MINING FOR MEMORIES: What did I listen to in 2012?

As I guess is now becoming my tradition, I am forgoing any top 10 or other rankings and letting statistics speak for me.

According to the LastFm, these are the artists bands, by the numbers, I listened to more than any other over the last 12 months.

Lots of older bands mixed in with newer releases, and one comedian. Blur and Suede both had big restoration projects in the last 18 months, and so there was som re-visiting of their back catalogue. The Beasties got a lot of play, unfortunately, due to the death of Adam Yauch. The top 4 acts all had new albums, though, as did many of the others.

The most-played song list, if presented at face value, would be skewed toward bands like fun. and the Vaccines whose albums I had on repeat for a while, so I am going to only list the singles and isolated cuts. "Losing You" by Solange was easily my favorite song of the year, though, so it's no surprise that it dominates with 57 total plays. Had she released more than an EP, and had it been earlier than in the last months of the year, Solange would easily have made the top 25 artists.

Interestingly, enough, despite being my most played artist and having a great new album, Elysium, none of the Pet Shop Boys singles ranked in the final tally.

1. Solange - "Losing You" (57 plays)
2. fun. w/ Janelle Monae - "We Are Young" (47 plays)
3. Michael Kiwanuka - "Tell Me a Tale" / fun. - "Some Nights" (33 plays)
4. Christina Aguilera - "Your Body" / fun. - "Carry On" (30 plays)
5. Paul Weller - "That Dangerous Age" / The Shins - "Simple Song" (28 plays)
6. Saint Etienne - "Tonight" / Frank Ocean - "Thinkin' About You" / The Vaccines - "Teenage Icon" / Fiona Apple - "Hot Knife" (27 plays)
7. Muse - "Survival" / Arctic Monkeys - "R U Mine?" (26 plays)
8. Muse - "Madness" / Frank Ocean - "Pyramids" / The Vaccines - "No Hope" (25 plays)
9. Michael Kiwanuka - "Home Again" / No Doubt - "Settle Down" / Blur - "Under the Westway" (23 plays)
10. Paul Weller - "When Your Garden's Overgrown" / Taylor Swift - "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (22 plays)
11. Martin Rossiter - "Drop Anchor" / Of Monsters and Men - "Little Talks" / The xx - "Angels" (21 plays)
12. Brett Anderson - "Isolation" / Spiritualized - "So Long You Pretty Thing" / Bat for Lashes - "Laura" (20 plays)
13. Saint Etienne - "DJ" / Santigold - "Disparate Youth" / Nicki Minaj - "Starships" / Bloc Party - "Octopus" (19 plays)

Notable old songs that got played a lot include the Hollies "The Air that I Breathe" (28), Simon & Garfunkle "Kathy's Song" (26), Nico "These Days" (19), and Suede "Breakdown" (19).

Current Soundtrack: Billie Holiday, The Complete Commodore/Decca Masters