Chromatics: raising a glass - just - to the fact that their album is the readers' No.1
Readers' Albums of the Year
The votes are in, the counting's done. Here's YOUR views on the best music released in 2012
Huge thanks to the many many hundreds of you who sent us your
top five albums of the year.
Spreadsheet-king Ally is now a broken man and has taken himself
off to do some gentle adding up on his fingers in a quiet corner,
but not before delivering the finally tally of what you, the ADM
readers / users see as the musical highlights of 2012.
Without further ado, here's the top 50. And below we offer our
thoughts on what it all means.
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- 372 Chromatics Kill for Love
- 318 Frank Ocean Channel Orange
- 300 Tame Impala Lonerism
- 264 Alt-J An Awesome Wave
- 258 Grizzly Bear Shields
- 228 Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d city
- 210 Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel ...
- 204 Godspeed You! Black Emperor 'Allelujah!
Don't Bend!...
- 180 Swans The Seer
- 156 Grimes Visions
- 155 Sharon Van Etten Tramp
- 138 Death Grips The Money Store
- 133 Japandroids Celebration Rock
- 126 Beach House Bloom
- 110 Animal Collective Centipede Hz
- 108 Polica Give You The Ghost
- 104 Baroness Yellow & Green
- 102 Django Django Django Django
- 101 The Walkmen Heaven
- 96 Anais Mitchell Young Man in America
- 94 Burial Kindred
- 90 Dirty Projectors Swing Lo Magellan
- 88 Jessie Ware Devotion
- 85 The Shins Port Of Morrow
- 84 Liars WIXIW
- 78 First Aid Kit The Lions Roar
- 72 Menomena Moms
- 72 Twin Shadow Confess
- 70 Andy Stott Luxury Problems
- 68 Hot Chip In Our Heads
- 66 Deftones Koi No Yokan
- 65 Donald Fagen Sunken Condos
- 60 Dexys One Day I'm Going to Soar
- 56 Jack White Blunderbuss
- 54 Niki & The Dove Insitnct
- 54 School Of Seven Bells Ghostory
- 53 Susanne Sundfor The Silicone Veil
- 51 The Menzingers On the Impossible Past
- 50 Bob Mould Silver Age
- 48 Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
Here
- 48 Father John Misty Fear Fun
- 47 Flying Lotus Until The Quiet Comes
- 46 Jon Talabot Fin
- 46 Mark Lanagan Band Blues Funeral
- 44 Pepe Deluxé Queen of the Wave
- 44 Perfume Genius Put Your Back N 2 It
- 43 The xx Coexist
- 43 Trust TRST
- 42 Lana Del Rey Born To Die
- 42 Tindersticks The Something Rain
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You would imagine, given that this website is primarily
concerned with bringing together the opinions of music critics and
that as users of ADM you probably pay at least some heed to said
opinions, that there would be strong similarities between this list
and that of our Poll of Polls based on the ratings from our source
publications and sites.
And yes there are plenty of familiar names around. But there are
some striking deviations, not least at No.1. On the critics'
rankings Frank Ocean is so far out of site there
is a veritable Pacific between his Channel Orange album and the
nearest contender. However you made Chromatics
your No.1 - and by a more than respectable margin at that.
Other notable differences concern albums from Godspeed
You! Black Emperor, Grizzly Bear, Baroness, Poliça and
Animal Collective, each rated markedly higher by
users than by the "professionals". Indeed the Animal Collective
album has barely garnered any critical ratings whatsoever, while it
would take a big late surge for either the Poliça or Baroness
albums to trouble the top 40.
From the other perspective, it is fascinating to speculate why it
is that albums by Jack White, Julia Holter and
Bat For Lashes which all figure prominently in the
reviewers' list (particularly White's Blunderbuss which has been
ever-present in the top 10) fare so badly in comparison in the
users' list.
Likewise those representatives of what could be termed "the old
guard". Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Dr John and
Bill Fay have all attracted varying - but healthy
- numbers of nominations from the critics but minimal mentions from
readers.
One further anomaly: Burial's Kindred appears
at No.20, whereas it seems to have been discounted from the
critics' voting, presumably on the basis that at three tracks and
32 minutes it didn't constitute an album. We also received votes
for The Antlers' four-track, 22-minute Undersea
release, and requests from users on behalf of both for them to be
included. These mini-albums / EPs seem stranded in a format
no-man's land between albums and singles, overlooked in the
reckonings for both, despite attracting a lot of acclaim (in the
case of Burial, enough to see it at No.14 in our all-time top-rated
chart).
Read into all this what you will. What can't be contested is
that, across the board, albums from Frank Ocean, Tame
Impala, Kendrick Lamar, Grimes, Swans, Fiona Apple and
Chromatics have been both lauded and cherished by
a lot of music lovers.