Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

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!

the NPR demographic likes to wave little tantalizing lures to me, making me think I belong there, and then things like the listeners liking Macklemore happen and I realize I am right to stay away

ha i meant to say npr listeners, obv already posted the editorial list upthread

is there gonna be a goon poll? ive barely listened to any rap this year and would like to know what i missed besides the 3 records that the rock/pop mags are rating

whiney said he's running one

tell whiney to send me a ballot this year

Can someone post The Wire's Comps and Reissues lists, please. Thanks very much!

for whatever it's worth, I liked the Art Dealer Chic EPs and I really liked Kaleidoscope Dream when it came out but here we are in mid-December and many listens later damn if that thing isn't going to end up in my top 5. it just keeps rising. what a record.

I keep seeing lists with Schoolboy Q songs other than "Druggys With Hoes Again" on them and it doesn't make sense to me.

Was that 2011?

apparently it was leaked last year (which I didn't even realize til now tbh) but it was on his album that came out this year and is at least 45 times better than fucking "Hands on the Wheel"

was that sky ferreira answering phones!?

oops wrong thread, sorry

I'm with Lex on Hands on the Wheel

Slant Magazine top singles
http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/feature/the-25-best-singles-of-2012/340

1. Drake featuring Rihanna - Take Care
2. Jessie Ware - Running
3. Frank Ocean - Pyramids
4. Dirty Projectors - Gun Has No Trigger
5. Santigold - Disparate Youth
6. Jack White - I'm Shakin'
7. Twin Shadow - Five Seconds
8. Alabama Shakes - Hold On
9. Azealia Banks - 1991
10. Lana Del Rey - National Anthem
11. The Very Best featuring Seye - Kondaine
12. WZRD - Teleport 2 Me, Jamie
13. Cheyenne Marie Mize - Wishing Well
14. Jay-Z and Kanye West - No Church in the Wild
15. Rihanna - Where Have You Been
16. Alicia Keys featuring Nicki Minaj - Girl on Fire
17. Jessie Ware - 110%
18. Kelly Hogan - Plant White Roses
19. Bat for Lashes - Laura
20. Usher - Climax
21. No Doubt - Push and Shove
22. Meek Mill featuring Drake - Amen
23. Santigold - Big Mouth
24. The Magnetic Fields - Andrew in Drag
25. Liars - No. 1 Against the Rush

16. Alicia Keys featuring Nicki Minaj - Girl on Fire

http://gifsoup.com/view6/3420038/hard-o.gif