Year-End Critics' Polls '07

The first Calle 13 isn't so great, but it's good tracks are better than anything on Reisdente o Visitante, which is also a mess. I have trouble listening to more than two tracks in a row on the second album, without hitting skip.

AND MOVE YR F*CKN HIPS

Probably bad advice, since if you try to move your hips, it usually looks bad. Women tend to be the worse about trying to hard in that department, however.

If I'm not mistaken, the movement in salsa dancing is supposed to come more from the rib cage than the hips, but RS probably knows more about that than me.

Reisdente o Visitante, which is also a mess. I have trouble listening to more than two tracks in a row on the second album, without hitting skip.

RONG 2

Philadlphia City Paper, Top 21 Albums of 2007: "The best Rock/Pop/Hip-Hop CDs of 2007 according to the City Paper's annual critics' poll." Good for them for defining their scope, so I can't say: "what about the burgeoning Albanian free improv scene?" and the like. I was going to say "no suprises," but actually there are a couple choices that are surprises to me (or simply new to me):

M.I.A. - Kala
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Feist - The Reminder
Tegan and Sara - The Con
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Battles - Mirrored
The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
Grinderman - Grinderman
Bruce Springsteen - Magic
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová - Once Original Soundtrack
Times New Viking - Present the Paisley Reich

The rest (labels included now because it's easier to cut and paste this without a lot of reformating):

Rounding Out the Top 50
Albums 22 through 50 in the City Paper critics' poll.

22. The National Boxer (Beggars Banquet)

23. Band of Horses Cease to Begin (Sub Pop)

24. PJ Harvey White Chalk (Island)

25. Illinois What the Hell Do I Know (Ace Fu)

26. Celebration The Modern Tribe (4AD)

27. The New Pornographers Challengers (Matador)

28. Laura Veirs Saltbreakers (Nonesuch)

29. Refrigerator Bottles of Make Up (Shrimper)

30. Devendra Banhart Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (Beggars Xl)

31. Panda Bear Person Pitch (FatCat)

32. Thurston Moore Trees Outside the Academy (Ecstatic Peace)

33. Kanye West Graduation (Def Jam)

34. Electrelane No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure)

35. Meg Baird Dear Companion (Drag City)

36. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Living With the Living (Touch & Go)

37. Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha (Fat Possum)

38. Dan Deacon Spiderman of the Rings (Carpark)

39. Mark Ronson Version (Columbia)

40. Beirut The Flying Club Cup (Ba Da Bing!)

41. Amy Winehouse Frank (Universal/Island)

42. Apollo Heights White Music for Black People (Manimal Vinyl)

43. Iron and Wine The Shepherd's Dog (Sub Pop)

44. The A-Sides Silver Storms (Vagrant)

45. Stars In Our Bedroom After the War (Arts and Crafts)

46. Sean Price Jesus Price Supastar (Duck Down)

47. Bitter, Bitter Weeks Peace is Burning Like a River (High Two)

48. The Swimmers Fighting Trees (self-released)

49. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals Follow the Lights EP (Lost Highway)

50. The Good, the Bad, & the Queen The Good, the Bad, & the Queen (Virgin)

I have trouble listening to more than two tracks in a row on the second album, without hitting skip.

RONG 2

I don't have trouble listening to more than two tracks in a row on the second album, without hitting skip? (I didn't click on the link, so maybe that will clear things up.)

the movement in salsa dancing is supposed to come more from the rib cage than the hips, but RS probably knows more about that than me.

I wasn't even thinking of that, but people look really awkward when they are learning salsa (or merengue or bachata) and try to move their hips in isolation, so to speak. Most of the teachers I've run into will say that the hip movement comes naturally if you are stepping a certain way (pressing down with the balls of your feet). That may be incomplete as well, but the results look a lot better than the typical newb's attempt to move the hips. A lot of Latino guys don't really dance with much "Cuban motion" (what we are talking about) anyway, but I kind of like the way it feels, and I think most women like it when guys dance with Cuban motion.

