Best Albums of 2012
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
good kid, m.A.A.d cityA short film about a teenager, a van and one very bad night, and the best constructed rap album of its decade.Read the review
LonerismKeyboards replace the guitars, the melodies get enormous, and the record becomes the best kind of headphone album.
channel ORANGEA novelist's album: rich kids, strip clubs, taxi drivers and one open letter that changed a genre.
RedA messy, restless, brilliant transition album with the best song she has ever written on it.
BloomThe same formula scaled up to a cathedral, with the best sequencing and the best closing track they have.
Jesus PieceA gangsta rap record about faith that commits to the question instead of just wearing it around its neck.
Life Is GoodDivorce, fatherhood and an ex wife's dress on the sleeve, handled with more grace than the subject usually gets.
Cruel SummerFour singles that own a summer, and eight tracks that explain why a label is not a band.
Baby Face KillaElite rapping on the cleanest beats anyone had handed him yet, and it still runs about six songs too long.
PlutoThe debut where autotune stops being a gimmick and starts being a way of feeling things.