I know that I'm late, but The Avengers is the best film of the year, so well done for seeing sense and putting that film at #1. :D

Well I won't pretend I know the vast majority of that list but this VEEP thing sounds rather good, will check it out.

Oh you definitely should (everyone should). The albums and songs lists will have a lot more for you to comment on though.

Just missing out on the top 40 are:

 

P!nk - The Truth About Love

Taylor Swift - Red

The Killers - Battle Born

#40 - Scissor Sisters - Magic Hour

 

http://media.thelineofbestfit.com/wp-content/media/2012/05/scissor-sisters-magic-hour.jpg

 

Coming off the back of Night Work (their best album) I had very high expectations for Magic Hour. Only The Horses wasn't quite as good as Fire With Fire but it's a solid effort, however the album itself is probably their lest good. Obviously it's not without its merit or else it wouldn't be this high, the obvious standout track for me being Somewhere, but Let's Have A Kiki, Baby Come Home, Year Of Living Dangerously and Self Control are also very worthy tracks too. It patchy though and Shady Love ranks among the very worst songs of the year, whilst San Luis Obispo is instantly forgettable. Basically when it's good it's very good, when it isn't, it's really not very good at all which is a shame after the cohesive and ultimately brilliant previous album.

#39 - Kylie Minogue - The Abbey Road Sessions

 

http://www.kylie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/kylieAbbeyRoad2-451x451.jpg

 

I have to admit I went into this album expecting lots of jazz inspired downtempo re-readings of her classic material, thankfully it's MUCH better than all that. Not every track works though, Slow in particular just sounds a bit messy to these ears and The Loco-Motion sounds every bit as annoying as ever. Where The Wild Roses Grow isn't really up to much either because it sounds so similar to the normal version. The rest ranges from good to brilliant though, it's lovely to finally have a proper studio quality version of Flower, which I've always wanted since X2008. Come Into My World and Never Too Late were the biggest surprises for me, both tracks I love in their own rights obviously, but they sound totally refreshed with the new arrangements which I suppose is the whole point of this. Confide In Me was always going to work well, but highlights how good her voice can be perfectly. All in all it's a very enjoyable listen, but not something I can imagine I'll ever find the need to play in its entirety very often, which accounts for it's slightly low position.

#38 - One Direction - Take Me Home

 

http://img.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/take-me-home-one-direction-new-album-cover__oPt.jpg

 

I suppose given their massive success this year that this album is so calculated isn't much of a surprise, but the result is that it's lacking the good songs of the first. Obviously it's still the same upbeat pop/rock, at least for the most part, but none of it sounds like their having FUN doing it, whereas much of Up All Night did, for better or worse. The real annoyance for me is the ultra-bland Ed Sheeran tracks, obviously Little Things has blown up big time and given them a 2nd number one and commercially it was a smart move, but musically it's everything I hate. Plus it highlights just how weak they are as vocalists. Thankfully there's enough enjoyable material on here to make it worthwhile all the same, Kiss You, which is presumably going to be the 3rd single and has been splashed all over X Factor, is the standout track for me and sounds like a better produced track from Up All Night. Live While We're Young has also re-grown on me in the context of the album.

#37 - Molly Sanden - Unchained

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8437/7773176184_3686f4586e.jpg

 

Time for some good old Swedish pop. I was never much of a Molly fan before MF this year, her previous MF entry was decent enough but I'd never bothered with anything else. Why Am I Crying? ended being one of my favourites of the contest though so I made sure to check out Unchained. The first half is fairly basic pop, not the most exciting stuff but perfectly listenable, but from A Little Forgiveness onwards it's a great album. Unchained, A Little Forgiveness, Why Am I Crying and My Hands Around My Heart are my choice cuts, A Little Forgiveness featuring Danish pop singer Christopher to rather brilliant effect, though it was ever so slightly overshadowed by a certain other Scandipop Male/Female track.

