FACT Magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2012

FACT Magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2012

Original Source →

49.

Helm - Impossible Symmetry
July 6, 2012
Critic Score
80
1 review

47.

September 11, 2012
Critic Score
78
46 reviews

Neither spectacular or deflating, Coexist is simply the sound of the xx, more or less just as we left it: minimalist, intuitive, romantic and enchanting.

46.

July 24, 2012
Critic Score
78
35 reviews

Without compromising their rustic, Grimm fairytale undertone, they’ve turned in a chromed, hi-tech pop album.

44.

Triad God - NXB
November 13, 2012
Critic Score
70
1 review

43.

March 26, 2012
Critic Score
80
10 reviews

Transverse is a deep, memorable experience, the pulses in particular guiding the music’s more familiar freeform guitar timbres into areas that are less predictable.

42.

January 14, 2012
Critic Score
77
14 reviews

Many of its strongest tracks are those that see Q take his foot off the gas, playing to more traditional communicative strengths in hip-hop.

40.

October 15, 2012
Critic Score
77
44 reviews

For the most part this is a composed, nourishing pop album.

39.

March 26, 2012
Critic Score
82
10 reviews

38.

September 25, 2012
Critic Score
80
16 reviews

In its finished form, Miguel’s Kaleidoscope Dream is a testament to his evolved songwriting, reverence to the past, and refusal to be pigeonholed.

37.

Le1f - Dark York
April 18, 2012
Critic Score
71
2 reviews

Ultimately, Dark York feels like a gauntlet thrown down to the straight hip-hop world, not an inward-looking one-off. 

36.

Gunplay - Bogota Rich: The Prequel
March 9, 2012
Critic Score
78
2 reviews

The polish, variety, velocity and tightness of his flow is undeniable. Every word is as packed as tightly and precisely as bullets in a clip, and sounds as piercingly and bracingly upon release.

35.

Young Smoke - Space Zone
September 24, 2012
Critic Score
75
8 reviews

Space Zone keeps the bar propped up impressively high without treading back over old ground

34.

Lorenzo Senni - Quantum Jelly
October 8, 2012
Critic Score
70
1 review

33.

Altered Natives - Tenement Yard Vol. 3
October 3, 2012
Critic Score
85
2 reviews

31.

July 17, 2012
Critic Score
78
28 reviews

30.

Supreme Cuts - Whispers In The Dark
July 10, 2012
Critic Score
68
6 reviews

29.

September 25, 2012
Critic Score
77
4 reviews

This CD version has some outstanding moments, and at times is a masterful lesson in dream-like production.

26.

February 21, 2012
Critic Score
80
41 reviews

As time wears on you start to feel that things are a bit too ethereal, as ideas fall short of solidifying into concrete hooks and structures begin to feel just slightly aimless

25.

October 23, 2012
Critic Score
68
11 reviews

On their label debut proper not only have Main Attrakionz protected their singular creation, they’ve also reaffirmed their style as something entirely new.

24.

The Internet - Purple Naked Ladies
December 20, 2011
Critic Score
59
19 reviews
An extremely promising debut.

23.

Heroin in Tahiti - Death Surf
February 12, 2012
Critic Score
80
1 review

22.

April 17, 2012
Critic Score
66
10 reviews

Both Future’s drugged-out vocal style and the chintzy production, so arresting in isolation, become wearying; by the time the album hits a brief upturn in quality in its closing stages, it’s hard to rouse oneself to care.

21.

April 10, 2012
Critic Score
73
12 reviews

The result is a collection of intriguing, often beautiful miniatures – gems to be cherished and enjoyed, sonic curiosities that reward repeated listening.

20.

October 30, 2012
Critic Score
84
2 reviews

19.

January 31, 2012
Critic Score
63
39 reviews

I can’t think of an album since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that was this big and sounded this good.

17.

I:Cube -
May 21, 2012
Critic Score
80
4 reviews

If you ever wanted a house or techno album as endlessly listenable, as varied, assured and as good value for money as Madvillain’s 2004 hip-hop classic Madvillainy, then your wish has been fulfilled.

16.

July 10, 2012
Critic Score
91
42 reviews

A largely beatific album, it propagates love over high living, but also shipped is the urban locale ... substituted for the same precocious wisdom, emotional intelligence, writerly nuance and reasoned portrayal of lust displayed on the Tumblr post.

15.

April 10, 2012
Critic Score
70
1 review

14.

March 8, 2012
Critic Score
81
24 reviews

Ekstasis sounds cleaner than its predecessor, Holter’s pop sensibilities and craft more sharply defined.

13.

Madteo - Noi No
November 26, 2012
Critic Score
85
2 reviews

To take it all in at once requires the listener to pay attention closely, and committing to this is quite exhausting – not in the least because it feels like an unsolvable puzzle each step of the way.

11.

April 24, 2012
Critic Score
81
20 reviews

R.I.P is a fantastical, fascinating album: as Actress intended, it feels not really of this world. 

10.

Wolfgang Voigt - Rückverzauberung 6
April 23, 2012
Critic Score
80
1 review

9.

August 28, 2012
Critic Score
86
34 reviews

The Seer is clearly brilliant, and may even be Swans’ finest album yet, three decades in.

6.

September 18, 2012
Critic Score
78
27 reviews

What we’re treated to here is more coherent songs, while the onus has shifted from studio editing and loops to organic arrangements, another clarity-lending move.

4.

Horrid Red - Celestial Joy
November 15, 2011
Critic Score
70
2 reviews

3.

July 24, 2012
Critic Score
79
17 reviews

2.

October 26, 2012
Critic Score
83
3 reviews

2.

November 0, 2012
Critic Score
83
3 reviews

1.

October 22, 2012
Critic Score
90
32 reviews

Good Kid, m.A.A.d City might be a wide-ranging, far-reaching success, but one suspects it won’t be his best record.

Original Source: http://www.factmag.com/2012/12/03/the-50-best-albums-of-2012/
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