10 Albums of 2012
10. The Lumineers: The Lumineers
“We knew we had a record that resonated with us strongly, and it appears it has been doing that with some other people now too..” - Wesley Schultz, on their debut album
10 Albums of 2012
8. Frank Ocean: Channel Orange
“I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a math problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically. But storytelling’s a different thing. Like I said, it’s the more interesting part of making music for me, or making albums and songs and stuff.” - Frank Ocean, on Channel Orange
10 Albums of 2012
7. Sleigh Bells: Reign of Terror
“There’s a different dimension emotionally in the songs, in the mood of them and the lyrics. But it also sounds like what you’d expect of us. I don’t feel the need to try to recreate the wheel every time out. The idea is just to do something memorable. I just want to use the blueprint of what we have and hopefully improve on it.” - Derek Miller, on Reign of Terror
10 Albums of 2012
6. Imagine Dragons: Night Visions
“I’d say now the idea of putting out an album is equal parts daunting and exciting. We grew up on albums you know? We all listened to vinyl growing up - we put on the record and listened all the way through. It wasn’t so much about the song of the day. That’s something we want to retain, to keep the culture of the album going, and to do that we had to write the best possible songs. To tell a story..” - Wayne Sermon, on Night Visions
10 Albums of 2012
5. Purity Ring: Shrines
“This isn’t a confession, I’m not pouring my heart out in a desperate plea to be heard and understood. It’s just my thoughts and experiences as source material. It isn’t about me working through something.” - Megan James, on Shrines
10 Albums of 2012
4. Grimes: Visions
“Everything I do is always like some kind of word and then pop, because I definitely make pop music. I might make gothic pop music or science fiction pop music or noise popmusic or something like that, but at the core it’s always pop music. I’m defined by songwriting and catchiness and stuff.” - Claire Boucher, on Visions
10 Albums of 2012
3. Lana Del Rey: Born To Die (Paradise Edition)
“I really love the Paradise Edition, to me it feels even more natural than the original Born To Die.” - Lana Del Rey, on Born to Die (Paradise Edition)
10 Albums of 2012
2. No Doubt: Push & Shove
“For all music lovers, you just go back to what you grew up on, I’m sure we’re always going to listen to the Specials and Duran Duran when we’re eighty five years old. Even if we try to listen to new stuff, we always go back to the stuff we grew up on, that’s the stuff that has that emotional tie.” - No Doubt, on Push & Shove
10 Albums of 2012
1. Marina and the Diamonds: Electra Heart
“Electra Heart is a fictional character which I based the album around. It’s kind of a like a revenge album, she’s quite a vengeful character. I like the idea of creating a kind of pop soap opera within an album. That people can listen to on a really casual basis but can also read more into it if they choose to.” - Marina Diamandis, on Electra Heart
