ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2012

This Scott Walker song is amazing by the way, almost operatic in its scope. I suppose I should give 'Bisch Bosch' a go.

Yeah, I think that the whole album is very operatic in that you need to be following the words in order for the music to make any real sense.

today>>>>>>>>>

I still think Springsteen might sneak in, even though I wasn't a huge fan of it/didn't vote for it

The Scott album is a gem. I'm glad you like it Matt DC. It is wilfully cryptic in places, but that's part of the fun. You don't have to use the lyric sheet really, much of it reads like gobbledygook, the rest is fractured and/or obscure as heck. But yeah, it is much more fun if you understand the subject matter behind a track like Zercon, or that Epizootics is kind of a deconstructed pre-50s hipster track with its references to Hawaii and zoot suits etc.

Re: Bat for Lashes I'm sure I remember her finishing in the top two in a previous tracks poll and being really surprised. She hasn't really got the kind of intangible something required to really pull of the kind of weirdness she's going for so she either comes across as mannered, contrived or just a bit naff.

Laura is an amazing song though. Wasn't it co-written with the Video Games dude?

yeah i think 'daniel' did? and as much as i like her she's just not quite there is she? the kate bush comparisons just come off as lazy.

Loved this run, last night was best of the three days (close run thing with Monday):

40. MIGUEL "Use Me" [260 points, 8 votes]
39. CHERYL COLE "Call My Name (Royal-T's Back to 99 Remix)" [260 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
38. DEATH GRIPS "I've Seen Footage" [268 votes, 8 points]
37. RIHANNA "Birthday Cake (Funkystepz Miami Bass Mix)" [271 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
36. KALENNA "Matte Black Truck" [286 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]

Need to process Cartoon and Cereal a bit more, chase more Angel Haze tracks. Ima Read had probably the best video so far. Was the single released during Halloween?

No, but Kate Bush is one of the artists I was thinking of when I was talking about having that intangible thing. Alternatively that kind of Karin Dreijer Andersen absoluteness of vision and mastery of her chosen musical landscape. With Bat for Lashes you get the sense that she's just a bit too conventional (and I think her best songs are when she isn't to be trying so hard to be weird).

Finally had a track place in the poll, predictably it would be Saint Etienne. I didn't rate this highly on first listen but snuck up on me and ended up as my #2, just a perfect blend of the ecstatic and the wistful.

I listened to more new music in 2012 than ever but large stretches of 40-21 were just a wasteland to me, just seems impossible to keep on top of what's happening. Look forward to checking out the spotify playlist to see what I've missed.

A nice surprise to see Scott in the list, though it seems impossible to pull one track off the album. Looks unlikely that my #1 will place now. Like the BFL track and album, but they seem flimsier compared to the 'Two Suns' material.

yeah it's not her fault she's no kate bush, who is? i doubt she's even trying to be. i go back to her latest album much less than 'two suns' but 'laura' brings genuine shivers and i voted for it. otm re k.d.a.

xp. ha

Yeah Bat for Lashes just didn't land for me. At all.

Yeah she's not trying to be Kate Bush (and articles comparing anyone to Kate gets the serious side-eye from me) and I wouldn't fault anyone for not being. But Kate when she's doing bonkers would at least throw herself in at the deep end, whereas Bat For Lashes' weirdness comes across as both tentative and self-consious. This may be at least partly down to the constraints of a modern major label deal, and I suspect they would be quite happy for her to just become Florence Welch or something.

Are we doing the top 20 tonight or is it 10/10?

20

It ends here.

:-(

The 77-73 run from Monday has been my favourite stretch so far but the tracks I've really enjoyed have been fairly evenly spread out over the three days. Only three songs I've really disliked (G-Dragon, TY$ and Japandroids) and those were all Monday too. Top 3 new discoveries: Alunageorge, Alex Anwandter and Haim ('Don't Save Me').

Didn't vote for it but seeing BFL do Laura live this year was an incredible and moving thing - the whole audience sat pretty much on the edge of their seats in rapt silence, and this relatively humungous venue was turned into a very intimate space for the duration of it. She comes over like a very warm person, and the compassion and love for a friend she's expressing in that song sound very genuine, it was hard not to feel emotionally involved in that moment. Maybe that's where the seeming ordinariness of her voice comes into play? Not that I'm disputing her technical ability - live she hit every note perfectly (even on those leaps from a lower register to the upper notes that had me a bit nervous in advance) - but she's not overly ostentatious or extraordinary in any way, she just sounds like a normal person and that makes her maybe more believable on this song? The miracle for me is that I don't find it icky or cloying in the slightest. Maybe it's because of the delicacy of the performance... the brass arrangement in the second half is a good move there, the bittersweet coolness that it brings lends a bit of distance and for me it's almost like a sad recognition that you can only be of so much comfort to another.

i remember being very moved by laura the first time i heard it, and even now it still resonates. something about the way those doleful horns come in midway through the song. and she sings with an incredible freedom.

is there an external site/central spot where the runners & riders so far are compiled for easy viewing?

seem to remember something similar for last year

guys, which bigbang songs did you vote for? i'm concerned about votesplitting. i gave "monster" a pretty high vote myself

― cocktail onion (fennel cartwright), Thursday, January 24, 2013 3:28 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

voted for 'bad boy' myself =(

Voted "Fantastic Baby"

*sigh*

'Fantastic Baby' here too, though it only just snuck on my ballot anyway, so I don't think my meagre points-giving would've had much effect.

