Year-End Critics' Polls '07

yeah cash money buses have been a little heated lately so i decided to move on.

no a family friend lives next door to the marley house (dunno which marley actually owns it tbh) in miami and one day a few years ago they were loading shit into the bus when we were out there and they let me and my brother and his friend walk around for a minute or so.

This is where list fatigue begins to set in. The more mainstream lists all start blending together as Xmas approaches.

The Onion
I'm on vacation, so I don't know why I'm punishing myself, but I read nearly all 600+ comments on The Onion's list page. Complaints mainly focused on the lack of hip-hop, and the exclusion of Panda Bear, Of Montreal, and a few other albums that really are no less whitebread (Shins, New Porn, Andrew Bird, etc.) than the interchangeable selections they're kvetching about. Two good things came of it. I found a list with three Finnish albums I hadn't heard of (I've been having these reocurring dreams set in the dark forests of Finland and for some reason it makes me want to make a soundtrack for it), and I was reminded to pick up El-P's I'll Sleep When You're Dead. It just might be better than his first album, not sure why I forgot about it.

1. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible (81 points]
2. The National, Boxer (66 points]
3. Radiohead, In Rainbows (63 points]
4. LCD Soundsystem, Sound Of Silver (61 points]
5. Band Of Horses, Cease To Begin (56 points]
6. M.I.A., Kala (54 points]
7. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (42 points]
8. Tegan And Sara, The Con (37 points]
9. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky (36 points]
10. Bloc Party, A Weekend In The City (36 points]
11. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (35 points]
12. Jesu, Conqueror (30 points]
13. Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (29 points]
14. PJ Harvey, White Chalk (29 points]
15. Les Savy Fav, Let's Stay Friends (28 points]
16. The White Stripes, Icky Thump (27 points]
17. Low, Drums And Guns (26 points]
18. Ted Leo, Living With The Living (25 points]
19. Against Me!, New Wave (25 points]
20. Rilo Kiley, Under The Blacklight (25 points]
21. Grinderman, Grinderman (23 points]
22. Bat For Lashes, Fur And Gold (22 points]
23. Fall Out Boy, Infinity On High (22 points]
24. James Murphy & Pat Mahoney, FabricLive 36 (20 points]
25. Iron And Wine, The Shepherd's Dog (20 points]

SPIN
I guess I should get around to listening to Against Me and Fall Out Boy *sigh*. I'm drawing the line at Bright Eyes, I'd heard enough of him. Do grownups really like that stuff? Are Bonde De Role and Brother Ali worth hearing? I didn't even know Wildhearts and BRMC had new albums.

40. Rilo Kiley, Under The Blacklight
39. Turbonegro, Retox
38. Dizzee Rascal, Maths + English
37. Ted Leo & The Pharmicists, Living With The Living
36. Bonde Do Role, With Lasers
35. Say Anything, In Defense Of The Genre
34. Bat For Lashes, Fur And Gold
33. The Wildhearts, The Wildhearts
32. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Baby 81
31. Handsome Furs, Plague Park
30. Brother Ali, Undisputed Truth
29. Panda Bear, Person Pitch
28. Iron And Wine, The Shepherd's Dog
27. Band Of Horses, Cease To Begin
26. Bright Eyes, Cassadaga
25. Queens Of The Stone Age, Era Vulgaris
24. The Shins, Wincing The Night Away
23. Peter Bjorn & John, Writer's Block
22. Elliott Smith, New Moon
21. Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
20. of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
19. Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare
18. Feist, The Reminder
17. The National, Boxer
16. Lily Allen, Alright, Still...
15. Justice, †
14. Bruce Springsteen, Magic
13. The Hives, The Black And White Album
12. Prince, Planet Earth
11. Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3
10. The White Stripes, Icky Thump
9. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
8. Jay-Z, American Gangster
7. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black
6. Radiohead, In Rainbows
5. M.I.A., Kala
4. Kanye West, Graduation
3. LCD Soundsystem, Sound Of Silver
2. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
1. Against Me!, New Wave

bonde do role are only worth hearing so you'll know once and for all you never want to hear them again. ok, that's mean. everything is worth hearing once. but i don't see the appeal.

The Against Me! album is terrible - awful production and their least engaging batch of songs yet. I have no idea what the appeal is supposed to be.

The Fall Out Boy album is good if you can ignore lyrics.

i don't think the lyrics are that bad.

really good album though you're right.

I like the first Against Me record quite a bit but the ones since (is this their 3rd or 4th?) haven't really made any impression on me.

Omg. Spin picked Against Me! as #1 album? I think I'm going back to reading Spin now.

Man, I remember the first year I read Spin. I was a sophomore in highschool and I hadn't heard of any of the bands on the year end list. Now I know all of them - and I wish I didn't. :(

That Palacio album didn't really grab me... I probably need to relisten?
I like the occasional divergence on those globalrhythm lists... Bjork? Sharon Jones? Ah well, I went with the Cherryholmes, so no room for complaint.
Is there already a place where people are posting their personal top 10s and I'm missing it?

Not a huge fan of Palacio's voice...It sounds empty to me.

After suffering through the mediocre/boring/similar lists from most of the publications above, and their ridiculous NATIONARCADIOHEAD placements, I'm actually looking forward to the Pitchfork list, for once.

Predictions:

- The National in the 10-20 range, Arcade Fire in the 20-30 range, where they both belong. Radiohead I can see making the top 10 on Pitchfork this year. Such a relief.

