Top 5 Favorite Albums of the Year

As a follow up to http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-topic/31/top-5-favorite-songs-of-the-year/568671/#45 I thought I'd jump straight into the best albums of the year. Most of my favorite songs from the previous list are part of my favorite albums this year which isn't often the case, it's just been a really strong year for great albums in my opinion. So what are your favorite albums this year? You're welcome to order them or not.

Here's my picks:

1. Hot Chip - In Our Heads

The strongest album release this year for me but it's followed very closely. I love every track on it apart from the lead single (Night and Day) which I really dislike.

2. The Shins - Port of Morrow

This album is really a tie with the next album on the list as there is no way I can pick between them because of how different they are. But again some extremely gripping tracks in addition to some fun poppy ones.

3. Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Deftones has always been on my watch list, but never been something I really got into until this album. But man does this album pack one hell of a punch.

4. Pinback - Information Retrieved

Perhaps not Pinback's best work as a whole but some of their best tracks to date live on this album

5. Tame Impala - Lonerism

A late entry that is still current for me so take that how you will, but just after a few listens this album blows me away. Takes all the successes of their former albums and improves upon it by writing better more focused tracks while keeping the same aimless psychedelic feel.

Special Mentions:

Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania: Strong album and there best for a long while but the Pumpkins really haven't had the same magic since Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness.

David Byrne & St Vincent - Love This Giant: Gives a very strong first impression but on further listen deteriorates fast. St. Vincent's solo stuff is much stronger.

The Killers - Battle Born: Some great tracks but overall too pop focused for my liking, which is fine except the pop tracks don't hold a candle to Hot Fuss.

Grizzly Bear - Shields: I enjoyed it but a bit too low impact for me. Gun-Shy and Yet Again will stay on my song rotation for a long while.

Muse - The 2nd Law: Just like all Muse albums for the first listen I think the album is the shit! Then reality hits me and I realise how shallow their work ends up after further listens. Madness is a great song though.

In no particular order:

Death Grips - No Love Deep Web

Swans - The Seer

Lindstrom - Smalhans

Dead Can Dance - Anastasis

Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music

I barely listen to new music anymore. But I liked Caspian's Waking Season and Metric's Synthetica quite a lot.

1. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
2. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city
3. Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
5. Aesop Rock - Skelethon

Honorable mentions:

• Kinny - Can't Kill a Dame With Soul
• Kishi Bashi - 151a
• David Byrne & St. Vincent - Love This Giant

Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind
Old Man Gloom - No
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Less Than Jake - Greetings and Salutations

@PollySMPS: You're pretty much spot on about Oceania. It was very close to being in my top 5 if it hadn't been for Tame Impala.

Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

Swans - The Seer

Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction

The Shins FTW

1. Parallax II: Future Sequence - Between The Buried & Me

2. Yellow & Green - Baroness

3. Synthetica - Metric

4. Separate Realities - Trioscapes

5. Periphery II: This Time It's Personal - Periphery

I didn't actually buy much new this year, which is unusual for me. Unless I'm forgetting something (which, with my memory, is pretty likely), I only have three. I liked all of them, though.

1. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

2. The Punch Brothers - Who's Feeling Young Now?

3. Titus Andronicus - Local Business

Local Business was kind of disappointing because it just wasn't as raw and gut-punching as The Monitor. Still good, but they set the bar really high with their previous album.

I didn't know The Shins put out a new album this year, though. I may have to check it out. I know I listened to a bit of Fiona Apple's album from this year too, and that I liked what I heard. I really need to get that one. It's nice to see people here are actually listing bands I like. The other gaming forum that I've been very active in for years is overwhelmingly full of metal heads. I don't have anything against metal (don't really listen to it, though), but it would make music threads rather boring.

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city
Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
Nas - Life is Good
G.O.O.D. Music - Cruel Summer
Big K.R.I.T. - Live from The Underground

Fear Factory - The Industrialist

The Sword - Apocryphon

Shadows Fall - Fire From the Sky

Slash - Apocalyptic Love

Fez Soundtrack

Weak year for music for me, as always I don't understand the love the Deftones get. Muse album was ok then they had a dubstep song, completely ruined it. Rush was ok, Offspring sucked, Lamb of God and Soulfly were disappointingly average compared to previous works, Soundgarden should've never got back together. That's all I've got to so far. Hope next year is better...

