Beach House - Lazuli

It's December-time, which means it's list-time - huzzah! Over the next three weeks, leading up to Christmas, each of us Crunchy staffers will give a rundown of our our favorite records from the year that has passed. Some ranked in order of preference, some in alphabetic order and some split into Danish vs International releases, because... well, consensus is hard. In the end, we're all music obsessives here at Crunchy HQ, with an office stereo that is always playing and a lot of strong opinions on whatever is played. Hopefully these lists will give you, the reader, a fun little insight into our musical tastes and, who knows, you might just find your next favorite band.

The rules: In order to qualify an album has to have been released in the current calendar year (2012, duh), it cannot be a re- release, it has to be a full- length (no EPs) and it cannot be a Crunchy release (for the obvious reasons), a Stucco Records release (the fine label run by our intern Jakob) or a Big Oil release (another fine label run by Crunchy Tunes' own Andreas).

Next up is our intern Jakob. Jakob is, among many things, bassist in the band Awesome Welles, while also running the record label Stucco Records with a few friends. A man of many talents indeed! Jakob has changed up the format a bit for his own list-making, as he has made two lists; one for Danish releases and one for international releases. Some excellent choices in here, but who am I to judge... check it out yourself!

Top 5 Danish Albums
1    WhoMadeWho - Brighter
2    Choir of Young Believers - Rhine Gold
3    Sleep Party People - We Are Drifting on A Sad Song
4    Christian Hjelm - Før vi blev lette
5    The Raveonettes – Observator
   
Top 10 International Albums
1    Beach House – Bloom
2    The xx – Coexist
3    Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light
4    Grizzly Bear – Shields
5    Tame Impala – Lonerism
6    Alt J – An Awesome Wave
7    Japandroids – Celebration Rock
8    Lower Dens – Nootropics
9    Dot Hacker – Inhibition
10    Father John Misty – Fear Fun
 

 
It's December-time, which means it's list-time - huzzah! Over the next three weeks, leading up to Christmas, each of us Crunchy staffers will give a rundown of our our favorite records from the year that has passed. Some ranked in order of preference, some in alphabetic order and some split into Danish vs International releases, because... well, consensus is hard. In the end, we're all music obsessives here at Crunchy HQ, with an office stereo that is always playing and a lot of strong opinions on whatever is played. Hopefully these lists will give you, the reader, a fun little insight into our musical tastes and, who knows, you might just find your next favorite band.

The rules: In order to qualify an album has to have been released in the current calendar year (2012, duh), it cannot be a re- release, it has to be a full- length (no EPs) and it cannot be a Crunchy release (for the obvious reasons), a Stucco Records release (the fine label run by our intern Jakob) or a Big Oil release (another fine label run by Crunchy Tunes' own Andreas).

To kick things off I'll list my favorite 20 albums of 2012 and then we'll upload a new list every other weekday -- as in, the next list will be up on Thursday. Picking my favorite albums from 2012 has been harder than any other year previous, simply due to the sheer quality of music put out. It's a testament to how much excellent music released, when albums such as Frank Ocean's, Kendrick Lamar's, Grizzly Bear's, Django Django's, Chromatic's, Flying Lotus', Choir of Young Believer's, etc simply did not fit on to my list. So high fives to everyone around and enough about me... here's the list:

Andreas' Top 20 for 2012 [Ranked 1-20]

1. Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse
2. Less Win - "Great"
3. Purity Ring - Shrines
4. Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
5. El-P - Cancer 4 Cure
6. Hot Chip - In Our Heads
7. Cat Power - Sun
8. Action Bronson - Blue Chips
9. Pegasvs - Pegasvs
10. John Talabot - fIn
11. Beach House - Bloom
12. King Gizzard and the Lizzard Wizard - 12 Bar Bruise
13. Tame Impala - Lonerism
14. Merchandise - Children of Desire
15. Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man
16. Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It
17. Lower Dens - Nootropics
18. Liars - WIXIW
19. Clams Casino - Instrumentals Mixtape II
20. Moon Duo - Circles

Merry Christmas to one all from Crunchy Frog!

Treat yourself to a bit of Christmas spirit via Thee Attacks and get your night off to flying start:

  And while you're at it why not add a bit of vintage Bing Crosby and David Bowie: 

Always a favourite! Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve is just around the corner and we are rapidly approaching the end of the year, which can only mean one thing… it is time to round up our favourite records of the year and do our best- of lists. Not only are the lists fun (!), but they also serve as a great reminder of how much great music is put out each and every year.

The rules are simple: In order to qualify an album has to have been released in the current calendar year, it cannot be a re- release, it has to be a full- length (no EPs) and it cannot be a Crunchy release (for the obvious reasons).

In this fourth and final instalment of the Crunchy end-of-year lists, I, Andreas, finally get to list my favourite albums of 2011. Since I have been the one doing these posts, I’ve selfishly let the series end on my own list and also made it ridiculously long. Greedy as I clearly am.

However, before my unnecessarily excessive list,  we’ve also done a spotify playlist with the best songs of 2011. The list features 104 songs from 104 different artists/bands of (almost) all genres, which translates in to roughly 7 hours of great listening. So much great music (!), so little time. 

Check out the spotify list here.  Enjoy!

… and now for a Top 30 (sorry) of my favourite albums of the past year…

Andreas’s Top 30
1 Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise If You Can See
2 Austra - Feel It Break
3 Cut Copy - Zonoscope
4 Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
5 St Vincent – Strange Mercy
6 Wild Beasts - Smother
7 Danny Brown - XXX
8 Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls
9 Widowspeak - Widowspeak
10 Youth Lagoon - The Year Of Hibernation
11 The Horrors - Skying
12 Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lenses Alien
13 James Blake - James Blake
14 SBTRKT - SBTRKT
15 Yuck - Yuck
16 Action Bronson - Dr. Lecter
17 Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams
18 Real Estate - Days
19 The Dodos - No Color
20 Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
21 Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!
22 Bodies of Water - Twist Again
23 A$AP Rocky - Live, Love, A$AP
24 True Widow - As High As the Highest Heavens and from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth
25 tUnE- yArDs - W H O K I L L
26 Kendrick Lamarr - Section.80
27 The Men - Leave Home
28 Rustie – Glass Swords
29 Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
30 Cass McComs - WIT'S END

Christmas Eve is just around the corner and we are rapidly approaching the end of the year, which can only mean one thing… it is time to round up our favourite records of the year and do our best- of lists. Not only are the lists fun (!), but they also serve as a great reminder of how much great music is put out each and every year.

The rules are simple: In order to qualify an album has to have been released in the current calendar year, it cannot be a re- release, it has to be a full- length (no EPs) and it cannot be a Crunchy release (for the obvious reasons).

In this third instalment of the Crunchy end-of-year lists it is our resident Icelander, Thorhallur Jonsson, and the boss-man himself, Yebo, who list their favourite albums of 2011. The most incredible thing? Three instalments in and there are no duds! All great music! Eeeeeexcellent.

Thor’s Top 10 [In alphabetic order]
Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi
Black Keys – El Camino
Fucked Up – David Comes To Life
The Horrors – Skying
Iron and Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean
Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Tom Waits – Bad As Me
Wilco – The Whole Love
Youth Lagoon – Year of Hibernation

Yebo’s Top 5 [In alphabetic order]
Black Keys – El Camino
Thulebasen – Gate 5
Tom Waits – Bad As Me
True Widow – As High As the Highest Heavens and from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth
Tyler, The Creator - Goblin


The Black Keys - Lonely Boy