ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2012

I listened to the rest of "It's the ARPs" this morning and phreow Track 3 is so strong, anyway

bump 4 zach to finish his countdown, and for others to start theirs

i'll finish tomorrow but at least one other person better do it too

last night i dreamt miguel had a song with the opening line "I've never really tired of the Rubiks Cube"

Sounds more like a Frank line to me.

oooookay, so i spent a week reading/listening here and rather than boring you with impressions I'll just say thanks
several new tracks i didn't know, many GREAT songs and a good opportunity to reassess what I had listened to and discarded months ago
and now i have to start the albums thread.

Good luck!

i may need it. slogging through Animal collective now. woof.

it's not a dinner party without forks

i mean i'd be happy to comment on any of these, having listened to everything multiple times but i don't know that i can say anything better than it's already been said.

'whateverest' hit a little too close to home ;_;

i was going to do a whateverest thread

i was searching for it in various places last week and then they go and upload it to vimeo

lol gr8080

I was kinda expecting that dan deacon "call me maybe" remix thing to place, actually. This year's "u smile ambient"

'u smile ambient' was released this year iirc? wasn't it the slowed down versh of 'friday' that kicked everything off?

u smile paulstretch was 2010!

re: whateverest/norse -
i prefer it distilled to a music video i think, even though i appreciated the 'whateverest' joke. its quotidian bitterness definitely feels True which i think distinguishes it from napoleon dynamite &c. (i think gr8080 made the comparison) &, for me, in the inspector norse video proper, means the tragedy doesn't so much undercut the utopian hedonism of the song as make it more real/meaningful. the video has informed how i've heard it out since though, & it's a strange thing to enter yr mind on the dancefloor. also i like his jumping fistpump/jumpstart move.

I've only seen the Norse video, but I definitely relate to that dude to some extent. I respect how he keeps the party going.

It's a bit depressing yet there's this aspect of respect for his commitment

sorry for the delay

20. FRANK OCEAN “Pyramids” – have tried several times to get through this but I get distracted by squirrels halfway through every time. here I’ll be nice and try again. ok sounds nice I can see how this is the beginning of a ten minute song. not really hearing the words. nice backup vox. there’s some EDM I guess. oh this is a thriller-y part. still not hearing the words. stuff about pyramids. is this whole thing about his bart simpson dick. oh god there are some dumb metaphors going on here. “got inside that gold.” bored now. is this going anywhere? go back to thriller. play thriller. “cleopetra. cleopetra. comin’ et ya.” oh she’s a stripper isn’t she. I don’t think cleopatra was around when the pyramids were being built. this whole part is just, ok, I get it, I see what you’re going for, you’re still going for it. sad guitar solo. of COURSE he ends the album with this.
19. TAYLOR SWIFT “I Knew You Were Trouble” – DUBTAY. works very well but the only parts I like are everything but the actual “I knew you were trouble” part. was originally gonna say “the guitar part in the verses and the part where she’s just mumbling trouble trouble trouble” but on re-listen I’m liking it a lot more than on the radio.
18. CASSIE “King of Hearts” – originally was harsh on this bc cassie sounds so anonymous but it all sounds so nice, who cares
17. MIGUEL “Do You…” – nope nope nope still cannot listen to this without getting ’single pigeon’ by wings in my head
16. D’BANJ “Oliver Twist” – have been forward to this bc I listened to it a few times when it was new and my ears sort of perk up at the thought of hearing it again, but I don’t remember – yes yes this is good BUT NOW // I CAN’T LISTEN // WITHOUT THINKING OF // LEX
15. SOLANGE “Losing You” – lol I do not ever really judge songs by their danceability like many here and I have no concept of rhythm and am horrible at everything but even I have trouble with the beat here. which sucks cause all of the sounds are so nice and solange sounds so nice and that melody would be great with a higher BPM and “tell me the truth boy am I losing you for good” hits me but god what is with the beat
14. BLAWAN “Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage” – it’s not as good as getting me down but what is. this videois so awesome.
13. ICONA POP “I Love It” – anyone who listened to this once and did not mentally bookmark it as “a jam” immediately after is living their life in a way that is alien to me. the whole point is the chorus and I’m totally cool with waiting a bit to get there and cool with the fact that they only do it twice which forces you to listen to it over and over again. BUT I’M A NINETIES BITCH, etc etc
12. PACHANGA BOYS “Time” – never heard this – [15 minutes pass] – oh it’s nice
11. ERIC CHURCH “Springsteen” – I like this it is a good song and the fact that you all argued about it for three weeks is weird
10. FUTURE “Turn On The Lights” – love it, not sure there’s anything to say about it that hasn’t been said. “I hear she keep her promises” part is classic
9. GRIMES “Oblivion” – love at first sight with this song. the whole art-damaged decay thing is so much better when ariel pink isn’t doing it. and when it steals from del shannon. and when its lyrics are earnest. learning it’s about her sexual assault put it in a new light but wasn’t surprising in the slightest. I don’t really know what that says about the song but hey it’s important nonetheless
8. CHAIRLIFT “I Belong In Your Arms” – this is catchy with a v pleasant chorus but messy and I’ve never gotten the hype. remember two doors down by mystery jets, I keep hearing its chorus’s synths in it and getting bored
7. SKY FERREIRA “Everything Is Embarrassing” – this actually didn’t unfold for me until it popped up on random in the big trax list and then I ended up giving it a lot of points. it’s the repetition at the end (second half?) that totally makes it. it could end at least a half minute sooner but the fact that it doesn’t = best choice ever
6. PSY “Gangnam Style” – when songs become Things I lose the ability to hear them as Songs, I’m so sick of it that his voice actually makes me sort of sick, that pistachio commercial was painful, esp cause he first said he was sick of the song like 6 months ago
5. USHER “Climax” – my first exposure was seeing the jukebox give it an 8.00 and thinking whoops should’ve gotten on that, and also whoa that’s high for a new usher song, so my expectations were way too high from the start. and then it was the #1 song with a thousand bullets so it was getting constant airplay and I probably listened to it 500 times back when I had a driving job, but the last 200 times was probably more out of a commitment to this wonderful song being all over r&b radio. more inert appreciation than real enjoyment.
4. KATY B FT. JESSIE WARE “Aaliyah” – yeah it’s alright
3. MIGUEL “Adorn” – all these Miguel songs sound better as album tracks (nb I haven’t listened to the album yet obv). listen to adorn EVERY time it comes on, and it sounds wonderful and I love it but it’s always sounded too minor to put on the top of any list, it’s so short and 90% of the song is the same line, but I guess it can’t really be anything else.
2. CARLY RAE JEPSEN “Call Me Maybe” – my stance when I first heard it about a billion years ago was I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS!!! [7]. I’m attached to the meme, I got sick of the song very very quickly but I was also a driver so. I’ve always liked that it’s snooty and CRJ isn’t trying to hide the fact that she’s hot shit.
1. TODD TERJE “Inspector Norse” – first time I listened to it I was just collapsed on top of myself for seven minutes and loving every note and just going AH AH AH YES YES CORRECT =’D =’D ;_; and then the big change (key change? I don’t know) happens at the 2/3 mark and I just exploded right there and am still dead. second time I listened to it I spent the whole time waiting for that big change and then found it disappointing. have been stuck in between these two experiences ever since. not the best song of the year.

