A WHISPER IN THE NOISE / To Forget [2012]

Recording for the first time as not just West Thordson, A Whisper In The Noise adds Sonja Larson to the project as violinist, vocalist and "all other instruments" for 2012's To Forget.

The soft, solemn textures defined on this album swirl around like something from Cliff Martinez's Solaris score or a version of Sigur Ros not so intent on putting you to sleep.  The stunning beauty on this album hints at loneliness and sadness but underneath it all, a glimmer of hope or acceptance can be found.

It's one of those personal albums where you press play and everything else just disappears as time stops.

4½  smiles in the shadows out of 5

Songs Of Note: Black Shroud; Your Hand

CLOUD NOTHINGS / Attack On Memory [2012]

45 seconds into alt-rockers Cloud Nothings' 2nd studio album, 2012's Attack On Memory, I wondered what is this crap?

A minute & thirty seconds in I was sold.  

It slowly progressed into something awesome making the wait worth it..  Completely stepping away from the power-pop sound of their self-titled debut, Cloud Nothings opts for a darker, harsher sound with none other than Steve Albini at the soundboard working his noisy magic.  As rough as it gets, the melodic sound of the group is never buried so deep it loses the band's original appeal.  

3 Pixies out of 5

Songs Of Note: No Future/No Past; Wasted Days

FIONA APPLE / The Idler Wheel... [2012]

Fiona Apple soars high with her fourth album in 16 years, 2012's ridiculously titled The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.

Apple takes a simple approach by allowing her voice and piano carry her songs with a fluttery percussion and sight synth section to serve as a complimentive undercurrent.  When I say simple I mean it in the instruments she uses only, as the lyrics are fascinating and deserve much thought, as her choice in sound design, musical styles and vocal approaches all deserve your utmost attention and revisits.  

4 white dove feathers drenched in verbal piss out of 5

Songs Of Note: Periphery; Hot Knife

GREEN DAY / ¡Tré! [2012]

Completing their 2012 ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, ¡Tre! trilogy, pop-punkers Green Day fizzle out a bit on overkill with the bizarre jumble of songs on ¡Tre!.

It's written & mixed for stadium rockers and sounds like they had great intentions but never quite met them.  In the end, all I can say is I'm going to take all three albums and make a 4-star single disc mix for a more compact and enjoyable listening experience rather than this bloated mess of a trilogy.  Like the other 2 albums, it's not necessarily bad because there's some fantastic songs on here, it's just too much.  

3 Odes to Occupy out of 5

Songs Of Note: Drama Queen; Dirty Rotten Bastards 

TORCHE / Harmonicraft [2012]

Stoner-sludge rockers Torche dive into their third album, 2012's Harmonicraft, for the first time after the violent departure of guitarist Juan Montoya.

The great thing about about Torche is as dirty, loud and grungy as they are, they still drive a melodic, upbeat sound that is quite refreshing compared to most groups in the genre.  If you ever wondered what Black Sabbath sounded like if they were from the Seattle during the early '90's this might be it.  It's nothing particularly amazing but slowly grows on as you find yourself rocking out to it from out of nowhere.  

3½ almost tritones out of 5

Songs Of Note: Letting Go; Harmonicraft

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS / Oceania [2012]

After what seems like a lifetime's worth of below average albums, you'd think it was time Billy Corgan would give up The Smashing Pumpkins.  So it's pleasantly surprising that 2012's Oceania is Corgan's best songwriting since 1998's Adore.

It's a fine return to form with beautiful memorable melodies, larger than life guitar tones drenched in euphoric rhythms & textures and thoughtfully poetic lyrics.  Corgan could have done what we expected of him and went the lyrically cynics route but it seems he's finally matured and accepted life as it is.

If Corgan & co. maintain the same sort of quality in the future, this could very well be a second chance at creative success.  

4 albums within an album out of 5

Songs Of Note: Quasar; Pinwheels

VARIOUS ARTISTS / Silver Linings Playbook (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [2012]

Director David O. Russell's 2012 film adaptation of the Matthew Quick novel, Silver Linings Playbook is based around a dance competition, so it only makes sense that the music would play a key part in the story.

With a wide variety of excellent songs by Stevie Wonder, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, The Eagles Of Death Metal, score composer Danny Elfman, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and more you'd think you would have a pretty solid compilation.  This is not the case as it's way too sloppily jumbled together to create any sense of a backbone or coherency.  Maybe it's supposed to reflect the mentally ill character's personalities but it just doesn't make for a comfortable listening experience.  

2 Eagles gone bad out of 5

Songs Of Note: Silver Linings Titles / Danny Elfman; Girl From The North Country / Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash

VCMG / Ssss [2012]

I've always been a fan of Depeche Mode and their side projects, so I was interested to hear former bandmates Marty Gore & Vince Clarke reunite in 2012 as VCMG for the electronic dance album Ssss.

Having both mastered the electronic side of Depeche Mode & Erasure with great effect, you'd think this would be a work of genius.  Sadly it's notl.  With legions of younger artists doing it better these two don't stand a chance.  They still seriously resort to outdated and boring blips & bleeps, while other electronic artists have figured out ways to fuse countless genres and sounds into their work.  

