The Fine Vinyl's Finest Of 2012

The last day of the year, so time for a round-up of 2012's best albums.

I think that 2012 has been a good year in music. Some really great albums were released this year. Both albums by bands that've been around for a while, and debut full lengths by new bands. So it wasn't too hard for me to come up with a shortlist for the 10 best albums of the year. Before i knew it, i had written down about 20 albums. Some of the albums on that list that didn't end up in my Top 10 are for example, in no particular order: The Laughing Stalk by Woven Hand, People Now People by Wooden Constructions, True by Violens, Spine Hits by Sleepy Sun, Oceania by Smashing Pumpkins and Worship by A Place To Bury Strangers. All very good albums that i still enjoy giving a spin on my record player.

But which 10 albums are my personal favourites of 2012? The Fine Vinyl's Finest of 2012, so to say? Here's the vinyl countdown:

10. PIPE DREAMS by WHIRR

09. GLITTER by DEAD MELLOTRON

08. OBSERVATOR by THE RAVEONETTES

07. MAUVE by RINGO DEATHSTARR

06. MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER by MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER

05. GHOSTORY by SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS

04. COEXIST by THE XX

03. TOY by TOY

02. LONERISM by TAME IMPALA

01. OSHIN by DIIV

It was a pretty hard choice what was going to be number 1 and 2 on my list, but i made up my mind: DIIV made the best album of the year. An album that i can hear over and over, without getting bored of it. On the other hand, that counts for all other albums in this Top 10. Like said, 2012 was a great year in music :)

Bossk - .1 & .2 [12", 2LP]

This release on Garden Of Exile is actually a reissue, in that it combines two EP's (.1 and .2) that had previously been released on CD only. I've seen BOSSK live once (supporting Textures) and was pretty impressed at the time, so that's why i decided to buy this album when it came out. It's pretty good stuff. While .1 is more strictly post-metal throughout, .2 has some sludge/stoner elements. Especially the song Define has some riffs that you don't hear very often from post-metal bands. The artwork for this "compilation" album was done by Seldon Hunt, as you already might have guessed if you're only somewhat familiar with his work. Amazing how he always manages to deliver such signature photographs. They pressed 600 copies of this album: 100 on yellow/black, 200 on yellow and 300 on black. As you can see i have a yellow edition.
I thought that Bossk had split up for good some years ago, but apparently they have reformed earlier this year and are recording and playing shows again. Good news of course!

Label: Garden Of Exile Records
Cat.nr.: GOE16
Year of release: 2008

SIDE A:
01. I

SIDE B:
01. II

SIDE C:
01. Define

SIDE D:
01. Truth

Toy - Toy [12", 2LP]

One of the best albums of 2012 to my opinion, this self-titled debut album by TOY. A really cool blend of psychedelic rock, krautrock and shoegaze. It comes pretty close to what The Horrors did with their second album Primary Colours, although i like this album better. Hopefully i'll get to see them live in 2013 - that's definitely high on my wishlist.


Label: Heavenly
Cat.nr.: HVNLP94
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Colours Running Out
02. The Reasons Why
03. Dead & Gone

SIDE B:
01. Lose My Way
02. Drifting Deeper
03. Motoring

SIDE C:
01. Heart Skips A Beat
02. Strange
03. Make It Mine
04. Omni

SIDE D:
01. Walk Up To Me
02. Kopter

Tomahawk - Stone Letter [7"]

It has been a bit quiet around TOMAHAWK, the band that features Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantômas, Mr. Bungle), John Stanier (Helmet, Battles), Duane Denison (Jesus Lizard) and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle). Their last album was from 2007 so that's 5 years already. But here's a sign of life: for Black Friday 2012 they've released this one-sided 7" single of the song STONE LETTER, which will be featured on their upcoming album Oddfellows (scheduled for January 2013). Curious to hear that album, as this single is pretty darn good. Like said it's one-sided; the B-side is etched.

Label: Ipecac
Cat.nr.: IPC 141
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Stone Letter

SIDE B:
etching

Toy - Lose My Way [7"]

LOSE MY WAY is a song taken from the awesome debut album by TOY, one of the best debut albums of 2012 as far as i'm concerned. The b-side was the actual reason for me to buy this 7" as it can't be found on the album. A nice krautrock-influenced tune and definitely worth the purchase. I hope we'll be hearing more from this band soon, now that they've released such a great album.


