End of the Year Awards

Just because 2012 is officially behind us doesn’t mean we have to stop listening to our favorite 2012 hits – which couldn’t all make our year-end countdown. Here’s a playlist featuring some tracks we loved but left out, featuring songs by Icona Pop, Killer Mike, Death...

#1 Song: Frank Ocean – “Thinkin Bout You” As a member of the outrageous hip-hop collective Odd Future, Frank Ocean‰'s hypnotic falsetto and melancholy lyrics stood out amidst the group‰'s penchant for grotesque imagery and abundant profanity. His single “Thinkin Bout...

#2 Album: Frank Ocean – Channel Orange Frank Ocean’s debut studio album, Channel Orange, has not only charted here and internationally but has also won critical acclaim and popular attention worldwide. While leaders in the R&B genre such as Usher and Ne-Yo have...

#3 Album: Japandroids – Celebration Rock This is what you should hear when you turn on the radio. This is what you should have on your roadtrip mixtape. This is what should soundtrack the montage to your youth. This, simply put, is a celebration. The sophomore effort...

#4 Album: Beach House – Bloom Over the course of four albums, Beach House have grown into their own splendor, as their sound rose from Cocteau Twins-indebted, amateur-sounding “dream pop‰” to majestic heights. A huge Beach House fan myself, it didn‰'t matter if I was...

#6 Album: Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory As soon as the somber piano of “No Future/No Past” introduces Attack on Memory, it’s clear that Cloud Nothings are no longer the snotty power-poppers we’ve known. Setting out to create “an attack on memory of what people...

#7 Album: Ty Segall – Twins Even for someone as regularly prolific as Ty Segall, 2012 seemed a busy year. Between producing albums for Ex-Cult and Heavy Cream, touring, and pronouncing his last name (apparently it’s like “seagull‰Û), the king of the West Coast garage...

#8 Album: Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan Wow. Somehow, it’s already been a full decade since David Longstreth originally planted the graceful-fallen-mango seeds of what would eventually become the Dirty Projectors. Listening to this year’s astonishing Swing Lo...

#9 Album: Grizzly Bear – Shields Grizzly Bear has established themselves as one of the most successful indie rock bands with Veckatimest, and Shields has only added to their success, reaching number 7 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on Billboard’s Independent...

Welcome to WVAU’s third annual Top 10 countdown! Every year, WVAU DJs vote on their favorite albums and songs of the previous 12 months. Some make the list – and we write about them in our Top 10s. Some don’t – and we write about them too, in our eccentric and...