Yo I’m a nerd (chill) so I do this every year, check it out.
Top 10 Albums of 2012 (IMhumbleassO)
1)
Frank Ocean – Channel ORANGE
- I don’t really have to justify this choice.
Have you heard it? It needs no justification. But I also have a deep connection
with this record on a personal level. Overall this year has been the hardest of
my life, without question. Estranged from family and friends, living in a new
place that doesn’t quite accept me, and experiencing the age-old ache of
unrequited love. It’s also been the best year of my life, and Channel ORANGE
had a large part to play in that. Anyway, the music alone speaks for itself.
2)
Joey Bada$$ - 1999
- This one might be surprising. But the kid
is 17 years old and he has the best flow out there right now among newcomers,
and even among most veterans. The whole PE crew is incredible and when it comes
to technical rapping chops, they’re making the competition look like 8 year
olds (which is not that much younger than they are themselves). I expect 2013
to be their year, and if they continue to grow and cultivate their endless
amount of raw talent this might be their decade too.
3)
Grizzly Bear – Shields
- Definitely not my favorite Grizzly Bear
album, but that isn’t saying too much considering they’re my favorite band. The
production is immaculate, the lyrics are plentiful and less lofty and
art-rock-y (which I tend to prefer), and the music is still good as fuck. No
reason to not be completely satisfied with this album. These 4 guys have perfected
their craft and they have yet to disappoint. Got on the GB train about 4 years
ago and I don’t see myself getting off soon.
4) Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid M.A.A.D City
- He went in it and stayed in it for 85
straight minutes. This album probably deserves to be a little higher on my
list, considering it’s honesty, passion, and magical wordplay. But hey I’m not
ashamed to admit that a lot of personal preference and taste went into my
rankings, so at the end of the day Kendrick came out just below bronze. That
does not, at all, belittle this album as an amazing work of art and an
inspiration for scrub artists like me trying to find a voice. I found a lot of
solace and resonance in these bars, and my experience growing up in America
could not be more different than Kendrick Lamar’s. That should speak to his
ability to make the listener feel like a part of the music. Kendrick blurs the
line between artist and listener so well it would make Foucault cream his
pants.
5)
Twin Shadow - Confess
- With the emergence of figures like The
Weeknd and Drake, being a dark and self-loathing womanizer has become kind of
cool. I’m not exactly proud of it, but I’ll admit that when I’m having girl
problems it feels pretty fucking good to drive around downtown Austin blasting
“Wicked Games” and shouting “Just tell me you love me, even though you don’t
love me”. Don’t judge me, y’all. George Lewis Jr. of Twin Shadow is another
person that does a really good job of making you want to be him, and he’s
basically a total fucking cock. I find comfort in singing along to his
well-crafted melodies about telling women “I’m just not that into you”.
Probably because there’s a big part of me who wishes I could be a little more
like that guy (I tend to end up on the other side of the table).
6)
Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes
- Yeah I was totally late on the whole
FlyLo thing, sue me. But since I’ve jacked about 4 FlyLo beats for my rap
project in the past couple of months, it’s clear that I jumped in with both
feet. I’ve spent the year getting very familiar with Stephen Ellison’s
discography, and I’m comfortable saying that this last album is his masterpiece
thus far. It’s gotten to the point where his productions are more than just
jazz-infused hip hop beats, they are in a whole class, even genre, of their
own. These songs seem to not only weave in and out of different genres and
influences, but also through time and space in an incredible fashion that I
don’t even fully understand. But yeah, I dig it.
7)
Purity Ring – Shrines
- I first listened to this band in a Cairo
hotel room back in July, when I was still adjusting to living in Egypt and
dealing with an intense amount of emotional stress. I remember hearing
“Fineshrine” and disappearing into the Canadian duo’s very graphic lyrics and fantastic
production. I will say that when I got the chance to hear the full album, some
parts of it did not blow me away the same way that the first couple of singles
did. However, about 5 of the songs on
this album could easily make any “top
10” list of 2012. I think that merits a spot on Angry T’s list.
8)
Schoolboy Q – Habits and Contradictions
- I did not expect to like this LP. I first
gave it a go in January and was not particularly feelin it from front to back.
However the first two songs on the album (“Sacrilegious” and “There He Go”) kept
me coming back and giving it another try. By mid-year I was banging this record
all the way through on the regular. Q is
all the right kinds of different; he’s weird, talented, and refreshing. In this
whole SWAG hip hop generation, little rival the size of this dude’s swag
muffin. So even though it took a while, I’m definitely feelin him now.
9)
Shlohmo – Vacation EP
- The song “Sink” on Shlohmo’s 2011 LP “Bad
Vibes” is what made me want to start rapping. It wasn’t some Ghostface Killah rhyme
wizardry or Kanye West’s $400k maybach or even Das Racist’s (RIP) amazingly
witty “Sit Down, Man” mixtape. It was that leaky production and pipe clanking
that climaxes in a opus of flute and synth-y emotion that gave me the impulse
to start saying shit over music. Every time I listen to that song I want to
cry, and there’s no fucking words. And February’s Vacation EP definitely did
not disappoint. It’s a completely different Shlohmo, he pretty much only uses 4
or 5 voices in each of the three incredible songs, but they sound more
confident and on-point than ever.
11) Heems – Wild Water Kingdom
- Yeah Das Racist blew me the fuck away in 2010
with “Sit Down, Man”, and anyone who knows me or has even talked to me once
about music knows I worship these guys. After the release of that mixtape it’s
been hard to find a DR related project that I could fully get behind. “Wild
Water Kingdom” just came out a couple of weeks ago and Heems gave me what I’ve been
craving for the last 2.5 years. The intellectual overtones and hilarious punch
lines are back, with an added honest desire to get some fucking validation in
the rap world (which I’m starting to identify with). The roster of producers is
basically my wet dream and Hima is definitely one of my biggest role models.
Mad props to brown Chris Farley on this one.
Honorable Mentions (no particular order)
Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dreams
How to Dress Well – Total Loss
Holy Other - Held
The Walkmen - Heaven
The xx – Coexist
Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
El-P – Cancer For Cure
Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music
Biggest Disappointments
·
Passion Pit – Gossamer
- There was only one song on the
whole album that I really liked (Constant Conversations). The rest were either alright or I just
wasn’t feeling it at all.
·
Pop Etc. – Pop Etc.
- So the 2010 Morning Benders LP “Big Echo”
is one of my favorite albums in recent memory. When they changed their name to
Pop Etc. and promised Boyz II Men influenced R&B/Pop music, I was intrigued
to say the least. They came out swinging with a very passable mixtape, with a
lot of interesting sounds and great melodies. Then Pop Etc. the LP happened…Let’s
just say it did not live up to expectations.
·
Beach House – Bloom
- Not much to say here. Just sounded like a
less inspired and less beautiful Teen Dream to me. Seeing how Teen Dream was my
#1 of 2010, I was mad disappoint.
