These are my favorite songs that came out last year, many of which I found because of your comments. I hope you find a few new loves here, and that when you hear one of these songs years from now, you think of this time in your life fondly.
Top 15 Songs of 2012 on Spotify
50 Best Songs of 2012 on Spotify
(This includes the 15 featured here and more, for the completists among us.)
1. The Lumineers – Ho Hey
Photo source.
2. Fiona Apple – Hot Knife
Photo by Jason LaVeris
3. Sarah Jaffe – Shut It Down
Photo by Felicia Graham.
4. Audra Mae & The Almighty Sound – Little Red Wagon
Photo source.
5. Daughter – Candles
Photo by Geoff Lung
6. Mat Kearney – Hey Mama
Photo by Abby Gillardi
7. Ben Howard – Black Flies
Photo source.
8. Band Of Skulls – Sweet Sour
Photo from Corner Shop Studios
9. Frank Ocean – Bad Religion
Photo source.
10. Delta Rae – Bottom Of The River
Photo by Dennis Pillion
11. Dry the River – New Ceremony
Photo by Kristen Winter.
12. Die Antwoord – Fatty Boom Boom
Photo by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.
13. Keaton Henson – You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are
Photo source.
14. Michael Kiwanuka – I’m Getting Ready
Photo source.
15. FOE – The Black Lodge
Photo source.
What did I miss? What was your favorite song of 2012?
Mighty Girl 
Love your lists, Maggie. I was totally crushing on 48 Roses by Mariachi El Bronx after seeing your Camp Mighty 2012 playlist, but my favorite of the year has to be It’s Time by Imagine Dragons. Happy 2013 to you!
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Of Monsters and Men’s From Finner is right up there for me. So is Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and I’m still stuck on the entire album Ceremonials by Florence + the Machine.
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I love end of year top tracks lists. It gets me into artists I might have missed.
I dig especially lists (like yours) that include multiple genres.
Here’s mine: http://rd.io/x/QFwlL19iuQ
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I love the Ho Hey song too! Thanks for the other songs to check out!
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Oh this is a great list!!! There are some I love and some I haven’t met. Im excited to try something new this new year. Thanks for this list it seems we have a similar ear for music.
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Great list! One of my favorites from this year is Daughn Gibson – In the Beginning
“But life is mean And I can’t be blamed If it’s difficult to change I’m sorry yall and it’s a shame”
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Thanks for sharing this. I’m hearing some of these gems for the first time. I lost my music mojo in 2012 by accident. This gives me a lot of starting points for 2013 listening. Oh, and my favorite song from 2013 was probably No Concern of Yours by Punch Brothers, though the whole album was just wonderful.
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Love the Lumineers and Fiona Apple. My favorites this year, Pink’s Try and Blow me one last kiss, Justice D.A.N.C.E.-just a fun dancey song. Alabama Shakes-Hold On, love her deep, bluesy, rock vocals.
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Um, Ne-Yo’s “Let Me Love You”…have you heard of it? For some reason I think you’d love it. Maybe because I love it.
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Thanks to you, I discovered Kimbra. “Settle Down” is definitely in my top five songs of 2012 and her “Vows” album is my favorite of the year.
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Great ones! If I was going to make a list of songs that were on heavy rotation in 2012, I’d include:
Ellie Goulding — “Anything Could Happen”
Damien Jurado — “Museum of Flight”
Bastille — “Flaws”
Dana Buoy — “Anatomy of Now”
Walk the Moon — “Anna Sun” (This one is great because when my 5-year-old joyfully sings, “We’ve got no money but we’ve got heart,” it’s the best thing ever. And also in the video, when the singer does his spazzy dance at about 2:06 — that makes me happy.)
I hope your 2013 is wonderful, Maggie! (You can borrow my motto for the year if you want. “Stay golden, be awesome, love always.” Good, right??)
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Also, in keeping with your song-quote thing, this is from “Museum of Flight” — “I turn around/My life is changing/What did I learn?/It’s not that easy/When you get burned/And go on burning light.”
I love that so much.
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i think this is my favorite end of the year round-up…great list, thanks!
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I absolutely love this list – thank you! I agree with Amber – Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Could Happen” and also her “My Blood” were some of my favorites this year. I need some new music, so feel free to do a list #2!
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Just wanted to thank you for “Ho Hey”. I suppose I would have heard it eventually since it’s all over the place now, but thanks to you I heard it well before it went mainstream where I live, and I discovered some other great songs by them while trying to get my hands on a copy of Ho Hey (wasn’t even on iTunes yet). Love. it.
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thanks for sharing! i really liked some nights of fun. and of monsters and men as well. my favourite was one day by asaf avidan, though. i just made a list of my favourite music a couple of days ago, feel free to have a look at it!
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