And the moment arrived to look back at the past twelve months and try to highlight our favourite moments. 2012 has been the year where pop nearly conquered all; everybody tried to go viral through countless renditions of ‘Gangnam Style’; indie icons almost collectively suffered a drop in creative standards and the blogosphere was in panic trying to look for new best things to replace them; the attempt to rescue metal as the alternative genre of choice seems to have tanked too.
Not everything was bad, though, hip-hop and to a lesser extent R&B have proven themselves resilient to the crisis, offering one of the most interesting collection of records in many years; a few surprising comebacks by some legendary acts went beyond the most optimistic expectations, but overall the quality of the musical output has been so average that we are cutting our normal sections to the very basic Top 50 best albums and Top 100 tracks. No room for honourable mentions this time.
And to kick-start 2012’s music review, the quite crammed disappointments of the year section, packed with the typical range of difficult second albums; acclaimed songwriters whose muses have gone on strike; fatigue inducing avant-gardists stagnated on a sonic dead-end; big rap egos who didn’t deliver; unsuccessful reunions; ill-fated super groups and, above all, the follow-up of the most influential album of last decade, which saw our favourite freak-folk collective giving up and having a laugh as they probably realized they weren’t even going to reach the shadow of their illustrious precedessor.
Check our top 10 musical disappointments of the year, here.