Sorry, I kind of forgot this was not the salsa thread.

maybe that will clear things up

RONG.

I don't have trouble listening to more than two tracks in a row on the second album, without hitting skip? (I didn't click on the link, so maybe that will clear things up.)

My fault there, that was aimed at the first part I quoted and the second part came incidentally attached. I'm not trying to imply that you don't actually skip around the album.

What is "Cuban motion"? (I only know the bare basics of salsa dancing.)

n/m, Wikipedia knows.

I have heard of one of these acts:

Top 21 Local CDs 2007
categories | Music, Philly BandsWednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
posted by m.j. fine

One critic’s opinion? Definitive list forever?

Devin Greenwood, champion
1. Devin Greenwood Devin Greenwood (Treasure)
2. East Hundred Copper Street Performer (self-released)
3. GANG Guess What You’ll Find … (Hot Dog City)
4. Cynthia G. Mason Quitter’s Claim (High Two)
5. Birdie Busch Penny Arcade (Bar/None)
6. The Bee Team Hot Times USA (Our Neighborhood)
7. Amy Pickard & The Cradlers Cut from the Hopeless (self-released)
8. Gillian Grassie Serpentine (self-released)
9. Pony Pants Fives (Badmaster)
10. The Trolleyvox Your Secret Safe/Luzerne (Transit of Venus)
11. Illuminea Out of Our Mouths (High Two)
12. Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer Schematics (Reignition)
13. Fern Knight Music for Witches and Alchemists (VHF)
14. Grey Reverend A Startled Wish (Sugarcut)
15. Bitter Bitter Weeks Peace Is Burning Like a River (High Two)
16. Rarebirds Buried at Sea (self-released)
17. Milton & The Devils Party How Wicked We’ve Become (Transit of Venus)
18. Umlaut Umlaut (Space Hooker)
19. Fursaxa Alone in the Dark Wood (ATP)
20. Cheese on Bread The Search for Colonel Mustard (self-released)
21. Jill Scott The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3 (Hidden Beach)

http://criticalmass.blogs.citypaper.net/blogs/mu/2007/12/26/top-21-local-lps-2007/

I can't help but notice how the Philly City Paper claims to list the best "Rock/Pop/Hip-hop CDs" and neglects to include any hip-hop until #33.

Has Jill Scott gotten any less boring in the meantime?

I can't help but notice how the Philly City Paper claims to list the best "Rock/Pop/Hip-hop CDs" and neglects to include any hip-hop until #33.

Even I was a little surprised by the absence of hip-hop. (Is anything after Kanye West hip-hop? I don't recognize all the names, but it doesn't look like it.

Sean Price, but that's it.

Usually ILM rap types complain about there being 1-2 consensus rap albums that show up in every year-end list, but it turns out to be better than the alternative.

In the battle of psychedelia circa 2007: Caribou's Andorra and of Montreal's Hissing Fauna... are sooooo >>>>>> Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam and/or (especially) P***a B**r's Person Pitch. Or is that the less the latter two sound like music (i.e., their aural opacity), the better they're received critically (cf. the often mind-numbingly consistent/constant sonic signature of The Field's From Here We Go Sublime)?

I picked up Animal Collective, Panda Bear, and Of Montreal all based on the many year-end list appearances - been meaning to buy OM and PB for most the year but just never did. Turns out the AC album is my favorite of the three, and based on only a couple listens I find that Of Montreal album to be mostly repellent. I want to put it on again to try and figure out why it's being hailed as so wonderful, but the idea of putting it back on makes me groan.

