Christmas looms, 2012 draws to an end, and the only man left standing is capitalism. Woo! To celebrate such frivolities, this is a list of my ten favourite albums from the year gone by:
10. Jack White, ‘Blunderbuss’
Some of the riffs here are quintessential Jack White – ‘Sixteen Saltines’ oozes intensity – and are bound to soothe the inevitable mass yearnings for a White Stripes reunion.
9. Graham Coxon, ‘A+E’
Angst-infused acid guitar-pop for anti-social teenagers made by an anti-social teenager trapped in a 43 year old man’s body. Please don’t ever grow old, Graham.
8. Toy, ‘Toy’
Shoegaze is not dead. Neither is cool British neo-psychedelic pop music according to Toy.
7. Frank Ocean, ‘Channel Orange’
OFWGKTA outcast Frank Ocean’s debut studio album presents a refined prowess as a storyteller above all else. ‘Pyramids’ is nothing short of a genre-defying masterpiece and you’ll be hard tasked to find a better, more ambitious song all year. Some say he’s the next Marvin Gaye; I don’t think that’s an exaggeration.
6. Howler, ‘America Give Up’
Who isn’t all for the second coming of ‘Is This It’? Howler’s surf-meets-indie (or rather Best Coast-meets-The Cribs) aesthetic is certainly not groundbreaking in the same way their ancestors’ (The Strokes) debut was, but it’s every bit a bundle of joy to listen to.
5. The Crookes, ‘Hold Fast’
A welcome expansion on their debut’s narrative-heavy c86-jangle pop, with themes of Americana cropping up alongside the much familiar love, lust and heartbreak.
4. The Heartbreaks, ‘Funtimes’
I wrote before that ‘if you like pop the way it’s suppose to be – replete with tales of tragic romances and an irrepressible sense of vivacity – you will like The Heartbreaks,’ and I very much stick by these words. God bless the band.
3. Melody’s Echo Chamber, ‘Melody’s Echo Chamber’
French songstress and Aussie messiah unite in and out of the studio to produce the best debut of 2012: intimate, melancholy psychedelia pervaded by a sort of dark luminosity.
2. Tame Impala, ‘Lonerism’
If John Lennon made a whole album based off his sound on ‘Revolver’, this would be it. Kevin Parker, meanwhile, reckons this album is essentially Britney Spears fronting The Flaming Lips. Good as it is, it was never gonna be that good. I’ll let you choose your own analogy.
1. Pond, ‘Beard, Wives, Denim’
Pure sonic ecstasy, and thus completing the nonpareil Kevin Parker trilogy of 2012 – he produces and plays drums on this one. Has all the swirling, twirling psych-sensibilities of the Australian Invasion you could ask for, condensed into thirteen superlative, transcendental nuggets, revealing a new layer of sheer ingenuity every time you listen to them. Tough competition, I know, but ‘You Broke My Cool’ is probably the best Summer song ever released to feature flutes. Or simply the best Summer song ever, for that matter. Take a bow, you bloody rippers.
Honourable mentions: TBJM, Grimes, The Cribs, King Gizzard, Mac Demarco
Over and out. What ya got, 2013? Providing the Mayans were, you know, actually wrong.
Update: They were.
cosmicambience 
Finally, someone with Pond in the top bunk of their annual top 10 🙂 Agree on almost all of your picks. I haven’t given Frank Ocean a proper go though.
Interesting choice of spotify applet. Kind of thinking of using it on mine too. Aren’t you worried people without spotify aren’t gonna be able to play it?
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Tell me about it! So underrated it’s unreal. I was a little sceptical about Frank Ocean at first too, but ‘channel ORANGE’ feels like its destined to become one of those genuinely great, landmark records. Well, the demographic of this blog is primarily music enthusiasts, and I guess most will already be acquainted with Spotify so I hadn’t really taken that into much consideration. Cheers for commenting 🙂