Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

emeli sandé is a curveball for anyone to put at number ONE

Caramanica: haven't heard any; would give Lee Brice a listen.

thanks for the update, breh, we were on the edges of our seats

Lee Brice's "Woman Like You" is one of my fav country singles of the year but it is howlingly cheesy, ilx would be repulsed by it

there really are some consensus rap records this year huh

the beauty of tokenism is that once there's one anointed masterpiece you don't even have to bother listening to any other icky rap albums

given that at least one publication ranks an ICP album as one of the 40 best hip-hop albums released this year, there may not be as many non-icky rap albums out there as your sarcasm implies

:)

the only thing i've heard this year that reminded me of Cocteaus = around half of the Sleigh Bells LP

I remember thinking of the Cocteaus -- or specifically, Liz's singing -- when I listened to the Poliça album. Not that the voice really sounded alike, but there was something similar in its use and treatment -- the multitracks with small variations / delayed entries / deviations, tiny flourishes at various points, etc.

I've only heard the album once, though, so pinch, salt etc.

― anatol_merklich, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 14:41 (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I guess I'm just getting ever so ever so tired of this singular aesthetic involving indistinct shoegazey/chillwavey sounds + dreamy detached female vocals that land somewhere on a grid between The Knife, Dirty Projectors, the XX, with an optional r'n'b "influence" thrown in for "variety". Obviously I do like a lot of these acts to differing extents, but there's such a glut of these that they all turn into one big Melody's Twinbeach Chairgang Polica Houselift, and I'm starting to feel significantly averse to stuff that sounds like this.

there are many adjectives that come to mind when I think of the female vocals in The Knife and Dirty Projectors; "detached" and "dreamy" are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down at the bottom of that list if they are there at all, somewhere behind "jazzy" and "gospel-like"

melody's echo chamber sounds literally nothing like the knife in any sense. or the xx for that matter. the knife and the xx sound nothing like each other!

btw Whiney, I'm listening to The Mighty Death Pop thanks to that list and this is the first album they've put out in years that I've found even halfway reminiscent of The Ringmaster/Riddle Box, so lol/hat tip

thx man.

Everyone on ILX should listen to and love the song where they imagine going to the Gammies and killing Chris Brown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8-_OFVFCjg

Grammys

it would be totally in character for ICP to do a song about ambushing someone at their grandma's house so now I'm just thinking of missed opportunities

i can't be mad at that track ^^^^

Doglatin it's New Year soon, you'd probably free up several weeks worth of productive time if you resolved to stop handwringing about spurious unifying musical trends that only exist in your imagination.

lolwut sande #1

probably even more dimwitted than putting lauren halo there

there are many adjectives that come to mind when I think of the female vocals in The Knife and Dirty Projectors; "detached" and "dreamy" are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down at the bottom of that list if they are there at all, somewhere behind "jazzy" and "gospel-like"

― I loves you, PORGI (DJP), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 15:49 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

melody's echo chamber sounds literally nothing like the knife in any sense. or the xx for that matter. the knife and the xx sound nothing like each other!

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 15:52 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm only saying this triumvirate pretty much begat this now prevalent sound. No, MEC doesn't (literally!) sound exactly like any one particular of these earlier bands, but this kind of sound (washy guitars, reverby synths, glassy-eyed vocal delivery) has become pretty much its own genre at this point (post-chillwave if we have to call it anything I guess), it's just stopped being interesting to me.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ayYLdNSTzp8/UHT75TFVofI/AAAAAAAAAqc/Q5SSxhnM23E/s1600/homeland-carrie-marine-one.jpeg

Does anyone have a gif of Simon Reynolds in a Fisher Price car with the wheels coming off?

surely a music writer whose top 2 were the actual best selling LPs of the year in UK and US respectively should just quit because their work is done.

