Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

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.

Magnet - Best Of 2012: Jazz/Improv
http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2012/12/04/best-of-2012-jazzimprov/

MAGNET’s Bill Meyer picks the best jazz/improv releases of the year.

1 Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo Ancestors (TUM)
2 Keith Rowe & John Tilbury E.E. Tension And Circumstance (Potlatch)
3 Peter Brötzmann & Jason Adasiewicz Going All Fancy (Brö)
4 Joshua Abrams Represencing (Eremite)
5 Neneh Cherry & The Thing The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound)
6 Fast Citizens Gather (Delmark)
7 John Butcher, Eddie Prevost And Guillaume Vitard All But: Meetings With Remarkable Saxophonists Volume 2 (Matchless)
8 Sam Rivers/Dave Holland/Barry Altschul Reunion: Live In New York (Pi)
9 Living By Lanterns New Myth/Old Science (Cuneiform)
10 David S. Ware / Planetary Unknown Live At Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2011 (Aum Fidelity)

Haven't kept up with jazz at all but that looks like an interesting list to me

I think I might be getting to the age where I start to get into jazz/improv. God help me. Is this like a genetic timebomb thingy or what?

As usual I've listened to a lot of albums on these lists the past couple weeks that I missed previously, or ignored. I'm really liking Light Asylum, reintroducing a little brutality to electro-pop. And what an interesting voice, I had no idea it was a woman the first time. OTOH, listening to too much Purity Ring, Chromatics and Chairlift makes me feel like I'm drowning in high fructose corn syrup. There's plenty to like in 'em, but maybe just once or twice a year for me. Cloud Nothings pushes about 1-1/2 of my buttons, the half being Lungfish flashbacks that are for some reason comforting! King Tuff is different than what I'd expect from a member of Witch, all scrappy twee power pop. Fun but not quite a top 100 candidate. I'm on the fence with Spoek Mathambo. Afro-dubstep, retro-futurist electro, political horror hop could be audio crack for me, but the songs aren't completely successful in tying it all together. More listening needed. Daphni, Andy Stott, Pye Corner Audio and Orbital are good, I just tend to forget to play electronic stuff as often. I made a new playlist for 'em. I've been enjoying the Cody Chesnutt album a bit more than, say, the Bobby Womack or even Frank Ocean.

The time when I was really into jazz was in my early twenties, I haven't got the time or the energy any more to listen to music as intently as I used to, and jazz really repays that sort of concentration imo. xp

I really wanted to enjoy the Spoek Mathambo album more than I did, but it was just a bit too clunky. His first one was more electronic-leaning but ultimately more satisfying.

^^

Yeah, the Spoek album is really frustrating. There are certainly some flashes of brilliance on it, but very few of the songs pull together in the ways I wish they would. I still think he is capable of dropping a mind-blowing album on us though.

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.

― emil.y, Tuesday, December 4, 2012 10:13 AM

It's not easily streamable, but I did find a Vimeo clip. Does it ever turn into something else, or is it continually just puttering around?

xpost yeah, he's def one to watch.

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.

My theory is that a lot of folks don't realize there can be a happy medium between extreme metal/noise subgenres and Nickelback. So there's audiences/critics who can't quite get into black metal, grindcore, sludge, but think all other heavy rock, psych and metal is . . . redundant? Irrelevant? I guess I'm not the one to explain it, as that's what I like to listen to 90% of the time lately. I don't see how anyone couldn't appreciate, say, the amazing guitar tones of Colour Haze just as much as, say, the boring drones found in parts of the more highly acclaimed Swans and Godspeed! You Black Emperor albums. And yeah, I'm hoping the likes of Quietus, Rock-A-Rolla and Terrorizer at least don't sleep on the Ufomammut.

damn gorilla vs bear taking a bold stand against frank ocean

― J0rdan S., Monday, December 3, 2012 11:14 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a lot of pubs are doing this right? i.e. spin taking a brave stand against Grimes

"THIS is the thing lots of people like that we will call people SHEEP for falling for"

its probably not very good strategy, ppl are even resurrecting Salem these days

ooh is it time for the witch house revival, is it is it

because i always had a soft spot for that

i say 'probably not a very good strategy' from a business standpoint btw, im fully in favor of pubs doing it tho. kinda dramatic lol

Does it ever turn into something else, or is it continually just puttering around?

Uh. Well, I wouldn't describe it as "puttering around" at any point. It's pretty minimalist and non song-oriented, sure, but everything's placed there entirely deliberately.

My theory is that a lot of folks don't realize there can be a happy medium between extreme metal/noise subgenres and Nickelback. So there's audiences/critics who can't quite get into black metal, grindcore, sludge, but think all other heavy rock, psych and metal is . . . redundant? Irrelevant? I guess I'm not the one to explain it, as that's what I like to listen to 90% of the time lately. I don't see how anyone couldn't appreciate, say, the amazing guitar tones of Colour Haze just as much as, say, the boring drones found in parts of the more highly acclaimed Swans and Godspeed! You Black Emperor albums. And yeah, I'm hoping the likes of Quietus, Rock-A-Rolla and Terrorizer at least don't sleep on the Ufomammut.

― Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 16:42 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's surprising actually that there isn't more metal on these general lists, especially following last year's Liturgy farce (or maybe that shitty band is responsible for turning people OFF metal? just a thought), and the surprising amount of metal and hardcore on the lineup at Primavera this year (the acts I enjoyed most this year were all in the punk and metal vein)...

Ha ha, they were like, yeah, let's stop pretending to like black metal!

xp Re: Spoek Mathambo Yeah if Mshini Wam was supposed to be his Controversy, Father Creeper is no 1999.

damn gorilla vs bear taking a bold stand against frank ocean

― J0rdan S., Monday, December 3, 2012 11:14 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a lot of pubs are doing this right? i.e. spin taking a brave stand against Grimes

"THIS is the thing lots of people like that we will call people SHEEP for falling for"

its probably not very good strategy, ppl are even resurrecting Salem these days

― D-40, Tuesday, December 4, 2012 11:44 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so going out of your way to include every record appearing on every other publications list is the noble and right thing to do, leaving anything out is a deliberate, arrogant statement? c'mon man

Uh. Well, I wouldn't describe it as "puttering around" at any point. It's pretty minimalist and non song-oriented, sure, but everything's placed there entirely deliberately.

It was tough to judge on a clip that wasn't even 4 minutes long, so I didn't know.

lol i was joking about gorilla vs bear

wish we knew more about the methodology of each publications' list, ie which are editorially-driven (ie have an agenda behind them) and which are just the result of totting up various votes (in which case accusing them of "snubbing" any artist would be silly)

i find the former method slightly sinister, tbh

so going out of your way to include every record appearing on every other publications list is the noble and right thing to do, leaving anything out is a deliberate, arrogant statement? c'mon man

― these markers love soda (some dude), Tuesday, December 4, 2012 10:54 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah of course not (i mean, read my follow-up post) but there's a line somewhere, I mean, we've talked about genre specialist mags before & the advantage they have

"THIS is the thing lots of people like that we will call people SHEEP for falling for"

idk, anything this unnuanced is nagl BUT there's the converse, which is people pointing to "everyone else" liking something as PROOF of its objective quality, and if you dissent you're just accused of being contrarian for the sake of it

and then there's also that thing where a ton of people/"tastemakers" in the music industry - no one on ilm but i'm sure we all know the type - ARE just unimaginative follow-fashions who need an artist/album to have multiple cosigns from their peers before it's "ok" to like

Looking at all these lists as someone who listened to a lot less music than usual this year -- and therefore has no opinion about a lot of stuff on them -- the whole process of tastemaking gets more objectively interesting. Just the way consensus builds or doesn't build around Album X vs. Album Y. E.g., the discussion above about why one Animal Collective or TVOTR album is Album of the Year, and another not-necessarily-lesser album a few years later barely merits a mention. We all know these things happen, that there are patterns of enthusiasm and so forth, and while we all tend to exempt our own tastes from those kinds of forces -- because we just listen to the music! -- of course so do all of those other people we're accusing of some kind of herd behavior.

Anyway, it's just interesting to look at the EOY lists without having much sense of personal investment. Trying to puzzle out the backstory in the data points.

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo Ancestors (TUM)

Get the impression Leo Smith is doing a shedload these days (not that he wasn't but its noticeable but I notice and I'm not really watching it that closely). Really mad I missed him at Bishopsgate last month.

The one that intrigues me is John Butcher and Eddie Prevost - no idea what those two really quite different players would sound like together. Always had an idea that Eddie would only ever work within AMM.

lol@ the idea jazz is some old man pipe and slippers thrash. Student thinking.

PASTE Top EPs of 2012: http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/12/the-10-best-eps-of-2012.html

there's an implied "I LIKE TO EAT" at the beginning of their name, right

Paste continues to be dreadful, maybe even moreso as an online-only entity.

Damn, D-40 stumbled across SPIN's clever strategy of "not just copying what pitchfork and stereogum likes and put our name on it" dude is cracking the indie rock DaVinci code over here

#IndieGuilt

hahaha i love at least one of those 1975 songs

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

LOL I think I posted the Nneka remix a while back and you refused to listen on principle!

the 1975 are the shit... tho the slow down was much better name

xp heh yeah raised an eyebrow at that fanution myself

xp on which principle?! i have no opinion on nneka and if i've listened to every dreary hot chip album i doubt i'd have refused to listen to a remix

oh no no no you are wrong about the 1975 noooooo stop being wrooooooong

hmm i really thought you'd dig the 1975

that reads like a parody of a lex post

I don't really hear it with the 1975.

basically I never want to hear any 21st century musical act or project named after a year from the 20th century

hmm i really thought you'd dig the 1975

didn't predict myself that lex would love a more emo arctic monkeys

anyway "sex" is a killer song, rest of that ep is kind of mushy and indistinct tho