Label: Heavenly
Cat.nr.: HVN247
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Lose My Way

SIDE B:
01. Bright Light Shimmering Sun

Chapterhouse - Whirlpool [12", LP]

WHIRLPOOL by CHAPTERHOUSE is an album that's relatively unknown, yet a true shoegaze classic. It's got the fantastic song Pearl on it (probably their biggest hit, with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive on backing vocals) plus some other great songs such as Autosleeper and Something More (both produced by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins). There are more connections to Rachel Goswell in this band: guitar player Simon Rowe teamed up with her in Mojave 3, and Rachel's (now ex-) husband Christopher Andrews formed a duo called Cuba together with Chapterhouse drummer Ashley Bates.
I found this record for a good price at the recent record fair in Utrecht. Couldn't let it stand in the crate obviously!

Label: Dedicated
Cat.nr.: DEDLP 001
Year of release: 1991

SIDE A:
01. Breather
02. Pearl
03. Autosleeper
04. Treasure

SIDE B:
01. Falling Down
02. April
03. Guilt
04. If You Want Me
05. Something More

Boris - Attention Please [12", LP]

One of the best concerts i've seen this year was BORIS' performance at the State X New Forms Festival last weekend. They really blew me away. Pictures here.
This is quite a non-typical Boris album. ATTENTION PLEASE was released in 2011 simultaneously with the album Heavy Rocks, and whereas Heavy Rocks is pretty heavy indeed (like we're used from them), this album is electronic, danceable and very quiet at times. Also it's the first album on which guitar player Wata does all the vocals. Spoon is definitely my favourite track on this album, as it sounds like a cover a long lost My Bloody Valentine song. A nice poster, lyrics sheet and download card finish it off. Great stuff.

Label: Sargent House
Cat.nr.: SH-056
Year of release: 2011

SIDE A:
01. Attention Please
02. Hope
03. Party Boy
04. See You Next Week
05. Tokyo Wonder Land

SIDE B:
01. You
02. Aileron
03. Les Paul Custom '86
04. Spoon
05. Hand In Hand

Melody's Echo Chamber - Melody's Echo Chamber [12", LP]

One of my favourite albums of this year. Melody Prochet and Kevin Parker from Tame Impala (who produced the album and played bass and drums on it) did a mighty fine job. MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER is the perfect mix of (French) seventies pop music and fuzzy retro rock of the kind that Kevin's band plays. Especially the song Crystallized could've been on Tame Impala's new Lonerism album without any problem. What's really cool is that besides a free download and a poster, the LP also includes a t-shirt transfer so you can make your own band shirt. First time i've seen that.

Label: Weird World Record Co.
Cat.nr.: WEIRD019LP
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. I Follow You
02. Crystallized
03. You Won't Be Missing That Part Of Me
04. Some Time Alone, Alone
05. Bisou Magique

SIDE B:
01. Endless Shore
02. Quand Tu Vas Rentrer?
03. Mount Hopeless
04. Snowcapped Andes Crash
05. Be Proud Of Your Kids

Sleepy Sun - Embrace [12", LP]

SLEEPY SUN's debut album EMBRACE is one of my favourite albums from 2009 (and my favourite Sleepy Sun album in general). It has a lot to do with the fact that i saw the band live at an ATP Festival that year and they were really, really good. I think White Dove is the best song on this album, with a very strong riff. Too bad that nowadays they don't have a female singer in the band, because Rachel Fannan really added something back then. Although i must say i was happily surprised when i heard this year's Spine Hits album (the first one without her), as i wrote earlier.

Label: ATP Recordings
Cat.nr.: ATPRLP33           
Year of release: 2009

SIDE A:
01. New Age
02. Lord
03. Red/Black
04. Sleepy Son

SIDE B:
01. Golden Artifact
02. White Dove
03. Snow Goddess
04. Duet With The Northern Sky

The Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania [12", 2LP]

An album that's been overlooked/ignored by many people this year is OCEANIA by THE SMASHING PUMPKINS. Be it because whatever they do these days is always compared to hit albums like Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, be it because people think that the Pumpkins aren't the Pumpkins without Iha/Chamberlin/Wretzky (as if the band's name hasn't always been a synonym for Billy Corgan, and as if the bunch of people he's gathered around him these days aren't just as talented - if not more talented), or be it because people simply didn't give it a fair chance after having tried to sit their way through the Zeitgeist album a few years earlier, and failed hopelessly doing so. I must admit, that previous album was a bit of a disappointment to me as well. This one however is certainly not!