#36 - Kyla La Grange - Ashes

 

http://static4.thcdn.com/productimg/0/600/600/02/10604002-1336752511-194228.jpg

 

My penchant for slightly offbeat female popstrels lead to me discover Kyla in mid 2011 when Been Better was released and then Heavy Stone later in 2011 sealed my love for her to I had high expectations for her debut and for the most part it lived up to them. Those 2 tracks are still the best, even in a slightly sanitised form on the album, with Walk Through Walls, Vampire Smile and Symapthy also being choice tracks. I've noticed rather a lot of criticism directed at her from various blogs for being yet another Florence-esque offbeat female pop singer who is ''quirky'' at the expense of good material, but I think that's quite untrue as, unlike quite a few of them, melody and memorable tunes are high up on Kyla's to do list.

#20 - Continuum

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Continuum_intertitle.png

 

Continuum started off as a fairly run of the mill procedural come sci-fi drama, but by the end of the series the story arc had me hooked. It's not the best acted thing on TV, it's not the best scripted, it doesn't even look THAT good (it is Canadian and made on a small budget so I can forgive it that), but it is very enjoyable and thankfully has been commissioned for a second season so we're not left hanging.

<3

 

Loving most of the TV shows you listed. I might actually do the TV shows list as well, tack for the idea! :o

It IS a good idea, and more importantly I'm glad you like most of them, though I expected as much with TV being the one area where you exhibit EXCELLENT TASTE.

#35 - Agnes - Veritas

 

http://www.scandipop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Agnes_veritas_album_cover.jpg

 

It's that word again, disappointment, a word which featured quite heavily in my ranking these albums. Dance Love Pop remains one of my favourite pop albums of recent years and sadly Veritas doesn't quite live up to that. It's got plenty of good tracks, but nothing approaching the level of On And On, Love Me Senseless of Release Me. The production on the first 4 tracks annoys me too, it sounds a bit tinny and detracts from what could otherwise be good pop songs. Loaded, Human Touch and Watching It Burn create a magnificent mid-album trio of near pop perfection though, from the suggestive lyrics of Loaded through to the glorious sweeping ballad and ABBA inspired (the chorus melody is essentially lifted from I Have A Dream) Watching It Burn.

#34 - Medina - Forever

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ulpe0.jpg

 

For her 4th album in as many years 2012 sees Medina release an English version of previous album For Altid, with 4 English translations of tracks from that album. As with Welcome To Medina these tracks rank among the best on this new album, though Boring (now a single) and Keep Me Hanging are almost as good. The only downside to it for me is that once you've heard one track you've essentially heard them all. For Altid saw Medina move away from her tried and tested sound ever so slightly, but Forever sees her back firmly in that territory and whilst never providing a bad song, it feels a bit tired at this point. The videos are stunning though, which definitely elevates the tracks chosen as singles.

#33 - Chairlift - Something

 

http://medias.2kmusic.com/uploads/2012/01/19/img-1326978478-408a1a2b421ee31ca82e0c0bf2b2fbb4.jpg

 

I know very little about this band, indeed I'd never heard of them before this year, but Amanamoenesia released in January certainly piqued my interest. It's quite a bizarre song really, it sounds like a couple of different vocalists, but it's Caroline Polachek, which is quite impressive. Whilst that was what got me to investigate the album, it was I Belong In Your Arms which really stuck with me. It's more basic, production wise and lyrically, than a lot of the album, but that simplicity works very much in its favour. It's a love song, as so many pop songs are, but it sounds fresh and interesting. There's also a rather good Japanese version, though obviously I can't understand a word of it, the melody sounds every bit as good.

#32 - Ke$ha - Warrior

 

http://static.globalgrind.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_images_540/images/2012_september/keha-warrior_2.jpg

 

Firstly, I LOVE the shitty cover, it looks so BASIC, like it was done on PAINT.

