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Don't get the inconsistency argument on this at all.

Dull. As. Shit.

Cat Power on that many lists, might be just me though. Definitely not her best.

Trim ten minutes and I'll make that a 9/10 and it pops into contention.

I think that Grimes is a good album for its potential rather than its realisation. It's not so much inconsistent as a bit unfinished. I hope Claire Boucher will move quickly on and produce something brilliant next time around.

Really surprised to see Sun near the top of AOTY lists. Totally with you on the quality control argument.

I've had the same problem with Bloom that you do. Teen Dream was my album of 2010 and this was... more of the same high-quality songwriting. But it's so good that I'm not so worried about the originality, so it's probably in my top 10 of the year.

The early AOTY lists have been a bit skewed, though. The Gorilla vs. Bear list has been added at http://www.albumoftheyear.org/lists.php and it's the closest to my own tastes of all the lists up so far. Glad to see Chromatics and Chairlift in there!

Some terrible lyrics on there. Also not a fan of The Seer.

unless by `success` you're just referring to some internet-media-twitter-who-gives-a-shit-nonsense.

too slick, too nice, too safe, overproduced

But the amount of attention that Alt-J have gotten this year is completely baffling. Diabolical band.

solid contribution.

basically

It's smooth yes, but it's also a phenomenally classy pop album with great, memorable songs and a fantastic voice.

She's got the capacity to other, edgier, things and I'm sure she will, but there is nothing wrong with making a really good mainstream album.

So long as people avoid the "People only like this because it's hyped/well-reviewed/made by a gay black man... etc" arguments.

and also doing beautiful, fragile things

but that album - so many production moves copied straight from mid-late eighties shiny soul sessions does not a 'classy' or 'sophisticated' record make.

Can't disagree on the voice though, been following her since 2010 when she did the Nervous EP with SBTRKT and thought back then she was on the path to something great ... which I guess is why I feel so disappointed by this record

then again, if the mainstream is where she wants to be then who the fuck am I to be disappointed?

... and I say that as someone who loves Sade's Diamond Life & Loose Ends' So Where Are You ... just would have a like a 2012 version instead of a 1985 redux

She's talented enough to do what she likes - another pop album or guest vocals with a whole range of other people.

Your view of the production is a perfectly reasonable one, although I think you exaggerate how 'eighties' it sounds - it sounds modern to me, if not cutting edge.

I also think the production suits the songs. The songs are very strong, simple pop songs and a clean, sleek sound works well with them.

And I say that a someone who dismissed Sade as pop mush (although I was more of an indie purist in those days).

But a thread like this is ok if people use it to defend records that others dismiss.

The Frank Ocean argument is pathetic and plainly wrong.

Nonetheless, I'll take this opportunity to say that the Walkmen album sounded like a more earnest Stereophonics to me. Didn't get it at all.

try hard

too schmaltzy for me

and I don't think the songs are that strong either

no where near catchy enough, I was disapointed too after some ace early promise from that single on Numbers and all that.

First and only time I've bought an album based on the frenzied praise of DIS users and i truly hated it. Maybe I'm just bad at music

in that Wasted Days riff!

otherwise agree, an album for an occaisional mood and then about a year too long

...

cheers

What's his name?

But the rest is just musical conspiracies, some people really like the album. Genuinely.

but his voice is awful and the guitars sound awful and i just completely don't get how it could be a good thing to listen to

terrible year

You see, I was under the impression that you had actually listened to it. COVER'S BLOWN.

The timing of the 'reveal'was a little suspect. But if one assumes that some people praised/heard it because of the gay angle then it follows that there will be a disturbing number who will reject/diss it based on the same angle.

I've enjoyed so much music this year, quite remarkable, so many different and interesting albums.

.. and that's the key, to 2012 music I think you needed to think and feel outside the box. Except from one or two incursions into blandsville (cough, Chromatics, cough), the music 's been quite out there, crossing genres, blending them.
If you're in straight/traditional rock or indie stuff ... then, it's not your year.
I'm saying that and Leonard Cohen played a blinder this year!
Oh my, what's not to like really.

Actress? GY!BE? Flying Lotus? Swans? Four Tet? Cooome oooooon

I'm torn over The Seer. It's in my top albums of the year list because when it did (and indeed still occasionally does) click it's amazing. You have to devote a 2 hour walk to it or evening indoors but when I'm in the mood, I love it.

On other days I think it'd be better with a disc less, half the tracks cut down to 4 minutes and less repetition.

grouped together because they both go on about how much weed they smoked while making them. Which (to my mature ears at least) produced two albums full of half-finished ideas masquerading as songs. Which is sometimes okay obviously but I wasn't feeling either of these.

but the imperfections in that are what make that band special for a lotta people. As above, so below.

his sexuality is hinted at quite a bit on the record, by coming out he effectively avoided months of speculation after the record's release.

