ANY YEAR WITHOUT NEW MUSIC FROM U2 is questionable at best.  And 2012 started slow, not much new music out there, at least not for me.  Then, around August, things picked up monumentally.  Some high points. . .

Live Music.  I can now remove Death Cab for Cutie from my “must see live at least once” list.  The band, headed by Benjamin Gibbard, did an amazing show: piano, guitars, drums, and a lot of sweat.  Best moment: “What Sarah Said.”

Radio Singles.  There were a lot of songs that dropped that I liked (and maybe even purchased) that didn’t really demand a whole-album download.  Songs I wouldn’t change the channel for: “It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons, “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers, “Home” by Phillip Phillips (thanks to the Olympics more than American Idol), “Some Nights” by Fun., and “Payphone” by Maroon 5 (why was it so darn catchy?).  Props to Fort Atlantic, whose “Let Your Heart Hold Fast” grabbed hold of me near the end of the year.

Great Albums.  Lots of great albums dropped, mostly in the year’s last half.  Andrew Osenga’s Leonard, the Lonely Astronaut had a number of good tracks, as did the new album from the Avett Brothers.  Mumford & Sons Babel was a great effort with a lot of great tracks (“Whispers in the Dark,” “Lover of the Light,” Hopeless Wanderer,” “Below My Feet,” and “Not With Haste” plus all three bonus songs) as was Andrew Peterson’s Light for the Lost Boy (more on that in a bit).  But the album that got the most play from me was the Killers’ Battle Born.  Is it retro?  Maybe.  Is it a bit of a show?  Perhaps.  But Flowers turned some amazing lyrics on the album and surprised me with some great ballads (of a sort).  Consider: “Deadlines and Commitments,” “Miss Atomic Bomb,” “Heart of a Girl,” “From Here on Out,” and “Be Still.”  They aren’t radio smashes (at least not in today’s market), but they show some kind of growth and thought.  I found myself haunted by the ending of “Heart of a Girl” a few days ago, which was strange.  But that ending sums up so much of what seems to be on Flowers’s mind these days.  Wonderfully mellow album.

Song of a Lifetime? But every now and again, a song (or set of songs) comes out that really captures something, something that breaks your heart and puts it back together again.  I mentioned Peterson’s Light for the Lost Boy as a great album, which it is.  But the last three songs on the album?  Heartbreakingly hopeful.  “Carry the Fire” and “You’ll Find Your Way” are like compasses, reminding you that direction is a real thing, even if you find yourself going in the wrong one.  And while they stand well on their own, they are great as preludes to the last song, a 10-minute track titled “Don’t You Want to Thank Someone.”  It took me a while to actually listen to it because I thought it was going to be some cheesy track.  But then I listened to it, again and again, everywhere I took my iPod.  I played it loud in my classroom.  Months later I’m still playing it, and I have to admit that I find myself choked up by it often.  The song builds well, authentically.  It captures the human condition, and the Christian condition, amazingly well.  And, like the songs prior, it leaves you deeply hopeful (and thankful).  You can actually check out two versions of the song here.  The first version is the demo, guitar and voice only.  The second version is a concert clip.  I encourage you to listen to both.  And read the article it’s embedded in.  It’s a song I am definitely thankful for.

(photo courtesy of me at the Death Cab concert)