ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

^ gold star

Gribowitz (Lynskey) wrote this on thread what are all the subgenres/offshoots etc of UK garage? and how do you ID them? on board I Love Music on Oct 22, 2004

Shudderstep - bars of usual 4/4 garage are 'shuddered' every 4th bar using Pro Tools. No vocals, became popular in Croydon between March and April last year

Gitstep - Mainly a dance (done in clubs), wherein people tread randomly on each others feet (occasionally the shin)

Flange - Not very well known, this is native to It Will Grow Back hairdressers in Hackney wherein fast-paced MC's throw upwards of 60 flangers at varying speeds and depths onto "da mic" in order to confuse and excite the listenener.

Blubstep - Emo 2 step

Skwish - Particularly hard and nasty and made exclusively by people who spent most of their childhood shooting people for coins. Only white labels exist and you have to shoot people to get them, occasionally even the artists themselves.

Here's a class example if you don't believe me
http://www.coastaltown.nildram.co.uk/porl/Skwish%20Skwadz%20-%20Our%20Way%20of%20Life.mp3

Ssslllooowwwwstep - Timestretched student drolery

MintyStep - Shuffle controls on max and lots of bells and frogs and shit.

Pigstep - Wiley dressed as a pig

Swinestep - Wileys mates dressed like pigs

Orgioswineystep - Sex-based Wiley pig nonsense

Beast - Basically brickstep with a live drummer, lots of people called things like Beast, MC Beast, The Beasters. It's very beast-based.

Nostep - hipster slang for what's going on "outside"

Big Step - Big Star tribute band from Hull. Nice lads.

Step by Step - IMDB tells us that it was a Patrick Duffy sitcom, a 1948 Laurence Tierney film and an animated short

i need it in my life

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)
50. NIKI & THE DOVE Instinct (306 Points, 9 Votes, 2 First Place Votes)
49. DEATH GRIPS The Money Store (307 Points, 12 Votes)
48. CLOUD NOTHINGS Attack on Memory (314 Points, 13 Votes)
47. FRANKIE ROSE Interstellar (316 Points, 12 Votes)
46. PURITY RING Shrines (320 Points, 11 Votes, 2 First Place Votes)
45. BAT FOR LASHES The Haunted Man (329 Points, 13 Votes)
44. BEAK> ">>" (332 Points, 13 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
43. ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI Mature Themes (334 Points, 12 Votes)
42. KILLER MIKE R.A.P. Music (345 Points, 14 Votes)
41. THE XX Coexist (352 Points, 14 Votes)

40. WILD NOTHING Nocturne (357 Points, 12 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
39. NICKI MINAJ Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (362 Points, 13 Votes)
38. THE MOUNTAIN GOATS Transcendental Youth (368 Points, 13 Votes)
37. ANGEL HAZE Reservation (381 Points, 14 Votes)
36. CHAIRLIFT Something (382 Points, 14 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
35. LANA DEL REY Born to Die (392 Points, 11 Votes)
34. LE1F Dark York (396 Points, 12 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
33. NENEH CHERRY & THE THING The Cherry Thing (396 Points, 13 Votes)
32. VOICES FROM THE LAKE Voices From the Lake (419 Points, 17 Votes, 2 First Place Votes)
31. SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS Ghostory (422 Points, 14 Votes)
30. TAME IMPALA Lonerism (426 Points, 15 Votes, 2 First Place Votes)
29. MUNGOLIAN JETSET Mungodelics (428 Points, 15 Votes)
28. IAMAMIWHOAMI Kin (430 Points, 13 Votes, 2 First Place Votes)
27. SAINT ETIENNE Words & Music By Saint Etienne (434 Points, 12 Votes, 4 First Place Votes)
26. HOT CHIP In Our Heads (457 Points, 14 Votes)
25. BEACH HOUSE Bloom (470 Points, 20 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
24. ACTRESS R.I.P (473 Points, 17 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
23. BURIAL Kindred EP (479 Points, 16 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
22. JULIA HOLTER Ekstasis (503 Points, 18 Votes, 1 First Place Vote)
21. GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (510 Points, 19 Votes)

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

20. TODD TERJE It's the Arps EP (530 Points, 15 Votes, 1 First Place Vote) Spotify

Are we finishing today jf?

We are.

why are there so many more EPs this year?

[insert bullshit doglatin-esque theory about our diminishing attention spans]

good stuff jf

also it seems there are many people voting for the same bloody things in trax and albums polls

like why would you vote for a burial cut off a three-track ep AND the ep itself?

ditto katy b, terje

do they still do that in P&J?

disgusting savages imo

my personal bullshit theory: there are so many EPs on the list this year in the same way there are so many mixtapes this year, because they are a lower-risk release. So more artists are doing them and they've got more traction as a format - and maybe are more willing to do interesting things on them? so it's mostly 1. there are just more of them this year (and they are cheaper/free) and the list reflects that; and maybe a little 2. the EP as a format can itself be interesting bcz certain artistic choices are made and not-made.

that said, none of the EPs i got this year were particularly ~thematic~

I've been saying for years that people should vote for eps in album polls, and this was the year it stuck I guess. I'm still grumpy about that Burial SINGLE.

