Some 2012 Favorites -- Albums

That's right -- actual albums (well, mostly CD's, to be honest) with a push-and-pull ebb-and-flow that kept me playing them more often than normal. And I own physical copies of all of the following, which marks me as an old guy clinging to 20th Century media consumption habits to those digital natives out there. Me? I like to think that if I actually paid money for these albums, then they are worth my time and efforts on some level more meaningful than a barely considered MP3 of some hook-free "intensely artistic" existential examination. But maybe that's too harsh. Here are some of my faves, in no particular order, each followed by a first-draft haiku extolling virtues through verses.

Scott Walker - Bish Bosch

like Lynch for your ears / nightmarish vapors and ash / deliquescent pop

Hot Chip - In Our Hands

autistic swagger / these English nerds kill dance floors / with infectious glee

Chromatics - Kill For Love

swelling and epic / with swooning gauzy guitars / dreamy resonance

Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

so earthy and real / with any false notes absent / from start to finish

Killing Joke - MMXII

over thirty years / spark past in furious flash / and coruscation

Screaming Females - Ugly

thunderous riffs spiked / with delirious vocals / that slay with whispers

Tom Jones - Spirit In The Room

the twilight lion / still has strength to purr and growl / in the daylight left

Nite Jewel - One Second Of Love

dour introversion / blasted away by the beat / of twee hearts on fire

Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts

and speaking of hearts / sounds like a trampled spirit / can't stay down for long

Lovelock - Burning Feeling

so now the dance floor / is the last conquered domain / for our Zombi mate

Soulsavers - The Light The Dead See (feat. Dave Gahan)

that old man Gahan / finds his Mode in Delta Blues / and sweet revival

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...

like comet blazing / her rare flare, beyond compare / offers wry delights

Saint Etienne - Words And Music By Saint Etienne

pure Heavenly pop / of a veddy British bent / like they never left

Metric - Synthetica

down to a science / mixing man and machine in / perfect measurement

Like any good list, this is well and incomplete and only captures a moment of emotional spark in the empty ricochets of my memory's chambers. But it will have to do. Up next will be movies or songs or nothing at all, depending on the whimsy of my writing bone, but I hope you'll sample the above works of musical joy and despair and introspection.

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