Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

that's two in decibel's top ten...?

Well, like I said, I'm avoiding spoilers on that list, so I was just going on what Adrien said.

"Usefulness" is a relative concept. Xpost

Like, for instance, I'm not a fan of metal really. I don't have anything against it but. So the Decibel list isn't significant for me, though I'm not dismissing it... Does that make sense? I understand why it matters to other people.

xp I'm curious, what besides Graveyard do you consider of Witchcraft's kind that's better? Or do we have to wait for your list? ;)

The Fly:

40 - Allah-Las: Allah-Las
39 - Mystery Jets: Radlands
38 - Best Coast: The Only Place
37 - The Invisible: Rispah
36 - Liars: WIXIW
35 - Howler: America Give Up
34 - David Byrne & St. Vincent: Love This Giant
33 - Animal Collective: Centipede Hz
32 - Beach House: Bloom
31 - Here We Go Magic: A Different Ship
30 - Graham Coxon: A+E
29 - Poliça: Give You The Ghost
28 - TOY: TOY
27 - Chairlift: Something
26 - Bat For Lashes: The Haunted Man
25 - Melody's Echo Chamber: Melody's Echo Chamber
24 - Daughn Gibson: All Hell
23 - Twin Shadow: Confess
22 - Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan
21 - The Cribs: In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull
20 - King Tuff: King Tuff
19 - Diiv: Oshin
18 - Pond: Beard Wives Denim
17 - The xx: Coexist
16 - The Vaccines: The Vaccines Come Of Age
15 - Purity Ring: Shrines
14 - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Mature Themes
13 - Grizzly Bear: Shields
12 - Alt-J: An Awesome Wave
11 - Lana del Rey: Born To Die
10 - Tame Impala: Lonerism
9 - The Maccabees: Given To The Wild
8 - Kindness: World You Need A Change Of Mind
7 - Field Music: Plumb
6 - Django Django: Django Django
5 - Jessie Ware: Devotion
4 - Cat Power: Sun
3 - Frank Ocean: Channel Orange
2 - Grimes: Visions
1 - Sharon Van Etten: Tramp

that's an entire list of bands i didn't know released albums in 2012

Don't think it'll make my list but I finally got around to listening to that Jessie Ware record and its quite good.

ppl actually like that Grimes album, huh?

did you think all the people in the ilm thread were pretending?

which thread is that

I'm glad to see Grimes showing up on these lists, but disapointed that iamamiwhoami's Kin isn't and probably won't, although it's just as good.

which one?

the thread with 'grimes' in the title that has been full of chatter all year long that you can search for

I cannot tell the Grimes and Purity Ring records apart. Grimes is the slightly more gibberishy one, I think.

I've heard two of those.

oh cool is this the thread where we brag about how much music we didn't listen to

I listened to a lot of music.

Likewise, including the two I mentioned above. I just didn't like them.