From WFMU

DJ/Rupture Top 10 2007
DJ/Rupture checks in with his Top 10 (all Listen links are real audio):

1. Superstar Ralph & Sandman - Cumbia Caliente (mix cd) Listen

2. Fnaire - Yed El Henna (album) Listen

3. Eyvind Kang & Jessika Kenney (live performance for viola and voice)

4. Swizz Beats (producer) Listen

5. Calle 13 - Residente o Visitante (album) Listen

6. Skepta (production) Listen

7. Transes (music documentary about Moroccan band Nass el Ghiwane) Listen

8. Sweat X (band) Listen via myspace

9. Dirty Projectors - No More (song) Listen | Download MP3 (via Dead Oceans label)

10. Lil Wayne (MC) Listen

Also, Sonido Martines did a mix of cumbias rebajadas for my show, and came into the studio for a bilingual chat about the cumbia rebajada scene (see playlist | listen to archive). You can download Sonido Martines' entire 30 min mix here (MP3). The music is all South American & Mexican, older records (pre-70s mostly), sloooowed down.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/12/djrupture-top-2.html

more dj top 10s from WFMU

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/wfmus_top_ten_of_2007_lists/index.html

why it's being hailed as so wonderful

Few of my friends have warmed to this album, or of Montreal, in general, either. For me it's Hissing Fauna's (and by that I mean, Kevin Barnes') songcraft, its/his embrace and interweaving and juxtaposition of technology and classic (rock) instrumentation, the personality and intimacy of its/his lyrics and themes.

By contrast, those selfsame friends can't get enough Strawberry Jam; needless to say, we're no longer on speaking terms.

Of course I wouldn't be surprised if the reasons I think Hissing Fauna's the cat's PJs are the selfsame reasons you find it to be mostly repellent.

Those selfsame friends just never give a fellow a break.

I don't mean repellent as a casual dis - I mean there are things going on in this album that push me away from it. For instance, that it is so dense with instrumentation as to be muddled, and for a lot of harmonies that grate rather than soothe. It seems like a pop record on the surface - it's got all the pop elements, i.e., the 60s-influenced stuff that marked previous OM albums, but it seems light on actual hooks and is so busy being, well, busy that I can't really get a toehold. I had a similar complaint about In Rainbows, which is that I think there is no air in the record at all.

Of course, that may well be exactly what Barnes intended, so good for him. I don't think the album is trash, but I find it... repellent. It repels me.

But he did that on purpose, because he finds himself repellent as well!

I would think of In Rainbows as being rather minimalistic.

I would think of In Rainbows as being rather minimalistic.

It's not exactly dense, but there is little to no silence, and rarely is there just one thing happening (aside from the beginning of the first song). There's a constant wash of instruments or white noise in every corner of every song. Synthesizers, guitar tones, backing vocals. Layers and layers of sound, even if they're not shoving it in your face. I noticed and now I can't stop noticing.

Maybe. I've only listened to it twice, and not recently, but it did strike me as rather roomful.

Although I'm too tired to dismantle your inconsistent logic completely, what more of an opinion can one form, based on only a couple listens of Hissing Fauna (or In Rainbows) or anything else for that matter, other than a casual dis?

Your = pgwp's.

I picked up Animal Collective, Panda Bear, and Of Montreal all based on the many year-end list appearances - been meaning to buy OM and PB for most the year but just never did. Turns out the AC album is my favorite of the three, and based on only a couple listens I find that Of Montreal album to be mostly repellent. I want to put it on again to try and figure out why it's being hailed as so wonderful, but the idea of putting it back on makes me groan.

Are you familiar with of Montreal's earlier stuff? To me Hissing Fauna was the great leap forward in lyrical terms. It's not showy, but it's still verbose, it's overwrought but sincere. The Animal Collective record is amazing though.

But getting the EOY picks and asking them to impress you is a pretty flawed way to get into any album, surely?

Although I'm too tired to dismantle your inconsistent logic completely, what more of an opinion can one form, based on only a couple listens of Hissing Fauna (or In Rainbows) or anything else for that matter, other than a casual dis?

