Countdown to 30: My Favorite Album From 2012

 2012

I gave my retrospective on the albums of 2012 a lot of thought and I think my choices stand up, so I'm going to go in the same order for this year. I guess don't read that article if you don't want this reveal spoiled for you.

The Ben Folds Five reunited in 2011 after being broken up for three years. In 2012, they released The Sound of the Life of the Mind, their first original album since 1999. The band as a whole was unsigned, so they launched a PledgeMusic crowdfunding campaign to get the money to release the album. That goal was met twice over within the campaign's first week. 

Ben Folds had collaborated with author Nick Hornby on 2010's Lonely Avenue and Hornby returned to write lyrics for the title track, "The Sound of the Life of the Mind." There is a ballad entitled "Sky High" composed by drummer Darren Jessee. All other songs are written by Ben Folds. 

"Erase Me" kicks off the album with chunky, fuzz guitar mixing with aggressive keys. "Draw a Crowd" is an upbeat, comical song. "Hold That Thought" isn't quite a ballad, but "Thank You For Breaking My Heart" definitely is. The latter is absolutely heartbreaking. But at least you'll know that it's in there. "Do It Anyway," the album's lead single, is a terrific mantra over Folds' signature piano style. Folds has stated that the inspiration was a combination of quotes on cards his mother used to give him for birthdays and a concert-goer who yelled "do it anyway!" after folds explained that his upcoming ballad wasn't going to be the kind he could "stand on the piano and, you know, shake my a** to." The video features the Fraggles of Fraggle Rock and some human celebrities of course. These explanations seem a little disjointed, but the songs on the album are not.

Two members of the recently disbanded Tally Hall released albums in 2012. 

Andrew Horowitz was first with sketches by what he officially called edu. At the time, the album was only released on a cassette with handwritten liner notes, but within the last few years, he finally refined and reissued it digitally and on vinyl as Sketches 3D. If there was ever an album that worked perfectly on cassette, this was it. Sketches is what a friend might record for you on their cassette recorder- if they're a very skilled songwriter and musician friend, that is. Horowitz always had the most heartfelt lyrics in Tally Hall, and the warm tunes on this album are a perfect display of that. Every song is cute and sweet and his cover of "Rainbow Connection" is the most genuine one I expect to hear. "Daisy Fingers," "Miss Melody," and "HEY YOU!" are my favorite tracks, but it's hard not to love all of them.

The next member of Tally Hall to release a solo work was Joe Hawley, who also decided to use a pseudonym, but in keeping with the bizarre nature of most things Hawley has a hand in, his pseudonym was ミラクルミュージカル (which translates to Miracle Musical). He released Hawaii: Part II, a simultaneously strange and masterful album. Hawley dances between vaudevillian sounds, sweeping orchestral music, and use of vocoder. A few earlier Tally Hall demos found themselves polished up for this album, most notably "The Mind Electric." Hawley has explained the album by telling a local access show called Band "When our family went to Hawaii in the summer of 1997, I heard this music in my mind and I knew I had to make it at some point." I'm glad he, Ross Federman, and Bora Karaca managed to bring it to life. 

For me, one of the most anticipated albums of 2012 was Some Nights by fun. Their first album was so good that I couldn't wait for what lay in store. 

