Fiona Apple: Are you calling me noisy?
ADM 2012: The first six months
We're halfway through 2012: it's time for our regular look back at the most critically-acclaimed music so far this year
Is noise making a comeback? We ask because over the years we've
been putting together our regular check-ups on what's attracting
the most critical acclaim, we can't recall a top 10 that's been so,
well, noisy ...
Previous lists have been dominated by the likes of Bon Iver,
Gillian Welch, Anaïs Mitchell and their ilk, with only occasional
appearances by guitar terrorists such as doom drone merchants
Earth.
We've certainly never seen a top 10 that featured so many acts to
whom the label "hardcore" could be applied, whether under the guise
of punk, rap or noise rock.
While diehard dubstep aficionados might argue that Burial has
mellowed somewhat since his early output, only three albums - those
from Fiona Apple, Chromatics and John Talabot - offer any real
respite from aural assault, with the former being the one release
that straddles both the critical rankings and the best-seller
charts.
The two notable names to have been eclipsed since our quarter-year
check-up three months ago are Leonard Cohen and Anaïs Mitchell,
both of whose albums subsequently attracted reactions that were not
quite as unanimously enthusiastic as the first reviews.
With the absence of Mitchell and the disappearance of other early
contenders such as the Sharon Van Etten album, it is tempting
to speculate on a downturn in the indie folk field, this being a
genre that has been a staple in every one of our previous
lists.
However, having mooted on the evidence of our end-of-2011 lists
that the days of guitar-toting rock bands appeared to be drawing to
an end, maybe we won't bother. There'll be an indie folk explosion
along before you can say Father John Misty.
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.5
Fiona Apple
The Idler Wheel...
Succeeds in creating a singular world more daring than any of
Apple's previous records and one of the most daring pop records in
recent history
Consequence of
Sound
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.4
Burial
Kindred
Does what all great art should do: create a landscape that
wasn't there before, a landscape that invites so much to explore
that it is an exploration onto itself.
No Ripcord
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.4
Death Grips
The Money Store
An incredible, precedent-resetting manifesto
BBC
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.3
Chromatics
Kill For Love
This is a modern masterpiece, it's as simple as that
Drowned in Sound
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.2
Liars
WIXIW
A wonder of an album of endless layers and contrasts to get
caught up and lost in
music
OMH
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.2
John Talabot
fIN
Talabot isn't doing anything particularly fancy, au courant, or
even innovative here, but you can't fake quality - and if there's
one adjective to describe ƒin, it's that.
Rave Magazine
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.2
El-P
Cancer For Cure
When we look back on the hip-hop of early C21, Cancer For Cure
will stand tall above the floodwaters of nostalgia. El-P is one of
the few great artists still inhabiting the form
The Skinny
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.1
The Men
Open Your Heart
The most thrilling and exciting album of the year thus far and
one that demands your immediate attention.
The Quietus
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.1
High On Fire
De Vermis Mysteriis
A ferocious and captivating listen that twists and turns through
the deepest darkest depths all the while pushing forward into new
sonic territory
Sputnik Staff
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
8.1
Killer Mike
R.A.P. Music
As exciting and wildly unclassifiable as hip-hop gets
Spin
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - -
And the next 20
11 Can The Lost Tapes
12 Japandroids Celebration Rock
13 Dr. John Locked Down
14 Screaming Females Ugly
15 Jack White Blunderbuss
16 Gojira L'Enfant Sauvage
17 Future Of The Left The Plot Against
18 Sweet Billy Pilgrim Crown And Treaty
19 Leonard Cohen Old Ideas
20 Anaïs Mitchell Young Man In America
21 Paul Buchanan Mid Air
22 Julia Holter Ekstasis
23 Daniel Rossen Silent Hour/Golden Mile
24 Actress R.I.P.
25 Perfume Genius Put Your Back N 2 It
26 Earth Angels of Darkness, Demons of
Light
27 Dexys One Day I'm Going To Soar
28 The Walkmen Heaven
29 Polica Give You The Ghost
30 Sharon Van Etten Tramp