2012 in review 2: music
And here's part two: music.
It looks like I listened to a lot less music in 2012 than in 2011 - although this may be an artefact of the statistics-gathering of last.fm rather than what I've actually listened to. But according to last.fm, anyway - and it's clear when the below numbers are compared to those I posted for 2011.
A couple notes of the artists in this list:
- I didn't find the new album from Andrew Bird particularly striking. Not bad though.
- CMX is back on the menu! Everything goes in cycles.
- I supported Amanda Palmer's kickstarter (she crowdsourced her new album); I expected the new album to be ok, but not really my thing - but I was mistaken and positively surprised, in that it's actually really good, and quite poppy, and with some killer tracks on it. I think the video to "Want It Back" is fantastic - and I really like the song too.
Click to view- The new album from Neil Halstead, Palindrome Hunches, is very, very good - definitely his best solo effort yet, and highly recommended by me.
- Norah Jones's newest album, Little Broken Hearts produced by Dangermouse), is another keeper. The Guardian streamed it when it came out, and I found myself playing it over and over again, and in the end bought it. Good stuff.
- And finally, I discovered This Is the Kit sometime in December, and was inspired by their lovely song "Spinney" to buy their latest (2010) album - you can stream it on bandcamp here.
Artists I listened to in 2012, according to my last.fm statistics:
1 The National 1,051
2 The Cure 408
3 Josh Ritter 385
4 The Decemberists 332
5 Andrew Bird 258
6 The Weakerthans 244
7 CMX 241
8 Gemma Hayes 233
9 Radiohead 228
10 Son Volt 216
11 Death Cab for Cutie 215
12 Midnight Oil 208
13 Trespassers William 198
14 Brett Dennen 197
15 Wilco 192
16 The Head And The Heart 186
17 Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra 183
18 Low 179
19 Neil Halstead 178
20 Bon Iver 177
21 Bad Religion 175
22 Mogwai 166
23 Iron & Wine 152
24 Rodney Crowell 145
25 Norah Jones 140
26 The Mountain Goats 125
27 Gillian Welch 112
27 Joanna Newsom 112
29 John K. Samson 106
30 Egotrippi 105
31 Jay Farrar 102
31 This Is the Kit 102