Leading up to the release of the album, fun. released "We Are Young," the fun. song that finally rocked the world. "We Are Young" featured the great Janelle Monáe in the shoes Rachel Antonoff used to fill, as the occasional female vocalist. The song itself was doing fairly well on the charts, but then it was used on Glee, which was a bump that used to be great for indie bands in terms of commercial success. Sure, it meant that the concerts were now riddled with tweens who knew them for one song, but the band being successful has to be the main goal. Then the song was featured in a Superbowl commercial for the Chevy Sonic (which I remember seeing as it originally aired, through the glass door of a house I was delivering pizza to) and at that point if you hadn't heard the song before, even you knew it. This song went to #1 in the U.S. and the U.K., partly swept up in the trend of indie/alternative artists making it big on mainstream radio (see: Gotye, American Authors, Vance Joy) and partly based on the quality of the song itself. You see, after Aim and Ignite, fun. decided that they wanted something that would actually be commercially successful. They enlisted Jeff Bhasker as the producer. That wasn't an easy task, as Bhasker was the producer for Beyoncé. He worked with Alicia Keys, Jay Z and Kanye West and would go on to work with Bruno Mars, Lana Del Rey, and would work with Mark Ronson on one of the upcoming albums of the year. "We are Young" was the song that sold him on fun. Nate Ruess sang it for him (acapella I think?) and he suddenly became interested in working with the band. 

With Bhasker's help, Some Nights hit #3 on the U.S. Billboard hot 200, reaching #1 on the rock, alternative, and vinyl charts. fun. won best new artist at the Grammy's (I don't know how that award works, but I can't understand how they counted as "new") and "We Are Young" walked away with song of the year. They had three hit singles from the album, with the best one, "Carry On," unfortunately not seeing as much success on the charts, presumably because everyone was sick of being overexposed to their work by then. The titular "Some Nights" is tied with "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morrisette as being most likely to be accidentally played on the radio unedited because no one expects an f-bomb from such a huge hit song.

Before I go on too long, I'll just wrap this one up by saying that, while this album was disappointing for me compared to Aim and Ignite, it's still very good. Bhasker is a good commercial producer, but of course his polish was far different from the indie glow Redd Cross's Steven Shane McDonald put on their first album. I absolutely adore, "Carry On." It's on my list of cry-worthy songs (I have probably cried to it myself). My review mostly holds up, other than the fact that I praised Bhasker's production but said the album was "experimental" and held up my hopes for their third album that has not come to be so far.

It's probably clear to you that I'm a big fan of Death Cab for Cutie and Benjamin Gibbard. Gibbard's Former Lives came out in 2012 and brought something a little bit different to the table. Officially, Former Lives is Gibbard's first solo album, although his work as ¡All-Time Quarterback! was definitely at least as much solo work, if not more. Former Lives is a great deal more polished and mature. Several tracks were recorded on Garageband, which makes that fact all the more impressive. Much of the album is light and acoustic, but with a full, rich sound. 

Former Lives features guest vocals from Aimee Mann and Zooey Deschanel, and appearances from other musicians in addition to Gibbard. Deschanel lends her dreamy vocals to "Something's Rattling" and Latin American group Trio Ellas provide accompaniment. Aimee Mann is featured on the duet "Bigger Than Love," her voice blending with Gibbard's perfectly. 

"Lily" shows off Gibbard's voice and his talent for writing metaphorical, romantic lyrics. My favorite piece of poetry though, is "Oh, Woe," a song about trying to pull yourself out of depression. It's upbeat, but the lyrics make it clear that the narrator is struggling. A standout line for me is "you're nothing like the way you looked//in all those famous songs and books" as the narrator has clearly romanticized sadness, but realized it's a great deal more crushing than he had imagined. Second favorite line is "it's been a basement of a year//and all I want's for you to disappear." 2012 was a basement of a year for me.

Finally, my favorite album of 2012 comes from a band whose albums have consistently been in my top albums of the year, but who got pushed just slightly to the front of the fray in 2012, partly thanks to the confusing energy someone with OCPD gets when they are in a new relationship. 

Mia Pharaoh by Miniature Tigers is my favorite album from 2012. Mia Pharaoh shows the band trying on a new sound, but it's in no way a turn-off. Ahead of the album, the single "Boomerang" was made available to fans. It acted as a sonic bridge between the earlier albums and Mia Pharaoh. 

Synthesizers and late '70s/early '80s influence drive the sound for the album. Frontman Charlie Brand also moved past the “Like or Like Like” phrase of his songwriting and on to songs like “Sex on the Regular” and “Female Doctor.” Between poppy, upbeat songs are slower, dreamier tracks like "Cleopatra" and "Ugly Needs." There is an ethereal dreampop quality to the songs that aren't as up-tempo.

