Exclaim!'s 20 Most Anticipated Canadian Albums of 2012

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jan 3, 2012

Now that we have those best records of 2011 out of the way, we're ready to start digging into all of the great Canadian albums that 2012 will soon have to offer. The new year only just began, and we've already got a ton of stuff that we're excited about.

We were planning to do another Top 10 list like last year, but there is just so much great stuff that we can't bear to list any less than 20 (even though there are even more great-looking Canadian albums heading our way in 2012 not listed here). Seriously, 2012 looks as if it's going to be yet another amazing year for Canadian music, so join us in this little preview of what we're going to be treated to in the coming months.

Exclaim!'s 20 Most Anticipated Canadian Albums of 2012:

20. Memoryhouse
The Slideshow Effect (February 28)
(Sub Pop)

We've been getting occasional low-key releases from these Guelph, ON-based dream poppers from a couple of years now, so it's about time that they dropped their debut LP. They will finally do so with this ten-song offering, which looks to scale back their signature hazy reverb in favour of front-and-centre vocals. The band have jokingly described their new sound as "Taylor Swift with Built to Spill as her backing band."

19. K-os
BLack on BLonde
(Universal Music Canada)

The rapper also known as Kevin Brereton has been talking about this one since 2010, when he promised it would arrive in 2011. Now, he's projected a 2012 release. He recently told Waterloo, ON student paper Imprint, "It's supposed to be a double album. I have a lot of songs right now and I'm trying to figure it out. The idea is two albums: the BLack album is supposed to be all hip-hop and R&B and the BLonde album rock'n'roll. But I feel people's attention spans are so short I don't know if I want to do a double album. I just wanted to separate the music."

18. The Elwins
And I Thank You (February 21)
(label TBA)

The Ontario indie pop outfit have already won us over with their energetic sound, so we're more than ready for their debut album. We're not entirely sure when this is going to arrive, but the band have already played us some songs during a Live from Exclaim! session, and we're plenty excited.

17. Bahamas
Barchords (February 7)
(Universal/Republic)

Toronto-based songwriter Afie Jurvanen earned no shortage of acclaim with his folksy 2009 effort Pink Strat, and now he's getting ready to drop the follow-up. This sophomore album apparently offers more folk tunes alongside blues- and pop-influenced tracks. We're hoping that it's also got a touch of his stripped-down live performances, since dude can seriously wail on an electric guitar.

16. Chains of Love
Strange Grey Days (release date TBA)
(Dine Alone Records)

This Vancouver soul-rock troupe earned plenty of attention in 2011 with their catchy, pop-friendly sound and singer Nathalia Pizarro's impressively wailing vocals. Now with some stellar label support, look for 2012 to be an even bigger year for these up-and-comers. Not a lot is known about this debut EP, but look for it to arrive early in the year.

15. Hannah Georgas
TBA (release date TBA)
(label TBA)

The Vancouver songstress (and previous Exclaim! cover star) decamped to Toronto to record this one with Holy Fuck member Graham Walsh. She told the Georgia Straight that it would contain electronic elements without straying too far from her signature folk pop sound. Mother Mother frontman Ryan Guldemond recently tweeted that he would also be lending a hand. So far, all signs point to this one being a serious step up.

14. Islands
A Sleep & A Forgetting (February 14)
(Anti- Records)

The busy Nick Thorburn has returned to his band Islands for their fourth album, which the songwriter promises is "far more personal than any I've made before." Written on piano, these songs "[deal] with loss, with memory and forgetting and with dreaming." Thorburn's lyrics have frequently been funny and fantastical in the past, so consider us intrigued.

13. Eight and a Half
Eight and a Half (February 7)
(Arts & Crafts)

We began hotly anticipating this one as soon as the band announced their formation back in the summer. This is for good reason: the trio are made up of Broken Social Scene drummer Justin Peroff and form Stills members Dave Hamelin and Liam O'Neil. They've now turned their attentions to more electronic-influenced music, with Peroff reportedly trading in his kit for a variety of beats, loops and samples.

12. Mares of Thrace
TBA (release date TBA)
(Arctodus Records)

We know next to nothing about it, but we're pretty certain about one thing: these ladies of metal are going to bring the heavy on this new album. Therese Lanz posted a picture of her new baritone guitar on Facebook and promised that she'd be using it for the band's sessions at Chicago's Engine Music Studios with producer Sanford Parker.