Speaking of inconsistent logic. Come on--the number of opinions that can form on only a couple of listens to anything are endless.

Although I'm too tired to dismantle your inconsistent logic completely, what more of an opinion can one form, based on only a couple listens of Hissing Fauna (or In Rainbows) or anything else for that matter, other than a casual dis?

okay well first of all I'm not the one who said that about Radiohead - I listened to that plenty. second, what matos said. I'm sharing my impression of the record; what I mean by saying it's not meant as "a casual dis" is that I'm simply trying to talk about the record. You're taking it as an insult to the record but I don't exactly mean it that way. "Repel" has more than one meaning; it doesn't have to mean distasteful. Anyway, when you've gotten some rest, please dismantle my logic.

Craig - I'm familiar with some, not all, of Of Montreal's other stuff. I have Cherry Peel and Satanic Panic, the latter of which I think is pretty outstanding. I haven't really sat down with the lyrics on Hissing Fauna.

I wouldn't say I'm "asking them to impress me." It's not as antagonistic as that. I purchase albums hoping to like them.

under no circumstances is there anything antagonistic about or wrong with asking a performer to impress you, since the performer's job is to impress their audience enough to keep them coming back.

if you pay money to someone to perform a task, you are asking them to impress you. that's why they get money for it.

Although I will readily and happily admit that my sweeping statements vis-à-vis psychedelia circa 2007 were designed, in part, to generate debate, if challenged, I would explain my position to the best of my ability and/or inclination. Your posts, however, strike me as woefully lazy if not wholly disingenuous. So, as I've offered, and you've accepted, here's where disassembling your logic (for want of a more accurately meaningful word) begins:

"Repel" has more than one meaning; it doesn't have to mean distasteful...

You're taking it as an insult to the record but I don't exactly mean it that way.

In the brief context of your first post, what meaning, exactly, (other than arcane references to the adjective's magnetically polaric or entomically aerosolic connotations) did you expect anyone to assign "repellent" in light of the proximity of Hissing Fauna..., mostly repellent and trying to figure out why (Hissing Fauna's) being hailed as so wonderful, but the idea of putting (Hissing Fauna) back on makes me groan.? That is, without two of your next three posts explaining that the meaning readers would most likely assign the term, especially in the context of music criticism, wasn't the one you intended?

Strawberry Jam vs. Hissing Fauna... vs. In Rainbows

(AKA valid criticism vs. invalid criticism).

If Strawberry Jam’s won your heart (or ears), great! I'd love to read why, about what it has or does that Hissing Fauna... or In Rainbows don't. But to suggest, as your posts imply, that either of the latter two are more sonically dense than the effects cornucopia-slash-delay pedal laden Strawberry Jam misrepresents all three.

In other words, if Hissing Fauna... or In Rainbows did not favorably impress you, criticism of either's merits/aesthetics/etc. are valid. But, to me, your "repulsion" to the former and criticisms of the latter are not based on considered listens of either. Accordingly, your comparison to the objectively dense sonic signature of Strawberry Jam fails, and your criticisms notwithstanding the comparison, are invalid. That is, your opinions are not based on subjective impressions or objective measures of either album as they exist, but rather on, at best superficial, listens to both.

For instance, your characterization of Hissing Fauna... as being so dense with instrumentation as to be muddled misses the many pared-down moments of the album, namely:

0:37 to 1:10 and 1:31 to 2:05 of "Cato As A Pun";
0:00 to 1:03 and 2:37 to 2:50 of "Gronlandic Edit";
1:30 to 2:00 and 2:48 to 3:25 of "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider"; as well as,
0:28 to 0:55 (or really until 1:50, when the bridge kicks-in) and 2:20 to the outro of "Faberge Falls For Shuggie."

