Tom Carter who, with ex-wife and musical partner Christina, makes up one half of Charalambides had more opportunity than most for self reflection this year but not in the happiest of circumstances.
During a UK tour he was struck down with severe pneumonia and spent long periods in isolation as part of his treatment. Due to the absurd health system, this also meant he faced huge medical bills.
Thankfully, if his prolific contributions to Twitter are anything to go by, he now seems to be on the road to recovery. One of his Tweets was to the effect that, this year, instead of making lists of the best new albums, we should go back to past years and check if those records we raved about have stood the test of time.
While I understand where he’s coming from, for me, one of the key appeals of contemporary music is that it fuels an insatiable desire for something truly radical and fresh. Needless to say, 2012 passed with plenty of good new sounds to enjoy but nothing that could be described as life changing.
Hipsters try to impress by choosing obscure titles but even if I took the trouble to listen to all these, I doubt I’d be blown away. For example, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange and Tame Impala’s Lonerism are two albums that garnered more than their fair share of of plaudits but, although they are decent enough, I failed to hear what all the fuss was about.
Equally I don’t make any claims that the ten albums I enjoyed most during 2012 are any more earth shattering but here they are with tweet style summaries of why I like them.
Gotta check out Fiona Apple and Bob Dylan’s newbies…nice list
Thanks for the comment, Colin. I’ve never gotten into Fiona Apple but should give her new album a fair hearing – Dylan sounds very croaky these days but is always good value.