Hello and welcome to my year-end "best of" list for, would you believe it, the fourth year in a row. This time I've gone all up-market and created a blogger/blogspot thing in an attempt to widen my audience from the 500 or so facebook friends who couldn't care less about what I have to say about anything to the circa 7 billion people on the planet with internet access who couldn't care less about what I have to say about anything. Except the music editor of the Guardian who will read this and whisk me away to a life of musical journalism and all the free CDs I can shake my neglected saxophone at. Yeah, right.
From a seemingly successful attempt to perform some iTunes wizardry it looks like I have acquired some 60 albums released in 2012 (and made some good progress against Jazzwise's "100 jazz records that shook the world" list, of course). Although this is fewer than 2011, I nevertheless conclude there remains a point to doing this. You lucky lucky people.
So what's disappointed me this year; let's see.
Disappointments
As it happens, horribly topically, I thought Lostprophets' Weapons was terrible. There aren't many records that are truly awful (99 times out of 100 it comes down to taste) but this tired, uninspired and unambitious piece of crap is one of them.
In my 27-and-a-bit years on this planet, it has become apparent to me that the phrase "sometimes you just can't win" is nothing if not an understatement. Consider the lily otherwise known as Tool's 10,000 Days. This was somewhat underwhelming, and fans' expectations for something like Lateralus Part 2 was undoubtedly a big part of this. Of course, had we actually had Lateralus Part 2 we would have thought the mighty Tool to be unoriginal and riding on past glories, among other sentiments. Perhaps I am alone in this but I tend to forgive bands for things like this in respect of the catalogue already out there. However, once I have become a card-carrying fan, then I feel like I can actually have an opinion on a new release, and express such things as disappointment or surprise (pleasant or otherwise) or whatever. (This is also the reason I can vote, so that I can complain with impunity.) Anyway, to bring myself back from the brink of digression, my point is that IMO (do I have to point this out every time?) there were a few releases this year that were indeed a bit "(insert band name here)-by-numbers" and not in an especially good way.
To whit, in particular I would like to mention Mono's For My Parents and Between the Buried and Me's The Parallax II: Future Sequence (Minus the Bear's Infinity Overhead is another example). Both are excellent albums but both follow the respective band's winning formulae to the letter. There can, obviously, still come inspiration within an established framework but if this isn't forthcoming then it's time to change things around. Take BTBAM: they have often been all about the payoff (listen to the last couple of minutes of the tracks on the Parallax I EP to see what I mean) but what they seem to have forgotten is that this payoff really needs to explode and satisfy rather than fizzle and falter. If this were early in the bands' careers than perhaps it wouldn't be such a big deal (I must say this to counteract the hypocrisy that will come later) but these box-ticking albums underwhelm me. Funnily enough, I'm tempted to say something similar about Converge, but they are saved by equal parts Coral Blue and the unfaltering bias and devotion of yours truly. Similarly, as awesome as Hiromi's Move is, it is pretty much Voice Part 2 and thus had nothing like the impact on me that Voice did last year. Hence I have left it out of my top 10.
Sigur Ros, on the other hand, tried something different (with Valtari). Alas, most of it is unlistenable.
Storm Corrosion, the collaboration between Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt and Porcupine Tree (mainly)'s Steven Wilson, falls significantly short of the sum of its parts.
My relationship with the music of jazz piano prodigy Brad Mehldau has thawed significantly in recent weeks as I delve deeper into his back catalogue, but I found his 2012 record of originals, Ode, to be thoroughly dull, even after several listens. Based on that alone, I would point to several piano trios around at the moment who are infinitely more interesting: Hiromi (obviously), Michael Wollny, Phronesis, Robert Mitchell, The Bad Plus, and Marcus Roberts, for examples. The covers album Where Do You Start is a bit better I think - there may a lesson for Mr Mehldau in that.
Special mentions
Despite not being the greatest champion of soft rock, I actually rather liked The xx's new one, Coexist. They even managed to get steel pans in there without it sounding that odd!
A lot of more-than-decent B-list hardcore (apologies for lazily lumping all the following into this bracket) out there from 2012: Whitechapel's eponymous album, While She Sleep's This is the Six, The Ghost Inside's Get What You Give, Every Time I Die's Ex Lives, The Chariot's One Wing, Spineshank's Anger Denial Acceptance (where in the blue hell did that come from?) and Parkway Drive's Atlas, to name but a few.
