2012 has been a special year, both for the blog and on a personal level. I wanted to say a massive THANK YOU to anyone who has taken the time to check out the site; we hope you found something you like. Without further ado, here are our 12 favourite records of the year. Take some time to explore them and we think you’ll end up agreeing with us. Have a great festive period and we’ll see you in 2013. – Tom Johnson (Editor)
12. Madras ~ thingscanchange
Things Can Change is so delicately balanced in places that even heavily breathing while listening to it can seem like too great a force. Songs glide by on woven beds of pastel-glazed guitar lines, breathy vocals and earnest lyrics; while the occasional spoken-word samples bring a sense of adventure and mystique to proceedings. Sounding like the perfect soundtrack to the strange and forceful intrigue hidden with the long-drawn out days of Summer, Madras have created a record both beautiful and mysterious in equal measure. A slow-burning triumph and one of the most perfectly formed LP’s of the year.
Full album; madras.bandcamp.com/album/thingscanchange
11. American Wolf – Tales Of Kamanakera
One thing that never ceases to amaze us here at GFP is the (unintentionally) hilarious press releases we receive on a daily basis. Without going in to too much detail, so many of them are so bad it hurts. Really, really hurts. When we got an email from a band earlier this year describing themselves as “Elliott Smith meets Brand New” we were intrigued but fully expected the worst. Oh how wrong we could be. Tales Of Kamanakera is a simply wonderful collection of songs. Lush acoustic strums, delicate and distinctive vocals, and ball-achingly brilliant guitar licks all wrapped-up in each other, resulting in an album that plays out something like Melon Collie sneaking off for a romantic weekend away with Either/Or. A ridiculous analogy, you say? Well, take a chance on it and see how right we are.
Full album; http://americanwolf.bandcamp.com/album/tales-of-kamanakera
10. Cold Specks – I Predict A Graceful Expulsion
Al Spx, the singer-songwriter otherwise known as Cold Specks, described her music in at least one early interview as “doom soul,” and in many ways there is no better description for her songs. While they never reach the levels of discomfort inherent in most doom music, there is a dark, destructive streak running through the from-the-heart missives. Songs such as Blank Maps drift elegantly from ominous to beautiful and when Spx warns “don’t you wait on me, I’ll shoot you down,” it sounds every ounce as genuine as when she proclaims, just moments later, that “I am a god-damn believer.” – Matthew Healy
http://www.facebook.com/ColdSpecks
9. The Yawns ~ The Yawns
We shouldn’t even be surprised by the quality of music that comes out of Scotland anymore. Seemingly every month a new record comes flying out of the country with dizzying charm and dazzling skill. That it does still surprise us is testament only to the quality of the releases; and this year it was the debut album from The Yawns that grabbed us by our scrawny necks, took us on a wonderful impromptu date, snogged us under a streetlight and then left without even a hint of a phone number. Most of the record plays out like Belle & Sebastian jamming with Orange Juice, and we shouldn’t have to say another word to entice you in. Just play it loud and have the time of your life.
Full album; http://theyawnsband.bandcamp.com/
8. Meursault ~ Something For The Weakened
By broadening their sound and the themes they explore Meursault suddenly blossomed into a band that you could find solace within, rather than simply marveling at the rawness of it all. Perfectly handling the step-up to a more expansive and polished sound, Something For The Weakened was exactly that; a chest-beating, blood-pumping ode to the inflicted character that hides within. As a record, it takes in heartbreak, heart-ache, confusion and sadness but also adds a healthy dose of reflection and hope into the mix. “…you tell me that we’re all dying, and that the thing about that, is that it comes on gradually. So be kind, try to smile, and dance regularly.” Amen brother.
http://www.facebook.com/meursaultmusic
7. Tall Ships ~ Everything Touching
Our first ever interview. Our first ever acoustic session. Numerous gigs, features and memories…everything touching indeed. GFP’s short life has gone almost hand-in-hand with Tall Ships progression from promising upstarts to bonafide underground sensations and we feel proud to have been along for some of the ride. We waited a long time for the debut LP and even without the above pre-cursor, it’s a record that would fully deserve a spot in any year-end list. Constantly inventive, clever without showing-off, challenging but completely accessible, Everything Touching hails Tall Ships as one of the most promising bands these shores have to offer. Oh and Murmurations is the best closing track you’ll hear all year. Full-stop.
http://www.facebook.com/wearetallships
6. Foreign Fields ~ Anywhere But Where I Am
‘Mesmerising‘ is one of those superlatives often thrown in to album reviews without much care or thought. It is however, a perfect description for this, the debut record from Wisconsin duo Foreign Fields. Almost elliptical in its nature, this is a record to simply lose yourself in. Songs crawl past with only slight rises in pace and power, the result of which is, you guessed it, completely mesmerising The subtle nuances and deviations away from this meditative tone offer the true highlights and on tracks such as Taller, So Many Foreign Homes and River Kings, Foreign Fields don’t just shine, they challenge Justin Vernon for the accolade of Wisconsin’s best songwriter.
Full album; http://foreignfields.bandcamp.com
5. John Talabot – ƒin
The perfect bridge between the hedonistic values of dance music and the all-encompassing power of pop music, John Talabot’s debut album was a tour-de-force of hazy late-night sounds where every single beat seemed perfectly placed and majestically used. Which isn’t to say that ƒin a completely linear collection; many of the tracks take wild and unexpected twists and manage to achieve that rare old trick of making dance music sound both incredibly fun and melancholic, often within the same track. It’s a distinctive and weighty record and its a wonderful place to lose yourself within. We recommend you do so right now.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/John-Talabot/
4. Port St Willow ~ Holiday
A slow-burner it certainly was, but that term also implies that this record has in someway ‘broken through’, which is true in certain loose terms – it’s had a lot of good blog coverage recently – but Holiday is a record that still travels along criminally unseen. A dark and brooding soundtrack to the late-night sounds of love and lust that eventually find us all, this is a constantly evolving record that twists, turns, rises and falls through Antlers-esque romantic soundscapes and constantly startling vocal performances. At its highest points it was the best thing we heard all year, such as on this, the records closing track…
Full album; http://music.portstwillow.com/album/holiday
3. Sharon Van Etten ~ Tramp
At its many peaks, Tramp is a piece of work that is far more than just a collection of songs. It’s a piercing and heart-pounding reflection of discovery, loss, pain and defiance. Van Etten’s vocals take a slightly-more backseat role than on her debut record but the song-writing itself is simply on another level, not only to her own work, but to most other songwriters around at the moment. Give Out is teeth-clenchingly delicate. Ask and All I Can are both rousing and brave in equal measure. Then there is Serpents, which, simply put, is the best song released this year. Almost a year on from its release and we’re still bowing down at its feet.
http://www.facebook.com/SharonVanEttenMusic
2. Holy Other – Held
All of October, I would sit around waiting for night to fall, waiting for summer to end. Holy Other’s album Held filled the corners of those nights with an accumulated resonance, hinting at secrets that never quite revealed themselves. Its dark recesses reminded me how much I loved that feeling when you know that almost everyone in your city is asleep. It’s the feeling you get when you’re in the rain, or a storm, a shiver at the edge of your mind. You imagine that parts of the city are out of time with the parts that stay awake, and this is how statues come to life at night, how gold dragons on doors are found in the morning with water dripping from their mouths. – Sandra Croft
http://www.facebook.com/holyother
Click here for Number One…