EWB's Top 100 Artists of 2012

[VerbalPuke]

Citizen Kane totally should win a Best Film Ever list. It's one of the best ever.

Actually a good group there, comparatively. Ben Folds Five/Folds himself ranged from pretty good to fantastic for the first seven to eight years, and then things went wrong. I still haven't listened to the new album yet. It's disappointing that it's apparently not that good.

Blur are wonderful. Has Oasis shown up yet? The surest way to know if this list was a failure or not is if Oasis is higher than Blur.

No opinion on Townsend.

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip had a solid first album with a couple of fantastic tracks, and I was really into them for about half a year in 2008. I even saw them live and they kicked ass. I stopped paying attention a couple months after that for whatever reason, but as far as acts that are a big deal on EWB and not anywhere else I frequent, they're by far my favorite.

Bowie! I need more Bowie albums. I just have Ziggy Stardust, and then I've heard singles. He's great. Should be higher, really.

On Bowie albums, I personally love Low, Aladdin Sane, and Hunky Dory are among my other favorites of his. He has a ton of other great albums but those aren't a bad starting point.

[fr34k]

As always, VP knows what's good.

[ROC]

I like some of Under The Blacklight if I force myself to view it as a Metric album instead of a Rilo Kiley record. More big hooks, more ridiculousness, and the like. But I actually really enjoy "Close Call."

I don't have much else to say (I think a lot of other people will be better to gauge Bowie than me) other than I obviously like Rage Against the Machine (since that avatar is me) although they've lowered a bit in my standing in recent years just because I got into more interesting stuff.

[Skummy]

I have a soft spot for Soundgarden. I'd probably hate them if I heard them for the first time now, but they were pretty much the band I grew up with, maybe even more than Nirvana. My older brother loves them, and their music was always around. So there's a nostalgic thing, and they've got some great stuff.

I love that The Lucksmiths keep making it on to the list. I literally know one person who has heard of them without me telling them about them, though I also don't know anyone I've played them to who hasn't loved them. One of my all-time favourite bands, by far, and some of the wittiest, and sometimes most bittersweet, lyrics of any band ever. The only possible criticism I would give them is that they can get a bit samey, and some of their earlier albums fall back on very basic and quite silly wordplay - but by the last three albums, their lyrics are absolutely incredible.

Like pretty much everyone else, I'm surprised so many people voted Jack White. His solo stuff just isn't that strong, and there's only the one album, which I barely remember aside from the single.

I like Childish Gambino a lot. He was nothing like I expected, but I think he's fantastic. I don't really get the talk of him being "over-rated", but maybe that's because I don't spend much time in rap circles, so I don't really know what people like, or what's cool. I just think he had a really solid album that I enjoyed, and felt quite fresh and new.

Paramore are awful.

Bruce Springsteen's great. He's done some crap, but there's just so much stuff he's done that you can still pick a full career's worth of absolute classic songs out of his discography. "Nebraska", "Born To Run" and "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" are all incredible albums, and there's some great tracks on other albums too - "The River" is one of my all-time favourite songs.

I don't really know Ben Folds beyond "Brick", which I like, and some of his jokier stuff. Pops up in collaboration with people I like quite a lot, but mostly he seems a bit smarmy and sarcastic, which is off-putting.

I never really got into Blur. Britpop was never really my thing, and I've really not heard all that much Blur stuff since then that's made me think it's worthwhile going back to them.

Devin Townsend is fantastic. It's so refreshing seeing someone in heavy metal that doesn't play the genre straight, with absolute po-faced sincerity, but also who isn't afraid to take risks and try new things. He's almost the antithesis of what most of mainstream heavy metal is. He's one of the more inventive musicians out there, almost like a heavy metal Frank Zappa in many ways.

Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip are both brilliant - together or apart. The first DLC vs. Pip album is one of my all-time favourite hip-hop albums.

David Bowie, what can you fucking say? He's one of the best.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Devin Townsend is fantastic. It's so refreshing seeing someone in heavy metal that doesn't play the genre straight, with absolute po-faced sincerity, but also who isn't afraid to take risks and try new things. He's almost the antithesis of what most of mainstream heavy metal is. He's one of the more inventive musicians out there, almost like a heavy metal Frank Zappa in many ways.

Totally nailed it. I love metal, but my biggest critique of it is how many bands do that whole "GRRRRR WE ARE SERIOUS BADASSES" thing. You know, black and white band photos where no one smiles and everyone's trying to do their best to look badass - it comes off as incredibly goofy, and when you get down to brass tacks, a lot of metal is incredibly goofy. Lyrics for most metal bands sound as though they were written with a thesaurus in hand. Townsend sort of subverts all of the metal tropes and is great for that.

[gunnar hendershow]

Citizen Kane totally should win a Best Film Ever list. It's one of the best ever.

Actually a good group there, comparatively. Ben Folds Five/Folds himself ranged from pretty good to fantastic for the first seven to eight years, and then things went wrong. I still haven't listened to the new album yet. It's disappointing that it's apparently not that good.

Blur are wonderful. Has Oasis shown up yet? The surest way to know if this list was a failure or not is if Oasis is higher than Blur.

No opinion on Townsend.

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip had a solid first album with a couple of fantastic tracks, and I was really into them for about half a year in 2008. I even saw them live and they kicked ass. I stopped paying attention a couple months after that for whatever reason, but as far as acts that are a big deal on EWB and not anywhere else I frequent, they're by far my favorite.

Bowie! I need more Bowie albums. I just have Ziggy Stardust, and then I've heard singles. He's great. Should be higher, really.

