If there is a unifying theme among the music, words and films of 2012, it is one of style over substance. It seems, with a few notable exceptions, that we expect things to reference what has gone before, and we love it when they do. Even at the expense of surprise or (in the case of most popular movies this year) logic, the most important thing is to hit the right reference at the right time and in the right context.
Perhaps its a combination of the most popular music and films being marketed in more imaginative ways, but we seem to forgive more easily, and expect our artists to be part of an industry rather than existing in their own place and time. The concept of 'selling out' seems almost antiquated now as more and more art jostles for our attention.
Everyone seemed to love Looper and most people enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall despite none of these films making sense. They were fun, the heroes were in interesting situations, solving engaging problems, the cinematography, pacing and supporting cast were excellent. Tame Impala ruled all that came before them, trailing souped-up psych rock riffs and John Lennon's voice circa November 1966 with every song, but none of this stopped anyone from loving the pants off their album. It seems likely that the next few years of Triple J programming will feature high-schoolers playing poorly-produced rip offs of Lonerism, and why not? Still, there is an interesting question to ask around what makes us admit and overlook shortcomings like these examples, while lambasting others.
This penchant throws the work of 2012's truly imaginative artists into even greater relief. To enjoy Swans' The Seer or Scott Walker's Bish Bosch, or even the staggeringly bizarre French film Holy Motors you have to be willing to surrender a traditional sense of logic and relationships and feel overwhelmed for a while at least. And these are dark, and strange and glorious worlds. It's a rare individual who can get their head around Scott Walker's work. To really understand Bish Bosch requires an unfeasibly broad range of knowledge of European cultural history, zoology, Polish and astronomy, and that's just for one song. Of course you can really get a huge amount out of his work without knowing anything, but the simple fact that an artist puts that much knowledge into a song and expects you to bring something to the table when listening is exciting, and refreshing. In this year of shameless recycling and referencing, it's interesting that the most challenging and original stuff comes from elderly men who long ago gave up caring what anyone else thought of them.
Given that these creations are exciting in their blending of imagination and sound, they're still not places I want to spend a lot of time, whereas the dulcet tones of 'Allo Darlin, the haunting beauty and ingenuity of James Blackshaw's composing, Ryan Sterlings fluid guitar work and the evocative space of Burial's beats evoke a freedom and seem less instructive. They allow you to breathe and respond. 2012's most celebrated musician Frank Ocean lets you do this too, leaving a lot of space and intrigue with low-fi interludes, warm, sweet voice and vast range of sounds and instruments. Maybe not everyone, but a surprising number of people, responded to it, as they did to another unpredictable flight of imagination with a solid grounding in an outsiders view of social and personal challenges, the film Beasts of the Southern Wild. Which made for a welcome change.
2013 is the year of the Customer, according to The Guardian. I'm hoping that the opposite is true, that 'My' this and 'I' that can be replaced by just a smidgen of social conscience and caring for others, since it seems to be there in a lot of the music and film we loved in 2012.
TOP TEN ALBUMS
1. Europe ‘ALLO DARLIN
2. Bish Bosch SCOTT WALKER
3. Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death JAMES
BLACKSHAW
4. Lonerism TAME IMPALA
5. Channel Orange FRANK OCEAN
6. I Know What Love Isn’t JENS LEKMAN
7. Sweet Heart, Sweet Light SPIRITUALIZED
8. Double Natural BOOMGATES
9. ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend Ascend! GODSPEED YOU!
BLACK EMPEROR
10. Palace Laundry RYAN STERLING
TOP FIVE REISSUE/REMIX ALBUMS
1. Pasted Youth CLAG
2. Dreamin' Wild DONNIE AND JOE EMERSON
3. Trilogy THE WEEKND
4. Acid Reflux THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
5. Bastards (Biophilia Remix Album) BJORK
TOP TWENTY SONGS
1. Kindred BURIAL
2. D Minus STEP-PANTHER
3. The Kids Were Wrong MEMORYHOUSE
4. Europe ‘ALLO DARLIN
5. Naked TULLY ON TULLY
6.
7. Stay Useless CLOUD NOTHINGS
8. He’s In Stock
TWERPS
9. Locked FOUR TET
10. Hold On ALABAMA SHAKES
11. The End of
The World Is Bigger Than Love JENS LEKMAN
12. Fineshrine PURITY
RING
13. Inspector
Norse TODD TERJE
14. Feels Like
We Only Go Backwards TAME IMPALA
15. Whispering
& Singing BOOMGATES
16. Widower ELLEN KIBBLE
17. I Belong In
Your Arms CHAIRLIFT
18. Kill For
Love CHROMATICS
19. Ecce Homo TITUS
ANDRONICUS
20. Andrew in
Drag THE MAGNETIC FIELDS
BEST NEW ARTISTS
1. ‘Allo Darlin
2. Boomgates
3. The Spinning Rooms
4. Ellen Kibble
5. Kinch Kinski
TOP FIVE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS
1. Prince ROD LAVER ARENA
2. Taylor Swift ROD LAVER ARENA
3. Los Campesinos! HARVEST FESTIVAL
4. Aphex Twin PALACE THEATRE
5. Primal Scream PALACE THEATRE
TOP FIVE AUSTRALIAN ARTIST GIGS
1. Lost Animal GOLDEN PLAINS
2. Kinch Kinski THE OLD BAR
3. Clag NORTH MELBOURNE TOWN HALL
4. Lowtide GASOMETER
5. Twerps NORTH MELBOURNE TOWN HALL
TOP FIVE RADIO SHOWS/PODCASTS
1. Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews BBC FIVE
LIVE
2. Filmspotting CHICAGO PUBLIC RADIO
3. In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg BBC RADIO 4
4. Lime Champions RRR
5. Go Deep With Bruce Rave MOHEAK RADIO
TOP TEN TV SHOWS
1. Sherlock BBC1
2. Game of Thrones HBO
3. Mad Men AMC
4. Media Watch ABC
5. The Amazing World of Gumball CARTOON NETWORK
6. The Newsroom HBO
7. Suits USA NETWORK
8. A Touch of Cloth SKY1
9. Problems ABC
10. Bunheads ABC FAMILY
TOP TWENTY MOVIES (RELEASED IN AUSTRALIA IN 2012)
1. The Perks of Being A Wallflower
2. Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
4. Shame
5. A Royal Affair
6. Holy Motors
7. Once Upon a Time in
Anatolia
8. Killing Them Softly
9. Skyfall
10. Damsels in Distress
11. The Artist
12. Seven Psychopaths
13. Monsieur Lazhar
14. Moonrise Kingdom
15. Looper
16. The
Master
17. The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
18. The
Dark Knight Rises
19. Frankenweenie
20. Argo
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