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:

Live Review: Leeds Festival 2012

It's not exactly been a vintage year for the UK's major festival circuit. Mediocre lineups, Glastonbury's absence and the odd cancellation have, truth be told, made for a rather quiet season, with no real success stories or headline grabbing antics to speak of. Reading and Leeds, the last of the summer giants can usually be relied on to liven things up, but this year even they appeared a tad underwhelming, with a pair of generic headliners topping a bill which looked average at best. This twin event's ace card, however, has always been its depth, so there was a certain inevitability in the way that the schedule became more and more attractive with each new announcement.

Artist Of The Day: Grimes

Grimes' 2012 album, Visions, is unquestionably a product of the internet age. That isn't to say it falls under the category of by-the-numbers electronica albums being pumped out nowadays. Quite the contrary; Visions is a dream-pop album worthy of every bit of praise it receives. Unlike the inconsistencies found within Grimes' other albums, Geidi Primes and Halfaxa, Visions is a wholly enjoyable, focused effort from Grimes, seeing the young female artist find a pleasing middle-ground between the resplendent child-like nature of her voice and the pulsating bass and electronics that refuse to sit still. The end result is an album that draws from several genres such as: IDM, Industrial, New-Age, Pop, etc. Highly recommended.
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