ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

TOO LOW

too lol

TOO LOW

^^^

TOO ????

fitting that it comes directly after CRJ and SW though

why did none of the Blondes' stuff make it onto the tracks poll oh i wonder.

someone please explain this to me in 140 characters or less

fitting that it comes directly after CRJ and SW though

Yeah, this makes a boatload of sense.

Good job, ILM.

I liked this the two times I played it but haven't felt like going back to it. P much the same way I feel about the first Crystal Castles record.

all explanation in What do you think of MTV Teen Mom Farrah Abraham's first single?

suffice to say that i now love this album beyond the WTF/LOL reasons - i find it genuinely emotionally effective. pure artistic expression~

I like and voted for this record, but DJP was saying earlier something along the lines of "the people who liked it REALLY liked it", and I think I buck that trend somewhat. A couple of the songs really stand out (that keyboard melody on 'On My Own'! Amazing!) but equally some of them fall flat, and I don't think it's a mark of avant-genius or anything, but rather a nicely off-kilter slant on pop. Perhaps knowing nothing about the source means I don't quite appreciate it in the same way, I'm not sure.

someone please explain this to me in 140 characters or less

A wholly inept reality star pours her heart out into an album and comes across as massively unhinged and tragic

This was my #25, really liked the run of tracks towards the end.

Has anyone read the accompanying book?

also I think this is too low

btw if the first three tracks on the Blondes album are the least essential, this is the best fucking album of 2012 IMO

Farah Abraham as midpoint between CRJ and SW is kinda funny. I find this album obliquely fascinating in much the same way as Scott, and as directly fun as CRJ.

Blondes is three EPs back to back really and they got better at the refining their aesthetic as those EPs progressed.

So the line on Farah Abraham seems to be that she tried to make a pop album, but it came out sounding more like some kind of unhinged Crystal Castles instead. Are we sure she wasn't trying to sound like Crystal Castles?

Did we ever find out who's responsible for the production on this btw?

Actually I'm maybe being presumptuous in assuming it wasn't her.

"F.L.A are my initials, appeal to me." Has stayed with me for some reason.

i don't think it's fair to assume she tried to make a pop album - it was sold as the "soundtrack" to her autobiography, i don't think she was aiming to have any hits off it or whatever.

it sounds like she was pretty much using music as catharsis, with the sonic palette of pop but not the aim to be pop

the most interesting thing about FA album is just how inconceivable it is. I voted for it, but there are moments in there where it teeters so much between ineptitude that it comes out the other side as something approaching genius. and yes, once you start looking at the lyrics it starts to make some weird kind of sense. the only thing i can equate something like this with is something like the Shaggs.

ugh, sorry that was horribly written. just free-thinking here

i know nothing about Farrah Abraham, but the album title and cover lead me to believe that she's taking a step outside the usual parameters of how an album is made. that's pretty intriguing in itself.

I find the entire discourse around this record so offputting I've never actually listened to it. The very idea of it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.

So the line on Farah Abraham seems to be that she tried to make a pop album, but it came out sounding more like some kind of unhinged Crystal Castles instead. Are we sure she wasn't trying to sound like Crystal Castles?

Not 100% sure, but this type of mangled output from a semi-straightforward endeavor is a direct metaphor of her life story as it has played out on Teen Mom, so it would not surprise me if it was an intentional artistic choice if it wasn't for the fact that her public persona plays out as someone incapable of intentionally making that type of artistic choice. Which makes the whole project more fascinating to me, because either story line is awesome and the end result is still endearing.

This reminds me of Neil Young's Trans, of all things.

finally getting up from rock bottom - I CAME DRESSED UP ON THE WAY DOWN / ENJOY THE MOMENTS WHILE I'M IN THEM
the sunshine state - FLA ARE MY INITIALS: APPEAL TO ME #makesmengoloco

what i meant by "inconceivable" upthread is that there are ideas in there that few in their right mind would even begin to consider - the (lack of) cadence and metre; the autotuned-beyond-recognition vocal snippets; the trance-rave backing music. it's like, how did this even get made? but it did and i'm glad of it.

This reminds me of Neil Young's Trans, of all things.

Well that's me sold

saying this album has a lack of cadence and meter is fundamentally wrong

Trance-rave backing music also not exactly a left-field musical concept in 2013.

and the videos! there's one that's just sea life filmed on a shakey digital camera, but it makes some kind of crazy sense. it's like "I want some trippy visuals for my video, let's go down to seaworld and take videos with my iphone". that's cool, it's DIY.

the ineptitude of the album is almost like a trojan horse - once you find yourself returning to it in gawping fascination (reality tv principle #1!) you end up realising how accurate and effective it is as a portrait of a fairly traumatic life: teenage pregnancy (and consequent body horror/post-natal depression), domestic abuse, the death of the baby's father...

the more reflective (and genuinely quite gorgeous) songs on the album - "with out this ring", "searching for closure" - are key as well, though they're not on youtube

^ right

lex otm, I don't think she really cares about "pop," she just wanted to make some music to express herself & pop is what she's grown up hearing & this is the result. I assumed she produced it herself, but I guess the "beats" could have been made by a friend or something?

many xposts

lol I only heard the track emil.y talked about.

But from a quick scan - horrible or unfortunate family story background, tech used by someone you wouldn't expect to and mixed reaction from listeners.

Obv plenty of differences too. xp to Tom D.

a portrait of a fairly traumatic life: teenage pregnancy (and consequent body horror/post-natal depression), domestic abuse, the death of the baby's father...

... stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Scott Walker

the more reflective (and genuinely quite gorgeous) songs on the album - "with out this ring", "searching for closure" - are key as well, though they're not on youtube

^^^^ absolutely

the refrain "you're in my heart/my mind/my thoughts/my prayers" floats through my mind a lot

the refrain "you're in my heart/my mind/my thoughts/my prayers" floats through my mind a lot

"i'm holding back my tears my tongue this kills me" in that robotic autotune chirrup as though she's literally shutting herself down

the ineptitude of the album is almost like a trojan horse - once you find yourself returning to it in gawping fascination (reality tv principle #1!) you end up realising how accurate and effective it is as a portrait of a fairly traumatic life: teenage pregnancy (and consequent body horror/post-natal depression), domestic abuse, the death of the baby's father...

― lex pretend, Thursday, 31 January 2013 15:40 (59 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the more reflective (and genuinely quite gorgeous) songs on the album - "with out this ring", "searching for closure" - are key as well, though they're not on youtube

― lex pretend, Thursday, 31 January 2013 15:40 (13 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's very similar to the way i feel about latter-day Scott Walker. you have to kind of desensitise yourself to the surface-level "difficulty" of the music and after a few goes it starts making a whole different level of sense. I forget how I used to feel about albums like the Drift now.

taking a shitty novelty record by a mentally damaged individual "seriously" isn't transgressive or interesting in 2012, it's very lester bangs

"oh baby / oh baby / this bump doesn't go away / neither does the fear on my face / it feels like i'm going in on this alone"

you can apply that to whichever artist you think it's appropriate for
xpost

taking a shitty novelty record by a mentally damaged individual "seriously" isn't transgressive or interesting in 2012, it's very lester bangs

who says it's transgressive? i take it seriously because it's a record i respond to emotionally, that i find incredibly affective and effective