It's the annual ADM Poll of Polls, our roundup of the critics' end-of-year best albums lists - the ultimate, definitive Best Of The Best Ofs, 2012
The last batch of votes are in, from Pitchfork and The Line Of
Best Fit, so it's time to run through the AnyDecentMusic definitive
summary of the Best Albums Of 2012 lists.
We've compiled the rankings from 30 magazines, newspapers and
websites from our sources to provide a comprehensive reflection of
the critical favourites of the year. It's the ultimate "Best of the
Best Albums of 2012" chart.
So here's the rundown of the top 50 albums of the year as seen by
music reviewers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New
Zealand and Spain. Below we give our appraisal of what it all
means.
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- 538 Frank Ocean Channel Orange
- 325 Tame Impala Lonerism
- 293 Grimes Visions
- 269 Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city
- 200 Japandroids Celebration Rock
- 191 Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel...
- 190 Chromatics Kill For Love
- 186 Alt-J An Awesome Wave
- 186 Jack White Blunderbuss
- 178 Grizzly Bear Shields
- 172 Swans The Seer
- 152 Django Django Django Django
- 146 Jessie Ware Devotion
- 120 Bat For Lashes The Haunted Man
- 119 Sharon Van Etten Tramp
- 117 Death Grips The Money Store
- 101 Beach House Bloom
- 100 Dirty Projectors Swing Lo Magellan
- 86 Cloud Nothings Attack On Memory
- 84 Flying Lotus Until The Quiet Comes
- 77 Liars WIXIW
- 77 The xx Coexist
- 76 Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah!
Don't Bend!...
- 72 Julia Holter Ekstasis
- 66 Killer Mike R.A.P. Music
- 65 Father John Misty Fear Fun
- 62 Diiv Oshin
- 62 Dr John Locked Down
- 55 Carter Tutti Void Transverse
- 53 Miguel Kaleidoscope Dream
- 51 Andy Stott Luxury Problems
- 50 Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball
- 50 Leonard Cohen Old Ideas
- 49 Dexys One Day I'm Going
- 47 Bob Dylan Tempest
- 47 Crystal Castles III
- 47 David Byrne & St Vincent Love This
Giant
- 44 Perfume Genius Put Your Back N 2 It
- 39 Bobby Womack The Bravest Man In The
World
- 39 John Talabot fIN
- 39 Scott Walker Bish Bosch
- 39 The Maccabees Given To The Wild
- 37 Chairlift Soething
- 37 Lana Del Rey Born To Die
- 35 Bill Fay Life Is People
- 35 Cat Power Sun
- 34 Blondes Blondes
- 34 Jens Leckman I Know What Love Isn't
- 34 Kindness World, You Need A Change Of
Mind
- 33 Hot Chip In Our Heads
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SEE POLL OF POLLS 2009 RESULTS
HERE
SEE POLL OF POLLS 2010 RESULTS
HERE
So, in the end, the R&B / hip-hop one-two that we
predicted right at the start when the first album of the year
declarations were made at the beginning of December did not quite
come to pass.
However the fact that Frank Ocean and
Kendrick Lamar's albums have been split by the
undisputed rock release of the past 12 months and an album from
critical darling Grimes does not detract from the
fact that 2012 will be remembered as the year when two important
new voices in hop-hop and R&B came to prominence, ushering in
what many commentators see as a new era of soul.
Frank Ocean's success in 2012 is nothing less than stunning. That
a 24-year-old producer and singer-songwriter aligned with
opinion-dividing LA collective Odd Future could unite reviewers
from sources as diverse as the staid (some would argue reactionary)
Daily Telegraph to the most hipper-than-thou blogs, in rapturous
admiration for what is, remember, his debut album, is probably
unprecedented in contemporary music.
And his achievement is all the more impressive when his
overwhelming advantage over the No.2 album is compared against the
leads of 100-odd votes enjoyed by the top-rated albums of the
previous two years, PJ Harvey's Let England Shake and Arcade
Fire's The Suburbs
If we're being honest we doubted that any album would ever be able
to overtake Anais Mitchell at the top of our all-time chart. Her
Hadestown album was not widely reviewed, and the majority of its
reviews concluded that it was a masterpiece or something very close
to that. It seemed improbable that any release could surpass that,
but Channel Orange has, and from a much wider selection of
reviews.
As for Kendrick Lamar, his album is at No.11 in our all-time
chart, and we suspect that in any other year good kid, m.A.A.d city
would have claimed the top position.
Other than a triumph for two exceptional urban artists, what else
can be said in general terms about 2012's critically-endorsed
musical output?
Compared with the rankings from 2011, it is certainly a year that
has seen a resurgence in guitar-based rock and a falling away,
perhaps, of artists in the alt.folk / alt.pop fields.