This is grandpa's dance record and was outdated 20 years ago.  

FRISBEE

IN THIS MOMENT / Blood [2012]

Sex sells and heavy metal hottie Maria Brink & co. aka In This Moment prove it a fourth time with 2012's Blood.

Pushing the metal influences a few notches back, ITM focus on a more electronic sound this time around, resulting in a Marilyn Manson/Black Light Burns hybrid, only without a well-defined sense of creativity. Brink's voice is as strong as it's ever been. The girl can feckin' scream better than some of the men out there but it's simply not enough to keep things interesting or fresh.  It's a waste of Brink's vocal talents and dusty space on the CD shelf.  

1½ Closer covers out of 5

Songs Of Note: Blood; Comanche

BARRY ADAMSON / I Will Set You Free [2012]

Ex-Bad Seed member, Barry Adamson has made quite the name for himself as a creepy lounge lizard for many years.  With 2012's I Will Set You Free, Adamson sounds the liveliest he's been since first arriving on the scene over 30 years ago. 

Adamson scales back on the cinematic soundscapes he's become so well known for and throws all his focus on the songwriting this time around.  The end result is a swaggering peppy journey through the most colorful roads in Hell.  Unfortunately, Adamson isn't as strong a songwriter as he is a mood setter and without the atmospherics the experience is only half as good as it sounds.  

2½ plastic little lives out of 5

Songs Of Note: Destination; The Trigger City Blues

DEATH GRIPS / The Money Store [2012]

Hardcore hip-hop act Death Grips proved they were certainly not for the weak of heart on their 2011 mixtape Exmilitary and now take it an extra mile with The Money Store, their first of two albums in 2012.

An alienating mix of Suicidal Tendencies & Throbbing Gristle with Public Enemy & El-P, The Money Store is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding records of the year.  Through all the aggressive, noisy sludge they still manage to ground it all with a floor-stomping, neck snapping rhythm.  Oddly enough, Death Grips signed to a major label with this album but it wouldn't last long as they would prove with their second even more unsettling album of the year.  

4½ newborns in a ski mask out of 5

Songs Of Note: Blackjack;  Punk Weight

KYLIE MINOGUE / The Abbey Road Sessions [2012]

25 years into her career, Austrailia's Kylie Minogue is still going pretty strong and celebrates with 2012's The Abbey Road Sessions. 

Backed by her band and a full orchestra, Minogue revisits all her hits spanning her career and reworks them into something a little more classy, fragile and personal than originally conceived.  It sounds strange but it works quite well with the exception of a few clumsy moments and bits where her trademark girly chipmunk squeaks are exposed.  It's a bold move to suck all the catchy disco out of her work and shed a completely new light on them which I applaud.  

4 unexplored avenues out of 5

Songs Of Note: I Believe In You; Where The Wild Roses Grow [feat. Nick Cave]

DAUGHN GIBSON / All Hell [2012]

Every now and then a dude comes along that's so confidently cool you can't help but like him...or just think he's a douche.

Fortunately electro-crooner Josh Martin aka Daughn Johnson and his 2012 solo debut album All Hell is the good kind of cool. Martin's solemn baritone voice splashes over a body of tripped out dusty piano chords and alt-country noir.  As confident as Martin comes off as, his lyrics tell that of fragility and broken down souls.  The whole album sounds like a peyote trip in some long forgotten cowboy saloon that has no entrance or exit and that sits just fine with me.

4 fires with your pants down out of 5

Songs Of Note: In The Beginning; Lookin' Back On '99

THOSE POOR BASTARDS / Behold The Abyss [2012]

Creepsome gospel alt-country loonies Those Poor Bastards push their creative side on the 2012 concept album, Behold The Abyss.

Telling the gruesome story of an 1800's cloven-hooved cannibal on the hunt for a werewolf, the album is coupled with a companion penny novel, The Terrible Tale of Edgar Switchblade, written by Bastards frontman Lonesome Wyatt.  The masterfully told lyrical story is complimented with their unique distorted twang that sounds like it's haunted by the tortured ghosts of Nick Cave & Tom Waits.  

It's sick, twisted and ever so beautiful and entertaining in it's own dark way.  

4 grisly details out of 5

Songs Of Note: A Robe Of Scarlet Thread; Everything Is Temporary

SUPER 8-BIT BROTHERS / Strife [2012]

The idea of Tub Ring's Rob Kleiner & Kevin Gibson developing the video game sound & their own off-kilter style into an album sounded like kitschy gold to me. 

Unfortunately Super 8-Bit Brothers' third album, 2012's Strife isn't exactly what I had hoped for.  It might not be a terrible experience but not as innovative as one might expect from these guys and the concept they have on the table. Instead it sounds like a band trying to mimic a watered down Rob Zombie album from the mid-90's with Mike Patton on vocals.

I respect Kleiner for doing whatever the fuck he wants, whether it be his solo albums, Tub Ring, The Satanics, his film scores or this project and releasing album after album for free, so I can't be too harsh on this.

3 game overs out of 5

Songs Of Note: 100 Percent; Roll It Up