Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa they put frank ocean first

I already thought Ocean had a decent shot at (a still-hypothetical?) P&J #1, but that seems like a bellwether.

oh he's gonna top a lot of lists, but coming from PASTE it's pretty lol (tho they won't be alone)

Oh sure, but that's what I mean: if even PASTE is putting him at #1, then that's a sign of many more to come.

I think the P&J #1's a done deal. Unlike (seemingly) most people on ILX I love Channel Orange so I'm fine with that. I don't think he'll be robbing any masterpieces.

frank will do really well in this poll too, tho maybe slightly under other polls if his average is like 2.2 or something

actually, if someone finds me the perfect indie schmindie year-end list (i haven't heard any of it, trust me) i will totally do that. that might be a winner though.

That Fly list trends a little cute for my tastes, but it's about as good a list of worthwhile indie-rock as I've seen this year. Not a bad place to start.

channel orange is the best album this year altho rtc is maybe kind of otm to an extent. it's slightly flawed, but i haven't heard an album this year that isn't.

― these bitches is my sons and i make dad jokes (The Reverend), Monday, 26 November 2012 21:20 (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

i haven't said anything about flaws - if what i've said can be construed as criticism it's personal and not universal. genuinely i think if i were a younger man i'd be all over it, really into it, but now i just get it and that's all really. what's the borges quote, "i was drawn to sunsets, slums and misfortune, now it is to mornings in the heart of the city..."

like i say though the craft at least can't be fronted on; breathes in all the right places, a better filmic album than kendrick's i'd say

Good to see LotusPlaza getting some love

I like that Stealing Sheep record in the Fly list quite a bit. I realise this description will probably be the kiss of death for it for most people here, but it's really charming gentle folksy psych stuff, reminds me a little of Gorkys circa the Blue Trees but it's a bit more pop than that.

Frank's second-best (by far) record in two years is gonna dominate these lists and run away w/ P&J :(

not that the other one was totally overlooked, i guess

what is the fly these days, i swear the last time i saw a physical print copy was like 2005

xpost Lotus Plaza will be top 5 for me. Love that record more every day.

Stealing Sheep is good too. I just discovered them from The Fly list last night.

Surprised to see that Django Django record everywhere so far. I like that album, but don't love it ... find it a bit tiresome about halfway thru. Were they the breakout indie stars in Europe this year or something?

xp and as that it was bit of stuff you leaf through sipping a terrible pint waiting for a band to come on at a gig, or thing you threw in a record store bag for the bus home

No wonder people think indie is a steaming pile of shit if that Fly list is hailed as a good round-up of the year. Jesus.

hahaha

"Gorkys circa the Blue Trees"

i liked that album a lot! and the one with the soda can on the cover. never heard their last album. maybe i should look for it.

a better filmic album than kendrick's i'd say

― r|t|c, Monday, November 26, 2012 1:44 PM Bookmark

Oh totally, and a big part of the reason is it doesn't push its filmic qualities in your face so much.

Frank's second-best (by far) record in two years is gonna dominate these lists and run away w/ P&J :(

not that the other one was totally overlooked, i guess

― alpine static, Monday, November 26, 2012 1:53 PM Bookmark

I didn't get over my skepticism of Nostalgia Ultra until I heard Channel Orange.

I really, really liked the whole woozy narrative behind "Novacane" so the last thing I expected was to feel divorced from and amused by the storytelling.

this

see i was relieved that the new one had no z-trip at coachella anecdotes

I really, really liked the whole woozy narrative behind "Novacane" so the last thing I expected was to feel divorced from and amused by the storytelling.

this

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, November 26, 2012 3:30 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not sure what you mean here... you like the woozy narrative but felt divorced/amused by it at the same time? or divorced/amused by the storytelling on channel orange?

divorced from/amused by the storytelling on channel ORANGE

I didn't find his vocal lines particularly compelling either. Tracks like "Sweet Life" just sit there. In toto the album sounds like it could have been recorded acoustically in the seventies by a precocious singer-songwriter who doesn't come into his own until the third or fourth album.

