Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/series/best-albums-of-2012

1. tba
2. Grimes - Visions
3. Jessie Ware - Devotion
4. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
5. Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, MAAD City
6. Tame Impala - Lonerism
7. alt-J - An Awesome Wave
8. The xx - Coexist
9. Hot Chip In Our Heads
10. Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man in the Universe
11. Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
12. Django Django - Django Django
13. Chromatics - Kill For Love
14. Grizzly Bear - Shields
15. Cooly G - Playin' Me
16. Taylor Swift - Red
17. Lana del Rey - Born To Die
18. Saint Etienne - Words And Music By Saint Etienne
19. Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes
20. Plan B - Ill Manors
21. Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man
22. The Cribs - In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull
23. Jam City - Classical Curves
24. Dawn Richard - Armor On
25. Actress - R.I.P.
26. Bright Light Bright Light - Make Me Believe In Hope
27. Poliça - Give You The Ghost
28. Tribes - Baby
29. Jack White - Blunderbuss
30. Angel Haze - Reservation
31. Marina And The Diamonds - Electra Heart
32. Farrah Abraham - My Teenage Dream Ended
33. Mala - Mala in Cuba
34. Dexys - One Day I'm Going To Soar
35. Nite Jewel - One Second Of Love
36. Beach House - Bloom
37. Orbital - Wonky
38. Fiona Apple -The Idler Wheel
39. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
40. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

Wanna bet what's number 1? I'm guessing Bish.

go on, have another guess

Grimes at number 2 though? I went for a run and listened to it yesterday (also saw her at Primavera) and it was okay but just seemed so.. nothingy; like something that might have been interesting circa 2006 but no more.

Oh God, it's going to be F**** O****, right

Juno Best Of 2012: Top 20 albums
http://www.junodownload.com/plus/2012/12/06/best-of-2012-top-20-albums/

1. Bass Clef – Reeling Skullways (Punch Drunk)
2. JuJu & Jordash – Techno Primitivism (Dekmantel)
3. Vessel – Order Of Noise (Tri Angle)
4. Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland – Black Is Beautiful (Hyperdub)
5. Jam City – Classical Curves (Night Slugs)
6. Austin Cesear – Cruise Forever (Public Information)
7. NHK Koyxen – Dance Classics Vol 2 (PAN)
8. Silent Servant – Negative Fascination (Hospital)
9. Lee Gamble – Diversions 1994-1996 & Dutch Tvashar Plumes (PAN)
10. Madteo – Noi No (Sahko)
11. Actress – R.I.P (Honest Jons)
12. D’Marc Cantu – A New World (MOS)
13. I:Cube – M Megamix (Versatile)
14. Bee Mask – When We Were Eating Unripe Pears (Spectrum Spools)
15. Raime - Quarter Turns Over A Living Line (Blackest Ever Black)
16. DJ Nature – Return Of The Savage (Golf Channel)
17. Barker & Baumecker – Transsektoral (Ostgut Ton)
18. Jahiliyya Fields – Unicursal Hexagram (L.I.E.S.)
19. Terrence Dixon – From The Far Future 2 (Tresor)
20. Shackleton - Music For The Quiet Hour/The Drawbar Organ (Woe To The Septic Heart!)

i should check the Bass Clef album; he's got a really interesting attitude to making tunes.

I have that but it didn't really grab me. It is turning up on a few lists though.

13. I:Cube – M Megamix (Versatile)

Glad to see this getting props, it's terrific.

I have that but it didn't really grab me. It is turning up on a few lists though.

― Albert Crampus (NickB), Thursday, 13 December 2012 11:31 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What isn't always apparent with his stuff is that it's entirely analogue, mixed on cassette 8-track and made with really rudimentary old samplers.

I think I knew that already, in fact I think my problem was basically down to false expectations - it wasn't quite as scuzzy and horrible as I would have liked. But obviously I need to listen to it again at some point...

Matt, what kind of ballpark is that I:Cube in? Probably missing some subtle clues but it's a bit hard to tell from the blurb.

