Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

the Die Antwoord album is hilarious. "DJ Hi-Tek will fuck you in the ASSS"

― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Wednesday, December 5, 2012 10:07 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

phrases that terrify Talib Kweli

from Die Antwoord's Wiki: "although the band blends reality with fantastical elements for artistic effect and they do not acknowledge whether DJ Hi-Tek is a real person or a character played by a variety of musicians and actors; the physical appearance of a person presented as DJ Hi-Tek in video material has greatly varied, including ethnicity (white in "Zef Side", "Fok Julle Naaiers" and numerous live appearances)."

my splitting sides

That Actress album is hugely dull. I figure it's getting big props because people weren't quick enough to jump on the Splaszh-wagon.

Then again, it was Wire's album of the year in 2010, so I don't think you can lay that one at their door. Agree that it is a bit boring though.

listened to the actress a record a lot more than some of the more instant dance albums this year, like talabot etc.

i listened to it a few times and it didn't do a lot for me. it was more obviously accessible than before, which you'd think would make it better but for me a lot of it sounded like interludes from a late-90s IDM album - "pleasant" but nothing special. splaszh on the other hand was trance-inducing; totally stripped back and skewed vision of dance and pop music. i loved the whole "studies on a theme" method that album evoked (the first track is a "study" on Prince's Erotic City, apparently).

Splazsh was in my '10 top ten and RIP is in my '12 top ten -- still making up for hearing Hazyville a whole week after it was released.

This is from Classic Rock magazine:

1. Rush - Clockwork Angels
2. Rival Sons - Head Down
3. ZZ Top - La Futura
4. Howlin Rain - The Russian Wilds
5. Jake White - Blunderbuss
6. Joe Bonamassa - Driving Towards The Daylight
7. Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
8. The Darkness - Hot Cakes
9. Cory Branan - Mutt
10. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Last Of A Dyin' Breed
11. Ginger - 100%
12. Slash - Apocalyptic Love
13. The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
14. Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth
15. Walking Papers - Walking Papers
16. Europe - Bay Of Bones
17. Muse - The 2nd Law
18. Anathema - Weather Systems
19. Kiss - Monster
20. Soundgarden - King Animal
21. Phantom Lamb - The Pines
22. Tame Impala - Lonerism
23. UFO - Seven Deadly
24. Black Country Coummunion - Afterglow
25. Aerosmith - Music From Another Dimension!
26. Squackett - A Life Within A Day
27. The Cult - Choice Of Weapon
28. Band Of Skulls - Sweet Sour
29. Shooter Jennings - Family Man
30. Marillion - Sounds That Can' Be Made
31. The Jim Jones Revue - The Savage Heart
32. Brad - United We Stand
33. The Heavy - The Glorious Dead
34. Flying Colours - Flying Colours
35. Crippled Black Phoenix - (Mankind) The Crafty Ape
36. Chris Robinson Brotherhood - Big Moon Ritual
37. Heart - Fanatic
38. Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
39. Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion
40. Tremonti - All I Was
41. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Meat & Bone
42. Killing Joke - MMXXII
43. Baroness - Yellow & Green
44. Alabama Shakes - Girls & Boys
45. Gravelroad - Psychedelta
46. Ian Anderson - Thick As A Brick 2
47. Bob Dylan - Tempest
48. Paul Weller - Sonic Kicks
49. Hawk Eyes - Ideas
50. Patti Smith - Banga

Squackett is Chris Squire of Yes and Steve Hackett of Genesis fyi

hello classic rock magazine, way to fill the list with ageing white males

fart rock magazine

Wait is this a different Classic Rock magazine from the other one?

Yes, that was Ultimate Classic Rock

Classic Ultimate Rock list is next week

Joe Bonamassa - Driving Towards The Daylight

^^^ had an argument with white dude last week about this one; said Joe is the next Jeff Beck, therefore "would have nothing to do with those fucking American Idol princesses fucking up music"

30. Marillion - Sounds That Can' Be Made

^ I love this typo

32. Brad - United We Stand

this is easily my favourite album made by a schizophrenic this year

The xx is #8 in the Guardian list so maybe DJP is right and I've mistakenly projected my own huge disappointment on to other critics.

I'm not trying to be all "xx street team" but the thread here is the only place I've seen people outright moaning about Coexist is terrible

let's have an ilx office pool on who's gonna be the first person to do the "ennngh i wish we could see what pitchfork writers INDIVIDUAL BALLOTS are" or "ennnngghh its EDITORIAL MASSAGING and not what THE WRITERS WANT" arguments this year,

Joe Bonamassa - Driving Towards The Daylight

^^^ had an argument with white dude last week about this one; said Joe is the next Jeff Beck, therefore "would have nothing to do with those fucking American Idol princesses fucking up music"

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, December 5, 2012 10:54 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol having seen both joe bonamassa and jeff beck i can say with certainty that joe bonamassa is not the next jeff beck

xp It wouldn't be the first time I'd mistakenly equated the prevailing wind on ILX with wider opinion. It just seemed so lacklustre to me after the debut. I couldn't see people loving it.

well, it's in my top 10 of the year pretty easily

would have been a contender solely based on "Chains", "Missing" and "Swept Away" but, as I said on the thread, an xx album based off of the blueprint of "Shelter" is exactly what I wanted from them

Wire List is always weird due to the disparate nature of the writers. The genre lists and conributers favourite albums at the end are always more interesting reading. Left my sub details at home so cant check them at the mo

and also no KTL? Boo

i saw a lot of pre-release excitement on twitter from UK critics about the xx which pretty much all turned swiftly into mild disappointment once people had heard it

it's basically the first album but...less. i don't really have any complaints about its sound or direction as such, it's a nice background album if you need it like that, but the songs are just not there apart from "angels"

you keep saying that as if it isn't a meaningless criticism

the hooks aren't there, then

a lot of things aren't there

There was so little there in the first place that all it really took was a tiny drop off in quality to feel massive.

Yes. When your sound is that minimal you can't afford to get anything wrong. It's a classic "same but worse" second album.

the only thing I think they got wrong was not giving Romy a few more takes at vocals on some songs (esp. "Tides")

dan i think you're the only one that likes the album in the entire world. all these list placements are payola.

isn't that what the P stands for in DJP?

Despicably Juicy Payola

dj purée

dion's sharp puncture-marks

Stereogum Top 50 Albums:

http://stereogum.com/1210661/stereogums-top-50-albums-of-2012/franchises/listomania/

No XX, no Animal Collectors

nice to see a number one i love!

cool to see the swearin' album on a list, that thing rocks

a+ list format (1 page and a sample for every album)

ahaha the commenters are all despairing about the presence of taylor swift and the absence of father john misty and death grips

more like father john mimsy amirite

"No Alt-J? No Polica? No Death Grips? No respect."

Could someone please explain to me how Red is a better album than R.A.P. Music? Or Sweet Heart Sweet Life? Or Habits and Contradictions? Or Bloom or Sun or Ocean Roar?

SO MUCH BETTER

wonderful explanation.

Yes and no. Art is subjective, yet anyone can tell that, in terms of craft, theme, subtext, etc, Van Gogh’s art is objectively better than your 3-year old’s stick drawings. On that note, was Taylor Swift’s album better than Sharon Van Etten, Beach House, Killer Mike, or a crapload of artists who didn’t make the list (Father John Misty??)? No way.

YES

i remember thinking we'd genuinely stamped out rockism by means of LOGIC in the 00s and yet it seems to be more rampant than ever

just gonna type father john misty like "Father John Misty??" from now on

that is his name now