Honorable Mentions:
The Heavy: The Glorious Dead
Shooter Jennings: Family Man
Lambchop: Mr. M
Madness: Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da
Rhett Miller: The Dreamer
The Mountain Goats: Transcendental Youth
Murder By Death: Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon
Patti Smith: Banga
Joey Ramone: "...Ya Know"
The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band: Between the Ditches
Riverboat Gamblers: The Wolf You Feed
Royal Headache: Royal Headache
Ryan Bingham: Tomorrowland
Ty Segall Band: Slaughterhouse
Soundgarden: King Animal
The Wallflowers: Glad All Over
The Walkmen: Heaven
The Whigs: Enjoy the Company
Best Reissue
Sugar: Copper Blue/Beaster & File Under Easy Listening
Merge Records really killed it this year in reissues. The Archers of Loaf ones were fantastic but take a back seat to their work on Sugar's catalog. Copper Blue is one of the greatest albums of the 90's and with it's beefed up sound (you can actually hear David Barbe's bass) and excellent packaging this is THE must own reissue of 2012.
Best Live Album
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Live From Alabama
\Live From Alabama features many of Isbell's finest songs ranging from his time with the Drive-By Truckers to his excellent solo work. The sound is impeccable, the additional horn section is perfect and the final result is the best live album of the year.
The Top 50 (26-50)
50. Soul Asylum: Delayed Reaction
The lineup is almost completely different but Soul Asylum hasn't sounded this alive since Grave Dancer's Union. The rockers ("Gravity," "The Streets") are the highlights but aside from a few unremarkable tracks, Dave Pirner and company are back on track.
49. Tony Sly & Joey Cape: Acoustic Vol 2
The second volume of acoustic versions of "hit" songs from Lagwagon's Joey Cape and the late (R.I.P.) Tony Sly (No Use For A Name) isn't much different than the first but still features top notch versions of some of both artists best known work. Worth it just to hear the (presumably) last stuff Sly will ever release.
48. Suburban Legends: Day Job
If you're the kind of person who would enjoy sunny ska covers of Disney songs (":Just Can't Wait To Be King, Under the Sea) then you'll likely enjoy the hell out of Day Job. If that sounds like the worst thing you've ever heard, then stay far, far away from this album and this band.
47. Guided By Voices: Let's Go Eat the Factory, Class Clown Spots a UFO, The Bears For Lunch
The ever prolific Robert Pollard (with a lot of fantastic assists from Tobin Sprout) managed to release 3 albums worth of music with the newly reunited Guided By Voices. In typical GBV fasion, there's a lot to love balanced out by an insane amount of filler and half songs. That's almost always been the point of GBV anyway but a better filter could have been used. Still there;'s enough great music spread throughout all 3 albums to keep fans happy.
46. Matt Skiba & the Sekrets: Babylon
Babylon sounds a lot like Skiba's work with Alkaline Trio and this is both a good and bad thing. Staying in his wheelhouse allows for fantastic sing a long's like "Voices" and "All Fall Down" but it also allows Skiba to completely rip himself off Fogerty style on ""Falling Like Rain." Just because you add a layer of synth to "The American Scream" from 2010's This Addiction doesn't make it much of a new song. Still a quality album for fans of Alkaline Trio.
45.Reel Big Fish: Candy Colored Fury
On Candy Colored Fury Reel Big Fish make a outright attempt to recreate the sound that made them one hit wonders in the first place. Fast and largely angry ska may be out of style but RBF are still able to pull off high quality tracks like "Everyone Else is an Asshole" and "I Dare You To Break My Heart." There's definitely a feeling of RBF by the numbers here and a couple tracks that should have remained on the cutting room floor but the overall effort is solid.
44. The White Wires: White Wires III
White Wires III is another solid set of melodic garage punk straight from Canada. Tracks like "Everywhere You Were," "And Then You Told Me" and "Let's Start Over Again" certainly don't rewrite any rule books but they are fun, catchy and energetic. There's a bit more of a pop feel here than on the bands previous releases but the result is very similar and well done.
