The Fashionably Late Top 50 of 2012: #29 - Race Horses

When it comes to year-end lists, y'all know I don't mess around. I don't post my picks from the previous year for weeks after the next year has started. In 2012, there was a bounty of music that entered the world that made me deliriously happy to be blessed with the sense of sound. So I pondered, marinated, and contemplated for weeks. Music from 2012 has been digested for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And now, friends, it's time. Time to share with you what I consider the cream of quite a crop indeed. You might see things omitted here that you think should be on a Best Of list. This list isn't what I think you want to read. This list is what I feel about last year. If it's not here, I either didn't spend enough time with it or just didn't love it enough. A big thank you to all of the artists who created the music that I fell in love with last year.

WHO: Race Horses

WHAT: Furniture

WHEN: September 2012

WHERE: Stolen Recordings

WHY: It's very bittersweet to post this, seeing as how Race Horses recently parted ways. Alas! Furniture was my first foray into the world of Welsh scamps Race Horses, and our time together was so very brief, but beautiful. An album laden with the influence of their 80s forefathers, ghosts of Dexy's Midnight Runners and Soft Cell lurk just out of sight, but not out of earshot. Furniture is a charming record, whimsical and rather smart, not to mention full of promise. While the songs aren't nearly as fluffy as some of them might initially appear, Race Horses also managed to create one hell of an earworm in the form of irresistible gem "Mates," a song drunk and dizzy with giddy indiepop glee. I'll be crossing my fingers for a reuniting of the band, but until that happens, I'm glad to have this record.

MY JAMS: "Furniture" "Mates" "Bad Blood" "See New Green"