Probably need to listen to it more but it's a bit meh. FUCKING MEH in fact.

...not saying these are BAD albums in the OP (don't read as such), more that, y'know, I haven't heard what others have, who've subsequently gone nuts for these albums. See also: Alt-J (nope, not for me at all), Bat for Lashes (just sounds so hollow compared to previous albums), and Sharon van Etten (it's been said in another thread, that the album before Tramp WAS better). But of course, IMO.

it's fucking great

But I found the album deathly dull, and I have no issue with slick, 'easy listening' records if they're done well (Feist was in my top 10 last year).

And yet, look at the number of top fives it's appearing in. Loads.

DIVISIVE

That put me off straight away. Gave it a further 3 or 4 spins but, nah... not my bag

Glad we've got that sorted.

If the last 3 are anything to go by, I don't think they'll make a record I completely enjoy again. Shame (for me). I found WIXIW particularly dull and insipid.

I guess loads more people listened to the album because the news story made the album get noticed. (I for one.)

And I'd guess loads of people got into it as a result of listening to it, not because of the news story.

As far as it goes, it sounds like Sheeeeeeeit is coming from a position of knowing the genre; I'd say a great many of Channel Orange's fans probably don't know it, hence why they might like it a lot more (c.f. all the bullshit around Talabot's album earlier in the year where the house fans seemed to think we were all nuts for liking it).

Personally I was surprised to find the album as listenable as I did, but it's just not my sort of music and never will be.

I guess you said the same thing about Nirvana back in the day.

That said, I thought Liars was fantastic, which I guess you don't so hey ho.

I would agree with your 'not *that* good points) and I'd add Django Django to the list. Every time I hear tracks from the album I just find it really...unspecial. I don't get the massive love for it.

Maybe I should give it another listen.

There are bits of all 3 records I like but yeah, none of them have much energy or spark to them.

The best bits of this album seemed to be the tracks which could have been on Kid A.

I bloody love it, but it just is too dense at times

Dull maybe, insipid maybe, but, wait, what am i talking about? GET OFF MY LAWN

She's Lady Gaga without the tunes. How drawling incomprehensibly over a minimalist backing track makes her a musical pioneer is absolutely beyond me. It's the kind of music that's so vague, you can project any sort of post-modernist bollocks onto it and somehow justify yourself.

I'm aware I'm in the minority here but that is my steadfast opinion after trying very hard with a very trying album

I mean You Are Free to claim she's made better records, and you could be right, Sun might not be The Greatest, but even so.... it's been on repeat in my personal Jukebox.

What does the Community Think?

In the Talabot thread, I was daft enough to say fans of the album didn't know enough about dance music...despite being a novice myself, at best.

But you're explanation only covers half of what you originally assumed. For sure, the letter had a marketing purpose at its heart, and probably even had some influence on a proportion of critical praise. But attributing all the buzz to his revlation in turn implies that listeners were blinded to the poor music by the backstory and weren't able to appraise it truthfully. You're inferring something that you have no way of knowing.

is that a lot of the tracks, on their own, are incredible, but strung out across a whole album (and I'll say it again) are like a skateboarder that's doing all these really impressive tracks, which wow you for 5 minutes, and then it all gets a bit samey and boring. I really wanted to like the Grimes album, and I think I was perhaps willing myself to not hate it because it blog-popular. I just don't love it, but can appreciate why others do, sort of.

It isn't trying to blow your mind, it's far far subtler than that. It took me a few spins to fall under its hypnotic spell. It's the arrangements and textures that make it, in much the same way you either fall in love with Sigur Ros or Antlers or various drone records, but it's a totally different beast to any of that, because it half seems like it's meant to be fun and 'cool' and a party album (the Glass Candy stuff is way more dancefloor). Definitely worth a revisit on headphones or driving late at night.

I've given Frank Ocean quite a few spins now, and I can't grasp what people love about it.
The Seer is too much for me too, I keep trying to listen to it and all I wanna do is put on records which don't feel like they're pushing you away. Never really been into that sort of thing anyway. I do quite like the Earth and Dirty Three records, which don't seem to have had anywhere near as much attention.

If it makes up for it, may I recommend you give the Yppah LP a go?

YR A RONG, IMO

and I enjoyed them both much more. How about Godspeed? I am so glad it turned out to be so good, filled the void left in me by "not getting" The Seer.

Ladrock for students.

