2012 Album Rankings (sans write-up)

1. channel ORANGE - Frank Ocean

2. good kid, m.A.A.d city - Kendrick Lamar

3. Kaleidoscope Dream - Miguel

4. Life is Good - Nas

5. Uncaged - Zac Brown Band

6. Born And Raised - John Mayer

7. Celebration Rock - Japandroids

8. Black Radio - Robert Glasper Experiment

9. Kiss - Carly Rae Jepsen

10. Pineapple Now-Laters - BJ the Chicago Kid 

11. R.A.P. Music - Killer Mike

12. Cruel Summer - GOOD Music

13. 1999 - Joey Bada$$

14. Blunderbuss - Jack White

15. Some Nights - fun.

16. On The House/welcome to: OUR HOUSE - Slaughterhouse

17. Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album (Part I) - Lupe Fiasco

18. The Heist - Macklemore & Ryan Leslie

19. Habits & Contradictions- Schoolboy Q

20. The Man With Iron Fists - RZA

Honorable Mentions:

Red Wine & Ambien - Novel

Control System - Ab-Soul

Gossamer - Passion Pit

Dreams & Nightmares - Meek Mill

Live From The Underground - Big KRIT

Payback - Danny!

Babel – Mumford & Sons

Until The Quiet Comes – Flying Lotus

Up All Night – Kip Moore

My sample size is way down from last year. I have listened to (or attempted to listen to) 85 albums thus far from 2012. Last year that number was 245. That being said, I think I weeded out more of the deeper indie and indie hip-hop. I will try to revisit this again before the year is up and offer a less superficial analysis, but for now, this will do.