Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

listening to iamamiwhoami right now, having put it on the back burner for a while. this is really good stuff, and if i was inclined to compile a top 20 or whatever, which i may well do just for the hell of it, then this would definitely be vying for a good spot. it just seems to strike such a strong balance of tempos, atmospheres, everything. i really love "goods" and the frantic, spooky undercurrent that sends it whisking along.

It's a shame some of the earlier stand-alone iamamiwhoami tracks didn't make it to Kin, especially ";John", but at the same time I understand that the build-up and the final artifact are probably intended to be different things.

Pretty sure iamamiwhoami will place pretty well on ILM, as there's at least 5 of us who rate it. And yes, the initially offputting "Play" with the lovely Cocteau Twinsy chorus is my highlight too.

It's a shame some of the earlier stand-alone iamamiwhoami tracks didn't make it to Kin, especially ";John", but at the same time I understand that the build-up and the final artifact are probably intended to be different things.

― Johnny Fever

I know there was a huge build up with those singles but I somehow missed all that. Kin was the first thing I heard. I downloaded all the early singles a while back but haven't really spent much time with them yet.

Glad to hear there are few other iamamiwhoami supporters on here.

Is there a thread about them? Might be worth starting one if not (can't check as I'm on my phone)

One here:

Who is iamamiwhoami?

The album grew on me enormously after seeing her live.

remember when everyone thought iamamiwhoami was xtina?

Filter Magazine - "Good Music Will Prevail"
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/news/entry/filters_top_10_of_2012_staff_picks

1. Tame Impala - Lonerism MODULAR
2. Frank Ocean - Channel Orange DEF JAM
3. Grimes - Visions 4AD
4. Kendrick Lamar - good kid m.A.A.d. city TOP DAWG/AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE
5. Diamond Rugs - Diamond Rugs PARTISAN
6. Cat Power - Sun MATADOR
7. Mumford & Sons - Babel GLASSNOTE
8. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! CONSTELLATION
9. Niki & The Dove - Instinct SUB POP
10. Beach House - Bloom SUB POP
11. Miike Snow - Happy To You DOWNTOWN/UNIVERSAL
12. Liars - WIXIW MUTE
13. Sigur Rós - Valtari XL
14. DIIV - Oshin CAPTURED TRACKS
15. Father John Misty - Fear Fun SUB POP
16. Chromatics - Kill For Love ITALIANS DO IT BETTER
17. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel... EPIC
18. Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes WARP
19. Jack White - Blunderbuss THIRD MAN/COLUMBIA
20. The xx - Coexist XL

What's Father John Misty? I overheard the girls in the record shop banging on about him/them the other day.

baffling that Cat Power is turning up on so many of these lists

Think he was the dude with the really boring voice in Father Ted.

haha, yeah that's very similar to who I imagined when I heard the name.

Father John Misty is the drummer from Fleet Foxes or something I think. Seriously.

Father John Misty - I'm Fine, Thanks

Father John Misty is Josh Tillmann - was the Fleet Foxes drummer for a while but also a solo artist before that. The album's good in that Bella Union vein - more John Grant than Fleet Foxes. He's got a nice dark sense of humour.

Might be interesting. I'm not a FF fan, but from the description it sounds like it could fit into the Josh T Pearson category maybe?

Filter is possibly the least interesting list yet. I don't know who Diamond Rugs are though, maybe they're awesome.

well, once you've seen 15 lists of pretty much the same albums in varying orders they all look pretty boring. is it right for me to moan about the marginalisation of metal/harder-edged rock and noise music on these lists? even the most supposedly eclectic publications seem to ignore the heavier end of the spectrum which is a massive shame considering the same fans of, say Liars, could easily love some of the (hate to use the term but here we go) post-metal stuff like UFOmammut and Om etc. Sometimes it feels like metal-genres are the final frontier for a lot of indie-type publications that have come round to embracing pop and r'n'b in the last few years.

