It's been one hell of a year. I have dived headlong into the Nebraska music community since starting this job as managing editor of Hear Nebraska in February, and through the many great interviews, wonderful people I've met and countless shows and albums that have inspired me to do better at covering the scene, I've enjoyed my time thus far.

This is a glimpse at what my 2012 was like, and we'll follow this list hopefully every day for the near future with more favorites from our interns and contributors. Let me know what you think of my picks, hardly scientific in their choosing and easily somewhat different from what I'll think in a few days. Leave your thoughts in the comments below about what captured your attention this year.

Table of contents

Best albums of the year (nationally) | Best local albums | Best new songs (nationally) | Best new songs (locally) | Best album art  | Best new bands | Best shows of the year | Best music videos | Best band style (aesthetics) | Best superfans

Best albums of the year (nationally)

1. Young Man in America by Anais Mitchell

I first met the right side of Anais Mitchell's father's face in Austin, Texas. I was standing in line at the merch table as Mitchell accepted a handful of compliments after her concert at St. David's Historic Sanctuary during South by Southwest. Sure, I bought Young Man in America so Anais Mitchell would like me (and she did later agree to a short interview). Post-crush, I'm still in love with this record.

Yes, Mitchell takes after her father, the writer whose portrait graces the album cover. These songs weave rich tales with characters far removed from 2012. The language Mitchell sculpts could sound stilted coming out of a more mellifluous voice. Hers boasts an aged quality in 31-year-old vocal cords, sharp but beautiful.

2. An Awesome Wave by alt-J

As you can see, Rdio is my jam. These embedded albums are linked to the music service, which competes with the more popular Spotify. While I'm mostly drawn to the cleaner design, Rdio also features a handful of connections that for me are mostly music publications. Which brings me to my point.

Alt-j is a beloved album of these publications, as evidenced by Rdio telling me that it's a record regularly on rotation among the NPR Musics, Paste Magazines and Consequence of Sounds. As I soon found, this is for good reason. Here are four skilled musicians from the UK with the most soulfully robotic voices you've heard (it's possible, just listen).

Melodic basslines, intricate rhythms and words that might not be words comprise a sort of alien alt-rock, just slightly different in its genetic structure to be strange but close enough that there's no threat of the world ending. And of course, alt-J is actually spelled ?, but I'll let you delve into the backstory and the music to learn more for yourself.

3. The Bloom and the Blight by Two Gallants

Two Gallants simply rock. It's a hardened worksmanship of just two guys who know no frills that makes up this group that is still connected to Omaha through their former record label of Saddle Creek.

The Bloom and the Blight was a constant the first few months after its release for me. I'd listen through while I typed up stories, hoping in some way that the magic of Adam Stephens' well-worded lyrics would travel by osmosis from my ears through to my fingers. Alas, I can't say that happened, and I have little else to say about this one than just listen please.

Best local albums

1. Plays the Piano by McCarthy Trenching

This collection of Dan McCarthy and Scott Joplin songs knows well the gentle touch of my record player's needle.

Its stories start with McCarthy sitting at the piano waiting for standup bassist James Maakestad to join him at practice. After the opening track and the first ragtime tune, the camera pulls out of McCarthy's apartment, does a quick flyover of Omaha and swoops in over the Ponderosa Village trailer park.

Later on, McCarthy plays a game of cribbage as Hank Williams sings. He talks of evil and free will, and he recounts the novel narrative of Dorothy Lynch and Hungry Jack. It's entirely appropriate that the thank you card McCarthy wrote to me for preordering the album sits on my coffee table. Even though we're just acquaintances in the real world, McCarthy feels like an old friend through his songs. If you haven't already, get to know him.

2. Discovering and Deciphering Your Value as a Human Being by Universe Contest

I often stare at a reminder of how much I enjoy Universe Contest. The gash on my glasses is both embarrassing and validating because yes, I chose to be easily thrown around in the mosh pit at Universe Contest's concert at Lincoln Calling, and my glasses were pulled off in the crowd and irreversibly scratched.

In a short time, this band of fun-loving Lincolnites has built a following of folks who know the sometimes slurred words. We have a good record of what they've achieved so far in Discovering and Deciphering Your Value as a Human Being. It's catchy, sometimes anthemic but without affectations.

Now we all hope the five-piece won't screw up as they're now recording demos to shop around to record labels for something bigger in 2013. But that's also part of the charm of Universe Contest: You never know when it could all break down.

3. From Mansions to Dry Lake Beds by Shipbuilding Co.

words from Shipbuilding Co. Makes History on "From Mansions to Dry Lake Beds" | Video Feature

Eugene Debs just got a little closer to world destruction. On From Mansions to Dry Lake Beds, the well-known socialist is just one of the real-life-but-not-really characters that populate the new album by Shipbuilding Co. That said, Debs is still 11 songs away from any nuclear tests.

While it's not all history, the atomic story of Bikini Atoll does close the release, and the conflict of the Spanish Civil War also finds its way onto the expansive and unpacked-over-many-listens record, twisted somewhat by songwriter Michael Partington's creative license. Bandmate Lindsey Bradley says, "Only the events and names and places have changed," with a laugh, before making the comparison, "It's like a Disney movie."

