Celeb News: New York Times Top 10 Albums Of 2012 (#1: Frank Ocean)

Stepfon

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1. FRANK OCEAN “Channel Orange” (Def Jam) The moody introspection of a soul-ballad man fuses with the metaphor-making skills of a rapper in the sparse, aching songs that fill Frank Ocean’s official debut album. Even with some resemblances to Prince and R. Kelly, he’s an unusual character for R&B: estranged but observant, admitting an attraction to a man, finding emptiness where others find material or emotional comfort. And in their sound as well as their lyrics, his songs create hollow spaces that they can only sometimes fill. As the tracks make eerie, restless dissolves between instruments and electronics, the songs melt down and recast themselves, again and again.

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2. FIONA APPLE “The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do” (Epic) Fiona Apple’s fourth studio album teeters, moment to moment, between obsessive confession and dark vaudeville. Its songs grapple with jealousy, insecurity, loneliness, lust and overwhelming self-consciousness. But they take place in a wide-open musical space: a studio collaboration between Ms. Apple, usually at her piano, and Charley Drayton, playing all sorts of percussion. For songs rooted in show tunes and classical music as well as rock, the rhythms are both a playground and a testing ground, exposing Ms. Apple’s voice even as they propel her to take chances.

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3. BOB DYLAN “Tempest” (Columbia)

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4. KENDRICK LAMAR “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” (TDE/Aftermath/Interscope) Kendrick Lamar wades through contradictions on his second album. He’s from Compton, Calif., gangsta rap’s home turf in the 1980s and ’90s, and in some ways he’s an old-fashioned hip-hop storyteller, chronicling a cityscape still shaped by poverty, gangs, crime and police, over tracks that echo both ’70s soul and vintage gangsta rap. But he’s no gangster. In a story line that moves from youthful misjudgments to grown-up repentance he’s an uneasy and mournful witness: trying (and failing) to steer clear of bad company, watching the casualties pile up, wishing things would change.

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5. GRIZZLY BEAR “Shields” (Warp)

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6. ALABAMA SHAKES “Boys & Girls” (ATO)

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7. NORAH JONES “Little Broken Hearts”

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8. METZ

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9. BETTYE LAVETTE “Thankful N’ Thoughtful” (Anti-)

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10. DJ RASHAD “Teklife Vol. 1: Welcome to the Chi” (Lit City Trax)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/ar...?smid=tw-share

Eric.

Metz.

Sept

Norah

JungleDisturbia

I'm happy for Frank, but I'm not sure whether to believe that these magazines/reviewers/etc are non-biasly reviewing his album, or if they're just living up to what everyone initially said about the "announcement" and the album, which was "omg bisexual R&B/hip-hop dude, album is already a classic, etc etc".

I think it's a good album, but his coming out overshadowed the album SO much that I don't know if people genuinely believe it's worthy of the praise they're giving it, or if they're more infatuated with the idea of a man with a history in a popular hip-hop group now coming out, possibly the start of a change in the urban communities' mindset.

Brando

frank

frantic

Frank, Grizzly Bear, Fiona

izzy

Frank,Norah

dcode78

Frank may win AOTY at the grammys.

Callum

if this album doesn't win AOTY he's robbed

Queen Bea.

Frank dominates these lists even when half the album is interludes.

thediscomonkey

Fiona, Alabama Shakes, & Norah.

Where is Miguel tho?

BAYAR

Frank Ocean is so ****ing overrated. I hate p4k for giving him this kind of publicity boost after that ridiculous high score. I don't believe one bit that he is bi or gay. Everybody is eating it up like it's something delicious.