Channel Orange thats it man.

I'm not indie enough for these music threads.

Fiona Apple -The Idler Wheel

Kimbra - Vows

Jack White - Blunderbuss

They kinda switch every other week but currently they are

Lifeformed - Fastfall (Dustforce Soundtrack)

Shiny Toy Guns - III

Purity Ring - Shrines

The XX - Coexist

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Best EP

Daughter - The Wild Youth

2011's 2012 Album of the Year

Seryn - This is Where We Are

Dada Life - The Rules of Dada

I've actually only listened to the one new cd this year, and damn is it a good one.

At this moment:

1. Fear Fun- Father John Misty

2. Gossamer- Passion Pit

3. Bloom- Beach House

4. Synthetica- Metric

5. Night Visions- Imagine Dragons

I've only gotten into one album of this year, and whilst Googling it found out it actually came out in late 2011...

Indie music has really mushed together into an unappealing glob of sound-alike lo-fi and electro-pop bands in the past few years. I miss the more experimental days of the late nineties and early oughties when it seemed like exciting new styles were emerging every other week. Mogwai, Add n to (x), the Delgadoes, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Decemberists, Boards of Canada... Maybe I'm just old and jaded.

1) Channel Orange - Frank Ocean

2) Good Kid m.a.a.d City - Kendrick Lamar

3) Lonerism - Tame Impala

4) Kaleidoscope Dream - Miguel

5) Visions - Grimes

1. Loma Prieta - I.V.

2. Pile - Dripping

3. Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

4. Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

5. Heems - Nehru Jackets

I listen to a lot of music. I don't like to think of best music in a year since it is such an arbitrary frame but here it goes:

Zedd - Clarity

Wild Nothing - Nocturne

Clams Casino - Instrumental Mixtape 2

Grimes - Visions

Air Tycoon - Winter Purple

Bro we already have a thread like this. Mine are in this thread http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-topic/31/favorite-albums-this-year/563431/

@GeekDown said:

1. Loma Prieta - I.V.

2. Pile - Dripping

3. Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

4. Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

5. Heems - Nehru Jackets

I just started listening to 'Awesome Wave' and it's a great album I wish I discovered earlier.

1. Good Kid m.a.a.d City - Kendrick Lamar

2. Life is Good - Nas

3. Food and Liquor II - Lupe Fiasco

@Hyperglide said:

Bro we already have a thread like this. Mine are in this thread http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-topic/31/favorite-albums-this-year/563431/

A lot could have changed in two months ;)

@Kyelb22 said:

Dada Life - The Rules of Dada

I've actually only listened to the one new cd this year, and damn is it a good one.

As a huge fan of Dada Life, I was actually really bummed by Rules of Dada. :( It's pretty poorly mixed, a lot of the songs are super-abrupt re-edits, and the new tracks aren't all that great save for Boing Clash Boom. But that's just me, I s'pose.

I'm working on a blog for later this year that will have my full top 10 (along with some other honorable mentions), but the short of it is Purity Ring's Shrines album and Devin Townsend Project'sEpicloud. One of those two will be my number one. Unsure which yet, but both are by far and beyond the best albums released this year. They are incredible works worth listening to over and over.

But man, so much good stuff this year. My tentative list on Rateyourmusic has something close to 58 albums on it now, I think. 2012 has been a pretty wonderful year for new music.

@AJasmer: Jeez, we basically have the same taste in music. Fear Fun is one of my favorite albums of the last few years. If Good Kid m.a.a.d City didn't come out a couple months a go, we'd have the same top 5. Although, I'd probably flip Synthetica and Bloom

Fez OST - Disasterpeace (legit... best music I've heard this year. I do not give this to a game lightly. The soundtrack is throughout the best and most inventive music I have heard this year, no contest)

Cigarette Boats - Curren$y x Harry Fraud

Death Grips - The Money Store

Death Grips - No Love Deep Web

Action Bronson - Blue Chips

@daedelus said:

Clams Casino - Instrumental Mixtape 2

This would be in mine but the music was released all over already. Clams Casino is the best producer in Hip-Hop right now though.

