feature: Favorite Albums of the First Half of 2012

2012 started off a bit slow, but it's been picking up. August and September are going to make the year. Here's 25 albums that I've been loving so far, no particular order, with links to listen when possible. There's indie rock, rap, garage rock, electronic, synthpop, folk, psych rock....a little something for everybody.

Row 1: Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan; Ty Segall/White Fence - Hair; Ty Segall Band - Slaughterhouse; El-P - Cancer4Cure; King Tuff - King Tuff
Row 2: Death Grips - The Money Store; Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music; Schoolboy Q - Habits & Contradictions; Lil B - God's Father; Bear in Heaven - I Love You, It's Cool
Row 3: The Flaming Lips - The Flaming Lips & Heady Fwends; Beach House - Bloom; Grimes - Visions; Father John Misty - Fear Fun; Conveyor - Conveyor
Row 4: Liars - WIXIW; Oh No - Ohnomite; SpaceGhostPurrp - Mysterious Phonk; Jack White - Blunderbuss; Black Bananas - Rad Time Xpress IV
Row 5: Diamond Rugs - Diamond Rugs; Gucci Mane - Trap Back; Ab-Soul - Control System; Pond - Beard, Wives, Denim; Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls

video: Black Bananas - TV Trouble

I don't normally post NSFW tags because you should be working and not looking at videos on the internet, but this one is kind of gross. I didn't want to listen to a band called Black Bananas, but this album is actually kinda rad. (It's called Rad Times Xpress IV, so I guess I should have suspected that...) I'm not sure how to describe this album yet, though I guess you could call it psych rock, and I'd draw comparisons to Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Tame Impala, Dungen, Ariel Pink, and a healthy dose of Ween.