A&E…Frayin’ knee

2012 Top 100 LPs #28-25: Graham Coxon, Dexys, Liars, TV Girl

Published on December 19th, 2012 | Jonny Abrams

Yes, it’s…Rocksucker’s Top 100 Albums of 2012!

Rocksucker listened to a lot of albums this year and conferred varying degrees of merit (in quail form) upon them based on our own spurious criteria…

…and now we bring you our favourite hundred of them, counted down in order arbitrarily/for fun. By dint of mathematics (specifically 4 x 25), top spot shall be revealed on Christmas day. Now, let’s get crackling, and then cracking…

28. TV Girl – The Wild, The Innocent, The TV Shuffle

Officially released as a mixtape, this full-length debut from San Diego duo Brad Petering and Trung Ngo is brimming with joyous applications of early ’60s songwriting to colourful hip-hop production. An addictive summer soundtrack with lashings of good humour and bucketloads of melody.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s review of The Wild, The Innocent, The TV Shuffle in full

27. Dexys – One Day I’m Going to Soar

Kevin Rowland’s first Dexys album since 1985 may be shorn of the erstwhile Midnight Runners suffix but it’s a resounding success nonetheless, a world-weary, beautifully orchestrated and occasionally hilarious set of aspersions cast on his own attitudes towards love and life. Pour yourself a whiskey and snuggle up with it.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s review of One Day I’m Going to Soar in full

26. Graham Coxon – A&E

Back to scratchy, lo-fi noisemaking after the folky detour of 2009’s The Spinning Top album, the Blur guitarist/dynamo is in inspired form here, welding the wonkiness of his early solo output with the killer pop instincts of Happiness in Magazines and Love Travels at Illegal Speeds. Strange, sometimes sinister, always inspired. Oh, and “Running For Your Life” is a strong contender for song of the year.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s review of A&E in full

25. Liars – WIXIW

Apparently pronounced as “wish you”, the New York three-piece make an about-turn from the distorted onslaught of 2010’s Sisterworld into jittery and synaesthetic ‘mind blown’ electronica, providing a strong contender for song of the year of its own with the barmy, Soca-ish “A Ring on Every Finger”. A dark kind of psychedelia, and flippin’ fascinating at that.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s review of WIXIW in full

Watch this space for a continuation of the countdown of Rocksucker’s Top 100 Albums of 2012! Bloody do it!

Artists: dexys, graham coxon, liars, TV Girl

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.