Year-End Critics' Polls 2012

hope u liek clicking

Dummy have started their top 10 albums too, but it looks like they're being really slowcore about it and doing them one at a time. Good news for all you Dean & Inga fans:

http://dummymag.com/features/2012/12/03/10-dean-blunt-and-inga-copeland-black-is-beautiful/

haha so far my takeaway from the FACT list is "huh, I should be reading FACT"

note to self: never pay attention to FACT ever again

― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 17:46 (11 months ago)

Not listened to the Purity Ring album before. Kinda like Crystal Castles without the shouty noise?

xp haha

I am apparently the exact opposite person of who I was in 2011

I tend to think of Purity Ring as some weird intersection between CREEP and a flesh-eating fairy princess

Vice:

50. Someone who's just been signed.

49. Someone who's already been dropped.

48. Rapper who has done things that would make Chris Brown cut off his dick in shame, but because they're not to anyone famous, they still count towards his grizzled street cred with Pitchfork readers who are too scared and confused by WSHH to get their news from source.

47. Whatever Thom Yorke has blessed this year.

46. "Never heard of it."

45. "I've heard of it, but not actually gotten around to hearing it yet."

44. "Worst thing I've ever heard."

43. Kendrick Lamar.

42. Band who mistakenly believed they'd be given a big post-Olympics popularity boost by their very public decision to tell Danny Boyle and his Opening Ceremony to go fuck themselves.

41. Artist whose raw public confession of homosexuality wasn't quite as good as Frank Ocean's because he had the misfortune not to work in a genre that hates gays.

40. Peaking Lights

39. Woman compared to Kate Bush because of key overlaps: 1) being a woman, 2) singing, 3) giving the impression that she has difficulty coping with life.

38. Woman praised in copy for "striking a blow for modern femininity", a blow that so far consists of making mediocre indie-pop about past boyfriends.

37. Mac DeMarco

36. Album that everyone suddenly seems to be talking about like they've been into it for ages, despite the fact that you've never heard anyone other than the Quietus say a damned word about it, and never will again after 31 December.

35 – 31. Five acts who have all slept with someone who has slept with Swim Deep.

30. People voting for Django Django who meant to vote for Alt-J.

29. People voting for Alt-J who meant to vote for Django Django.

28. Act who changed name and moved to Montreal to make deep house two years after changing name and moving to Brooklyn to make witch garage two years after moving to Portland to make Apple advert indie.

27. Band who had the good fortune to be alphabetised in everyone's iTunes immediately after Grimes, leading to crucial "left it running" plays.

26. The much-feted return of a "living legend" who, despite enjoying a good feting, has mainly spent the past few months praying that no one finds out what happened in his Top Of The Pops dressing room in March 1973.

25. A "shadowy" post-dubstep producer, who spends his days cold-calling pensioners on behalf of EDF Energy.

24. Artist whom music journalists have decided to love because their former career as a journalist means that there's still hope for everyone's thwarted and stalled creative ambitions, #GodGetMeOutOfThisWakingNightmare.

23. Something on Not Not Fun that was recorded in a pristine, state of the art studio – in which the band were playing next door in the bogs for that authentic lo-fi sound.

22. Someone who might have been in Odd Future, but trying to deny it now.

21. Canadians making Canadian Music.

20. Toy

19. A bunch of super-smart, snot-nosed, wet behind the balls students whose lyrics seem to infer that they have had sexual intercourse, whereas one listen to the way they sing them confirms that they surely haven't.

18. Album that writer breathlessly describes as having "deconstructed pop", but which simply reflects the fact that said writer doesn't listen to much pop nowadays and is astonished at genre-blending that anyone with a working knowledge of Radio 1 will have long since taken as standard.

17. Beach House

16. Someone who once shared a cab with Kevin Parker.

15. Band who have released an "amusingly arch" record that they'd be mortified to hear described as such, because in fact they were being deadly serious and are just incredibly pretentious.

14. Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen

13. Fiona Apple or Cat Power

12. Dirty Projectors or David Byrne

11. "Sun-dappled dream-popper" who in truth only ever dreams about killing animals with a spade.

10. The xx or Chromatics

9. Album whose appraisal involved the editor having to do a ctrl+F to make damn sure she'd rooted out every last appearance of the word "shimmering".

8. Space reserved for old black legend being rebooted for modern coffee tables by Richard Russell.

7 – 2. The six highest-ranking albums of the year on Pitchfork that lazy hacks swotted up on to obscure the fact that they basically spent 2012 listening to nothing but real music, i.e. Muse and The Vaccines.

1. Album Of The Year: Mumfords (Q), Kendrick Lamar Spector (NME), Sven Vath (Mixmag), Andy Stott (Resident Advisor), Neil Young (Uncut), Neil Young (Mojo), Neil Young (Classic Rock), Neil Young (Home & Garden), people humming transcendentally over distorted tape loops of concrete being laid (The Wire).

LOL!

lol @ explicit reference to lil reese

implicit

people humming transcendentally over distorted tape loops of concrete being laid (The Wire)

Would listen

Sounds more promising than Laurel Halo anyway

purity ring record is my favorite discovery from list-time so far, it's right in my wheelhouse

Guardian also doing a top 10 slowroll: #10 is Bobby Womack

People don't like Laurel Halo any more all of a surgeon? I never even got the chance to hear it.

people humming transcendentally over distorted tape loops of concrete being laid (The Wire)

Would listen

― ILM Communication (seandalai), Monday, December 3, 2012 4:00 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM

Actually, I'm kind of tempted to try to make that record.

