Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

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

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

haha dude maybe among a circle of critics but never among people who care about animal collective

Commenters never seem to understand the ballot-tallying aspect. You see them saying "OK, maybe that should be 15-20 but it's not good enough for the Top 10", which is basically saying that seven voters could like it but not ten. I think they really believe that a list is drawn up and painstakingly sequenced by a central committee weighing up, say, Taylor Swift vs Killer Mike, using a whiteboard and flipcharts.

you would think that people that care enough about stereogum to get worked up over this list and comment on it would have seen this coming based on what stereogum's coverage has evolved into, but alas

http://www.cafwd.org/page/-/images/blog/florida_hanging_chad_recount.jpeg

Commenters never seem to understand the ballot-tallying aspect.

i know right! even when you explain it to them! every year!

Weszy Rosen | Posted at 11:55am

Exactly, she may be popular, but everything else on Top 40 stations is one big four-on-the-floor synth jam dance fest.

Small anecdote: I drove home for Thanksgiving and the only radio stations my friend’s car would pick up were Top 40 which: fine all right okay that’s cool, but they kept playing this one song that had every line end with “on the flooooor”. It was the most grating thing I’ve ever heard in my life.

xp Ha ha. "Taylor Swift?????"

Small anecdote: I drove home for Thanksgiving and the only radio stations my friend’s car would pick up were Top 40 which: fine all right okay that’s cool, but they kept playing this one song that had every line end with “on the flooooor”. It was the most grating thing I’ve ever heard in my life.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, December 5, 2012 1:23 PM (24 seconds ago) Bookmark

the j lo track?

ask Weszy.

Is that a photo of Farmer John Misty?

that killer mike lp was cringe enough at the time let alone still picking it after however many months hindsight