Centipede Hz… It’s got legs

2012 Top 100 LPs #12-9: Animal Collective, Deerhoof, Flying Lotus, Matthew Friedberger

Published on December 23rd, 2012 | Jonny Abrams

Yes, it’s…Rocksucker’s Top 100 Albums of 2012!

Rocksucker listened to a lot of albums this year and conferred varying degrees of merit (in quail form) upon them based on our own spurious criteria…

…and now we bring you our favourite hundred of them, counted down in order arbitrarily/for fun. By dint of mathematics (specifically 4 x 25), top spot shall be revealed on Christmas day. Now, let’s get crackling, and then cracking…

12. Flying Lotus – Until the Quiet Comes

A deliriously loose, surreal and technicolour exhibition of electronic wizardry that does good by Steven Ellison’s description of this, his fourth album as Flying Lotus, as “a record for kids to dream to”. Well, it’s unlikely that parents will be rushing out to by this for their children, but this synaesthetic lucid dream of a record sure beats Barney the Dinosaur as imagination fuel. Until the Quiet Comes twinkles, then thuds, then sparkles, then scrambles, and there’s nary an “I love you, you love me” in sight; heck, it’s implied.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s review of Until the Quiet Comes in full

11. Animal Collective – Centipede Hz

Such is the frenzied nature of this one that it’s bound to have alienated one or two fans roped in by dreamy 2009 predecessor Merriweather Post Pavilion, but in truth the overwhelming bombardment of ideas picks up from where Animal Collective left off prior to Deakin’s hiatus. It’s the sound of sheer lunacy, and yet it packs many a hook that will bore its way into your cerebral cortex given enough opportunities to be isolated from the rushing, psychedelic jungle they inhabit. These guys continue to plough a unique furrow in highly evolved pop music, and the world should be grateful.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s review of Centipede Hz in full

10. Matthew Friedberger – Matricidal Sons of Bitches

Album title of the year for sure, but this was not a consideration when placing the Fiery Furnaces man’s latest in our top ten of 2012. Rather, its lofty position owes itself to the utterly immersive nature of this soundtrack to an imagined film; the faintly sinister sense of nostalgia, the sudden shifts in mood, the childlike quality that belies just how intricate a composition it all is…and, perhaps best of all, the imagined film is left entirely to your own subconscious associations, a factor we took advantage of in our somewhat hallucinatory review of it. The Flying Lotus album might be a record for kids to dream to, but this is the sound of an actual child’s dream, scooped out with a dream catcher designed by Roald Dahl himself.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s review of Matricidal Sons of Bitches in full

9. Deerhoof – Breakup Song

Surprise, surprise: it’s another excellent Deerhoof album. How do they find the time to keep up such regular releases while indulging in however many side projects, like Greg Saunier’s tours with Plastic Ono Band and Congotronics vs Rockers? Anyway, as we noted in our review: “All that jagged experimentalism is still shot through with enough of a sunny pop sensibility to keep the rowdy, jittery robot jazz alluring – not to mention a prudently splattered array of colours to keep things exotic and fresh – and while the overall result is less immediate than last year’s sublime Deerhoof vs. Evil LP it’s a darn sight less troubled-sounding than its title would imply.” In short, one of our era’s great bands is still going quietly (albeit rowdily and chaotically) about its business of being one of our era’s great bands.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s review of Breakup Song in full

Watch this space for a continuation of the countdown of Rocksucker’s Top 100 Albums of 2012! Bloody do it!

Artists: animal collective, deerhoof, flying lotus, matthew friedberger

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.