In general 2012 was not one of the best as far as our musical tastes here at Dolores Delargo Towers were concerned. An awful lot of the new music around was of the tawdry, "urban", deadly dull and mindless kind. Even some of the hoped-for new music from established artists - George Michael, Mika, Robbie Williams, even the Pet Shop Boys - was underwhelming (even though I have featured the latter many times during the year, I cannot bring myself to count any of their songs as highlights). Much of the music that really made an impact was old stuff (given the fact it was the Jubilee and the Olympics, which relied heavily on nostalgia, this is not a surprise), including the wonderful
reunion of Marc and the Mambas at the Meltdown Festival, and much of Kylie's musical output (if rehashed with an orchestra).
Nevertheless, as is my wont at this time of year, I have selected twenty songs - with a little difficulty - that perhaps represent the best (in my opinion) this wet, gloomy year had to offer. So here goes...
Despite the fact we in the UK had absolutely
no summer at all to speak of,
in June we had a glut of choice music all of a sudden. One of the choicest was Mr Cosmo Jarvis and his incredible performing groinage - with
Love This:
Another mid-summer fave was a little Gallic number by Dombrance featuring Sourya - The Witch:
Fabulously kooky Melbourne duo Parralox returned with the very entertaining single
Sharper Than A Knife, first featured here
in September:
That eternal pop hopeful from Blackpool Little Boots launched herself into the world of Disco
back in July, with very pleasing results - it's
Headphones:
Our Glorious Leader Queen Madge threw everything into promoting her new album
MDNA during 2012, yet the pop world (tainted by eternal sniping from GaGa-ites and ageist journalists alike) failed to be set alight by any of it - despite
her triumphant Superbowl appearance. The highlight of Madonna's musical year for me was Offer Nissim's remix of
Girl Gone Wild (featuring the ever-gorgeous Kazaky), which I featured
back in May:
Speaking of powerful camp gay icons, the music world here at Dolores Delargo Towers would be somehow incomplete without Amanda Lear - and, true to form, back
in February she delivered the goods with the magnificent
La Bête et la Belle:
A debut single that really caught my imagination was Solomon Grey's
Firechild, as featured
in November:
The Scissor Sisters made a very welcome return to form
in April with the fantabulosa
Only The Horses. [Sadder news followed towards the end of the year, when they announced they were "pursuing solo projects" for a while. No, not splitting up, of course.]
If ever there were to be an obvious successor to the Sisters' crown, it would be the ever-wonderful Hot Chip - who bounded back into our lives
in June (a productive month it seems) with the fantabulosa
Night and Day:
One of the most catchy (if possibly the least cool) tracks of the year was another
from June, in the form of the folksy tones of Rumer and
P.F. Sloan:
The ever-reliable Young Professionals treated us to a rather fab new number
earlier this month -
Be With You Tonight:
We missed seeing the decadent-sounding Mollyhaus at the
Big Gay Lifestyles Show this Autumn - shame - I still love their
Love Machine (as featured
in May):
Speaking of the Gay Lifestyles expo, it would be churlish of me not to feature one of the highlights of that day, our friend Marcus Reeves's stunning new single
Black Tears:
Once again
from June, the superb Irrepressibles treated us to a new musical outing (and a semi-nude video to boot) - here's
Arrow:
One of my fave Welsh artists Bright Light Bright Light had a killer of a song out
in October - I loved it, it's
Feel It:
It fell to one of the "old-timers" Miss Gloria Estefan, however, to provide us with the style and decadence we want and need from a dance number - her superb
Hotel Nacional from way back
in February was a treat!
Still echoing through my brain
from November - courtesy of the incredible tonsils of Haringey's finest, Adele - is the theme to another of Britain's reasons to be proud during 2012, the new James Bond film
Skyfall:
THE musical memory of 2012 for me has to be seeing our beloved Princess Kylie on stage for the first time at (one of the rare sunny days this year)
Proms in the Park! Celebrating all year her 25th anniversary - with appearances for the Jubilee and many other guest slots on stage, film and TV, and an "Anti-Tour" of b-sides and rarities to boot - Miss Minogue's
Abbey Road Sessions album is sublime, as is this, the single (
featured in October)
Flower:
Almost, but not quite, my favourite song of the year is
Georgian Lesson 1-6 by the mad-as-hatters DeLaDap (as featured
in late November):
However - and this is unusual for me to have
two tracks by one artist in my favourites of the year - but there can only be
one triumphal anthem for 2012. It just had to be the magnificent Scissor Sisters and
Let's Have a Kiki!!
"And work and turn, and hu-hu-honey!"
Happy New Year!
[Let's hope it's a better one for music.]
