- Jimmy Cliff – “Guns of Brixton” – Rebirth (Universal)
- Menahan Street Band – “Lights Out” – The Crossing (Daptone)
- Lupe Fiasco – “B*tch Bad” – Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 (Atlantic)
- Dark Time Sunshine – “Never Cry Wolf ft Reva Devito” – ANX (Fake Four, inc)
- Frank Ocean – “Bad Religion” – Channel Orange (Def Jam)
- Mexican Institute of Sound – “Tipo Raro” – Politico (Nacional)
- Kanwar – “Son of a Sardar” – Mystics Martyrs & Maharajas (Nachural Music)
- The Bombay Royale – “Monkey Fight Snake” – You Me Bullets Love (HopeStreet Recordings)
- Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars – “Kali” – Radio Salone (Cumbancha)
- The Coup – “The Guillotine” – Sorry to Bother You (Anti-)
- Poolside – “Harvest Moon” – Pacific Standard Time (s/r)
- JD McPherson – “North Side Gal” – Signs & Signifiers (HiStyle Enterprises)
- Tame Impala – “Mind Mischief” – Lonerism (Modular)
- Souljazz Orchestra – “Conquering Lion” – Solidarity (Strut)
- Ebo Taylor – “Kruman Dey” – Appia Kwa Bridge (Strut)
- Brother Ali – “Letter To My Countrymen feat. Dr. Cornel West” – Mourning in America And Dreaming In Color (Rhymesayers)
- Ondatropica – “Punkero Sonidero” – Ondatropica (Soundway)
- Mokoomba – “Njoka” – Rising Tide (Zig Zag World)
- TigerStyle, Ms Rajni – “Ik Banere” – Ik Banere (AK Music Publishing)
- Shawn Lee – “Tiger Style” – Synthesizers in Space (ESL Music)
2012
Top 5 Albums
- Howler – America Give Up (Rough Trade)
- Hospitality – S/T (Merge)
- King Tuff – S/T (Sub Pop)
- Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan (Domino)
- Guantanamo Baywatch – Chest Crawl (Dirtnap)
Top 15 Songs
- King Tuff – “Bad Thing” – S/T (Sub Pop)
- Howler – “This One’s Different” – America Give Up (Rough Trade)
- Hospitality – “All Day Today” – S/T (Merge)
- Twin Steps – “Junkie Song” – Serial Parade (Cola Bruin)
- Dirty Projectors – “About To Die” – Swing Lo Magellan (Domino)
- Ariel Pink – “Only In My Dreams” – Mature Themes (4AD)
- The Babies – “Mess Me Around” – Our House On The Hill (Woodsist)
- Jaill – “Waste A Lot Of Things” – Traps (Sub Pop)
- Seapony – “Tell Me So” – Falling (Hardly Art)
- Soft Pack – “Tallboy” – Strapped (Mexican Summer)
- Gap Dream – “58th St. Fingers” – S/T (Burger)
- Tiger High – “Hot Black Honda” – Myth Is This (Trashy Creatures)
- Tropical Punk – “Dream Darlin” – Ends of The World (Denim)
- Nick Waterhouse – “Raina” – Time’s All Gone (Innovative Leisure)
- Guantanamo Baywatch – “We Came With Dottie” – Chest Crawl (Dirtnap)
Top 10 Albums of 2012
- Shearwater – Animal Joy (Sub Pop)
- Murder By Death – Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon (Bloodshot)
- Emel Mathlouthi – Kelmti Horra (World Village)
- Metric – Synthetica (Mom & Pop)
- Alt-J – An Awesome Wave (Infectious)
- Audra Mae and the Almighty Sound – S/T (Side One Dummy)
- Ana Tijoux – La Bala (Nacional)
- Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man (Capitol)
- The Bombay Royale – You Me Bullets Love (Hope Street)
- Mexican Institute of Sound – Politico (Nacional)
My Year In Music 2012
- Santigold featuring Karen O.-GO!– “Master Of My Make” – Believe (Atlantic)
- Richard Hawley – “She Brings The Sunlight” – Standing At The Skyís Edge (Parlophone)
- Tame Impala – “Be Above It” – Lonerism (Modular)
- Redd Kross – “Stay Away From Downtown”- Researching The Blues (Merge)
- Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra – “Melody Dean” – Theater Is Evil (8 ft.)
- Imperial Teen – “Runaway”- Feel The Sound (Merge)
- Jack White – “I’m Shakin” – Blunderbuss (Third Man)
- Mark Lanegan Band – “Ode To Sad Disco” – Blues Funeral (Sub Pop)
- Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” – Fear Fun (Sub Pop)
- Cloud Nothings – “Stay Useless” – Attack On Memory (ADA/ Carpark)
- The Electric Mess – “I Thought About You” – Standing at the Edge of the World (S/R)
- Divine Fits – “Would That Not Be Nice” – A Thing Called Divine Fits (Merge)
- Parquet Courts – “Stoned and Starving” – Light Up Gold (What’s Your Rupture?)