In my first apartment, 2012.

"Afternoons With David Hockney" is one of my favorite tracks on the album, and acts as a strange ode to English artist David Hockney, who seems to be source of inspiration for Charlie Brand (who also provides album art for Miniature Tigers albums).

Mia Pharaoh dips and dives through sounds and tempos, flowing smoothly. The lyrics are as strange as they typically are for Miniature Tigers, but the sound is very slightly more polished and commercial. Their contemporaries were moving toward '80s sounds, which they would do eventually on Cruel Runnings. 

I loved blasting this album. We had an early summer in 2012, and I remember riding around in my truck with my windows down, playing this album and lying to myself that life was good. I got to see the guys support this album a few times, including once as openers for fun. It was a good era for the band. I love "Boomerang," ever the most catchy track on the album, but many of the songs are earworms. There was something nostalgic about this album even when it first came out, but at this point, looking back nine years later, it definitely is nostalgic.

Anyway, leaderboard!

Join me tomorrow for my favorite album from 2013!

Concert Review: fun. in Columbus, Ohio

The last time I saw fun. was at Slim's in San Francisco. A couple of local bands opened for them, and they played a powerful set to a few hundred people. It was a small show that has to be one of the best ones I've ever been to.

Thursday night, I had the pleasure of seeing them again, with another of my favorite bands, Miniature Tigers, opening. The show was originally set for the Newport, a smaller Columbus venue, but there was such demand that it was moved to the Lifestyle Communities Pavillion, a venue that will hold around 2,200 people- and it still sold out. The line at 6:00 reached all the way down the block.

The show started at almost exactly 8:00. Miniature Tigers took the stage mostly unknown and played a knock-out set. Charlie Brand displayed his usual ability to engage a crowd, despite the fact that the crowd was much larger than a typical Miniature Tigers turnout.

Miniature Tigers

Miniature Tigers played a forty-five minute set that was a pleasant mix of their first three albums. Although Brand's voice seemed a little worn from several months of touring, he still remained on-key and belted the tunes out. I was already a fan, but most of the rest of the crowd also seemed convinced. 

There was a decently short wait time between acts, and fun. took the stage to uproarious applause. 

Fun. played an energetic set true to my memories of them...except more. The crowd seemed to dance and sing along to every song, but the music was still audible- and properly mixed- over the top. 

Fun. pounded through their songs, playing the popular "We Are Young" somewhere in the middle of the set rather than saving it for the encore as I expected they would. They performed a version of "The Gambler" that brought tears to the eyes of some patrons. 

It was clear before the group left the stage that there would be an encore. The crowd's claps and cheers and yells went on for only a few minutes before fun. returned to the stage. They kicked off the encore with a cover of The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" that seemed to improve on the original and blow the roof off. The show ended as fun. shows generally do, with "Take Your Time Coming Home," played gorgeously despite the crowd's constant cheering making it difficult to complete the softer section.

If you enjoy fun.'s music at all, I strongly recommend getting out to see them live. They put on a consistently excellent and lively show no matter what the crowd size is like. 

Concert Review: The Modern Art Tour in Cleveland, Ohio

It’s always a pleasure to see multiple bands I enjoy in the same setting, so I was excited to learn that SPEAK would be an opening act for Miniature Tigers during the local leg of the Modern Art Tour. Also performing were The Chain Gang of 1974 and Geographer.

The venue, Grog Shop, is a small and intimate place, with the stage leading directly into the audience. When we entered the room, SPEAK were still doing their warm-ups. They wrapped up quickly and we were left to wait. All of the bands mingled freely in the crowd, before, during, and after the show.

SPEAK took the stage at just after 8 and performed a crowd-pleasing set for a crowd to which they were mostly unknown. 

