Angry Tarek's Top Albums of 2012

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.