Best Albums of 2012: The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten

These rockers from New Jersey have been on the scene since 2006 and during that time they've released 4 studio LPs. They've built quite a big audience and become respected band on the rock scene during their career. Their musical style could be best described as punk mixed with stadium rock (similar to Bruce Springsteen's style).

Their last effort Handwritten came out on July 20, 2012 and I gotta say, it is their best album so far. I've said it many times on this blog and I'll say it again - I think they've found a perfect combination of their punk roots and that huge stadium sound on this record.

Actually, I had no doubts this album will be good after they revealed first track of the album - "45". It is such an awesome song. It's got this really big sound. Other tracks on the album continue with spirit of the opener. However, I wouldn't say tracks on this album are too similar. No, I don't think that's the case because every track has slightly different style.

Vocals are typically incredible like we are used to when listening to this band. But what I like maybe even little more is the guitar work on this album. I don't mean really hard and fast guitar solos that last longer than 5 minutes. No, you won't find these on this LP. I mean emotional guitars that can be heard throughout the entire album. In the background, there is always one guitar playing some riffs in addition to the rhythm guitar. Just listen to it and you'll find out for yourself.

Tracklisting of Handwritten:

1. ''45''
2. "Handwritten"
3. "Here Comes My Man"
4. "Mulholland Drive"
5. "Keepsake"
6. "Too Much Blood"
7. "Howl"
8. "Biloxi Parish"
9. "Desire"
10. "Mae"
11. "National Anthem"

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:

12. "Blue Dahlia"
13. "Sliver" (Nirvana cover)
14. "You Got Lucky" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover)

Best Albums of 2012: Alabama Shakes - Boys and Girls

Alabama Shakes is a band from Athens, Alabama. They were formed in 2009 and this album entitled Boys and Girls is only their debut album. And I gotta say, this band is the best new act of 2012 for me. The passion this band puts into the music and also incredible skills of every member of this group creates the best combination for awesomeness.

The album was released on April 9, 2012 and I almost immediately got my greedy little hands on these 11 tracks (plus one bonus). I knew this band a little since the beginning of 2012 and based on those couple of songs I had heard ahead of its release, I thought they are pretty good band.

However, after Boys and Girls came out, it blew my mind. Seriously, there is no track that sounds bad or at least not as good as the other tracks on this record. What I like about all those tracks is the incredible voice of singer and also main song writter Brittany Howard. Her voice is perfect addition to already incredible music and together they create something really unusual. The best way to describe their music is probably 'blues rock with badass female singer'.

Of course, Alabama Shakes aren't typical modern today's band because they just aren't, but they make real music with passion and that's what I like. I can listen to this album over and over again and it still sounds awesome, coherent and fresh. The opener "Hold On" may be even the best track of the entire year.

Their live performances are incredible as well - to prove for yourself just check their entire performance from KEXP at the bottom.

Tracklisting of Boys and Girls:

1. "Hold On"
2. "I Found You"
3. "Hang Loose"
4. "Rise To The Sun"
5. "You Ain’t Alone"
6. "Goin’ To The Party"
7. "Heartbreaker"
8. "Boys & Girls"
9. "Be Mine"
10. "I Ain’t The Same"
11. "On Your Way"

12. "Heavy Chevy" (Bonus)

Best Albums of 2012: Jack White - Blunderbuss

You probably saw this coming, right? I mean, really, this was Jack White's year and his album just had to make the list.

Form White Stripes's frontman's debut album entitled Blunderbuss came out on April 23 and many people had been anticipating it ahead of its release. And I gotta say, Jack White didn't let us down. Not at all.

People who expected that this album will be raw and fast (like The White Stripes) were wrong. Probably, they are the only people who don't like it...

In fact, Jack White's debut record is all over the place. He really mixed his favorite music genres together and put them all on the record. But he did it very well. There are jazz tracks, rock'n'roll tracks, country tracks and of course songs that sound like The White Stripes. And I like the variety of different sounding tracks because I think there would be no point in making a new record that would sound completely like his former band.

If you wanna read the full review of the record, head here. You'll read there everything I had to say about it.

To conclude, the record is an awesome sounding mixture of songs driven by Jack White's awesome guitar skills. Jack White once again proved why he is so respected in the music world - for music like this.

Best Albums of 2012: Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood Of Colour

So I'm back and I hope I will have the time to finish my list of best albums of 2012 until the end of year. I tend to post mini review of one album every day from now on.

Anyway, first album I'm going to write about is Enter Shikari's A Flash Flood Of Colour. It was released in January of this year and it's been basically soundtrack of my whole year. It was playing in my car, on my laptop and also in my headphones pretty much all the time. Basically, I've been coming back to this album constantly.

This album is really great because these guys have learned how to move their music to the next level. Their previous efforts (2007's debut Take To The Skies and 2009's Common Dreads) weren't bad at all. Music and style they brought with these albums was quite unique and in fact, still is.

However, this one.. it is completely new level for me. It may not be as unique as Common Dreads, but the lyrics, the music and also music videos made for tracks from this album really create the uniqueness of this album.

If you want to read full review of it, click here. You can find out there about this album's flaws as well as great points. I just love it and it really have grown on my over time (I love it even more now than I did during writing the review). I definitely recommend you to check it out and fully emerge into Enter Shikari. I think they fight for good stuff and definitely come to one of their shows! They're great live.

Best Albums of 2012

End of the year is slowly approaching and that means that I will once again make a list of best albums of the past year. They will be obviously best albums only in my opinion - your opinions may differ a lot.

I don't know how many albums I will list but it will probably be something around 20. Maybe more, maybe less. We'll see. I will try to post new album every two or three days, but I'll see how that goes. Also, the list won't be in order.

I hope you'll like my choices and hopefully you discover something new because of me.

So stay tuned for this and thanks for you support.