Whereas 2011 was dominated by the likes of Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes,
Tune-Yards and their ilk, Tame Impala have been at
the vanguard of a noisy comeback within the top 10 which features
Jack White, Japandroids and
Swans. In the top 20, Grimes,
Fiona Apple and Sharon Van Etten
are the only true representatives of the alt.folk / alt.pop /
indie.folk genres which held sway throughout 2010 and 2011.
And whither indie rock? Its leading exponents are, apparently,
Grizzly Bear at 10, followed at No.18 by
Dirty Projectors. Is this an indication of the
further demise of a wide-ranging musical form which used to
dominate charts such as this? Time will tell.
Mention should be made for two inventive British bands to have
emerged with much-praised debut albums this year:
Alt-J and Django Django. Having
gone on to attract a lot of attention in the US, it will be
intriguing to see how their respective careers develop.
Lastly, there is a venerable grouping of names between numbers
27-30: Springsteen, Cohen, Dexys and
Dylan, proof that the "old guard" are not done
with yet when it comes to gaining critical plaudits.
But if you are looking for signs that they are being eclipsed by a
new generation of voices, it is instructive to look at the top 5s
from a couple of magazines which tend to cater for what could be
loosely termed a more "mature" audience.
Uncut has what many would regard as a predictable top four, but
then Channel Orange pops up at five. And Mojo, a publication which
more than most focuses continually on "heritage" names such as The
Beatles, The Stones, The Who et al, has Frank Ocean at No.2,
nestling in among Jack White, Bill Fay, Leonard Cohen and
Dexys.
So will 2013 be the year of new soul artists inspired by Ocean and
Lamar? Who can say? Not us, and probably not anyone else either;
that's why contemporary music is so endlessly fascinating.
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SOURCES: Mojo, Uncut,
Guardian, The Fly, NME, Paste, Spin, The Skinny, Loud & Quiet,
Clash, Drowned In Sound, BBC, Rolling Stone, This Is Fake DIY, Pop
Matters, AV Club, The Quietus, Consequence Of Sound, Bowlegs, BPM,
Slant, PlayGround, God Is In The TV, music OMH, State, Pretty Much
Amazing, God Is In The TV. No Ripcord, The AU Review,
The Line Of Best Fit, Pitchfork, AllMusic,
entertainment.ie, Under The Radar, AU Magazine
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Top 5 from each publication / site:
AU Magazine: 1 Channel Orange,
Frank Ocean. 2 An Awesome Wave, Allt-J. 3 Django Django, Django
Django. 4 Lonerism, Tame Impala. 5 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!,
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Under The Radar: 1 Nocturne,
Wild Nothing. 2 Lonerism, Tame Impala. 3 Bloom, Beach House. 4 The
Haunted Man, Bat For Lashes. 5 Django Django, Django Django
AllMusic: 1 Visions, Grimes. 2
Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 3 The Idler Wheel..., Fiona Apple. 4
Good Kid, m.A.A.d City, Kendrick Lamar. 5 Kaleidoscope Dream,
Miguel
entertainment.ie 1 An Awesome Wave, Allt-J. 2
Kingdom, Heathers. 3 Locked Down, Dr John. 4 Visions, Grimes. 5 The
Hanunted Man, Bat For Lashes
Pitchfork: 1 Good Kid, m.A.A.d City, Kendrick
Lamar. 2 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 3 The Idler Wheel..., Fiona
Apple. 4 Lonerism, Tame Impala. The Seer, Swans
The Line Of Best Fit: 1 Devotion, Jessie Ware.
2 I know What Love Isn't, Jens Leckman. 3 Oshin, Diiv. 4 Instinct,
Niki And The Dove. 5 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
The AU Review: 1 Blunderbuss, Jack White. 2
Lonerism, Tame Impala. 3 Handwritten, The Gaslight Anthem. 4 The
Rubens, The Rubens. 5 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
No Ripcord: 1 Good Kid,
m.A.A.d City, Kendrick Lamar. 2 Lonerism, Tame Impala. 3 The Money
Store, Death Grips. 4 The Seer, Swans. 5 The Idler Wheel..., Fiona
Apple
God Is In The TV: 1 Channel
Orange, Frank Ocean. 2 Shileds, Grizzly Bear. 3 Put Your Back N 2
It, Perfume Genius. 4 III, Crystal Castles. 5 Lonerism, Tame
Impala
Pretty Much Amazing: 1 The Idler Wheel...,
Fiona Apple. 2 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 3 Good Kid, m.A.A.d
City, Kendrick Lamar. 4 Lonerism, Tame Impala. 5 Celebration Rock,
Japandroids
State: 1 An Awesome Wave, Alt-J. 2 Coesist, The
xx. 3 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 4 Visions, Grimes. 5 Lonerism,
Tame Impala
PlayGround: 1 Ekstasis, Julia Holter. 2 Channel Orange,
Frank Ocean. 3 Coesist, The xx. 4 Good Kid, m.A.A.d City, Kendrick
Lamar. 5 Bloom, Beach House
music OMH: 1 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 2
Lonerism, Tame Impala. 3 Beams, Matthew Dear. 4 Kill For Love,
Chromatics. 5 Blondes, Blondes
The Guardian: 1 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 2
Visions, Grimes. 3 Devotion, Jessie Ware. 4 Swing Lo Magellan,
Dirty Projectors 5 Good Kid, m.A.A.d City, Kendrick Lamar
Slant: 1 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 2
Devotion, Jessie Ware. 3 Make Of My Make-Believe, Santigold. 4 The
Haunted Man, Bat For Lashes. 5 Swing Lo Magellan, Dirty
Projectors.