...I find that the 'pop highs' (if you will) are interspersed with enough diversity in texture and tone that the album is an easy listen I don't listen to lyrics that much, and just her singing as another instrument, so that doesn't really bother me either.

Sean - your description for Grimes above almost exactly matches my feelings for the Polica album, which (IMHO) isn't very diverse at all. Amongster and Dark Star are bloody good though.

But prefer it to Drums Not Dead (although I can see why people like DND, certainly more 'challenging').

Thinkin Bout You, Pyramids and Lost. They are very good. The rest, filler.

and loads of journos jumped on the bandwagon. I don't recall DiS even reviewing Night Drive, which is superior & more consistent but 'less ambitious' (read: doesn't outstay it's welcome).

Good album overall, but the relative praise the two records have received is baffling.

but 'Lay Your Cards Out' is Polica's best song! :)

I'd imagine the lack of a PR is probably why we didn't cover Night Drive. This record was sent out via email. I only got hold of it after tracking down a contact and emailing them a few days before release - and then shared that contact with theQuietus and various other sites. It's a very small operation, and with over 800 albums a year reviewed on DiS, it's hardly surprisingly we 'miss' some things.

they're doing themselves no favours these days.

I was forced to listen to it during a car journey. How does this guy sing his lyrics without bursting out laughing? Plus I found the instrumentation horrible.

When we ran the stream, there was a huge reaction, but it is only in one reader top 5 so far!

I think I haven't engaged with a lot of records because of how I've been feeling whilst listening. but then a number of records are just disappointing.

Grizzly Bear - Shields

this is just such a nothing record. they've smoothed out their sound, become formulaic and bland. a real shame.

Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

this is everything the naysayers thought AC were before this record. shrill/annoying/messy. it might have a couple of decent tracks on, but nothing to come close to previous efforts.

I'm really hoping Dave and Noah are just in a bit of a rut, here. I hope they ditch Josh and just continue to venture out in a more natural way. this one sounds forced and uninspired.

Julia Holter - Ekstasis

it's precious, prissy and bland. 'Tragedy' was understated and full of mystery and wonder and Holter didn't flourish in the way I'd hoped.

Grimes - Visions

a couple of genuinely great pop songs and nothing much else of note.

Andy Stott - Luxury Problems

I'm sure someone mentioned something about trip-hop, which nails the problem. the vocals are redolent of the smokey, coffee shop 'sultriness' that all the worst trip-hop was riddled with.

it does have some decent tracks, but it feels like a missed opportunity.

Frank Ocean - Channel Orange

I might have to try again with this, but I found it really irritating. the lyrics are all style over substance, and whereas I might normally be able to go with the breezy music, the two combined in a way that sounded horribly moneyed.

Metz - Metz

another 'nothing special' effort. it sounds a lot like a number of infinitely superior bands, but minus the personality.

Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes

'Cosmogramma' was such a thrill, and to follow it with this just compounds the disappointment. there's no enchantment to be found anywhere on this record. a lot of recycled ideas without the previous spark.

Twin Shadow - Confess

I really thought I heard something in my first listen to this, but every time since it has felt like dumbing down of his stellar debut. that record grew on me, whereas this one feels like it wasted all its tricks first listen.

Chromatics - Kill For Love

*snore* again, it feels like any pre-existing magic has been drained and the exterior plasticised and posed.

Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

I don't know why I expected anything from this. a hollow-skulled redux of a number of great records that this guy probably only first heard in the last two years.

gonna hold back on commenting too much on 'The Seer', besides this: it is not the defining album of their career, and strives too hard at times for grandeur that came easily to them before.

haha, these are all BNM-ed albums. how about that.

heavy exposure through Odd Future; Nostalgia, Ultra was heavily reviewed; sang on Watch the Throne
Why can't you just say you don't like the music instead of throwing all this inane bullshit at it? Not a fan of Frank Ocean's music either but at least be sensible about your disdain

The trouble is this time around, I think lots of the bigger music sites and mags have gone for albums which cause a bit of fuss but I doubt most people will still like in 4 years time. I know this often happens, but I do find it a bit of a shame.

I get the feeling I'll like The Quietus' list a lot from the reviews on the site I've enjoyed most this year and the one on here is always a good snapshot of the 12 months just gone, having stuff on it I both love and hate.

I dunno, maybe I'm wrong, but every year I find 6 or 7 albums to adore which for some reason don't get much love, often because it's the bands' 4th album and therefore not so press worthy. I feel people get suckered in too much these days by a decent lead track and then think the other 11 are just as good.

Most of those records were 'buzz' records I'd argue and a bit of the moment and none do anything for me either.

