ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

The Narrow Garden is frankly amazing

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

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson),

Yeah, this was my #7 pick. I loved the Agony and Opium album and I really didn't think this one compared. But after sitting with it for a few months I think Possession is the far better album. I don't really even listen to AAO anymore.

I love the Laurel Halo album and it would have been in the upper reaches of my list had I voted so therefore I am going to bitch n moan about its fairly low placement.

The Laurel Halo record is pretty obviously supposed to be alienating and nasty to listen to but I just think can I be arsed really? I'd take it over something as tepid as Grizzly Bear any day though.

Lower Dens started off amazing but tailed off, it doesn't really match those first two songs. The couple of Christian Mistress tracks I listened to were a lot of fun though.

0/17 so far (in both heard in full and voted for terms). Liked what little I've heard of the Laurel Halo record though. Need to check out Lone and Nina Kraviz next time I have Spotify access.

Nice to see Christian Mistress place. Another one I voted for. Nicely straddles the fence between hard rock and metal. I like the Heart comparison but don't see hooks/riffs as an either/or. On this one, the riffs are hooks, at least to my ears. I do think perhaps the dynamics/tempos could use a bit more variety over the course of the album, but still an outstanding effort and I look forward to hearing what they do next.

If there were other great Action Bronson mixtapes this year I must have missed them. The only other thing I heard was the "Rare Chandeliers EP" which didn't grab me as much as "Blue Chips". It seemed like maybe he was trying to sound a bit "harder" on that one but in a more conventional way, with the gourmet cooking show allusions as garnish.

I really really liked the first three songs on Lower Dens and then switched to another album

I've just played the entire Laurel Halo album and this is something I would have been much more receptive towards 20 years ago before I slowly started pushing ambient music out of my life (something I don't think I even consciously acknowledged happening until just now)

The Laurel Halo record is pretty obviously supposed to be alienating and nasty to listen to

I dispute that, some of it's really lovely! But yes, first song is called Airsick for a reason.

Loveliest thing she did all year though was the Sunlight On THe Faded single, which unfortunately wasn't on the album.

Well, this Metz album is... bracing. This would have been my shit 15 years ago. Noisy rock music has gone from being a natural home to a complete blind spot in recent years though, I'd never even heard of it before today.

I love it that Metz have a song called Sad Pricks. I had this for a while but lazily dismissed it. It sounds better now, The Jesus Lizard comparison made my sad prick ears prick up.

Sad Pricks is no Game of Pricks

glad to see christian mistress place, i didn't vote but would have made my list...really love this new mini-movement of nwobh/hard rock synthesis stuff with actual metal singing that doesn't sound like a lovecraft creature trying to shit out a broken lightbulb....chuck wrote a great piece on it in spin:

http://www.spin.com/articles/strange-brew-metals-new-obsession-with-witchcraft-biker-blues-and-tina-turner

^two other bands in the same vein mentioned, royal thunder and witch mountain are also, great and witch mountain features an ilxor of some note :)

also hope pallbearer places

So far I voted for Lone and Nina Kraviz.

I love the Nina Kraviz album for it's warm, intimate deep house vibe. It's almost an album aimed more at the boudoir than the dancefloor. Saw her dj a few months ago at this flashy new club that I can't really deal with. She played nothing like the album, all she played was banging, super-minimal techno, which I can't really deal with either, and left very disappointed. I suspect that's what Lex would have wanted from her.

The Lone album was the most colorful thing I heard all year. Love that dude so much. Yeah, I guess it's kind of like Rustie or old HudMo or whatever that I don't really get down with, but it's less obnoxiously trebly and more rhythmically dexterous than either of those. I'd never been able to articulate exactly what the style of rhythm he favors is, but Dan hit on the head with "samba".

I like the Gunplay but never devoted enough attention to it. I love "773 Love" and "F U All the Time", but the rest of the Jeremih tape didn't make any impression on me. The Katy B EP is a nice trifle. The Laurel Halo album is terrible and I liked Hour Logic. Bronson I've never managed to get past the question of if he needs to exist, but I don't begrudge him that much for being a Ghostface biter because he's currently making better music than Ghost himself is. I need to check out Daphni and maybe Vatican Shadow and maybe maybe Christian Mistress?

btw, this happened mad early. When I got out of class at 10AM, this had already been entirely rolled out.

