Exclaim!'s Best of 2012:

An Analysis of the Year in Folk

BY Exclaim! StaffPublished Dec 13, 2012

We're now knee-deep in our Exclaim! Best of 2012 series: we already unveiled our Metal and Hardcore list and our Dance and Electronic list earlier this week, and this morning (December 13), we got all silky smooth with our Best Groove albums. Now, to append our Folk and Country list, we're getting into the nitty-gritty of the year: our analysis.

This year, we looked at a new generation of folk artists who are incorporating traditional blues into their rock- and soul-based sounds. So, are Alabama Shakes really a folk/country artist? We thought so.

An overwhelming number of our favourite folk albums this year were Canadian-made. Might we have a generation of troubadours on our hands to one day match the legacies of Mitchell, Cohen, Young, or Lightfoot? Only time will tell.

Stay tuned this week and next for the Best Albums of the Year and analyses of Pop and Rock, Hip-Hop, and Electronic.

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