One of the signs that I have acted more as a straggler than as a blogger recently is the fact that my "favorite music of 2012" post did not go up until January 1, 2013. Rather than repeat that poor performance wholesale, this post will at least get The List qua List up and out in the world. I am continuing to work on more detailed commentary on each of the selections, in the hope that it too will see the light before we hear the chimes at midnight as the years move on.

This year, the list comes to a full 50 entries. I have abandoned any attempt to segregate by style or genre this time around: this is simply recorded music that was released in the past twelve months and that I particularly liked, arranged in a rough order of personal preference.

As always, fine distinctions of degree become more hazy as the list grows longer. That is, I feel more strongly about the rightness of the rankings in the upper half of the list than in the lower. As an added arbitrary touch, when one artist is represented by more than one choice, I have simply lumped them together with consecutive numbers. Since my purpose is to endorse all of this music, and to commend each and every item to your attention, the numbering hardly matters in the end. This catalogue is what this blog on the whole has become, an index of enthusiasms.

Eh bien, the List:

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1 David Lang – death speaks

2 Big Farm –  Big Farm

3 John Grant –Pale Green Ghosts

4 Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society –  Brooklyn Babylon

5 John Hollenbeck – Songs I Like a Lot

6 June Tabor, Iain Ballamy, Huw Warren - Quercus

7 Leverage Models – Leverage Models

8 Son Lux – Lanterns

9 The Knells – The Knells

10 Caleb Burhans – Evensong

11 Midlake – Antiphon

12, 13 David Bowie – The Next Day and  
                                                The Next Day Extra EP

14 Dawn of Midi – Dysnomia

15 The National –  Trouble Will Find Me

16 Nadia Sirota – Baroque

17 Sam Amidon –  Bright Sunny South

18 Claire Chase - Density

19, 20 R. Andrew Lee – Dennis Johnson: November and  
                                            Eva-Maria Houben: Piano Music

21 Timo Andres – Home Stretch

22 Elvis Costello & the Roots – Wise Up Ghost

23, 24 Mohammad Fairouz – Native Informant and 
                    Symphony No. 4, 'In the Shadow of No Towers'

25 Essie Jain – All Became Golden

26, 27 CFCF – Music for Objects and Outside

28, 29 John Vanderslice – Dagger Beach and 
                                           Vanderslice Plays Diamond Dogs 

30 Ceramic Dog – Your Turn

31 Blitzen Trapper –  VII

32 Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle

33 Ensemble et cetera – Even the Light Itself Falls 

34 Daníel Bjarnason – Over Light Earth

35 The Men –  New Moon

36 David T. Little – Soldier Songs

37 Daniel Wohl – Corps Exquis

38 Billband –  Towards Daybreak

39 itsnotyouitsme – This I

40 Still Corners –  Strange Pleasures

41, 42 Third Coast Percussion – Unknown Symmetry and 
                                                                Resounding Earth

43 John Foxx and the Maths –  Evidence

44 Spektral Quartet – Chambers

45 Junip –  Junip

46 Harold Budd – Jane 1-11

47 Jace Clayton – The Julius Eastman Memory Depot

48 Caravan Palace – Panic

49 Nicholas Cords – Recursions

50 Arnold Dreyblatt & Megafaun – Appalachian Excitation

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