ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

ha I am on track 3 right now and I was about to make a They Might Be Giants crack

Beak>'s Wulfstan II, for those looking to dodge the Ariel Pink conversation.

^^^ that track is fucking great

fantastic album

i even like the silly songs, the only one i don't like is nastradamus & me

tmbg is not actually that off-base a comparison

with 'only in my dreams' being his 'she's an angel' i guess

I think that once I stop thinking about what I want this album to be and start paying attention to what it actually is, I'll be more kind to it

mature themes might not an album for your typical ilxor, but it's really fun and i jammed it p heavily for a few weeks. at its best it feels like post-punk zappa, if that makes sense. before today is good, too, but it's too studied, ppl flipped out at the time cause it was the right sound at just the right time but if you go back a lot if is pretty stiff

*crosses his fingers that something good might appear on this poll in the next couple of hours*

ap always has killer basslines, too

xp

haha

yeah zappa is an even better comp

i could never get into beak>>, but i tried

Mature Themes is great for shuffle, maybe not so great as a sequential album imo

i love "baby" off the ariel pink but otherwise i find it unlistenable

"baby" is unreal... so good

is 'baby' a cover or a pastiche i can't even tell

i kinda assumed it was a cover

it's a cover

I got through "Only In My Dreams" before I went back to Purity Ring; by that point I was starting to get into the album more but I was also sick of listening to it

hmm i think i didn't make it to wulfstan the first time i tried the beak album

Here's the original of "Baby":

http://youtu.be/ONIJXHvoynw

I love the Beak> album but "Wulfstan II" is the track that really makes the whole thing work for me.

http://i.imgur.com/Z7Qapek.png

42. KILLER MIKE R.A.P. Music (345 Points, 14 Votes) Spotify

it's definitely a standout--i really want to like beak but it still might be a little too dry

okay seriously, lol

apparently my entire ballot is gonna get posted before we hit 35

i played this a lot in the first half of the year but it didn't quite make my ballot

There is just something about El-P's production that rubs me the wrong way. I can't put a finger on it.

yeah

the whole Donnie & Joe Emerson album that "Baby" comes from is really sublime:

http://vimeo.com/m/39424998

I almost put it on my ballot, even though reissues aren't technically eligible

ariel pink: remains despicable, and now we know he's a despicable human being as well as a worthless musician
beak>: this is dude out of portishead, right? listening to "wulfstan ii", it's def got a three-minus-beth vibe. it's the kind of think i can enjoy while it's playing and admire in general but really, i don't even listen to three ever, and removing my favourite thing about it...i just would never actually put this on. nice to see it place though
killer mike: was blown away by "big beast" beforehand and then on first listen, but then it suffered RAPIDLY diminishing returns; still not sure why, bar the perennial awkwardness of el-p beats. i think "southern fried" and "jojo's chillin'" were my favourites?

I'VE JUST REALISED why beak>'s name is styled liek that duhhhhhhhhhhh

*like

i heard of the cover of 'baby' and liked it, then i heard the original and no longer had much use for the cover. also, the rest of the donnie and joe emerson album is fantastic, unlike the ariel pink.

xxp yep

overall this section of the list has not been a particularly fruitful one for me, gradually coming to terms with most of my non-obv votes failing to place :(

really like Go! and i really like the title track off RAP Music, even though the sentiment is a bit cheese

I am completely nonplussed as to why anyone would find the beats on the Killer Mike album "awkward". What are people hearing that makes them lean towards that word?

i want to engage in some magical bitching, but i don't know if i can summon the energy.
what's the point :(

you can have my energy. I don't have anything to bitch about, magical or otherwise, beyond a sad resignation that as always nothing I vote for has any sort of consensus behind it.

i'm still holding out hope for Rush

yo bum, rush won't show

lol

also now thinking of Yo Bum as a sequel to My Dick

I don't think the Killer Mike beats are awkward, but it's hard not to hold them up to the standards of prime-era Southern rap and find them a little wanting. I like that album, but it feels to me like a 2003 also-ran that stands out nine years later in a messy, consensus-less hip-hop miasma.

I kind of agree that the album sounds like it should have come out last decade; I think that's a point in its favor, though!

i've lost hope for jojo at this point

i mean not in general, just in this poll

I think a lot of people went slowly off that Killer Mike album over the course of the year, it got so much ILX attention at the start of the year and everyone seemed to be down with it and it seems to have slipped into the mild indifference zone now. Would still have expected it to be higher though.

interestingly, just as La Lechera posted that I started playing "JoJo's Chillin" off of R.A.P. Music

i've lost hope for the jojo i voted for as well :(