Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

hey chuck please nominate that stuff on the eoy metal poll!

and um what? re daft punk

Stupid end of year accolade comments make me want to cry, but I would prefer if it was over the dead bodies of all these idiots.

Texan-British Brooklyn transplant Devonté Hynes hasn't made the richest sounding R&B album of the year working under his new moniker Blood Orange

if the sentence had ended there it would've been ok

metal and emo people who refer to singing-not-screaming as "clean vocals" are the funniest thing in the world to me. there are some screamo bands that put "unclean vocals" in the liner notes.

the ka album is extremely admirable, extremely well-crafted and smart etc, i think if you were into that kind of rap you'd adore it but it's mostly "admire" for me, and i can see why some would get bored

That a former member of Test Icicles is almost inevitably going to end up on one genuine A-List pop star's next album, despite being manifestly untalented, is one of the more unbelievable musical trajectories I've ever seen.

Man I'm not a big fan at all of Dev Hynes, but I feel like "manifestly untalented" is a little bit incorrect.

Yeah, he has a "thing" he does and it's an identifiable thing and some people like it and some people (very much) don't like it, but that doesn't mean he's manifestly untalented.

metal and emo people who refer to singing-not-screaming as "clean vocals" are the funniest thing in the world to me. there are some screamo bands that put "unclean vocals" in the liner notes.

― some dude,

havent seen any of the latter re 'unclean vocals'(mainly as i dont listen to metalcore) but I do not remember when this 'clean vocals' thing started to get used. Is it a recent as in past 10 years thing? I dont remember it being used in the 90s.

Considering half of the bands who do 'clean vox' to sell more records CANNOT ACTUALLY SING maybe its a better term than just 'singing'

lex so good on floorplan upthread -

the music's like a suit and you have to move in certain ways to put it on

this is one of the most pleasingly accurate & memorable descriptions of dancing i can recall

xp I think Hynes' songwriting is lazy verging on inert - everything's on one level - but he has a distinctive production style and he's rebooted the careers of two singers who were stuck in major-label limbo so that's talent of sorts.

his production style is basically romanticisation of inertia and torpor as well, barf

whose careers has he rebooted? mutya keisha siobhan didn't exactly do well out of him, solange was less commercially successful than before and has now split with him (YAY maybe she can be great again), sky ferreira admittedly finally broke through with his song but her album abandons both him and his style completely...?

and when i say sky ferreira broke through obv none of that involved selling records

Dude, Revolver has A Pale Horse Named Death, ASG, Black Sabbath, Volbeat, and STONE SOUR

Not too shabby. Decibel's list has surprising range this year too.

havent seen any of the latter re 'unclean vocals'(mainly as i dont listen to metalcore) but I do not remember when this 'clean vocals' thing started to get used. Is it a recent as in past 10 years thing? I dont remember it being used in the 90s.

Considering half of the bands who do 'clean vox' to sell more records CANNOT ACTUALLY SING maybe its a better term than just 'singing'

― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, December 10, 2013 5:57 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly i'm not sure -- i feel like i've seen it more and more online the last few years, but i should be able to remember anecdotally if i've heard it (i played drums in a band circa 1999 with guys who were super into screamo and the frontman alternated singing and screaming) but i really don't remember if that terminology was thrown around back then.

A Pale Horse Named Death

you would never know dude was in type o negative
lol

i do remember that the sellout paranoia was so strong with guys like that that anything too overtly melodic was often described as "poppy" in a mildly disgusted tone. also reminds me of the Brian Posehn metal parody, "THIS IS THE GAY PART WITH MELODY!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zySOKr9wqMw

xp

A lot of kids definitely demand faster louder more extreme just like the thrash kids before them but the small rise in popularity of doom was sortve against that then everyone started trying to sound like Khanate for a few years but more trad/psych/stoner stuff has got popular again notto mention the whole shoegaze black/postmetal thing. Alcest are not even remotely metal now.

he's rebooted the careers of two singers

i think his work w/ solange and sky ferreira did far more for his own career than it did for theirs (saying this as a huge fan of "everything is embarrassing" who is well aware that that song opened up a whole new (skeptical) audience to her)

i dunno solange got her own label at sony off that EP

i mean solange co-wrote and co-produced the entire thing (and is a dynamic live performer imo) so let's not give dev too much credit but that EP did finally solidify her image as indie rock's beyonce, which has been a boon to her career from what i can tell

33. Maurice Deebank – Inner Thought Zone (1972 Records)

^ this from the FACT list is sounding really cool.. instrumental guitar, sort of durutti column-ish or ducktails-ish.