Returns to form from The Cinematic Orchestra (even if two of their tracks on InMotion are previously released and a large chunk of the album isn't them), John Frusciante, The Melvins, Coheed & Cambria, Joss Stone, The Pineapple Thief, and Skunk Anansie (well, more of a comeback than a return to form I suppose, but hec, it's my party).
Beautiful work from Norah Jones, The Tallest Man on Earth, Smashing Pumpkins (nothing new par se, just a well put together collection of high quality songs), Rolo Tomassi (going from strength to strength), Godspeed You Black Emperor (there should be a ! in there somewhere but I'm never sure where these days), Baroness, and Michael Wollny's [Em] (a very interesting and mostly pretty original take on the art of the piano trio).
Business-as-usual (in a good way this time) from Errors, Bob Dylan, Submotion Orchestra, Stone Sour, Ill Nino, Courtney Pine, The Cribs, and Crippled Black Phoenix (not just one album released in 2012, but two!).
I disagree with a lot of things I've read in reviews about Converge's All We Love We Leave Behind. It is not a return to form (because such a thing would be oxymoronic, possibly without the prefix), it is not stadium rock (what the hec, NME?), Aimless Arrow is not the worst song on the album (OK, it is join-the-dot Converge and sounds like they wrote it in a couple of minutes but no less astonishing - I have to remember to scream the pleading line "to live the life you want" only in my head while in public) and most crucially, Jacob Bannon (to my mind one of the greatest frontmen and vocalists (not singers) of all time) has not refound his passion. Why? Because he never lost it. AWLWLB is a fantastic album, but given its source anything less was practically unthinkable. Kerrang! were right when they said Coral Blue is beautiful, but the implication that there isn't beauty in the brutality elsewhere is way wide of the mark.
Where 2010's Diamond Eyes was no-nonsense groove-metal akin to their earlier work, Deftones' Koi No Yokan brings back the dreamy side, more in common with the widely underrated Saturday Night Wrist (only self-titled is a bad Deftones album, Hexagram aside). There is gorgeousness and gorgeousity (sic) in abundance here, not least in the majestic and soaring Tempest.
OK so the title of this post includes the words "Top 10" and all I've done is banged on and on about albums that aren't. Enough of that then, and so without further ado:
Finally, the main event
10 - The Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio
I'm being objective here, because y'know what? I don't love this album. I want to but I just don't. If I was something better than a philistine when it comes to hip-hop/R&B then I would, but as it stands it is not a combination of my first loves (although combing jazz and metal/hardcore might sound like a tall order, there are precedents e.g. some Suns of the Tundra and the United Nations track Say Goodbye to General Figment of the USS Imagination), rather all I hear is hip-hop/R&B with some jazz piano. What I wanted was jazz first and foremost, so perhaps it was missold to me. Anyway, enough about my lack of taste, everyone else out there should adore this. It is an extraordinary and extraordinarily well put together record packed with guest stars, groove, genre-hopping, pointless random skits, great piano work from central genius glue Glasper, and infectious melody and ambience (sorry I was bored of g-words).
Mr Glasper should be very proud of what he has achieved here, and his album deserves for everyone to form their own opinion on it. In doing so:
Check out: Lift Off, Black Radio (with Yasiin Bey, no less), Smells Like Teen Spirit (great cover of this chronically over-covered song).
9 - Phronesis - Walking Dark
It was a toss-up between Michael Wollny's [Em] and this for the coveted (tongue very firmly wedged in cheek) number 9 spot here, but the former is just a bit too weird, sparse and simple in places. Don't get me wrong though, Phronesis are no less weird or inclined to push the boundaries of what a jazz piano trio can do, but this is tempered with great bursts of originality, virtuosity, groove and vitality, all three young musicians at the top of their game following the inspired and inspiring double-bass leader wherever he goes. With clicky drums, lightning fingered bass-work and proggy song-writing, there is enough here to set them apart from the pack and I look forward to listening to them for a wee while yet.
Check out: The Economist, American Jesus
8 - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Lost Songs
With or without the type of bandname abbreviations and acronyms were invented for, Trail of Dead's Lost Songs is a simply incredible smack-round-the-face of something resembling post-hardcore. That's what they always did, right? Weren't they kind of indie back in the day? Am I just really late to the party? I am, aren't I? No matter, from the intro that blooms into a noisy opening riff, through impassioned playing and vocals establishing just the right blend of melody and vitriol, to some quirky musical surprises here and there, this essentially sounds like At the Drive-In's Relationship of Command played in 4/4. Ergo, I love it.
