Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

If 2012's zenith really did come courtesy of the likes of Alt-J, Django Django, Tame Impala and Frank Ocean, what a depressing state of affairs that would be. I'd pretty much give up listening to music. So why do these kinds of acts come up trumps each year round, even in reputable publications?

We don't really need to go into the handwringing here but maybe people like those acts? They at least seem to have some momentum about them which is more than you can say for x rock band on their fifth album that even the fans don't rate that highly.

Is that a Hot Chip diss?

I don't hate any of those acts BTW, but them appearing near the top of these lists sometimes reeks of "this is the best we can do"

That Tame Impala record is p great IMO, but then I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

I thought Django Django was a pretty great record, actually.

yeah it's fun too. I think they might make more good records as well, they seem to have the right ideas.

Yeah I really like it as well and they're terrific live. The Tame Impala one isn't bad per se although it's derivative as hell. I didn't find the Frank Ocean album particularly engaging but the people who do like it clearly find something very strongly resonating with them. I don't think any of them represent particularly rote or uninspired choices.

Obviously I'm shocked and appalled that any reputable publication would touch them but whatever.

They're fine records, just fine. Maybe I'm developing ridiculously high standards or something ;-)

Django Django's okay, I sometimes get the Hail Bopp song stuck in my head, but really they're the Byrds with a 4/4 backbeat - I wouldn't call it remarkable.

Is the new Tame Impala much different from the first one (which sounded just like Dungen to me)? Reports of unnecessary levels of flange don't bode well in my book.

I thought Alt-J were interesting first time I heard a track, but I can't bring myself to get through their album without getting frustratedly bored. Plus they look like a bunch of marketing managers.

And Frank Ocean, again, good enough but again I'm wondering if this is blowing my fokken mind or if it's much more than someone doing decent Wayne and Wonder impressions on a home budget?

I know this probably isn't the best thread to say this in, but the inevitability of these lists each December coupled with the inevitability of certain acts getting "grandfathered" into said lists regardless of how uninteresting their material is as well as the general critical reaffirmation of conventional wisdom - the ritual nature of it all is just really difficult for me to engage with

it's CHRISTMASTIME, you know very well you're just supposed to shut up and go to church and get one of those little candles and sing 'silent night' and not complain

With these lists I'm usually just happy when some albums I care about appear; the Guardian list has Nite Jewel/Polica/Dawn Richard/Cooly G/Chromatics/Miguel so far, which is pretty good going for me compared to most other non-specialist lists. Nobody who calls ILM home can be under the impression that the rest of the world has the same taste or the same ideas about what's important as we do?

^^^^
THIS

thanks for those recommendations emil.y

It's interesting that the only pet heavy album making some of the lists is Converge. I guess doom won't be cracking the mainstream this year ;) But not even the crossover likes of Torche and Baroness?

I somehow forgot about Peaking Lights and am enjoying the new one, though not quite as good as the Moon Duo which is oddly missing from the lists so far. Am enjoying Sun Araw & M.G. Gengras Meet The Congos, Polica, Dawn Richard, Holly Herndon, Actress, Mala, Angel Haze and Jam City.

Baroness made the Paste list.

Don't think I've seen it in any lists yet but I really like Zombie Zombie - Rituels d'un Nouveau Monde, which came out last week.

Baroness made the Paste list.

this makes sense, as it is a well-crafted indie rock record

Heavy but not metal: Swans will be on a lot of lists

Blut Aus Nord is on the AllMusic list too

Om and UFOmammut ought to be on the crossovery lists too.

You're assuming that other people find those records as underwhelming as you do but are scared to say so. Maybe they just, y'know, really like them.

Don't think I've seen it in any lists yet but I really like Zombie Zombie - Rituels d'un Nouveau Monde, which came out last week.

yeah i'm liking this a lot

I'd never paid much attention to Zombie Zombie before but that album bangs. I suppose it shares with Mungolian Jet Set at their best this sort of soundtrack to a boys adventure story from the 1930s kind of vibe, except they're coming to it from a krautrocky direction rather than a Balearic/disco/stupid Muppet voice direction.

i recommend their debut album too, a land for renegades (tbh the new one doesn't move their thing on a great deal, but it's a good thing so i don't mind)

my personal coping method w/r/t these EOY lists is turning out to be singing very loudly at them "HIDE AWAY AND FIND YOUR PEACE OF MIND / WITH SOME INDIE RECORD THAT'S ~MUCH~ COOLER THAN MINE"

I'm so sorry, is there anyone we can call for you?

