Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

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

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.

tbf I really wish this would happen more often.

NPR/Uncut catnip though it may be, I love the Father John Misty record. Who's with me? *silence across ILX*

Has Rick Rodd even made any other lists?

Ha, Ross

Hmmmm thats a different Fushitsusha album on the Wire list than the one on my own top 10.

There were two fushitsusha albums this year, both on heartfast

Confusing! One of them is on Spotify, but I don't know which it is.

I think they're supposed to be the first two parts of a trilogy

I voted for both Fushitsushas (a tie). Kinda thought others would do the same - I mean, how do you choose between Fushitsusha albums (unless one of them is Origin's Hesitation or the one Zorn produced, of course)?

I see that one of the wire voters picked the second of the two as his album of the year, so maybe that's why it did better

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

― r|t|c, Wednesday, December 5, 2012 10:29 AM (51 minutes ago)

wait, what? i listened to it for the first time in a while today and it sounded better than ever

do people dislike that record??

rtc does. I liked Reagan, probably need to hear more

This is literally someone who The Wire put on their Top 50. This video is maybe the best thing since Salem at Fader Fort.

http://vimeo.com/32733990

you might laugh at the idea of casio + loop pedal jams, but he's not doing it particularly badly. so many macbook + ableton + apc dudes do so much less at their shows.

i just now realized that you weren't saying "this is literally someone who put 'the wire' in their top 50" -- i couldn't understand what you were talking about. the internet is poisoning my brain.

it's very "department talent show at Google"

would rather watch/listen to this than Salem tho

The Killer Mike record certainly holds up.

it's very "department talent show at Google"

it's very "bar mitzvah boy performs for his friends, june 1987"

you might laugh at the idea of casio + loop pedal jams, but he's not doing it particularly badly. so many macbook + ableton + apc dudes do so much less at their shows.

otm. i was groovin'. lol'd when he had to remove his scarf

huh I just got to the point where it sounds like someone in the audience is being drawn and quartered

weird show

wait did someone really just shout "YIPPIE"

Heatsick is playing in my town tomorrow night, unfortunately I have work and stuff so can't report back.

dude looks uncannily like a former roommate who plays Irish fiddle semi-professionally, down to the uncomfortable dance moves

Listen to the third song.

http://open.spotify.com/album/529d8NsQkkkBKkIaleAKZX

i'd be disappointed if he didn't look like an awkward grad student

Steve is good, fuck the haters.