Tom Whalen Poop ’12


10 top

cover of Japandroids - Celebration Rock  Buy New or Used via Amazon
1. JapandroidsCelebration Rock
<< Am I old enough to miss being young? How it felt, how it sounded? Who of us ever thought a record would ever, ever, ever again sound like this, feel like this!?

cover of    Buy New or Used via Amazon
2. BurialKindred EP
<< Burial’s embrace of long-form, mixtapeish compositions, here and on Truant/Rough Sleeper, was as unexpected as it was revelatory. The texture of this music, both physical and emotional, is simply staggering. This guy’s like the Beatles to me.

cover of Action Bronson and Party Supplies – Blue Chips   Download via Stereogum
3. Action Bronson and Party SuppliesBlue Chips
<< It’s hard to pin down why Bronson’s playful horny chef routine pulled me in deeper than did the cough-syrupy, more classically street MC class of 2012… on second thought, I guess that’s not really all that hard to pin down at all.

cover of CRAIG FINN – CLEAR HEART FULL EYES  Buy New or Used via Amazon
4. Craig FinnClear Heart Full Eyes
<< I am the perennial Finn fanboy, and 4 is my lucky number. The rest is sort of hard to explain.

cover of Cheap Girls - Giant Orange   Buy New or Used via Amazon
5. Cheap GirlsGiant Orange
<< It’s funny how old-fashioned terms “college rock” and “alt rock” seem now. I guess it’s also curious that, as I struggle for the appropriate modifiers to sum up the shamelessly simple pleasures of Giant Orange, “old-fashioned” seems strangely appropriate, and also somewhat poignant. Heck, they’re reissuing their old records on Asian Man!!

cover of Holy Other - Held   Buy New or Used via Amazon
6. Holy OtherHeld
<< The pulsing, wordless cry is both Holy Other’s sonic signature and a flag marking its mournfully erotic sonic terrain. Take a look at the cover—that’s exactly what this album sounds like.

cover of Shigeto – Lineage EP   Download via Amazon
7. ShigetoLineage EP
<< Producers doing more with less seems to be the order of the moment, now that the dubstep bubble has burst. Shigeto’s Lineage EP uses jazz hands and piano loops to channel RZA channeling Monk on 36 Chambers—quietly mournful, quietly bright.

cover of How to Dress Well – Total Loss   Buy New or Used via Amazon
8. How to Dress WellTotal Loss
<< Tom Krell refined the overdriven Lynchian soul of his debut into straight-up cosmic art-school Boys II Men. An inspiring, incredibly heartfelt record.

cover of Chairlift – Something   Buy New or Used via Amazon
9. ChairliftSomething
<< The album as a whole is terrific, but “I Belong In Your Arms” and “Take It Out On Me” really make this one for me—two absolutely gorgeous tunes.

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10. Angel OlsenHalf Way Home
<< More uplifting than any album about death has any business being. A fine secular spiritual that is, I reckon, up many of my fellow Poopster’s alleys—check it out!


15 more

Ash BorerCold of Ages
BaronessYellow & Green
BurialTruant / Rough Sleeper EP
The CaretakerPatience (After Sebald)
ChromaticsKill for Love
ConvergeAll We Love We Leave Behind
Flying LotusUntil the Quiet Stops
Daughn GibsonAll Hell
High On FireDe Vermis Mysteriis
Mean JeansOn Mars
The MenOpen Your Heart
Motion Sickness of Time TravelMotion Sickness of Time Travel
PallbearerSorrow and Extinction
Andy StottLuxury Problems
Susumu YokotaDreamer



Praise the day, people.

TW, January 2013