SPEAK

The high-energy songs from their album were joined by a couple of songs I didn’t recognize from the album as well as a cover of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” As with the SPEAK covers I've experienced in the past, the band added their own accents to the cover, speeding it up, and making it their own. They closed their set with “Stand By Us” and “Carrie.”

Up next was The Chain Gang of 1974, a group which didn't really sit well with me. Their very 80s synths became tolerable and almost good toward the end of the set, but the vocals and general attitude of the band didn't suit my tastes at all. 

The Chain Gang of 1974

Co-headliner Geographer took the stage and it was immediately clear that many patrons were there to see Geographer specifically. Lead singer Michael Deni performed beautifully, with a voice that was admittedly better than any other singer that evening. Geographer's lineup features drums, synths, and an electric cello (played by Nathan Blaz), which seems an interesting choice for a rock group.

Geographer

Finally, Miniature Tigers came on around 11 o'clock. Miniature Tigers were quite lively. Lead singer Charlie Brand did a great job of engaging the crowd, competing with several now insanely drunk members of the crowd and the two guys from The Chain Gang of 1974 who were creating a ruckus in the audience. 

 

Miniature Tigers

 Photos by Gareth Sedam

Miniature Tigers performed most of the songs off of Mia Pharaoh, with a few songs from Fortress and "Cannibal Queen" thrown in. I think the near absence of songs from Tell It To The Volcano was a slight disappointment to some, but the set was impressive just as it was. Miniature Tigers closed their set at just after midnight and hung around to sign autographs and talk to fans. 

Album Review: Mia Pharaoh by Miniature Tigers

Miniature Tigers have taken a sharp turn for the 70s in their new album Mia Pharaoh. Mia Pharaoh features a higher level of refined production and several songs with dance beats. These new sounds are not unpleasant, but slightly jarring for those familiar with their first two albums.

A new sound is evident from the very opening of "Sex On The Regular." "Female Doctor" keeps up the 70s feel, with the same retro synths, disco beats and falsetto vocals. On both "Sex On The Regular" and "Female Doctor," Charlie Brand seems to be channeling at least a little Kevin Barnes circa 2006-2008. "Cleopatra" starts to feel more like a song from an earlier album, both musically and due to the mystical concepts that Tell it to the Volcano and Fortress edged around. "Cleopatra" also features a mention of "your Fortress," which may or may not be a reference to the preceding album.

By track 4, "Afternoons with David Hockney," the traditional Miniature Tigers sound is very audible. "Afternoons with David Hockney" seems to borrow slightly from 1970s Paul Simon. David Hockney is an English artist who seems to be an influence on the designs for Miniature Tigers album art.

The sentiments in "Easy as All That" and "Flower Door" are beautiful and poetic. "Flower Door" features one of the many clever turns of phrase on the album, "to see through your disguise//you have worn so long it started wearing you."

"Boomerang" proves to be the most catchy and poppy song on the album. It was released as a single many months prior to the album release. "Boomerang" serves as the most effective mesh of Miniature Tigers' old sound with the new 70s influences.

The final three tracks slip deeply into a dream pop sound. "Ugly Needs" features vocals much like the earlier albums, and sweet lyrics. "Angel Bath" toys with Barry White style vocals. Mia Pharaoh closes up with "Husbands & Wives," the slow, floating vocals of which are a far cry from the dance beats found at the beginning of the album.

As a whole, the album flows smoothly from one song and tempo to another. I'm not sure that the clean production of this album is an improvement for the band.What they've lost isn't the ability to make a good song, but more their individuality from the rest of the music market. I suppose Mia Pharaoh, taken on its own is a good album. It's nothing to compare with Tell it to the Volcano, but if it's anything like Fortress in quality, it will grow on you more gradually.

Miniature Tigers are an indie rock outfit. Left to right: Algernon Quashie, Charlie Brand, 

Rick Schaier, and Brandon Lee.

Mia Pharaoh can be purchased here.