Year in Rock 2012: Top 25 Albums of the Year

Which one will it be?

When I look back on the Year in Rock that was, three things stick out:

1. I spend an unhealthy amount of money on CDs. For every new release pictured above, there were two more I purchased in 2012 that didn't make this list. Compound that with older albums I picked up used and the birth of what may become an out of control vinyl addiction at any moment, and it's easy to see where every penny of my spending money goes. At what point does one consider whether or not crack is a more affordable option?

2. For all the bellyaching about the dying music industry, there was a lot of quality tunes being released in 2012. There are a handful of albums from the past twelve months that could have (and, in some cases, perhaps should have) cracked the Top 25. There's no Wintersleep, Mark Lanegan, Local H, Stanfields, etc., etc. It's not that their albums were bad; they just weren't enjoyed as much as the ones on the list. Simply put, there may have been too many good albums released this year.

3. Try as I might, every year there's a battle raging in my mind between two albums. One gets the glory, the other gets to be first loser. There was that time in 2001 when I declared Tool's Lateralus and System of a Down's Toxicity a draw, but I generally prefer to let these albums fight it out until only one remains.


This year's two finalists seemed too similar to truly choose a winner. Both bands created their most ambitious work to date, both albums eternally rewarding to their listeners. Both bands combined brutality and beauty in equal measure, and both managed to transcend the genres they've been unwillingly pigeonholed into.

Thinking back to last year is what helped me decide 2012's winner. If you'll recall, 2011 came down to Foo Fighters' career-defining thrill ride Wasting Light and Fucked Up's jaw-dropping, ambitious and arresting David Comes to Life. Fucked Up got the nod when I prioritized the grand-scale statement over the all killer no filler, front-to-back collection of great songs. When I started thinking in those terms, I realized that this year's winner was obvious, because this year's winner is both of those things.

Congratulations to Deftones' Koi No Yokan, Year in Rock 2012's Album of the Year!








Apologies to Baroness, who I'd all but crowned as champion when Yellow & Green was released in July. Between my snub and your bus crash, I feel horrible for you, but I know you'll come back better than ever.

Here's the rest of the Top 25 and where they landed on the food chain:

2. BARONESS: Yellow & Green
3. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM: Handwritten
4. DEAD SARA: S/T
5. JACK WHITE: Blunderbuss
6. PIG DESTROYER: Book Burner
7. BLOC PARTY: Four
8. JAPANDROIDS: Celebration Rock
9. TITUS ANDRONICUS: Local Business
10. EVERY TIME I DIE: Ex Lives
11. TORCHE: Harmonicraft
12. TESTAMENT: Dark Roots of Earth
13. THE MARS VOLTA: Noctourniquet
14. BOB MOULD: Silver Age
15. CANCER BATS: Dead Set On Living
16. ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD: Lost Songs
17. MUMFORD & SONS: Babel
18. CONVERGE: All We Love We Leave Behind
19. FANG ISLAND: Major
20. STONE SOUR: House of Gold & Bones, Part 1
21. SOUNDGARDEN: King Animal
22. ALT-J: An Awesome Wave
23. LINKIN PARK: Living Things
24. THE SMASHING PUMPKINS: Oceania
25. MINUS THE BEAR: Infinity Overhead

And that wraps a pretty bow on Year in Rock 2012, but there's no rest for the wicked. Come back on Friday for a 2013 preview; if the sheer amount of promising releases coming between January and March is any indication, Year in Rock 2013 could be an even bigger slugfest than 2012 was.