Year-End Critics' Polls '08

Loooove seeing Torche at #1 on a metal list.

― vampire baseball (call all destroyer), Monday, November 24, 2008 3:53 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's blowing my mind that Portishead has only made one list so far.

exactly how I feel about Deerhunter

http://www.insidetennis.com/it_img/0805_tantrums_mcenroe_500.jpg http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/10_01/victormeldrew0410_468x493.jpg

go torche!

I still haven't listened to Fleet Foxes or the new TV on the Radio tho, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I might like them.

― With a little bit of gold and a Peja (bernard snowy), Monday, November 24, 2008 10:40 AM (1 hour ago)

TVOTR = v. good
FF = exalted background music

Yeah, FF definitely SOUND good, but there's not a lot of substance there.

The Blender list is like a list of albums.

Still no Cut Copy, no Wolf Parade, no Blitzen Trapper, no Jay Reatard.. we have 1 mention of No Age, and 1 mention of The Sword..

These lists can suck a D.

Man, people really do get worked up over lists that were compiled back before the year was even three-quarters finished. I've already turned in a couple lists for polls that were two months early, roughly speaking, and am putting some together before the year is up as well; the way "the year in" has dialed back further and further makes me uneasy. I kind of read them with a grain of salt that way.

there is no excuse for putting that astonishingly bad My Morning Jacket anywhere near a top albums list, even if it's "top albums that came out that week"

Hey, I've complained about the She & Him win elsewhere! I'm not making fun at all. I just find it kind of oddly encouraging that people actually care about this stuff.

(I'm almost certain I've said that before on a previous year-end poll thread, but I've been up all night and am spacey. Onward.)

I don't really understand why people ever get outraged about their favorite albums not showing up on a particular year-end list (a need to confirm one's subjective opinion, maybe?), but especially when there are zillions of lists these days: no publication really has the authority anymore to single-handedly canonize albums, so why sweat it?

be happy you have better taste than these schlubs!

I really like that Cut Copy disc, and I'm glad to see it not turning up on these lists...

you're right, but I like to see my favorite artists do well, so that's one reason. when p4k (for an obv example) puts you in their top ten, sales and concert tickets are gonna swell, no?

xp jay

xxp:

I am happy! it's just weird I guess -- I haven't really listened to that much new music this year, but most of the stuff from these lists that I've heard is so dull that I wouldn't have even remembered it came out this year.

when p4k (for an obv example) puts you in their top ten, sales and concert tickets are gonna swell, no?

Yeah, I guess I've never really understood why people are invested in their favorite bands getting popular, either. As long as they're doing well enough to keep putting out albums and touring on a semi-regular basis, I don't care how many units they shift.

anyone else shocked to see this on the mojo list?...

37 - Gavin Bryars & Philip Jeck & Alter Ego - The Sinking of the Titanic [2007]

was considering this for my list, but who turned those guys on to something like this???

no Blitzen Trapper

they're #1 on my list of bands who, from reading reviews, i think will be awesome, but are completely disappointing to listen to.

i think it's entirely depressing that anyone would pick a fifth-wave freak folk act as their #1 album of the year. surely something original happened in 2008?

i think it's entirely depressing that anyone would keep count of how many waves of freak folk there have been now

whats the Don Cavalli album like?

yes yes, i clearly have a tally on my wall. apparently it's the most relevant form of music in 2008 though, so...

8 - The Week That Was - The Week That Was

glad this is getting props somewhere, i'm really into it at the moment

Do you mean Fleet Foxes psychgawsple?

I don't think they really sound like a freak folk group or even the descendants of freak folk (though they probably listened to the last Grizzly Bear album). Which is not to say they're doing anything new.

I like the album, but I'd be depressed if was number one on my list. Having said that, I think it's far more likely that it'll do well this year not because some people think it's the best thing of the year, but because heaps and heaps of people are ranking it about ten.

