The Guardian have published a list of their contributors’ albums of 2012 (so far) and it’s a fairly eclectic list.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jun/14/best-albums-2012-so-far
I think the fact that I don’t actually know many of these albums or indeed artists is a sure sign that my hipster days are over (if they were ever there at all!), but there’s certainly things there that I already have or pique my interest…
Saint Etienne ‘Words & Music By…’ Easily their poppiest album since ‘Good Humour’ and its nice to see that they managed to avoid the trap of having their personality subsumed into that of the production team. I must do a proper review of this soon.
Django Django ‘Django Django’ Great album – nothing else quite like it out there at the moment.
Chairlift ‘Something’ I’ve heard a few tracks from this one, so I think it needs to go on the buy list. ‘Met Before’ got a fair amount of play on 6 Music.
Grimes ‘Visions’ Grimes is another one that’s getting quite a lot of play on 6 Music and I’m liking what I’ve heard.
Hot Chip ‘In Our Heads’ Hot Chip are one of those bands that I always end up overlooking. I suspect if they were on eMusic I’d have this already, but for some reason they never come to mind when I’m buying in-store…
Dexys ‘One Day I’m Going To Soar’ I’ve heard a *lot* of good things about this, which is rather unexpected given how mercurial Kevin Rowlands can be. Must download this from eMusic now that my credits have rolled over…
Lana Del Rey ‘Born To Die’ I’m afraid I just don’t get LDR. She’s got a good voice and the production is top-notch but for me the songs just aren’t there. All sheen and no substance I’m afraid – from the carefully constructed persona (complete with backstory) through the the faux-Lynch videos – scratch the surface and she’s just another pop-starlet with some rather ordinary songs…
Good post. If you’re into good electonic/dance, I can highly recommend “Fin” by John Talabot. It’s on eMusic.
The social side of that site is such a major disappointment that I’ve never added a “friend”, but I’m “Blackpixel” if you fancy comparing notes on the best things to get every month… or you can check http://pinterest.com/richy1311/recent-emusic-purchases/ for the last couple months worth.
Cheers! R.
Cheers – I’ll check John Talabot out! You’re quite right about the social side of eMusic. One of the things that can be quite frustrating about it is how hard it can be to find things, especially new releases, and some last.fm style artist recommendation system based on social connections would be very helpful… I’ll add you on there – maybe it will be better than we think! I am planning on doing a regular round-up of eMusic purchases, so keep an eye out for what I’ve used my credits on.