Check out: Open Doors, Pinhole Cameras
7 - Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline
James Root is a lucky man. Not only does he get to work with one of the most gifted singers in metal (and arguably outside of it too) in Corey Taylor, in his day jobs with Slipknot and Stone Sour, but he dates another, namely Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil. You name it, she's got it. Decent range, lovely voice, power when it is needed, beauty and quietness when it is not, ability to pull it off live (not many in rock/metal do), and a canny ear for phrasing and what makes a decent main/backing vocal. I admit to not being quite as enchanted by her as when/following I first discovered the 'Coil at Download 2006, but I maintain she remains one of the foremost vocal talents of our generation.
After the largely failed experiment of Shallow Life (Spellbound and The Maze notwithstanding), this is a return to form; Lacuna Coil doing what Lacuna Coil do best. Which is what, you ask? Infectious goth metal pop I suppose I'd say, perhaps with the words "guilty" and "pleasure" in there somewhere. Let's face it, Lacuna Coil is simple music, albeit played extremely well, 90% as a vehicle to the sublime talents of Ms Scabbia, who in comparison (to her fellow vocalist in particular (I quote, "if Cristina Scabbia is the face of Lacuna Coil, Andrea Ferro is the arse")) sounds like she needs a better band. Perhaps "better" is a bit harsh and misses the point - the band is tight, extremely competent (check out the acoustic work for proof) and solid, they just won't be winning any originality or virtuosity awards anytime soon. Who gives a shit, the music is extremely and unashamedly catchy and re-listenable, and it gives me warm fuzzy happy feelings.
Note: some will hate their cover of REM's Losing My Religion, others will at least commend them for doing their own thing with it.
Check out: Trip the Darkness, Kill the Light, Intoxicated
6 - Gojira - L'enfant Sauvage
A wonderful slice of French metal. Scratch that, there's no such thing as French metal. They're French and they play metal. There we go. What's so wonderful about it? What sticks in my mind most is that just when you think they're going for the metal cliche (e.g. chugging, double bass drumming), after a couple of seconds they pull something else out of the bag to surprise and entice the listener (a noticeable illustration of what I'm talking about being 26 seconds into the title track). OK OK so everything we love about metal is present and correct, sure, but there's so much more here it gives hope that there is much to come from our beloved genre for many years yet.
Check out: Explosia, L'enfant Sauvage, Liquid Fire
5 - Garbage - Not Your Kind of People
We appear to live in an era of reunions. So many old bands have got back together in the last couple of years it has long lost its excitement. Some are just playing shows to top up the piggy banks (Rage Against the Machine I'm looking at you, despite how much I enjoyed your shows), whereas others are writing new material and releasing albums. And a yet smaller subset actually have something to say. (Interestingly enough, Take That's post-reunion material is perfectly decent!) Garbage's first album in seven years is their best since 1998's masterpiece Version 2.0. Inevitably it is over-produced (they are pop-rock after all) but Not Your Kind of People is a far more ambitious record than Bleed Like Me and far more satisfying than the misstep of Beautiful Garbage. From the three old men from Wisconsin we were never going to get anything hugely hard-hitting, but that's why we have Shirley (Manson). While the backing music is polished to a fine sheen, she brings back the rough edges, particularly lyrically (What Girls Are Made Of), and some genuine beauty (Beloved Freak).
Note: how much does What Girls Are Made Of sound like The xx?
Check out: Big Bright World, Sugar, Beloved Freak
4 - Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
This is basically Night Walks part 2. But guess what, this time it works. Given that this is merely the sophomore LP I'm happy for Joe Acheson to stick with his formula for the time being. 2010's debut introduced us to the dreamy beauty, the dual drummers, the jazz overtones, the tasteful electronic and sampling work and the utter loveliness of the arrangements. 2012's follow-up is more of the same but I'm not complaining in the slightest.
Just the right side of live instrumentation to please the grumpy old purist in my computer chair, Hidden Orchestra bring together groovy beats, exquisite sounds, stunning tunes and some really high highs to create something altogether captivating and bewitching.
