2015 End-of-Year Music Polls & Critics' Lists

definitely, though tbf the whole point of year end lists is to highlight examples of Not Like That Other (x) Music

This is transparently not true in the case of much of the guitar music in, eg, the Mojo list.

that's because Mojo is really incredibly boring

i don't mind courtney barnett's voice, it's just laconic sullen detachment. sheryl crow x aimee mann isn't a very exciting vocal mode but it's not unpleasant either. the album sort of falls down in places because when she's not as insightful as she thinks she is there's nowhere for her songs to hide really

Gazpacho are kinda dweeby ("This CD may destroy the universe") but I like them too. They don't overload their songs, it's more about atmosphere.
― jmm

Ha ha, yeah. I wrote about that, the CD includes a code at the end that generates a random number that could theoretically, with the Quantum Zeno effect, destroy the universe. The fact that they may not be joking is kind of great. Plus biblical demons, Norwegian folklore about religion and trolls turning to stone, and instrumentation that includes a 10,000 year-old Skåra stone.

Also regarding Komara, it is a good palate-cleansing jolt of avant jazz prog. Worth checking out for those who may also like Shining, Author-Punisher, Zu, Pinkish Black.

(i think after attempting some grimes songs this week i'd be happy with any vocal mode that isn't insufferably cutesy)

the hip-hop representation in these lists is very sad. not that the kendrick lamar album isn't great, but it's painfully obvious how much work it (and a couple of inevitable others) is doing as Not Like That Other Rap Music

― lex pretend, Friday, November 20, 2015 9:47 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea TPAB was obviously going to be the token rap album in otherwise non-rap lists but i didn't think it was gonna be this bad

also makes d40's "FU if future & young thug are the only rap u listen to" comment in the future/thug thread even weirder, bc clearly kendrick is occupying that role more than anybody else

ehhhhhh not really; if i read him correctly (which is a totally open question) deej was saying that moreso for the vox populi than the critical sphere
i don't think there's any doubt that the majority of genreblind year end lists will be putting pimp a butterfly in the top ten and that barter and ds2 are gonna be outliers at best

there's def a sphere of try-hard rap critics that applies to as well...

I promise you, you will see at least one Pazz and Jop ballot that is >50% Young Thug and Future tapes and the writer then bragging about his/her decision on Twitter

oh no doubt
i mean, not no doubt
you know what i mean

the highest placing rap albums on Pazz & Jop the last 3 years were Kendrick, Kanye, Run The Jewels, Chance The Rapper and Azealia Banks. the 'Not Like That Other Rap Music' contingent rules as much as it ever has, no matter what dent someone like Future makes.

People let me tell you: Colleen Green's dynamite album I Want To Grow Up is getting hosed on these year-end lists.

like shining plenty (though was not too taken with their latest album), but pinkish black just leaves me cold. with atkins and ferguson both dead there's nothing left in it for me. :( glad great tyrant's records are finally making it out, though!

tal national's "zoy zoy" way too slept on.

i'm preparing now to seethe for two months about the lack of year end critical love for Dawn Richard and Jazmine Sullivan

28 of that Mojo top 50 consists of artists named after a lead/solo male, from Kendrick to Kamasi via Father John Misty.

i'm preparing now to seethe for two months about the lack of year end critical love for Dawn Richard and Jazmine Sullivan

dawn will get some, way more than last time, but on the basis of how much dust she was unjustifiably paid throughout the year, it's hard to imagine jazime getting any of her rightful due at all

*jazmine

had to google what "paid dust" means, first time i've heard that

kmt and pmd rn

Pretty sure jazz fans have rap fans beat in the "token album" complaint dept.

i'm preparing now to seethe for two months about the lack of year end critical love for Dawn Richard and Jazmine Sullivan

― i made a scope for my laser musket out of some (forksclovetofu)

I'd add Susanne Sundfør to that list. It's going to be a long wait for the ILM end of year list.

xp yea that kamasi album is placing in way more polls than i thought it would've

No Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor, no darn credibility I say.

deafheaven the critics token metal pick again then?

grateful dead - 30 trips around the sun is the tokin' pick

So if I understand correctly, it's dissing Courtney Barnett season.

I wonder if Earl Sweatshirt releasing his album so early in the year (march I think) will work against him, was my favorite non-TPAB hip hop record this year.

dawn will get some, way more than last time, but on the basis of how much dust she was unjustifiably paid throughout the year, it's hard to imagine jazime getting any of her rightful due at all

― lex pretend, Friday, November 20, 2015 3:54 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This would be a damn shame as I've been hoping that Reality Show would become one of those albums that finally gets its due once the kind of people who only learn about new music from reading year-end lists would finally discover that way (the way many will discover Courtney Barnett, whose album I also like a lot).

the earl record was good

people moaning about how there's only one token rap album in the mojo list is a low point for ilx

deafheaven the critics token metal pick again then?