But check out what comes in the 40-50 range of these lists and I bet you find a few greats. Or else, just read my list...

Is exactly what's turning people off this record. Or at least giving lazy detractors something easy to latch on to. It isn't dull by any stretch of the imagination, and surely you must know that too having championed it so much?

But wrong about everything else.

It's probably right that the news story made more people listen to the record but it hardly made anyone like it did it? The fact it was good did that.

Just completely failed to grab me. I can't remember a single song from it.

I love the Twin Shadow and Chromatics records though.

2 brilliant songs but the rest of the album is anything but brilliant

the very notion of the BNM tag these days goes against everything they used to stand for.

but then in the spirit of what you said, there have been plenty of under-the-radar records on said site that are really good.

no such problems with Boomkat, The Wire and The Quietus, though.

nothing of note apart from that.

as for Chromatics, this is the glorious precedent they failed to live up to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhlCJTxxUYI

as for Twin Shadow...there's nothing quite like the shadowy gorgeousness of his first one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uy4odKfFiM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNpq942YT50

I mean it's well done and all. but I just listen to it and wonder why I'm listening to Metz and not, like, Chavez or The Jesus Lizard or Hammerhead or Cows.

Really? Like, really? It's GORGEOUS

and I'm not sure if Tame Impalas new album can be considered 'great' for all the amazing stuff on it it does come across a bit sterile at times. I blame their fascinating on effects for that

"so was Teen Dream, so what's new?" However, I'm with you, Teen Dream never quite clicked initially like Bloom did. In fact, retrospectively, I've been able to enjoy TD more and I still see Bloom as superior, I think it suffers by being the second release.

not all that.

grown on me massively since 2007. maybe my favourite.

The site is much, MUCH improved these days.

I think you should try again with Channel Orange. But yeah, it is a very swish record. That's kinda why I like it.

I really really disagree on Flying Lotus. Not sure if it's better or worse than Cosmogramma (it's far less instantly mindblowing) but it is very enchanting. The tracks on it might not be as ridiculously technical as his previous stuff but they are so much more memorable - I've found myself humming bits from it far more. I think it's a really solid record that will age exceedingly well, and it has this lovely twilight dreamlike atmosphere for the whole duration. It's ethereal and pyschedelic in that it takes you somewhere else.

Was really disappointed by the Andy Stott initially as well, sounds a lot more like his less memorable housey stuff. I want more grim skullshattering trudge like those two EPs. It's not a bad record though, and I think I'd like it a lot more if I didn't know what had come before it, if that makes sense.

really slick and as such very difficult to make any connection.

I might do the same as I'm going to with the Frank Ocean record and try it in a different situation. maybe whilst I'm playing computer games as opposed to trudging back and forth between work and home.

good point about Andy Stott...it's not completely lacking in the kind of ethereal grit I was hoping for, but after the two EPs, I was expecting to be buried under the ethereality, if you get what I'm saying. it's a little straightforward. yeah, so we're on the same page, I think.

there was a golden interim period between the laughable indie snob 12 RODS 10.0 phase and the current phase of selling out to the sponsors.

after the first two records, they left behind the heady, lonely darkness and became totally vanilla.

except for your opinion differing from Pitchfork in recent years?

instead of good albums that probably won't, like they used to.

'The truth of it is breathtakingly simple: Editors choose Best New Music albums based on the records that we think are the cream of the crop. These are excellent records that we feel transcend their scene and genre. When an album gets Best New Music, we think there's a very good chance that someone who doesn't generally follow this specific sphere of music will find a lot to enjoy in it.'

i.e. we give BNMs to records that will appeal to the fickle masses.

the BNMed albums of the golden period I referred to that wouldn't cross over. the 8.0+ albums of recent times that didn't get BNM because they weren't the kind that would 'transcend their scene and genre'.

I've been reading Pitchfork for nearly a decade and I fucking know better. and then I swan off into the internet ether with my lofty, schooled opinion fanned like a glorious peacock tail.

It does not necessarily have to be a record vanilla enough to appeal to casual music listeners with little interst in other genres. It could also refer to music which has unconventional qualities, when considered in a specific genre context. For example, Deftones, since I gather many fans here aren't particularly keen on metal in general, but appreciate this particular band's creativity.

But not all BNM'd music is dumbed down in creativity and experimentalism, if you ask me anyway.

Pitchfork has only ever reviewed the s/t, which they slated the fuck out of.

anyway, this transcending of genre almost always seems to apply to records which make concessions towards accessibility. at least in recent years.

but the majority of artists that get pushed by Pitchfork are the ones with the popular inclination.

