ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2012

well new amerykah 1 is the one album i really wouldn't compare to 'channel orange' (but it's sort of an outlier in its own way in erykah's discog too)

channel orange is longer than sex & the city 2 and its cover is the worst

chromatics record is expansive and sparkly and sleepy and magical. i like it

Chromatics front loads the best tunes and the rest is amazing for late night drives on the interstate a+ album i voted for it

mid 00's chromatics are so much better than '12 chromatics

otm

nope

Are you talking "Nite" era or "In the City" era? Not that there's a ton of difference, except the singer.

(Because shambling noisy Chromatics is early 00s, obvs)

yes, and i hear a huge difference!

(i guess i see "nite" and "in the city" as the same era)

i have spent many long blank boring hours zoned out numbly to thee chromatics

"Nite" has some of the same midnight drive atmosphere of the later-to-present material, but it does feature a diff vocalist and a more dancefloor-geared propulsion to it.

yeah those are the main differences for me, also this newer album feels brighter and more song-structured and i prefer cold dark robo disco on them i guess

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

06. TAYLOR SWIFT Red (943 Points, 28 Votes, 2 First Place Votes) Spotify

album looks good in grayscale

oh thank god

red album cover is better than the album imo

first T-Swift album the public liked more than I did.

t-swift <3

she's still in her imperial phase as far as i'm concerned

djp is happy this placed?

Lol I thought that was top 5 for sure

early 00's Chromatics (before they got all Disco at Night-y) were great too, albeit totally different

djp is happy this placed?

happy it didn't place higher, of course

also lol at most of this album not actually being on Spotify US

ahhh phew!

early 00's Chromatics (before they got all Disco at Night-y) were great too, albeit totally different

This is a true story.

but you start to talk
about the movies
that your family watches
every single christmas
and i wanna
talk about that
and for the first time
what's passed is past
:D

obvs should be higher though

I voted for the Tay album but it is pretty uneven so I think this is a bit high.

looking at my ballot, RIP Trust, Elle Varner, Rye Rye and The Presets

chromatics had probably my fav cover art of 2012 so I'm gonna link it http://iheartau.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/chromatics_kill_for_love.jpg

booo @ this placing higher than fearless did in its respective year

like I caned this album a lot cos I love t-swift but it's easily her weakest album imo, the highs are HIGH but it's super patchy

I think the songs are good and don't think it's uneven in any way other than the insane sequencing. Shuffle it around, and it's instantly maybe her best record.

also a good opportunity to link to their cover of ceremony https://soundcloud.com/goldenscissors/chromatics-ceremony-new-order

I hoped for taylor to land outside the top 10 but landing outside the top 5 is probably as good as I could have hoped for

^^ this

'treacherous', 'i knew you were trouble', 'all too well' and 'holy ground' are all maybe better than anything else she'd ever done (although then i think about 'fearless' and 'tim mcgraw' and omg too many amazing songggggs)

so top 5 are miguel, dawn, kendrick, talabot, grimes? still hoping for dawn #1

Grimes in the top 5 is super weird to me

I'd hope for Kendrick, Dawn, Miguel, Talabot, Grimes placement but that's not gonna happen

spoilers!!

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=20416573

i really don't buy that red is any weaker than taylor's previous albums. opening run of 10 is untouchable, take away the duets and there isn't actually a bad song.

"all too well" might be her masterpiece? like, every one of her favourite tricks and thematic obsessions put into one song to really devastating effect. love the chekhov's gun/taylor's scarf device. the lines "hey, you call me up again just to break me like a promise / so casually cruel in the name of being honest" and the way she full-on hollers them. apparently the full version is 10 minutes long and seriously this must get leaked at some point

"treacherous" is the other masterpiece but i can't find a non-pitchshifted youtube, suffice to say that the bridge (twice!!!) might be the most satisfying thing she's ever written, and it's the kind of song i can actually imagine miguel doing

the title track is the one that always gets stuck in my head

hoping for dawn > miguel > talabot > kendrick > some random surprise, and for grimes to miss the 77 altogether

the suspense is killing me!

jessie ware sucks. can't believe how much stuff i am familiar with this year. someday I will be on ur level ilm.

have said before I don't care for the Max Martin collabs, and except for "Starlight" and "Holy Ground" the second side is goop. That makes it a B+ or B record.

Miguel
Dawn
Kendrick
Grimes
Talabot

imo RED still has #deepalbumcuts that rival the ones on the others, it's just the singles have been really flat and not as electric as her previous ones

booo @ this placing higher than fearless did in its respective year

like I caned this album a lot cos I love t-swift but it's easily her weakest album imo, the highs are HIGH but it's super patchy

― prolego, Thursday, January 31, 2013 1:54 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean, lex. there are plenty of masterpieces here but there are mediocre songs that aren't the duets - I Almost Do is meh, Sad Beautiful Tragic, esp.

and I love the Max Martin tracks but they don't cohere. they feel like their own little EP?

i dunno. i suppose four meh tracks isn't that more than the two I don't love on Speak Now but RED doesn't really cohere to me in the same way. as much as i loved listening to it and listened to it ALOT it doesn't excite me as a 'work' the way Fearless and Speak Now did.

http://i.imgur.com/EeZV1X4.png

05. GRIMES Visions (1057 Points, 33 Votes, 1 First Place Vote) Spotify

¯(°_o)/¯

'treacherous', 'i knew you were trouble', 'all too well' and 'holy ground' are all maybe better than anything else she'd ever done (although then i think about 'fearless' and 'tim mcgraw' and omg too many amazing songggggs)

― uberweiss, Thursday, January 31, 2013 1:56 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree that these four are definitely in her pantheon of best song, tho

~braaap~