End-of-year lists are fingerprints
December 19, 2012 7:56 PM   Subscribe

 
Gonna just disregard any top X list that has The Master anywhere in it.
posted by xmutex at 7:58 PM on December 19, 2012


Top 2012 movies that got big press but ultimately sucked
posted by carsonb at 7:59 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


That Once Upon A Time In Anatolia is a good show. If you like that sort of thing.
posted by Damienmce at 8:00 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


/Is too old to recognize music names.
posted by Artw at 8:04 PM on December 19, 2012 [4 favorites]


Regardless of the many eye-rolling i-hate-lists posts coming shortly to this thread, very meta post carsonb. Two gold stars!

I particularly appreciate year-end lists for music, because it's a nice avenue for discovering new stuff I've not heard of yet. Even if 90% of the list is crap, that's a really good hit rate in my book.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:07 PM on December 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


The correct choice for best album of 2012 is Tame Impala's Lonerism.
posted by mediated self at 8:17 PM on December 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


From the albums list:

41. Old Crow Medicine Show – Old Crow Medicine Show

That's a pretty damn good album, but it was released in 2004. Did they mean "Carry Me Back", which was a much less good album?
posted by rollbiz at 8:18 PM on December 19, 2012


rollbiz, you noticed that that link is to a category of list, right? With several different lists on down the page... The one you're reading, with the OCMS mistake, is originally from American Songwriter.
posted by carsonb at 8:24 PM on December 19, 2012


This is where I get to complain loudly and often about how neglected A Church That Fits Our Needs has been this year, right? Because it's just this monumental work of art and Pitchfork didn't even bother to review it (not that Pitchfork are the be all and end all, but you know).
posted by jokeefe at 8:28 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


woot for Grown Up.
its the best scion ad since the third episode of Frisky Dingo
posted by lkc at 8:28 PM on December 19, 2012


rollbiz, you noticed that that link is to a category of list, right?

Yeah, it's a link to American Songwriters that lists it as a best album of 2012, when it's an album from 2004.
posted by rollbiz at 8:31 PM on December 19, 2012


From the albums list:

41. Old Crow Medicine Show – Old Crow Medicine Show

That's a pretty damn good album, but it was released in 2004. Did they mean "Carry Me Back", which was a much less good album?


Drink enough Old Crow and anything sounds great.
posted by Drinky Die at 8:32 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Gonna just disregard any top X list that has The Master anywhere in it.

Prepare to disregard a lot.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:36 PM on December 19, 2012


At this point, I think we need a best of "Best Of Lists" list. And a drink.
posted by Foosnark at 8:38 PM on December 19, 2012


At this point, I think we need a best of "Best Of Lists" list. And a drink.

Maybe just a tl;dr. And a drink.
posted by lkc at 8:43 PM on December 19, 2012


I think we're way past that point, Foosnark, since that's pretty much what the links here are.

So... next drink's on me?
posted by carsonb at 8:47 PM on December 19, 2012


Also, the correct choice for album of the year is Killer Mike's "R.A.P. Music". :)
posted by rollbiz at 8:54 PM on December 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


Grantland's YouTube HOF: The Year in Internet
posted by mannequito at 8:56 PM on December 19, 2012


rollbiz: Thats what my original comment was going to say.
posted by lkc at 8:57 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


96 (a few of the tracks are unavailable on Grooveshark) of the top 100 of the Pitchfork songs in a handy playlist.

Top (96) Songs of 2012 - Pitchfork
posted by FiveNines at 8:58 PM on December 19, 2012 [5 favorites]


io9's best/worst SF movie list for '12.
People are arguing about Prometheus.
posted by Mezentian at 9:04 PM on December 19, 2012


The AV Club's Least Essential Albums of 2012.
posted by schmod at 9:08 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Also, I had no idea that Largehearted Boy was still doing his thing. His blog is f--ing encyclopedic in its breadth and depth of coverage of the world of independent music and literature. I have no clue where he gets the time to compile everything. I don't even have the time to read it all.
posted by schmod at 9:19 PM on December 19, 2012


The AV Club's Least Essential Albums of 2012....
Warning: John Travolta's hair.
posted by Mezentian at 9:24 PM on December 19, 2012


Personally, I think it's absurdly early to post year end lists. They get tiresome enough, without posting before Christmas.
posted by Goofyy at 10:40 PM on December 19, 2012


Said The Gramophone put out their top 100 songs, with playable links and the whole shebang downloadable. As per usual. It's a pretty interesting mix, from what I've listened to.

