- 10 -
"There's No Leaving Now"
The Tallest Man on Earth
An emotional revelation. The man of unrivalled height, in a similar manner to Bon Iver last year, delivers an entirely more open, more beautiful sophomore record. Whilst Tallest Man's debut was all lonely guitars and bluesy tunes, There's No... is awash with tinkling guitars, soaring vocal melodies, sombre pianos, and the whole thing has a glorious optimism to it. The Man's voice aches with hope, seasoned with coming to peace with past regret. An escapist record, for sitting by lakes in summer.
- 9 -
"Nocturne"
Wild Nothing
Another more melodic sophomore effort, after the distant indiepop of Wild Nothing's debut, their second takes influence from more balearic peers such as Delorean and Friendly Fires. Marimbas pop up on "Counting Days", guitars soar like U2 on "Nocturne" and the magnificent "Paradise" lights up with its fuzzy coat of warm pads. A much poppier record song-wise too, turns out The Nothing have a knack for gorgeous 90s indie hooks.
- 8 -
"The Slideshow Effect"
Memoryhouse
Blissfully melancholic, Memoryhouse's Slideshow... makes it a hat trick of great second records this year. Singer Denise Nouvion's deep, warm voice finds a comfortable space amongst the shoegazer guitars and lullaby melodies. Every song is a daydream, and every lyric an ideal, the record is simple and perfectly formed. "This life could be graced with symmetry..." Nouvion ponders on "Walk With Me", and that's exactly what has graced this album. Everything fits.
- 7 -
"Born To Die"
Lana Del Rey
Actually improved upon by the later Paradise EP, Lana Del Rey's debut is still, although an acquired taste for some/many, a perfect introduction to a new pop persona. The combination of classic 60s and 70s glamour, sombre balladry with hip hop undertones. The beats are always slow and heavy, the strings always mournful, and Lana's voice, though far from incredible technically, cracks with hollywood tragedy one moment, and is delirious and suggestive the next. It's a slog for people who are on the fence about her, but for those that have become addicted, it's impossible to not be drawn in from start to finish.
- 6 -
"Trouble"
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
In an era for dance music where producers live single to single, a full length album packed with potentials is masterful. TEED's 80s electro is quirky, creative and more-ish, "Household Goods" shudders under the weight of its tidal wave synth, the "feet don't fail me now" sample on "Tapes and Money" is the most epic call to the dancefloor this year, and "Your Love" is unadulterated diva house joy . And those are just the existing singles, but TEED could happily milk the album dry for the next year without his nerd-rave house getting old.
- 5 -
"Bloom"
Beach House
There's no suggesting that Bloom is anything spectacularly different to Beach House's last record, the wonderful Teen Dream, but the feat of matching that record in quality alone gets the band's fourth record to number 5 on this list. It's not an identical record by any means however. Whilst only the euphoric "Norway" really lifted your feet off the ground on Teen Dream, the rest of the album content to take gorgeous strolls in the park, the opening three tracks on Bloom all suggest that slowly but surely, Beach House are becoming confident in their ability to write songs that fill larger spaces then their own subconscious. Listen to the opening arpeggios of "Wild", for example, a track so glorious that the only fair place for it to be heard is a stadium.
- 4 -
"Visions"
Grimes
Not Grimes' debut, but her breakthrough record Visions, so fresh, unusual and intriguing in its fusion of electropop and industrial ambience, feels very much like a debut. Grimes' twisted-singsong vocals and harsh, raw beats bring to mind Crystal Castles, but unlike said band, her music is endearing and beautiful, as opposed to nihilistic and icy. Both brilliant acts working in a deeply uncommercial, rarely touched sound space, but Grimes' record is less like a nightmare and more like a daydream, one that the listener joins her on for the duration.
- 3 -
"Kill For Love"
Chromatics
After their work on the excellent, retro Drive soundtrack, Kill For Love maintains that combination of silky indie, new wave and electropop with dark undertones. Yet what is most beautiful about Kill For Love is the overwhelming sense of sadness and regret that overshadows every track. From lengthy electroacoustic odes to loneliness like "Running From The Sun" and "These Streets..." to the synth-drenched new wave of the gorgeous title track, the record spans many sounds and moods, but there is never a moment when it fails to leave the bittersweet aftertaste of melancholy.
- 2 -
"Devotion"
Jessie Ware
Jessie Ware's debut album marks the ascendancy of the feature singer to full blown artist. The sweetheart of Brixton has a voice that is as authentically soul as it is credibly pop, and the music is also an incredibly effective crossover. Devotion has it's more electronic moments, "110%" and "Sweet Talk", it's more traditionally balladic moments, "Wildest Moments" and "Taking In Water", and flecks of old school hip hop also creep in, "Still Love Me" and "No To Love". But any song that Jessie sings, she makes her own. In an industry of singers defined by the music behind them, Jessie Ware can only be defined as the best voice of 2012.
- 1 -
"One Second of Love"
Nite Jewel
Relatively underground Canadian singer Nite Jewel's debut was destined to take her nowhere. A difficult, unfriendly album of shoegaze synthpop, with vocals so distorted and distant that a melody was lucky to be picked out of the fuzzy mess. And I'm sure this was her intention. However One Second of Love shows, and in magnificent style, her true potential.
Still a synthpop artist in many ways, it is crude to use this term to describe the pallet of sounds on display here. The Robyn-on-a-downer electropop of the title track, the gorgeous new age sweep of "In The Dark", the aching melancholica-electronica of "No I Don't" right to the peaceful, soothing ambience of "Clive", each song shows a different facet of her persona.
I would compare it, bizarrely enough, to Radiohead's Kid A. It is a succinct record, but one that picks it's ideas very carefully. And it's flaws (maybe the metaphor of "Autograph" is a tad clumsy, or the introductory drop into "This Story" is a tad abrupt) all add to the character and shape of OSoL. It's an odd record, a subtle one, and for me, a genius one, one that did more for me than any other this year.
