I’m not really one for New Years resolutions. That said, as long as we’re using the turn of the calendar to drop another breadcrumb onto this trail we call life (and grind out lists, because everybody loves lists!), I might as well take this moment to reflect on whatever got accomplished over the past twelve months, and set out some goals for the year ahead.
One place where I fell short of my plans was in the writing department. I actually stepped up my game a bit, writing more on PropertyOfZack than ever (despite mentally checking out for the final two months of the year). But I had hoped to branch out more, both in terms of places where my writing appears and in terms of the kinds of pieces I’m writing. On the former, I did some work for a site that never got off the ground, and made some halfhearted attempts at finding some additional places to run my work, but this year I’d like to get a little more serious about pitching stories and such. (You can find links to almost everything I did write here, and a little bit more here). Per the latter, the good news is that 2013 is already looking up: I’ve got a major project happening at One Week One Band in March, and we’re hard at work behind the scenes at PoZ on expanding our non-news offerings (in particular, I have a few plans for long form pieces that I’m set on venturing into in 2013). I even have a kinda-sorta book idea that I’m probably way over my head venturing into (and which probably lacks any sort of readership appeal outside of, oh, me). In general, I’m making little steps, and little steps are good and important, but this year I want to push myself to take bigger ones.
The other quasi-resolution I made last year was to listen to fewer podcasts, and in that plan I failed miserably. If the podcast market felt waterlogged in 2011, 2012 brought a level of saturation I didn’t even know was possible, especially when it came to music podcasts. Programs like Going Off Track, Washed Up Emo, Nothing To Write Home About, and 100 Words Or Less all became essential listening. Add to that a proliferation of tech and baseball podcasts, and for much of the year it felt like that was all I was listening to – something that’s borne out in my listening numbers. The number of new* albums/tracks I listened to was barely half what I did in 2011, and the number of listens I gave to those tracks was down even further. I enjoy writing about music, but this year it felt like the music I was listening to explicitly for the purpose of writing about it dominated listening for pleasure.
*It’s probably worth noting that none of the below numbers include time spent listening to pre-2012 releases. While that’s certainly a significant amount of my listening time, I’d guess that, proportionally, it was about as far down as my new-music-listening time.
Which is not to imply I didn’t enjoy much of that listening; many of those albums I wrote about wound up as my favorites for the year, and would have gotten the plays regardless. And I saw as much music live as I did last year, which was almost exclusively for my own enjoyment’s sake. But running through my most-played songs and albums of 2012 on last.fm, it’s a muddled mess of stuff I loved and stuff I didn’t care for, and while I suppose spending time on stuff I don’t much care for is just one small, necessary downside to choosing to write about music in a serious sort of way, not spending more time with music I did love doesn’t have to be a side effect of that effort. So, in 2013, I’m doubling down on that whole fewer-podcasts-thing, and making a conscious effort to prioritize listening to music over chatter.
Now with all that out of the way, on to the numbers!
So how did I spend my listening time this year? As of December 29, 2012:
- By my count, over the course of the year I listened to 121 LPs, EPs, 7″s, Splits or Comps released in 2012.
- There were 1,155 songs added to my iTunes this year that received at least one play (unlike last year, this only includes tracks from 2012 releases).
- In total, songs from 2012 added to my iTunes library this year received 3,074 plays.
- My albums with the most track plays were**:
- Dave Melillo – Eskimo Kisses (143)
- The Forecast – Everybody Left (110)
- Foxy Shazam – Church Of Rock And Roll (109)
- Sharks – No Gods (108)
- John K. Samson – Provincial (97) **This year’s numbers are almost entirely skewed toward albums I listened to (at least in part) for review. The album with the most track plays that I listened to merely for pleasure this year: Our Lady Peace – Curve (69)
- My most played songs were***:
- The Maine – Good Love (16)
- The Forecast – Clear Eyes, Full Hearts (15)
- Eisley – Laugh It Off (14)
- The Forecast – Skyline (14)
- Sharks – Matthew’s Baby (14)*** The same skew applies here. The song with the most plays that I listened to merely for pleasure this year: Our Lady Peace – Find Our Way (11)
- I attended 93 shows this year, in addition to a week of SXSW and the first three days of CMJ.
- At these shows/festivals, I saw (by my inexact count) 352 different sets played.
- I wrote 42 album reviews, along with eight lighthearted Christmas song reviews this year. In general I try to ensure that every album I review gets at least ten full listens over the span of at least a week, though I apparently fell short of that a bit this year. I also wrote one live performance review (of four different performances), and conducted fifteen interviews which were all published in Q&A form.
The full list of albums and EPs from 2012**** that I’ve listened to this year, alphabetical by artist, is after the cut.
