Best of 2012, sort of

As predictable as a former 90s heartthrob turning up on a VH1 reality show, the older I get, the less interested I am in new music. And the older I get, the less interested I am in cataloging and assigning a numerical value to the music I do get around to discovering.

I'm lying. I actually get a perverse pleasure from reading year-ending best-ofs. It's been a long time since I've had to concern myself with what's cool, but I suppose listing one's favorite music from any given year isn't. (My source of this piece of useless knowledge is Tumblr, by the way.) And I rarely see my favorites make any kind of list -- which I guess is another symptom of getting older. (Or having questionable taste.)

Anyway, here are a handful of songs I really enjoyed this year:

Perfume Genius - "Take Me Home"
Hands down, my favorite record of the year was Perfume Genuis's Put Your Back N 2 It. If I have one criticism, it's that the songs are too brief, most of them clocking in at just under two minutes. Another thing that's been dogging me since I first found this record, is that what I love in Mike Hadreas, I can't stand in Lana Del Ray, though with the latter, the sadness and self-destruction seems forced, while his sounds almost nightmarishly real.

Scissor Sisters - Let's Have a Kiki
I almost didn't include this song with its painfully short shelf-life, but it was so fun I couldn't resist. Besides, how many other hit songs include slang that comes from the drag underground?

Polica - Wandering Star
A gorgeous, evocative video to go with a song I never expected to champion. I hate vocal effects, but as cliche as this sounds, they work here.

Frank Ocean - Bad Religion
To be honest, I though Channel Orange was overrated. Ocean's coming out was huge in genre where few of its performers are openly gay, and I think he's a good songwriter, but the album itself has quite a bit of filler. "Bad Religion" was the standout track for me, edging out "Thinking About You," the one that got all the glory.

Rufus Wainwright - Song of You
I was really excited for Out of the Game after hearing that it was a return to a more "pop" sound for Rufus, then it kind of fell off everyone's radar. "Song of You" is about as vintage a Rufus Wainwright tune as it gets, but overall, there wasn't a lot of love for this record, and that's sad given that Rufus has long been a critic's darling. I guess there is no proper way to age in the music business.