Laurel Halo is not bad imo, just kind of ok and I haven't felt like listening to it in months.

Wow, does Magnet cover all that stuff now? I'd check it out again if they've expanded coverage from their alt/indie niche.

^ my question too. my guess is they don't *actually* cover that stuff regularly, but make end-of-year lists. hope im wrong

^^^
We're getting there

Weingarten, Inc.'s list is out:

http://www.spin.com/articles/best-albums-2012

1. Frank Ocean
2. Kendrick Lamar
3. Japandroids

someone else will have to type the rest out ... kudos to SPIN for making it so I can flip back to #1 immediately rather than having to go thru 50 clicks!

Big difficulty in covering rap/noise in print mags that pride themselves on timeliness and require huge lead times: dearth of early promos. Indie rock: really ace at getting stuff into people's hands super early

yowza, that nsfw at #12 was a shocker (Deth Gripz). hadn't seen the actual cover till now...

Was going to moan about Spin's top three, but then... DJ RASHAD at 4!

the khia album is so much better than the kendrick album as far as 2012 hip-hop goes

the khia album is so much better than the kendrick album as far as 2012 hip-hop goes

― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Monday, December 3, 2012 10:43 AM (25 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LOL

*leans forward, puts chin on fist*

a+ whiney blurb on that fun. record

*leans forward, puts chin on fist*

― J0rdan S., Monday, December 3, 2012 4:45 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you can KEEP your critdude consensus

all i know is the khia album is everything i have been desiring in rap and have missed and i am jamming it as incessantly as i have any album i've heard. INSTANT CLASSIC

did kendrick have a 6-min smooth r&b jam called "dickmatize"? I DON'T THINK SO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KSQgVxe4Y4

did he need one?

really bumming that a great rap album wasn't broken up by a 6-minute r&b song

could've subbed out that boring don't kill my vibe one for a 6-minute anything and it'd have been an improvement

you can KEEP your critdude consensus

― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Monday, December 3, 2012 11:47 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

wait don't you like the kendrick lamar album

this is a stupid conversation

i need to check if the applecare expired on my iLex

i do like the kendrick, i don't think it's worthy of the encomiums, it might scrape my top 20 whereas khia has gatecrashed my top 5 with an unhesitating and firm bullet

also none of you have heard the khia album and your lulz are literally solely based on prejudice and belief that the consensus is inherently correct

really you could sub ANY hyped 2012 rapper for kendrick and khia would be better

the stuff the hip-hop world has recommended this year has not been up to scratch

apart from angel haze who i note is also missing from many rap lists

hahaha so the Khia album starts out with a sweary skit set to the beat from "The Motto"

total Lex-bait

my rapping vagina puppet is going to drop an album on December 1st next year and totally rearrange lex's year-end list

"For Real" is reminding me of the lyrical breadth of Chief Keef

xpost well that's my teenage dream ended.

did chief keef threaten to snatch your fake breast out? NO

I didn't even notice that line, mostly because I was amazed at the number of times she said "muthafuckas for real" in a row

2nd track is budget Missy circa Under Construction

Gorilla vs. Bear
http://www.gorillavsbear.net/2012/12/02/gorilla-vs-bears-albums-of-2012/

1. Grimes – Visions
2. Chromatics – Kill For Love
3. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city
4. Burial – Kindred
5. Jessie Ware – Devotion
6. Schoolboy Q – Habits & Contradictions
7. Beach House – Bloom
8. Tops – Tender Opposites
9. Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dream
10. Chairlift – Something
11. Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music
12. Grizzly Bear – Shields
13. Laurel Halo – Quarantine
14. Holy Other – Held
15. Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland – Black is Beautiful
16. Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
17. Jessica Pratt – Jessica Pratt
18. Frankie Rose – Interstellar
19. Symmetry – Themes For An Imaginary Film
20. Andy Stott – Luxury Problems
21. Chromatics – Running From the Sun
22. Angel Olsen – Half Way Home
23. Clams Casino – Instrumentals II
24. Nicolas Jaar – Don’t Break My Love / The Prism
25. Fort Romeau – Kingdoms
26. Dawn Richard – Armor On
27. Tamaryn – Tender New Signs
28. Shackleton – Music For the Quiet Hour
29. Mirroring – Foreign Body
30. Flying Lotus – Until the Quiet Comes
31. Phedré – Phedré
32. LOL Boys – Changes
33. Roc Marciano – Reloaded
34. Fight Bite – Fight Bite
35. Sam Flax – Age Waves
36. Dum Dum Girls – End of Daze
37. Lower Dens – Nootropics
38. Las Malas Amistades – Maleza
39. Lace Curtains – The Garden of Joy and the Well of Loneliness
40. Ryan Hemsworth – Last Words + Collected
41. Taken By Trees – Other Worlds
42. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Mature Themes
43. Antwon – End of Earth
44. Pye Corner Audio – Sleep Games
45. Molly Nilsson – History
46. Peaking Lights – Lucifer
47. Death Grips – The Money Store
48. Pure Bathing Culture – Pure Bathing Culture
49. Theesatisfaction – awE naturalE
50. Sand Circles – Motor City

basically I feel like you're going "all of this music is bullshit, you should listen to THIS *points at more bullshit*"