- The #1 album: who knows? My guesses would be LCD, Panda Bear or MIA in the top 5, with Animal Collective and Radiohead as long shots for #1, but definite top 10 records.

- Looking forward to some surprises in the top 20 or so records. Last year I recall seeing Scott Walker, Boris and Liars in the the top 10, which was refreshing - all of those records are incredible. My #1 of the year was Junior Boys, which was #11 i think.

Clarification: My guesses would be LCD, Panda Bear or MIA as the #1 album, all definitely in the top 5...

another good 'un last year was Tim Hecker's Harmony in Ultraviolet at, what?, 13, 14 or something? such a great record.

I don't think I would like Andy Palacio's sound, either. I wish I had a name for that general style, but there is a sort of very sweet, light-sounding, acoustic roots music that I am really not into. (It's definitely not just about acoustic, or even quiet acoustic, since I'm quite happy to listen to solo oud, for instance.)

Bachata - Roja

I don't understand what this is. There is a group just called Bachata? Something is wrong.

More likely, it's this compilation, which looks awesome, actually:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7521513

I would like to see more historical compilations of bachata and merengue. (Maybe merengue even more because it's gone through such radical changes in instrumentation over the years.)

Pitchfork's best tracks of 2007.

List: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/47681-staff-list-top-100-tracks-of-2007/page_1

Individual staff lists: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/47485-staff-list-2007-individual-tracks-lists

From Jody Rosen's list in Slate:

23. Mickey Avalon, "Jane Fonda"

I no longer feel alone.

To expand on that last post: Jody Rosen , Ann Powers and Christgau are discussing the year over at Slate.

http://www.slate.com/id/2179977/entry/2179978/

I love the fact that Christgau has an 80GB iPod.

I love this quote:

Let's get this party started quickly. Journey sucks. They sucked in 1981, they'll suck in 2033, and they suck now. Who gives a fuck what Tony Soprano thinks?

Yeah, Jody R0sen must be all like "Oh, my ass. Thanks for handing it to me."

Metacritic cobbling most/all '07 lists together here.

"Most/All," I do not think so. from their site: Since its inception, Metacritic has provided a cross-section of reviews from a carefully-screened group of the most respected critics

Simon Reynolds' year-end thoughts.

here's the more exact link.

How did I miss the fact that Kevin Ayers has a new record out?

is it just me or is everyone putting the paper planes remix w/ bun b and rich boy on their lists and not the original? and if so why?????

http://www.grounduphiphop.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/bunb3.jpg

its such a boring/lazy verse tho.

because crits are still desperate for links between M.I.A. and US rap to help fill out their thesis papers about here.

here=her

"Most/All," I do not think so. from their site: Since its inception, Metacritic has provided a cross-section of reviews from a carefully-screened group of the most respected critics

-- curmudgeon, Monday, December 17, 2007 6:34 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

from a stars of the lid review they used:
"I think that there are to many strange instruments in each song"
"It’s not like Stars of the Lid’s previous efforts where filled with booming dynamics and a wide variety of sounds"

"Most/All," I do not think so.

When you have a moment, kindly direct your exacting attention to Metacritic's 2006 aggregator and you'll see that the 2007 list, like those before it, will reflect "critic top ten lists...as they appear."

Furthermore, I said cobbling, not cobbled. In other words, ongoing process, not finished product.

eRading is fudnamental.

x-post

Ha. I am sure they very carefully selected that review. The idea of Metacritic has always seemed better to me than the actual thing. They never incorporate a wide enough musical spectrum for me.

Frieze magazine has a Jace Clayton year in review essay and a conversation between Simon Reynolds and Ann Powers

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/music_3/

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/music_2/

ilx will have its own poll this year, won't it?

-- Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, December 4, 2007

yeah, it should. someone always puts something together...

-- Bee OK, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 04:07 (1 week ago) Link

I was thinking about starting one soon, since no one has done it yet...maybe even starting it before 2008 is half over. I might make it top 25 instead of top 50, though.

Metacritic never incorporates a wide enough musical spectrum for me.

Example of what they miss(ed)?

Oh come on, the biases are obvious in the resulting list.

That's not an answer.

There is a ton of international music that doesn't have a chance--because it's not good, obviously.

Do you want genres or artists or what? When I look at that list I mostly see indie rock, metal, some other rock, electronic/"dance" music, hip-hop I guess (though I imagine hip-hop fans would complain about their selection there), and a smattering of jazz. Go read some jazz or world music or better yet, region-specific or "world" music genre specific, end of the year lists. Has all that stuff been considered and found inferior inferior to Feist or Radiohead or whomever? I don't think so.

(Or modern classical. . .)

They only scratch the surface of metal - the Dillinger Escape Plan for instance. Most of the major metal releases of the year aren't in there.

A lot of the ratings and rankings on Metacritic are horseshit, but I'm not entirely convinced that that has more to do with Metacritic's selection of publications and critics than the opinions of the publications and critics available for them to select from.

the opinions of the publications and critics available for them to select from.

I know that some newspapers reviews can be found via Lexis/Nexis and not google and vice/versa. I bet, even in this day and age, you can also find some reviews in printed form that are not online and provided to Metacritic. But it also appears that Metacritic does not reach out and try to include non-indie rock reviews.

I'd be more ineterested in what Metacritics users top of 2007 are than seeing a list where Rolling Stone voted. Rolling Stone gave a higher score to Blackout than they did Strawberry Jam, haha!

their scores on moves & games usually seem pretty accurate, books and music seem totally random/arbitrary.