2010 Magazine's Albums Of The Year Thread For Posting Lists and Discussion

Nice to see the Mulatu Astatke album turning up in the Quietus list, it's not world-changing but it's an enjoyable listen and deserves to be mentioned.

thanks for posting that Spin list, their website drives my up the wall.

click… click… click (x40)

Sean from Drowned.. mentions 'a strange but apparent death of consensus' in the spiel that accompnies the DIS list and i think Reynolds' piece from last year about a lack of overall consensus between crits as the last decade progressed, and why that has happened, is even more relevant than a year ago: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/dec/07/musically-fragmented-decade

how in the world can anyone possibly argue that there's been a death of consensus in the last two years when ALL THESE LISTS ARE BASICALLY IDENTICAL

well sure, if you view all these indie rock acts as essentially the same, the lists can be considered "basically identical". Whereas those people who, you know, like and listen to indie rock hear big differences between Deerhunter and Titus Andronicus and see lists with one or the other at the top as anything but basically identical.

still, it's basically the same 50-75 albums that show up over and over...it would be nice to have a little more variety

God you guys would have hated the lists back in 1968 when there was only like 50 albums to choose from anyway.

Yes but you can safely assume from the words "Sean from Drownedinsound mentions..." that everything that follows is going to be overexcitable bollocks with no basis in reality.

We’ll be listing them in groups of ten, so today it’s entries 100 to 81, on Tuesday it’s 80-61, Wednesday 60-41, Thursday 40-21, and finally 20-1 on Friday.

lol at this ^^ on the FACT tracks list; these are NOT groups of ten u idiots!

Our list doesn't have that much in common with the others. Cathedral, High On Fire, Pansonic, Mulatu Astatke, Demdike Stare, Shining, The Body, Arabrot, Jane Weaver, Napoleon III, Electric Wizard, UFOmammut, Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate, I Like Trains, Barn Owl, Anika... I mean, I'm not going to start pretending I like really obscure records just to make it even more diverse than it already is.

are you from fact? i was being kinda troll-y with that, obv, but i do believe that FACT's lists arent really that difft in terms of the values / aesthetics they favor than pfork is ... just less trad indie, less folk, more idm, more dubstep, more eurotechno

its sorta like, take a pfork list & center it around burial instead of animal collective (by switching each artist's placements)

i mean, this basically is "Fact music" so im not really criticizing this approach on its own terms, just arguing that its not nearly as refreshingly unexpected as ppl sometimes present it

Well, yeah but I'm helpless in the face of trolls... it's my achille's heel. No, I'm from the Quietus. I like FACT's list but I'm more into industrial/ metal/ drone/ noise etc than dance music, hence the weighting on ours.

That R1 Ryders track is banging by the way.

I liked that Quietus list a lot, Doran. Lots of character, and lots of recommendations I'm excited to check out. Also: It takes balls ranking Salem so high. That's an album with definite merit, but an album that can be really taxing to defend.

Quite. I cringed involuntarily when I saw how high it came in. Cheers.

Yes but you can safely assume from the words "Sean from Drownedinsound mentions..." that everything that follows is going to be overexcitable bollocks with no basis in reality.

― Matt DC, Monday, December 6, 2010 12:07 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

surprised it took 5 posts before someone made this point

in many of these lists, salem are actually standing out in a good way - kinda feel sorry for anyone who thinks they're worse than the national. arcade fire, sleigh bells, gayngs etc etc

well sure, if you view all these indie rock acts as essentially the same, the lists can be considered "basically identical". Whereas those people who, you know, like and listen to indie rock hear big differences between Deerhunter and Titus Andronicus and see lists with one or the other at the top as anything but basically identical.

― skip, Monday, December 6, 2010 11:59 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

this post is hilarious

I'm not really into either of those bands but even from cursory listens it's pretty easy to see they sound absolutely nothing like each other.

