Casey's EPs, Songs, and Albums of 2012

Reflecting back on 2012, I can't help to compare it to 2011 due to the fact that I only started paying attention to a broader scope of music that year. As of now, 2012 feels a lot weaker at the top than 2011, however the depth far surpasses it. It pained me to leave off records such as Chromatics, Gifts From Enola, Lone, Masked Intruder and Savoir Adore, but this year just had too many strong albums to mention every single one of them. It's even crazier when you think that if you had told me that all of Two Door Cinema Club, Say Anything, Sleigh Bells and Motion City Soundtrack wouldn't have a place on this list, I would have thought you were crazy. Surely a couple of those could release poor albums, but there was no chance that all of them could. Alas, the worst happened, and none of those albums will receive any more mention than this. Pop punk also had a very down year after taking up three of my top five spots (or so) last year, and you won't find a record that I consider pop punk amongst the top 25. Bands you will find featured predominantly are fun., Yellowcard, Frank Ocean, Take One Car, Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, ScHoolboy Q, and far more that you can find below. If you click on the name of the album, you will find links to our coverage. If you click on the name of the song, you will be taken to Youtube for a listen.

Nathan Flynn's Top 40 Songs of the 2012

After a year of listening to new music, I find that I’m not listening to a lot of 2012 music. There have been a few standout albums (Good Kid m.a.a.d. City, Some Nights, Vital, Cruel Summer) that I still listen to on a regular basis, but most releases, even some that I liked a lot- sorry Regina Spektor- have just fallen by the wayside. Well, this isn’t about the best albums of the year: this is about some diamonds in the rough scattered around some of 2012’s best and worst releases. My 40 favorite songs I would recommend checking out from this year (with links!) are:

2012: A Year In Retrospect

The Twilight Sad

I don't want to cast a downer on the past 12 months, but I think most would agree 2012 has hardly been a vintage year. Let's not get overly dramatic here; affairs in the musical world have been as compelling and headline-worthy as ever, and although short on true masterpieces we haven't exactly been bereft of quality releases on which to gorge. Speaking from a personal perspective, nothing has hooked me in the way that WU LYF's Go Tell Fire To The Mountain or The National's High Violet have in recent times, though to grumble would seem irreverent given the wealth of worthwhile material we have been blessed with.

Best Of The Year 2012: Third Quarter Update

Welcome to MuzikDizcovery's third edition of quarterly updates in 2012. Every staff member will put out a top five list, allowing them to showcase their absolute favorite records of 2012 to date. Additionally, it will be able to alert you of albums that you may not have heard of otherwise. This list does not only include albums that have been released as of September 30, as any album that we have heard so far this year is free to be included. fun., Take One Car, Athletics, Now, Now, Frank Ocean, Passion Pit, Suis La Lune and First Aid Kit are amongst the names that feature prominently in our lists. If you click on the album name, you will be led to our review for the album (if we have written one). All the lists can be seen below the jump.

Artist Of The Day: Frank Ocean

It’s difficult for me to imagine Frank Ocean being in any way associated with the Odd Future collective. I mean no offence to fans of said collective, but I haven’t found anything particularly worthy of note from its members. For the most part they sound as you’d expect: young, amateurish hip-hoppers - Tyler, The Creator being the most juvenile and naive of the lot. It’s surprising, then, that the visionary of the group would be working in the realm of R&B, a genre that, aside from Abel Tesfaye, hasn’t seen much innovation for quite some time.

Instead of asserting sexuality and themes of misogyny and ‘club life’ (or what have you) as many of his contemporaries are wont to do, Ocean presents us with themes of unrequited love and class disparity (“Super Rich Kids”). He’s something of a lyrical virtuoso in how he employs literary devices and details his songs through emotional confessionals. He’s also rather culturally and economically conscious; in “Super Rich Kids” he speaks of economic inequality: “The maid comes around too much / Parents ain’t around enough / Too many joy rides in daddy’s jaguar / Too many white lies – and white lines.” His cattiness is amusing and very refreshing. Channel Orange is a definite must for fans of the genre, and possible a stepping-stone for those unsure.

Stream Channel Orange here.

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The Daily Blair: The "Get Laid" Playlist Theory

I know you. All you want out of your day is to get your school work done, you want to watch your favorite sports team or TV show, you want to have a brew with a few of your bros, you want to read Eli Kleman's thoughts on some awesome new album, and you want the company of a handsome lady. You feel like you should be able to accomplish all of this in one day but you always seem to strike out when it comes to scoring that mermaid. Let me help you.

The problem you are having is that you like music by artist that are not Gaga, artist who are neither slim nor shady, artist who refuse to kiss you through the phone, and artist who actually have some sort of musical talent. Once the female hears that you like music that is not on "Shit Songs 107.1" she immediately considers you to be a weird person who she could not carry on a romantic relationship with. She needs a man who makes 250K a year not a man who has 250,000 different versions of "Reckoner." Once you admit that you are not a radio robot, all hope seems to be lost.