FACT reissue list, i mean.

Surprised there has been no mention of Wildewoman on ILM while she already ranked on two major (perhaps not?) EOY lists, Paste and NPR.

Ah yes, there is some stuff in the Rolling Indie 2013.

Here is that PopMatters Albums list:

75. Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin
74. The Uncluded - Hokey Fight
73. Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty
72. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
71. Josh Ritter - The Beast in Its Tracks
70. The Flaming Lips - The Terror
69. Jagwar Ma - Howlin'
68. John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts
67. Washed Out - Paracosm
66. Superchunk - I Hate Music
65. The Icarus Line - Slave Vows
64. Studio Killers - Studio Killers
63. Lorde - Pure Heroine
62. The Haxan Cloak - Excavation
61. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (Part 1)
60. Icona Pop - This Is . . . Icona Pop
59. In Solitude - Sister
58. Paramore - Paramore
57. Suede - Bloodsports
56. Popstrangers - Antipodes
55. London Grammar - If You Wait
54. Russian Circles - Memorial
53. Baths - Obsidian
52. Caitlin Rose - The Stand-In
51. Mount Moriah - Miracle Temple
50. SubRosa - More Constant Than the Gods
49. Los Campesinos! - No Blues
48. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP2
47. David Bowie - The Next Day
46. King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon
45. Speedy Ortis - Major Arcana
44. James Blake - Overgrown
43. Run the Jewels (Killer Mike and El-P) - Run the Jewels
42. Julia Holter - Loud City Song
41. Alice Smith - She
40. Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt
39. Deafheaven - Sunbather
38. Rhye - Woman
37. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
36. Mikal Cronin - MCII
35. The Head and the Heart - Let's Be Still
34. Pusha T - My Name is My Name
33. The Lone Bellow - The Lone Bellow
32. Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle
31. Eleanor Friedberger - Personal Record
30. The Devil Makes Three - I'm a Stranger Here
29. OMD - English Electric
28. Arctic Monkeys - AM
27. Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork
26. Ashley Monroe - Like a Rose
25. Palma Violets - 180
24. Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob
23. Bastille - Bad Blood
22. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap
21. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
20. Okkervil River - The Silver Gymnasium
19. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
18. Phosphorescent - Muchacho
17. Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety
16. Savages - Silence Yourself
15. John Wizards - John Wizards
14. Tim Hecker - Virgins
13. Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer, Different Park
12. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
11. Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
10. My Bloody Valentine - MBV
9. Haim - Days Are Gone
8. Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe
7. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
6. Kanye West - Yeezus
5. Jason Isbell - Southeastern
4. Disclosure - Settle
3. The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
2. Neko Case - The Worse Thing Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
1. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

33. Maurice Deebank – Inner Thought Zone (1972 Records)

^ this from the FACT list is sounding really cool.. instrumental guitar, sort of durutti column-ish or ducktails-ish.

"Dance Of Deliverance" appeared on the Felt greatest hits comp "Absolute Classic Masterpieces", it's a great track, good album!

