The Best New Songs of 2012 (2024)

Since it's pretty much the only way a band can make money these days, playing live means playing for your livelihood. Live music is better than ever. So get your hand stamped, and let Chrissy Teigen (supermodel, lover of music, lover of musician John Legend) lead the way. Here's an exploration of live music, including a list of songs every man should be listening to — through his headphones or while driving or, you know, live. The best part: no opening band.

(Also: Click here for an alluring — and educational — video from that woman over there, "The Do's and Don'ts of Concertgoing." There's slow motion.)

"Blue Mountains," Diamond Rugs, Diamond Rugs

Ever been to the Clermont Lounge, the dive bar/strip club in Atlanta where a stripper called Blondie flattens beer cans with her breasts? This is what the Clermont sounds like.

"Black Radio," Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio

In his attempt to seamlessly fuse jazz and hip-hop, the young piano maverick Robert Glasper couldn't have picked a better coconspirator than Yasiin Bey (the artist formerly known as Mos Def). The surprise isn't necessarily in the militancy of Bey's verses but rather in his whistling over the epilogue. Peter Bjorn and John better watch their backs.

"H.A.M.," Portland Cello Project, Homage

The story isn't a bunch of cellos playing a Jay-Z/Kanye tune. The story is how authoritatively and cinematically it swings from menacing to gorgeous — like a long-lost score from the golden age of animation.

"Dancing on TV," Bad Veins, The Mess We've Made

This quirky love song opens with the line "Sorry I'm lame. I know." Self-deprecation is an underrated path.

"Heartbreaker," Alabama Shakes, Boys & Girls

When Brittany Howard belts the line "I wanna die!" it's impossible not to picture her falling to her knees like James Brown. Nobody could sing like this standing up.

"Get Got," Death Grips, The Money Store

Though it's incredibly rare, from time to time a song comes along that's so innovative, so sonically singular, it ceases to be a song and becomes a relevancy test instead. Death Grips comes hard and off meter — like Frank Zappa sped up and remixed by TV on the Radio. It's okay if you don't like this, but if you do, there's an unmistakable joy in widening your boundaries.

"In Between Jobs," Todd Snider, Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables

Todd Snider is the master of the deadpan takedown, a leftist, folk-singing flip side to Stephen Colbert. Two election cycles ago, he condemned "Conservative, Christian, Right-Wing Republican, Straight, White American Males." Consider this a belated, but timely, epilogue.

"Black Flies," Ben Howard, Every Kingdom

Initially, this twenty-five-year-old Brit seems genetically engineered to appeal to the narrow intersection of folks who like Bon Iver and Jack Johnson. But then you realize he's already his own man — a songwriter almost supernaturally deft at ratcheting up the tension. What starts as a wistful acoustic ballad winds up as a seething acoustic ballad, a distinction that's less subtle on record than on paper.

"Thinking of You," Dierks Bentley, Home

While thousands of country songs have been written about missing someone, this is indisputably in the top fifty.

"Do," Young Man, Vol. 1

Dorm-room-pop whiz kid Colin Caulfield has embedded a half-dozen whirls, slaps, and whistles within this lush pop song that don't seem to come from instruments we can identify. And the short guitar solo at the end seems like the most unlikely Jerry Garcia tribute ever.

Click to preorder in iTunes

"Red," Lost in the Trees, A Church That Fits Our Needs

People still make music to heal themselves. Three years ago, the mother of Lost in the Trees mastermind Ari Picker took her own life. This is his imaginative and heartbreaking tribute — a luxuriantly orchestrated remembrance that ping-pongs between introspection and celebration.

"Little Red Wagon," Audra Mae and the Almighty Sound, Audra Mae and the Almighty Sound

This trash-talkin' young Oklahoma native is the rock 'n' roll answer to Miranda Lambert. The best line on this swagga-filled stomp? "I love my apron, but I ain't your mama."

Click to preview in iTunes

"Lay Your Cards Out," Polica, Give You the Ghost

The Twin Cities' Polica is anything but a traditional R&B band. Two drummers and a bassist flank Channy Leaneagh, whose voice is so naturally pristine that it seems to float when layered with Bon Iver–style auto-tune. Not a song on this list is as instantly mesmerizing.

"Spend the Day," Obie Trice, Bottoms Up

Because we all wish we had the cojones to talk to a woman this way. As silky, boast-filled come-ons go, this is the missing link between LL Cool J's "I Need Love" and Biggie's "Me & My Bitch."

"Courtney Love," Simone Felice, Simone Felice

Even with the line "When we're sleeping, I keep one eye open," this tender finger-plucked ballad stands as the most compassionate thing ever written about Ms. Love. It's a love letter so beautiful, it's perverse.

"Take Me Away," Willis Earl Beal, Acousmatic Sorcery

Beal reportedly taught himself music while working as a night watchman at a motel. He compiled his security logs in the book The Security Logs of Willis Earl Beal, got fired, and made a record, resourcefully proving that sometimes all it takes is a great song, a cassette-based karaoke machine, and a twenty-dollar microphone.

"Sebastian," Reptar, Body Faucet

Our new favorite Vampire Weekend song.

"One Silver Dollar," The Kills, The Last Goodbye

On this bare-bones cover of the tune Marilyn Monroe made famous in the western River of No Return, we learn that Alison Mosshart's coo is somehow as devastating as her growl.

"Stay Frosty," Van Halen, A Different Kind of Truth

The right kind of big, dumb rock is timeless right out of thebox. The band could slip this into an encore between "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Jump" and you'd never bat an eye.