Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

Rhapsody genre lists here (Indie, Electronic, Latin, Rock, Christian, Pop, Classical, Country, R&B, Jazz, Hip-Hop, World, Metal Albums -- the last of which is my own list; if you poke around on the site you can find singles lists for a few of those genres, too.)

http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/post/rhapsodys-best-of-2012

can't believe critics didn't all magically rally behind some album track, why are they so bad at job

EOY lists always contain several album tracks, and in any case this WASN'T an album track

is that even gonna be the highest ranked TS track on a Swift-friendly place like the ilx poll? why are we talking about this one song like it means anything?

jesus

the point is that on an album like red where most people have a different favorite song, it's usually important if there's a track for people to rally around (i.e. "swimming pools" or maybe even "pyramids"). taylor dropped one big single that most people agree isn't her best work & then a handful of "digital singles" before the album came out. this is a very simple thing.

no, dubswift shall not be denied

lex consistently has the most misguided, fractured views on how the world actually works

not for lack of competition, too!

DIDNT EVERYONE KEEP UP WITH SINGLES JUKEBOX THIS YEAR?!?!?!?! HOW DARE CRITICS DENY INVY DA TRUTH

talking about taylor swift sincerely on the internet = eternal lol

the taylor swift thread has some of the creepiest ILX posts of all time outside of the "i made her my little meatball sub" guy

Could we not do this?

Who wants a fight?

Spin's top 10 music books of 2012: http://www.spin.com/articles/best-music-books-2012?utm_source=spintwitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spintwitter

cool to see Natalie Hopkinson's Go-Go book on there, haven't read it yet, but i was on a panel w/ her last year where she read excerpts of it and it was fascinating stuff

shame they missed David Byrne's "How Music Works", whether you like Byrne or Talking Heads or not, it's a really pleasurable read.

not a treble clef in sight either.

haven't read it but the reviews were very mixed on that, quotes i saw made me pretty disinterested (xp)

talking about taylor swift sincerely on the internet = eternal lol

― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Wednesday, December 19, 2012 10:17 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

fall back, dwight yorke

Re this: is it fair to think of Riff Raff as part of, or even the centre of, 'Weird Twitter'?

http://i.imgur.com/WfI4c.jpg

― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Monday, October 22, 2012 12:04 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

haha

the taylor swift thread has some of the creepiest ILX posts of all time outside of the "i made her my little meatball sub" guy

Nonsense. You just have a limited mind

the taylor swift thread has some of the creepiest ILX posts of all time outside of the "i made her my little meatball sub" guy

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985 http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=67985

I've got an all-consuming RiFF RAFF addiction please don't use it against me.

tay swift threads are pretty run of the mill ilx fav kool aid threads ime, nothing more embarrassing than the avg the-dream thread

Or do we STILL think it's only OK to talk about pop in an unexcitable serious rock critic dude who only takes serious critical consensus music seriously

some dude otm

haven't read it but the reviews were very mixed on that, quotes i saw made me pretty disinterested (xp)

― some dude, Wednesday, 19 December 2012 15:32 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The one I read (in the Wire) was glowing, and I agree with it. If you're looking for a book about composition and harmony, look elsewhere. But Byrne's whole schtick is that setting, performance, recording media and pretty much all external factors are as important in the grander scheme of things as that romantic notion of a "bolt-from-the-blue" in the mind of the songwriter or composer. It's something Byrne (and especially Eno) have been talking about at length for years and years: creativity thrives on restriction, but it works both as a manifesto, a chocolate box of interesting factoids and a loose autobiography (although you really don't have to be a TH stan to enjoy it).

you guys broke lex

it was like that when i found it

let's talk about lex

Has riff raff made any lists?

I voted for Birth of an Icon in the Crack list. Didn't make it in.

Bird On A Wire has turned up on a few

The Liminal - Albums of the Year
http://www.theliminal.co.uk/2012/12/the-liminal-albums-of-the-year-2012/