Vatican Shadow just missed my ballot and, in retrospect, I wish I'd put it on there over a couple of things that popped up near the end pretty much solely due to the number of times I'd played specific songs on them (looking at you, ultimately-disappointing-but-still-decent Sleigh Bells album)

the action bronson & daphni albums are both good fun but i voted for vatican shadow, gunplay & the dreaded laurel halo. vatican shadow is cartoonishly bleak. reminiscent of metal gear solid. bogota rich was my fav unacceptable album of the year, relentlessly hard&catchy even if there was marginally less precision-bellowing than on inglorious bastard. i like how perverse quarantine is. it's so internet. that sort of numb sensitivity you get w/ sleep deprivation. her dispassionate bleating just endeared it to me more aggressively.

btw, this happened mad early. When I got out of class at 10AM, this had already been entirely rolled out.

Yeah, I woke up and went into work super early today. Rolling out the results made the time go by crazy fast too, so there's a good chance I'll stick with this schedule all week (soz west coasties).

:((((

This is a Monday boast. We'll see what time I actually get up and go into work tomorrow. crut can attest to my usual tardiness.

:((((

― The Reverend, Monday, January 28, 2013 12:53 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Worked for me and I'm a Mountain Time man.

suits me - i got into work just as it started rolling out, and my boss wasn't around so bonus.

PS i will prob be in trouble tomorrow now though.

Mean ol' albums taught me to weep and moan
Got what it takes to make a Mountain Time Man leave his home

Just disappointed there hasn't been a single hint of a clusterfuck yet. What's going on ILM?

Voted for Grizzly Bear and Twin Shadow. Some of the albums I haven't heard sound promising, though.

three of my bottom five (in a ballot of 20) made the list today. i don't know what that means.

this metz album rules.

its like a little less gothy pissed jeans, reminds me of nation of ulysses in some spots

Interesting list so far.

Love the graphics, but I gotta ask, what's with the grayscale?

yeah, gotta say i'm not a fan of the decision to go grayscale

I like it. It's refined.

Makes me feel sad.

the galaxy garden album art just screams in color, it's like my favorite thing ever

http://i50.tinypic.com/dnhd15.jpg

Yeah, but you can look at that cover whenever you like. It's not like JF's jpgs are going to replace the original designs.

Plus, one can read it as sombre mourning for the better albums that should have placed in the poll.

Haha exactly

Well looks like Grizzly Bear got shafted.

xxp i don't necessarily disagree with you but as someone who flips through these polls mainly to be introduced to music i've missed, it is a little weird not having the actual pallet of colors to associate with the album on first glance.

Laurel Halo suffers the most, apparently the cover was all that record had going for it!

fwiw i've seen the lone album cover several times and it never made an impression until seeing the b&w version

i didn't see a spotify list so http://open.spotify.com/user/callalldestroyer/playlist/51xGGGTA0yUpkkCRoHPqhg

I forgot to vote for this. Nothing I would have voted for turning up so far. Im not familiar with any of these albums tbh. As for stuff im familiar with….grizzly bear ARE boring. I never got into animal collective except for that ‘peacebone’ song. I like that Metz track, “sad pricks” a lot but I haven’t heard the album. I just listened to the laurel halo album and its very purty. I gert what the fuss is about, its really good and that’s only my first listen. what ive heard from nina kraviz is good too.

oh hey Metz is kind of great

I was scared by the Dino Jr comparisons but I am digging "Headache"

not feeling the b&w covers :(

if it helps, Metz was already black & white

should have made that one color.

the grayscale thing is interesting to me because i've been banging on the last couple years about every other album cover (in indie/'acclaimed' type cicles at least) is in black/white/gray so i'm curious to see how often it doesn't much change the look of the album cover in question.

but seriously, I like the b&w.

metz sounds like a lot of things but dinosaur jr is not one of them imo