40 - Allah-Las: Allah-Las (who?)
39 - Mystery Jets: Radlands (what is this? sounds dumb)
38 - Best Coast: The Only Place (never heard of this)
37 - The Invisible: Rispah (REALLY Invisible if you ask me)
36 - Liars: WIXIW (they put out an album this year? LOL)
35 - Howler: America Give Up (Who-ler is more like it because i dont know WHO they are)
34 - David Byrne & St. Vincent: Love This Giant (Ok wau D Byrne is still alive? what?!)
33 - Animal Collective: Centipede Hz (Didnt these guys just put out an album?!)
32 - Beach House: Bloom (Am I thinking of Beach Fossils? WHAT?)
31 - Here We Go Magic: A Different Ship (Great DISAPPEARING ACT because i have never heard of you)
30 - Graham Coxon: A+E (Huh+What?)
29 - Poliça: Give You The Ghost (Is this Stings band idk)
28 - TOY: TOY (never heard)
27 - Chairlift: Something (more like nothing because you are nothing to me wanted yall 2 know)
26 - Bat For Lashes: The Haunted Man (Saw the pube on the cover and passed)
25 - Melody's Echo Chamber: Melody's Echo Chamber (Accidentally deleted from iTunes)
24 - Daughn Gibson: All Hell (Not on Spotify so #NEAUX1CURRRRR)
23 - Twin Shadow: Confess (is this rap i dont listen to rap)
22 - Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan (lost CD before I could play it fuck)
21 - The Cribs: In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull (British band, refuse to play on principle)
20 - King Tuff: King Tuff (King Nothing is more like it who are these bands is the The Wire's list hahah)
19 - Diiv: Oshin (megaupload down can any1 get this for me help)
18 - Pond: Beard Wives Denim (sounds dumb)
17 - The xx: Coexist (heard one of their songs in a commercial two years ago PASS)
16 - The Vaccines: The Vaccines Come Of Age (THIS IS STILL A BAND HOW IS THIS A THING IS THIS A THING)
15 - Purity Ring: Shrines (Thought I heard this but it was "Grimes")
14 - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Mature Themes (This came out in 2008 I thought. Wait)
13 - Grizzly Bear: Shields (My file was corrupted idk)
12 - Alt-J: An Awesome Wave (?????)
11 - Lana del Rey: Born To Die (People really like this huh? I had no idea. People?)
10 - Tame Impala: Lonerism (Wow. Tame Impala is still around huh. Wow.)
9 - The Maccabees: Given To The Wild (\O_o/)
8 - Kindness: World You Need A Change Of Mind (??????????? where do you people even find this music)
7 - Field Music: Plumb (wut)
6 - Django Django: Django Django (how do i even google this HELLO)
5 - Jessie Ware: Devotion (i dont like metal it's stupid)
4 - Cat Power: Sun (Did we even have a thread on this?)
3 - Frank Ocean: Channel Orange (dumb pop R&B crap, next)
2 - Grimes: Visions (thought i heard this but it was Sky Ferrari)
1 - Sharon Van Etten: Tramp (never heard of this)

lol

just occurred to me that 2/3rds of GAPDYX dropped albums this year

Listened to Grimes when it came out. Listening again now. It's still a mess.

If we're comparing the two - someone mentioned it up there - the Purity Ring is much better.

several of these bands, like "toy" and "goat", i don't even believe in their existence

25 - Melody's Echo Chamber: Melody's Echo Chamber (Accidentally deleted from iTunes)

i listened to this one the other day! it sounded like it might potentially be up my street and i wanted to show willing. it was extremely boring.

8 - Kindness: World You Need A Change Of Mind (??????????? where do you people even find this music)

i wish i lived in a world where kindness prompted extreme bafflement (his music is terrrrrrrrible)

cat power is kinda confusing cuz i like her and i thought that album was a mess, and i thought that was the consensus

xp I'm curious, what besides Graveyard do you consider of Witchcraft's kind that's better? Or do we have to wait for your list? ;)

Spiders, Horisont, and Troubled Horse.

seconded on Spiders which is gonna be top-10-of-everything-in-2012 for me. they probably need a better name. and fonts that aren't free to download

http://www.svartrecords.com/shoppe/1464-1595-large/spiders-flash-point-lp.jpg

band line-up of guitar, bass, drums, harley & the hairiest looking choirboys i have ever

Can we all make a pact not to be a bunch of old wankers about the EOY lists this year?

Last year felt so solidly classic to me, as if the big important albums were very prominently foregrounded in my mind, whereas 2012 seems a lot more disparate - little discoveries and delights from all over the place; Young Smoke, Goat, Swans, and probably Scott Walker will place but there's no year-defining album a la 'Let England Shake' or 'Diamond Mine' this year (for me at least).

What does GAPDYX stand for? I know who it signifies, just not what it spells.

Grizzly, Animal, Phoenix, Dirty, Yeahs + ?

the XX

Thought it must be that, but they seem strange bedfellows to the others, to me (as do Phoenix, but that may just be the fact that they & The xx aren#t Brooklynites).