BPM: 1 Until The Quiet Comes, Flying Lotus. 2
Kill For Love, Chromatics. 3 Luxury Problems, Andy Stott. 4 Channel
Orange, Frank Ocean. 5 Lonerism, Tame Impala
Bowlegs: 1 Gem, US Girls. 2 Luxury Problems,
Andy Stott. 3 Lonerism, Tame Impala. 4 Ekstasis, Julia Holter. 5
Zummato, Zummato
Consequence Of Sound: 1 Channel Orange, Frank
Ocean. 2 The Idler Wheel..., Fiona Apple. 3 Good Kid, m.A.A.d City,
Kendrick Lamar. 4 Attack On Memory, Cloud Nothings. 5 The Seer,
Swans
The Quietus: 1 Swans, The Seer. 2 Bish Bosch,
Scott Walker. 3 Transverse, Carter Tutti Void. 4 Desertshore/The
Final Report, X-TG. 5 SSSS, VCMG
AV Club: 1 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 2
Japandroids, Celebration Rock. 3 Attack On Memory, Cloud Nothings.
4 Tramp, Sharon Van Etten. 5 The Idler Wheel..., Fiona Apple.
Pop Matters: 1 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 2
Japandroids, Celebration Rock. 3 The Idler Wheel..., Fiona Apple. 4
Bloom, Beach House. 5 The Seer, Swans
This Is Fake DIY: 1 WIXIW, Liars. 2 Visions,
Grimes. 3 The Cribs In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull. 4 Japandroids,
Celebration Rock. 5 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
Drowned In Sound: 1st equal: Tramp, Sharon Van
Etten. Blondes, Blondes. Chromatics, Kill For Love. Swans, The
Seer. WIXIW, Liars
BBC: 1 good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar.
2 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 3 One Day I'm Going, Dexys. 4
Devotion, Jessie Ware. 5 Trouble, Totally Enormous Extinct
Dinosaurs
Rolling Stone: 1 Wrecking Ball, Bruce
Springsteen. 2 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 3 Blunderbuss, Jack
White. 4 Tempest, Bob Dylan. 5 The Idler Wheel..., Fiona Apple
Clash: 1 The Bravest Man In The World, Bobby
Womack. 2 An Awesome Wave, Alt-j. 3 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 4
The Money Store, Death Grips. 5 Visions, Grimes
Loud & Quiet: 1 Lonerism, Tame Impala. 2 An
Awesome Wave, Alt-J. 3 Kill For Love, Chromatics. 4 Give You The
Ghost, Polica 5 Transverse, Carter Tutti Void
The Skinny: 1 The Money Store, Death Grips. 2
Django Django, Django Django. 3 Vision, Grimes. 4 Have Some Faith
In Magic, Errors. 5 Attack On Memory, Cloud Nothings
Spin: 1 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 2 Good
Kid, m.A.A.d City, Kendrick Lamar. 3 Celebration Rock, Japandroids.
4 Teklife Vol.1, DJ Rashad. 5 Kaleidoscope Dream, Miguel
The Fly: 1 Tramp, Sharon Van Etten. 2 Visions,
Grimes. 3 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 4 Sun, Cat Power 5 Devotion,
Jessie Ware
Mojo: 1 Blunderbuss, Jack White. 2 Channel
Orange, Frank Ocean. 3. Life Is People, Bill Fay. 4 Old Ideas,
Leonard Cohen. 5 One Day I'm Going To Soar, Dexys
NME: 1 Lonerism, Tame Impala. 2 Visions, Grimes.
3 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 4 III, Crystal Castles. 5 An Awesome
Wave, Alt-J
Paste: 1 Channel Orange, Frank Ocean. 2 Fear Fun,
Father John Misty. 3 Local Business, Titus Andronicus. 4 The Idler
Wheel…, Fiona Apple. 5 Tramp, Sharon Van Etten
Uncut: 1 Old Ideas, Leonard Cohen. 2 Tempest, Bob
Dylan. 3 Blunderbuss, Jack White. 4 Locked Down, Dr John 5 Channel
Orange, Frank Ocean