I can't say what you'd hoped for in terms of "silence" or "space" on an album, much less on an Of Montreal album given your alleged familiarity with their earlier, and more importantly, recent work - but certainly, there are many less sonically-occupied moments on the album than your characterization would mislead one to believe. Yet I do find it telling that most of the less dense moments occur in the latter half of the album. To me, that says you've not heard half the album, but are "repulsed" by it in its entirety just the same.

Further, what is a grating harmony? Other than an oxymoron? If harmonies wrought with falsetto aren't your cup of tea, than say so. But, to me, for a harmony to grate, it would require dissonance. By contrast, the expertise with which Barnes & Co. execute some of the most musically awe-inspiring harmonies I've ever heard (mind you, not only on record, but live too), again, in my view, misrepresents what one actually hears on Hissing Fauna....

For a second instance, you ...had a similar complaint about In Rainbows, which is that...there is no air in the record at all..., ...there is little to no silence, and rarely is there just one thing happening (aside from the beginning of the first song). There's a constant wash of instruments or white noise in every corner of every song... Really? You see, such sweeping and demonstrably inaccurate statements immediately call into question the validity of your criticism. Songs like "Nude," "Videotape" and "Faust Arp" (the latter featuring only acoustic guitar, a voice and occasional strings) have plenty of room for additional instrumentation and yet there’s space aplenty unoccupied. Here again, however, you'd have to listen to the album beyond the the beginning of the first song.

Or do you disagree?

Do you find the quieter moments of In Rainbows (some even call them ballads) so filled to the brim with digital effects as to wholly distract your attention from the songs themselves? And if you do hear the effects in songs like "Nude," "Faust Arp" and "Videotape" - the so-called constant wash of instruments - could you please point them out? I have a pair of hi-fi headphones, a whole lot of patience, and can't wait to hear In Rainbows' (many?) moments of white noise for myself.

wow--WHOLE MINUTES of Hissing Fauna were relatively quiet! stop press!

Speaking of, have you got a release date for Of Montreal's Selected Ambient Works? I hear it'll be even quieter.

dude, chill. you're frothing.

The credit I feel Of Montreal deserves is due entirely to manipulating new music media to cover every detail of their public appearances from the moment Hissing Fauna was released. But what made it so different from anything they'd done since the last days of E6? Great media stunt, tho.

the last couple albums are far better than any of the E6-era stuff, come on

I guess what I don't get is the general outrage that Hissing Fauna wasn't consensus album of the year. And I stand by the notion that more than anything else Kevin Barnes reinvented himself/band as can't miss this year, whereas I never felt that they were must-see before this glammy incarnation.

I seriously doubt there's a "general" "consensus" about this.

Results 1 - 10 of about 418,000 for grasping at straws. (0.09 seconds)

Agreed, I'm not sure to what "general outrage" fukasaku tollbooth's referring. I, for one, could care less where Hissing Fauna ranks in terms of album of the year (mine, incidentally, is The National's Boxer).

Although Kevin Barnes as the Svengali of new music media... That's new...

Yeah, you're probably right, but that's not what I said either Matos.

it sure read like it!

dblcheek - I appreciate your long post about Hissing Fauna and I'll respond to it a little later - working right now, so can't spend as much time as such a post would deserve.

But first, seriously, let's discuss the album without being total assholes about it. I'm sorry my "repellent" comment has angered you; I've tried to clarify what I meant. We can talk about this album without being so confrontational about it.

I never felt that they were must-see before this glammy incarnation

Heck, I didn't think they were must-hear before Hissing Fauna....

I was very put off by their early work (too sugary and sparkly and nice) and didn't bother with them again until this year. Now, working backwards through their catalog I can definitely see, retrospectively, how they got to where they are today (with or without [pun semi-intended] their silly clothes).

On the other hand, I have no idea what their concerts were like before their most recent tours, but kudos to them for giving fans their money's worth in terms of over-the-top costumes, disco staging, etc.

But first, seriously, let's discuss the album without being total assholes...we can talk about this album without being so confrontational about it.

LQTM.

I don't know what that means.