This is no way to experience iTunes
The default album view Apple pushes in iTunes doesn't do much for me, so the first thing I did to make the app bend to my will was click the Albums drop down menu and choose Songs. That ditches the album view in favor of the old-school song list. Then I chose Column Browser from the iTunes View menu so I could see my Genres, Artists, and Albums columns above the list.
Use the Albums dropdown menu to switch to the song list view
Once I gave a more familiar look to iTunes I clicked the Playlists tab to show the old and familiar Library and playlists sidebar. With that, iTunes 12 felt a lot more like iTunes 11, which still wasn't the greatest but at least was usable.
Less flashy, but more useful: My sidebar, plus music list and columns
Here's hoping Apple has plans to start over with iTunes and give us an app that's easier to use.