On Bowie albums, I personally love Low, Aladdin Sane, and Hunky Dory are among my other favorites of his. He has a ton of other great albums but those aren't a bad starting point.

Hunky Dory has slowly edged its way into discussion for one of my favorite albums ever.

[SRN]

Devin Townsend is fantastic. It's so refreshing seeing someone in heavy metal that doesn't play the genre straight, with absolute po-faced sincerity, but also who isn't afraid to take risks and try new things. He's almost the antithesis of what most of mainstream heavy metal is. He's one of the more inventive musicians out there, almost like a heavy metal Frank Zappa in many ways.

Totally nailed it. I love metal, but my biggest critique of it is how many bands do that whole "GRRRRR WE ARE SERIOUS BADASSES" thing. You know, black and white band photos where no one smiles and everyone's trying to do their best to look badass - it comes off as incredibly goofy, and when you get down to brass tacks, a lot of metal is incredibly goofy. Lyrics for most metal bands sound as though they were written with a thesaurus in hand. Townsend sort of subverts all of the metal tropes and is great for that.

Man, at Aalborg Metal Festival, when he played, he made so much fun of all the big fat "true" metalheads in the back, standing there with their arms crossed. It was the best.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

The joy of seeing Paramore make it that high and so many bursting into a rage about it

Next year we get them to number one!

[Hobo]

Oh. All of that is stupid. Nobody wins in that story.

If it helps, the money raised I'm pretty sure went to charity.

[Matt]

Oh. All of that is stupid. Nobody wins in that story.

If it helps, the money raised I'm pretty sure went to charity.

Yeah it did, and Joe McElderry probably became more famous than he otherwise would have done since he'll forever be known as "The X-Factor guy that didn't get Christmas #1"... plus I got to hear Killing in the Name whilst having my Christmas dinner. And Simon Cowell wasn't at all happy. And we got a free RATM concert (albeit no actual RATM fans I know got tickets because they were all taken up by scenesters who only knew Killing in the Name). There were quite a lot of wins.

[probablyoliver]

That an it was quite funny at the time.

[New Damage]

Yeah, then last year people were like "lol let's get Bird Is The Word as number one because it was on Family Guy lol" and fuck that show.

[Josh]

Oh. All of that is stupid. Nobody wins in that story.

If it helps, the money raised I'm pretty sure went to charity.

That does make it somewhat better.

[METALMAN]

Hey, Dejalo is amazing! It's the only Rilo Kiley song I like. Mind you, I've only heard the album that it is on.

Ben Folds solo is mostly shit. Odd decent track here and there. BFF is very hit and miss, but their debut is one my of my favourite albums ever, and I can forgive him anything for that.

Blur are pretty good. One of those bands that has never made a great album, but when you look at everything they've done, you realise there's a lot of good songs there.

I think I would like Devin Townsend but I just don't know where to begin.

Dan le Sac vs Pip is okay, but seeing them place so highly is a bit ludicrous. First album had some great tunes though.

David Bowie is incredible. Fantastic run of albums through the seventies, and while he's not really reached that level since, everything he's done has been interesting in some way or another.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Ziltoid the Omniscient is a super groovy Devin Townsend album. It's kind of hard (for me, anyway) to pick one and go "start here!" Accelerated Evolution is a good album too. And the Punky Bruster album.

[SRN]

Personally, I'd say start with both Accelerated Evolution and Infinity. Those are pretty good examples of what Devin does. Evolution is great songwriting and great songs, although it is a pretty long album, whereas Infinity shows how god damn crazy Devin can get. Perhaps get Terria after that one. Punky Brüster is pretty much a parody album but hilarious one at that. For something more recent, and thus not writing by drug and/or alcohol influenced Townsend, get Addicted! which I think, personally, the strongest release he has had with the Devin Townsend Project. After all that, you are ready to delve into his discography and get gems like Synchestra, which is the culmination of the Devin Townsend Band and also, if you ask me, the best album he has ever done, or Deconstruction which is the metal version of Infinity and also tons more crazy.

I feel the same way with Ziltoid as as I do Brüster; it is a great comedy album but not really a good example of what Devin actually does. If you are like the heavier and more metal kind of Devin, get some Strapping Young Lad records like City or the self-titled one. The only ones I'd say to completely stay away from are Heavy As A Heavy Thing and Physicist but even then, they have a few good tracks.

Yeah, I am too much of a Devin Townsend nerd, I know.

[Sousa]

Hey, Dejalo is amazing! It's the only Rilo Kiley song I like. Mind you, I've only heard the album that it is on.

...wow, hear the other albums then.

[Quom]

All the people saying who? about The Lucksmiths should really do themselves a favour and listen to them. They are pretty brilliant, soft, folky and melodic. Plus they are the only band who have nearly inspired me to get a tattoo (was going to get 'fiction' like it was typewritten on the top of my arm). The lyrics are definitely the highlight, the music is fine, but the lyrics are often brilliant. One of the few bands I am proud my country produced (although there are likely more people on EWB who have heard of them than people over here).

[probablyoliver]

All the people saying who? about The Lucksmiths should really do themselves a favour and listen to them. They are pretty brilliant, soft, folky and melodic. Plus they are the only band who have nearly inspired me to get a tattoo (was going to get 'fiction' like it was typewritten on the top of my arm). The lyrics are definitely the highlight, the music is fine, but the lyrics are often brilliant. One of the few bands I am proud my country produced (although there are likely more people on EWB who have heard of them than people over here).

I've been planning that tattoo for as long as I can remember!

[Skummy]

Holy shit guys, me too.