Songs

1. The Avett Brothers — "Paul Newman vs. The Demons"

When bluegrass goes rock.

2. Punch Brothers — "Movement and Location"

Excellent musicianship!

3. Sea Wolf — "Old Friend"

On his third record, Sea Wolf trusts his gut, and writes this record on his own as he did with his first. It appears his best work is done solo.

4. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis — "Same Love"

An affecting song for 2012.

5. Father John Misty — "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings"

Grabs you with the first line and doesn't stop.

6. Michael Kiwanuka — "Tell Me A Tale"

Further proof: it's the year of the flute.

7. Polica — "Wandering Star"

Beautiful.

8. P.O.S. — "Get Down"

A new party anthem.

9. Alt-J — "Tesselate"

It wasn't until I saw it in person that I understood this band and the fact that he's really singing and the band is really playing — real instruments, not computers.

10. Gotye — "Somebody that I Used to Know"

I'm so sick of this song, but there was a time that this was on repeat.

Albums

1. The Avett Brothers — The Carpenter

2. Polica — Give You The Ghost

3. Metric — Synthetica

4. Michael Kiwanuka — Home Again

5. Trampled by Turtles — Stars and Satellites

6. Cat Power — Sun

7. Alt-J — An Awesome Wave

8. Mumford and Sons — Babel

9. Kathleen Edwards — Voyageur

10. The Lumineers — The Lumineers

Honorable mention:

Various Artists — Twin Cities Funk and Soul

Polls

Top 89 songs of 2012

Top 89 albums of 2012

Mark Wheat, Host

Mary Lucia, Host

Barb Abney, Host

Steve Seel, Host

Jill Riley, Host

Bill DeVille, Host

Jim McGuinn, Program Director

Jade Tittle, Assistant Producer & Host

David Safar, Music Director

Mac Wilson, Host

Jacquie Fuller, Host

Derrick Stevens, Production Manager

Lindsay Kimball, Assistant Program Director

Jon Schober, Local Music Assistant/Music Assistant

Brett Baldwin, Managing Digital Producer

Leah Garaas, Intern

Nate Ryan, Associate Web Producer, Multimedia

Jake Rudh, Host

Matt Perkins, Marketing Manager

Scott Olstad, Associate Web Producer

Peter Valelly, Associate Web Producer

Andrea Swensson, Local Current blogger