- The Coup – “The Guillotine” – Sorry To Bother You… (Anti-)
- Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra – “Institutionalized” – A Tribute To Repo Man (American Laundromat)
- Killer Mike – “Anywhere But Here” – R.A.P. Music (Williams Street)
- Marina and the Diamonds – “How To Be A Heartbreaker” – Electra Heart (Atlantic)
- Foxy Shazam – “Holy Touch” – The Church Of Rock N Roll (Capitol/ I.R.S)
- Muse – “Survival” – The 2nd Law (Helium-3/Warner Brothers)
- Ty Segall Band – “The Tongue” – Slaughterhouse (In The Red)
- Grace Potter & The Nocturnals – “Stars” – The Lion The Beast The Beat (Hollywood)
- Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Mature Themes” – Mature Themes (4AD)
- Marianne Faithfull – “Angel” – Just Tell Me That You Want Me (Hear)
- The Walkmen – “Heartbreaker” – Heaven (Fat Possum)
- U.S. Girls – “Down In The Boondocks” – Gem (Fat Cat)
Best Albums of 2012
- Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch – Concerning The Entrance Into Eternity (Important)
- Shintaro Sakamoto – How To Live With A Phanthom (Other Music)
- CAN – The Lost Tapes (Mute)
- Action Bronson – Blue Chips (Fool’s Gold Records)
- Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man (Parlophone)
- John Zorn – The Gnostic Preludes (Tzadik)
- Dum Dum Girls – End of Daze (Sub Pop)
- Frank Ocean – channel ORANGE (Island Def Jam)
- Expo 70 – Soft Wave Continuum (Sonic Meditations)
- Troy Ave. – Bricks In My Backpack 3: The Harry Powder Trilogy (S/R)
- Sympathy Nervous – Plastic Love (Minimal Wave)
- Sun Araw – Formatting Formants: Live from Adelaide 2012 (Sun Ark Records)
- Frankie Rose – Interstellar (Slumberland Records)
- Hundred Waters – S/T (Elestial Sound)
- The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico 45th Anniversary [Super Deluxe Box Set] (Polydor)
- Peaking Lights – Lucifer (Mexican Summer)
- Guided by Voices – The Bears For Lunch (GBV, Inc)
- Joey Bada$$ – 1999 (Cinematic / Creative Control)
- Philip Sanderson – Hollow Gravity (Puer Gravy)
- Tame Impala – Lonerism (Modular Recordings)
- WYLD WYZRDZ – Acceptance (Inner Islands)
- Trouble Books – Concatenating Fields (Bark and Hiss)
Top 40 Albums of 2012 (Alphabetical Order)
- Alt-J – An Awesome Wave (Infectious Music)
- Theo Bleckmann – Hello Earth! (The Music Of Kate Bush) (Winter & Winter)
- Bowerbirds – The Clearing (Dead Oceans)
- Brooklyn Rider – Seven Steps (S/R)
- Carolina Chocolate Drops – Leaving Eden (Nonesuch)
- Mary Chapin Carpenter – Ashes And Roses (Zoe)
- Chairlift – Something (Columbia)
- Neneh Cherry and The Thing – The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound)
- Clocked Out and Topology – From Small Things Grow (S/R)
- Kelan Philip Cohran And The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – S/T (Honest Jon’s)
- Ravi Coltrane – Spirit Fiction (Blue Note)
- The Coup – Sorry To Bother You (Anti-)
- The dB’s – Falling Off The Sky (Bar/None)
- Debo Band – Debo Band (Next Ambiance/Sub Pop)
- Iris Dement – Sing The Delta (Flariella)
- Exitmusic – Passage (Secretly Canadian)
- Michael Harrison & Maya Beiser – Time Loops (Cantaloupe)
- Billy Hart Quartet – All Our Reasons (ECM)
- Julia Holter – Ekstasis (RVNG Int’l)
- Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola – Not Getting Behind Is The New Getting Ahead (S/R)
- Icebreaker; BJ Cole – Apollo (Cantaloupe)
- Vijay Iyer Trio – Accelerando (ACT)
- Japandroids – Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl)
- Kishi Bashi – 151a (Joyful Noise)
- Luce Trio – Pieces Vol. 1 (Musæum Clausum)
- Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dream (RCA)
- Anais Mitchell – Young Man In America (Wilderland)
- Frank Ocean – Channel ORANGE (Def Jam)
- Sinead O’Connor – How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? (One Little Indian)
- Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction (Profound Lore)
- Acid Pauli – Mst (Clown And Sunset)
- Jenny Scheinman – Mischief & Mayhem (S/R)
- Sigur Rós – Valtari (XL)
- So Percussion; Grey McMurray – Where (We) Live (Cantaloupe)
- Ebo Taylor – Appia Kwa Bridge (Strut)
- Ryan Teague – Field Drawings (Village Green)
- THEESatisfaction – Awe Natural (Sub Pop)
- Ryan Truesdell – Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans (artistShare)
- Matt Ulery – By A Little Light (Greenleaf)
- Sharon Van Etten – Tramp (Jagjaguwar)
Top 12 Films for 2012
- Michael Haneke’s AMOUR
- Nicholas Jarecki’s ARBITRAGE
- Benh Zeitlin’s BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
- Jennifer Lynch’s CHAINED
- Craig Zobel’s COMPLIANCE
- David Cronenberg’s COSMOPOLIS
- Terence Davies’ THE DEEP BLUE SEA
- Leos Carax’ HOLY MOTORS
- Ang Lee’s THE LIFE OF PI
- Colin Trevorrow’s SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED
- Ron Fricke & Mark Magidson’s SAMSARA
- Malik Bendjelloul’s SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN