Best Songs of 2012

2012 was the second year I put together a 100-song mix featuring my favorite songs of the year. Five years later, this remixed version is only slightly so. I lost only half a dozen songs from that list, replacing them with ones I found in the years following 2012. I also reshuffled the order (in groups, mostly) of a bunch of tracks, to better integrate the new ones, and to smooth out some rough edges in my original mix.

It makes sense that I would reexamine 2012, considering my original Best of was thrown together somewhat hastily. 2012, was, after all, a year in which I listened to no new music until December, the result of a yearlong experiment in musical listening wherein I began the year by playing my oldest song, 1930’s “Walk Right In” by Cannon’s Jug Stompers, and proceeded forward in time, all the way to the year 2012.

It was an exhausting, if life-changing experience, that year of chronological listening. It certainly reframed the way I listened to and thought about music, so much so that a year later, I began this comprehensive list-making project in earnest.

Along the way through that year, I did in fact listen to “new” music, so long as it was new to me. Specifically it had to be something released before or during whatever year I happened to be living in at that time. This allowed me to discover (and eventually acquire) a lot of music I had otherwise missed or ignored. So it’s fitting that I have taken a new approach to this particular mix in the five years since I first created it. There is, after all, perpetually new music to discover, even when that music could be classified as old.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available—just 2 shy of complete!—but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

The House That Heaven Built

Japandroids

Celebration Rock

Polyvinyl

Notes
In a Big City

Titus Andronicus

Local Business

XL Recordings

Notes
Stay Useless

Cloud Nothings

Attack on Memory

Carpark

Notes
Like Ice Cream

Divine Fits

A Thing Called Divine Fits

Merge

Notes
Everyone Can’t Be Confused

White Rabbits

Milk Famous

TBD

Notes
A Thousand Days Before

Soundgarden

King Animal

Four Seven

Notes
Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

Tame Impala

Lonerism

Modular

Notes
Henrietta

Yeasayer

Fragrant World

Secretly Canadian

Notes
Too Close

Alex Clare

The Lateness of the Hour

Universal

Notes
Dissolve Me

Alt-J

An Awesome Wave

Warner Bros.

Notes
Yet Again

Grizzly Bear

Shields

Warp

Notes
Manhattan

Cat Power

Sun

Matador

Notes
Dreams

The Kills

Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac

Hear Music

Notes
Lord Knows

Dum Dum Girls

End of Daze

Sub Pop

Notes
We Are Fine

Sharon Van Etten featuring Zach Condon

Tramp

Jagjaguwar

Notes
Museum of Flight

Damien Jurado

Maraqopa

Secretly Canadian

Notes
I’m Getting Ready

Michael Kiwanuka

Home Again

Interscope

Notes
Landslide

Antony

Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac

Hear Music

Notes
Cherries in the Snow

RNDM

Acts

Monkey Wrench

Notes
Leading Me Now

The Tallest Man on Earth

There’s No Leaving Now

Dead Oceans

Notes
The First Time I Ran Away

M. Ward

A Wasteland Companion

Merge

Notes
Last Waltz

Horse Feathers

Cynic’s New Year

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
Orpheo Looks Back

Andrew Bird

Break It Yourself

Mom and Pop

Notes
No Fear

New Multitudes

New Multitudes

Rounder

Notes
Looking for a Sign

Beck

Looking for a Sign

Iliad

Notes
I See a Darkness

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

Now Here’s My Plan

101

Notes
To Myself

Tift Merritt

Traveling Alone

Yep Roc

Notes
Sidecar

Kathleen Edwards

Voyageur

Zoe

Notes
Plant White Roses

Kelly Hogan

I Like to Keep Myself in Pain

Anti

Notes
Nothing to Remember

Neko Case

The Hunger Games

Republic

Notes
Hot Knife

Fiona Apple

The Idler Wheel

Epic

Notes
Dream Baby Dream

Neneh Cherry & The Thing

The Cherry Thing

Smalltown 12

Notes
Descending

Big Boi featuring Little Dragon

Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors

Def Jam

Notes
Seven Stars

Air

le voyage dans la lune

Astralwerks

Notes
You As You Were

Shearwater

Animal Joy

Sub Pop

Notes
Tear It Up

Delta Spirit

Delta Spirit

New Rounder

Notes
NWO

Deep Sea Diver

History Speaks

self-released

Notes
Away Frm U

Oberhofer

Time Capsules II

Glassnote

Notes
Are You Ready?

