Best New Music of 2012

No doubt, 2012 was a great year for music (unsurprisingly) and a year that was oddly not as dominated by the popular market as much as in years past ("Gangnam Style" aside) So now that the year is just about wrapped up, I thought share some thoughts on 10 albums and 25 songs that I feel were the best 2012 had to offer.

REVIEW: "Postales" - Gaby Moreno

Gaby Moreno's newest album, "Postales" was a lucky discovery I made a few days ago via Spotify recommendations. A soulful Guatemalan singer, Moreno channels the late Amy Winehouse with some of the most powerful vocals I've heard this year.

REVIEW: "Allelujah! Don't Bend, Ascend" - Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Every now and then an album makes its way into my consciousness that affects me on a much deeper level than should be possible, and this year it's the new album "Allelujah! Don't Bend, Ascend!" by Canadian musical collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor. These masters and forefathers of the post-rock genre are back after around a decade's hiatus, and I never realized how much I missed them until I started listening to "Mladic", the 20-minute opening blast of furious noise that tells you right out of the gate that this is more than just awesome music.

The 2nd Review of The 2nd Law (by Muse)

A few days ago, I wrote a review of the new album by Muse, entitled "The 2nd Law" and cited it as a wholly original and fantastic piece of work, going on to rate it as a 9.0/10.0. Let me just come right out and say it: that score was much too high. This is why:

A Slight Change

I have decided to change my review scoring system from an X Out of 5 scale to an X.x out of 10.0 scale simply because the latter provides me with more room to elaborate on my decisions. To update past reviews to this scale:

Clockwork Angels - Rush: 8.5

The 2nd Law - Muse: 9.0

Uno! - Green Day: 4.4

Coexist - The xx: 8.7

Now you're all caught up! Congrats! More reviews to come soon.

REVIEW: "Coexist" by The xx

The xx avoid the sophomore slump with their second album, "Coexist", a beautiful and spacious indie album that's sure to be on dozens of Best of 2012 Lists come year's end.

REVIEW: "Uno!" by Green Day

I must admit that I was predisposed to hate this album. When I first heard that Green Day were abandoning the depth and themeatic complexity that they embraced on 2003's brilliant "American Idiot" and (to a lesser extent) 2009's "21st Century Breakdown", I kind of already knew where my opinion would probably be headed. I type all of this to say that if you are a fan of derivative, bland pop-punk, then pay no attention to what I have to say from this point on.