Aaron Detroit, Buyer at Amoeba Hollywood. I've worked in Hollywood for eight years, but started my time with Amoeba - way back in 1998 -  at the San Francisco store. This is my extensive list of 2012 releases that I fell in love with or had serious affairs over the past 365 days. 2012, for me, was a surprising and amazing year in music. Nearly all 50 releases here could have been a Top-Ten contender almost any other year, and the Top Ten is full of records that could easily have been #1.

50 Essential Albums of 2012

1.  SCOTT WALKER Bish Bosch (4AD) 

The 6-year-long wait was well worth it, as is usually the case with Walker. This isn't the latest indie background music du jour - It's an Absurdist's symphony. Melody is eschewed for repetition, but you still walk away with the damned thing in your head. E-bows, machetes as percussion and disturbing (as well as amusing) scatological metaphors are some of the unlikely ingredients that make up this terrifying (and weirdly infectious) beauty. There's really nothing else like it, so enjoy figuring it out for the rest of your life.  

According to a recent interview with NME, Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons is exhausted and burnt out at the idea of touring again. After his lengthy tour supporting his last album, The Crying Light, he took a year off to recuperate and now has only booked one date, in NYC, thus far, even though he has a brand new album just-out, Swanlights. If you are in NYC, head out to the Alice Tully Starr Theater on Oct 30! Who knows when we'll be able to see Antony perform live again.

Antony of Antony and the Johnsons has created a more than worthy followup to his wonderful I Am A Bird Now. This new album is called The Crying Light, and it is as hauntingly gorgeous as anything else Antony has put out.


On The Crying Light there are some beautifully unexpected moments and, as always, a lot of vocal vibrato. Through it all, we glimpse Earth though the eyes of a keen observer of the natural world, who penetratingly sees both its agony and ecstacy. Strings abound on the first track "Everglade," while the second song "Epilepsy is Dancing" is delicate and features guitar and wind instruments. "Aeon" is an awesomely gorgeous torch song and plea dedicated to the universe and its eternity. One of the record's centerpieces, "Another World" (also included on this past fall's ep Another World), longs for a place beyond our planet, a place that is not so limiting and broken. There's a quite a bit of sonic variation for someone who has been so critically defined merely by the timbre of his voice. No doubt, that voice is there in all its smoky, vibrating glory. It blankets every track in its special, warm glow. The release, the silences, the showiness of it all is just perfection. But the music that flows through this album is just as glorious as the otherwordly vocals.

I love the simplicity of this:


Finally, finally, after about 3 years of waiting, Antony and the Johnsons will be releasing an EP on Oct 7 entitled Another World. To celebrate the release, Antony is playing two US concerts, one in LA and one in Harlem, with full orchestration co-arranged by the brilliant Nico Muhly. Those dates are here. There will also be two dates in the UK. Antony's next full length, The Crying Light, will apparently be released on January 21, 2009.

If you somehow missed I Am A Bird Now, which won the Mercury Prize for Best Album of 2005, do yourself a favor and grab a copy. Or if you aren't in the mournful mood, you can check out Antony's flawless vocal contributions to Hercules and Love Affair's self titled album. This should get you up and dancing:


And if you wanna hear Antony singing "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," click here.

I finally got my hands on the soundtrack for I'm Not There and waaaaaaaaaaaaay down at the end of the sprawling two disc set is the track that makes it all worthwhile: Antony & the Johnsons' cover of  "Knocking on Heaven's Door." 


What impeccable song selection! Antony's voice is so moving and completely unlike anyone else's. He has an unmistakable style and this track is utter perfection. His rich, deep voice adds a completely different, absorbingly evocative element to the song, creating an almost hymn like sound, and I'm always most pleased with Antony's work when he just accompanies himself with an acoustic piano.

It might be my favorite track of the year.

Antony's next album is supposedly being released this spring. If you haven't heard his previous albums, please go get I Am A Bird Now! 

Check out this performance of "You Are My Sister" on Letterman: