The Oscars aren't until February 24 so I'm not late at all with these posts... ahem.
Q. What do albums by Alice Cooper, Laurie Berkner, and The Ting Tings have in common?
A. Nothing.
Actually, those albums are Bridget's favorite music purchases of 2012. As evidenced by this little collage here, we are nothing if not eclectic in our music tastes here in the Dillow House. But that's probably already an established fact.
Pictured from left to right:
First Aid Kit The Lion's Roar
Alice Cooper Rhino Hi-Five: Alice Cooper EP
Van Halen A Different Kind of Truth
Laurie Berkner Whaddya Think of That?
Estelle Shine
Wolfmother eponymous
Willowz Everyone
Carolina Chocolate Drops Leaving Eden
The Shins Port of Morrow
Trampled by Turtles Stars and Satellites
Alabama Shakes Boys & Girls
Jack White Blunderbuss
The Ting Tings We Started Nothing
Rufus Wainwright Out of the Game
The Lumineers eponymous
Zac Brown Band Uncaged
Zac Brown Band The Foundation
Slim Langhorne and the Law The Way We Move
Blackberry Smoke The Whippoorwill
The Avett Brothers Country Was
Fiona Apple That Really Long Album Name I Am Not Looking Up Right Now
The Avett Brothers The Carpenter
Ben Folds Five The Sound of the Life of the Mind
Mumford & Sons Babel
Michael Kiwanuka Home Again
various artists Holidays Rule
Blues Traveler Suzie Cracks the Whip
Rush 2112
I'd say my own top three albums of the year were: Country Was (which actually came out in 2002 but we didn't have it for some reason!?!), The Carpenter, and Blunderbuss. It's no secret how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Avett Brothers, but it is hard to express how much I have grown to love Jack White. Matt laughs because when he first discovered The White Stripes a long, long time ago I couldn't really stand them. I AM SORRY. People change. It's like that Ben Folds Five song that came out this year: "Read me off a list of the things I used to not like but now I think are ok." Except I think Jack White is better than OK. I reserve the right to my own inexplicable taste, like loving The Foo Fighters and hating, er, not loving Nirvana. Whatever.
The Way We Move and Babel round out the top five for me this year for albums; I was actually surprised that Ben Folds Five didn't end up in the #1 spot, but there you have it. Good, but not #1. (Though always tied for #1 overall in my heart—that will never change). I apparently belong in a minority so small it's not even worth counting, too: girls that like Rush (I know of at least one other—hi Kerry!) so the purchase of 2112 was simply replacing an old cassette of mine—because I liked Rush before Matt did. [Ed. note: I had Gracie with me in an antique store before Christmas and I pointed out an old record player and asked her what it was and she said... A TAPE THING!" Ooooh, obsolete, but not obsolete enough, 21st century child. Related: we have one last place to access our cassette tapes if the mood strikes, which it hasn't: the Subaru.]
Most pleasant surprise of 2012: that we like Zac Brown Band. And hey Zac Brown! We like you, too!
I don't know why we didn't realize we liked Zac Brown (and his band) sooner, but there you have it. And it isn't just because of proximity....
...though I'm not going to lie, it doesn't hurt.
Matt's top five albums of the year are probably: The Lion's Roar, Stars and Satellites, The Carpenter, The Lumineers and Babel. He also was surprised by how much we ended up liking Zac Brown Band. He is going to be mighty miffed when he finds out that Blackberry Smoke played at The Outlaw here in Cheyenne last weekend (whoops, missed it—though I'm not sure we're exactly the target demographic of The Outlaw... but then again... we're often not the target demographic for the music we like). He found it very humorous that I discovered Wolfmother approximately six years after he did, though I did get a point for finding it independently. He will never be busting out Estelle on purpose, though we've already covered his appreciation of that album here.
We didn't just bring in new albums to our collection this year—Matt is ever-vigilant about watching for good free singles-of-the-week on iTunes, though we bought a few, too (apparently this is how the majority of Americans buy music, a few songs here and a few songs there, but we are album-buyers 98% of the time). The most notable of singles purchased this year: Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight and, like everyone else, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jeppsen. What I should do is make a playlist of all those singles so I can get to know them a little better as they tend to get lost in the midst of all the albums. But then again, it's a struggle to find anything in iTunes right now with the major overhaul. Geesh, Apple.
Did you listen to anything exceptional this year? : )