That Poliça album is very likeable unless you are a grouch. Some of the Gayngs guys are involved but it's a whole lot tighter and denser and funkier than them, plus the vocals are great.

massive grouchiness about polica over here

Lol whiney

End of year list predictions: Lex will complain that the Uncut list doesn't contain any R&B and just one token hip hop album.

Poliça sounds interesting - I liked the Gayngs album on the whole.

Sicko, it was more the ubiquity of those five/six albums in the 2009 EOY polls more than any narrative or generic strand. They dominated that year, but sentiment among Ilxors was that these were not particularly new! fresh! exciting! albums on the whole and signalled a trend towards MOR-values for the year.

xp It's not going to blow your mind or anything, but it's solid enough. Dark Star is probably the best song on it: http://youtu.be/h6WgWCIkH9U

I like that Sharon Van Etten album, but it's funny to me to see it as anyone's top pick. Otoh, it may actually be the best thing on that particular list.

cat power is kinda confusing cuz i like her and i thought that album was a mess, and i thought that was the consensus

― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Thursday, November 22, 2012 3:35 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh it's fucking terrible but of course people like it

Spiders, Horisont, and Troubled Horse.

I definitely support them all as primo candidates. Troubled Horse place highest for me, but still not quite surpassing Graveyard & Witchcraft.

As much as I like the Goat album, for some reason it bugs me that so many seem to rate their album but aren't at all interested in the other Swedish stuff, I feel like just cuz they toss in some Afro rhythms.

I tried the Troubled Horse album the other day - more late '60s garage-rock than I prefer. Generally speaking, the more shamelessly a Swedish retro band is ripping off the first November album, the better I like them.

Did you hear Captain Crimson?

As much as I like the Goat album, for some reason it bugs me that so many seem to rate their album but aren't at all interested in the other Swedish stuff

And the same goes for metal fans who listen to Witchcraft, Goat should be up their alley too. That's why I raved about it on MSN's metal blog in August, even though it's not really a metal album per se. After much hemming and hawing, I left it off my metal list...like Swans I'll give it a special mention instead.

I don't really get this at all tbh, I have no problem w/ anyone repping the Goat album but there's like one hard rock song on it and the rest of it bears no meaningful resemblance to the other "Swedish stuff"

wow! people actually like purity ring more than grimes? purity ring is really boring to me. like a mushy blend of chillwave, witch house, and uk bass. to me it works as background noise and little else. the grimes album, though, has identity! "vision" if you will, yuk yuk. i think it at least deserves points for being legitimately polarizing.

what was the big problem with the cat power album? i liked it.

Fucking chillwave. I'm so fucking sick of this ongoing wishy washy "our vocals are shit so let's cover them up by smothering them in cheap reverb effects and just pretend we're really really into Heaven or Las Vegas" aesthetic. It was alright for a little bit, but jesus can it stop now?

clem: "Take Care" didn't make my ballot because I included it last year but otherwise I agree: one of her (and his) few convincing performances.

Sorry for spamming but any interested parties have ~8 hours to submit a ballot in that prince among critics' polls: the ILM end-of-year poll!

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-Dean-s-List-2012/ba-p/9707

And of course his address to the troops, from an "outlier" now (welcome)
http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/May-the-Consensus-Have-Consequences/ba-p/9709

lol @ him referring to "Dre's evolved jeep-beats" on the Kendrick album

Pink's The Truth About Love was on 10 Pazz & Jop ballots, which seems to have been driven primarily by Christgau's enthusiasm. her (far better) previous album Funhouse only got 1 vote in 2008 (wasn't me, which i regret -- at the time it was #14 on my list).

i'd like to see a lot more of Ka's Grief Pedigree on these lists

― alpine static, Wednesday, December 5, 2012 8:02 PM (8 months ago)

^^ was correct