Albums of the Year 2012

Its been a while since I've bothered to post anything. That's because I've had a bit of a fallow period photography wise and I've been preoccupied with other stuff. So, to ease myself back into it, I thought that I'd post something about music.

I'd always intended to write about music and my interest in it. Unfortunately, I have no talent for it, so I'm a fan rather than a performer. But I hope that, after thirty-odd years of listening to various types of - mostly popular - music, I have a reasonably well honed ear.

To give you an idea of my tastes, I'm going to post my list of favourite albums from the year just gone. There are a couple of them for which I've written full reviews and I'll post those over the coming days. And at some point I'll get back to posting about photography.

So, here's my list. I've provided links to the stuff that's (legally) free to download. Of the two here, the Plaistow album is a cracker which I would have been happy to pay good money for. I have netlabelism.com to thank for guiding me through the plethora of free-to-download music that's out there. In particular, I've downloaded a lot of music from Bunkai Kei records which is a bonkers Japanese netlabel, whose stuff is fun, but never going to light up the world.

But more of that in another post. For now, here are "Dave's Faves". Enjoy. 

Best Remix Album

Battles - "Dross Glop"; 

Joseph Nothing Orchestra -  "Super Earth Remixes";

Best Piano Jazz Album

The Bad Plus - "Made Possible";

EST - "301"; 

Tord Gustavson Quartet - "The Well";

Phronesis - "Walking Dark"; 

Plaistow - "Lacrimosa"; 

Best Post Rock Album

Efterklang - "Piramida"; 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - "Don't Bend, Ascend"; 

Sigur Ros - "Valtari";

Best Singer Songwriter Album

Mark Eitzel - "Don’t Be a Stranger"; 

Sun Kil Moon - "Among The Leaves"; 

Susanna - "Wild Dog";

Best Doomy Gothic Album

Dead Belgian - "Love & Death"; 

Dead Can Dance - "Anastasis"; 

Tindersticks - "The Something Rain";

Best Electronica Album

Monolake - "Ghosts"; 

Moritz Von Oswald Trio - "Fetch";

Best Pop Album

Saint Etienne - "Words & Music";

Best Reissue

My Bloody Valentine - "EPs 1988 – 1991".