Logan K. Young’s Top Albums of 2012

Posted December 18th, 2012 by logan

Logan K. Young is a former contributor to Drawer B, who managed to stir up his fair amount of shit while in residence. He’s now moved on to bigger and better things, including being a fellow for 11th annual USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program. Unsurprisingly, a few of his best album choices are a tad too obscure for the streaming services, so you’ll have to do your own homework to track down some of these releases. We’re streaming what we could find on Rdio below.

Top 10 Records:
1. Scott Walker, Bish Bosch (4AD)
2. Jason Lescalleet, Songs About Nothing (Erstwhile)
3. Holly Herndon, Movement (RVNG Intl.)
4. X-TG, Desertshore/The Final Report (Industrial)
5. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Psychedelic Pill (Warner Bros.)
6. Wadada Leo Smith, Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
7. Florian Hecker, Chimerization (Farsi Language Version) (Editions Mego)
8. Fushitsusha, Hikari To Nazukeyo (Heartfast)
9. Matmos, The Ganzfield EP (Thrill Jockey)
10. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Mature Themes (4AD)

Top 10 Tunes:
1. Matthew Bourne, “Infinitude”
2. Spiritualized, “Hey Jane”
3. Dan Deacon, “Call Me Maybe Acapella 147 Times Exponentially Layered”
4. Chelsea Light Moving, “Frank O’ Hara Hit”
5. Swans, “The Seer”
6. Bob Dylan, “The Tempest”
7. Neneh Cherry & The Thing, “Dirt”
8. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, “Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps”
9. Leslie Keffer, “Finally, Caves! (Joy Dance)”
10. Sirvana, “Cut Me Some Slack”

Top 10 Reissues:
1. Sonic Youth, Smart Bar – Chicago (Goofin’)
2. Pauline Oliveros, Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music, 1961-70 (Important)
3. Can, The Lost Tapes (Mute)
4. G. I. Gurdjieff, Improvisations (Mississippi)
5. Various Artists, Pictures of Sound: One Thousand Years of Educed Audio, 980-1980 (Dust-to-Digital)
6. Royal Trux, Accelerator (Drag City)
7. Laurie Spiegel, The Expanding Universe (Unseen Worlds)
8. Various Artists, Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York City, 1976-96 (Soul Jazz)
9. Woody Guthrie, Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection (Smithsonian Folkways)
10. Sleep, Dopesmoker (Southern Lord)

Top 10 Shows:
1. Jandek @ Garfield Artworks. Pittsburgh, Pa. – Jan. 13
2. Glenn Branca Ensemble @ Lang Theater, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Sonic Circuits Festival. Washington, D.C. – Sept. 30
3. Mx Justin Vivian Bond @ Joe’s Pub. New York, N.Y. – March 25
4. Thurston Moore @ Performing Arts Center, Naropa University. Boulder, Colo. – July 5
5. Morton Subotnick @ Dekelboum Concert Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland. College Park, Md. – April 18
6. Pulp @ Radio City Music Hall. New York, N.Y. – April 11
7. Bill Orcutt & Chris Corsano @ The Windup Space, Creative Differences. Baltimore, Md. – Sept. 5
8. Lydia Lunch with Retrovirus @ FIDM Grand Hope Park. Los Angeles, Calif. – Nov. 8
9. Sunn O))) @ Main Stage, Black Cat. Washington, D.C. – Sept. 6
10. Julia Holter @ Johnny Brenda’s. Philadelphia, Pa. – Sept. 1

Tags: lists

5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 bdm // Dec 18, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    Two things:

    1 – I find it incredibly unhelpful for reviewers to give top 10 lists that are essentially laundry lists of the year in music. It would be much more useful to your readers if you could give a short (1-2 sentences minimum) describing why you liked a particular album/song/show. You clearly are exposed to more music throughout the year than I am, so use that exposure as an opportunity to tell me and others not only what you liked over the past year, but why. As a long-time reader of drawerb

  • 2 bdm // Dec 18, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    Two things:

    1 – I find it incredibly unhelpful for reviewers to give top 10 lists that are essentially laundry lists of the year in music. It would be much more useful to your readers if you could give a short (1-2 sentences minimum) describing why you liked a particular album/song/show. You clearly are exposed to more music throughout the year than I am, so use that exposure as an opportunity to tell me and others not only what you liked over the past year, but why. As a long-time reader of drawerb, I find myself thinking this same thing on a yearly basis.

    2 – Thanks for the link to the old reviews and comments. The “I really hate you…” comment is genius. I was laughing pretty hard, especially at the last line.

  • 3 Eric Greenwood // Dec 19, 2012 at 9:17 am

    Understood. I always leave commentary on mine, but this is partly my site. I’m lucky to get some of the other contributors’ input at all, so I can only ask for so much from them. Thanks for the input.

  • 4 Eric Greenwood // Dec 19, 2012 at 11:55 am

    Also, the best comment in that list is “Ween is bad. Feist.” That kills me every time.

  • 5 k // Dec 19, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    @bdm, typically, I just google stuff from Logan’s lists. I find that process kind of fun. (Exploring, researching, listening, etc). Like flipping through a bin at a record store. I can see your point, though, but I don’t actually think a description or justification from Logan would change things for me as a reader. I’m still working on my list. Perhaps I’ll include my reasons for my selections this year. 🙂

    Thanks for the feedback!