I would expect to see a fair number of metal records when the Quietus does its list FWIW, but yeah the point stands.

Scott OTM in a general sort of way, the "Who needs x when you've got Paul Dolden" argument casts a wide net

Guardian number nine pick

I'm not discovering nothing from these lists.

Hot Chip released another album this year eh? They do crank em out. Maybe I'll get round to listening to Made In The Dark one day.

I do still love Gabriel from last year though.

The only way to be surprised by these lists is to actively avoid reading any and all critical discourse, including music threads here.

dog latin: a meatl album sighting - Black Breath are on Fact's list

The new Hot Chip is pretty good, probably better than One Life Stand, not quite as good as Made In The Dark.

I wouldn't exactly call it one of the best of the year though...

NickB: Black Breath are the daddy tits!

I thought I was going to love "Motion Sickness" until the intro ended

I do still love Gabriel from last year though.

definitely feel like joe goddard's come into his own over the past year production-wise - "gabriel", yes, also his remixes of delilah's "love you so" and especially jessie ware's "night light", which is just a flawless and astonishing thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZrThWeqmzs

(i give each new hot chip a dutiful listen but i'm even less interested in them now than i was back in the day, and even that was lukewarm. i'm sure his voice is getting worse.)

dog latin: a meatl album sighting - Black Breath are on Fact's list

― Albert Crampus (NickB), Tuesday, December 4, 2012 3:03 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also: Young Smoke is there. A good day for Latin dogs everywhere.

Am I the only person who dug the Project Undark Radium Girls 2011 stuff?

I guess the lack of response means that yes, yes I am.

:-) Young Smoke album is the most accessible tru-footwork record to date. I'd recommend it to anyone really, not just juke fans.

re: Hot Chip, it's his voice i can't stand and generally puts me off them.

you know who should really be on more of these lists, is Alabama Shakes

Brittany Howard is a force of nature

haha maybe I should have searched BEFORE I posted that

can anyone be arsed to write out the fact list? i'd do it but at work and stuff..

Probably not worth doing until they finish the roll out?

btw I am listening to Tame Impala right now and this is great

I also suspect that half the guitar bands out there now who bore me silly could convert me to a fan in five seconds by adding judicious amounts of flange to their guitar sounds so I guess you can call me the anti-n/a

I'm the other way round in that I think this is Hot Chip's best album, I went back and listened to The Warning fairly recently (which I suppose was their buzz album) and it's so clunky in comparison.

This is my favourite Joe Goddard production, Gabriel excluded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxHtclUAyLo

ooh, love Nneka, her song Shining Star AND Goddard, but didn't know this existed.

Brittany Howard is a force of nature

I'd love to see Alabama Shakes live, becz I hear this kind of thing about their performances. But the album, to me, seemed like an overachieving bar band. Totally fine, but not remarkable.

Co-sign on the Goddard Nneka remix, one of my most played tracks of the past few months.

this is where i admit i did not know the alabama shakes singer was a lady

this is where i admit i did not know the alabama shakes beach house singer was a lady

Ha, I only realized that with Bloom. Definitely thought that "Norway" song was sung by a dude.

I'd love to see Alabama Shakes live, becz I hear this kind of thing about their performances. But the album, to me, seemed like an overachieving bar band. Totally fine, but not remarkable.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 15:55 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This. My missus loved the album though. I could imagine they're hella fun live.

People think Beach House girl is a guy? Really?

i know it's a woman and still sometimes absent-mindedly hear the voice as male when a record's on

I remember when people said they thought the Delays singer was a girl. idgi then, either.

This was my first exposure to Alabama Shakes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLPMAho8K-0

I don't hear Beach House as a man at all. Oh well. Reminds me of the time when (after listening to Rejoicing In The Hands for several weeks) that Devendra Banhart wasn't a septuagenarian 50-a-day Louisianan lady.