Check out: Spoken, Vorka
3 - Meshuggah - Koloss
Another party I'm way too late to, it has taken until their seventh album for me to pick up something by the much vaunted Meshuggah. Listens in the double-figures later, I have had rhetorical reconstructive surgery on my face and ear-drums and am ready to face the civilised world again. In a league completely of their own, Meshuggah are brutal, visceral, accomplished beyond belief and in two words, totally amazing. The final track is a not altogether successful attempt at something quiet and pretty, but the 50 minutes that come before it of things which are certainly not quiet and defiantly not pretty fly by in a daze of mind-bending musicianship, a rhythmic masterclass which somehow the vocalist manages to not only deal with and hold together but transcend. Metal somewhere near its most extreme and indubitably at its finest.
Check out: The Hurt That Finds You First, Marrow, I Am Colossus
2 - Christian Scott - Christian aTunde Adjuah
Two years on, perhaps Yesterday You Said Tomorrow wasn't that marvelous an album, rather it had a couple of good tracks on it. Anthem, its predecessor, similarly. Christian Scott's new effort, on the other hand, is the sound of a certain young jazz trumpeter taking flight and then some. I cannot applaud this album enough really, although on paper it shouldn't work. For example, it is 2 hours long, but there is hardly a dud among the 23 tracks, each of which combing to form an ambitious but fully realised whole.
Upon first listen I wondered if the tracks were mainly just a one-trick backing from Piano, Guitar, Drums and Bass (the first three all superlative) to trumpet-solo over the top of. Not so, there are certainly a lot more than 23 ideas to this album, and each of Scott's many many (it's almost as if he read my review of YYST which complained of a heavy absence of trumpet) solos sound fresh, and excite and inspire. Just when you think there's yet another track of rock-influenced rhythm section with jazz trumpet, you get a storming drum solo or a non-trumpet interlude track, breaking proceedings up sufficiently to ensure nothing outstays its welcome over the extensive running time.
I don't know where "it" all came from, but on this record "it" is all pouring out. The obvious worry is that there is no way Christian Scott can better this, but this is all I need. It is a journey through groove, beauty, the power of music entwined with the human spirit, audio perfection. A magnum opus to be proud of, Christian aTunde Adjuah is a class above. And then some.
Check out: New New Orleans (King Adjuah Stomp), Pyrrhic Victory of aTunde Adjuah, Danziger, Jihad Joe
1 - The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet
This is both surprising and not. Yes I'm biased towards these gentlemen, but I am the first to readily admit the obvious flaws in the three albums between this and 2005's masterpiece Frances the Mute. So then, this must be a return to form? Yes, that's exactly what it is, far more hit than miss next to Amputechture, far more consistent than Octahedron, and far more beautiful and musical and less noisy than The Bedlam in Goliath. There is a story behind all/most Mars Volta records, this one being how genius-musical-scientist-brain Omar Rodriguez-Lopez relinquished some musical control to his bandmates. This might explain why the vocal melodies are the strongest since Frances - good work Cedric Bixler-Zavala, I can restart claiming you're my second favourite vocalist ever.
Following in the footsteps of Jon Theodore and Thomas Pridgen can't have been easy (Spinal Tap springs to mind), but Deantoni Parks has acquitted himself with aplomb, making the drum seat very much his own. Not hitting as hard as Theodore or as often as Pridgen, he instead brings an off-centre, unique and idiosyncratic approach that utterly works.
Omar doesn't always succeed in unifying his albums (De-loused flowed and Frances certainly was just one 70+ minute suite but the less said about the others the better) and admittedly Noctourniquet still feels more like a collection of songs than a cohesive album, but as the large majority of said songs are of such high quality, packed with ideas and musical payoffs, this really is harking back to the glory days. A much more focused affair, this is the quality over quantity that has been lacking in The Mars Volta for some time. And some of the highs are as fabulous as anything they've done e.g. Aegis, the title track, the second half of In Absentia.
Omar's responsible for over 30 albums available to the general public (countless more languishing in his closet) and (yes I know it was written a couple of years ago) yet he and his talented bandmates can still produce something a league above when they put their mind to it. Transcendental, magical and worthy of just about any other superlative one cares to throw at it, this album is proof that the human species is not necessarily doomed.
Check out: Aegis, In Absentia, Noctourniquet
Thank you, and Happy Christmas one and all.
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