THE BEST OF 2012

Following last night's Grammy Awards, here's my own personal choices for best rock songs, albums, and covers, of 2012.  My lists express solely my own personal choices and span the entire rock genre, including heavy metal, blues rock, rock, folk rock, pop-rock, and more.  Please note that, despite their inclusion on last nights awards, The Black Keys' El Camino record actually came out in December 2011, and therefore doesn't merit inclusion on this list in any form.  Similarly, songs like Rush's "Caravan" are omitted from this list since they were released as singles in 2010 or 2011, depending on the track.

Top 25 Songs of 2012

1.      Broken Crown - Babel, Mumford & Sons: Mumford’s sophomore effort is widely recognized as one of, if not the, best releases of the year, and though Broken Crown may not have been released as a single, or garnered any radio airplay, and most of the songs off the record could be considered as one of the best of the year, this tale in particular has something haunting, powerful, hopeful, mournful all at once about it that makes it stand a cut above the rest as an absolute masterpiece of modern rock. 

2.      Supremacy - The 2^nd Law, Muse: Essentially the James Bond theme that wasn’t, something about the diversity and expressions coming through in only just under five minutes shows why Muse is such a good band, going from Matt Bellamy’s caterwauling between a terrific heavy rock riff, to horns and piano-laced calm in a matter of thirty seconds or so quite flawlessly; a much better show of Muse’s true strengths than say, “Madness.”   

3.      Live To Rise - Avengers Assemble, Soundgarden: Based off a powerful riff, some of Kim Thayil’s most inspired playing yet, and Chris Cornell’s adrenaline-pumping screech, Soundgarden’s comeback single not only proved to be a great return for the band, but also a well-fitting theme to one of the year’s best (and certainly most successful) action flicks, The Avengers. 

4.      Radioactive - Continued Silence EP, Imagine Dragons: The atmospheric and powerful Radioactive may not have been the lead single, but it certainly introduced the world to one of the year’s best new bands, indie rockers Imagine Dragons with a powerful chorus and one of the best song introductions of the 2000’s. 

5.      Little Talks - My Head Is An Animal, Of Monsters and Men: Sure, a rash of sound-alike folk rockers have been erupting into the (semi) mainstream ever since Mumford & Sons 2009 debut Sigh No More, but Of Monsters and Men has something unique about them, mostly in their strong use of horns and a male-female duet on leads, both of which are best exemplified in this impressively mature tale of old age and love; a surefire classic for years to come. 

6.      Apocalyptic Love - Apocalyptic Love, Slash Feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspiracy: Leading off with a crushing riff, Slash’s guitar playing might be top notch on this track, but it’s the melodies of the chorus, and Myles Kennedy’s power on the verses that make this one of Slash’s best tracks since Guns n Roses mid-90’s collapse, and one of the best hard rock tracks of the year. 

7.      Love Bites (So Do I) - The Strange Case Of…., Halestorm: One of the best new bands on the hard rock/heavy metal scene, Halestorm’s main advantage is lead singer Lzzy Hale, a sexy bad girl who quickly snatched the title of hard rock poster girl from Evanescence’s Amy Lee with the standout single “Love Bites.” 

8.      Stray Heart -  Dos!, Green Day: Sure, Green Day’s three album Uno, Dos Tre opus was a massive failure critically and commercially, but a couple tracks managed to stand out, this one being the best of those, a vintage punk pop Green Day based off a popping bass riff and a return for Billy Joe Armstrong to his more typical lyrics of the 90’s, after taking a decade long detour into the political and theatrical.   

9.      Undaunted - Omerta, Adrenaline Mob: Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy makes a decisive switch in sound on his new supergroup project, with this straight ahead headbanger being a surprisingly refreshing break from his normal ten plus minute opus’ in his previous group.  This song in particular is just heavy as hell, getting the adrenaline going like nothing else this year and still sounding surprisingly fresh. 

10.  Comeback - Avengers Assemble, Redlight King: Admittedly I might have a bias to this track, my introduction to the 2011 breakout “band” (the entire group is the project of minor Canadian celebrity Kazzer) Redlight King, but even apart from that, it stands that this a unique hard rock song, the riff and lyrics being something we’ve seen before, but reworked into a powerful tale of defeat and redemption; there are times I even prefer this to King’s “Bullet In My Hand” or the other standout from the Avengers Assemble soundtrack, “Live to Rise.” 

