My Top 20 Albums of 2012 (#5 - 1)

And here finally, to close out 2012 once and for all, I give you my Top 5 -- 

#5-1

5. Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE - (Def Jam)

Although Frank Ocean may have had a rough award show season both performance-wise and with his Grammy song choice of deep album track "Forrest Gump", there is no mistaking that channel ORANGE is an R&B masterpiece. Although released on the Def Jam label, you're not going to find much in the way of Hip-Hop here with the exception of a couple of guest appearances from Earl Sweatshirt and Andre 3000. This is an R&B album that has more in common with Talking Book and Innervisions era Stevie Wonder than with many of Ocean's modern day contemporaries. channel ORANGE is an album for the 2010s, politically and socially relevant, a time capsule to be discovered by future generations. In this way, and in its expanse it is every bit the album that Sign 'O' The Times was for Prince back in 1987. Although there are quite a few single-worthy songs here ("Thinkin' 'Bout You", "Sweet Life" and the very Prince-ish "Lost"), this is an album that should be listened to in one sitting, its genius building to the mid-album ten minute epic, "Pyramids". "Crack Rock" and the terrific "Super Rich Kids", featuring Earl Sweatshirt, finds the street drug problems from "Sign O The Times" now infiltrating the better neighborhoods, perhaps now out of boredom rather than escape. "Sweet Life" is Ocean at his most Stevie Wonder, whereas "Thinkin' 'Bout You" finds more of an original voice. "Bad Religion" opens with a Prince-like plea to a taxi driver and finds its way to some falsetto gymnastics. Most of the way, the album is strung together through brief interludes, the songs occasionally containing enough sampling and tape-loops to suggest Ocean's affinity for Pink Floyd. Looking at the five Album of the Year Grammy nominees for this year, channel ORANGE was unquestionably the most deserving. 

4. Rush - Clockwork Angels - (Anthem / Roadrunner)
If you've never liked Rush, this 66 minute epic and first concept album since 1978 is not going to change your mind about them. Drummer/Lyricist Neil Peart pens a story line here that includes carnivals, anarchists and a villain called The Watchmaker in a story of good vs. evil. Getting past all of that and to the heart of the matter, this is the finest album Rush has made since Power Windows (1985) and possibly all the way back to Signals (1982). There's a freshness to this record that was lost during a span of their rather same-y sounding, difficult to penetrate records of the 90s. The band seems to have found the fountain of youth and learned to have fun again. The previously released "Caravan" and "BU2B" open the album in strong fashion. The seven and a half minute title track then announces a return of guitarist Alex Lifeson to front and center, even seemingly copping his Moving Pictures -era sound for the solo. "Carnies", one of the heavier efforts on the record, opens with a riff that is more Metal sounding than the band normally dares before finding its way through a couple of changes and settling into more familiar territory. "Halo Effect" is a welcome mid-tempo song built off of an acoustic guitar intro, "The Wreckers" recalls a bit of the Hold Your Fire (1987) era with one of the catchier chorus melodies the band has ever written ("All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary / Of a miracle too good to be true / All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary / Everything in life you thought you knew / All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary / 'Cause sometimes the target is you"). "Headlong Flight" may well be the centerpiece of the record, recalling a bit of "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" from way back on Fly By Night (1975). The instrumental break in this song is sure to put a smile on the face of any Rush fan longing for the good old days. "The Garden" ends the album in grand fashion with one of the prettier songs the band has written in their nearly 40 year career. Although the modern-day production by Nick Raskulinecz leaves a bit to be desired, Clockwork Angels is the Rush record most of us fans never thought we'd get again. 

3. Grizzly Bear - Shields - (Warp)
Released toward the back end of 2012, Shields came as a welcome surprise to me. One that will likely leave me scrambling towards Grizzly Bear's back catalog to see what I had been missing. The 1-2 combination of "Sleeping Ute" and "Speak in Rounds" that starts off the album is immediately engaging, interesting and breathtaking. Instrumental interlude "Adelma" then leads into the haunting "Yet Again" with its many weaving vocal parts, eventually leading to a chaotic a-tonal conclusion. "A Simple Answer" picks up the pace with an energetic piano line and rack toms back beat. "Gun-Shy" is one of the album highlights here, it reminds me of something that I just can't put my finger on -- perhaps the good parts of a Steely Dan or Donald Fagen record. "Sun in Your Eyes" gently prods at the edges of prog-rock, like a long lost Genesis track from the era of A Trick of the Tail (1976). This is a record that will keep you coming back for more, rewarding repeated listens with new discoveries -- a myriad of vocal tracks in the background or perhaps a tambourine you didn't notice. Highly recommended. 


