ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

http://cdn.thefader.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/F78_Jamaica_9.jpg

where is my mind?

Be back after a break with more.

recap...

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)

60. DIRTY PROJECTORS Swing Lo Magellan (254 Points, 8 Votes)
59. SHACKLETON Music for the Quiet Hour/The Drawbar Organ EPs (258 Points, 7 Votes, 3 First Place Votes)
58. CHIEF KEEF Finally Rich (262 Points, 10 Votes)
57. SILENT SERVANT Negative Fascination (277 Points, 11 Votes)
56. RICARDO VILLALOBOS Dependent and Happy (278 Points, 8 Votes)
55. ORBITAL Wonky (278 Points, 11 Votes)
54. COOLY G Playin' Me (282 Points, 11 Votes)
53. JAPANDROIDS Celebration Rock (290 Points, 11 Votes)
52. CONVERGE All We Love We Leave Behind (296 Points, 10 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
51. SUN ARAW & M. GEDDES GENGRAS MEET THE CONGOS Icon Give Thank (298 Points, 12 Votes)

what's remarkable is how the Congos' voices still sound so great even after all these years and also how as elder statesmen who otherwise make their bread and butter from straight-up pop-roots revival music centring around covers of reggae standards, they're still up for a crazy experimental venture like Icon Give Thanks. 2012 really has been about old muckers coming back and blowing people's expectations.

Love this album. Sun Araw's laptop exotica needed a soul, and the Congos are a fine option.

Re-listening to 'Sunshine'. So lovely and woozy. I like Sun Araw just fine, but he could never have made something as good as this without the genius of the Congos.

Voted: Laurel Halo
Long-listed: Lone (WOO NOTTINGHAM PRIDE), Cooly G
Bought, but went off: Dirty Projectors, Orbital
Quite like: Daphni, Sun Araw/Congos

thanks again for this poll JF. I'm quite surprised this has to be the first year where I've heard (if not heard of) so many records on the list. Usually at this point I'm completely bewildered. Don't know if this says something about music in 2012 or my own involvement with it, or something else.

Which other 'old muckers' will make it? Scott Walker's a given, Cale probably not, Cohen maybe, Young probably. Any obvious ones I've missed?

Dylan, unlikely.

How could I forget Dylan, especially as I voted for 'Dusquene Whistle' in the tracks poll.

still very disappointed with myself that i never made it to london to seem sun araw & the congos play live, i guess that's something we won't ever see a repeat of. would be cool if stallones became sort sort of stoned psychedelic version of ry cooder and made a series of albums with various rootsy folk from far flung cultures exploring their shared traditions of bonged-out sounds

would be better than any damon albarn project anyway

How we define "old muckers" is obviously very loose but I can list these off the top of my head: Michael Gira, Scott Walker, Neneh Cherry, Leonard Cohen, Bobby Womack, The Congos, not to mention the David Byrne collab with St Vincent - not all of those will have made it, but a lot of my favourite records this year seem to come from older artists.

bill fay? paul buchanan? both too peripheral i guess

Bill Fay made a couple of EOY lists iirc.

would be better than any damon albarn project anyway

― Jaap and roids (NickB), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

damning it with faint, etc.

Not feeling it...too woozy.

Even if you were to define "old muckers" as a recording history of 10 years or more, these results so far are largely young in comparison.

A lot of folks are failing to credit a certain Gengras, whom I'm guessing accounts for a lot of the laptop exotica in this alb

Dr John placing would be kind of amazing tho I know next to nothing about that album except for it being produced by a member ofhated band Black Keys

i don't know anything about gengras... what is he doing on the album, because I only hear Sun Araw?

Cooly G was the album from my list that I was saying wasn't going to make it since it hadn't shown up yesterday. I would say it's "austere" as well, incidentally. Also, tend to relate to DJP's slant on this. It's pretty subtle but there is enough rhythmic stuff going on here to make some connection to the dance floor, even if it really is more lounge-y. (I like the quiet touches of funky.)

