MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUMS OF 2012: PART 1

If I was able to write articles which were up to par with the previous articles I would probably go for an in-depth, analytic and thoughtful preview of the upcoming months. But being from Sweden has its upside (great music scene) as well as its downside (limited English AKA The Swedish chef) – So I’ll stick with listing the most requested albums and quoting press releases.

These are the ten most requested album leaks and is based on site traffic and your comments. All of them presented in no specific order. Click on the album titles to get notified when the album leaks!

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the forums.

The Shins – Port of Morrow

Indie/Pop/Rock

Port of Morrow was recorded in Los Angeles and Portland over the course of 2011 with James Mercer as usual handling all songwriting duties, lead vocals and the majority of instrumentation. The album was produced by Greg Kurstin and mixed by Rich Costey.

Meshuggah – Koloss

Metal

“As always, we try to take our music in a slightly different direction with each album and with ‘Koloss’, we feel that we really nailed what we were going for. Organic brutality, viscera and groove all crammed into a 54-minute metalicious treat, best avoided by the faint of heart!!” Tomas Haake, drummer from Meshuggah

Jack White – Blunderbuss

Blues/Country/Rock/Pop

Produced by White and recorded at his own Third Man Studio in Nashville, Blunderbuss has been described by White as “an album I couldn’t have released until now. I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas.”

Beach House – Bloom

Dream pop/Indie

Per the press release, Bloom was recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, TX, mixed at Electric Lady in NYC, and co-produced by Chris Coady (who also produced Teen Dream) and the band. If your lifestyle includes “lazy summer daydreams” or “back porch vibe sessions,” be ready to roll May 15.

Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Alternative/Rock

Spiritualized, the English space rock project of Spaceman 3’s Jason Pierce, have taken two years in recording studios from Wales to Los Angeles to finalize their next and seventh record, Sweet Heart Sweet Light, and it will finally be available for your listening pleasure on April 17.

Pierce has said the new record’s heavily influenced by the band’s masterpiece Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, thanks to his touring that record while writing material for the new one in Summer 2010.

Tenacious D – Rize of the Fenix

Rock

In a May 2011 interview at Attack of the Show, Black announced that three songs on their upcoming album would be named “Rize of the Fenix”, distinguishable by either letter or number. Also in the same interview, he named another song called “Señorita”. John Konesky has estimated that the new album will come out “in spring 2012”. It has also been confirmed that Tenacious D will be performing at Rock am Ring/Rock im Park and Download Festival in June 2012. In February 2012 it was revealed that the title of the album would in fact be spelled Rize of the Fenix and will be released sometime in May 2012.

M. Ward – A Wasteland Companion

Indie/Folk

Merge Records will release M. Ward’s highly anticipated sixth solo album, A Wasteland Companion, on April 10th 2012.

The album, consisting of 12 stunning tracks, was made with 18 musicians and recorded in eight different studios in Portland, Omaha, New York City, Los Angeles, Austin and Bristol (UK). Ward’s honey-soaked vocals, deft finger-picking, innate sense of melody and beguiling lyrics have already cemented his reputation as one of America’s true musical treasures and A Wasteland Companion features some of the finest songwriting and most striking delivery of his career. With each and every recording Ward finds new ways to make the colors of his songwriting palate sparkle and his dexterous skills as producer, arranger, guitarist and singer seem to burst into even brighter bloom on each release.

Chromatics – Kill For Love

Electronic/Dance/Pop

Dark dance-pop aesthetes Chromatics return to release their first album since 2007’s Night Drive. The album’s called Kill for Love, and it’ll be released on Italians Do It Better.

Lower Dens – Nootropics

Electronic/Indie/Dream-Pop

Baltimore dream-rock outfit Lower Dens are ready to unveil their sophomore LP. It’s titled Nootropics (pronounced No-eh-tro-pics) and will hit stores in North America on May 1st via Ribbon Music. The rest of the world will get it on April 30th.

According to press for the album, the title is a reference to the band’s “interest in transhumanism–the use of technology to extend human capabilities.” This theme also extends into the album’s actual content, as evident by the track titled “Brains”, which examines our relationship to technology, specifically, artificial intelligence.

Miike Snow – Happy To You

Electronic/Pop

It’s been three years since the Swedish trio Miike Snow released their debut album, but it doesn’t feel like that long. Their self-titled album was only 11 songs deep, but it was that rare type of project you could play from start to finish over and over, emerging with a new favorite song every time. The trio’s producers Bloodshy & Avant are the guys who made Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” so they obviously know their way around a pop song—but they’ve also got a more experimental side that leads to their most interesting work. After three years without a new Miike Snow album, we’re sure those two are boiling over with ideas for Happy To You.