With yet another new editor at the helm of the Village Voice, Brian McManus, it looked like they were gonna miss their roundup of 700 critics faves for a best albums of 2012 list. So I wrote up what I thought the list would be:
1- Frank Ocean, 2 – Bob dylan, 3 – Lemarr Kendrick, 4 – Leonard Cohen, 5 – Fiona Apple
Now here is the real poll: : 1- Frank Ocean, 2 – Lemarr Kendrick, 3 – Fiona Apple , 4. – Japandroids, 5. Miguel.
Yeah, not bad eh? I overestimated the graying of the American credit but otherwise this was self-evident stuff by a sort of mass hypnosis consensus of sound and vision. It is all a little depressing and adds fuel to the rock critic is a dead and dying dream. The next five are nearly as bland: Tame Impala, Swans, Killer Mike, Grimes and Beach House. The sorta semi-underground art-pop VV has always gone for in numbers.
Is it worth noting that three out of five of the top five are new r&b and I dunno, maybe its me, but it all seems like an awful stretch. 2012 wasn't a terrible year but as this attests and attributes, it wasn't great either. Nothing really blew me away and part of the reason is that new R&B's prime attribute appears to be to take the thought process of hip hop self-love and give it a hangover.
Whatever, three out of the top five? Not bad, eh?