43. And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: Lost Songs
Lost Songs is ...Trail of Dead's best album in years . A great balance between hardcore ("Up to Infinity," "Catatonic"), melodic ("Lost Songs," "Heart of Wires") and a mix of both ("Open Doors" "Pinhole Cameras") is present throughout the album. It bogs down a bit in the middle but manages to overcome that issue with energy and passion.
42. Diamond Rugs: Diamond Rugs
This indie rock "supergroup's" debut album is a loose ramshackle affair that relies much more on energy and fun than craftmanship. The album is held together by the gleefully juvenile songs of Deer Tick's John McCauley ("Gimmie a Beer," "Hungover and Horny,"). The other members bring decent songs to the table but the material is a bit inconsistent. Still any album with the horn driven "Call Girl Blues" is well worth checking out.
41. Classics of Love: Classics of Love
The latest band from ex Operation Ivy frontman Jesse Michaels is a (surprise!) hardcore ska/punk band. While it's firmly in Jesse's career wheelhouse, there's tons of energy and passion along with enough hooks to make Classics of Love a more than respectable entry in Michael's on again, off again career.
40. The Avett Brothers: The Carpenter
The Avett Brothers continue to branch out and the results are generally top notch. There's still plenty of Appalachian folk ("The Once and Future Carpenter," "February Seven," "A Fathers First Spring") but the real highlights are the banjo driven "Live and Die," the 60's pop of "I Never Knew You" and the Beatlelesque "Pretty Girl From Michigan." Only the awesomely titled but fairly uninteresting alt rock of "Paul Newman vs. the Demons" disappoints but it's hardly enough to seriously hurt the album.
39. The Bouncing Souls: Comet
The Bouncing Souls may be slowing down a bit in both time between albums and the actual speed of the songs but I doubt most fans will care as long as the band keeps turning out solid, sing-a-long punk like this. "Fast Times" and "Static" are vintage Souls while "Coin Toss Girl" and "In Sleep" slow down the tempo but will stick in your head for days. The mindless fun aspects are more hit ("DFA") and miss ("We Love Fun") but overall Comet is another solid album from the punk vets.
38. Hot Water Music: Exister
Chuck Ragan takes a break from his solo folk career to revive his old hardcore emo band and you'd hardly know they'd been away. Ragan's and co lead singer Chris Wollard's voices are even more ragged than they used to be but their passion and energy haven't been diminished at all. "Mainline," "State of Grace," "Exister" and "Paid in Full" rock with force and vigor. The album never really lets up with only "No End Left in Sight" offering a slight reprieve from the onslaught. Here's to hoping HWM sticks around for awhile.
37. Dinosaur Jr: I Bet on Sky
I Bet on Sky marks a slight sonic adjustment for Dinosaur Jr. J Mascis' guitar isn't nearly as overpowering as most of the bands work but his solo's are still something to behold. "Don't Pretend You Didn't Know," "Watch the Corners" and "Pierce the Morning Rain" are worth the price of admission themselves.
36. Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music
I'm not very good at writing about hip-hop. I do know when something is good. This is good. That is all.
35. Local H: Hallelujah I'm a Bum
Local H seems intent on keeping the concept album alive and well in this singles driven day and age. Hallelujah I'm a Bum, rocks hard from start to finish while taking a largely bi-partisan look at the failings of America's political system. There's lots of blame to go around in Scott Lucas' view and he's not afraid to tell it on heavy tracks like "They Saved Reagan's Brain," "Here Come's Ol' Laptop" and "Blue Line." Hard rock is the main focus here as it is in all of Local H's music but the surprising turn to country on "Look Who's Walking on Four Legs Again" is the album's high point.
34. ZZ Top: La Futura
La Futura is the best ZZ Top album since Eliminator. Ditching all the synthesizers for some good old 70's style hard rock, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard turn back the clock and crank up the guitars. "I Gotsa Get Paid," I Don't Wanna Lose, Lose You" "Flyin' High" and "Consumption" are classic sounding ZZ Top rockers and "Over You" is a more than respectable ballad. Gibbon's voice is almost pure guttural growl at this point but it suits the music well. By sticking to what they've always done best, ZZ Top come out on top in 2012.