NYT lists are good for reminding me I want to get the Vijay Iyer and Ravi Coltrane albums, and that David Virelles one sounds promising too. (which is to say, useful for would-be jazzbos who don't pay much attention to jazz)

Pretty Much Amazing's Best Songs of 2012
http://prettymuchamazing.com/feature/best-songs-2012

25. DIIV “Doused”
24. Santigold “Disparate Youth”
23. Chairlift “I Belong In Your Arms”
22. Jessie Ware – “Wildest Moments”
21. Alabama Shakes “Hold On”
20. Rhye “The Fall”
19. Nicolas Jaar “And I Say/With Just One Glance”
18. Jai Paul “Jasmine (Demo)”
17. Icona Pop “I Love It”
16. Chromatics “Back From The Grave”
15. Bat For Lashes “Laura”
14. A$AP Rocky “Goldie”
13. Charli XCX “You’re The One”
12. Japandroids “The House That Heaven Built”
11. Purity Ring “Obedear”
10. Spiritualized “Hey Jane”
09. Grimes “Oblivion”
08. Miguel “Adorn”
07. El-P “$4Vic / FTL (Me and You)”
06. Tame Imapala “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”
05. Kendrick Lamar “Sing About Me / I’m Dying of Thirst”
04. Frank Ocean “Bad Religion”
03. Beach House “Myth”
02. Usher “Climax”
01. Fiona Apple “Every Single Night”

the rest of the list:

AB-SOUL – Terrorist Threats (f. Danny Brown & Jhene Aiko)
AIR – Sonic Armada
ALT-J – Breezeblocks
ALUNAGEORGE – Watching Over You
ANDREW BIRD – Eyeoneye
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – Rosie Oh
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – Wide Eyed
ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI – Only In My Dreams
AVA LUNA – Wrenning Day
AZEALIA BANKS – Liquorice
BEAR IN HEAVEN – Sinful Nature
BLOOD DIAMONDS – Phone Sex (f. Grimes)
BURIAL – Ashtray Wasp
CARLY RAE JEPSEN – Call Me Maybe
CHROMATICS – Lady
CLOUD NOTHINGS – Stay Useless
DAN DEACON – True Thrush
DANIEL ROSSEN – Golden Mile
DANNY BROWN – Grown Up
DEATH GRIPS – Hacker
DIRTY PROJECTORS – Gun Has No Trigger
DR. DOG – Lonesome
DUM DUM GIRLS – Lord Knows
EL-P – The Full Retard
EVY JANE – Sayso
FIONA APPLE – Werewolf
FIONA APPLE – Anything We Want
FIRST AID KIT – Emmylou
FRANK OCEAN – Pyramids
FRANKIE ROSE – Interstellar
GOTYE – Somebody That I Used To Know
GRIMES – Nightmusic (f. Majical Clouds)
GRIZZLY BEAR – Sleeping Ute
HAIM – Better Off
HOT CHIP – Flutes
HOW TO DRESS WELL – & It Was U
JACK WHITE – Hypocritical Kiss
JESSIE WARE – 110%
JESSIE WARE – Running
JOHN TALABOT – Destiny feat. Pional
GOOD MUSIC – Mercy
KENDRICK LAMAR – Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe (f. Lady Gaga)
KENDRICK LAMAR – Swimming Pools (Drank)
KILLER MIKE – Reagan
KING KRULE – Rock Bottom
LAMBCHOP – Gone Tomorrow
LANA DEL REY – Ride
LIARS – No.1 Against the Rush
LOTUS PLAZA – Strangers
M.I.A. – Bad Girls
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS – Andrew in Drag
MAJOR LAZER – Get Free (f. Amber Coffman)
THE MEN – Candy
MS MR – Hurricane
NICKI MINAJ – Beez In The Trap (f. 2 Chainz)
NICOLAS JAAR – Don’t Break My Love
NIKI & THE DOVE – Tomorrow
PERFUME GENIUS – Hood
POLIÇA – Wandering Star
PORCELAIN RAFT – Unless You Speak From Your Heart
SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS – The Night
SCHOOLBOY Q – Hands On The Wheel (f. A$AP Rocky)
SCREAMING FEMALES – Expire
SHARON VAN ETTEN – Serpents
THE SHINS – Simple Song
SKY FERREIRA – Everything Is Embarrassing
SLEIGH BELLS – Demons
SOLANGE – Losing You
TAKEN BY TREES – Dreams
THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH – 1904
TAME IMPALA – Apocalypse Dreams
TAME IMPALA – Mind Mischief
THEESATISFACTION – QueenS
TNGHT – Higher Ground
TWIGS – Ache
THE WALKMEN – We Can’t Be Beat
THE WEEKND – Valerie
WILLIS EARL BEAL – Evening’s Kiss
THE XX – Chained
YEASAYER – Henrietta
ZOLA JESUS – In Your Nature (David Lynch Remix)

