2012 CLAPTRAPPED TOP ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

1. The Walkmen - Heaven ( 5 votes, 20pts )

2. Django Django - Django Django ( 4 votes, 15pts)

3. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself ( 3 votes, 12pts) 

4. Grizzly Bear - Shields (3 votes, 10pts)

5. Alt-J - An Awesome Wave (2 votes, 7pts)

CLAPTRAPPERS LISTS

KM

1. Take the Kids off Broadway - Foxygen

2. Break It Yourself - Andrew Bird

3. Tramp - Sharon Van Etten

4. Slaughterhouse - Ty Segall

5. Night Moves - Colored Emotions

Tracks -  

Frank Ocean - "Lost" 

Jason Molina - "No Hand Was At The Wheel" - 

Father John Misty -  "Every Man Needs a Companion" 

NH

1. Django Django - Django Django

2. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

3. Passion Pit - Gossamer

4. The Walkmen - Heaven

5. M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion

JOC

1. The Walkmen - Heaven 

2. Porcelain Raft - Strange Weekend 

3. Alt-J - An Awesome Wave 

4. Grizzly Bear - Shields 

5. The Tallest Man On Earth - There's No Leaving Now

Tracks - 

Porcelain Raft - "Shapeless and Gone"

The Walkmen - "Heaven"  

Alt-J - "Tessellate"

BOD 

1. The Walkmen - Heaven

2. Grizzly Bear - Shields

3. Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits

4. Django Django - Django Django

5. Japandroids - Celebration Rock

MW

1. White Rabbits - Milk Famous
2. Alt J - An Awesome Wave
3. Django Django - Django Django
4. Tame Impala - Lonerism
5. Brother Ali - Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color

Tracks -
Brother Ali - "Singing this Song"

White Rabbits - "Temporary"
Tame Impala - "Elephant"

BB

1. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel

2. The Lumineers - The Lumineers

3. Mumford & Sons - Babel

4. The Avett Brothers – The Carpenter

5. Regina Spektor – What We Saw From The Cheap Seats

KE

1. Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls

2. Gary Clark, Jr .- Blak & Blu

3. Punch Brothers - Who’s Feeling Young Now?

4. Swans - The Seer

5. The Lumineers - The Lumineers

DH

1. Django Django - Django Django

2. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

3. The Walkmen - Heaven

4. Jake Bugg - Jake Bugg

5. Jack White - Blunderbuss

Tracks - 

Frank Ocean - "Lost"  

Andrew Bird - " Orpheo Looks Back" 

Beach House - "Myth"

JT

1. The Walkmen - Heaven 

2. Grizzly Bear - Shields

3. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange

4. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Here

5. Beach House - Bloom

Tracks - 

Frank Ocean - "Lost"

The Walkmen - "We Can't Be Beat"

Grimes - "Oblivion" 

Last couple spots

As I'm running out of time to finalize my top album list for this year, I figured I'd cover two albums in this post. First up is Dan Deacon's "America." I gained a lot of appreciation for Deacon when I saw him instruct a group of sweaty Lollapalooza attendees a few years ago to toss piles of garbage into the air in a synchronized act of music celebration. It was unlike anything I'd seen before and probably since. Now maybe that moment was more stage presence than quality of music, but it gained him a place in my music heart.

"America" is not a drastic shift from his previous album, "Bromst." Lots of intricate bells and whistles, interesting song structures. On the surface, his music seems chaotic, but if you listen closely there's a lot going on that is clearly not haphazard. The first few songs of this album are awesome, and the final half of "America" is a string of continuous USA-inspired titles (USA parts I-IV). I applaud what Dan Deacon is trying to do, but I wonder if things become too long and drawn-out. Part IV, for me, definitely produces some head bobbing, but it might take too long to get there. I still like this album as a whole quite a bit -- it'll be battling for a spot in my top 5 for sure.

The second album is Grizzly Bear's much-hyped "Shields." Faithful Claptrapped readers will recall I'm a big Grizzly Bear fan, and for the most part this album doesn't disappoint. "Shields" is bookmarked by two outstanding songs: Opener "Sleeping Ute" starts things off with a bang and might be my favorite song among the group. Closer "Sun in Your Eyes" builds to a heart-felt crescendo that sums up Grizzly Bear perfectly. It's going to be hard to keep this album out of my top 5 from this year.

So I've covered three albums in the past week or so, and I'll say I only have two openings in my top 5 -- so at least one will be excluded. Watch for the Claptrapped list in the near future to see which one I left out.

Divine Fits: "A Thing Called Divine Fits"

I remember being really psyched when I heard a band was forming consisting of members from both Spoon and Wolf Parade. My record is pretty strong on this blog in terms of my support for Wolf Parade -- I'm a huge fan, despite being pretty disappointed in how things ended for them. In the end, the members of Wolf Parade may end up being better separate than together.

So add in another band I enjoy -- Spoon -- and you have a recipe for can't-miss greatness, right? For me, I'd lean toward "yes," but the jury is still out. I like "A Thing Called Divine Fits," the new-formed group's first album, which was released earlier this summer. But I feel like I should like it more than I do.

The first thing that strikes me is that Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner and Spoon's Britt Daniel sound pretty similar. I can't really complain about this, but I kind of miss the sharp contrasts presented by Spencer Krug in Wolf Parade.

From what I've read, it doesn't sound like this will be a one-and-done-type project. It'll be interesting to see how the creation of Divine Fits affects Spoon. I know I'm all for this "supergroup" continuing to make music. I figure if they could come together so quickly and put out such a solid first effort, things could only get better from here.

I won't say this album will 100 percent make my top 5, but I'd say it's a pretty good chance.

Back in business

Hey! Remember Claptrapped? Yeah, well it's back. I guess.

While trying to come up with my list of top 5 albums for 2012, I figured I'd think through some of my decisions on here. I have a good idea of 3 of my top 5 (sorry, but you'll have to wait on those until the full list is revealed later this month; devastating, I know), but I feel like I have an overwhelming amount of options for those final two spots.

A ton of good music was released in 2012, and I admittedly didn't do a good job of keeping up with it. So over the next couple weeks, I'm going to cover 5 or so albums that I think I will like a lot, but haven't checked out yet.

First up is going to be Divine Fits' first album: "A Thing Called Divine Fits." The band is made up of members of Spoon and Wolf Parade -- both of which I like a lot -- so I figure this is a pretty safe place to start.

Look for my review in the next few days, as well as Claptrapped's top album list of 2012 sometime near the end of the month.