Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

Not that others don't have soft spots, but nothing that makes them any of them less than keepers

clemenza: I love your top 10, only one I didn't quite get is number 2. It seems to me like you're praising the music and saying you don't really care about the lyrics. Why not list the Jamie XX and Gil Scott Heron version instead?

Mimaroglu Music Sales / Keith Fullerton Whitman's (pre?)list of music concrete, modular synth, drone, noise, academic experimentalism and all points between and beyond can be found here - http://www.mimaroglumusicsales.com/best.php?year=2012 - in their words "far from "definitive" ; here's a simple, running tally of the titles that have been "rating" thusfar in 2012"

(So far, I've found a handful of things that seem, from the excerpts on the site, to be rather outstanding)

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/albums/2012/

Pazz & Jop thread, aka when is the official deadline for this thing?

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/from-eric-church-to-jamey-johnson-2012-found-country-music-in-a-holding-pattern-and-searching-for-role-models/Content?oid=3230383

Just came across this one:
http://louderthanwar.com/albums-of-the-year-2012-part-4-49-1/

I actually found more interesting choices in the 99-50 page, especially a bunch of punk I haven't heard by Bite Back, Argy Bargy, White Lung and New War.

http://louderthanwar.com/albums-of-the-year-2012-part-three-99-50/

Don't forget Louder Than War numbers 200 - 101:

http://louderthanwar.com/albums-of-the-year-2012-part-one-200-150/

http://louderthanwar.com/albums-of-the-year-2012-part-two-149-100/

Massive celebrations round Damon Albarn's house for reaching that coveted 197 spot.

Moka: thanks. I love the music on "Take Care," also the lyrics. They just happened to remind me, because of Rihanna's ordeals, of Faking It and that age-old debate about what makes something authentic. When she sings that line about being hurt, it may or may not resonate more because of biography, depending upon how important that is to you--and I was trying to contrast that with Drake, who may or may not be at the opposite end of the spectrum, depending etc. Maybe I garbled the point. I also missed (pointed out on the P&J thread) that that line goes back to an old Bobby Bland song. (I actually have the song on a greatest hits, but was never a big fan.) Ultimately, though, I do always place music ahead of lyrics.

Jon Pareles's Top 10 w his comments, nice reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/arts/music/jon-pareless-top-10-albums-of-2012.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Farts%2Fmusic%2Findex.jsonp

Nate Chinen's Top 10---Truesdale's Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans mostly sounded really good at Newport---not that this is all jazz:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/arts/music/nate-chinens-top-10-albums-of-2012.html?_r=1&

Not jazz but oo-wee mama, oo-oo-wee:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/arts/music/jon-caramanicas-top-10-albums-of-2012.html

clem: "Take Care" didn't make my ballot because I included it last year but otherwise I agree: one of her (and his) few convincing performances.

Sorry for spamming but any interested parties have ~8 hours to submit a ballot in that prince among critics' polls: the ILM end-of-year poll!

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-Dean-s-List-2012/ba-p/9707

And of course his address to the troops, from an "outlier" now (welcome)
http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/May-the-Consensus-Have-Consequences/ba-p/9709

lol @ him referring to "Dre's evolved jeep-beats" on the Kendrick album

Pink's The Truth About Love was on 10 Pazz & Jop ballots, which seems to have been driven primarily by Christgau's enthusiasm. her (far better) previous album Funhouse only got 1 vote in 2008 (wasn't me, which i regret -- at the time it was #14 on my list).

i'd like to see a lot more of Ka's Grief Pedigree on these lists

― alpine static, Wednesday, December 5, 2012 8:02 PM (8 months ago)

^^ was correct