ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

Yeah I have no idea what it means to be the Frasier of rock music but didn't people generally like Frasier?

I'm 4 tracks deep on Shields and I am being bored to death.

My drummer is obsessed with Grizzly Bear but it just sounds so nothingy to me. The absolute event horizon of nothingy, unassuming music in the 2000s. There are definitely some interesting in there somewhere but they're executed in such a brittle way, it sounds like an interesting band playing miles away while I lie down under a pile of old twigs and leaves.

I wonder who perp thinks is the "who's the boss" of rock music

feel kinda bad for matty p there but his backpedaling is pretty hilarious

xp It's not meant as a compliment. Perpetua's extended comparison is some glib, lazy bullshit: "the rock equivalent of reading The New Yorker in a cashmere sweater while sipping a latte and feeling a vague sense of ennui.” At least he didn't mention dinner parties.

i find bands/artists interacting with critics in any way on twitter mildly embarrassing

next pls

feel kinda bad for matty p there but his backpedaling is pretty hilarious

the backpedalling was just embarrassing, if you're going to try to zing a band in public at least own the damn zing

LL otm

Patchy, a cariacature of itself, run on past its welcome. (Frasier and/or Grizzly Bear)

Okay, but it's the final one for the day...

shields is a fine record

http://i.imgur.com/LLdMMY2.png

61. LAUREL HALO Quarantine (246 Points, 8 Votes) Spotify

the christian mistress didn't really hit me on first listen but this second listen is pretty killer

oh hey, laurel halo, what's up record i respect more than i actually enjoy

xp I once got an irritated tweet from Pat Kane after complaining about someone playing Hue & Cry at a wedding. I didn't @ Pat Kane, I didn't even name Pat Kane, and Pat Kane doesn't follow me, so I can only assume that he regularly searches Twitter for "Hue & Cry" in order to have socially awkward exchanges with people who don't like him.

I love the Laurel Halo album cover a good bit more than I like the actual album

otm

hahahahaha

the laurel halo was the actual single worst album i listened to in 2012

haha

the single worst album i listened to in 2012 was alt-j, the laurel halo record is at least going for something i think i would appreciate were it more fully formed

it was also sort of disappointing to hear after how straight up beautiful hour logic is

xp I once got an irritated tweet from Pat Kane after complaining about someone playing Hue & Cry at a wedding. I didn't @ Pat Kane, I didn't even name Pat Kane, and Pat Kane doesn't follow me, so I can only assume that he regularly searches Twitter for "Hue & Cry" in order to have socially awkward exchanges with people who don't like him.

los campesinos once tweeted me to say that we have mutual friends who might disagree with my assessment of them as the worst people to exist, ever, in the world (i had not @ed them, obviously) o_0

how embarrassing, maybe they'll write a song about it ("i killed alex macpherson with my big fucking dick")

Quarantine and No Love Deep Web should have traded album covers

should've thrown some numbers into that name, sorry lex

not a lot of people expressing enthusiasm for most of today's choices

I thought the laurel halo album was strange, but astonishingly beautiful, the best thing she's ever done, and unlike anything else I've ever heard

I really really liked the Daphni record.

Like other posters I'm very conflicted about Quarantine...I want to like it, and a couple of times it's been on and I've gone "hey, this is cool, what is this?", but any time I've sat down to give it a proper listen I've given up before the end.

#1 album in The Wire's list btw

Lower Dens sounded great today too, even though I'd heard it before and previously held a lesser opinion of it.

Two of mine (AnCo and Nite Jewel) placed today, that's about as well as I ever do in these things.

how embarrassing, maybe they'll write a song about it ("i killed alex macpherson with my big fucking dick")

And now it don't work no mo'

Thanks ILM for the tips on Vatican Shadow & a reminder about the what-if FSOL did breakbeat of Lone. The rest, well ee gustibus non est disputandum.

The Laurel Halo album is indeed an interesting experiment but I can't convince myself I love it or anything. The fact she did that (or rather, didn't do anything) with her vocal tracks is cool but they sound very lazily pasted over the tracks, like a very quick overdub with no mastering at all.

77. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Centipede Hz (204 Points, 8 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
76. JEREMIH Late Nights With Jeremih (206 Points, 10 Votes)
75. BIGBANG Alive EP (210 Points, 6 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
74. DAPHNI Jiaolong (213 Points, 9 Votes)
73. TWIN SHADOW Confess (214 Points, 8 Votes)
72. VATICAN SHADOW Ghosts of Chechnya (216 Points, 7 Votes)
71. NITE JEWEL One Second of Love (216 Points, 8 Votes)
70. LONE Galaxy Garden (216 Points, 9 Votes)
69. NINA KRAVIZ Nina Kraviz (218 Points, 7 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
68. METZ Metz (219 Points, 10 Votes)
67. GUNPLAY Bogota Rich: The Prequel (220 Points, 9 Votes)
66. KATY B Danger EP (223 Points, 8 Votes)
65. LOWER DENS Nootropics (227 Points, 7 Votes)
64. ACTION BRONSON & PARTY SUPPLIES Blue Chips (230 Points, 7 Votes)
63. CHRISTIAN MISTRESS Possession (232 Points, 8 Votes)
62. GRIZZLY BEAR Shields (233 Points, 8 Votes)
61. LAUREL HALO Quarantine (246 Points, 8 Votes)

Lower Dens sounded great today too, even though I'd heard it before and previously held a lesser opinion of it.

Glad to hear it JF. I was getting upset about some of the underwhelming descriptions of Lower Dens upthread.

Just remembered...add Nina Kraviz to the list of albums I liked today (Daphni and Lower Dens).

of the things I've paged through on Spotify, Lower Dens was easily my favorite

Laureal Halo is the only thing I voted for so far. Still find the sounds on it compelling and I think it's actually got a lot of beauty to it that people are just totally missing. I mean this sounds ravishing to me in a totally interesting way: Tumor

L'oreal Halo

I doubt any of my album votes are going to make it this year. Admittedly, I submitted a short album ballot. The one from near the bottom of my ballot that I thought might have a chance is probably not going to appear if it hasn't shown up on the first day.

Few things I voted for today:

Animal Collective - I actually like this more than the last couple albums. I'm glad that it's a bit more noisy and aggressive.

Nite Jewel - Fantastic, this really keeps growing on me. The songs are often fairly subtle and low key and deserve multiple listenings to sink in. I really like the production style much more than her previous stuff.

Lone - Been a favorite of mine all year. Not really IDM at all, very shiny, bouncy music and best album cover of the year.

Laurel Halo - just skipped voting for this. It was ok, but didn't quite do it for me.

only thing from my ballot to show up so far is gunplay

Only Lone and Nite Jewel off my ballot, and they were rather low down. Still holding out for Eyvind Kang an Motorpsycho this week, but I'm doubtful.

Still holding out for Eyvind Kang

I have voted as well, but probably no bloody chance. I was expecting it to place in the 70's at best.

Hwat Kang record was that? The one with Jessica Kenney?

Yeah. The Narrow Garden and it is some extreme beautiful shit.

The Narrow Garden is the one that was nominated, not the duo with JK xp