I don't get the Grimes album at all. Two great singles and a lot of weaker variations on a theme. It's not as if there isn't a lot of arty electro-pop out there and this doesn't feel any weightier or more compelling than the rest. <adopts Guardian commenter's explanation for everything> They probably only chose it to look "cool" and "edgy" and impress middle-class hipsters at Dalston dinner parties.

Agree apart from the great singles thing. So insubstantial + annoying voice despite being right in my wheelhouse

oh no don't you start with "wheelhouse" as well

I listened to the Grimes album again yesterday and it's still enjoyable and the melodies are gorgeous but it is kind of samey and there's not much to latch onto. If you think of it as an ambient album it works. Strikes me as one of those albums that loads of people plonk into the lower reaches of their list and ends up really high as a result. But there's not even any sense that it's been one of the defining records of the year or anything like that.

i remember when Randy Jackson started saying "wheelhouse" on American Idol all the time and people were like whaaaat lol and now everybody says it constantly

If you think of it as an ambient album it works.

So true. It was perfect for jogging to, but I remember absolutely none of it. Not a single bit of it stuck out or made an impression on me. Perfect background music for, say, a trendy fashion party, but really this kind of synths'n'sunglasses thing has been done many times over for ten years or so now.

trendy fashion parties are the worst kind of fashion parties

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Some folks were saying album of the year about Grimes when it came out back in March and I just didn't get it.

"in my wheelhouse" has become the phrase du jour

I think of wheelhouse as more of a tennis term?

i'm pretty sure it's originally a baseball term!

idk w/e it just makes taste seem like a big rotting wooden wheel... in a house

lol

wheel talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF7PMrV_ak4

me irl

Wheelhouse is a boating term that has long been used in baseball.

She's a wheel...
HOUSE

Another guessing game for you...

Dummy Magazine
http://dummymag.com/features/2012/12/03/10-dean-blunt-and-inga-copeland-black-is-beautiful/

1: tbc
2: Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE
3: Jam City - Classical Curves
4: Grimes - Visions
5: How To Dress Well - Total Loss
6: Laurel Halo - Quarantine
7: LV - Sebenza
8: Future - Pluto
9: Kindness - World, You Need a Change of Mind
10: Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland - Black Is Beautiful

could it rhyme with volcanic lahar?

Now that Dummy list really is a godawful top 10.

good guess, maad kitty xp

Many people were saying "Grimes 2012" in 2011 fwiw, I bet $100 she'd be playing Radio City and I think I'll be collecting on it. If you're gonna take Visions and stack it up note-for-note against a hundred other albums it's a pretty insubstantial thing but factor in the economy of its production (handmade in Garageband), the ubiquity of her voice (most accurately described by WGW as a cat meowing) and her entire aesthetic you've got a pop star for people who still care about DIY. I mostly think about her in the same zone as a James Ferraro so

impress middle-class hipsters at Dalston dinner parties.

is exactly otm.

man how bad does that dummy list make future look all of a sudden

impress middle-class hipsters at Dalston dinner parties.

is exactly otm.

― bosch's bish (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, December 13, 2012 2:09 PM (4 minutes ago)

Lol.

Are you going to tell him or am I?

"kendrick" doesn't really rhyme with "volcanic", surely Rev?

haha yeah i was just thinking "i'm glad rev isn't a rapper"

People in Dalston don't eat dinner. They just stare at their plates in stony silence, tutting and sighing at anyone who expresses any sort of enthusiasm for the meal in front of them.

are the trendy dinner parties in Dalton like the ones on the Upper East Side where people ate sushi and listened to Sade

please, no

I only been to Dalston once and it was all Grace Jones all night, Grimes could've saved that party

can't wait to escape from east london's narrow-minded fishbowl atmos and return to the refreshing dublin suburbs for christmas. something so real and honest about people shouting "faggot" out of car windows and groping women in the local pub to the strains of "sweet caroline".

globalization at work

Soundtrack to the last Dalston dinner party I attended = Carly Rae Jepsen and Farrah Abraham albums

united by the values we share xpost

sometimes you gotta go where everybody knows your name

barring that, where they are comfortable shouting epithets at you

just as long as you're comfortable, i'm comfortable
let the suburbs of dublin refresh ye