1. Blunderbuss - Jack White

2. Periphery II: This Time It's Personal - Periphery

3. The Dethalbum III - Dethklok

4. Koi No Yokan - Deftones

5. Apocryphon - The Sword

Pretty weak year for music, though

I don't know if any of you are into them, but Rush put out a new album (Clockwork Angels) this year and it was freaking great.

I actually have five I want to post now. No particular order. Still have to listen to several albums, including Blunderbuss, that Kendrick Lamar album, and Life is Good.

1. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan

2. Baroness - Yellow & Gold

3. R. Kelly - Write Me Back

4. Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts

5. Muse - The 2nd Law

Blunderbuss - Jack White

Journey OST - Austin Wintory

Dethalbum III - Dethklok

L'enfant Sauvage - Gojira

Galaktikon - Brendan Small

1. Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

2. Death Grips - NO LOVE DEEP WEB

3. Issues - Black Diamonds

4. Death Grips - The Money Store

5. The Contortionist - Intrinsic

@austinmiller: That's pretty cool. That list is pretty much interchangable 2 to 5. But Fear Fun is just so good all the way through, hopefull it gets the recognition it deserves!

I always have a hard time picking a top of anything, but here are a few favorites:

Frank Ocean -- channel ORANGE

Ellie Goulding -- Halycon

Kendrick Lamar -- good kid, m.A.A.d city

John Mayer -- Born and Raised

Chris Brown -- Fortune

Mumford & Sons -- Babel

I liked The 2nd Law from Muse more than I thought I would.

I'm just going to list my favorite 5 albums that I listened to during 2012 for the first time:

1- Kendrick Lamar - good kid, MAAD City

2- Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Part II

3- Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

4- Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music

5- The Roots - Undun

I guess I could list two more 2012 releases, but they would only technically be in the top 5, and not really be favorites.

• Sigh - In Somnophobia
• Hexen - Being And Nothingness
• Gorod - A Perfect Absolution
• In Mourning - The Weight Of Oceans
• Enslaved - Ritiir

1. The Menzingers - On the Impossible Past

2. Rush - Clockwork Angels

3. Japandroids - Celebration Rock

4. State Faults - Desolate Peaks

5. Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Been a pretty good year for music, I must say.

1. Neurosis - Honor Found In Decay

2. John Frusciante - PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone

3. Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet On Sky

4. HEALTH - Max Payne 3 OST

5. Swans - The Seer

1. Katatonia - Dead End Kings
2. Napalm Death - Utilitarian
3. Dragonforce - The Power Within
4. Kamelot - Silverthorn
5. Anathema - Weather Systems

1. channel ORANGE

2. channel ORANGE

3. channel ORANGE

4. channel ORANGE

5. Trilogy*

* - Can't have channel ORANGE twice, even if Trilogy only had three new songs.

5. Jack White - Blunderbuss

4. Grizzly Bear - Shields

3. Japandroids - Celebration Rock

2. Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory

1. Tame Impala - Lonerism

1. Rush - Clockwork Angels

2. All That Remains - A War You Cannot Win

3. KISS - Monster

4. Dethklok - Dethalbum III

5. 3 Inches of Blood - Long Live Heavy Metal

Biggest disappointment goes to Van Halen - A Different Kind of Truth. FOURTEEN YEARS, DAVID LEE ROTH ON VOCALS, AND THEY MAKE AN ALBUM WORSE THAN VAN HALEN III

@Kyelb22 said:

Dada Life - The Rules of Dada

I've actually only listened to the one new cd this year, and damn is it a good one.

Fuck yeah Dad Life:

I\m not sure of my top 5 but Django Django is definitely up there.

Australia

Australia

Australia

Australia

We Love You

@nintendoeats: is that a band or album?

somewhat pretentious frontman Billy Corgan