I kinda ruined my singles poll list for Pitchfork (in terms of expecting to have any effect on the outcome) by stuffing it with UK funky house tunes.

indeed, it is not very 'freaky', but it is folksy psych-pop in that lineage (imo). and it seems to have a weird appeal to the more dance-music oriented set, which i simply don't understand (it looks like this'll be the #1 album over at djhistory!?!?!). it's easy to like but there's nothing exciting going on by any means.

and god bless you sir for bringing more funky UK house to the Pitchfork list

I doubt any will make it into the final list though! This is the problem with these sorts of consensus lists, and exactly why something like Fleet Foxes tends to get overrated. In fact I think I'd say what Fleet Foxes have going for them is that they are a point where people with bad taste and people with good taste converge.

yeah but you guys do show individual lists too, right?

that's where you find the real gold

The inclusion of Staind, Trivium, and Slipknot all make me cringe, but still, Metal Edge's EOY list is better than Decibel's, I think.

Without my vote I'm pretty sure Belphegor's Bondage Goat Zombie wouldn't have even made the Metal Edge top 50!!! (Also, my #1 vote for Equilibrium must have helped its placing.)

Tremendous variety in that Metal Edge list. I didn't vote for Equilibrium, but I sure as hell admire it. That album is nuts.

21 Erykah Badu - New Amerykah: Pt. One (4th World War)
19 Katy Perry - One Of The Boys

the motherfuckers

yall didnt know matt armstrong was the editor of blender?

was considering this for my list, but who turned (MOJO) on to something like this???

For all the Boomer Rock worship and Beatles covers the MOJO writers have actually been right there in terms of championing great bands early on.

"One Of The Boys" is an abortion

No Gym Class Heroes, no dice

yes but MOJO have never really been into experimental electronic or minimal composition in the past have they?

the bryars/jeck/alter ego project is not a band, it's actually jeck and alter ego re-working the classic bryars piece into something almost akin to 'the disintegration loops'

this is starting to be like in high school when jocks would ask, "Wait, you like rap? I thought you were into alternative."

it's just that that album, and maybe Peter Broderick as well, are far more experimental/esoteric than the rest of that list. no need to call names matos, just wondering if this type of dabbling was something MOJO did more often

the previous lists had a predictable aesthetic (at least with Paste and Blender), i thought this was part of why writers contributed different lists to different magazines?

I have to recuse myself from commenting on the metal lists, but otherwise, Blender's is by far the best of these so far.

yes but MOJO have never really been into experimental electronic or minimal composition in the past have they?

I don't know what the staff's iPod's look like but they seem to have an in-house expert on everything. (And if they don't have one for something they usually know where to find a good one)

Their canonizations and monthly covers can obscure that finer point though.

It's probably a bit like Pitchfork's 2000 list where Gas' Pop stood out like a sore thumb amidst all the indie-rock (obv. Pitchfork's end of year lists are a bit different now). I queried this at the time and Mark Richardson (who obv likes a lot of electronic music) explained that he'd loved that album and converted several other writers. Pitchfork weren't trying to say this was the only good electronic album of that year, it's just that several writers happened to vote for it. I'm sure that Mojo has its equivalent or equivalents to Mark.

Which is totally fair enough. But it still points to the problem with tabulated lists generally: one reads meaning where in fact there is only statistical randomness.

Having said this, the "nine similar things plus one different thing" approach to individual end-of-year listmaking is always (to my mind) a sign that one should not take said list too seriously. The presence of the one different thing can only be seen as perplexing, ultimately meaningless - remember all those indie rock + Outkast album lists of 2003.

ultimately meaningless

No, not at all. All those indie rockers came to the album for that one song. I think it was "Ghetto Musick."

i mean, "hey ya" was no pushover either

I queried this at the time and Mark Richardson (who obv likes a lot of electronic music) explained that he'd loved that album and converted several other writers.

I think the exact same thing happened the next year with Fennesz's "Endless Summer" at #2!

I agree with Tim for the most part, but statistical randomness in poll results is somewhat dependent on the point tallying system for the poll (yeah, I harp on this every year) ... so for example, one person might convert a bunch of colleagues to something completely new (to them), but chances are they'll toss that album in at #8 or #9 on their list, not #1 or #2, so if pollmakers choose an unweighted (50, 49, 48, ... 3, 2, 1) point scheme or even a mildly weighted scheme, then they're opening themselves up to having a poll that's inexplicably dominated by a bunch of #9 throw-in votes.

The statistical-randomness bit is much closer to what I was referring to w/my high-school crack: it would be more unusual to not see those kinds of deviations on long lists like these ones.

