I Shit Music

20) Grimes – Visions
                I gotta admit, it took me a hot minute to board the Claire Boucher train, but I’ve come to love this album. Cute and sinister haven’t coexisted this well together since The Christmas Critters episode of South Park. This was one of my go-to late night driving albums this year.

19) The Walkmen – Heaven
                The most underrated band on the planet makes their most poignant album of all time with Heaven. This is the kind of shit modern rock aficionados dream of, and the title track is easily my favorite song of the year.

18) Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill
                Ten minutes into the half-hour opening cut off Pill, you say to yourself – “Holy shit, this is some of the greatest rocking Neil Young I’ve ever fucking heard.” This album is both a blessing and a testament to the fact that you can make relevant and amazing rock music well past it’s time to start collecting your social security benefits.

17) The XX – Coexist
                Things get a little bit more of a back-beat on The XX’s follow-up to their 2009 debut, but luckily sound just as spooky and drift-worthy. Being sad and British hasn’t seemed this appealing since The Cure first hit the scene.

16) Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light
                When J. Spaceman is on, the results can be truly breathtaking, and this latest record is just as epic as the hugest works from his past. If you want massive soul-rock, then this is about as big as it gets – their live gig in Portland this year was possibly my favorite show of 2012.

15) Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
                After a decade of silence, I never thought we’d hear again from the deepest band on the planet. Allelujah continues their legacy of making huuuuge, epic, half-drone tunes that no other band would ever have the audacity or balls to attempt. This is probably the greatest and most unexpected reunion of the past 5 years.

14) Grizzly Bear – Shields
                Finally these guys put out an album that wasn’t made to put preschoolers to sleep. If they hadn’t obnoxiously complained about not being nominated for a Grammy, I’d be totally excited for whatever was coming next, but now I feel like this will go down as their finest work. There’s no doubt that it’s the most brilliant indie-rock of the year.

13) Tame Impala – Lonerism
                Thank God these Australians realized that dream-pop still had somewhere to grow and evolve to. Psychedelic floating over great melodies and fantastic lyrics – shit can’t be beat. If these guys keep their progression up, they could be one of the greatest bands on the planet in a couple more years.

12) Dan Deacon – America
                I think the “U.S.A. Suite” on this record could be the line in the sand between folks who love music and folks who just love redundant pop. More so than ever, each track on Deacon’s latest is an honest-to-goodness journey through the literal wirings of modern sound’s potential. Dude’s my hero.

11) Jack White – Blunderbuss
                This is the album Mr. White has been hoping to make for 15 years. This is the sound he envisioned for The White Stripes before embracing the fact that his ex-wife had absolutely no drumming skill whatsoever. This is the most influential artist of the past decade at the top of his game. Rock and roll survival music.

The palest man in rock and roll continues the argument for the possibility of him being the most important musician of the 21st century thus far. 2007′s final White Stripes album may have shown his only signs of not living up to his reputation, and that’s most likely why he stopped the band. Blunderbuss is hot fire. Read the full review HERE at State of Mind.

So if you’re waiting for a White Stripes reunion before you give Jack White the time of day again, then welcome to eternity. As much as we all love the quirky nature that Meg brought to the band, thank God that she’s not around for this album. Or praise Satan, or whatever it is Jack does. Regardless, it’s about time the man got a chance to flesh out his tunes with an actual drummer. There’s no doubt that all of these songs would have composed the next Stripes album had there ever been one, and there was never any doubt that he could make it on his own, but there’s still something wholeheartedly refreshing to hear these tunes fleshed out in epic fruition…

Okey dokey – got a few listens through on some uber-anticipated upcoming releases. These are both gonna be must-grabs.

 My Morning Jacket – Circuital – Release Date: May 31^st

            So I gotta say, I found 2008’s Evil Urges to be somewhat of a letdown for what I was expecting out of the Kentucky boys. Shit seemed too forced, too rushed, and felt like they were taking themselves way too fucking serious. In the pantheon of MMJ tunes, most of those are gonna fall to the wayside over the years. And sure, Z is one of the most epic rock albums of the last 20 years, so following it up was no easy task, but Circuital feels a lot more like what I had anticipated Evil Urges to sound like. The sound is rawer and more live again, which it needs to be for this band. The one-two opener of “Victory Dance” into “Circuital” get things climbing and building in the same way that older MMJ songs used to tug at your heart, and luckily the album never really steps back after that. “Outta My System” isn’t gonna change your life, but it’ll make you feel satisfied if you dish out $9.99 for the album.

            “Holdin On To Black Metal” is just the track that this band needed to keep themselves in the game they helped procure over the last decade. An epic and intentionally childlike backup line of vocals will make this the cut everybody will be waiting to hear live this summer. The thing has room to stretch and crush. “Slow Slow Tune” is my new favorite Jacket tune. Killer washed out track with self-referential lyrics and (Gasp!) NO reverb on Jim James’ vocals! It’s fucking awesome. Big. Heart tugger. This album’s probably gonna come in at #6 on my best of 2011 list…if I were a gambling man. Check out “Black Metal” below.

 Danger Mouse & Daniel Luppi – Rome – Release Date; May 17^th

            Holy fucking crap…the Mouse is friggin’ untouchable. 5 years in the making, the story behind Rome is that Danger went and found the old musicians who used to play on all the Eastwood spaghetti-westerns back in the day. He then inserted his brain, added some Jack White, through in some Norah Jones in a finally badass role, and made the album of the year. Vegas should be taking odds at it 2-1 any day now. It sounds just like you’d imagine it to be, only way better. The whole album is kinda like taking the graveyard scene at the end of The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, and then panning over to see Danger Mouse playing a little trap kit with a dusty wind blowing around him. It’s beautiful and classy, yet resoundingly bad-ass. Nobody is crafting music the way that my guy right here is, and for that I think he’s gonna get praised hard by not only the usual hip accolades for this one, but most likely by the Grammy committee as well this year. The songs are amazing, the progression is amazing, the overall emotive vibe is phenomenal. Truly a timeless classic in a time when those words are never mentioned anymore. God, the bass is absolutely disgusting on this! Check out the opening “Theme From Rome” as well as the single, “Two Against One” – both below.