1. Pelt – Effigy (MIE)
2. Shackleton – Music for the Quiet Hour / Drawbar Organ (Woe To The Sceptic Heart)
3. Actress – R.I.P. (Honest Jons)
4. Hallock Hill – A Hem of Evening (MIE)
5. Raime – Quarter Turns Over A Living Line (Blackest Ever Black)
6. Lee Gamble – Dutch Tvashar Plumes (PAN)
7. Richard Skelton – Verse of Birds (Corble Stone Press)
8. Holly Herndon – Movements (RVNG Intl)
9. Sidsel Endresen / Stian Westerhus – Didymoi Dreams (Rune Grammofon)
10. Oren Ambarchi – Audience of One (Touch)
11. Simon Scott – Below Sea Level (12K) (interview with Simon Scott)
12. Hildur Guðnadóttir – Leyfðu Ljósinu (Touch) (Full review)
13. Scott Walker – Bish Bosch (4AD) (Full review)
14. Duane Pitre – Feel Free (Important)
15. Andy Stott – Luxury Problems (Modern Love)
16. High Aura’d – Sanguine Futures (Bathetic Records)
17. The Swifter – The Swifter (The Wormhole) (Full review)
18. Mark Fell – Sentielle Objectif Actualité (Editions Mego)
19. Richard Youngs – Amaranthine (MIE Music)
20. Ekkehard Ehlers – Adikia (Staubgold Digital)
21. Mt Eerie – Clear Moon (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
22. Stian Westerhus – The Matriarch And The Wrong Kind Of Flowers (Rune Grammofon)
23. The Puddle – Secret Holiday & Victory Blues (Fish Ride Records)
24. Motion Sickness of Time Travel – Motion Sickness of Time Travel (Editions Mego)
25. Loscil – Sketches from New Brighton (Kranky)
26. Jacques Brodier – ‘Filtre De Réalité’ (Penultimate Press)
27. Jim O’Rourke – Old News Series (Old News)
28. Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble – Hasselt (Psi Recordings)
29. Oberman Knocks – Beatcroff Slabs (Aperture)
30. Gunn-Trusinski Duo – Ocean Parkway (Three Lobed)
31. Vindicatrix – Mengamuk (Mordant Music)
32. Andrew Bird – Hands of Glory (Mom & Pop)
33. Talvihorros / Damian Valles – Monuments And Ruis (Textura)
34. Various Artists – Night Music: Voice in the Leaves (Louth Contemporary Music)
35. Panopticon – Kentucky (Pagan Flames) (Minimal review)
36. Jakob Ullmann – Fremde Zeit Addendum (Edition RZ)
37. Lower Dens – Nootropics (Ribbon)
38. Four Tet – Pink (Text Records)
39. Darling Farah – Body (Civil Music)
40. Helm – Impossible Symmetry (PAN) (Full review)
41. Fire! with Oren Ambarchi – In The Mouth A Hand (Rune Grammofon)
42. Joe McPhee/Eli Keszler – Ithaca (8MM) (Minimal review)
43. Wadada Leo Smith – Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
44. The Clean – Oddities (Five Four-0)
45. Carmina Quartet – Bartok String Quartets 1 and 2 (Solo Musica)
46. Traxman – Da Mind Of Traxman (Planet Mu)
47. Ash Borer – Cold of Ages (Profound Lore Records)
48. Trapist – The Golden Years (Staubgold)
49. Matt Elliott – The Broken Man (Ici d’ailleurs)
50. John Maus – A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material (Ribbon Music)

Bit odd seeing a couple of venerable Flying Nun acts show up there among some of the more leftfield stuff

Oren Ambarchi wasn't really on my radar before (though the name was vaguely familiar), but I've enjoyed some of what I've heard thanks to ILM nominations lists, especially material from Audience of One.

the instrumental stuff anyway

"Pye Corner Audio/Holly Herndon/Goat/Diiv/Beak> are solid but others do similar better imo"

like what?

pan records have had a great year :) have been meaning to start a pan records s/d for a while.

Shame Matthew Bourne hasn't made any lists so far, Montauk Variations is a beautiful beautiful record probably my favourite of the year. Stewart Lee chose it as his record of the year, that's the only place I've seen it.

pan records have had a great year :) have been meaning to start a pan records s/d for a while.

Steve!

Heatsick Steve (oh, lol)? I finally gave Deviation a proper listen this weekend; really enjoyed it, it's soo *Steve*, which sounds kind of trite, but what I mean is (we went to the same school) he's always done a good job of walking the line between super serious and super fun and all the while doing it with style.

Is the Sensate Focus/Heatsick remix thing worth tracking down?

It's up on the PAN soundcloud page:
https://soundcloud.com/pan_recs

everybody knows steve

xp ooh didn't think of looking there, thanks!

I wanted to like that Pelt album more than I ended up doing

Anyways, I think the fact that "Point That Thing Somewhere Else" exists means that outre psych/drone fans will always have time for the Clean

Shame Matthew Bourne hasn't made any lists so far, Montauk Variations is a beautiful beautiful record probably my favourite of the year. Stewart Lee chose it as his record of the year, that's the only place I've seen it.

Hmm. Wonder what Lee Gamble's favourite joke was?

What's some good dad techno?

Gotta be something by Michael Mayer, although most of that Kompakt stuff sounds more like house to me. I should properly said the RA list was dominated by "dad house" but dad techno had more of a ring to it. Like the man say, nobody listens to techno.

Actually there's something a little perverse about the phrase "dad house" but that's probably just me.

FWIW, acclaimedmusic.net, in their most recent metapoll of 68 published critic polls (so far, with idiosyncratic weighting), available only to registered members ATM, scores these as the top 20 polled albums of the year:

1. Frank Ocean 2. Tame Impala 3. Grimes 4. Grizzly Bear 5. Kendrick Lamar 6. The XX 7. alt-J 8. Chromatics 9. Jack White 10. Beach House 11. Swans 12. Dirty Projectors 13. Django Django 14. Cat Power 15. Fiona Apple 16. Sharon Van Etten 17. Japandroids 18. Flying Lotus 19. Jessie Ware 20. Alabama Shakes

Grimes and Django Django are beloved in the UK, less so elsewhere. Fiona Apple, Japandroids and Swans are North American critic fare. The XX and Dirty Projectors won high rankings mostly in the non-Anglophone world.

surprised at cat power doing so well, most of the reviews i skimmed for that seemed to be saying it was just so-so