ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

he says he started making Vatican Shadow tracks because... he wanted more Muslimgauze albums to listen to.

That was one of the comparisons that popped into my head when I tried listening to some Vatican Shadow. I've tried really hard, but never found any Muslimgauze I've liked at all.

4-song EPs should not be eligible for album polls

and 4-song EPs with 2 completely inessential songs should not be voted for in album polls, regardless of whether "aaliyah" is the best track ever or not

4 normal length songs, that is, it's not like this is a suite of 4 epics

the whole thing is like quarter of an hour long

I'm all for EPs being eligible, because if not here then where?

There's plenty of great Muslimgauze, the problem is about 90% of it is redundant, so after 3 albums one wonders why bother.

That k-pop thing above was an EP so..xp

take it to the EPs poll

so much for keeping tracks and albums separate

I'm in favor of EPs in the album poll. I don't think this one really is a strong, long, or coherent enough collection to merit a vote.

i didn't object to EPs being eligible because some "EPs" are basically album-length, and some 6/7-track EPs feel as substantial as a mini-album (like the bigbang one, i presume), but i thought people would regulate it themselves to stop it being ridiculous. COME ON, 4 songs and 15 minutes doesn't belong in an albums poll.

In the three years that J0rdan, seandalai and I have been doing the eoy poll, eps have always been eligible on the albums ballot. Don't remember what the rules were before, but sometimes eps are so great they need to be voted for...but there aren't enough to have an ep poll.

this is kind of the ILM equivalent of putting five National album tracks on your singles ballot

Also, I've only heard "Aaliyah" and I have no opinion on the other three tracks. They might suck, but a 4 song 15 min ep is definitely eligible.

Yeah I'm all for inclusivity at the nominations stage...if enough people consider an EP worth voting for, it makes the countdown, otherwise it doesn't.

i'm ok with people voting for eps but i'm opposed to them voting for anything by katy b

'Aaliyah' and 'Got Paid' are both fantastic but really that's like eight minutes worth of decent music.

i don't see what's wrong with EPs being included in the album poll. i agree w/ lex tho that in the end it's prob a bit slight to warrant a vote, but i don't think EPs should be cast off.

That's 8 more minutes of decent music than the AnCo album, so fair game imho.

(xpost)

zing!

i voted for two EPs myself, i'm not arguing they shouldn't be included, i'm saying that the self-regulation has failed in this instance and these voters need to have a word with themselves

^yeah

should have just voted for the two good songs in the tracks poll and called it quits

http://i.imgur.com/wY312tz.png

65. LOWER DENS Nootropics (227 Points, 7 Votes) Spotify

couldn't get into this

idk what this is

i liked this way more than the first Lower Dens album, nice sophomore curveball

Yeah, it was better than the first and definitely better than Jana Hunter's solo albums were. Still, it's not something I throw on regularly.

Talk about something else with a couple great songs and a lot of "meh". "Brains" is fantastic, but I found the second half of that to be pretty boring.

It appears to be wispy shoegaze stuff?

thank you for pulling the DJP batsignal, will now be checking out Lower Dens

it's kind of motorik indie rock iirc

was a bit too polite for me i think

the first album was strictly shoegazey, 2nd album had a bunch of unexpected Kraftwerk moves xp

motorik indie rock???!!!

it has one really cool song and then ynot much imo

Listening to the beginning of the alb on youtube and it has a kinda 70s ambient rock vibe (eno-ish without it being eno because there is only one eno).

doesn't seem understated enough to be called post-rock, too song-y.

i'm always confused when new indie albums that sound pretty consistent/cohesive get dismissed as 'one single and a bunch of filler' or whatever when i haven't even registered which song was the single

"Brains" was the song of note from Nootropics (and it's only specific single iirc).

An EP made my top ten, for what it's worth. Had it had just two more tracks of equal quality, it would have been top three for sure. It wasn't Katy B, though.

motorik indie rock???!!!

maybe i'm just remembering brains and blanking the rest of it out?

(I realise the conversation has moved on somewhat)

yeah but to me there's no discernable gap in quality between "Brains" and the rest of the record and it never particularly stood out to me. makes me wonder if people sampling that song before the rest of the record let that shape their perception of the album.

maybe i'm just remembering brains and blanking the rest of it out?

You kinda are. There were a couple other songs that did the same thing as "Brains", but not as well. The rest was just really wispy indie that never stuck with me.

well yeah, it was the first song i heard; i think i was looking for a song that was as good as brains or interestingly distinct from brains and didn't really get either

EPs are short albums imo. as long as they're not, like, two songs that would fit on a 7" or one song with remixes or whatever they should be fair game in albums polls.

Two tracks in, this is nice enough but nothing I'd ever vote for.

'It's The Arps' will probably go top 10 if EPs are eligible.

lol the question marks and exclamation marks were exaggerated indicators of interest

I am really, really digging this album

listening to "brains", loving the music, not so much the voice