Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

Modern country = generic 80s non-metal rock

Imagine it all as an ongoing love letter to John Fogerty and The Outfield

Modern country = rock

Modern rock = simpering whiteboy crybaby garbage from imagine dragons down to war on drugs

which is why I listen to Savages

u are both OTM and this modern indie crap is such an embarrassment to all concerned, I would honestly rather listen to some arena-rock "country" on steroids than another whiny white dude with a guitar

modern country doesnt have any whiny white dudes?

Modern country is just pop/rock music that plays it safer and simpler than anything else.

shouty white dudes

Modern country is just pop/rock music that plays it safer and simpler than anything else.

― Evan,

not true lyrically, like, at all

yup

xp Thanks DJP. I dig the adenoidal honking but I get the distinction. I love what she does on Shades of Cool.

I don't hear the stories told by Miranda Lambert, Angaleena Presley, Kira Isabella in other genres. And War on Drugs isn't writing about getting drunk on planes.

Modern country is just pop/rock music that plays it safer and simpler than anything else.

― Evan, Thursday, December 11, 2014 5:54 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jesus christ the ignorance

Modern country is just pop/rock music that plays it safer and simpler than anything else.

― Evan, Thursday, December 11, 2014 12:54 PM (58 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i'mma have to say "lol no" on this one my guy - you won't find me stanning for tim mcgraw or luke bryan or whatever but theres been a sizable amount of really good, non-assembly-line country this year

country sounds enormous, obvious, and expensive, and beyond the gloss it's a genre that prioritizes storytelling and stealth details

what's not to like

Tim McGraw finally had a good song this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or-Lam5tPHc

this whole sun kil moon/war on drugs consensus is baffling to me bc i had literally never heard of either terrible act before about a month ago. where did they come from??? can we banish everyone responsible for bringing them in?

― lex pretend, Thursday, December 11, 2014 4:46 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Heart u Lex, but this schtick is. So. Played. If you haven't heard of War on Drugs (and yes, they are shite) until a month ago you should probably pay attention more to publications you actually write for yourself. Priding yourself for not having heard something seemingly popular is nagl imho.

I was talking about most of the radio modern country variety I've heard *shrugs*

Sorry should have been more specific.

i find it hard to talk about what i dislike about modern country. i could say it's the commercial slickness and polish but those characteristics have been around in country music for a long time. there is plenty of slick and commercial classic nashville country that i love. i don't know, maybe i'm just not looking in the right places but i suppose a magazine's top 10 list of country songs of the year would have something that would appeal to someone who loves classic country.

That's more or less what I failed to convey.

Priding yourself for not having heard something seemingly popular is nagl imho.

― a pleasant little psychedelic detour in the elevator (Amory Blaine), Thursday, December 11, 2014 6:00 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh fuck off unless you want a list of everything i've loved in 2014 that you've never heard of (or by the looks of it many other critics)

do we have a "so you don't like country music? try listening to this" thread?

xxp well here's the thing, even some of the folks getting significant radio play are legitimately good, like miranda lambert, and i think the genre is trending a bit more towards the good shit overall. that said, i'd never not try to sell you on the luke bryans and florida georgia lines and lady antebellums of the world tho

Xxp

I would love to see that list! You've put me on some amazing music, K. Michelle being the last one.

All I mean is it's hard to believe you've only now heard of War on Drugs when they've been p much domineering music press let and right all year. And yes, I hate that band.

if you're still fussing over why the #1 song in that spin country list isn't for you then you're completely beyond help and don't deserve any music at all tbh

All I mean is it's hard to believe you've only now heard of War on Drugs when they've been p much domineering music press let and right all year. And yes, I hate that band.

― a pleasant little psychedelic detour in the elevator (Amory Blaine), Thursday, December 11, 2014 6:06 PM (4 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't read those kinds of publications and never have

You don't read the Guardian?

I've also become more and more into country music for the last 6 or 7 years or so, while less interested in rock. Not sure if it's related to me becoming older and my personal experiences syncing better with the topics country covers, or if it's really rock becoming more narrow and leaving me out. Probably both.

like i think there was some good songwriting on the kacey musgraves album that got a lot of praise last year, but it still ultimately just sounded really flat and boring to me, like the endless stream of boring folkish country songwriter shit that my local WUMB station plays. the singing just doesn't reach me the way like tammy wynette or loretta lynn or classic dolly does, it just sounds like generic commercial shit today even though this album is praised as "real" and "authentic" modern country. again it's difficult for me to talk about since realness and authenticity is such a bullshit red herring anyways especially in country music but i just don't feel that ACHE that i get when i hear george jones or something you know?

also i am not a music critic and i don't have the chops to write about this shit very well, i'm always a little intimidated on this thread since so many of y'all write professionally

i haven't really read much of the music press this year and if a band like war on drugs is dominating it then maybe that's why

if you're still fussing over why the #1 song in that spin country list isn't for you then you're completely beyond help and don't deserve any music at all tbh

― lex pretend, Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:06 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lex i generally admire your writing and presence but sometimes you write horseshit like this

marcos have you heard the sturgill simpson record, or nikki lane

"sometimes"

do we have a "so you don't like country music? try listening to this" thread?

― a stupid red mute juggalo (forksclovetofu), Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:05 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also i LOVE country music, i just have a heard time finding inroads into modern country. like i said probably half of my favorite musicians are from country and most of the rest are heavily country-influenced

xps to a million posts up "meanwhile back at mama's" is one of my singles of the year for sure

I'm just glad that people are finally having the courage to say they dislike an inoffensive indie rock band

Again, same story here for the most part. My criticism was about the generic slick sounding radio country marcos described.

xxp

marcos have you heard the sturgill simpson record, or nikki lane

― just a couple of assholes having breakfast (slothroprhymes), Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:12 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh yea that sturgill simpson record is GREAT. haven't heard nikki lane but will check out

simpson though pulls a little too much from waylon jennings though doesn't he?

eh, lil bit, but you say that like it's a bad thing

I'm just glad that people are finally having the courage to say they dislike an inoffensive indie rock band

― Ratt in Mi Kitchen (Neil S), Thursday, December 11, 2014 7:14 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Welcome. You must be new here.

Contemporary Pop/Alt Country Music recommendations for people who "don't like country"

I tend to tune out when modern country settles into No Depression "intelligent" songwriting (e.g. half of that Presley record, all that Rosanne Cash record); I want more action. I do want a lil rock 'n' roll in it most of the time.

their inflated placings are what's offensive, not the music, it would be a fine #20 album

xps

country sounds enormous, obvious, and expensive, and beyond the gloss it's a genre that prioritizes storytelling and stealth details

what's not to like

99% of modern country that I encounter sounds like White Music For White People to my ears. Part of it comes from associations from childhood and part of it comes from a visceral dislike to the genre conventions being played with.

i think best-of/favorite lists that are made in terms of what people like most probably miss a certain… element of maximality. like, their top slot can easily end up going to something that they wouldn't necessarily go to bat for, in terms of saying, 'there's no way anything else could top this'.

it's very easy to imagine something topping the war on drugs record, however accomplished it is and however much people liked it.

99% of modern country that I encounter sounds like White Music For White People to my ears. Part of it comes from associations from childhood and part of it comes from a visceral dislike to the genre conventions being played with.

― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:27 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the videos i find very oppressive tbh, it's just this white paradise of blond hair and blue eyes and trucks

and big green tractors

I always felt this way and then I heard "Accidental Racist" and thought "okay I guess I'm not making this up" once I stopped laughing

that's like getting hung up on souljah boy and discounting all of rap because of it but i imagine you already know that