Great 30-21 sequence. Laura's astounding. I like the story about her writing it with Video Games dude in a couple of hours while hungover - the whole lyric came from an incident with her best friend at a party the night before. Directness serves her well.

Surely Chairlift will make the Top 20 with the help of the Talabot remix. I agree the top 3 will be some combo of Carly/Miguel/Terje.

My k-pop votes were G-Dragon, Block-B, f(x), and Exo-K. Sorry. Was gonna vote for 'Monster' but didn't for some stupid reason.

Only 3 of my picks placed and the only other possible one that still may is 'Turn On The Lights'.

Fully expect CR Jepson to win, people seem to genuinely love it, tho it doesn't do anything for me.

I gave loadsa points to f(x), that was it as far as K-Pop goes.

Voted Bad Boy, and I think forapper did too. Right, so votes split then. :(

BFL has always been more conventional than Kate/Karin/Bjork that she's always compared to. Tori would be closer I think?

So what are we missing?

iamamiwhoami - goods

I thought the song that might have a chance was "Play", but not this high unfortunately.

Chromatics - Cherry

I really like this one too, but I voted for "The Page", my favorite song on the album. I think the title track is all we'll get in the Top 77 due to vote splitting.

Beach House - Myth

Crossing my fingers for that one. Just gorgeous.

yeah I wanted to get a k-pop track that's not a banger onto the list xp

BFL has always been more conventional than Kate/Karin/Bjork that she's always compared to. Tori would be closer I think?

way more conventional than tori generally, but maybe tori at her most straightforward

22-32 was a good stretch for me. Ratings for 40-21:
***** Scott Walker, Jessie Ware "110%", Saint Etienne
****.5 Cheryl Cole/Royal-T, Le1f
**** Rihanna/Funkystepz, KW Griff, Taylor Swift, Angel Haze "WG", Bat For Lashes
***.5 Miguel, Jeremih, M.I.A., Frank Ocean
*** Kalenna, Zebra Katz, Kendrick Lamar "C&C"
**.5 Kanye West
** Death Grips
* Chief Keef

Blawan ain't gonna place at this rate, is he?

― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, January 24, 2013 3:28 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'd be really surprised if it didn't place, it has some stans outside of the bobbins crew. i expected to see 'lets make mistakes', especially after 'new for u' actually placed despite the almost unanimous eye rolling at its high placing on critics lists, but top 20 seems a little much, same with 'time'.

storm queen has never placed in an ilm poll iirc

for some reason i forget about his stuff when it comes to EOY voting then spend months kicking myself when i realise how long-lasting and classic they are

really, i could've sworn i've seen it place before, i must be thinking of a dance poll. i think if more people had heard 'time' it would almost definitely have placed.

Well as long as Blawan places, I'm happy for this thread.

i thought "time" was just a personal fav all year but in the EOY dance thread a lot of people seemed to be into it, i still have hope

its has an epic melancholic/meditative synth-scape thing going for it that would probably appeal to a lot of non-dance peeps. reminds me a bit of 'dexter'.

it reminded me of peak kompakt and we know how ilm swooned at the feet of that

i think it has a chance

Really soppy Kompakt stuff tends to play well on ILM, I'm still expecting to see it place.

I think 'Look Right Through' by Storm Queen actually placed relatively low down a few years ago, but I might be imagining that. We're probably too far up this list though.

sorry to bring this corpse back to life but i werent around

lex's overstatements may have clouded matters as per but ultimately idk how you can say jeremih suffered from state-of-the-genre projection when the mixtape got way way more play than it would have done any other year

'773 love' is just very frustrating to me at this point, it's fine but i still can't see the very special thing about it that warrants its vaunting above others (even above 'matte black truck' ffs!! have mercy on these people's souls r&b jesus!!!) at most i could say it plausibly sounds like a demo of a cool song, but even then the kind of cool song that's at its best when executed adroitly and not this harried smushy mess

mk dub of storm queen's 'look right through' is arguably one of the most influential cuts of the year imo but not in any way that would get attention here

cannot believe mia got as high as this

i'll say it point blank, you voted for this you werent into music so much this year

i thought "time" was just a personal fav all year but in the EOY dance thread a lot of people seemed to be into it, i still have hope

I'd never heard of Pachanga Boys until just now. Lots of dance stuff is off my radar, but I'd have been happy to know about a Superpitcher project. Maybe I should've at least paid attention to that EOY dance thread.

xp though still not as bad as funkystepz haters who all just need to be escorted off the fucking premises at this point

rtc otm re mia

i guess people liked the video?

that sort of proves rtc's point

Yeah, "Bad Girls" makes more sense in tandem with its video. Even then, it wasn't among the 25 things I wanted to vote for, but I could see how it might be for someone else.