Kendrick Lamar took both top spots on the Albums and Singles lists for music writer Luis Paez-Pumar.

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 2013. Here, music writer Luis Paez-Pumar defends his ballot.

See Also:
- Pazz and Jop 2012: Top Albums

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Café Tacvba
Irving Plaza
Sunday, August 26

Better than: Spending a night with anything else that's 23 years old.

Dance is a vital part of Café Tacvba's ethos. A vast number of the Mexican rock legends' songs reference the act, while almost all of them encourage it. Hell, the band's best song (in this reviewer's humble opinion) and surprising set opener has it in the title. Last night's two-hour set at Irving Plaza kicked off with a beautiful rendition of that song, "El Baile Y El Salon" ("The Dance and the Ballroom"). From the first notes ("ba ba du ba ba, eu euuuu"), the band hit all the peaks that are prevalent in their catalog, getting the sold-out and enthusiastic crowd moving, first in sync and then in what can best be described as chaotic flailing. Throughout it all, the band (which wrapped up its U.S. tour at this show) was full of smiles and fist pumps. It was hard to figure out who was more excited to be sweating on top of complete strangers.

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Iceage w/Dirty Beaches, Martial Canterel, RØSENKØPF
Le Poisson Rouge
Sunday, July 22

Better than: Watching Breaking Bad at home.

Sunday nights are for critically acclaimed TV shows, catching up on Twitter, and steeling oneself for the week ahead. For a few brave souls yesterday, though, Sunday night meant beating through feedback bursts and mosh pits and a sense of normal, as provided by Danish punk rock young'ns Iceage to an adoring crowd at (Le) Poisson Rouge. To say that this foursome has a sense of the moment is to be undercutting just how forceful their music is. Think of a speeding train hitting max velocity, and you've got some idea of the blasts of noise that they create. It's not just loud and fast, however. Some of the better moments of the set came within the silence, such as a guitar tuning up and playing a lick of "Purple Haze," or a drum recalibration halfway through the set.

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Nick Murray: So we're here today to talk about Shut Up and Play the Hits, the new film (out tomorrow and tomorrow only) that captures LCD Soundsystem's final concert and follows the band's frontman, the inimitable James Murphy, as he embarks on what his British, kind of corny manager might have at one point described as the next chapter of his life. Turning to you, Luis, there's a lot we could potentially talk about here—the band's music, their legacy, what Murphy means by whimsical socks—but let's start with the basics: What did you think of the film? And were you at that Madison Square Garden show?

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Dirty Projectors w/Wye Oak, Purity Ring
Celebrate Brooklyn! Prospect Park Bandshell
Tuesday, July 10

Better than: An album listening party.

There's a general struggle for artists with new records when playing a live show, especially before or on the day of the album release. In today's age of leaks and early preview streams, bands have to assume that some people will hear their newest release before coming to see them live. Similarly, they have to appreciate the fact that not everyone will be super familiar with their new material, and pepper in some old classics. Finding that balance can be tricky and it can take bands a couple of album cycles to get it right so that everyone has a great time with songs they love and songs that they will grow to embrace.

Or... you could go the Dirty Projectors route and just play your entire new album (minus one song) and pepper in only your most popular old cuts. At last night's Prospect Park Bandshell show, this strategy paid off royally for one very key reason: the band's newest album, Swing Lo Magellan, is their best release front-to-back, balancing their catchiest tracks with the type of tricky material that the band is known for (at least by those who listened to Bitte Orca past "Stillness is the Move"). Also helping matters is that the band is tight live; there was not a missed moment or note, and lead singer/mastermind Dave Longstreth kept the pace moving with some light banter. It left a lot of room in the brisk 16-song set (how often do you get to say that?) for tracks to move around as necessary.

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Beach House w/ Zomes
Bowery Ballroom
Tuesday, May 15

Better than: Having to wait two more months to see Beach House perform at Summerstage.

I've never had 500-plus people in the palm of my hand, but I imagine it must be a powerful feeling. Every eyeball fixated on you, every pair of hands waiting for you to stop singing so they can clap. At this point in their careers, Beach House's members should be no strangers to this feeling, yet their sheer charisma makes it seem like a brand new feeling for them. At the Bowery Ballroom—during a show celebrating the release of their gorgeous fourth album, Bloom—the band unleashed sound and fury and a lot of bright lights. As colors faded in and out of sight, seemingly in tandem with the intensity of singer Victoria Legrand, the trio showered the adoring crowd with the music they so desperately craved. There may have been tears from a gentleman behind me, although those might have come because the other half of Beach House, Alex Scally, was ignoring his obnoxious shouts of "ALEX!"