 

Warrior sees Ke$ha taking a largely similar path to her previous album Animal/EP Cannibal, but the production is better and the melodies tighter so it's already off to a better start. Where it really wins for me though is the unexpected stuff like Past Lives written/produced by The Flaming Lips which is a nice slice of melancholy and devoid of all speak singing and $l*t/party/club lyrics and the majestic Love Into The Light. That these tracks are placed near the end of the tracklist (and indeed merely a BONUS in the case of Past Lives) does them a disservice because a lot of people might never listen to them and dismiss the album as just more of the same. Of course, there IS more of the same and C'Mon and Thinking Of You are 2 great examples of those tracks, both of which ought to be singles at some point.

#31 - Sigur Rós - Valtari

 

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4x4wmamZy1qzpqk4_1338520343_cover.jpg

 

This is one album I'm not really sure quite what to say about, it's better than 'Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust' and 'Takk...' for my money, but quite a way behind the glorious ( ) and Ágætis byrjun. Fjögur píanó and Varúð are my favourite tracks, but more often I find myself listening to it as a whole which almost always works best with Sigur Ros albums. Fjögur píanó was also a single with a video featuring a naked Shia LeBeouf which was surprising (if not unwanted).

#30 - Lise Karlsnes - Dance Or Die

 

http://i.imgur.com/fgc1q.jpg

 

Oh look, more female lead Scandielectropoppery :disco: It IS the best genre/sub-genre of music there is. Anyway I first heard of Lise in summer 2011 when she released the marvelous Red Hot (and equally marvelous b-side Darkest Blue), but 2012 saw her try her hand at MGP (Norway's NF for Eurovision) with the even more marvelous SAILORS, which is easily in my top 5 NF songs of the year, but more on that later. The album follows a very similar path to all 3 of those tracks with Dance Or Die being a nice mix of the 3 ever so slightly different styles. There really isn't a bad track on here at all and in the rather empty first few months of 2012 (at least musically) this got played an awful lot.

#29 - Chromatics - Kill For Love

 

http://cdn02.cdn.gorillavsbear.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/CHROMATICS-KILL-FOR-LOVE-575x575.jpg

 

From female fronted electropop to female fronted indiepop (my other favourite genre) next. This is much more atmospheric than a lot of the other albums in the list and I've found myself playing it a lot more over the last couple of months than I did during the summer (when it was released). That's probably just me, but it works very well as a winter album, at least sonically. The title track is my choice cut, but Lady and Into The Black are definitely worth a spin too.

#28 - Kent - Jag är inte rädd för mörkret

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Kent_-_Jag_är_inte_rädd_för_mörkret.jpg

 

And off we pop back to Sweden, this time with MALE VOX. I know little about Kent beyond this album, other than they've been going for a very long time and are pretty successful, but reading reviews of this suggested the rest of their output wouldn't be as ME, so I've never investigated further. Anyway onto the album at hand and it's obviously very good, not being able to understand a word hasn't deterred my love for it either because the melodies are super strong throughout, especially on 999 and Petroleum.

#27 - Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

 

http://iheartau.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/lana-del-rey-born-to-die-608x608.jpg

 

Quite possibly THE most overrated act/album of 2012 for me, it's good (obviously, or I wouldn't have it this high), but it's a very patchy album with some tracks like National Anthem that I really cannot get on board with. One thing I will agree on though is the visuals, they are almost always stunning, even if still think she's pretty odd looking, the videos always look great. Born To Die (song) and indeed much of the Paradise EP are brilliant though and there's enough good/great tracks on here to make a very solid 10-12 track album. Lucky Ones is my favourite non single, I don't think many people are that fond of it, but melodically it's one of the strongest on there, even if it's also one of her more basic efforts lyrically. The step up to the Paradise EP has been quite large though and that it's only 8 tracks definitely helps my enjoyment of it, both in terms of length (listening to an hour of her voice is a bit MUCH) and also quality/consistency of the songs.