Dear friends and fans.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are having a healthy and happy new year so far.

Round about this time each year I enjoy taking a look back at the new music I've most loved for the last 365 odd days and nights. New music is a big part of my life, and lists, while always a bit provisional, help me savor and share the sounds and songs that have stuck with me over the year -- and will, I'm sure, into the coming years.

A number of other DJs and KDHX music writers have also been reflecting on the year in music. The diversity of the lists is pretty amazing. Check them all out here:

KDHX's Best of 2012

Now on to my year-end list: I aired the first half of my annual Top 80 Countdown last week. This week, on Wednesday, January 2, from 7-10 a.m. Central, we'll go #40-#1. I hope you can tune in and enjoy the music with me.

And not to spoil the countdown, but I figured I'd share the full list with you all now.

Thanks for reading and for listening!

FLGH's Top 80 Albums of 2012

1. Iris Dement - Sing the Delta (Flariella)
2. Dr. John – Locked Down (Nonesuch)
3. Kathleen Edwards - Voyageur (Zoe)
4. Lee Fields & the Expressions - Faithful Man (Truth & Soul)
5. Ray Wylie Hubbard - The Grifter's Hymnal (Bordello)
6. Chuck Prophet - Temple Beautiful (Yep Roc)
7. Bill Fay - Life Is People (Dead Oceans)
8. Rumer - Boys Don't Cry (Atlantic Records UK)
9. The Amazing - Gentle Stream (Subliminal Sounds)
10. Ed Romanoff - Ed Romanoff (Self-released)
11. Rough Shop - Beneath the South Side Bridge (Perdition)
12. Heartless Bastards - Arrow (Partisan)
13. Calexico - Algiers (Anti-)
14. The Walkmen - Heaven (Fat Possum)
15. Bob Dylan - Tempest (Columbia)
16. Kevin Gordon - Gloryland (Crowville Collective)
17. Cold Specks - I Predict a Graceful Expulsion (Arts & Crafts)
18. Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again (Polydor)
19. First Aid Kit - The Lions Roar (Wichita)
20. Meshell Ndegeocello - Pour une âme souveraine: A Dedication to Nina Simone (Naive)
21. Craig Finn - Clear Heart Full Eyes (Vagrant)
22. Janiva Magness - Stronger For It (Alligator)
23. Kelly Hogan - I like to Keep Myself in Pain (Anti-)
24. Neal Casal - Sweeten the Distance (Royal Potato Family)
25. Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls (ATO)
26. The Stray Birds - The Stray Birds (Self-released)
27. Nada Surf - The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy (Barsuk)
28. Allo Darlin' - Europe (Slumberland)
29. Band of Horses - Mirage Rock (Columbia)
30. John Fullbright - From the Ground Up (Blue Dirt)
31. Cody ChesnuTT - Landing on a Hundred (Breakaway Recordings)
32. Carolina Chocolate Drops - Leaving Eden (Nonesuch)
33. Black Prairie - A Tear in the Eye Is a Wound in the Heart (Sugar Hill)
34. Spectator In the Brick EP (Self-released)
35. The Honeycutters    - When Bitter Met Sweet (Self-released)
36. Great Lake Swimmers - New Wild Everywhere (Nettwerk)
37. Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas (Columbia)
38. Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball (Columbia)
39. Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears (Warner Bros.)
40. Nick Waterhouse - Time's All Gone (Innovative Leisure)
41. The Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now (Dead Oceans)
42. Various Artists - Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan (Amnesty International)
43. Bonnie Raitt - Slipstream (Redwing)
44. Bettye LaVette - Thankful N' Thoughtful (Anti-)  
45. Admiral Fallow - Tree Bursts in Snow (Nettwerk)
46. Aimee Mann - Charmer (SuperEgo)
47. Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn't (Secretly Canadian)
48. David Wax Museum - Knock Knock Get Up (101 Distribution)
49. The dB's - Falling Off the Sky - ((Bar/None))
50. Alejandro Escovedo - Big Station (Fantasy)
51. Aaron Embry - Tiny Prayers (Community Music)
52. Sera Cahoone - Deer Creak Canyon (Sub Pop)
53. The Royalty - Lovers (Victory)
54. Beth Orton - Sugaring Season (Anti-)
55. Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself (Mom & Pop)
56. Graham Parker & the Rumour - Three Chords Good (Primary Wave)
57. Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames - New Multitudes (Rounder)
58. Paul Kelly - Spring and Fall (Cen)
59. Ben Bedford - What We Lost (Waterbug)
60. Kristina Train - Dark Black (Mercury UK)
61. Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts (Blue Note)
62. Quantic & Alice Russell - Look Around the Corner with Combo Barbaro (Tru Thoughts)  
63. Allah-Las    - Allah-Las (Innovative Leisure)
64. The Jungle Fire - The New Blood (Self-released)  
65. Various - Tower Groove Records Compilation Vol 1 (Tower Groove)  
66. Father John Misty - Fear Fun (Sub Pop)
67. Neil Halstead - Palindrome Hunches (Brushfire)
68. Various - Lowe Country (Fiesta Red)
69. A.C. Newman - Shut Down the Streets (Matador)
70. Joe Pug - The Great Despiser (Lightning)
71. The Inner Banks - Wild (Dag!)
72. Justin Townes Earle - Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now (Bloodshot)
73. Hurray For the Riffraff - Lookout Mama (Self-released)
74. Brothers Lazaroff - Science Won (Self-released)
75. Sweet Lights - Sweet Lights (Self-released)
76. Field Report - Field Report (Partisan)
77. The Dig - Midnight Flowers (Buffalo Jump)
78. Alameda - Procession (Self-released)
79. Beachwood Sparks - The Tarnished Gold (Sub Pop)
80. Lindi Ortega - Cigarettes & Truckstops (Last Gang)

Roy

P.S. I've also made a Spotify playlist with 275 songs that I very much liked from 2012. Stream away!