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!

I've Got This Covered: fun.: Some Nights"

It's been a while since the last I've Got This Covered, so if you've forgotten what it is, this is where I take an album and imagine what artists could cover it. In this edition, I've taken fun.'s album Some Nights and imagined which musicals the tracks could have been removed from.

1) Some Nights (Intro) - Sweeney Todd
I hate to start by going out onto a little bit of a limb, but I feel like this could be a dark song for just after "Epiphany," perhaps after Todd has claimed his first couple of victims and starts to feel just the smallest bit of remorse.

2) Some Nights - The Lion King
When this song first came out, I saw a couple people describe it as having a Lion King feel, but even in terms of concept, The Lion King fits. "Some Nights" reminds me of Hamlet, and The Lion King is technically a Hamlet adaptation. This one would be sung by Simba somewhere between the middle and the end of the musical.

3) We Are Young - Oliver!
I see this number as one with several narratives. Both Oliver! and this song have to do with the meshing of youth and naivety with adult concepts and dangers, so in Oliver!, this track would have been sung in part by Nancy and Bill Sykes and in part by the orphan children.

4) Carry On - West Side Story
"Carry On" could have been an alternate song for "There's a Place." It's perfect for the story, especially with the allusions to "knives in a fistfight."

5) It Gets Better - Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening isn't a musical I have a great deal of familiarity with, but from everything I know, a song about losing your virginity could find no better home.

6) Why Am I the One - The Music Man
Although it's not a perfect match, this song seemed to me to coincide beautifully with the scene in The Music Man in which Harold Hill bemoans "for the first time in my life, I got my foot stuck in the door."

7) All Alone - Easter Parade
Considering this song almost sums up the first fifteen minutes of Easter Parade, where else could it go? In the film, Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) buys an Easter rabbit for Nadine Hale (Ann Miller) just before she breaks up with him. Hence, this scene would involve Hewes singing about the rabbit (who is now a wind-up doll, but close enough).

8) All Alright - Scrooge
This song would be performed either during Scrooge's visit to Christmas past (as he watches himself let the love of his life go) or Christmas present (as he realizes he's pushed away anyone who would care about him).

9) One Foot - Rent
Rent is another musical I'm not intimately familiar with, but the attitude of this song seems to fit it pretty well. Perhaps an alternate for "La Vie Boheme"?

10) Stars - The Girl Can't Help It
A great forgotten musical that I've paired with my least favorite song on Some Nights. "Stars" would be sung by Tom Miller about Julie London instead of the fantasy sequence with London singing "Cry Me a River."

11) Out on the Town - My Fair Lady
"Out on the Town" has always reminded me of It's a Wonderful Life, but since it isn't a musical, "Out on the Town" would function as a reprise of "On the Street Where You Live."

That's how I think it should go down. Questions? Better ideas? Drop me a comment. Or if you have lots of pull in the musical theater community, feel free to make this happen.

Top 10: Albums of 2012

People have tried to sum 2012 up musically in many ways. It's been described as a year of self-pity and of fiscal awareness, but it's entirely possible that 2012 did not have single theme. 2012 saw a further blurring of the line between independent and mainstream music, and once again saw a redefinition of what it takes to make a song popular (spoiler alert: Glee helps a lot). 2012 was the year Taylor Swift went pop, the year a young girl with the stage name Kitty Pryde made a career for herself the new-fashioned way, the year a Korean man (PSY) had a big American hit.

Once again, I've compiled a list of my favorite albums of 2012. I don't think this was the best year for music, but it certainly wasn't a bad one.

10. The Haunted Man by Bat For Lashes
Natasha Khan falls just the Kate Bush side of Florence and the Machine's Ceremonials in The Haunted Man, with a tiny dash of The Xx. While there are no big hits like "Daniel" contained within The Haunted Man, it's a pretty cool album that lives up to the quality of her previous works.

Key Tracks:

"Lilies"

"All Your Gold"

"Winter Fields"

9. Roses by The Cranberries

Having reviewed Roses way back in March of last year, I'm incredibly impressed by how much the lyrics and melodies come back to me. It's a much better album even than I remembered. The songs toward the end of the album are a little weaker than those that start it, but it definitely stands up, and I feel as though Roses should have received more attention this year.

Key Tracks:

"Conduct"

"Tomorrow"

"Schizophrenic Playboys"

8. 151a by Kishi Bashi

I was going to rank this album lower, until I gave it another listen, and then I began to wonder if it should be higher. The musicality is ace, and the songs are still catchy. The vocals and instrumentals are everywhere, whilst still seeming meticulously placed. If you haven't listened to it already, I recommend.

Key Tracks:

"Bright Whites"

"Chester's Burst Over The Hamptons"

"I Am The Antichrist To You"

7. Moving Up Living Down by Eric Hutchinson

I reviewed Moving Up Living Down when it came out. It's a little different from Sounds Like This, but not necessarily in a bad way. There's a greater variety of styles, and a new kind of power to the production. The lead single "Watching You Watch Him" is strong and there are plenty of album tracks to back it up. 

Key Tracks:
"Best Days"
"Watching You Watch Him"
"Not There Yet"

6. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five

A somewhat morose album, The Sound of the Life of the Mind features more collaboration between Ben Folds and Nick Hornby. The album is beautiful, moving, and very occasionally uplifting. The lead single even featured a video that starred Fraggle Rock's Fraggles.

Key Tracks:

"Erase Me"

"Do It Anyway"

"Hold That Thought"

5. sketches by edu

Andrew Horowitz released his first solo work exclusively on cassette this year. The nine song work was pure beauty. Each track feels hand-crafted and adorable. sketches closes with the only song not written by Horowitz, a cover of "Rainbow Connection" that does the song as much justice as Kermit's original.

