ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

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 :(

about the right place for killer mike imo

i've lost hope for jojo at this point

^ feeling this :(

i mean no rangda? no jojo? i feel like a lonely weirdo howling on a rocky cliff.

Last one for the day...

I hear ya La Lechera. At best I think two albums I voted for will place. At best.

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

41. THE XX Coexist (352 Points, 14 Votes) Spotify

ilm's aggregate interests overlap mostly in pop music shocker

we were pretty close to another GAPDY this year, i wonder if the planets will ever align completely again

7 things on my ballot have shown up so far and I firmly expect at least 4 more to turn up with 3 others with a good shot

xp: lol let's revise that to 8 have placed, with 4 definites and 2 wildcards

Too high!

that xx album is all about "Missing" and "Swept Away" IMO

if jojo didn't place a single i really doubt that she's gonna place an album

xx album is one of my most disappointing albums in a really long time

the xx more like the zz (as in, . o O(zzz))

I think it's funny that so many ppl went apeshit for "Angels" when it came out while I thought "oh no, this is going to be boring" and then the album came out and everyone went "oh no, it's boring" and I went "OH PHEW THIS IS ALL SO MUCH BETTER THAN 'ANGELS'"

DJP + me = mindmeld about this xx album.

It's better than "Angels" was for the most part.

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.

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, January 29, 2013 3:38 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

disagree with this entirely haha. imo the cover destroys the original, and everything else on dreamin wild was almost unlistenable.

if jojo didn't place a single i really doubt that she's gonna place an album

none of the mixtape cuts were singles as such. i never thought it'd place, what with it being released in mid-dec, but it still deserves more attention.

"angels" is a decent (not great) single, the album works as something you don't have to pay attention to in the background but there is nothing else at all memorable on it. dunno if i was as crushingly disappointed as j0rdan but it was not a notable release for me

i mean when i say "angels" is great all i mean is that it gave me vague vibes a few times, it's way inferior to pretty much every song on the debut

i've lost hope for jojo at this point

― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Tuesday, January 29, 2013 2:53 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There must be another JoJo b/c I did not take you for a JoJo fan. (Also I don't think she released an album in 2012.)

She released a mixtape in December, which is what lex and J0rdan were referring to. Not sure about La Lech's reference.

agreed that killer mike album had serious diminishing returns, sounded awesome for a week though. don't think i voted for it.

LL is talking about josephine foster i believe

the first of my choices to make it. i don't understand the backlash concerning the xx. i think this album firmly establishes their place in pop music. i think i prefer it because they actually have developed. from the minimal young marble giants naive diy shtick to a band which strts using electronic devices to improve their music, to make their point more efficiently. my two faves are duets: the wonderful, magic chained and the slowly unfolding swept away which turns into a dance number. a caterpillar changing into a butterfly.

The xx album was disappointing but not because it's bad. It's just that the debut was a bit better, and this one wasn't different enough aesthetically to overcome that slight drop in quality.

jojo's mixtape is called agápē and it's really, really strong. more singer-songwritery than you expect, "we get by", "take the canyon", "billions" and "can't handle the truth" are my favourites. there's a joni mitchell cover too! which does not feel out of place!

That's a fair assessment. I don't think Coexist is bad in any way. I just think the debut was superior. xp

It's just like people were just not into heavy this year and they got their weird from another store. That's ok I guess. But I have given up caring (unless The Seer doesn't place and then I will flip out on y'all nuclear holocaust style)

I am indeed talking about Josephine Foster.

the preponderance of b&w album covers really is something. had not noticed this trend before.

xp