Sometimes, despite your best intentions, you can’t keep up with the vast amounts of music released in a given year — an especially salient point the last few years, where the proliferation of sharing tools has made finding music an audiophile’s dream. That’s normal — we miss things because we can’t help it. Born of this reality, we discover, or rediscover songs that aren’t new to many, but are new to us. You might discover a song that’s 30 years old, be blown away by how good it is, and also miffed by how you missed finding it for so long. Other times, you liked or loved a song in the past, and have, for one reason or another, found your way back to that song, where either a new experience is created or a memory is revisited in some strong, compelling, and often magical way. Such is the power of music, and the connectivity it shares with our senses and past experiences. Here is, in alphabetical order, my Top Discovered/Rediscovered in 2012 list:
ABBA – The Visitors/When All Is Said And Done
Bob Dylan – One More Cup of Coffee
Brakes – All Night Disco Party
Broken Social Scene – Shampoo Suicide
(From a great scene in Half Nelson.)
The Crystals – Then He Kissed Me
The Cure – In Between Days
Demi Lovato – Skyscraper
(Missed it last year. Great pop ballad.)
Dixie Chicks – Landslide
Florrie – I Took A Little Something
(Super catchy pop. What a loop.)
Future Islands – Old Friend
Incubus – I Miss You
(How I missed this one I don’t know. Gorgeous.)
King Charles – Love Lust
Lions – Girl From The North Country
(Samcro strikes — loudly.)
Manchester Orchestra – I Can Feel A Hot One
(Loved this when it was released. Now I’m convinced it’s on the short list for best song of the entire 2000’s.)
Michael Holm – Liebesthema (Vanessa Verliebt Sich)
(From the opening of “Hobo With a Shotgun”.)
New Order – Ceremony
Patty Griffin – Mary
(Samcro strikes again. Gorgeous in every way imaginable.)
Pearl Jam – Corduroy
Placebo – H K Farewell/Burger Queen
Puscifer – Momma Sed
The Rolling Stones – She’s a Rainbow/Ruby Tuesday
The Ronettes – Be My Baby
Selena Gomez & The Scene – Love You Like A Love Song
(Took quite a while with this one. I was wrong. It’s bloody massive.)
The Saddest Landscape – …The Stars In January
The Stone Roses – Made of Stone
The Tea Party – Fire In The Head/Save Me
(I can’t believe how good this still sounds, 15+ years later. Unbelievably vital.)
Terry Reid – Seed Of Memory
(Haunted by this song as the credits roll in “The Devil’s Rejects”.)
The War On Drugs – Come To The City
(Another one I missed from last year. Quite good.)
Third Eye Blind – Jumper
(I was humming this tune for a good 2 week stretch this year. What a chorus.)
The Pun Is Sure 