I usually roll my eyes at The Quietus but that Grumbling Fur album they voted at #1 is really good. Kinda like if Delia & Gavin made a psychedelic rock album.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, December 10, 2013 9:58 AM (Yesterday)

Whoa, would not have taken the time if not for that description, Matt; cheers.

xp Yeah, I don't want to take anything away from Solange there. It's more down to her than Hynes but he facilitated her repositioning. Seems obtsue to deny that Losing You and Everything Is Embarrassing helped those singers find a new audience and confidence after years of label bullshit. Personally I've heard enough from him but that's not the point.

solange was already positioned as Indie Knowles well before her work with hynes (like, to the extent that it's been her nickname on pop messageboards for years). that was the entire narrative around her previous album (regardless of it not being that accurate w/r/t the music) and since then she'd been cultivating her indie-friendliness assiduously. their brands aligned rather than he did anything to redefine hers.

"everything is embarrassing" was the first sky ferreira song that clicked with anyone but it wasn't exactly a big hit, and now just seems like a superior example of the years of pissing-around-on-a-major-label-budget she did before actually finding her voice/confidence with the new album.

Lex, I interviewed Solange so this is coming straight from her. The path from Sol-Angel to last year's EP was tough - remember Fuck the Industry? - and meeting Hynes was the turning point.

I was trying out a lot of producers in the hope that one would fit. Dev wasn’t actually part of the original cast. I was working with three other producers. He was the second to last producer who came down but it became evident to me that chemistry-wise there was something really special there.

well yeah, alignment. but he didn't help change or redefine her. i interviewed her circa sol-angel and she was pretty emphatic then about aligning herself with alternative culture (lots of talking about wanting to be the black björk iirc)

Well we'll never know if she'd have got the audience she got at Glastonbury, for example, if her comeback hadn't been Losing You so it's a moot point but that song was the reason most people were there, even though it's inferior imo to Sandcastle Disco. Alignment matters - it's not about whether she needed him to introduce her to alternative culture (she didn't), it's about finding the right song to introduce alternative culture to her.

'losing you' was still way better than her differently-but-equally twee pre-dev cobblers, however much it may not have warranted the adoration it received

brass tacks she is just not a strong artist basically

Amazing surprise entry @ #8 in the Guardian EOY

John Wizards fyi

that's a pretty strange record from what i've heard.

Blimey that is a genuine surprise, although I do remember the Graun raving about it a while back.

it's #15 on the Popmatters list too. I don't unconditionally love it or anything and it would probably drive a lot of ppl up the wall but it definitely succeeds in sounding like itself y'know

The next 10 from FACT:

21. PRURIENT - Through The Window
22. THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS - Bucolica
23. CHANCE THE RAPPER - Acid Rap
24. GRUMBLING FUR - Glynnaestra
25. MGUN - The Near Future
26. SYCLOPS - A Blink Of An Eye
27. RON MORELLI - Spit
28. DANNY BROWN - Old
29. THESE NEW PURITANS - Field Of Reeds
30. EARL SWEATSHIRT - Doris

can't tell if i genuinely dislike that ron morelli record or if it's just the litany of interviews in which he fails to distinguish himself from every other techno artist with an "attitude" and a mental age of 12.

wasn't into the morelli album at all, i've liked bits and pieces on l.i.e.s but their outsider shtick is as eye-rolly as outsider shticks always are

great to see prurient so high up, love that album

Hard to love that Morelli record, it's true. Syclops and Mgun sound interesting though.

Trying to think of apt comparisons for the genre-mangling on the John Wizards record?

there are some great l.i.e.s. artists, despite the critical worm turning in the last few months. interesting to see what three-adjective dismissal is used to taint every single l.i.e.s. artist or cohort retrospectively, over the next year or so.

i mean interesting like hearing your neighbours distant shouting matches.

Trying to think of apt comparisons for the genre-mangling on the John Wizards record?

It's kind of Shangaan Electro-meets-Rustie in places I guess?

Wanna know who won the Wire poll?

The Wire - Best albums 2013

1 Julia Holter - Loud City Song
2 Laurel Halo - Chance of Rain
3 Rashad Becker - Traditional Music of Notional Species vol 1
4 Richard Dawson - The Glass Trunk
5 Tim Hecker - Virgins
6 Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven
7 RP Boo - Legacy
8 Wolf Eyes - No Answer: Lower Floors
9 Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet - Photographs
10 The Knife - Shaking The Habitual