Key Tracks:
"miss melody"
"HEY YOU!"
"at the end"

4. Hawaii: Part II by ミラクルミュージカル

Hawaii: Part II was released about a month ago on bandcamp (my review). Something of a concept album, the tracks from Hawaii: Part II still stand well one by one. Joe Hawley's side-project is quite the masterpiece. 

Key Tracks:

"Isle Unto Thyself"

"Murders"

"Dream Sweet in Sea Major"

3. Some Nights by fun.

After listening to Aim and Ignite many times over the past few years, Some Nights came as something of a disappointment. The radio did not agree with me, making "Some Nights" one of the most overplayed songs of 2012. Don't get me wrong, it's still an amazing album, but I was a little underwhelmed. I think radio listeners should also understand that the rest of the album is as good as the two lead singles.

Key Tracks:

"Carry On"

"All Alone"

"Out On The Town"

2. Former Lives by Benjamin Gibbard

While I realize certain albums on my list are odd and off the beaten path, I'm surprised I haven't seen Former Lives on more 2012 best of lists. Ben Gibbard created a great album that certainly stuck with me. There's not a single song on the album that I would skip, and almost every one has a very special place on the album and in my life.

Key Tracks:

"Lily"

"Oh, Woe"

"A Hard One to Know"

1. Mia Pharaoh by Miniature Tigers

Falling only slightly short of the picture perfect Tell It To The Volcano, Mia Pharaoh took an adventurous leap into the 70s- but with synths. Lead single "Boomerang" was a great preview of the album's feel. Miniature Tigers manage to find the space between cute and sexy, between retro and modern, having a sound that no one can emulate, and that is exclusively theirs (their album of covers could have easily made it into my top ten, but technically it's an E.P.). I'm sure I listened to this album more than any other this year, and for good reason. The songs are well-sculpted, catchy, sensual, and strangely cute. If you haven't listened to Mia Pharaoh yet, get on it.

Key Tracks:

"Sex On The Regular"

"Afternoons With David Hockney"

"Boomerang"

Album Review: Some Nights by fun.

Indie supergroup fun. hit the scene in 2009 with Aim and Ignite. Some Nights takes the pleasant pop qualities of Aim and Ignite and tries to expand on them with some new musical components. There are some hits and misses amongst the new effects, but you can't hate them for trying.

The album opens with "Some Nights (Intro)," a song which adequately introduces some of the new roads this album travels down, whilst still feeling very much at home in their repertoire. It also serves to introduce the album title "some nights" as a common phrase. The phrase "some nights" is used in four different songs on the album. It can also be assumed from "Some Nights (Intro)" that Some Nights will have a slightly darker tone than that of Aim and Ignite. The band attempted to capture the tone of the song in the video, but I'm not entirely sure that I don't get more out of the song on its own.

"Some Nights" strays back toward the power pop feel of Aim and Ignite, but it also introduces Auto-Tune to the album. "Some Nights" is very catchy, and is only overshadowed by the following song "We Are Young," which became a huge hit single after it was covered on Glee. "We Are Young" was also used in a Chevy Sonic commercial which premiered during the Super Bowl. Even without these sales tactics in mind, the song has incredible flow and power to it that should be able to sell it on its own.

My favorite track on the album though, is probably "Carry On." "Carry On" seems as though it could be the theme for an Oscar-nominated movie. The Irish-influenced strings give it both strength and a sense of culture. "It Gets Better" took me a couple of listens to enjoy. At first, it sounds only a few inches away from an early 2000s alt. rock song, but it is more complicated and melodic, thus saving itself. "It Gets Better" also uses noticeable Auto-Tune. "Why Am I The One" seems like a throwback to lead singer Nate Ruess's days in The Format until it shifts into the chorus, which might be the most flowing of any chorus on the album. The chorus of "Why Am I The One" also features great harmonies borrowed from early 70s folk music.

"All Alone" is my favorite story song of the album. Ruess has a tendency to create amazing stories in his lyrics, and "All Alone" is a perfect example, even if I can hear late 90s boy bands in the melody of the chorus. One of the weaker songs on the album is "All Alright," which seems to have very little energy and an only vaguely interesting chorus. "One Foot" has a great, bouncy beat and a consistently interesting melody.

The only track on Some Nights that I truly dislike is "Stars." "Stars" starts out well enough, with references to the band's origins and dealing with new-found fame. The horns so prevalent on Aim and Ignite are brought to the forefront, and it seems that all will go well. Then, about halfway into the song, Ruess suddenly becomes some demented Kanye West clone, with all of the Auto-Tune they didn't use on other tracks splashed on in not-so-glorious technicolor. Generally, Nate Ruess has a good voice that lends itself well to the songs he sings. The Auto-Tune makes "Stars" sound dead and terrible. It's a pity that "Stars" is the official closer for the album.

I'm not sure how "Out on the Town" counts as a bonus track, since it seems to be on every copy of the album from what I can tell. Either way, "Out on the Town" is a much more pleasant and fitting closer for Some Nights than the artificial "Stars."

If Auto-Tune can't be counted as a fault in this album, I feel fun. should at least take note to use it in moderation. Apart from the use of computerized vocal enhancement, the production of this album is smooth and thoughtful. fun. bring in a lot of strings and instruments that some people forget have as much place on a pop album as anything else. It's nice to see the experiments performed on Some Nights, and I can't wait to hear the smoothed-out sound I'm sure their third album will have.

fun. are a group consisting of (left to right): Andrew Dost (of Anthallo), Nate Ruess (formerly of 
The Format), and Jack Antonoff (of Steel Train).

Some Nights can be previewed and purchased at the band's website.