It’s Christmas Eve and the year is approaching its end, so it is time for the annual musical compendium known as The Year in Music: A to Z. I started doing it this way a number of years ago, because of the large number of records I thought worth praising — and panning — from the year about to close.
Enjoy, and Happy Christmas.
A: A is for album of the year. This was tough, with a host of worthy contenders. In the end, two debut albums caught my attention and I couldn’t narrow it down any farther: Savages’ savage Silence Yourself and Parquet Courts’ Light Up Gold are albums that are at once so thoroughly contemporary and throwbacks to earlier punk/alternativesounds.
B: Bowie’s back. Next Day is the best thing he’s done in nearly three decades.
C: Mikail Cronin’s MCII was so good, he gets a letter to call his own.
D: Debut records — in addition to the Savages and Parquet Courts, Pillowfight, Foxygen and Valerie June issued great debuts.
E: Electronica. This is a genre I generally don’t much listen to, but if records like Blackbird by Fat Freddie’s Drop and Real by Elastic Bond were great.
F: Farewell, which is how we have to look at Glen Campbell’s See You There. Campbell is underrated as an artist, mostly because of poor song choices and overproduction over the years. But Campbell, at his best, is the quintessential countrypolitan artist — urbane and tender and by far the best interpreter of Jimmy Webb’s canon out there. This record is stripped down and reclaims what is best about Campbell for the ages.
G: Guilty pleasures. Both Lady Gaga and Dido released relatively disappointing discs this year — and yet both are guilty pleasures. They are not great records, but I think they are worth a listen.
H: Hollywood, as in Hollywood director David Lynch. This one came out of left field for me, a great record by the acclaimed director — The Big Dream.
I: International, M.I.A.’s Matangi leads a list of great music from around the world.
J: Just not digging discs from Arctic Monkeys, Pearl Jam or Queens of the Stone Age. I like these bands, but their latest just left me cold.
K: is for Khatib — Hanni El Khatib’s Head in the Dirt.
L: Louder the better — along with the Savages, which is best played at high volumes, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Spector at the Feast should be blasted from the speakers.
M: Matangi is both her real first name and a ghoulash of sound.
N: Not your neighbor’s country music, but maybe your grandfather’s. Four albums stood out for me — Steve Earle’s Low Highway, Shooter Jennings’ The Other Life, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell’s Old Yellow Moon and Son Volt — a rock band’s Honky Tonk, which gets my vote for best country record of the year.
O: Overhyped — as in Arcade Fire’s Reflektor is respectable, but the advance on it was over the top.
P: P!nk always offers a rowdy time.
Q: Question — Who thought pairing Billy Joe Armstrong with Norah Jones on an album of Everly Brothers songs would be a good idea?
R: Rest in peace, Lou.
S: S is song of the year and, for me, that ended up being John Grant’s sublime and ironic “GMF.” It is not everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s one of those songs that I often end up replaying.
T: Theme song, my new theme song, otherwise known as “Handyman’s Blues” from Billy Bragg’s fine Tooth & Nail.
U: Underrated. Both Willie Nile and Garland Jeffreys really deserved to be stars and their latest albums, American Ride and Truth Serum, are just additions to a long list of great and under-appreciated records. Buy both of these.
V: Verse that is not so pedestrian is a good way to characterize Frightened Rabbit’s excellent Pedestrian Verse.
W: Women singers — The Savages, yes. Valerie June, of course. M.I.A., too. And Neko Case, Pillowfight, Best Coast, Camera Obscura, Courtney Barnett, Lydia Loveless, Natalie Maines, Anna Calvi, Cate Le Bon, Kasey Musgrave — the list of great music by women is long this year.
X: For extra credit (a stretch, I know). Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ The Heist may have come out in 2012, but it’s been in regular rotation here all year.
Y: Yes, these two recorded together — while not perfect, Wise Up Ghost by Elvis Costello and the Roots makes the list of top records.
Z: As in zzzzzz — or snooze time — for the hype machine surrounding One Direction, Miley Cyrus and all of the stuff that is likely to make up the next Grammy broadcast.
Hank Kalet 