I still don't really get why this album places this high, and there has been like zero appreciation for Zaki Ibrahim's album. Probably a spurious comparison, of course. Let's see, they are both black women who made albums at least partly drawing on a variety of dance music rhythms and using some electronic sounds and stuff. Okay, fine, but I still think Zaki Ibrahim has been weirdly neglected, and if her album is flawed it's no more flawed than the Cooly G album.

10 per day - so we're wrapping this up next tuesday?

there's 10 more today this is just an intermission

There's another 10 coming today.

I've never heard of Zaki Ibrahim, Cooly G got a fair amount of attention here and in other (UK) venues. Just one datapoint obviously.

I still don't really get why this album places this high, and there has been like zero appreciation for Zaki Ibrahim's album.

Has she covered Coldplay?

it's true about gengras mr drugs a money, and i quite liked his solo album from 2012 too. it's mostly a keystroke thing rather than a slight on his contribution and now you've made me type 99 more characters explaining myself

cooly g is not austere imo. there's plenty of sensual squelch there, every other sound is draped in velvet

Lol my bad but im not sure i was talking about you per se

Xp

wish i hadn't written "sensual squelch" there

i'll be in the shower

xp

It was an effective phrase. My brain was all unconsciously busy "sensual squelch? sensual squelch? hmmmm, I guess so."

"draped in velvet" was a good phrase though

i've never heard zaki ibrahim, the name is ringing a slight bell though? i have a feeling i meant to check her out last year on someone's (?) recommendation and then clean forgot

Sorry for ignoring Gengras, Nick's right, it's mostly down to not wanting to type the whole name. Also I know Sun Araw and Congos stuff better.

There are elements of absraction in Cooly G. So from a couple of other tracks apart from the cover you can almost see the joins in the assembly. Kinda bits and pieces glued together (well, I think). That goes part of the way to an approach that is taken even further by the Villalobos track but I wouldn't place them together or use austere to belittle.

Cooly G has been on Hyperdub and building a rep for years before this album came out, it's pretty obvious why she's higher-profile that Zaki Ibrahim.

(I don't actually like Cooly G that much and am perfectly open to the possibility that the Zaki Ibrahim album is better).

Zaki Ibrahim vs. Farrah Abraham

Tim F. started a thread about Zaki Ibrahim! And then he put the Cooly G album higher on his list. Again, I voted for Playin Me, but honestly I'm not 100% sold on all of it. If I'm paying close attention it loses me a bit at the end. (Of course, that's sort of true of Zaki Ibrahim's too.)

Only vote today was for Orbital. I can't claim it's up there with their 90s stuff but it's such a massive improvement on their 00s decline I enjoy every song, even the dubstep rework of Satan that seems to bug people. It may be inextricable from nostalgia but there's a keen pleasure to hearing one of your favourite bands pull out of a terminal dive. And I don't get the same kind of melodic opulence from any current dance acts outside of the Lindstrom/Terje axis.

Just listened to Icon Give Thank (an endorsement from emil.y is generally good enough for me) and really love it!

http://i.imgur.com/J0IH3Cs.png

50. NIKI & THE DOVE Instinct (306 Points, 9 Votes, 2 First Place Votes) Spotify

^_^

JF was very happy about this one.

mah #1 (since 2010, basically, being that half the songs here had been floating around as freebies and ep tracks.)

Have listened to a bit of the Converge album and it's really good! As far as shouty man guitar rock goes, it completely shits all over the Metz record (and I enjoyed that one too)

Just listened to Icon Give Thank (an endorsement from emil.y is generally good enough for me) and really love it!

― Dr. Alfred P. Falfa (WilliamC), Tuesday, January 29, 2013 7:32 AM (9 minutes ago)

co-sign!

Great album, but in truth most of the highlights for me were (as JF mentioned) on prior releases. One exception that didn't seem to get much traction is Somebody, which is essentially a Revolution-era Prince song.

i think i voted for niki and converge too

I wish I could force people to love this as much as I do, but it's a fruitless endeavor I guess? It falls somewhere between the blown-outness of Florence and the nuances of Bat For Lashes. Kate Bush comparisons are lazy, but she does sound a bit like her at times. And fuck, "The Drummer" is a jam and a half to speed down the interstate to.

"come into my room" by cooly g is a classic but i couldn't get into the rest of that album