EPs also allow for faster release cycles?

we don't know it's the same people voting tbf

like there is only one person in the world who can release an album every single year and her name is Rihanna

Only EP I voted for was G-Dragon I think, but then again EP/Mini-Album seems to be the order of the day for k-pop.

igi it's 30+ mins of music, but...maybe I just don't like Burial. (Well, no...there's no maybe about it. Burial is lame.)

yeah i think there are definitely more EPs around that are more like mini-albums (and that's not even counting the r&b/hip-hop tendency to call something an EP which is obviously an album). i voted for one of each of those - dawn richard's "EP" is just not an EP in anything except name; ikonika's EP was nearly 40 minutes long, 6 tracks, as cohesive/coherent in its exploration of a particular aesthetic as any album, the quality consistent enough that there was no one standout track to vote for (and also because i voted for the EP i didn't vote for the track!!)

literally no excuse at all for katy b voters, that EP wasn't even a ~cohesive statement~ it was a grab-bag of 4 random songs

great to see the cherry thing place, hopes of also seeing bill fay and fushitsusha are fading fast

I know the rock stuff has been complete utter garbage so far and any Fushitsusha is better but feeling kinda underwhelmed by what I've heard - like there's more blues not enough no wave to them these days.

My impression from a couple of tracks tho'.

I'm glad for the rise of the EP again, the 'album' has always felt like a cludgy format to me

EP is a great format

Tracks poll has nearly 4000 posts, the albs poll may struggle to get up to 2500 => CLEAREST PROOF OF 'DEATH OF THE ALBUM' EVERYONE!

tracks poll was 4 days of clusterfuck

why are there so many more EPs this year?

[insert bullshit doglatin-esque theory about our diminishing attention spans]

― lex pretend, Thursday, 31 January 2013 13:17 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I know this is pure trolling, but if I never said this and you don't believe it, why say it?

Clearly albums fans are more civilised and tracks fans are savages.

haha I don't mean to get on a THE ALBUM IS DEAD LONG LIVE THE EP tip, just sayin ~how I feel~

i love EPs, my point is more that it feels silly to compare some of them to albums

Album is still king in many genres though.

i voted for both Inspector Norse and It's The Arps and I... don't see why that's weird? listening to Norse on its own is a different experience from listening to the whole EP, I guess, and also I just don't think of the tracks poll and the albums poll as being the same thing. tracks that I like i want to do well in one poll, albums/eps that I like I want to do well in another. there's a lot of crossover because there are standout tracks that become favourites on their own (which for me is poppier stuff, but i recognise that a burial fan's going to have a different standout).

I think the tracks poll, by nature, leads to a lot of impromptu discovery and conversation. Albums are too bulky to listen to quickly and craft opinions (or they should be). Tracks poll is always more fun, no doubt about it.

http://i.imgur.com/LnpZC7q.png

19. FIONA APPLE The Idler Wheel (608 Points, 17 Votes, 1 First Place Vote) Spotify

surely the tracks poll gets a longer thread because it's easier to talk about previously-unfamiliar individual tracks that are linked and that you can listen to on the fly than it is to talk about entire unfamiliar albums.

xpost what JF said

It's The Arps is pretty thematic I think.

no no no no THE ALBUM IS DEAD

Come back wittering about grayscale all is forgiven.

YES fiona!

too low, but also impressively high considering she's never had much of an ilm following.

EVERYONE LISTEN TO "HOT KNIFE" RIGHT NOW AND LET YOUR MINDS GET BLOWN

I tried to crack this album, but I couldn't. "Hot Knife" is p good, but I'm certain at this point that Fiona Apple is an artist I only need to visit occasionally, and even then only particular tracks. As far as albums go, I think When the Pawn has the highest concentration of favorites.

thought fiona would be higher

Yeah I was joking ('death of the album' isn't gonna happen anytime soon) but I just see a general lesser level of enthusiasm for stretches of this poll in comparison to the tracks.

That track is p great. I liked the album but I think I still listened to 'When The Pawn' more times in 2012 than this one.

xxp

Huh wow, thought Fiona would be top ten for sure. Deserved it too tbh

I find myself enjoying releases with "long" tracks that do a lot over 8-10 mins. I can dip in and get my artist experience in one go. Suits my listening lifestyle I guess.

it seemed like a good album, idk maybe i'll give it more time soon

i was surprised the idler wheel actually got the critical traction it did: i don't recall fiona apple getting taken seriously that much in the 90s (when i loved her a LOT), and it's easily the most difficult, oddest album of her career: "hot knife" isn't that representative, the rest is all clanks and whirrs and weird found sounds and oblique memories and uncomfortably foregrounded vocals. lyrically she's still got it, though: this opening couplet from "left alone" is all-time:

you made your major overtures
when you were a sure and orotund mutt
and I was still a dewy petal
rather than a moribund slut

*oblique melodies

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

18. BLONDES Blondes (634 Points, 25 Votes) Spotify

I need to give the Blondes album another go. did nothing for me on first listen