It's not about the stories quite as much as the emotion he injects them with.

i still havent heard clockwork orange but when ppl say that his debut was SO MUCH BETTER im like, wow that sloppy comp of odds & ends & him doing eagles karaoke is better than his studio album?? makes me never want to hear it

"Swim Good" by itself is better than three quarters of Agent Orange.

finding djp and alfred way otm right now about *orange rhyming dictionary*

need a new thread polling deliberate mangling options of Ocean album title

don't sleep on my channel BORING from a couple months back

"Swim Good" by itself is better than three quarters of Agent Orange.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, November 26, 2012 2:51 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

One song on one album is better than some but not all of the songs on another album? Case closed.

i still havent heard clockwork orange but when ppl say that his debut was SO MUCH BETTER im like, wow that sloppy comp of odds & ends & him doing eagles karaoke is better than his studio album?? makes me never want to hear it

― D-40, Monday, November 26, 2012 2:50 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Keep in mind that these people are dummies.

tbh I don't mind anyone loving Orange Blossom as long as they love Kaleidoscope Dream a bit more.

the big difference between nostalgia, ultra and chanel l'orange is that it's all about the third-person storytelling instead of the very first-person stuff of nos, ultra, but there's so much sympathy for these characters that it just kills me. he's not judging anyone, just presenting these often heartbreaking stories, like flipping through some reality tv shit

Kaleidoscope Dream >>> Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Channel

are first-person stuff and autobiography synonymous?

eagles karaoke is 1 of 14 tracks on nostalgia, tucked conveniently at the very end along with MGMT karaoke. i don't particularly like (or despise) either of those, and thus never listen to them ... as far as i'm concerned it's a great 11-track album with a few interludes and 8 songs that range from good to amazing.

I have a hard time understanding how that Titus Andronicus album made anyone's list.. very disappointing and I really tried to warm up to it.

are first-person stuff and autobiography synonymous?

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, November 26, 2012 4:01 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

of course not, and obviously there is autobiographical and first-person stuff on channel orange, too, it's just that "frank ocean" becomes another character amongst the obviously not-frank ocean others, if that makes sense?

tbh I don't mind anyone loving Orange Blossom as long as they love Kaleidoscope Dream a bit more.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 November 2012 22:57 (56 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Or speaking of filmic albums ARMOR ON ffs

of course not, and obviously there is autobiographical and first-person stuff on channel orange, too, it's just that "frank ocean" becomes another character amongst the obviously not-frank ocean others, if that makes sense?

yep -- thanks

i mean, swim good and songs 4 women and we all try and dust ... for me, that's case closed.

i like channel orange but it doesn't burrow its way into me like n,u did. i dunno. i ain't gonna be pissed when it wins P&J. it's better than that tune-yards album

also, i need to hear ARMOR ON.

you really do, it's fucking amazing

I played "Faith" one morning last week as the sun was rising and I thought fuuuuuck

tbh I don't mind anyone loving Orange Blossom as long as they love Kaleidoscope Dream a bit more.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 November 2012 22:57 (56 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Or speaking of filmic albums ARMOR ON ffs

― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Monday, November 26, 2012 3:03 PM Bookmark

My top three albums this year!

i still havent heard clockwork orange but when ppl say that his debut was SO MUCH BETTER im like, wow that sloppy comp of odds & ends & him doing eagles karaoke is better than his studio album?? makes me never want to hear it

― D-40, Monday, November 26, 2012 5:50 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah well this is bullshit

i agree in the sense that my favourite individual frank songs i think come from nostalgia, ultra, but channel orange works so well as an "album" that i can just put it on and sink into that world

channel orange and kaleidoscope dream are also 2 of my 3 favourite albums of this year, too, much like rev.

I can't fucking wait til everyone can hear Goldenheart

Me neither, so envious that you've heard it.

Goldenheart?

Channel Orange is great, but as a whole Swing Lo Magellan is better.