The song of the year as far as I'm concerned is Fire's Highway by Japandroids, but that's because I happened to first listen to it in the most perfect possible situation: on a beautiful day with blue skies, in early June with the whole summer ahead, blasting it through a car stereo, on a fortuitously traffic-free Golden Gate Bridge.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 10:45 PM on December 19, 2012 [3 favorites]


And since there is no "best game" list, can I just go ahead and name Enviro Bear 2000 as pretty much the best game of every year, including 2012?
posted by lkc at 11:02 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't think I can recall a year with such massive movie disappointments. Hunger Games, Prometheus, Avengers were all shit. Dark Knight Rises was also shit. Just one colossal shit after the other.
posted by phaedon at 11:41 PM on December 19, 2012


I stumbled in here to shit all over everything, but it appears that all the shit is shat.
posted by Token Meme at 12:29 AM on December 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


1. Scott Walker – Bish Bosch

Seriously, Tiny Mix Tapes?
posted by chillmost at 1:05 AM on December 20, 2012


Is this where we selflink our own lists because we spent hours making them and then only received 3 likes on facebook from our so-called friends?

Also, making that list was exhausting so I'm listening to nothing but classic jazz for the last two weeks of the year.
posted by saul wright at 1:49 AM on December 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


That Alt-J album is full of pernicious earworms that drill into your brain and firmly lodge in there. And you can't even tell what the hell the guy is singing, for the most part.
But I admit I like it; I think it's a solid, if a bit teflon-slick album. Not the best, but pretty good.

Anyway, thanks carsonb! Like mcstayinskool, I also don't mind these kind of lists (because I miss a lot of new stuff living in the woods and not knowing anyone).
posted by Red Loop at 2:49 AM on December 20, 2012


Les Miserables opens December 25, save your best movie lists until then.
posted by headnsouth at 4:00 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


WTF is up with that Lil B album cover.
posted by pxe2000 at 4:14 AM on December 20, 2012


Thanks, carsonb. I put these lists of lists together, Largehearted Boy is my site. Needless to say, I am fascinated by these lists to discover what I missed during the year.

Every year I swear is my last doing it, but then I am caught up aggregating them anyway.
posted by kickerofelves at 4:19 AM on December 20, 2012 [8 favorites]


Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen all in the top five album list. What an indictment of the state of the music scene these days. I'm saying nothing about bloody Mumford and Sons being in the list at all, never mind top ten.
posted by Decani at 4:50 AM on December 20, 2012


To say that the Times and I have different tastes in novels would be an understatement, but I did pick up Shine Shine Shine on its recommendation and really enjoyed it (even though it is not at all the sort of thing I'm likely to enjoy).

Unfortunately I made the mistake of taking Telegraph Avenue from the library at the same time and now its due and I'm not finished and it's on hold so I can't renew it and I'm pretty cheesed.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:54 AM on December 20, 2012


Wow, there are some bad lists. And I don't mean bad based on their choices or rankings, but bad as in "not edited or copy read in any way."

I only really scanned the album lists for Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament's The Violence (an album I became obsessed with thanks to Metafilter), but I saw one instance of the name being wrong "Darren and the Long Parliament Hayman"), one where the linked list actually ranks a different Hayman album (Lido) in that spot, and one where a mistake on the original list (titling The Violence as Confess, the name of the album before it).
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:42 AM on December 20, 2012


Decani: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen all in the top five album list. What an indictment of the state of the music scene these days. I'm saying nothing about bloody Mumford and Sons being in the list at all, never mind top ten.

That's just the American Songwriter list, so those are presumably the sort of artists they'd go for. None of them make top 10 on any other list on that page as far as I can see. Incidentally, the Dylan album is excellent IMO (and I'm not particularly a Bob fan) and the Young is sounding good after a couple of listens. Friend of mine with encyclopaedic knowledge who goes to hundreds of gigs a year has them both in his top ten. Mumford and Sons, though, there's no excuse for (and I even liked their first album).
posted by Infinite Jest at 5:49 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


I have these posts up on my mp3 blog:

My favorite albums of 2012:

01) Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan
02) Japandroids - Celebration Rock
03) The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth
04) Purity Ring - Shrines
05) Aesop Rock - Skelethon
06) Best Coast - The Only Place
07) Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
08) Passion Pit - Gossamer
09) Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It
10) Kid Koala - 12 bit Blues
11) Swans - The Seer
12) Fiona Apple - Idler Wheel
13) Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
14) The Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now
15) Ryan Hemsworth - Last Words
16) Niki And The Dove - Instinct
17) Death Grips - The Money Store
18) Cold Specks - I Predict A Graceful Expulsion
19) Hot Chip - In Our Heads
20) How To Dress Well - Total Loss



My top 20 experimental/instrumental albums of 2012:

01) John Zorn - Gnostic Preludes
02) Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend!
03) Kane Ikin - Sublunar
04) Oren Ambarchi - Audience of One
05) Max Richter - The Four Seasons
06) Nicolas Bernier - Music for a Piano / Music for a Book
07) Steinbrüchel & Cory Allen - Seam
08) Giuseppe Ielasi - Untitled, 2011
09) Listening Mirror - Resting in Aspic
10) Nordvargr - In Oceans Abandoned By Life I Drown... To Live Again As A Servant Of Darkness
11) Evan Caminiti - Night Dust
12) Fennesz - AUN
13) Pinkcourtesyphone - Foley Folly Folio
14) Akumu - Transmissions EP
15) Kane Ikin & David Wenngren - Strangers
16) The Boats - River Calder EP
17) GRKZGL - S'en tire sans titre
18) Porzellan - The Lost Library
19) Jason Crumer - Let There Be Crumer
20) Philippe Petit & Friends - Cordophony
posted by Theta States at 6:09 AM on December 20, 2012 [3 favorites]


Is this where we selflink our own lists because we spent hours making them and then only received 3 likes on facebook from our so-called friends?

yes.
posted by Theta States at 6:12 AM on December 20, 2012


41. Old Crow Medicine Show – Old Crow Medicine Show

That's a pretty damn good album, but it was released in 2004. Did they mean "Carry Me Back", which was a much less good album?


That's pretty obviously a simple mistake. The cover art there is the cover art for "Carry Me Back" and the description makes it clear what they mean.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:24 AM on December 20, 2012


This list of 2012's best videos has some great gems in it, all of which I missed this past year.

I particularly liked the one for Justice's New Lands, and the completely epic trilogy of videos from M83's new album just blew me away -- I can't believe that I somehow overlooked those videos, given that I'm a huge M83 fan.

Also, I'm seeing very little love on these lists for Coexist by The xx -- it was easily my favorite of the year.
posted by schmod at 6:43 AM on December 20, 2012


Let's just save ourselves the trouble and listen to "The House That Heaven Built" 100 times.

Last week I had the pleasure of hanging out on the Japandroids' tour bus and availing myself of free Japandroids-brew. This led to me getting super drunk and insisting to their manager that he "is not a real bouncer."* Somehow this seemed to be in the spirit of things.

*Well he isn't
posted by Beardman at 6:55 AM on December 20, 2012 [4 favorites]


Bah humbug! These lists are not worth the air consumed to produce them.
posted by incandissonance at 6:57 AM on December 20, 2012


Having not listened to a lot of new music this year, I was looking at metacritics 2012 top albums list - Channel Orange (by Frank Ocean) was a clear favourite for album of the year, but meh... I think I'll ignore it and move on.
posted by piyushnz at 8:05 AM on December 20, 2012


I suppose I should look through a lot of these album lists but I know I'm going to be so meh about most of them. (But love to Theta States for mentioning the Richter in his list. 2012 is the year I fell in love with his music.)
posted by immlass at 8:36 AM on December 20, 2012


Decani: “Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen all in the top five album list. What an indictment of the state of the music scene these days. I'm saying nothing about bloody Mumford and Sons being in the list at all, never mind top ten.”

I think that says more about the state of your scroll wheel than it does about the state of the music scene these days. That's the "American Songwriters" top album list – of course they list those old guys. Please note that that is one list of ten.
posted by koeselitz at 8:38 AM on December 20, 2012


Also, honestly I guess my favorite album of the year was Actress' R.I.P. It's a pretty great chunk of sound.