I am completely comfortable in saying that if you like Salem more than Sleigh Bells, you are probably a racist.

i realize deerhunter & titus andronicus are different bands, but if they show up 10-1 on one list and 1-10 on another, there's a REALLY good chance that those are gonna be similar ass lists

the thing about the SPIN gallery is not the 40 click thrus (tons of websites do this & it's probably gonna be the least of crimes as we move forward) but that their site is slow as shit -- the combination is intolerable

^^^ otm

The New York Times was so courageous in covering Salem, and making it safe for blogs to put them in their top 10s.

what i've heard has not motivated me to spend £££ to listen to the record

Haha, I actually sent "House Girls 6" in full to some people Lex but left you off because you said you hated it...

In my top 3 tracks of the year dudes, if that means anything.

Are there any actual standout tracks on that Teenage Fanclub album? Is it worth checking out?

"Power," the most exhilarating, witty, and necessarily bombastic track of his career

not really billsteve...but still worth checking out/finding a stream.

"house girls 6" cost me 69p and it was definitely worth it

Yeah House Girls 6 is great, I don't get how anyone could rep for Hey Hey and the Ayobaness comp and not like it.

I'm liking this Solar Bears album as well - brightly coloured cartoon beach music. Also a bit like Boards of Canada picked the whole Robygiv vibe and built from there.

the Quietus 2010 list contains one actual hip-hop album (Big Boi) and two others tangentially related to hip-hop (Janelle, Flying Lotus), yet places an album that offensively steal most of its ideas from hip-hop at #2 (Salem). who would truly prefer white guys making light of black music and culture to actual hip-hop? i like the rest of the list, but Salem at #2 is just embarrassing

wow, a direct truthbomb from ilxor

who'da thunk it? ;)

it's a shame that neil kulkarni's work didn't do enough to get joell ortiz on the list

32. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise

keep forgetting this album exists

it's rly good

who would truly prefer white guys making light of black music and culture to actual hip-hop?

history of rock music crit to thread.

"who would truly prefer white guys making light of black music and culture to actual hip-hop?"

people who don't listen to hip-hop.

i liked the salem album a bunch, but i can't think of any list i would put it on. maybe my "records i like that other people find offensive or horrifying or dreadful" list. or my "poseur doofuses that i have loved" list.

wld rather read scott's poseur doofus poll than all the other polls on this thread

^^

So, what you're saying is, I should pretend to like hip hop stuff at random and lie about it so as not to appear racist to some lunatic on the internet?

"who would truly prefer white guys making light of black music and culture to actual hip-hop?"

This is pure tautology. Unless of course Mulatu Astatke, Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate, Gil Scott Heron, Janelle Monae, Ty Bulmer and P.O.S. are all white guys.

Or let me put it this way: if you think black history and culture is interchangeable with hip hop, then it's you who is racist.

I am kind of disappointed that everyone ignored my blatant trolling, tbh

clearly I'm slipping

We should tell people who haven't been following ILM this year to just keep up with this thread. It's turning into a redux of every argument that people have had this year.

I don't think we ever successfully jammed together the "Janelle Monae tries too hard, what a joke" argument with the "I like this 'Pretty Girl Bag' song" argument; I'd be game for running those together.

^^^ Best mashup since the Girl Talk album amirite?

you're overanalyzing a bit here

So, what you're saying is, I should pretend to like hip hop stuff at random and lie about it so as not to appear racist to some lunatic on the internet?

i didnt say you should pretend to like more hip-hop -- only that salem at #2 was kinda lame (considering it draws a good deal from, to generalize, southern hip-hop from the last decade or so). anyway, i'm glad your tastes and those of your staff are fully and accurately represented. like i said, i think it's a great list, salem aside

This is pure tautology. Unless of course Mulatu Astatke, Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate, Gil Scott Heron, Janelle Monae, Ty Bulmer and P.O.S. are all white guys.

thank you, i realize that there are additional black musicians on your list -- that wasn't my point

Or let me put it this way: if you think black history and culture is interchangeable with hip hop, then it's you who is racist.

never said black history and culture were interchangeable with hip-hop, that's funny though!

anyway... i'm closing the can o' worms now

i like the quietus list!