great write-up zachlyon

tyvm

I really like that Andres track upthread, and the EP it's from. I know it doesn't do a whole lot in its run-time, but that's not the point really - it serves at creating a sweet and funky atmosphere to go and do other things by. If anything it's a bit too short. Any other tracks in this kind of vein I should look out for? The only other thing I can compare it to is things like 'The Bomb' or 'Solitary Flight' maybe?

here's a link to the set ive done on soundcloud. its got all of the songs from 77 to 1 - 2 tracks are missing.

https://soundcloud.com/uglycasanova/sets/ilm-favourite-tracks-2012

this pachanga boys song is ruining my life

...in a good way?

16. D’BANJ “Oliver Twist” – have been forward to this bc I listened to it a few times when it was new and my ears sort of perk up at the thought of hearing it again, but I don’t remember – yes yes this is good BUT NOW // I CAN’T LISTEN // WITHOUT THINKING OF // LEX

:D

i'm probably stupid for only noticing this now, but 2 songs placed with parts from technotronic's pump up the jams? awesome, but strange

wait, which songs?

the alex anwandter song's got that synthy bit, and lapaz toyota has that part near the beginning that sounds a lot like the "make-my-day-make-my-make-my-day" bit in Pump. Maaaaybe now that I am listening to both again this is a massive stretch tho :/

lol never in a million years would I have thought the lapaz toyota stutters were a "pump up the jam" reference but I do see what you're getting at.

yeah i think it was JSUT because i listen to them both within a few minutes and was like "wait what"

the synth stabs in "Gangnam Style" are p close to "Pump Up the Jam" too

also i think Blawan spelled backwards is "Nawktotronalb"

you know in 1993 or whatever i (probably) very earnestly thought while listening to that song that all music would sound like that in the future -- who knew i would be right?

"You Want Me" is such a fucking JAM!

Today I'm going apeshite for Matte Black Truck.

Matte Black Truck is one of the main reasons I owe this thread a drink.

I'm not sure I know of many regular-length pop songs that work in three very specific movements in the same way as MBT, but it's the chorus that gets me the most - there's something so satisfying and crunchy about the way those syllables work together "in my matte black truck/in my matte black truck", makes me feel like I'm eating a Yorkie bar. I like Tim F's reading about the ambiguity of the chorus. I kind of hear it as a state of passive/aggressive denial: "If you leave NBD, I'm just going to play some killer jams in my Jeep (so loud you won't hear me weep)".

video now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkv4nPVIDhQ

Why is it only a minute and a half long though? what is WRONG WITH PEOPELEELEEELE?!!!~

"Viral"

the video isn't new, it predated the full song's release

v annoying that she never released a full version (same with "go to work")

I've been grooving to Spotify radio based off of this playlist and a song just popped up that made me go "this sounds a little like a dude singing a Cher Lloyd song, what is this?"

It was "Looks Like Sex" by Mike Posner.

NNNNNNNGH

Mungolian Jetset - Toccata - more like bungholian jetset trash & no star “tocaca”

No audio werner?!

what font is that, Jordan?

shit i'll have to look it up on my boyfriend's computer, but i'll let you know

thanks! I appreciate it.