**** I think these are all 2012 releases; I did my best to cull out stuff released prior, but no promises.
- All Time Low – Don’t Panic
- American Gospel – Tall Tales Vol. 1
- Anthony Raneri – New Cathedrals
- Artist Vs. Poet – Remember This
- Austin Gibbs – Fall 2011 (Live)
- Basement – Colourmeinkindness
- The Beach Boys – That’s Why God Made The Radio
- Black Cards – Up The Anti-
- Bob Mould – Silver Age
- Bonaventure – Come Hell Or High Water EP
- Breathe Carolina – Hell Is What You Make It: Reloaded
- Carly Rae Jepsen – Kiss
- Cassadee Pope – Cassadee Pope EP
- Circa Survive – Violent Waves
- Classics Of Love – Classics Of Love
- Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory
- Coasta – Coasta EP
- Code Orange Kids – Love Is Love // Return To Dust
- Cold Crows Dead – Album Demos
- Cold Crows Dead – Ghost That Burned Your House Down EP
- The Company We Keep – Making Moves 7″
- Crosses – Crosses EP 2
- Dads – American Radass (This Is Important)
- Daniel Rinaldi – Daniel Rinaldi EP
- The Darkness – Hot Cakes
- Dave Melillo – Eskimo Kisses
- Daytrader – Twelve Years
- Deftones – Koi No Yokan
- Desaparecidos – MariKKKopa / Backsell 7″
- DIIV – Oshin
- Dion – Tank Full Of Blues
- The Early November – In Currents
- Eisley – Deep Space
- Enter Shikari – A Flash Flood Of Colour
- Eve 6 – Speak In Code
- For The Foxes – The Revolution
- The Forecast – Everybody Left
- Forever Came Calling – Contender
- Foxy Shazam – The Church Of Rock & Roll
- Frank Ocean – channelORANGE
- fun. – Some Nights
- Further Seems Forever – Penny Black
- Giants At Large – Doubt
- Go Radio – Close The Distance
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
- A Great Big Pile Of Leaves – Making Moves 7″
- Happy Body Slow Brain – Sleepy EP
- Have Mercy – My Oldest Friend
- Hit The Lights – Invicta
- Hostage Calm – Please Remain Calm
- Hyper Crush – Night Wave
- I Call Fives – I Call Fives
- I See Stars – Digital Renegade
- Japandroids – Celebration Rock
- Jeremih – Late Nights With Jeremih Mixtape
- John K. Samson – Provincial
- Jonah Matranga – Voices And Dedication
- Joyce Manor – Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired
- Just Kait – Once Upon A Girl
- Justin Bieber – Believe
- Ke$ha – Warrior
- Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid M.A.A.D. City
- Kevin Devine – Matter Of Time: KD&GDB Tour EP 2012
- Kowloon Walled City – Container Ships
- Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist
- The Maine – The Good Love EP
- Masked Intruder – Masked Intruder
- Matt Pryor – May Day
- Matthew Ryan – In The Dusk Of Everything
- The Menzingers – On The Impossible Past
- Metz – Metz
- mewithoutYou – Ten Stories
- Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dreams
- Minus The Bear – Infinity Overhead
- Misser – Every Day I Tell Myself I’m Going To Be A Better Person
- MOD SUN – Happy As Fuck EP
- Motion City Soundtrack – Go
- Motion City Soundtrack – Making Moves 7″
- Moving Mountains – New Light EP
- Nada Surf – The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy
- The Narrative – B-Sides And Seasides
- Now, Now – Threads
- Our Lady Peace – Curve
- Owl City – The Midsummer Station
- Owl City – Shooting Star EP
- Pentimento – Pentimento
- R. Kelly – Write Me Back
- Richard Benjamin – Day Jobs / Night Lives
- The Rocket Summer – Life Will Write The Words
- A Rocket To The Moon – That Old Feeling EP
- Say Anything – Anarchy, My Dear
- Set It Off – Cinematics
- Sharks – No Gods
- Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania
- Sparks The Rescue – Sparks The Rescue EP
- Speechwriters LLC – Hollywood College
- States – Room To Run (Deluxe Edition)
- Steven Padin – Out Of The Silent Nest
- The Swellers – Running Out Of Places To Go EP
- That’s Outrageous! – Psycho
- theHELL – Sauve Les Requins EP
- This Century – Acoustics EP
- Thrice – Anthology
- Title Fight – Floral Green
- The Tower And The Fool – How Long
- Vacationer – Gone
- What’s Eating Gilbert – Cheap Shots EP
- What’s Eating Gilbert – The Nashville Session 7″
- William Beckett – Walk The Talk EP
- William Beckett – What Will Be EP
- William Beckett – Winds Will Change EP
- William Control – Silentium Amoris
- With The Punches – With The Punches
- 2 Chainz – Based On A T.R.U. Story
- VA – G.O.O.D. Music Presents: Cruel Summer
- VA – Glamour Kills Tour Split
- VA – Pioneer North American Tour Live EP
- VA – Punk Goes Pop 5
- VA – Punk Is Dead. Get A Job. Split
- VA – Scott & Aubrey’s Wedding 7″
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