Totally Unauthorized Year End List: Top 75 Songs of 2012

Throughout the year I've been posting quarterly updates on the best songs from 2012. Here is the culmination of that: the top 75 songs spanning the entire year. My goal was to include as many artists as I could provided I felt they were worth of recognition, without repeating anyone. Every song listed has impacted me in some shape or from over the past 12 months.

Tallest Man on Earth's "1904" emerged as my favorite. I appreciated its melody, the intricately woven trail worn texture, and its abstract lyrics that give the imagination room to roam. It was the song I kept coming back to more than any other in 2012.

1. Tallest Man on Earth - 1904

2. Beach House - Myth

3. Fiona Apple - Left Alone

4. Grizzly Bear - gun-shy

5. Frank Ocean - Pyramids

6. Iamamiwhoami - Goods

7. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Mladic

8. Killer Mike feat. Bun B, Trouble, and T.I. - Big Beast

9. Orbital - Distractions

10. Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion

11. Jimmy Cliff - Children's Bread

12. Grimes - Oblivion

13. El-P - The Full Retard

14. Menomena - Heavy is as Heavy Does

15. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals - The Lion The Beast The Beat

16. Kendrick Lamar - Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst

17. Lotus Plaza - Strangers

18. Tame Impala - Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control

19. Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless

20. Lambchop - Gone Tomorrow

21. Ty Segall Band - I Bought My Eyes

22. Eluveitie - Rose For Epona

23. Crystal Castles - Sad Eyes

24. Swallow the Sun - Labyrinth of London (Horror Pt. 4)

25. Burial - Ashtray Wasp

26. Advent Sorrow - The Wrath in Silence

27. Katatonia - Lethean

28. Lupe Fiasco - Form Follows Function

29. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

30. Animal Collective - Applesauce

31. Purity Ring - Fineshrine

32. Koi. - Pinwheel

33. Alcest - Là Où Naissent les Couleurs Nouvelles 

34. Sleigh Bells - Demons

35. BadBadNotGood - Rotten Decay

36. Diiv - Doused

37. Dum Dum Girls - I Got Nothing

38. Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears

39. Yeasayer - Fingers Never Bleed

40. Of Monsters & Men - King & Lionheart

41. Brad Mehldau Trio - 26

42. First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

43. Porcelain Raft - Unless You Speak From Your Heart

44. Goatwhore - In Deathless Tradition

45. Soap&Skin - Voyage Voyage

46. Accept - Hung, Drawn, & Quartered

47. Emily Portman - Old Mother Eve

48. Fang Island - Kindergarten

49. The Big Sleep - Four Wishes

50. Lifeformed - 9 Bit Expedition

51. Daniel Rossen - Silent Song

52. Okera - In Solitude

53. The Shins - Simple Song

54. Pussy Riot - Putin Lights up the Fires

55. Janus - Promise to No One

56. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Kinski Assassin

57. Jack White - Trash Tongue Talker

58. Adele - Skyfall

59. A Fine Frenzy - They Can't If You Don't Let Them

60. Leech - Turbolina

61. Black Breath - Sentenced to Life

62. Graveyard - Slow Motion Countdown

63. Trash Talk - F.E.B.N.

64. Kathleen Edwards - House Full of Empty Rooms

65. Domo Genesis - Prophecy

66. The xx - Angels

67. Kings - Galaxy Wave

68. Off! - Wiped Out

69. Dinosaur Jr. - Watch the Corners

70. Destini Beard - My Last Goodbye

71. Oddisee feat. Oliver Daysoul - You Know Who You Are (Acoustic)

72. Brothertiger - I've Been Waiting

73. Clubroot - Left Hand Path

74. Mount Eerie - Through the Trees Pt. 2

75. Dan Deacon - Lots