ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

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

Ah good, I like the Blondes album. I don't listen to it a lot, but I enjoy it whenever it's on.

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'.

my fave haino-related release last year was actually his live jam alb w/ o'rourke & arambachi - pure rock action, not too heavy on the bloos - but i figured that had even less chance of making this poll

enjoyed blondes, definitely preferred it to the talabot, didn't vote for it at all. that is one super-nice album design though! something so simple, but i could spend ages looking at the shapes on it

yay blondes, my votes are coming thick and fast now

a lot of the dance/electronic stuff that's placed so far i've described as perfect for grey, hungover days; this is the opposite, the music is so dazzlingly bright, it sounds just like one of those piercingly bright winter days when you look up and you're momentarily blinded by the sun and everything around you just seems more luminous than usual

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

lol, lex, I will concede that this is quite a good couplet, but jeez, even with a Fiona Apple record you manage to highlight the lyrics with derogatory terms for women. \o/

Haha, the main image I get when I hear Blondes is loads and loads and loads of roses, for some reason. I get something stately, almost 'classical' (as in Roman or Greek) about them, so it's statues and flowers and stuff. Prob just me of course.

Maybe it's the fx they use - 'choir of angels' kind of thing

Or just the titles - wine etc I associate with romance. I dunno, just being weird

my fave haino-related release last year was actually his live jam alb w/ o'rourke & arambachi - pure rock action, not too heavy on the bloos - but i figured that had even less chance of making this poll

Cor Jim o'rouke, totally forgotten of his existence :)

This Blondes record sounds triffic. All of my 'to check out later' will be bobbins related I think.

^ first track on the blondes is built round a meredith monk sample fyi

i can see why that particular Fiona album snapped up so many critical nods: it's uglier, riskier and more unflinchingly inward-looking than the others. don't get me wrong, her other albums all have their own share of introspection and incredible lyrical turns; it's just that the sentiments of this one have nowhere to hide amongst the creaky, dead-end musical ambits and stark backdrops. the end result is that her revelations on The Idler Wheel.. have more of a point-blank impact. the earlier albums all had a lot of polish and glisten to them that provided reprieve from their more harrowing reflections.

great, have a look into that. xp

http://i.imgur.com/LUGMp5g.png

17. CARLY RAE JEPSEN Kiss (635 Points, 20 Votes, 4 First Place Votes) Spotify

wow 4 first place

awesome

was so not expecting this album to be anything more than "call me maybe" plus filler but there are so many charming golden-age-of-teenpop songs on it

the second drop into the chorus of curiosity >>>>>>

The people who loved this album REALLY loved it. I thought it was nice.

just realised that the Terje thing is essentially album length anyway. sometimes it can be difficult to make clear-cut distinctions between the two formats.

second time there's been a run of three i've voted for (neneh/vftl/sviib was the other)

Really curious about the two ppl who beat CRJ on Canadian Idol and what's happening in their careers