2012 Music – My Top Ten Albums

I set myself a few ground rules for this list; no live albums, no EPs, no re-releases… It’s just as well I did as the choice (apart from 3) was extremely difficult to make. (And made all the more difficult by my noticing some people were including EPs in their lists!)

So, without further ado, here’s my top ten albums of 2012:

10 – Van Halen – A Different Kind of Truth. Despite all the rumours and the aborted previous attempts at reformation I held out little hope that Van Halen would get back together with their original vocalist, Dave Lee Roth. After reading Sammy Hagar’s autobiography even my little glimmer of hope was diminished and yet, despite all the odds, here it is: the first new VH album in many a year. What I like about it most is that it picks up almost exactly where the last DLR VH album left off. There’s no attempt to modernise their sound, there’s no attempt to reinvent their style. It is, quite simply, a testament to those first 5 albums and the sound they created. Despite the terrible (but fun nevertheless) attempt to recreate Ice Cream Man I find the whole album enjoyable to the extreme. It’s just a shame the mess with Mark Anthony couldn’t be resolved and the tour fell apart… But I suppose it’s to be expected with DLR and EVH back in the same room?

9 – Flying Colors – Flying Colors. Neil Morse, Steve Morse, Mike Portnoy, Dave LaRue and the relatively unknown (to me at least) Casey McPherson, seemed like a recipe for another bloated, self-indulgent prog supergroup and, for that reason, I almost avoided it completely. Oh, how wrong I was! Despite the pedigree of those involved there is very little showboating here, most notable to my ears is the positive reserve of Mike Portnoy and the only occasional flamboyance of Steve Morse. The songs are solid, and varied, with the fault only being perhaps too much of a balladic feel as the album progresses. Stand out tracks for me are the opener Blue Ocean, All Falls Down and the 12 minute closer Infinite Fire.

8 – Rush – Clockwork Angels. And here we come to the disappointment of the top ten. So why is it here at all? Well, the fact that this is perhaps the best Rush album in at least 20 years, perhaps even over 25, is reason enough. The music is classic rush, the concept classic Peart, and it all works extremely well. The title track, The Anarchist and The Garden should be enough to convince any non-believer to visit Rush’ back catalogue, they’re sublime! So, why so far down the list? Quite simply the album suffers from terrible use of some kind of maximiser in its production. There’s no dynamic. A friend described it as ‘the sausage factory’ effect, and he’s right. It’s a shame as, if this hadn’t been the case, then Clockwork Angels would have been top 3 material. As it is, I struggle to listen to the album as a whole because my ears hurt after a while.

7 – Stolen Earth – A Far Cry From Home. Despite their pedigree Stolen Earth have managed in this, their debut album, to avoid becoming a tribute to their previous endeavours. The songs are strong, the music excellently written, and performed, and Heidi Widdop has managed to produce a performance across the whole disc which I find beguiling. I likened her voice to that of Chrissie Hynde‘s on the album release and yet I now feel that does her performance an injustice. While there are hints of that tonality the overall result is far stronger than anything I’ve heard by Ms Hynde. I’m looking forward to hearing the next chapter from this band. The fact that they’re the only band from the stable of other related acts should not go un-noticed, of all the MA related bands releases over the last 18 months this is, to my ears, by far the strongest.

6 – Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials. What can I say? When I first heard Flo I wasn’t sure, I saw her live and wasn’t sure, then I heard Drumming Song and fell in love with her quirky style. Ceremonials is a different beast to her debut, Lungs, and yet, while it follows a different vein it remains true to the overall style of her music. It’s an immensely uplifting album drawing on church music as its inspiration (apparently) and definitely cements her as the top of the pile of quirky, indie, female acts. The opener, Only If For A Night, Breaking Down and Spectrum are my personal favourites but the album is strong from start to finish.

District 97 – Trouble With Machines

5 – District 97 – Trouble With Machines. Another find from TNIMN (with thanks to Dave Cooper for this one) what we have here is hard to categorise; Rock? Yes. Prog? Yes. Jazz? Yes. Fusion? Could it be anything else? D97 were an instrumental group originally and approached American Idol finalist Lesley Hunt… If I’d known this prior to hearing the music I may well have responded exactly as I guess you just have; disgust. Never fear, Miss Hunt has proven Simon Cowell wrong (I understand he was the one who cast the deciding vote on her elimination) quite emphatically. Even without the vocals the music really is quite amazing with a mix of all genres mentioned above and musicianship which is of the highest order throughout. The Perfect Young Man and The Thief are the stand out tracks on an outstanding album.

4 – Headspace – I Am Anonymous. Another album I almost missed, saved again by TNIMN. I heard murmurings of Headspace a few years back but dismissed them when I heard that it was Rick Wakeman’s son on keyboards. Then, perhaps only a month or so ago (if that?), someone posted about the album so I checked them out on Spotify. There are many reasons I rate what I heard so highly. The first is the theme itself (I’ll let you listen to find out for yourself), there’s the musicianship, the production, the writing, in fact the only piece of the puzzle which doesn’t sit perfectly for me is the vocals. They seem, at times, to be at odds with the music which is modern while the vocals have an almost eighties feel to their production? When all is said and done though, it works, and works very well. This is the album Queensryche have been trying to write for the last 10-15 years.

