The Year 2012 and the sounds it makes.

[Der_Lex]

Very, very interesting on your top choice.

EDIT: After listening to a few more of my backlog, I think I'm ready to at least give out a preliminary Top 10. I'll write a series of articles outlining a Top 25 (maybe more) for The Gorgon, but I am reasonably confident that this will be my top ten albums for the year (but don't hold me to that, I may change my mind a bit by the time of the writeup).

1. Big Big Train - English Electric (Part One)
2. Astra - The Black Chord
3. Änglagård - Viljans Öga
4. Motorpsycho - The Death Defying Unicorn
5. Sigh - In Somniphobia
6. Ancestors - In Dreams And Time
7. iamthemorning - iamthemorning
8. Field Music - Measure
9. Ihsahn - Eremita
10. Dr. John - Locked Down

I don't count EPs in a top albums list, but I will give special mention to Agalloch's Faustian Echoes, which would likely be #4 on this list otherwise.

Faustian Echoes isn't on my list either for the same reason, but it's definitely my EP of the year.
Viljans Öga didn't click with me the first time I listened to it because I wasn't in the right mindset for it, but I think the time is right to give it another listen. Will have to check out some of the other stuff on your list.

[thatmarkguy]

Viljans Öga didn't click with me the first time I listened to it because I wasn't in the right mindset for it, but I think the time is right to give it another listen.

Similarly, I'm going to reserve long-term judgement on it until I find the time/mindset to properly brew on it - I really never found myself in a sustained-instrumental-or-Foreign-vocal mood this year (also part of the reason I'm reserving judgement on 2012's Godspeed and Sigur Ros albums). For me (based on the ~20 or so albums I've given a fair shake), this year comes off as three absolute loves, and then the rest of the field that either met-but-not-exceeded expectations, or one or two outstanding individual songs mired in an otherwise forgettable album (the most prominent of which is Echolyn's "Island", which grew and grew on me as the rest of the album waned and waned.)

1. Mountain Goats - Trancendental Youth
2. Calexico - Algiers
3. Beach House - Bloom


Gonna have to give that Big Big Train album a listen.

[killer_roach]

Faustian Echoes isn't on my list either for the same reason, but it's definitely my EP of the year.
Viljans Öga didn't click with me the first time I listened to it because I wasn't in the right mindset for it, but I think the time is right to give it another listen. Will have to check out some of the other stuff on your list.

Field Music may scratch some similar itches as the Big Big Train album, with a bit more accessibility. Very good pop-prog, though.

iamthemorning is my pleasant surprise of the year - Russian neoclassical pop music with heavy emphasis on the "classical" part of it. String arrangements and folk melodies aplenty.

Ihsahn's new album, while not as good as his previous release overall, is still very, very sharp, and has some surprising forays into jazz (which might come as a bit of a surprise considering his background with Emperor, and his previous album being significantly into atmospheric black metal).

Dr. John is likely my oddball pick here - New Orleans-style R&B, loaded down with jazz, folk, blues, and zydeco elements. Almost assuredly the best release he's had in forty years.

[Gowienczyk]

My top picks:

Alcest - Les voyages de l'âme
Änglagård - Viljans öga
Astra - The Black Chord
Candlemass - Psalms for the Dead
Charles Gayle - Streets
Comus - Out of the Coma
Daal - Dodecahedron
Downfall of Gaia - Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes
Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
The Flower Kings - Banks of Eden
Gregory Porter - Be Good
Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
Höstsonaten - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Chapter One
Ian Anderson - Thick as a Brick 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock?
Jakob Ullmann - Fremde Zeit Addendum
Jason Lescalleet - Songs About Nothing
John Talabot - ƒIN
Loma Prieta - I.V.
Menace Ruine - Alight in Ashes
Mgła - With Hearts Toward None
Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I
Om - Advaitic Songs
Orden Ogan - To the End
Pharaoh - Bury the Light
Ravi Coltrane - Spirit Fiction
Robert Glasper - Black Radio
Saint Vitus - Lillie: F-65
Sera Cahoone - Deer Creek Canyon
Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion
Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light
Zelienople - The World Is a House on Fire

Not sure how I would cut them down to 10 as of yet, but there you go.

[Rocket2Russia]

2012 List:

4.5/5
Burial - Truant/Rough Sleeper
Cool Quartet with Lina Nyberg featuring Eric La Casa - Dancing in Tomelilla

4.0/5
Burial - Kindred EP
Juppala Kaapio - Animalia Corolla
Keith Rowe - September
Jakob Ullmann - Fremde Zeit Addendum

3.5/5
Charles Gayle - Streets
Magnus Granberg & Skogen - Ist gefallen in den Schnee
Vikki Jackman, Andrew Chalk & Jean-Noel Rebilly - A Paper Doll's Whisper of Spring
Kim Taeyong, Lee Youngji & Ryu Hankil - Profile
Annette Krebs, Anthea Caddy & Magda Mayas - Thread
lo wie & Ryu Hankil - Beckett's Typist
Andy Stott - Luxury Problems
V/A - Fukushima!

also judging from friends' ratings on RYM, the following V/A releases will most likely count among my favorites of 2012 when i get around to listening:

Confluences and Undertows (two discs of the six-disc Wandelweiser und so weiter)
Pictures of Sound: One Thousand Years of Educed Audio: 980-1980

~

Also, am I the only one here who thought that Bish Bosch was kind of mediocre?

[Dante1847]

**** me, I didnt even know there were new Spiritualized and Jens Lekman records in '12

[Runesmith]

The new Spiritualized single didn't sound promising so I skipped out on the album when it first came out, but with all the high ranks it's getting here maybe I should add it to the listening queue once I get all of my older releases out of the way.

Listening to new music used to be fun and stressless, but lately it almost seems like a chore; a lot of 2012/2011 albums are dense records that require multiple listens, and then some, to fully "get" them. Anyone else feel this way?

[Dante1847]

rushing to catch up on all the '12 albums I missed. new Spiritualized album, after first listen: solid but underwhelming

[MrFruitLord]

1) GY!BE
2) Lower Dens
3) The Money Store
4) Gaza
5) Burning Love
6) Ty Segall Band
7) Tame Impala
8) Bosse-De-Nage
9) NO LOVE DEEP WEB
10) Purity Ring
11) Laurel Halo
12) The Men
13) Cloud Nothings
14) Converge
15) Ty Segall/ White Fence
16) Anhedonist
17) Grizzly Bear
18) Yeasayer
19) Enslaved
20) The Walkmen

Highlights from the full list: Grimes, Divine Fits, Incantation, Chromatics

[TheStuddz]

Everyone here seems to love fairly obscure music. So I'm gonna look like the biggest n00b posting my mainstream stuff in here. But I'm doing it anyways.

Studdzy's Top 10 of 2012 (In No Particular Order)

1. Walk The Moon - Walk The Moon
2. The Shins - Port of Morrow
3. Mumford & Sons - Babel
4. Jack White - Blunderbuss
5. Of Monsters & Men - My Head Is An Animal
6. Imagine Dragons - Night Visions
7. Stars - The North
8. fun. - Some Nights
9. Grizzly Bear - Shields
10. Metric - Synthetica

Honorable mention: The Lumineers - The Lumineers

Keep in mind that I didn't do very much "digging" this year. All of the albums I heard this year were well-known, which explains the lack of inspired choices.