’s most talented singer-songwriter.“
*all mp3s, streams & videos uploaded by & posted w/ permission of artists, labels and/or their PR reps
, been released this year, it would also be on this list. Set in WW1-era Appalachia, The Cove tells of a lonely, outcast girl who falls in love with a mysterious, mute stranger who carries a secret of his own.
(only $4.99!)
, but I think the best role of his career was in Richard Linklater’s claustrophobic 2001 film Tape. The film co-starred Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman as high school friends who have a bitter reunion with Leonard’s character in a motel room. The acting was so authentically tense and uncomfortable that I don’t think I’d rewatch the film. But it is unquestionably brilliant.
“stars Six Feet Under’s Lauren Ambrose as Grad student Heather Wolfe, who is writing her thesis on Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella), the reclusive novelist whom she adores.“
. It’s a surreal fantasy and thriller about the misadventures and romances of an egotistical rich brat played by Tom Cruise.
. The film made a star of Tenacious D’s Jack Black, but what I loved most about it was the authentic portrayal of a couple trying to decide if love is enough to keep them together when it seems they want different things from life. And of course I love the way music is woven throughout the story, the Top 5 lists, and the protagonist’s comical encounters with ex-girlfriends.
is even better than the original. Not only do we finally find out if star-crossed lovers Celine and Jesse were ever reunited, but the film is lovely and intelligent in its own right. It’s beautifully directed and brilliantly acted by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, whose characters have much more substance and scars than when we first met them nine years before.
and Nick Hornby’s 
– were released in the mid-1990s. Oh well. With one exception, I only included books that were newly released in this decade…
, but that’s not a show I could ever watch again. But in the end, there was just something about the short-lived sci-fi series starring Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Summer Glau that captured my little tv-addicted heart. Though it has a devoted fanbase and even got its own 
, it sadly never received the attention that Whedon’s other shows did.
that spawned the show, and there was just something about the tv characters Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Xander, and especially Allison Hannigan as Willow that made me keep watching. Then the game-changing, darker finale of that season suddenly made people take notice. By the time beloved vamps Spike and Dru joined the show in the second season, the show was no longer considered a joke. Seven seasons later, the show had a huge cult following, a spinoff, and there was talk of another movie. Creator Joss Whedon created completely relatable high school characters though he placed them in a nightmarish world. Though I watched from beginning to end, I lost interest in the final two seasons as the Buffy character lost her strength and humor, and far too many new characters were added. And I don’t know that I would love the show as much a decade later, but at the time, at the age that I was, I thought it was brilliant and I loved it even during its weakest moments.