11. The Wooden Sky
Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun (February 28)
(Black Box Recordings)

For their third album, these roots rockers holed up in a cabin by a lake and, according to a statement from singer Gavin Gardiner, went "searching for new textures to play with." With recording largely taking place at Montreal's iconic Hotel2Tango studio with Howard Bilerman and Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, we can't wait to hear what this folk outfit have cooked up.

10. Plants and Animals
The End of That (February 28)
(Secret City Records)

The end of what exactly? We're not totally sure, but Plants and Animals' third album contains "catchy electric guitar riffs" with softer acoustic instruments. With its "multi-part excursions" and "anthemic monsters," we're pretty excited to hear what these Montreal indie darlings have cooked up.

9. Kid Koala
12-Bit Blues (release date TBA)
(Ninja Tune)

Eric San has always been an outside-of-the-box thinker when it comes to turntablism, and his latest album promises to be no different. He recently told CBC Radio 3, "It's kind of a blues turntable record. I'm fascinated with blues music and how it actually spawned most of the music I like. Whether it's hip-hop or rock, it all kind of leads back to the blues." We're imagining "Crossroads" with scratching.

8. Cancer Bats
Dead Set on Living (release date TBA)
(Distort Inc.)

What does the fourth Cancer Bats album sound like? Lead screamer Liam Cormier told Noisecreep, "It sounds like where we should be at, trying to really fuckin' go for it." We'd expect nothing less from these hardcore/metal Torontonians.

7. Yukon Blonde
TBA (release date TBA)
(Dine Alone Records)

Yukon Blonde scored big with their 2010 self-titled debut, which earned a long-list nomination for the Polaris Music Prize and sent these BC dudes on an endless string of national tours and high-profile opening gigs. Frontman Jeff Innes told Exclaim! that this follow-up has "some punk rock influences and a lot more harmonies."

6. Saukrates
Season One (release date TBA)
(Frostbyte/eOne)

"Anticipated"? More like "agonizing." The Toronto rapper's first album, The Underground Tapes, came out in 1999, meaning that this follow-up has been over a decade in the making. Even the slightly long-winded release plan -- two mini-EPs that include tracks from the subsequent full-length -- can't spoil how glad we are that this is finally seeing the light of day.

5. Kathleen Edwards
Voyageur (January 17)
(MapleMusic Recordings)

Ms. Edwards has been a staple on the Canadian scene for years now, so what makes this album arguably more exciting than any of the ones that preceded it? Simple: her big-name boyfriend, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, lent his production talents to this collection. He also contributed a number of instrumental parts, meaning that anyone who loves Bon Iver will want to pick this one up.

4. Leonard Cohen
Old Ideas (January 31)
(Columbia Records)

This upcoming album from a true Canadian legend will be his first studio LP since 2004's Dear Heather. A press release tells us, "The album's ten songs poetically address some of the most profound quandaries of human existence -- the relationship to a transcendent being, love, sexuality, loss and death." If there's anyone capable of addressing these big issues, it's this guy.

3. Grimes
Visions (February 21)
(4AD/Arbutus Records)

This Montreal experimenter has rolled out a number of releases in the last couple of years, but this latest full-length just must be her mostly hostly anticipated yet. The record apparently "conjures a phantasmic state for the deep listener, sourcing the long forgotten spells that have coexisted with humans for centuries and forcing them through a hyper-futuristic filter." Sounds pretty gnarly.

2. Japandroids
TBA (release date TBA)
(Polyvinyl Records)

We know practically nothing about this one, but any prospect of new material from this fuzz rock duo is more than enough to get us excited about the follow-up to 2009's breakthrough Post-Nothing. Having released a handful of stop-gap singles in the interim, the band have been debuting new music during live shows, and the album is expected to arrive sometime in 2012. Yep, we're excited and you should be too.

1. John K. Samson
Provincial (January 24)
(Epitaph Records)

It's about damn time that the lauded frontman of the Weakerthans released a full-length of his very own. Following a number of solo songs inspired by the roads of Manitoba, Samson announced that the project had blossomed into this full-length, which includes "songs about dying villages, Icelandic longing, snowplows, broken glass, satellites, hockey skates, and staff room romances." For many fans, they've been eagerly waiting years for a new Samson-helmed album, and we're more than a little pumped to finally be getting one.

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