Luscious Jackson

Are You Ready?

self-released

Notes
Disparate Youth

Santigold

Master of My Make Believe

Atlantic

Notes
Boyfriend

Justin Bieber

Believe

Island

Notes
Climax

Usher

Looking 4 Myself

RCA

Notes
Adorn

Miguel

Kaleidoscope Dream

RCA

Notes
Pink Matter

Frank Ocean featuring Andre 3000

channel ORANGE

Def Jam

Notes
QueenS

THEESatisfaction

awE naturalE

Sub Pop

Notes
Fineshrine

Purity Ring

Shrines

4AD

Notes
Spore

Ramona Falls

Prophet

Barsuk

Notes
Capsule

Menomena

Moms

Barsuk

Notes
There He Go

Schoolboy Q

Habits & Condtradictions

Top Dawg

Notes
White Walls

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Schoolboy Q & Hollis

The Heist

self-released

Notes
I Wonder Who She’s Kissing Now

TV Girl

The Wild, The Innocent, The TV Shuffle

self-released

Notes
I’ll Be Alright

Passion Pit

Gossamer

Columbia

Notes
Hold the Faith

Todd Edwards

Shall Go

Body High

Notes
So Good to Me

Chris Malinchak

So Good to Me

French Express

Notes
November Skies

Tomas Barfod featuring Nina Kinert

Salton Sea

FoF Music

Notes
The Mother We Share

Chvrches

The Mother We Share

Create Control

Notes
All of Me

Tanlines

Mixed Emotions

True Panther Sounds

Notes
Hold on When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It

Stars

The North

ATO

Notes
Fever

Maps & Atlases

Beware and Be Grateful

Barsuk

Notes
Just From Chevron

Dirty Projectors

Swing Lo Magellan

Domino

Notes
Marathon Runner

Yellow Ostrich

Strange Land

Barsuk

Notes
Tall Shadows

World’s Most

Tall Shadows/Honey Eyed

self-released

Notes
October

The Helio Sequence

Negotiations

Sub Pop

Notes
Only Heather

Wild Nothing

Nocturne

Captured Tracks

Notes
How Long Have You Known?

DIIV

Oshin

Captured Tracks

Notes
Prove to Me

Seapony

Falling

Hardly Art

Notes
Be Good

Waxahatchee

American Weekend

Don Giovanni

Notes
Capricornia

Allo Darlin’

Europe

Slumberland

Notes
A Hard One to Know

Benjamin Gibbard

Former Lives

Barsuk

Notes
Pretend You Love Me

Sonny & The Sunsets

Longtime Companion

Polyvinyl

Notes
King of the World

First Aid Kit featuring Conor Oberst

The Lion’s Roar

Wichita

Notes
Blunderbuss

Jack White

Blunderbuss

Third Man

Notes
Lonesome

Dr. Dog

Be the Void

Anti

Notes
Get Lost

The Babies

Our House on the Hill

Woodsist

Notes
The Love You Love

The Walkmen

Heaven

Fat Possum

Notes
Be Mine

Alabama Shakes

Boys & Girls

ATO

Notes
God’s Sure Good

Dr. John

Locked Down

Nonesuch

Notes
Wish You Were Here

Lee Fields & The Expressions

Faithful Man

Truth & Soul

Notes
Who Did That to You

John Legend

Django Unchained

Republic

Notes
Please Forgive My Heart

Bobby Womack

The Bravest Man in the Universe

XL Recordings

Notes
Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe

Kendrick Lamar

good kid, m.A.A.d city

Top Dawg

Notes
Don’t Play Around

DJ Nu-Mark featuring Aloe Blacc & Charles Bradley

Broken Sunlight

Hot Plate

Notes
Say Goodbye

Norah Jones

Little Broken Hearts

Blue Note

Notes
Get Free

Major Lazer featuring Amber Coffman

Get Free

Downtown

Notes
Die Young

Ke$ha

Warrior

RCA

Notes
Call Me Maybe

Carly Rae Jepsen

Kiss

Interscope

Notes
I Belong in Your Arms

Chairlift

Something

Kanine

Notes
I Love It

Icona Pop

Iconic EP

Big Beat/Atlantic

Notes
Five Seconds

Twin Shadow

Confess

4AD

Notes
Everything Is Embarrassing

Sky Ferreira

Ghost EP

Capitol

Notes
Losing You

Solange

True

Terrible Records

Notes
Further Out

Beat Connection

The Palace Garden

self-released

Notes
Important

Way Yes

Walkability

Lefse

Notes
How Do I Know

Here We Go Magic

A Different Ship

Secretly Canadian

Notes
No Way Down

The Shins

Port of Morrow

Columbia

Notes
Time to Run

Lord Huron

Lonesome Dreams

I Am Sound

Notes
Northern Air

Elliott Brood

Days Into Years

Paper Bag

Notes
Sallie May

The Maldives

Muscle for the Wing

Spark & Shine

Notes
Ho Hey

The Lumineers

The Lumineers

Dualtone

Notes
Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings

Father John Misty

Fear Fun

Sub Pop

Notes