I get the feeling I'm forgetting some stuff, though.
posted by koeselitz at 8:50 AM on December 20, 2012


But love to Theta States for mentioning the Richter in his list. 2012 is the year I fell in love with his music.


her list, but yeah Richter is pretty unstoppable. I got in to him via the Waltz With Bashir soundtrack. (Oh man, I should that film again...)
posted by Theta States at 9:02 AM on December 20, 2012


Thanks for posting - will take some time to get through them all but I like that there are so many to compare and contrast - in one place - and I can easily distill out the common picks.
posted by j810c at 9:31 AM on December 20, 2012


Oops, sorry, Theta States. I got into Richter after hearing his music used in a soundtrack (for Jiro Dreams of Sushi, maybe) and have been slowly buying up the back catalog.
posted by immlass at 9:35 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]




The album lists all fail without DETHKLOK.
posted by Renoroc at 10:50 AM on December 20, 2012


kickerofelves, (I've always thought of you as the Large-hearted Boy) thank you for doing what you do. Your blog is one of the hidden treasures of the Internets, and has been for the last decade or so. Cheers!
posted by carsonb at 11:24 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


The correct choice for best album of 2012 is Tame Impala's Lonerism.
Also, the correct choice for album of the year is Killer Mike's "R.A.P. Music". :)


Both great albums that were mostly absent from the particular lists in the OP, surprisingly.

Lots of love (unsurprisingly) for Frank Ocean this year. I more or less liked Channel Orange, but I don't think it would break my top 40 or 50 albums of the year.

My two favorite albums of the year were probably Fiona Apple, Idler Wheel, and Bat for Lashes, The Haunted Man, neither of which got much love in the lists. I also loved the new Yeasayer record, and would probably put that in at number three for me, another album that seemed forgotten. So, eh, meh, lists, right?

Also the Mumford and Sons had a new record this year? I listened to it and I thought it was just a re-release of their first album amirite?
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:56 PM on December 20, 2012


Also, I guess I ought to see Amour?
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:03 PM on December 20, 2012


I made a spotify playlist yesterday, with no particular order. I haven't had too much time to think it over, really, and i'm off for the holidays, but hey. I think it mostly shows i had a pretty dark year.

Can we put a spotify link on our profiles yet?
posted by palbo at 3:59 PM on December 20, 2012


That Fangora End Of Year List is great, Cabin In The Woods & REC aside, I've heard of none of these. And I had been disappointed by REC 2., as I have been for so much of what passes for horror these days.

Shocked, just shocked to see The Bunny Game didn't make that list. I haven't seen it, but I gather it does for consentual relationships what A Serbian Film did for parenting skills.
posted by Mezentian at 6:15 PM on December 20, 2012


Also, the correct choice for album of the year is Killer Mike's "R.A.P. Music". :)
posted by rollbiz at 8:54 PM on December 19


The general consensus among hip-hop fans seems to be Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d. city. Having heard both (but not much other new stuff this year), I would agree.

For a first time studio release, gkmc is seriously amazing. It's a 68 minute narrative set to music...a coherent, introspective, and engaging storyline about a young kid with young kid dreams growing up in a rough place and kind of hating the fact that it's pretty shitty but also acknowledging that growing up there has made him who is he today. It's also quite restrained as a first album, he doesn't have guests on song and the beats are well done but not over the top. The fact that Kendrick is also really skilled technically also really helps to tie the whole thing together. He even manages to throw in a couple of bangers onto the album that make sense in the context of the narrative.

I know that gkmc has had some positive press from critics (I see it on a couple of the more pan-genre lists in the main post), but I still feel like it's not getting the attention it deserves. The fact that it's an actual album that works much better from start to finish also hurts it, the songs really work much better together than they do individually.
posted by C^3 at 8:34 PM on December 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


ArtW's movie of the year: Dredd
ArtW's comic of the year: judge Dredd - Day of Chaos
ArtWs album of the year: Dredd OST

Bit of a themed year for me.
posted by Artw at 9:02 PM on December 20, 2012


Day late and a dollar short, but thanks so much Homeboy Trouble for the Said the Gramophone link. They've got MeFite Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra at #74 on their songs list with "Melody Dean", and it's just a treasure of a beautiful, rockin' song. So much energy and joy and nakedbrave emotion and fun there. Despite doing something similar to what she's done, I would have never heard of her in any of her incarnations, nor this "melody", but for the overarching all-points-connecting lovetentacles of metafilter. +333
posted by riverlife at 9:28 PM on December 20, 2012


TOP 5 BEST SCI-FI, FANTASY AND HORROR FILMS OF 2012

See? Dredd. I told you.
posted by Artw at 10:00 AM on December 27, 2012


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