Take a quick look at the liner notes included with the band's LP and you'll see just how many stories Partington manages to fit in 12 songs. To the observation that his songs are wordy, he asks, "Are they?" as if it's a bad thing. But what makes From Mansions to Dry Lake Beds a complex but fulfilling listen — on top of the layers and layers of instruments, changing time signatures and unconventional song structures — are the stories.

Best new songs (nationally)

1. "He Did" by Anais Mitchell

2. "Danse Caribe" by Andrew Bird

3. "Slow It Down" by The Lumineers

Best new songs (locally)

1. "Good Feelin'" by In Love

words from "Good Feelin'" by In Love | Music Exam

Dear lovebirds, meet dopamine, norepinephrine and phenylethylamine. It's OK, you won't have to remember their names at the end of the night. If all goes well, they'll be the chemicals to make themselves welcome in your brain after you unknowingly release them, and they don't care if you know how they do what they do so well.

Because of some sweet romance, they'll bring on the good feeling In Love's song called, well, "Good Feelin'" talks of. It's a meta sort of music because just like that crush that sends you swooning, the attraction of this song is a bit hard to explain.

It's repetitive with a main riff played through most of the song. It's in the key of C. And it's solely about love, that oft-covered subject of pop music. But for all its potential cliches, its simplistic beauty and singer/songwriter Zach Short's vocals — think Adam Levine without an inflated sense of self — keep it from falling into that trap.

Short juxtaposes an idiosyncratic lyrical rhythm in the verses with a chorus built upon pickups of straight sixteenths. That main guitar riff stays mostly syncopated save for the tags on the ends of verses and choruses, and a second slinky guitar line plays the rhythm's straight part. With each trip through the choruses and also the bridge, the band does a dynamic swoop near the end that builds the tension, which is then released much like those chemicals.

2. "Shine" by Domestica

words from "Shine" by Domestica | Music Exam Q&A

Funny how a little light can change everything. Case in point: the upward beams on Domestica's stage that leave campfire-story shadows on the faces of married musicians Heidi Ore and Jon Taylor. It's purposeful design that works.

The trio has clear objective, too, when their song "Shine" is shoved through instrument and mic cables, out booming amplifiers, and kept steady by Todd Johnson's drumming: Domestica means to rock.

The band's newest release, Domestica 2, met the public ear on April 1, but Hear Nebraska premiered "Shine" back in December with our first compilation CD. Because it still makes me all tingly in the last quarter of its two minutes and 40 seconds — every time — I called Taylor at home as Ore listened from across the room to her husband's side.

3. "Realistic Feel" by Talking Mountain

words from "Realistic Feel" by Talking Mountain | Song Premiere

The only color in this room full of frequencies is blue. Studio lights flipped off, the remaining wavelengths hang on to the fog enveloping us, and Jason Meyer continues talking candidly about "Realistic Feel," the first Talking Mountain song released to the public ear outside of concerts in about two years.

The blue ambience in the basement of Meyer's house is only a segment of the larger light sequence, which includes lasers, of course. While he says the song was originally written about his divorce, the meaning of the lyrics has since shifted. The words are now relevant to his girlfriend with whom he has painted his house with greens, yellows, blues and pinks.

Bright skulls, light-up jelly frogs, a wizard staff and furry masks populate this home seemingly transplanted from Whoville. It's where his girlfriend's son is one of the very few who has heard what Meyer has recently recorded with the electronics he built, instruments from iPad apps and found sounds of subway cars and nature.

Best album art

1. Larry Turquoise by Good Show Great Show

2. Domestica 2 by Domestica

3. The Seer by Swans

Best new bands

1. Gordon

These guys don't really care what you think. They turn off the lights and swing wildly around the mic with the only beams in the room shining on their singer's face. I can't help but like their music, but with their onstage rough-hewn attitudes, it's a begrudging sort of enjoyment I'll slowly learn to like even more, I'm sure.

2. Life is Cool

This collective of Lincoln music mainstays headed by James Riley is one to watch in 2013. After debuting at Lincoln Calling, the brightly colored, electronic-influenced pop group might be catching on in our music community as they look to book a few shows.

3. Wet Rats' Glass Jaw Fragments

OK, this isn't exactly a band, and there's no hope for those who haven't seen this production yet because the last performance was Nov. 10. But with original, kooky, drums-and-piano music by Jim Schroeder and Joshua Miller, it's worth the No. 3 spot. Robert Stewart's boxing puppet musical would no doubt be a contender for first place if it weren't for the short run and, well, the part about it not being a band.

Best shows of the year

1. Hear Lincoln concerts collectively | 6.22.12 to 8.31.12

2. An Evening concerts collectively | 3.25.12 and 12.2.12

3. Universe Contest at Duffy's Tavern | 10.12.12

photo by Andrew Dickinson

Best music videos

1. "Cut Me Open" by Eli Mardock

2. "Somebody Help Me" by Howard

3. "No Apart" by UUVVWWZ | Love Drunk Video

Best band style (aesthetics)

1. Satchel Grande