2012 has been a prolific year for music, with many new releases, some interesting new artists, reunions and astonishing live shows. But which albums can be considered the greatest marvels of 2012? The Toonari Post presents you its very own top-five list of albums on which you should have put your hands during this year.

5. Of Monsters and Men – My Head Is an Animal

The debut album of the indie-folk Icelandic band, it was first released in 2011 in Iceland, and only in 2012 in North America. The album debuted at number six on the U.S. Billboard 200. The extremely successful single ‘Little Talks,’ a catchy tune accompanied by dark and inspiring lyrics, reached the Top 20 in over five countries and positioned as No. 1 on the US Alternative Songs chart. Catchy choruses are a characteristic which pertains to the entire album, along with the contrast created by the male and female voices, and with the monumental sound generated by the accordance of the many instruments used on the tracks. The biggest strength is probably the union, given by sound and lyric, of joyful feelings with very dark ones. Great starting point for a band which seems to be very promising.

4. Tenacious D – Rize of The Fenix

This might be a hazard, but the American rock band delivered this year its best studio album. The originality of the band, which succeeded in developing a mature and smooth rock sound together with extremely ironic lyrics, has to be rewarded. The solid rock‘n’roll is helped by the presence of Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) on drums, sustaining a series of ridiculous stories told through ironic lyrics and skits. This album is the demonstration that Tenacious D wants to play with everything but the music. Rock’n’roll, indeed, stays as serious as it can get. Rize of The Fenix is the perfect meeting point for two opposite attitudes, with Tenacious D presenting a sound that is completely mature, and an attitude that never matured instead.

3. The Black Keys – El Camino

The album was released in December 2011, but it surely has gained a lot of fame in 2012. Preceded by the single ‘Lonely Boy,’ which captured the attention of most with its catchy melody and amusing video, El Camino reserves many facets to be enjoyed by the listener. With this album The Black Keys have been able to maintain the enormous success gained with the previous studio album Brothers. El Camino is the fastest of the band’s albums, and the rock duo has demonstrated, through its live performances, to be able to keep up with the new tempo and the renovated energy. Drummer Patrick Carney told CBS Local “It [an album] is definitely gonna happen in 2013. It’s just a matter of how long it takes us to make the album and deciding when we want to get back on the road.” With this premises, the expectations are surely set high.

2. Mumford & Sons – Babel

After the success of 2009 Sigh No more, folk-rock band Mumford & Sons released their second studio album, Babel, last September. The fastest selling album of the year in both the UK and the US, Babel keeps up with the great professionalism that characterizes the British band. The band stayed faithful to its musical soul in this album, delivering a highly rocking folk reinvention. Babel, though, sounds angrier, bitterer in respect to Sigh no More. Not to be misinterpreted though, the main message coming from the album is love, the real and deepest meaning of it. Sounding like a crude look at the world, with the frustration won over by the hope created through love, Babel perfectly draws all these different moments of the soul. Excellent work overall, the track ‘Holland Road’ will take the listener into a musical journey hard to forget.

1. Jack White – Blunderbuss

The most awaited album of 2012. After the White Stripes split last year, the future of one of the most talented musicians currently in circulation, as Jack White is, was some sort of concern for most music lovers. In his album Blunderbuss, the Detroit musician experimented with less than expected by many; he mixed in a perfectly smooth and harmonic result different momentum of rock and blues, refreshing old sounds to perform in an innovative final outcome. The mood of the album is a dark one, with the lyrics letting perspire White’s inner demons, although never resulting heavy. ‘Blunderbuss,’ the song that gives the title to the album, is the pearl hidden in the record. A brilliant album, which succeeds to crown White as a solo artist.

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Frequency Festival, the yearly event that takes place in St. Poelten, Austria, started on August 15, with a roaring welcome day. The festival is organized by Skalar Entertainment GmbH. It is the gathering of music lovers from all around Europe who celebrate the many forms music can take. Eight stages and more than 100 acts are set to entertain the giant crowd participating in the event which will go on until Saturday, August 18.

The grand opening, among others, saw the performances of The Black Keys and The Killers at the Space Stage, the most “rocking” stage of the event.

The blues-rock duo from Ohio, composed of Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach, bedazzled their fans for about one hour. The daylight accompanied their performance, as well as the two musicians Gus Seyffert and John Wood, who are currently touring with the duo. When El Camino was released, Patrick Carney was said to be worried about future live performances, due to the faster drumming tempo of their newest work.

But he didn’t have to be; we greatly applaud Carney’s performance as he banged the drums to perfection yesterday, enriching the entire performance. The guitar played by Dan Auerbach also helped conquer a crowd that couldn’t help but rocking out to the rock-blues sounds of the duo.

The catchy ‘Lonely Boy’ did its job, setting the audience on fire, although the peak of the performance was probably ‘Little Black Submarines,’ a jewel of a song, masterfully executed by the band. Most of the songs were performed with the support of two live musicians playing bass, keyboards and an additional guitar, but Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach also reserved a couple of more private moments for themselves, addressing the audience on their own.

