Tuesday 1 January 2013

My Top Tunes of 2012

Every now and then, I like to exercise my geekiness by writing a program to do something trivially unimportant just for the fun of it. One such exercise is a little Python program for processing iTunes playlist exports. It's still in early development (and doesn't handle accented text properly) but it's good for calculating crude summary stats for Albums/Artists and differences between exports at different times. I therefore thought that I'd compare my iTunes library as of 27/12/12 with an export almost exactly a year ago (20/12/11).

The New Year period is always full of "best of" lists, so here are the resulting "Best of 2012" lists for my iTunes library.

Top 20 Tracks (Most plays) of 2012

#NameArtistAlbumPlays
1WalkFoo FightersWasting Light28
2The English WayFightstarBe Human (Deluxe Edition)27
=ZihautanejoFightstarOne Day Son This Will All Be Yours27
4No More HeroesSlashApocalyptic Love (Special Edition)26
=One Day SonFightstarOne Day Son This Will All Be Yours26
6FloodsFightstarOne Day Son This Will All Be Yours25
7CheersThe WildheartsCoupled With24
8Our Last Common AncestorFightstarOne Day Son This Will All Be Yours22
9Apocalyptic LoveSlashApocalyptic Love (Special Edition)21
=Standing in the SunSlashApocalyptic Love (Special Edition)21
=We Apologise For NothingFightstarOne Day Son This Will All Be Yours21
12Mvua NyeusiFightstarBe Human (Deluxe Edition)20
=Amaze UsFightstarOne Day Son This Will All Be Yours20
14Youre a LieSlashApocalyptic Love (Special Edition)19
15Dark Star (Acoustic Version)HypnogajaDark Star - EP18
16One Last ThrillSlashApocalyptic Love (Special Edition)17
=Thank You God (Live)Tim MinchinTim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra (Live)17
18AnastasiaSlashApocalyptic Love (Special Edition)16
=Mazel Tov CocktailThe WildheartsChutzpah16
=Hazy EyesFightstarGrand Unification16
=Wake UpFightstarGrand Unification16
=See The WorldGomezHow We Operate16
=Floods [Instrumental]FightstarOne Day Son This Will All Be Yours16
=The Fence (Live)Tim MinchinTim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra (Live)16
=Down Down DownCharlie SimpsonYoung Pilgrim16

The list is dominated by Fightstar tracks, which is perhaps not surprising because I discovered them around the time of the first export in December 2011. A few Avenged Sevenfold tracks almost made it but largely missed out due to only being added in the last couple of months, although (along with many of these) they feature in the Top Albums (below).

I obviously recommend all of these tracks but I think that three deserve a special mention. See The World by Gomez is not just in my Top 20 plays for 2012, it's my most played track of all time. This is partly because my wife also loves it (it was our leaving music at our wedding) but mostly because it's just a damn fine track. Walk by Foo Fighters is quite possible the perfect track in my book. I just cannot think of any way to make it better. I love it! The final track with a special mention is Floods by Fightstar, which not only appeared in the top 10 but the Instrumental version also appeared in the Top 20. (Combined, they would be the Number 1 song of 2012.)

Top 10 Albums (Plays per Track) of 2012

#AlbumArtistPlays/Track
1Apocalyptic Love (Special Edition)Slash15.7
2NightmareAvenged Sevenfold12.3
3Grand UnificationFightstar10.9
4Dark Star - EPHypnogaja10.7
5One Day Son This Will All Be YoursFightstar9.2
6Cast Of ThousandsElbow8.8
7Be Human (Deluxe Edition)Fightstar8.7
8Avenged SevenfoldAvenged Sevenfold8.1
9Waken The FallenAvenged Sevenfold7.7
10Giftes 1 & 2Antlered Man7.4

For anyone who's read my previous music posts, the rock-heavy nature of this list will come as no surprise. Somewhat reassuringly, quite a few of them have featured in posts (linked from the Artists, below - the Album names link to Amazon in case you want a listen). Hypnogaja and Antlered Man are lined up for posts in 2013.
I actually discovered Hypnogaja when looking for Apocalyptic Love by Slash as they have a track called Apocalyptic Love Song. That's not on the six-track Dark Star EP but it was my access point to quite an extensive catalogue on emusic. (I'm not sure if an EP counts as an album but six tracks seemed like enough to warrant inclusion.)

Top 10 Artists (Most listened to) of 2012

#ArtistPlaysTracks
1Fightstar52055
2Avenged Sevenfold32947
3Hypnogaja28543
4Slash27543
5Elbow23936
6The Wildhearts17777
7Muse16296
8God Is an Astronaut14240
9Tim Minchin12833
10Foo Fighters11761

Again, many of these have featured in previous posts (linked in the table) and the rest are definitely deserving of them. I guess that God is an Astronaut - another emusic discovery - deserves a special mention here as the only Artist not to feature a top song or album. They just have a very solid and appealing catalogue across the board.

Muse also stand out a bit as I have almost 100 tracks by them. Crazy! I knew I was a fan but did not realise I had quite so many. (Most of them are quite old, which is why they are not higher up the charts, I fancy.) They're not top overall in this respect, though: The Red Hot Chili Peppers (159 tracks) and Blur (113) both beat them. Green Day (80) comes in fourth and probably should have featured, except that I have been holding off getting ¡UNO!, ¡DOS! and ¡TRÉ! in case I got them from Christmas. (I didn't.) Lots to look forward to in 2013!

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