OTOH the very fact that a single record stands out as a "deviation" on a list tends to suggest that the reigning ideology at that publication is a little too well entrenched.

(metal mags tend to be more honest about this - no non-metal whatsoever)

Rock-a-Rolla top 40:

1. Harvey Milk – Life…The Best Game in Town
2. Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull
3. Melvins – Nude with Boots
4. Dub Trio – Another Sound is Dying
5. Asva – What You Don’t know is Frontier
6. Grails – Doomsdayer’s Holiday
7. Secret Chiefs 3 – Xaphan: Book of Angel
8. Kayo Dot – Blue Lambency Downward
9. Mike Patton – A Perfect Place
10. Racebanon – Acid or Blood
11. Torche – Meanderthal
12. Portishead – Third
13. The Mars Volta – The Bedlam in Goliath
14. Lustmord – [Other]
15. Zach Hill – Astrological Straits
16. Steve Von Till – A Grave is a Grim Horse
17. Ascend – Ample Fire Within
18. Akimbo – Jersey Shores
19. Conifer – Corown Fire
20. Bohren & Der Club of Gore – Dolores
21. Meshuggah – Obzen
22. Philip Jeck – Sano
23. UFOmammut – Idolum
24. Wildildlife – Six
25. Moha! – One Way Ticket to Candyland
26. Helms Alee – Night Terror
27. Mogwai – The Hawk is Howling
28. Krallice – Krallice
29. Jarboe – Mahakali
30. Hey Colossus – Happy Birthday
31. Merzbow – Anicca
32. Gnaw Their Tongues – An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood
33. Lucky Dragons – Dream Island Laughing Language
34. Jucifer – L’Autrichienne
35. Mothlite – The Flax of Reverie
36. Boris – Smile
37. No Age – Nouns
38. Black Sun – Paralyser
39. Subtle – Exitingarm
40. Prurient – And Still Waiting

DJ Premier's top 20 '08

20. Ill Bill - The Hour of Reprisal
19. 88-Keys - The Death of Adam
18. EPMD - We Mean Business
17. Craig G & Marley Marl - Operation Take Back Hip-Hop
16. Ice Cube - Raw Footage
15. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
14. Guilty Simpson - Ode to the Ghetto
13. Termanology - Politics as Usual
12. Big Shug - Otherside of the Game
11. Ludacris - Theater of the Mind

10. Heltah Skeltah - D.I.R.T. (Da Incredible Rap Team)
09. Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III
08. The P Brothers - The Gas
07. eMC - The Show
06. Jake One - White Van Music
05. D.I.T.C. - The Movement
04. Scarface - Emeritus
03. Statik Selektah - Stick 2 the Script
02. Evidence - The Layover EP
01. DJ Revolution - King of the Decks

Luda???

he had a track on it :-/

with a few glaring exceptions, I was surprisingly happy with the results of this year's WXYC DJ poll:

The Top 20 of 2008 (technically the Top 21 b/c the #20 slot was a tie):

1. Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (TYPE)
2. Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont (Kranky/4AD)
3. Tape - Luminarium (Häpna)
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguar)
5. Lil Wayne- tha carter 3 (Cash Money)
6. Robbie Basho - Bonn Ist Supreme (Bo'Weavil)
7. Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull (Southern Lord)
7. Fleet Foxes- fleet foxes (Sub Pop)
9. 70's Thai Orchestra - 70's Thai Orchestra (MISSISSIPPI/EXILED)
10. Lau Nau - Nukkuu (Locust)
11. v/a - 1970's algerian proto-rai underground (SUBLIME FREQUENCIES)
12. Alan Licht & Aki Onda - Everydays (FAMILY VINEYARD)
13. Gang Gang Dance- St. Dymphna (Social Registry)
14. Animal Collective - Water Curses EP (Domino/Paw Tracks)
14. Man Man - Rabbit Habits (ANTI-)
16. The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale EP (Chocolate Industries)
17. Girl talk - Feed the animals (Illegal Art)
18. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing (ATP Recordings)
18. The Hospitals - Hairdryer Peace (self-released)
20. Ponytail- ice cream social (We Are Free)
20. Burning Star Core - Challenger (Hospital/Plastic)