SLEIGH BELLS – Demons

this song is so fucking badass but the real gem on that album is "Never Say Die"

who?

TAME IMAPALA haha

xp This non-jazzbo wholeheartedly endorses the Vijay Iyer album.

SCHOOLBOY Q – Hands On The Wheel (f. A$AP Rocky)

love this

still can't work out why all the ilx goons hate it

because you love it, mostly

that sample is unbearable & both those two guys are nothing rappers

for once in my life it's EOY lists validating me rather than ILX so i'm just gonna enjoy this novelty

SLEIGH BELLS – Demons

this song is so fucking badass but the real gem on that album is "Never Say Die"

i'm listening to "demons" now. it sounds like marnie stern with a corny NWOBHM riff on top of it, i don't know.

that's what Sleigh Bells sound like.

yeah if you can't get down with the baseline conceit, it's kind of a lost cause

i actually like "hands on the wheel" too, sometimes nothing rappers are effective, and i think this is one example

i want to send you to rap boot camp

i run rap boot camp

we need to renovate rennavate

this is really the year of the black and white cover.

yeah i've been ranting for a couple years now that in indie/hip/'acclaimed' circles half of all album covers are b&w. pulling up PF's recent best new music picks is grayscale city.

smog smog smog clouds on your city bitch

there are many adjectives that come to mind when I think of the female vocals in The Knife and Dirty Projectors; "detached" and "dreamy" are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down at the bottom of that list if they are there at all, somewhere behind "jazzy" and "gospel-like"

― I loves you, PORGI (DJP), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 15:49 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

melody's echo chamber sounds literally nothing like the knife in any sense. or the xx for that matter. the knife and the xx sound nothing like each other!

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 12 December 2012 15:52 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm only saying this triumvirate pretty much begat this now prevalent sound. No, MEC doesn't (literally!) sound exactly like any one particular of these earlier bands, but this kind of sound (washy guitars, reverby synths, glassy-eyed vocal delivery) has become pretty much its own genre at this point (post-chillwave if we have to call it anything I guess), it's just stopped being interesting to me.

― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Wednesday, December 12, 2012 10:04 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not to belabor this point, but I really don't see where Dirty Projectors figure into this conversation. Yes, there are lots of bands doing washy guitars, reverby synths, and glassy-eyed vocal delivery right now, but they are surely not one of them.

What does 'glassy-eyed vocal' mean?

http://cowsarejustfood.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/the-residents.jpg

I take it to mean singing in a a detatched manner without a lot of emotion.

xpost

ha caramanica put kendrick below ke$ha

ha npr put kendrick below macklemore

http://www.npr.org/blogs/bestmusic2012/2012/12/12/166972039/listener-picks-your-favorite-albums-of-2012?sc=tw&cc=twmp

@soundofthecity
ATTN: Critics. We're looking to get Pazz and Jop ballots out to everyone tomorrow. Keep your eyes on your inbox and please RT. Thanks!!

npr listeners!