ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

I wonder if I could Chief Keef in a rap battle? ;-) ;-) ;-)

Haha my general reaction to this list so far has been "that sounds pretty good" to the stuff I haven't heard and "thank fuck that wasn't higher" to the stuff I have.

lol

I have gone from just really loving a couple of tracks on it to thinking it's at least two thirds a really good record fwiw

still haven't listened to finally rich

couldn't ever understand what was going on in the deej vs the world thread either

spent most of the year not really getting keef, caved late to "i don't like", partly because of the album, in which context it sounds bright and shining like the anthem it is. the album itself is sort of admirable for how keef sticks to his aesthetic, esp in light of the craven messes that so many major label rap albums are these days, but also a) nothing is anywhere near as good as "i don't like" b) but it all sounds the same in a v drab way c) it's still not an aesthetic i particularly care about if i'm not hearing it out & about - mostly it's TOO SLOW, i can't deal with supposed club bangers that are this fucking torpid and dreary

will def need to check out the shackleton album. sounds right up my strasse. I've always been aware of him, and have a bunch of things by him, but I always meant to get round to properly checking him out.

could someone summarise the chief keef thread for the hard of thinking?

Bonus Track on the Keef which isn't on the Spotify link that I dig a lot

Citgo

a) nothing is anywhere near as good as "i don't like" b) but it all sounds the same in a v drab way c) it's still not an aesthetic i particularly care about if i'm not hearing it out & about - mostly it's TOO SLOW, i can't deal with supposed club bangers that are this fucking torpid and dreary

Only gave the Chief Keef one listen but I totally agree with all of this.

http://i.imgur.com/AUkWrP7.png

57. SILENT SERVANT Negative Fascination (277 Points, 11 Votes) Spotify

Much of the album isn't actually that slow but it's all got this very square feel to it that makes it feel slower than it is and the vocals reinforce that rather than offset it. Like it is completely uninterested in syncopation or groove or bounce in favour of a kind of perma-screwfacing steamroller intensity.

i liked the silent servant album, just as i've liked most sandwell district stuff i've heard, but for some reason i didn't go back to it enough to really love it last year - i think between vatican shadow, andy stott and shackleton, the bit of my brain that needs doomy austere grey techno was pretty much sated.

pretty funny that shackleton and silent servant are the most fun albums today so far!

One of his songs is called UTOPIAN DISASTER!

Oh shit, I voted pretty high for Silent Servant too, immense album.

Temptation and Desire and Strange Attractor are both top quality head-wrecking belters straight off the factory floor.

first alb (perhaps Gunplay too) that I feel like checking..xp

I can envision a mood where I'd be really into this Silent Servant album, but that mood is not happening right now.

It's not really first thing in the morning music, it's true

Okay, "Temptation & Desire" is working for me right now. Rhythms and looming synth are great.

haha, last thing before sleep music for me right now and it's more than doing the trick.

Like lex, I didn't get into the Silent Servant album as much as I might have expected to - it doesn't seem anywhere as good as earlier Sandwell District stuff. Hopefully the Rrose album will do more for me. (What happened to that? I think it was supposed to come out last year, but afaik it didn't.)

On closer examination, maybe this Rrose album was just something I imagined...

http://i.imgur.com/a9IrErz.png

56. RICARDO VILLALOBOS Dependent and Happy (278 Points, 8 Votes)

I like RV, but I didn't know this had even been released until voting time and it's too huge for me to have gotten through. Which tracks are best?

It's a massive slog with a few nice "bits" AFAIC

I like "I'm Counting". For me the way into this album was the CD version, which is mixed, but I like the individual tracks now, too. I thought this and the singles he released this year were a big return to form for RV, this was my #4.

Admittedly I still stan for everything he did up to and including the Fabric mix.

austere techno doing pretty well huh. time of the year?

i didn't get into this album at all, not even enough to work out whether it was because i couldn't be bothered to give it enough chances or because it was just boring

Never heard this - mixed reviews put me off buying it.

B&W jpgs definitely working for me today btw

also funny that people were bemoaning the lack of bobbins in the trax poll, but the dance crew seems to have been out in full force for the albums

Joining thread late but couldn't let this one lie.

You'll almost certainly disagree with me here, but I think there's an inherent psychological effect of "new decade, need to leave behind the old stuff" in listeners, critics, music marketeers.

This is rubbish, sorry. It's just what happens when bands release records that aren't as good as their last ones.

it's weirdo industrial dance though (not that i'm complaining, i love that aesthetic too at the mo), but it's strange that industrial music seems to be creeping back onto the landscape lately, and managing to be respectable at the same time.

djp batsignal goes up

Loving the warped out skeletal claps on Mochnochich already.

I am a 1x person of simple needs really.

Silent Servant was another one that just missed my ballot by virtue of me discovering it late and deciding to go with albums I'd played incessantly over the year rather than something that jumped out at me at the last minute

It's really fucking good tho

http://i.imgur.com/AIz1ygv.png

55. ORBITAL Wonky (278 Points, 11 Votes) Spotify

\o/

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Orbital cover looks loads better in b&w!

(too low)

I think I have weird expectations of RV because the only track of his I've listened to on repeat was 'Easy Lee'. I'm guessing this doesn't sound like that, right?

This is rubbish, sorry. It's just what happens when bands release records that aren't as good as their last ones.

― Deafening silence (DL), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 14:31 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think Centipede Hz was THAT much worse than MPP. The standing ovation given to MPP is dramatic compared to the stony silence that greeted Centipede Hz. And it seems to be happening through-and-through with this kind of indie - not just with AC and DP. I think only Simey gave props to Ariel Pink's Mature Themes, elsewhere it was panned (he did say some stupid things in interviews, mind you). It's also probably got a lot to do with the decline of the hipster archetype now that folky indie stuff has made it onto TV adverts and Mumford-style commericalism, suddenly these bands aren't seen as groundbreaking as they were in 2005.

Need to check out the last three entries. Used to be a huge Orbital fan but their last couple of albums were pretty poor.

Didn't love Wonky I'm afraid, sorry. I did want to.

This one is way better than the last couple, although obviously not up there with their best. It's one of those 'greatest hits comprised entirely of new songs' type albums. I like it a lot though.

too low)

― Bel-Air the Fresh Prince, sitting in a chair (DJP), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 14:42 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Really expected this to be much higher, 25-35 range.

I only have limited experience with Orbital, but Wonky sounds p good to me so far.

I think a better word for latter-day Orbital albums (aside from Wonky) is "complacent"; I still like them tons but they aren't very surprising. One of the things that made Wonky stand out instantly over Blue and The Altogether was the sense that they had rediscovered how to consistently ride in the groove pocket over the course of an entire album as opposed to building a bunch of adequate tracks around two or three killers.