It would be stupid if Billy would have come up with a "Siamese Dream Part 2". That's not going to happen anymore; get over it. He's nearly 20 years older than the 26 year old bloke he was when he was blowing people's brains out at summer festivals in 1993, mind you. And that's something you hear back in the music. It's more mature, if you like it or not. But it still has the magic, when you listen to songs such as Quasar and My Love Is Winter - to name but a few.

The musicians around him are good. Simple as that. Mike Byrne is an extremely talented drummer who's been playing with Billy for more than 3 years now. Nicole Fiorentino was the bass player for one of my favourite indie rock bands Veruca Salt for the past 7 years. And last but not least, Jeff Schroeder is a very talented guitar player which i heard of ever since i bought the amazingly good s/t CD by The Violet Burning in 1996. He's been playing with Billy already since 2007 so you can't really speak about the band's "new guitarist" anymore.
Funny anecdote: Jeff's been playing for years with Wayne Everett and Eric Campuzano in The Lassie Foundation, and those guys are former members of a truly great band called The Prayer Chain (and of Starflyer 59, by the way). I've seen The Prayer Chain almost every time they played in this area around '92/'93, and i know by talking to them a few times that they were massive Pumpkins fans at the time, like myself. I remember that they even had a cover of I Am One in their live set. So for some reason it never really surprised me that someone from that scene would start playing for the Pumpkins eventually. It all comes together. Now hoping for a show over here sometime soon again.


Label: Martha's Music
Cat.nr.: MM002
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Quasar
02. Panopticon
03. The Celestials
04. Violet Rays

SIDE B:
01. My Love Is Winter
02. One Diamond, One Heart
03. Pinwheels

SIDE C:
01. Oceania
02. Pale Horse
03. The Chimera

SIDE D:
01. Glissandra
02. Inkless
03. Wildflower

Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull [12", 2LP]

The way this album is packed is just fabulous. It's a sturdy hardcover book-type package, with nice artwork inside that holds two LP's. And with this album, EARTH delivers a true masterpiece. THE BEES MADE HONEY IN THE LION'S SKULL is a slow-paced instrumental double album. Nothing distorted or crazy: because of the clarity of the sound there's a serene pastoral atmosphere throughout the album. While on the other hand it's as heavy as an approaching thunderstorm. You just feel the threat of some extreme outburst being just around the corner. Love it. Great guest appearances by jazz guitar virtuoso Bill Frisell as well, by the way.
The album was pressed in three colors of which i own two. There were 3000 made of the black edition (pictured above), 1000 of the clear one (pictured below; these were for European distribution) and also 1000 on yellow/gold vinyl for mailorder only. The last song, Junkyard Priest, is a vinyl-only track.

Label: Southern Lord
Cat.nr.: SUNN90
Year of release: 2008

SIDE A:
01. Omens And Portens 1: The Driver
02. Rise To Glory

SIDE B:
01. Miami Morning Coming Down II (Shine)
02. Engine Of Ruin

SIDE C:
01. Omens And Portents II: Carrion Crow
02. Hung From The Moon                                                   

SIDE D:
01. The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
02. Junkyard Priest

Asobi Seksu / Boris - Split EP [7"]

This limited split 7" by ASOBI SEKSU and fellow-Japanese BORIS was released for Black Friday 2012. Only 1000 copies were made, and the special thing about this release is that both bands cover eachother's song. Farewell (in its original form a great shoegaze/post-metal song on the Pink album by Boris) is turned into a really nice electronic dreampop tune by Asobi Seksu. But my favourite of the two is Neu Years (originally on the Citrus album by Asobi Seksu, where it was called New Years) performed by Boris. They stay pretty close to the original; maybe that's why i like it that much, as it's one of my favourite Asobi Seksu tunes.

Label: Polyvinyl / Sargent House
Cat.nr.: PRC SH 001
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. ASOBI SEKSU - Farewell

SIDE B:
01. BORIS - Neu Years

Lush - 500 (Shake Baby Shake) [7"]

The third and final single from Lovelife (and therefore the last single LUSH ever released) is 500 (SHAKE BABY SHAKE). The song has a somewhat sixties' (Beach Boys, Byrds) vibe to it and it's my favourite of the three singles. But the B-side is even better: a cover of a song originally by The Magnetic Fields called I Have The Moon. A great song and as far as i'm concerned this alone was worth buying the whole set of three singles (this one, Single Girl and Ladykillers) at the Utrecht record fair a while ago.


