2012: 8 Great Albums

I didn't buy a whole lot of new albums in 2012, and my choosiness mostly paid off. Of the nearly 30 albums I bought, only 3 were truly disappointing: The Jealous Sound's A Gentle Reminder, Vicious Vicious' self-titled LP, and Alanis Morissette's Havoc and Bright Lights. Even those weren't truly bad, they just didn't live up to expectations.

Below are 8 albums that I dug the most. Work from Fiona Apple, Ben Folds Five, Gaz Coombes, The Divine Fits, The Killers, Miguel, Nada Surf, P.O.S., and The Shins didn't quite make the cut, but still deserve mention.

I haven't ranked this list in the last few years, mostly because I realized how arbitrary it was. But I've gotta say that, weirdly, Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth is my album of the year. How something that had so many strikes against it (the general stink of being a "reunion" album, the absence of Michael Anthony, the recycling of 30 year-old riffs and song ideas, the fact that Eddie Van Halen's body is being held together with duct tape and dental floss at this point) ended up being so artistically vital is beyond me. In my mind, the album single-handedly rewrites the band's history, relegating the Van Hagar (and Van Cherone) years into a sidebar and placing the emphasis squarely back on Eddie's gifted playing and David Lee Roth's insane charisma and weird one-liners.

The Honeydogs: What Comes After
Check out: Particles or Waves, Aubben, Fighting Weight, What Comes After, Better Word.

David Mead: Dudes
Check out: I Can't Wait, King of the Crosswords, Guy on Guy, No One Roxx This Town No More

Motion City Soundtrack: Go
Check out: Circuits and Wires, True Romance, Timelines, Coma Kid, Bad Idea

Rush: Clockwork Angels
Check out: Caravan, BU2B, Halo Effect, The Wreckers, The Garden

Van Halen: A Different Kind of Truth
Check out: She's the Woman, You and Your Blues, As Is, The Trouble With Never, Stay Frosty

Rufus Wainwright: Out of the Game
Check out: Out of the Game, Jericho, Montauk, Respectable Dive, Perfect Man, Candles

The Walkmen: Heaven
Check out: We Can't Be Beat, Love is Luck, Heartbreaker, Song for Leigh, Heaven

Robbie Williams: Take the Crown
Check out: Be a Boy, Gospel, Candy, Shit on the Radio, Into the Silence, Losers

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REO Speedwagon: R.E.O. Speedwagon (1971)

REO Speedwagon got its start in the late 1960s on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. The band grew out of a friendship between a students Neal Doughty (piano/keyboard) and Alan Gratzer (drums). Joining up with a couple of other musicians, they took the name R.E.O. Speedwagon. It wasn't long before they started getting gigs at parties and bars, doing covers of the hits of the day. The band cycled through several players in its first three years, with Gratzer and Doughty as the only constants. One-by-one they added the members that would form the first "official" lineup: singer Terry Luttrell in early 1968, bassist Gregg Philbin later that summer, and guitarist Gary Richrath at the end of 1970. Richrath was a native of Peoria, 90 miles northwest of Champaign, and had essentially stalked the band until they let him join. It was a good move, as he not only an accomplished guitarist, but also a songwriter. With Richrath the band ascended to the n

12 by Matthew Sweet (2002 - 2021)

Sometimes a huge part of an artist's career has not been summarized. Case in point... Matthew Sweet has a couple of compliations out there, but neither of them cover the past couple of decades, a span that has seen him release 8 albums of original material and 3 albums of covers. I followed Sweet's career religiously early on, with my ardor gradually diminishing after the magnificant one-two punch of In Reverse (1999) and The Thorns (2003) That's not to say he hasn't produced some great work since then, it's just that it requires bit of effort to pick out the gems. Here's my college try: (Two of these albums are not available on streaming servies, so here's a slightly modified version of the playlist on YouTube .) 1. "I Can't Remember" ( The Thorns , 2003) The Thorns was a rootsy, close-harmony early-aughts version of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, featuring Shawn Mullins (of "Lullaby" fame) and Pete Droge (of "If You Don't Lov

2022: The Album

Since 2003 I've made a mix of some of my favorite songs of the calendar year. Here's the cover art and track listing for the 2022 edition. 1. BODEGA - "Pillar on the Bridge of You" 2. Harry Styles - "Late Night Talking" 3. Vicious Vicious - "Evolution" 4. Hot Freaks - "Lovely" 5. Carly Rae Jepsen - "The Loneliest Time" 6. Tears for Fears - "End of Night" 7. Spoon - "Wild" 8. Death Cab for Cutie - "Here to Forever" 9. Citrine and GUKKO - "Feel Better" 10. Rhett Miller - "Fascination" 11. Broken Bells - "Fade Away" 12. Leah Marlene - "Flowers" 13. Robbie Williams - "The World and Her Mother" 14. Jimmy Eat World - "Something Loud" (acoustic version) 15. Sloan - "Dream It All Over Again" If you have Amazon Unlimited, you can listen at this link .

3 Minutes, 49 Seconds

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