2. Justin Townes Earle - Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now - (Bloodshot)
A gentle drum fill at the beginning of "Am I That Lonely Tonight" leads into Justin Townes Earle singing ("Hear my father on the radio / Singing,"Take Me Home Again" / 300 miles from the Carolina coast and I'm / I'm skin and bones again / Sometimes I wish that I could get away / Sometimes I wish that he'd just call / Am I that lonely tonight? / I don't know") -- such is life for the son following in the footsteps of his father, a legendary working musician. Since 2010's under-estimated Harlem River Blues, Townes Earle has seen a rocky road which included a fight with an Indianapolis club owner in September 2010 that led him into substance abuse rehab. The songs contained here on Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now are the honest and open feelings of a man who recognizes that each day from here on out will be a challenge with no guarantees. The fragile, confessional nature of the songs simmering with Earle's acoustic guitar, upright bass and brushes on a snare drum make this a commanding listen.  It's Country/Folk/Blues from a time when that really meant something. The title track finds Earle in the final words of a bitter break-up where blame flies in both directions. "Baby's Got a Bad Idea" picks up the tempo in a Jerry Lee Lewis-like shuffle, with Earle still exploring his own shortcomings ("Maybe if I were a better man / She wouldn't walk away from me"). "Maria" reads like a letter from a man searching for reasons, while "Lower East Side" finds Earle still exploring the New York City he claimed on Harlem River Blues. "Won't Be the Last Time" is the truly heartbreaking tale here, seemingly retelling the story of that fateful night in September 2010 from a hazy, alcohol-infused memory. The song of an addict who knows that his future travels one step at a time. "Memphis in the Rain" is a road song about the search for a "girl without a name", but as Earle finds out in "Unfortunately, Anna", they all have names and stories. The album ends with the road song, "Movin' On" with Earle taking stock of where things are and how he got here, pledging in the end that he's "tryin' to move on". At just over 30 minutes, Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now feels like an old friend who just stops over for a quick drink and a head-clearing talk. Ignored on most, or nearly all, end of the year lists -- it's an album that has been sadly overlooked and one that you should check out. 

1. Tame Impala - Lonerism - (Modular)
Hailing from the land down under, more specifically Perth, Australia, Tame Impala receives this year's award for Most John Lennon-esque Voice by an Alternative Band. Lonerism is an album filled with musical flourishes, most all of them from real, live, analog instruments -- most noticeably, a 70s mellotron that finds its way into quite a few of the tracks here. "Be Above It" leads off the record with its mantra-like vocal over the top of a frenetic snare back beat. "Apocalypse Now" shows off leader Kevin Parker's brilliant songwriting talents, changing things up just when it appears that you have a song pegged, including a brief spot where the tape machine appears to have ground to a halt. "Mind Mischief" is part Flaming Lips, part Beatles relying heavily on the vocal harmonies to guide it along. The back-to-back songs, "Music to Walk Home By" and "Why Won't They Talk To Me" belie their subject matter of self-introspection and loneliness with their bouncy pop tendencies. Some of the best pop/rock of the year is saved for the second half of Lonerism, starting with (perhaps the Song of the Year), "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards", with its floating bass line and perhaps Parker's most Lennon-like vocal. This would have made a great cass-single back in the day, with the same song on both sides -- you want to hear it again that quickly. "Elephant" is probably the most aggressive song on the record relying on a chug-along fuzzed-out bass line that recalls Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky", the song breaking into a joyous keyboard solo at the mid-way point. The album closes with two of the longer tracks on the album, the brightly tempo'd, (but perhaps overlong), "Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control" which starts off with the aforementioned mellotron, a heavily reverbed vocal and then evolves into some studio trickery, ending with a long instrumental passage of keyboard twiddling before revisiting the earlier vocal line. "Sun's Coming Up" ends the album with a piano/vocal piece where Parker seems to finally get to the root of his loneliness before giving way to some noodling on his guitar with plenty of fuzz, reverb and tremolo. With very few missteps along the way, Lonerism is a "must buy" record from 2012 and my Album of the Year.