Well Pallbearer haven't released anything this year so yeah

this thread title change is a FUCKING OUTRAGE GAZ COOMBES 4 LIFE STAY STRONG GAZ FUCK A GAZ HATERZ

gazdooks

Earl Sportcoat's previous album was #42 on P&J and this last one didn't seem to make as much of an impact

Oh brother! I have dysentery already from these year-end polls and it's not even December. I'm going to have to stock up on toilet paper.

i have bad news for you- we're now living in a post-antibiotic world.

have another one...

Uncut Magazine - Albums of the Year 2015

1. Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness
2. Kendrick Kamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
3. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
4. Ryley Walker - Primrose Green
5. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
6. Tame Impala - Currents
7. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit
8. Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass
9. Sleaford Mods - Key Markets
10. New Order - Music Complete
11. Bjork - Vulnicura
12. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi-Love
13. Jim O'Rourke - Simple Songs
14. Robert Forster - Songs To Play
15. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free
16. The Weather Station - Loyalty
17. Blur - The Magic Whip
18. Wilco - Star Wars
19. Mbongwana Star - From Kinshasa
20. Holly Herndon - Platform
21. Alabama Shakes - Sound & Colour
22. Gwenno - Y Dydd Olaf
23. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love
24. Richard Thompson - Still
25. John Grant - Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
26. Joanna Newsom - Divers
27. Jamie XX - In Colour
28. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Ba Power
29. Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin Down
30. Kamasi Washington - The Epic
31. Four Tet - Morning/Evening
32. Sun Kil Moon - Universal Themes
33. Matthew E White - Fresh Blood
34. FFS - FFS
35. Young Fathers - White Men Are Black Men Too
36. Destroyer - Poison Season
37. Low - Ones And Sixes
38. Dave Rawlings Machine - Nashville Obsolete
39. Paul Weller - Saturns Pattern
40. Bob Dylan - Shadows In The Night
41. Jessica Pratt - On Your Own Love Again
42. JD McPherson - Let The Good Times Roll
43. Ezra Fuhrman - Perpetual Motion People
44. Laura Marling - Short Movie
45. Panda Bear - Panda Bear Vs The Grim Reaper
46. Olivia Chaney - The Longest River
47. Miguel - Wildheart
48. My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall
49. Songhoy Blues - Music In Exile
50. Yo La Tengo - Stuff Like That There
51. Algiers - Algiers
52. H Hawkline - In The Pink Of Condition
53. Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys
54. Israel Nash - Israel Nash's Silver Season
55. Neil Young - The Monsanto Years
56. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier
57. Lana Del Ray - Honeymoon
58. Fuzz - Fuzz II
59. Stick In The Wheel - From Here
60. Chip Taylor - The Little Prayers Trilogy
61. Vince Staples - Summertime '06
62. Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy
63. Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul
64. PiL - What The World Needs Now
65. Bop English - Constant Bop
66. The Apartments - No Song No Spell No Madrigal
67. Michachu And The Shapes - Good Bad Happy Sad
68. Dave Alvin And Phil Alvin - Lost Time
69. Modest Mouse - Strangers To Ourselves
70. Pond - Man It Feels Like Space Again
71. Drinks - Hermits On Holiday
72. Killing Joke - Pylon
73. Phil Cook - Southland
74. Keith Richards - Crosseyed Heart
75. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Loin Des Hommes OST

not sure who kendrick kamar is

Lana Del Ray, either.

i managed to spend all year not listening to that julia holter record and now i see some of the ppl i trust the most here were falling all over it in her thread

I wonder if the all new mainstream celeb free magazine NME will just have all the biggest sellers in their list or if they will throw an indie bone to its former hardcore readership.

BRAD i would like to see you write an EOY piece about all the music you hated this year please :)

it'd just be a list of bieber and weeknd songs prob

if i was an editor i'd commission that on the spot

actually i just realised i'd rather read all my favourite writers write about shit they hate at this point

If I were an editor I would send you to review controversial Scottish comedian frankie boyle's new stand-up show, which he wrote in response to Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp A Butterfly

That Paul Weller album must be terrible if Uncut only put him at number 39. Doesn't he usually have a spot reserved in the top 10 no matter what he puts out?

Hot Chip don't seem to be doing too well this year.

My Paul Weller comment could also apply to Bob Dylan who is just one place below him. His last four studio albums (not including his christmas album) all got 5/5.

one of my favorite ilx tics is when people like lex, forks, deej and adam j duncan rightfully call out the tokenism or straight up ignorance when it comes to hip-hop, jazz, R&B, dance music or pop music — spheres dominated by POC, women, LGBQ, etc.

And then, without fail, the ILX heavy metal kool aid man brigade bursts through the wall to complain about all the oily, doughy white men only being represented by one group of oily, doughy white men in the neverending marginalization of the genre that brought us "entrails ripped from a virgin's cunt" and cookie monster vocals and drawings of dragons.

...says the man who wrote for Revolver - the metal mag who does a 'chicks in metal' issue every year and has defended it on ilx