It's really a single minded determination to maintain its sound, tempo and atmosphere and to eschew obvious and simple dynamics. It has a purity of purpose that is compelling, but you have to surrender to it.

It definitely has some 'lull' points (the more ambient stuff) which works better in a movie soundtrack context.

However, it has 7 or 8 tracks which are thrilling, which is more than most records released this year. Intelligent, sophisticated, exotic, pulsating and extremely danceable. A cut above any of their peers.

this doesn't really make a difference to your enjoyment of the album of course, but could exlplain why she didn't flourish in the way you wanted

(you negative nancy, what do you even like?)

cheese

hoping she'll recapture some of that 'Tragedy'-style magic or progress to something else that works for me.

honestly, I can't tell if it has been a shocking year or if it's just some kind of personal crisis. it's probably a bit of both.

although if it is mostly my problem, it might not be a matter of being unhappy and unreceptive, rather a case of having heard so much music that very little stands out anymore.

I am really struggling with my top five for the users' list, though.

Until I had it playing in the car for a week or so. Maybe not as bewitching as Yellow House or Veckatimest but well over half the songs have stayed in my head and been sung (badly) in the shower since.

My only great disappointment this year was Valtari. I thought I was going to love it - chilly, ambient soundscapes, a return to ()-like introspection... but it was desperately dull.

Should have turned it off at that point just for that crime really.

everybody's got one.

different sounds and the like? Even if these new sounds are quite familiar?

who inject new life into old influences with their own distinctive personalities.

No Age, Titus Andronicus, Japandroids...

I don't get that from Metz.

the songs on their own don't really stand out, with the exception of say Yet Again. It doesn't have the hard hitting numbers that Veckatimest had. Or even Yellow House tbh.

The Twin Shadow one has some really good singles material on it, which was good to hear. It wasn't a retread at all.

they progressed gradually into the light, and then consolidated.

how ironic 'come back with a coherend argument' - when you do that then I will listen to you too.
When you say 'it's not just about the music with him', well, actually he is an artist and musician, so it's about the music. Leave the rest to the tabloids (and trolls).

so I would advise doing that before completely making your mind up

terrible year

SURELY

If I wasn't still listening to it months later on my first sitting

You sound like a broken record. :(

(I'm going really deep there!)

on paper, great...in my ears, very dull.

Toy and Tall Ships - but I dont' know if they're going to become great favourites. I think they show the potential of the bands, but might not be their best yet - hopefully!

nah

It seems I've just cured you. :P

Guitars yes, vocals no.

You said it was a really poor album, only buzzed about because it is edgy to be gay and black. That is so many steps ahead of admitting that his announcement had a marketing purpose, and will have influenced a tiny proportion of shallower critics, which is what I did. I wouldn't say that most reviewers and listeners on here praise the album because they want to appear edgy in supporting an album by a black gay man, which you did. Assuming people are too small minded to form balanced opinions just highlights your own idiocy.

It is samey, but it captures something- it's vague, but it's also exciting and powerful and real. I can't say the same for Grimes.

(but this year has been poor compared to 2011)

Grizzly Bear purposefully made an unchallenging album to appease their fans, said so in their press for it. My girlfriend who doesn't know them remarked that it sounds like Keane, which is spot on. Pleasant enough but they used to challenge something.

Cloud Nothings album is a hollow albini-polished turd.

Animal Collective's worst album, directionless, messy.

Tragedy was a loads weirder and better record than Ekstasis, which is the reason anyone bought it...

I can't listen to stuff like Chromatics and Twin Shadow just because it all looks made for and consumed by bell ends.

With Metz I just wanted to hear something that slayed and it delivered.

of the above. Both Swans and Chromatics would have been far better to employ some quality control rather than just produce huge unwieldy slabs that don't have enough variation to justify the length.

The 'one good song and a lot of filler' problem is always a prevailing one. Step forward Grimes Django Django etc.

That said, this year's Grizzly Bear album is the first thing of theirs that I had ever heard and I liked it. I went back to the earlier albums and don't much care for them. So I guess it just depends upon the order in which you first hear something. I remember years ago having the same reaction with Television, when I heard 'Adventure' before 'Marquee Moon'.

They're far more heavy and driving from the guitars; JL are based on a strong bass and drum drive with guitars floating on top.

The Metz album is excellent in my view because it's so simple and heavy. Reminds me of a lot of things but mostly of one track by a band rather than a whole album of it, which is why it appeals to me a lot.

to be fair, that's every Metz song. Particularly live.

Don't preach violence, it was just a joke. :)

It's her best album by far. The Greatest is her second best album. Everything she released before year 2000 is hard to listen...