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#25 North - Stars

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#24 The Tough Shits - The Tough Shits

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#23 Loma Vista - Family of the Year

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#22 Amanecer - MillionYoung

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#21 Pony Pony Run Run II - Pony Pony Run Run

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#20 Local Business - Titus Andronicus

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#19 Life Is Elsewhere - Little Comets

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#18 Gossamer - Passion Pit

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#17 Hairdresser Blues - Hunx

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#16 Feed Me Diamonds - MNDR

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You know what I hate? People who publish their end of year lists the first week of December. Can you guys relax?*

With that off my chest - here's this year's top 25. Along with a link to 100 of my favorite tracks of 2012 - on Spotify. These are definitely 25 albums I've played the most / loved the most - but the actual rankings are fairly fluid. #2 could be #7, and vice versa. No strong feelings and based solely on how i feel today. (which is great, thanks for asking!)

*this rant may or may not have a little to do with my own procrastination / need to validate the 2013 posting date of a 2012 list. Oops.

Favorite tracks of 2012 - handy dandy Spotify playlist http://open.spotify.com/user/nysmilez/playlist/0o9LskOaLGbnDdio3i40bU


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(25) Cold Showers - Love and Regret
Fave Tracks: BC, Alight

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2012
Best EPs of the Year:

5. Azealia Banks - 1991

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Azealia Banks is somewhat of a YouTube sensation, I guess. But she seems more like something MTV would eat up instead (if there is a difference). In the potentially awkward realm of the likes of Nick Minaj and perhaps more fittingly, Missy Elliot, Azealia Banks is a young Brit pop star in the making. If only she can find a suitable manager or something. Anyways we have an EP and a mixtape this year (idk what happened to that LP), and the EP builds on the track she deservedly got famous for on YouTube (212). It has at least one other good song (1991), and the rest of it is okay. I don’t know what will happen to Miss Azealia Banks, but I know she has a lot of star potential.

4. TNGHT - TNGHT

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Quite frankly, this EP goes harder than any other release that I know of this year. These hip hop/trap beats are huge. …

Favorite discovery: St. Lucia
Biggest surprise: Cat Power
Favorite album: Sun Airway - Soft Fall
Favorite song: RAC - Hollywood

11-20 (in alphabetical order)
Diamond Rings - Free Dimensional
Exitmusic - Passage
Hot Chip - In Our Heads
Jessie Ware - Devotion
Lord Huron - Lonesome Dreams
Passion Pit - Gossamer
Savoir Adore - Our Nature
The Winter Sounds - Runner
Twin Shadow - Confess
Yeasayer - Fragrant World

10. Tanlines - Mixed Emotions

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All of Me
Green Grass

9. Tame Impala - Lonerism

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Why Won't They Talk to Me?
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
Elephant

8. Manceau - Life Traffic Jam

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Full Time Job
The Way It Is

7. Dry the River - Shallow Bed

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New Ceremony
Shield Your Eyes

6. The Mynabirds - Generals

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Twin Shadow– Confess
Hot Chip– In Our Heads
Chromatics – Kill For Love
Tanlines – Mixed Emotions
Jens Lekman – I Know What Love Isn't
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
The Shins – Port Of Morrow
Beach House– Bloom
Wild Nothing– Nocturne

The paradox of choice continued in 2012. Spotify is giving me access to music in a way I could only have dreamed years ago. I simply can't listen to everything that I am interested in and still have time to go back and revisit what catches my ear. So I try to find a decent balance between new music and favorites. Here are the albums and EPs that I went back to most often. Surely I've missed something great.


Tennis - Young & Old
Beak> - > >
Beach House - Bloom
Neneh Cherry & The Thing - The Cherry Thing
John Talabot - Fin
The xx - Coexist
A Place to Bury Strangers - Worship
Chelsea Wolfe - Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs
Airiel - Kid Games
Dum Dum Girls - End Of Daze
A Place to Bury Strangers - Onwards To The Wall
Peaking Lights - Lucifer
Grimes - Visions
Django Django
Fanfarlo - Rooms Filled With Light
Tanlines - Mixed Emotions
TEEN - In Limbo
Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II

Others I really liked, but didn't listen to as much...
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