The talent that the two musicians from Ohio showed in their records was confirmed by their live performance, full of professionalism, passion, and great musical capabilities.

The Killers played afterwards as headliner, concluding the first of the four days of the festival. They took the stage and performed with flashy choreography worthy of their Las Vegas origins. Colorful lights and images passing by on a background of electronic mountains accompanied their entire performance, with the addition of a couple of fireworks moments.

The Killers played some of their most famous hits as well as some of their new material, entertaining the audience for about an hour and a half. A charming performance, which reached peaks of crowd appreciation with hits such as ‘Somebody Told Me’ and ‘Mr. Brightside.’ A clean and well-executed show by the pop-rock band made in Las Vegas.

Image Courtesy of  kate.gardiner

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The Black Keys, composed of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, have been touring in promotion of their latest album, ‘El Camino,’ with great success in Europe and North America for months now, and they will go on with live shows until next fall. While on the road, the blues-rock duo from Akron, OH, has been accompanied by director Noah Abrams who is putting together a documentary on the phenomenal band.

According to the director himself, the documentary will revolve around the relationship between the two guys from Ohio who started their collaboration in 2001, and who have grown as musicians together ever since.

In an interview with SPIN magazine, Abrams defined some of the traits of his experience with the rock duo, and what to expect for the documentary. “A lot of music documentaries spend too much time trying to make people cool. I’m fortunate enough to know these guys pretty well and their relationship is pretty incredible and very funny,” said Abrams “They’re guys that grew up around the corner from each other. They worked and worked and worked and toured and toured and slept in a van and worked their asses off and now they’re selling out arenas.”

It is no secret that these two guys have worked hard to reach the position they are in today within the music scene. In 2010 they hit it big time with their album ‘Brothers,’ but rather than resting on their laurels, they kept on working on new material while touring. This inspired wild rhythms, but also the graceful creation of the album ‘El Camino.’ Through the record, Auerbach and Carney succeeded in canalizing their enormous talent into a mature and glorious work, which also seems to be an anthem for their lack of fear of exploration and innovation.

The astonishing result has been much appreciated by the wider audience: including fans, critics and other musicians. Recently, actor/musician Jack Black (Tenacious D), defined The Black Keys in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, as one of the last representatives of true rock ‘n’ roll, together with Jack White and the Foo Fighters.

The celebration of Auerbach and Carney’s hard-working attitude and success seems to be the moving force behind Abram’s documentary “I think it’s a testament to their talent and hard work,” Abrams said; he then added, “We’ve gotten some amazing footage so far. For as big as these guys are now, they’re still two guys from Akron. The comedy is usually endless with these two.” The director expressed his hopes for having the documentary completed for the 2013 film festival season, and he is hoping for a theatrical release.

If you want to catch the chance to see The Black Keys playing live, you will find the complete schedule for their tour here.

Image Courtesy of   The Black Keys

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The Black Keys, the American blues rock duo composed of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney released their seventh studio album “El Camino” on December 6. Danger Mouse and The Black Keys produced the album on Nonesuch Records.

These guys, who started their career in 2001, are the romantic incarnation of the rock band dream. They are friends, they traveled long distances together to play gigs where there was nobody to listen to them, and they kept playing sensible music, recording on analog tapes. During the years, they have developed their sound, experimenting with different aspects of indie rock from blues rock up to a more rock-and-roll oriented approach in the latest album “El Camino.”

The dream of great success came true in 2010 with the widely appreciated album “Brothers,” which had the hit singles “Tighten Up” and “Howlin’ for You.” Since then, they have gained a bigger audience and won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award.

The release of “El Camino” was preceded by the single “Lonely Boy”, an extremely catchy song adequately promoted by an equally catchy music video. Before the record’s release, fans also had the possibility to stream five of the new songs on the “El Camino” website.

The album is simply awesome. It forgets a bit about the soul and black approach of the previous records, although it is possible to retrieve it mainly in “Stop Stop.” It still plays a background role in the whole record, but it’s not the final goal of it. “El Camino” is faster than the previous band’s records, as had Auerback, singer and songwriter, declared before the release of the album. It reminds listeners of old sonorities pertaining to big bands of the past, such as The Clash. It oozes the feeling of good, old rock-and-roll, which has seemed to be finally coming back because of more than one band in the last year.

The catchy characteristic does not only pertain to “Lonely Boy.” The tracks come to the listener in a straightforward way. The maximum level of perfection in the album is probably reached by “Little Black Submarines,” which, according to Auerbach, was recorded in several versions. The one in the album starts like a heartbreaking ballad with only an acoustic guitar and a voice, and then ends in a powerful expression of pure and profound rock. It is a pleasant experience for the soul.

The Black Keys declared that the most interesting part of this release will be for them to play the songs live, mainly because the new tempo of the album forces Carney, the drummer of the duo, to play faster and harder than he ever has live. Surely band members are not the only ones looking forward to the live shows. They have already had to add dates to their European tour because of high requests, and they’ve announced a 2012 North American tour.

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