11.  Babel - Babel, Mumford & Sons

12.  Panic Station - The 2^nd Law, Muse

13.  It's Time - Continued Silence EP, Imagine Dragons

14.  Headlong Flight - Clockwork Angels, Rush

15.  What Makes a Good Man? - The Glorious Dead, The Heavy

16.  Ghost Walking - Resolution, Lamb of God

17.  Locked Out of Heaven - Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars

18.  Lover Alot - Music From Another Dimension, Aerosmith

19.  Burn That Candle Down - Aftermath of the Lowdown, Richie Sambora

20.  Sex - Single, Motley Crue

21.  You and Your Blues - A Different Kind of Truth, Van Halen

22.  Parade - North, Matchbox Twenty

23.  Carry On - Single, Avenged Sevenfold

24.  Ho Hey - Self-Titled, The Lumineers

25.  Too Close - The Lateness of the Hour, Alex Clare

TOP COVERS

1.)    The Boxer – Babel (Bonus Tracks), Mumford & Sons (Simon & Garfunkel Cover)

2.)    When a Blind Man Cries – Re-Machined, Metallica (Deep Purple Cover)

3.)    Tainted Love – Comeblack, Scorpions (Soft Cell Cover)

4.)    Today– Empire, Dokken (Jefferson Airplane Cover)

5.)    Glad You Came – Pop Goes Punk 5, We Came As Romans (The Wanted Cover)

TOP TEN ALBUMS

1.      Babel – Mumford & Sons: Top to bottom a brilliant record, possible evidence to disprove the sophomore slump theory,  and a show of force that folk rock still has something—maybe a lot of things—left to say: far and away the best record of the year in any genre. 

2.      Night Visions – Imagine Dragons: The best new band of the year, Night Visions actually gives the rising indie rock movement some credibility, churning out an entire record of inspired and well-rounded rock songs with hooks, melodies, and powerful intros and closings to boot. 

3.      Apocalyptic Love – Slash Feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators: Pretty much any album Slash puts out tends to be at least solid, but this is legitimately one of the best he’s done since Guns n Roses, part of the factor being that he’s finally got his own band, (he did with Velvet Revolver as well, but that was essentially Guns with Scott Weiland on vocals instead of Axl) and he treats them as such, allowing for lead vocalist Myles Kennedy to shine throughout, even during all the excellent but expected guitar pyrotechnics. 

4.      My Head is an Animal – Of Monsters and Men: Separating itself from the average folk rock record (Lumineers, I’m looking at you!) through its powerful use of its instruments and an incredible male-female lead singer duet, this album also includes a number of surprisingly mature songs for a group of 20 year olds. 

5.      Aftermath of the Lowdown – Richie Sambora: Though this will no doubt be ignored and overlooked by even rock fans, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora shows himself to be a more inspired guitarist than one would gather from his boss’ greatest hits, each of these nuggets of blues-rock gold being indispensable towards his new records overall strength. 

6.      Blunderbuss – Jack White: Though his solo debut is no White Stripes, Raconteurs, or Dead Weather album, it still shows white as an excellent guitar player, with songs like “Sixteen Saltines” and “Love Interruption” ranking up there with some of the best of his quite impressive total catalog. 

7.      The 2nd Law – Muse: Sure, Muse has done much better, but The 2^nd Law is a good way to show their diversity and definition-defying brand of rock music (alt, prog, heavy, soft, electronic, symphomic, singer-songwriter, what’s going on here!?!?) to the general music-buying public, and it’s been working, plus it’s got some good tracks for their original fan base in there too. 

8.      Resolution – Lamb of God: Far and away the best straight heavy metal album of the year, Lamb of God delivers one of their most satisfying records yet, the heavy guitars and Randy Blythe’s growling adding up to more than usual. 

9.      King Animal – Soundgarden: Soundgarden’s comeback record is half powerful success, half enticing failure, their more traditional tracks paying off in the best way, where many of the experiments fall on their face, but are still interesting in their own way, especially with Cornell on vocals and Thayil on guitars keeping things engaging. 

10.  Celebration Day – Led Zeppelin: Technically cheating here, but this five year anniversary of the Led Zeppelin O2 reunion show proves Led Zep can still bring it, with Robert Plant giving an especially impressive vocal performance throughout this set of sixteen of some of Zep’s finest tracks.