33. Green Day: !Uno!, !Dos!, !Tre!
3 albums in a year is just plain too much for any artist so much like Guided By Voices, Green Day stretches themselves too thin throughout their ambitious trilogy but when it works it works fantastically. !Uno! is the best of the 3, with it's focus on straight pop punk but both !Dos! and !Tre! feature numerous high points. A double album featuring all the best songs would easily make the top ten this year but between unmemorable tracks and failed experiments ("Kill the DJ," "Nightlife") there's too much that's easily glossed over to really make all 3 albums completely worthwhile.
32. NOFX: Self Entitled
NOFX incorporate a bit more hardcore stylings into Self Entitled but for the most part it's business as usual. With songs ranging from the comic ("Cell Out") to the political ("Ronnie & Mags") or a mix of both ("72 Hookers") lots of Fat Mike's usual targets are hit on this but the highlight of the album is the slowest song. "I've Got One Jealous Again, Again" documents Mike's divorce in the form of splitting up the record collection. If nothing else it's a great point for anyone looking for some hints into 80's punk.
31. Teenage Bottlerocket: Freak Out!
This set of high energy Ramones style pop-punk isn't anything different that anything Teenage Bottlerocket have done on their previous 3 albums but it's another damn fine set of humorous sing-a-long punk. Whether mocking metalheads ("Headbanging") or punks ("Punk House of Horror"), singing about rejection ("Done With Love") or asking to be sexually violated ("Mutilate Me") it's nearly impossible to not get caught up and Freak Out! Bonus points for writing a song about Top Gun ("Maverick") that's way better than the movie.
30. The Hives: Lex Hives
Lex Hives largely focuses on what the Hives do best, namely rocking the fuck out. With the exception of the new wave influenced "Wait a Minute Now" and a couple mid paced rockers ("I Want More" and the Howlin' Wolf influenced "Without the Money") the band gets back to basics and pushes the tempo on a fine set of raging garage rock. From the opening call to arms of "Come On!" until the closing "Midnight Shifter" (which displays some soul influences), Lex Hives is a blast.
29. Titus Andronicus: Local Business
The sound of Local Business is a bit off-putting at first for anyone familiar with Titus Andronicus' previous work. Gone are the giant walls of guitars and the stripped down results take a while to sink in. Fortunately once it does the high quality of the songs comes through loud and clear. Patrick Stickles still rages against pretty much everything (society, politicians, himself) but does so in a much more melodic and accessible way than ever before. Tracks like ""Still Life With Hot Deuce on Silver Platter" and "Upon Viewing Oregon's Landscape With the Flood of Detritus" may sound different than before but they're very much classic Titus Andronicus.
28. Trampled By Turtles: Stars and Satellites
Stars and Satellites might nor rock (relative term) as much as Trampled By Turtles previous work but they still crank up the tempo on "Walt Whitman" and "Sorry" and while those are some fine moments, nothing in the bands past is up to the quality of "Alone." The song is quite simply one of the most beautiful songs released by anyone this year. The rest of the album helps to prove that TBT is the finest contemporary bluegrass band in the business.
27. Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Psychedelic Pill
No one ever said Neil Young was unambitious. Psychedelic Pill opens with the 27 minute rambleathon "Driftin' Back" and features 2 other tracks that are 16 minutes long a piece ("Ramada Inn," "Walk Like a Giant"). There's a whole lot of dickin' around on guitar going on here and all 3 will surely test anyone's patience. On the plus side, the dickin' around generally works pretty well and there's some real cool solo's mixed in all over the place. The rest of the songs are all of a loose but high quality nature with the title track and "Born in Ontario" being standouts. While the album is better served as background music in spots it's still Neil Young and Crazy Horse so it's pretty awesome overall.
26. Gary Clark Jr: Blak and Blu
Gary Clark Jr is a very talented musician who isn't afraid to mix up a wide variety of styles but first and foremost he's an exceptional guitar player. The solo's scattered throughout every song on his debut album are the highlights and completely exhilarating. He's a damn fine singer as well but unfortunalely Clark's songwriting, while generally solid, and willingness to take on any style aren't at the same level ("The Life" might be the worst song from a good artist released this year). Fortunately he largely sticks to guitar based rock and blues and even if it's a bit too clean sounding, Blak and Blu is still a fantastic debut and Clark is an artist with a very bright future.
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