Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

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.

Taylor Swift gets about as much love as any one of a dozen current indie acts on ILM (and not whoever the Cribs are, someone with an established ILM fanbase).

"indie" is a conveniently amorphous umbrella for everyone to hide different things under, Lex aside most people using the word as an insult have a 'good indie' and a 'bad indie' in mind (and no 2 people have the same concept of what those groups encompass).

my comment was directed at all the publications whose lists we are discussing, not ilx! this is the reason i post on ilx!

and i just listened to the scott walker album

Lex likes enough more than enough indie to have that filter as well he just doesn't acknowledge its existence very often.

(hah, xpost)

true

Someone on the Guardian thread complaining that the Cooly G album has too much filler and then saying that the Chromatics is their favourite record of the year. What the hell? That album is about three years longer than it needed to be.

The authenticity bores on the Guardian thread have suddenly turned me into a passionate defender of the (pretty good, too long, occasionally facepalmy) Lana Del Rey record.

What's this year's go-to album for the comments crank with the superiority complex? Looks like Swans so far. (Not that it's Swans' fault)

i've actually been making little noises of delight every time a comment along the lines of "THIS LIST HAS LOST ITS LAST SHRED OF CREDIBILITY" pops up. guardian grumps giving me life. a repeat of last year's beyoncé/katy b outrage is prob too much to hope for, though i enjoyed the minor consternation farrah abraham caused.

It's like poptimism never happened.

"EveChang

28 November 2012 6:22 PMLink to this comment

If you want authentic real music by artists who write their own songs then your choice should be the magnificent Taylor Swift album rather than the old fart overrated garbage that are Swans."

Ha ha

lol i remember her killing it in the comments last year too! see i do <3 some of the readers

the lana del rey complaints just make me apoplectic because NO ONE CAN SPELL HER VERY SIMPLE NAME

Go tell it to Alex Petridis. Commenters don't spel 2 gud.