Marillion – Sounds That Can’t Be Made

3 – Marillion – Sounds That Can’t Be Made. I’ve been waiting for this album for years, literally. Now it’s here I’m relieved, very much so. I’ve stuck with Marillion since Marbles was released despite growing increasingly disenfranchised with their output. From the opening riff of the politically charged Gaza to the closing refrains of the emotionally charged The Sky Above The Rain this really is their best release in a very long time indeed. What I like most of all is the fact that there are no two songs alike and yet they all work together, seamlessly. I’ll admit I struggled with Montreal, a travelogue about H’s experiences on the journey to the last Marillion convention in that city. Then I received the deluxe preorder edition and saw the artwork, and I understood. It is also one of the best produced albums I’ve heard in a very long time. This album could teach the Clockwork Angels production team more than a few things about dynamics and the artful use of a maximiser.

2 – Anathema – Weather Systems. I used the word ‘uplifting’ earlier in this blog, and I’ve used it before when describing this, but I heard a better description of it from Kim Seviour a few days ago… Spiritual. And now I struggle to think of it as anything else. I’m a latecomer to Anathema having first heard their We’re Here Because We’re Here album and then Falling Deeper before delving in to their, much heavier, back catalogue and I’d struggle to put the two together if it weren’t for the latter, a reworking of earlier material in their new style. This album is my current ‘self help’ treatment, it really is that good, it makes me feel good about myself and there’s no higher praise for a piece of music than to say it affects you emotionally, is there?

Mystery – The World Is A Game

1 – Mystery – The World Is A Game. This one may raise some eyebrows and, to be honest, it was a bolt from the blue to me as well! Having ‘gone off’ Yes a good few years ago I was unaware of Benoit David until they released Fly From Here last year. While I liked that album I firmly believe that this is where he belongs. Like most, I assume, who were unaware of Benoit’s work with Yes, I was also unaware of his previous work with Mystery. I discovered this again through TNIMN and I will be ever grateful for this. It surpasses Fly From Here by a country mile and I can’t hear a weak point on it, anywhere. The instrument sounds are fantastic, I love the chorused, distorted guitar sound, it’s one I want to reproduce myself, I love the instrumentation, the lyrics, the writing and the production. Strangely it’s the ballad Dear Someone which I feel is the strongest track on the album, closely followed by Pride and Another Day. To say that this has been firmly at the top of this list since a week or so after I heard it can only demonstrate how highly I regard it.

So, there you have it. My favourite albums of 2012. It was another great year and I’m already looking forward to 2013 (with a couple of pre-orders already in place!). I’ve enjoyed reading everyone else’s lists and am constantly intrigued by the vast differences in those despite so many of us being fans of similar bands, it’s what makes music so interesting to me.

As a final note I’m going to tell you my top 3 EPs (in no particular order) of the year and my biggest disappointment…

The EPs

The Fierce and the Dead – On VHS. I have all of Matt Stevens’ releases and, despite being a huge fan of these, feel he has made a wise choice concentrating on his band this year. Rather than lose his solo attraction by joining a band I feel that this new format has enhanced the experience and taken it further than he could perhaps have gone on his own… We’ll have to wait and see as I’m sure there will be releases from both over the coming year.

Trojan Horse – Fire EP. I always forget how good these guys are, and then I revisit one of their releases and am blown away all over again. Their eclectic style keeps me ever interested and their interaction with their fanbase* is superb, as is their attention to detail when packaging their albums.

Craig Hughes – Hard Times, Vol. 1. This one’s the odd one out of the whole shebang. It’s dirty, low down blues with a Glaswegian bent (Sorry Craig, I know you’re not from Glasgow, but I think you’ve been there long enough to be considered such!) and it’s great! There’s everything on this, banjo, alt-blues, what I can only describe as ‘slit yer wrist’ blues, and I love it. With track titles like He Loved Her and She Sent Him To Hell and Cave Full of Woman Blues you’ll get the gist ;o)

And the disappointment…

In the 80s I liked a band who seemed to come and go in a flash. Three great albums and then very little for decades. Fast forward to the mid noughties and a band called Kino evolved which released one of my favourite albums since the turn of the century. With the exception of Pete Trewavas, who returned to the fold of Marillion, the members of Kino decided to continue as a reformed It Bites for that, in essence was what Kino were. Then there came The Tall Ships… What would IB be like without Francis Dunnery? Surely it couldn’t work? Oh yes it bloody could! The Tall Ships was utterly, utterly, brilliant. Four years later, after what seemed like an interminable tour promoting the comeback album (great shows by the way), we were told that the new album would be a concept album called Map of the Past. After Kino’s Picture and It Bites’ The Tall Ships I had extremely high hopes for this one… Unfortunately, despite trying on several occasions, I just can’t get in to it. It comes across as a flat, lacklustre and emotionless performance to me and I’m bitterly disappointed to have to admit it.

So. On to 2013…

Related articles

• 2012 Music – Cast Adrift (grae2x5.wordpress.com)
• What are the big albums of 2013? (bbc.co.uk)