Critics' Top Albums of 2012 Lists

[bryan1311]

Pitchfork cited Beez in the Trap as one of the best tracks of the year, Largo!

I still maintain that her pop is dire, but her rap is sharp, creative, and singular.

I agree. I especially liked her guest spots on Kanye's album. And Come on a Cone is one of the most awesome and hysterical songs I've heard in a long time.

I find it hard to complain about "Call Me Maybe" in a year where the other big viral hit was fucking "Gangnam Style".

THIS.

[makemeameteor]

I thought it was all very silly and self-consciously artsy. The title alone is an eye-roller. She certainly has no business being above Frank Ocean on any of these lists.

u suck.

[filmy]

Call Me Maybe is wonderful. Come on.

Call Me Maybe is brilliant. Her album, Kiss, is great too.

[Souler]

Call Me Maybe is just so wonderfully... simple? It's nice to have a "pure" pop song be so successful. It feels like it could have been a hit fifteen years ago.

[Aurelius]

I mean, I'm an avowed opponent of cookie cutter pop, but even I think Call Me Maybe is passable, and within its realm one of the best songs of the year.

[kupo]

See, I'm obviously a staunch defender of pop/mainstream pop, but I can't get on the Call Me Maybe bandwagon. It's a good song, yeah, but all the stuff the hipsters and indie fans were latching onto about it are qualities you can find in a lot of other pop songs (if only those audiences were more willing to give them a chance), only a lot of those other songs will have better instrumentals/vocals/lyrics. Call Me Maybe is a good, fun, summer single, but its total cultural dominance was baffling to me.

Call Me Maybe's best features are the strings in the instrumental, and the noncommittal "maybe" of the title, which is a funny lyric. Outside of that, it has literally no outstanding characteristics.

[bryan1311]

See, I'm obviously a staunch defender of pop/mainstream pop, but I can't get on the Call Me Maybe bandwagon. It's a good song, yeah, but all the stuff the hipsters and indie fans were latching onto about it are qualities you can find in a lot of other pop songs (if only those audiences were more willing to give them a chance), only a lot of those other songs will have better instrumentals/vocals/lyrics. Call Me Maybe is a good, fun, summer single, but it's total cultural dominance was baffling to me.

Call Me Maybe's best features are the strings in the instrumental, and the noncommittal "maybe" of the title, which is a funny lyric. Outside of that, it has literally no outstanding characteristics.

The music video is what won me over.

[filmy]

See, I'm obviously a staunch defender of pop/mainstream pop, but I can't get on the Call Me Maybe bandwagon. It's a good song, yeah, but all the stuff the hipsters and indie fans were latching onto about it are qualities you can find in a lot of other pop songs (if only those audiences were more willing to give them a chance), only a lot of those other songs will have better instrumentals/vocals/lyrics. Call Me Maybe is a good, fun, summer single, but it's total cultural dominance was baffling to me.

Call Me Maybe's best features are the strings in the instrumental, and the noncommittal "maybe" of the title, which is a funny lyric. Outside of that, it has literally no outstanding characteristics.

The lyrics are much smarter than those of most pop songs. "Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad."

[haqyunus]

The music video is what won me over.

You mean the guy in the video...

[makemeameteor]

You mean the guy in the video...

No, he thought the lighting was really top notch.

[Largo]

The music video is what won me over.

See, I feel that you can't say something is the best single of the year because of qualities that aren't even in the song.

I also fully agree with Kupo - it's a lightweight confection with no depth, nothing real to it, and some really horrendously awful lyrics ("before you came into my life/I missed you so bad"? That doesn't make any fucking sense at all). And especially considering how many truly great singles and songs and albums have been out this year, there should be absolutely no way that "Call Me Maybe" is objectively better than "Thinkin' Bout You", "Fireshrines", "Hot Knife", "Some Nights", "Take a Walk"...

[haqyunus]

No, he thought the lighting was really top notch.

Really?

I was kidding.

[makemeameteor]

Really?

I was kidding.

I know!

[cdmc]

Tiny Mix Tapes Top 50

50. Mykki Blanco - Cosmic Angel: Illuminati Prince/ss (Self-Released)
49. Raime - Quarter Turns Over a Living Line (Blackest Ever Black)
48. Belbury Poly - The Belbury Tales (Ghost Box)
47. INTERNET CLUB - VANISHING VISION (Self-Released)
46. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (Epitaph)
45. Arca - Stretch 2 (UNO NYC)
44. Fiona Apple - Idler Wheel (Epic/Clean Slate)
43. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music (Williams Street)
42. Death Grips - No Love Deep Web (Self-Released)
41. Heat Wave - Fukd In Tha Game (Self-Released)
40. Lil B - White Flame (Self-Released)
39. ahnnu - pro habitat (WTR CLR)
38. Ian Martin - Mechanical Rain (Further)
37. Tame Impala - Lonerism (Modular)
36. The Men - Open Your Heart (Sacred Bones)
35. Burial - Kindred [EP] (Hyperdub)
34. Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II (In The Red)
33. Farrah Abraham - My Teenage Dream Ended (Farrah Abraham/MTV Press)
32. Motion Sickness Of Time Travel - Motion Sickness Of Time Travel (Spectrum Spools)
31. Jason Lescalleet - Songs About Nothing (Erstwhile)
30. Dolphins Into The Future - Canto Arquipélago (Underwater Peoples)
29. 情報デスクVIRTUAL - 札幌コンテンポラリー (Beer On The Rug)
28. Tim Hecker / Daniel Lopatin - Instrumental Tourist (Mexican Summer)
27. White Suns - Sinews (Load)
26. Sun Araw & M. Geddes Gengras Meet The Congos - Icon Give Thank (RVNG Intl.)
25. Mediafired - Pathway Through Whatever (Beer On The Rug)
24. Graham Lambkin - Amateur Doubles (Kye)
23. Angel Olsen - Half Way Home (Bathetic)
22. Demdike Stare - Elemental (Modern Love)
21. Aaron Dilloway - Modern Jester (Hanson)
20. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope)
19. Traxman - Da Mind Of Traxman (Planet Mu)
18. The Caretaker - Patience (after Sebald) (History Always Favours The Winners)
17. Daughn Gibson - All Hell (White Denim)
16. Death Grips - The Money Store (Epic)
15. DJ Rashad - TEKLIFE Vol. 1: Welcome to the Chi (Lit City Trax)
14. BEBETUNE$ - inhale C-4 $$$$$ (Self-Released)
13. Holly Herndon - Movement (RVNG Intl.)
12. Frank Ocean - channel ORANGE (Def Jam)
11. Grimes - Visions (4AD)
10. Dean Blunt - The Narcissist II (Hippos In Tanks)
09. YYU - TIMETIMETIME&TIME (Beer On The Rug)
08. Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Modern Love)
07. Actress - R.I.P (Honest Jon’s)
06. Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe (Beer On The Rug)
05. Laurel Halo - Quarantine (Hyperdub)
04. Mount Eerie - Clear Moon / Ocean Roar (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
03. Swans - The Seer (Young God)
02. Dean Blunt And Inga Copeland - Black Is Beautiful (Hyperdub)
01. Scott Walker - Bish Bosch (4AD)



LOL, lots of blindspot (deafspots?) for me.