I've only heard one Alt-J song, and I don't even remember the title of it, but it was pretty gross.

... rather than a Balearic/disco/stupid Muppet voice direction.

lol

my personal coping method w/r/t these EOY lists is turning out to be singing very loudly at them "HIDE AWAY AND FIND YOUR PEACE OF MIND / WITH SOME INDIE RECORD THAT'S ~MUCH~ COOLER THAN MINE"

― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Wednesday, November 28, 2012 2:47 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seeing as almost the entirety of ilx disses anything that has the remotest whiff of "indie" upon it and proclaims Taylor Swift to be the genius of our generation, don't you think your "poor victimised poptimist" stance has worn somewhat thin?

people love to form a mixed set of opinions from many individuals into an imaginary single-minded monolith. including you, apparently.

I can probably give you evidence to back up my claims, though.

Anyway, I was originally going to post on this thread b/c I thought someone might know where the 2012 thread equivalent of "we're halfway through 20xx - what are your favourite records?" is. I think it might have been called something slightly different but I'm obviously not searching for the right phrases...

Rolling "favorite music of 2012 so far" thread (albums and/or tracks edition)

If you're talking about "ILX" as a monolith you can provide evidence to back up almost any claim no matter how batshit.

Ah brilliant. Definitely need to refresh my memory of what was out and good earlier in the year.

xpost

I clearly wasn't saying "ilx" was a single-minded organism, otherwise how could it possibly have an "almost all" selection? Learn to read better.

emil.y OTM. it's not like ILX is some kind of alt/indie stronghold, far from it. So it would be nice to be spared the annual preaching to the choir this time round and accept that PEOPLE LIKE DIFFERENT THINGS.

that's not aimed at anyone particular - it goes for me and my complaints upthread too.

eh the problem isn't that people like different things it's that they like bad things that are boring and everyone all likes the same bad boring things and this time of year everyone compiles it all into lists--not to say that this this complaint isn't played out, but it's not the same as PEOPLE LIKE DIFFERENT THINGS

Oh come on you know full well there'll be as much indie as anything else when ILX does its poll, probably more. It's not like either camp can claim to be particularly hard done by here.

Being sniffy about indie is a glorious ILM tradition that goes back to pretty much the very first thread though.

Think of it as a counterbalance to decades of indie fans claiming they're the only ones who really care about music.

xxpost So moan about the lists or individual albums being boring, don't act like some sort of genre martyr because "OMG indie rag put lots of indie in its top 10, how dare they" etc..

"almost the entirety of ilx" disses indie and loves Taylor is just absurd tea party false minority shit

xp everything is an indie rag now fyi

In fairness if I had to hazard a guess it would be that at least 80% of ILM, myself included, would self-identify as an indie kid or having been an indie kid at some point in the past, including many of the people who take the "lol indie" stance in these threads.

quite, but also most people on ILM now say they like, or at least appreciate, all kinds of music

i can't remember the last time anyone, other than some random kid googler, came along and slated pop as a genre or slagged-off a pop artist because they didn't write their own songs or didn't play guitar or whatever, all the while bigging-up some aching shitpipe of a landfill indie band.

anyway, we talk about this stuff every year as well, so not worth going into it any more now.

There's an indie lurker contingent that votes in ILX polls but Taylor Swift gets a hell of a lot more love from people who actually post than, say, the Cribs do. Lex should pop on over to the Guardian AOTY comment thread if he wants some old skool "this isn't real music" cranks to kick against.

Zombie Zombie - Rituels d'un Nouveau Monde, great so far. Tip!

The slagging off of pop is all over the Guardian albums thread, though it tends to be – I think - from those of advancing years bitter about the loss of "proper" music, or from those who can't understand why not everyone is swooning over Japanese noise or Southern Lord releases.

xpost I see Dorian is making this very point.