Label: 4AD
Cat.nr.: AD 6009
Year of release: 1996

SIDE A:
01. 500 (Shake Baby Shake)

SIDE B:
01. I Have The Moon

Lush - Ladykillers [7"]

Like Single Girl and 500, LADYKILLERS is a coloured vinyl single in a clear pvc sleeve. It was released as the second single from the Lovelife album. The song is uptempo and very much britpop, and pretty different for that matter than LUSH in the early nineties (the Lush i love). But like already mentioned earlier when i wrote about the Single Girl single; a nice addition to my Lush collection. The B-side is a cover of The Rubinoos '70s powerpop classic I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (here changed into I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend, obviously).


Label: 4AD
Cat.nr.: AD 6002
Year of release: 1996

SIDE A:
01. Ladykillers

SIDE B:
01. I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend

Lush - Single Girl [7"]

Not really high on my wishlist were the singles taken from the Lovelife album by LUSH (this one, Ladykillers and 500). But when i came across all three of them at the record fair in Utrecht some weeks ago - all still sealed, looking great with coloured vinyl in clear pvc sleeves, and for a price that you'd normally pay for a new 7" single anyway - i couldn't resist buying them of course.
The band's sound during the final album before they disbanded after Chris Acland's tragic death, is quite different from the shoegaze they made in the early nineties. SINGLE GIRL is pure indie rock; a catchy uptempo song that was released as the first single of the album in January 1996. Another reason for me to buy these singles was the B-sides; all three have non-album tracks that i hadn't heard before. Sweetie is a nice tune but nothing really special. So no surprises here. But cool to be able to getting closer to completing my Lush collection this way.


Label: 4AD
Cat.nr.: AD 6001
Year of release: 1996

SIDE A:
01. Single Girl

SIDE B:
01. Sweetie

Lush - For Love [10"]

This is another gem i found at the Utrecht record fair a few weeks ago. The FOR LOVE EP by LUSH was one of the few i didn't have yet from their pre-Split period. It's a numbered release (my copy's #7504) and besides the title track it has 3 other tracks. Starlust appeared later on the Split album in a re-recorded version, Outdoor Miner is of course a Wire cover and Astronaut is a beautiful dreampop song.
This EP also exists as a 12" by the way, with the same tracks on it. Different cover art though.

Label: 4AD
Cat.nr.: BAD D 2001
Year of release: 1991

SIDE A
01. For Love
02. Starlust

SIDE B:
01. Outdoor Miner
02. Astronaut

Slowdive - Pygmalion [12", LP]

Only a few months ago i wrote about the original pressing on Creation of this album, and that it was the only one of the three SLOWDIVE albums that had not been reissued yet by Music On Vinyl. They did a mighty fine job with Just For A Day and Souvlaki earlier. But the time has come now: they are completing the trilogy and here we have the reissue of PYGMALION. It's an exact replica of the original edition from 1995 when it comes to the sleeve (plain grey paperboard). A small difference in detail i noticed, however: on the original, the tracklisting on the back of the sleeve simply runs from 1 to 9 without specifying the tracks per side. On this reissue the sides are specified. No idea why that was done, but it must have had a reason.
But of course the biggest difference is that these are numbered to 1000 copies (with stylish embossed golden digits at the bottom left corner of the back side) and that they're on coloured vinyl. It's white, with a slight touch of green mixed through it. Looks really nice.


Label: Music On Vinyl
Cat.nr.: MOVLP 604
Year of release: 2012

SIDE A:
01. Rutti
02. Crazy For You
03. Miranda
04. Trellisaze

SIDE B:
01. Cello
02. J's Heaven
03. Visions Of LA
04. Blue Skied An' Clear
05. All Of Us

Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart [12"]

IF I HAD A HEART is one of the best tracks of FEVER RAY's debut (and only, so far) album. The 12" features two remixes. Fuck Buttons left their signature with a lengthy neurotic remix, and on the B-side there's the laidback remix by Familjen - an alias for Johan T Karlsson who did some remixes for the likes of Kent and Lykke Li.


Label: Rabid Records
Cat.nr.: RABID038T
Year of release: 2009

SIDE A:
01. If I Had A Heart (Fuck Buttons Remix)

SIDE B:
01. If I Had A Heart (Familjen Remix)