2012 was undoubtedly a year

 ... for sport not music?
Am I wrong?
Sometimes one just has to tick one off like that.
The sport of 2012, the TV of 2012, the films of (late) 2012 will, I think, go down as glorious and memorable and wonderful. The music? Will it? You tell me.

It could be my passion and interest is waning, but i'm still buying lots of stuff and giving it at least one or two listens, still getting music magazines, checking pitchfork and NME websites daily, I still WANT to hear the best stuff and love the best stuff and feel cool and sound cool.

It could be i'm at that awkward age, neither one thing nor the other. The hip youngsters at NME and Pitchfork have their own lists of the best stuff of the year and it's all Grimes and Alt-J and Kendrick Lamar and Chromatics and Palma Violets and what's all the shooting aboot ... and Uncut has their list and it's all Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan and Bill Fay and Bruce Springsteen and Dexys, and I've got a foot in both camps I suppose, but what's happened is that the folk who were cool 40 and writing for Uncut 15 years ago have kept their jobs and got old and just love the old folk now, and the people who run NME and Pitchfork have kept replacing their hip young writers with new hip young writers and they're genuinely young and, well, like ever so slightly different music than me.
And the album with a foot in every camp is the Frank Ocean album 'Channel Orange', which I've heard bits of throughout the year and just bought and listened to in its entirety and I don't think it's going to change my life though I may come to like it but I don't really "get" it yet.

But that represents how I feel about almost everything this year. Bands of my era, the kind that were acclaimed a few years ago but are now considered a bit middle-aged, released albums I thought were pretty good but I can admit were not magnificent (Shins, Walkmen, Regina Spektor, Spiritualized, Rufus Wainwright etc), various old folk released albums which Uncut and old rock critics wet themselves over but weren't really that amazing (Dylan, Cohen, Dexys, Weller etc, though hats off for Paul Buchanan and Bill Fay for genuinely unexpected minor triumphs) and I've tried to get down with the kids, really I have, and I'm enjoying various things, but things need a little more time.

I nearly always do an end-of-year list but I'm not sure I can muster that this time.

I like the sound of the new Nick Cave song 'We No Who 'U' R', I like 'Bad for Me' by Brendan Benson, 'How' by Regina Spektor', love 'Losing You' by Solange', 'Heaven' by the Walkmen, 'Mid-Air' by Paul Buchanan and 'So Long you Pretty Thing' by Spiritualized, 'Under the Westway' by Blur, 'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' by Tame Impala and 'It's Only Life' by The Shins. Aah, that appears to be 10 songs, so perhaps those are my BEST 10 SONGS OF THE YEAR! after all.

But I ought to be able to do better than that, and I'm not sure I've even got a favourite album of 2012 yet. I'll let you know halfway through 2013.
The end-of-year lists are a handy way to catch up on the consensus and does usually produce some big winners, so I've got a few things cued up for further attention.
Although we decry the pop charts and how it's all ghastly ShitBag feat TossFace these days, though I don't follow it that closely, Carly Rae Jepsen's song and Gotye's song were perfectly appealing and unusual chart-toppers, Emeli Sande is not an abominable breakout star of the year, and Robbie Williams did the first song by him I haven't absolutely loathed ever, so it can't be all bad.
But I'll tell you what was. all. bad. The Band of Horses album. What went wrong, Band of Horses? One of my favourite live shows ever, less than two years ago, with several songs which have ripped my soul clean off its hinges, but they have lost their mojo entirely, and represent all the bad cliches of the beardy Americana which is so close to my heart.
So come on 2013, Let's have a few classics. Newsom? National? Cave? Janelle Monae? Midlake? Heaven forfend, the Furries? Or let's hope that it's someone entirely unexpected who appeals to NME youngsters, Uncut beardies and disgruntled 34 year old sports fans alike.