This is such a hard list to make because there are always so many records that I genuinely love, both as a critic and as a nerdy music lover. In the end I always go with the records that got the highest number of plays in my iTunes library or spend the most time on my turntable. I’m also biased this year because Chan Marshall—Cat Power--is a good friend. It’s hard for me to be objective about her music because I love her so much as a human being, but I do think that Sun is a towering achievement. She worked really hard on this record for a really long time and I couldn’t be more proud of her for finally putting it out into the world. I also listened to it more than anything else this year.

TOP 40 RECORDS OF 2012

Cat Power - Sun
Tame Impala - Lonerism
The Walkmen - Heaven
Diiv - Oshin
Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action at a Distance
Wild Nothing - Nocturne
Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse
Metz - Metz
Holy Other - Held
Beach House - Bloom
Andy Stott – Luxury Problems
Melody’s Echo Chamber – Melody’s Echo Chamber
Grizzly Bear - Shields
Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man
Liars - WIXIW
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Chromatics – Kill For Love
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Starred – A Season in Hell
Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel…
The Soft Pack - Strapped
Japandroids – Celebration Rock
Tamaryn – Tender New Signs
Santigold – Master of my Make Believe
The Men – Open Your Heart
Bonnie Prince Billy – Now Here’s My Plan
Death Grips – The Money Store
Sun Airway – Soft Fall
Aimee Mann - Charmer
Grimes - Visions
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Mature Themes
Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N2 It
Hot Chip – In Our Heads
Nu Sensae - Sundowning
Crystal Castles - III
Swans – The Seer
Garbage – Not Your Kind of People
Violens - True
Father John Misty – Fear Fun
Craft Spells – Gallery EP

TOP 20 SONGS OF 2012

Again, these are the songs that got the most airplay around the cat palace (aka, my home office) over the past year. Vibes for days.

“Manhattan” – Cat Power
“Laura” – Bat For Lashes
“Get Free” – Major Lazer
“How Long Have You Known?” - Diiv
“We Can’t Be Beat” – The Walkmen
“I Bought My Eyes” – Ty Segall Band
“Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” – Tame Impala
“Eveningness” – Lotus Plaza
“Wet Blanket” - Metz
“No.1 Against The Rush” - Liars
“Call From Paris” - Starred
“Anything We Want” – Fiona Apple
“Into the Black” - Chromatics
“Thinkin Bout You” – Frank Ocean
“When to Let Go” - Violens
“Half-Gate” – Grizzly Bear
“Disparate Youth” - Santigold
“Something Good” – Alt-J
“Crystalized” – Melody’s Echo Chamber
“Husbands” - Savages

TOP 10 LIVE SHOWS OF 2012

So many good shows in 2012, but these were sentimental faves. Watching Stevie Nicks from five feet away (and watching Heather Millstone shake her hand), arena rock realness, goth flashbacks…not to mention Nu Sensae nearly giving our neighbors at Heathers a heart attack simply by playing ONE song in the middle of a weekday afternoon.

Codeine (Doug Fir Lounge)
Stevie Nicks (Jones Beach)
Cat Power (Roseland)
Dinosaur Jr & Friends (Terminal Five)
Aerosmith & Cheap Trick (Meadowlands Arena)
Tori Amos (Le Poisson Rouge)
Frank Ocean (All Tomorrows Parties, NYC)
The Jesus & Mary Chain (Irving Plaza)
Lower Dens (Glasslands)
Nu Sensae (Heathers Bar, NYC)

TOP 10 REISSUED RECORDS IN 2012

Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2
Can – The Lost Tapes
Codeine – When I See The Sun
A.R. Kane – The Complete Singles Collection
Bikini Kill -- Bikini Kill EP
Blur – Blur 21
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless / Isn’t Anything / EPs 1988-1991
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – Prince of Darkness ( Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
R.E.M. – Document (25th Anniversary Edition)
Country Funk 1969-1975

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2012

I usually don’t end up seeing most of the big Oscar contenders until after the Oscars are already over, but here are the movies that I did manage to see and found it impossible not to love. Again, I’m biased about FOUR because it’s Josh’s movie and I did the music, but still….it’s the best movie of 2012….if not the best movie in the history of planet earth. I couldn’t be more proud of Josh and the rest of the FOUR crew.

FOUR
The Master
The Cabin in the Woods
Holy Motors
The Ballad of Genesis & Lady Jaye
The Central Park Five
Marley
West of Memphis
Chronicle
Django Unchained

TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2012

It pains me—causes me actual, physical pain—that I don’t have more time to read. There were so many novels that came out this year that I have yet to read and about five million poetry books that I still need to buy. That being said, here are the books that I did manage to read (most of them while traveling) and that seemed to lodge themselves into my psyche. Also, Scott Heim has edited a whole series of “The First Time I Heard…” books and all of them are excellent. If you love music and you love to read, go buy them all immediately.

Stag’s Leap (Poems) – Sharon Olds
Everyday People (Poems) – Albert Goldbart
Mortality – Christopher Hitchens
I Want My Mtv – Rob Tannenbaum & Craig Marks
Waging Heavy Peace – Neil Young
Life After Death – Damien Echols
Talking Heads: Fear of Music – Jonathan Lathem
The Eternal Ones of The Dream: Selected Poems 1990-2010 – James Tate
Useless Landscape, or, A Guide for Boys (Poems) – D. A. Powell
The First Time I Heard…Cocteau Twins – Edited by Scott Heim

TOP 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS OF 2012

Every year I make this list and every year I reflect back on all the interviews I’ve done and am reminded of how completely amazing it is that this is my job. 2012 was a particularly fruitful year for great interviews, but these were the 10 that were either the most fun, the weirdest, or the most moving.

Chan Marshall (Cat Power) for Interview
Johnny Marr for Stereogum
Laurie Anderson for L’ Officiel Homme
Jim James for Stereogum
Liz Phair for Stereogum
Natasha Khan (Bat for Lashes) for Stereogum
Tori Amos for Visionaire
Norman Reedus for Man of the World
Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) for Stereogum
Bob Mould (Husker Du) for Pitchfork TV

Thanks and tremendous love to everyone who helped make 2012 such a fantastic year for me. Here’s to a happy, healthy 2013 for all of us…

Best of 2012