Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

(for real though i consider any list without dawn or angel haze to have rendered itself irrelevant because were you even listening to music in 2012)

That's an interesting list so far...any idea how many people voted?

35 voters, I think.

that's a pretty Lex-friendly list :-)

It's VERY Lex. I think he's been voting under multiple aliases.

there isn't even much that i actively dislike (kmt @ gentrified r&b poliça though), but i guess i should be steeling myself for the upper echelons of the list

Is Polica any kind of R&B? It never occurred to me - it's like How to Dress Well.

The nature of Guardian music writers has changed a great deal in last few years. There's a large number of young R&B/hip-hop writers who have little or no interest in guitar music, alongside the older guitar music writers who have little or no interest in R&B and hip-hop. And then there are the few who have an interest in both.

how to dress well gets slotted into this gentrified r&b "revival", sadly

he makes the worst music

That's what I mean - I hear it in HTDW but Polica isn't so blatantly playing with R&B tropes.

xp To me the list seems more polarised than ever. In the lower reaches there seem to be two entirely different constituencies alternating - did anyone vote for the Cribs AND Dawn Richard?

I'm still periodically surprised that anyone rates the Cribs, and that they've somehow avoided the fate of every other middle-ranking band from that era.

Yeah, I agree: a very polarised list.

you could ask who would possibly vote for both fiona apple and angel haze too though, but i did

You could argue it's balanced rather than polarized, or more balanced than these lists usually are, although that does depend on what fills up the top half of the list.

Voter fraud. People be voting for rap because they get free stuff all the time.

The Cribs got some indie cred for the Albini production job I think.

Can't stand the Cribs, but they get credit for constantly banging on about how indie they are, I think. Albini's just one facet of that. People like them because they represent Old Guard Uncorrupted Indiers Doing It Their Way Without Hype.

I actually really like that Cribs record. I also recently tried to listen to their debut and it was one of the worst pieces of shit I have ever set ears on, so I guess they improved.

Albini only produced one track.

ah okay.

I'm not saying it's bad at all - I like the variety - but it is polarised. It's a bit like the mid-80s NME with the soulboys vs the Smiths fans, only much more cordial. There are virtually two rival consensuses which rarely overlap.

Thumbs up on the Guardian list to Orbital (well, just about), Beach House (most definitely), Dexys, Mala, Jack White, Bright Light Bright Light, Actress (HELL YES), Dawn Richard, Jam City (sort of).

Old Guard Uncorrupted Indiers Doing It Their Way Without Hype

Pretty sure everyone was saying this in 2007 even when it was patently untrue, and I don't hear anything in their music that strikes me as demonstrably superior to The Rakes or The Enemy or whoever else has justifiably fallen by the wayside. And those guys didn't manage to get Johnny Marr on a record.

omg i forgot how much of a TREAT the guardian commenters were last year after we hit them with beyoncé and katy b

"Hey, Slater, what are you listening to?"
"Hey, preppie, you're behind the times. It's called 'trap' and it's the freshest thing since 'blip'."

xpost Didn't say it was true; just that it seems to be what people see the Cribs as representing (and how they present themselves).

So here's what the students at Oxford have been getting into:

http://oxfordstudent.com/2012/11/23/the-twenty-best-albums-of-2012/

(same old guff as all these other lists basically)

I haven't heard/probably won't hear the Liars album, but I keep misreading its title as WKIW.

I like the Leonard Cohen album a lot but come on young people sort yourselves out.

Don't know why I'm disappointed by that list really cos there are some solid records there but it is kind of sad that they're some of the same ones that this old man right here and probably millions like me are going to listen to on the bus on the way home.

XP what matt said

It truly is interesting that the only rap album to make the top twenty actually topped the list, but it isn’t that surprising.

truly

I haven't heard/probably won't hear the Liars album, but I keep misreading its title as WKIW.

Liars run hot or cold for me depending on the album, but this year's is hot!

Why would Oxford students listen to anythign different?

actually the oxford list isn't terrible really

you know what, I'm not going to be too concerned about tokenism when I like the choice that got in so much and I think it actually is that much better than all of the albums ranked below it

No response from Cambridge at time of writing...though Varsity does have a Lex-baiting article on "The rapid rise of the R&B sad boy".

Students are not really noted for making independent aesthetic choices.

as opposed to professional music critics

Yeah I could easily imagine a pro critic or even an ILXor submitting the same list. There must be better targets around to point at.

Yeah I'm not really casting aspersions, I was responding to Nick's post really, it's hardly surprising they're going for the usual critical faves.

grooving to kendrick lamar at oxford! nice.

i'm glad people like converge so much. there is so much shitty stuff that they have helped spawn (not their fault) and its nice that people can tell a good poignantly brutal album from a bad one.

has decibel put the last three converge albums at number one? they really like converge i guess.

i don't really feel like listening to frank ocean. do i have to? i could youtube him but i don't think i care enough...

usually i'm more curious when people talk about the same thing for months.

love converge - ss on the money

when frank ocean makes an Afro-Swedish voodoo rock album i promise i will check him out.

channel ORANGE has one great song and a bunch of okay-to-embarrassing ones

otm

Yeah, I'm just grumpy basically and prefer lists full of surprises (and that list had just one really [i.e. Converge are still hip? I like Converge btw]). But also there's this lurking feeling you get that they're just discovering new music through the exact same channels as everyone else, you don't get the sense that these people are fully immersed in any vibrant subcultures or anything (apart from the Converge guy maybe?), it's all just the *edgier* end of the same stuff that was in the Uncut list and that's kind of boring *shakes fist*

xpost

“Bad Religion,” “Thinking About You,” “Super Rich Kids” and “Lost” are all really good, but I haven't felt any need to play the rest of the record since my initial engagement with it.

Also when they go on about really liking the Jessie Ware album and then single out a particular track for praise ("listenable" - The Oxford Student), it would probably be a good idea to get its fucking name right.

Anybody have the full MOJO list?

channel ORANGE has one great song and a bunch of okay-to-embarrassing ones

I don't even know what the "one great song" is: "Bad Religion"? "Super Rich Kids"? "Thinkin' Bout You"? (These aren't necessarily my favorites -- I'm just guessing what the "one great song" is for someone who thinks the album has "one great song.")

Btw, my wife, who has a habit of ignoring albums and then suddenly obsessing over them, just got really into Frank Ocean.