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Lyz Flyntz

Beach House didn't entirely disappear from the cultural consciousness, but they did go hide out for a while. The Baltimore duo of Alex Scally and Victoria LeGrand toured the hell out of their last record, Teen Dream, before heading back home to write Bloom (Sub Pop), which comes out tomorrow. Even their Twitter account (the frustratingly hard to remember @BeaccchHoussse) fell dormant for about a year. After a seven-week recording period in Texas, the band had a hell of a collection on their hands: 10 songs that weave in and out of themes like death, life, and that moment, so very small, of truth.

Whereas their previous release rode a lot of the tailwinds from its standout tracks ("Zebra," "10 Mile Stereo," and the gorgeous "Norway"), Bloom comes at you with the wallop of an hour-long odyssey, charting paths that perhaps you never thought to take. With ideas taken from a long touring period (180 shows since Teen Dream was released!), Beach House has landed on a feeling expressed in song, and a haunting work of art that surpasses even their own personal bests.

Sound of the City caught up with LeGrand over the phone as she rested up in Baltimore before the new-album whirlwind. She spoke about how people forget that the band did not debut with Teen Dream, and how New York can be a rough place to play a show. She also kept bringing up this idea of how important it is for her and Scally to know that they control how their music is being heard by their fans.

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Bowerbirds w/ Dry The River
Bowery Ballroom
Friday, March 23

Better than: A Pink Floyd laser show.

When I walked into Bowery Ballroom late Friday night, I did not expect to be stepping into an iTunes visualizer. Alas, Bowerbirds have incorporated a verifiable light show—complete with Merriweather Post Pavilion's cover-esque mosaics—into their live show. It fits the band's folk-but-not-quite aesthetic almost too perfectly; the music seemed to move its way through the empty dark spaces as if it was designed for the lights and not the other way around. Of course, that is not to say that the music was not top-notch: the band has always been a champion live act (this is my third time seeing them), and adding songs from this year's beautiful The Clearing did not hurt in the slightest.

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Bill Callahan
American Songbook @ Lincoln Center
Wednesday, February 8

Better than: Trying to catch a cab outside of Lincoln Center.

First, a confession: I had never been to Lincoln Center in my four and a half years living in New York City. I was not prepared for seeing this show with a backdrop of Central Park, Columbus Circle, and a good chunk of the New York skyline. I was more wide-eyed than ever before, proving my still-developing New Yorker-ness. In a way, I was like Bill Callahan himself, wondering (him aloud, me inwardly) what we were doing here on a Wednesday night, playing/listening to country songs while staring out into the metropolis's night sky.

Callahan started out on a very strong note, coming out to the best song from last year's majestic Apocalypse: "Riding for the Feeling" is a slow roast, a warm cup of your favorite coffee, enjoyed next to the fire as snow batters your window. His voice was somehow more present and alive than on record, its imperfections strengthening the song's impact. The acoustics in the Allen Room really amplified every note from the dual guitars and the soft drumbeats. It sure helped that every person seemed to be holding their breath; at one point, I swear I heard a piece of paper rustle across the 400-something-capacity room.

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Cloud Nothings
The Studio at Webster Hall
Thursday, January 26

Better than: Whatever sold-out show was going on at Webster Hall proper.

It's rare for a band and a venue to be perfectly suited to one another, but last night at The Studio at Webster Hall the pairing was so ideal, the venue effectively became a fifth member of the Cleveland band Cloud Nothings. It amplified every thundering bass drum kick, every guitar lick, and every shout-sing word uttered by bandleader Dylan Baldi, giving the audience of mostly 20-something dudes an aural experience that somehow tops the band's excellent new record, Attack on Memory.

Where previous gigs focused on the band's pop twinkle, Thursday night's show was gritty from its first song, the ode to idleness "Stay Useless." Some audience members seemed taken aback by the change, as if they hadn't heard the new album before going underground on this rainy night. It didn't matter, however: those same people were headbanging by the end of the 40-minute set. A pleasant surprise for them, I'm sure.

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