Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

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

most indie rock feels more off-puttingly White Music For White People to me (also metal, not that i'd feel tempted by that anyway), though i get that people might be put off by country deploying red state dog whistles - i guess i'm far enough away from it that i get to pick and choose, and tune out the offensive shit

forks otm

i will grant marcos the point that plenty of country music videos are utter trash even by artists i enjoy, but also a lot of music videos in general are p bad these days

most indie rock feels more off-puttingly White Music For White People to me

a lot of it is exactly as off-putting to me

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

Most modern rap is actually trash as well, to the point where Souljah Boy would be an improvement

tbf there are a lot of white people that listen to music

altho it's nice to see everyone acknowledging their boundaries - I don't listen to a lot of stuff (primarily 90% of mainstream pop/rap/rock/country music) because it pretty clearly is not designed "for" me

I can't stand the rote sound of most mainstream country or the hokey predictability of the tropes, even when they're being tweaked or mildly subverted, but I love the storytelling. Haven't found anything this year that I've liked as much as Kacey or Brandy. The Miranda Lambert album was pretty patchy imo.

Most modern rap is actually trash as well

if we're talking about iggy azalea and like wiz fuckin khalifa, yea sure, but there's a hell of a lot of good rap out rn ranging from the shabazz palaces margins to the 2 chainz/drake mainstream

miranda lambert was weirdly a step too far for my bf, who got really into kacey/brandy last year. did you hear the angaleena presley/lee ann womack albums RMRM?

also nothing on her album really lived up to this but this was prob one of the most important singles of 2014 across any genre, not just country

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUQ2ltrdkTw

Yeah, Quarterback is one of my songs of the year (thanks Singles Jukebox) but I haven't heard the Presley or Womack albums. Maybe those will grab me.

i was having this conversation with a group of college students recently: i think one of the big goals I'm aiming for in life is to honestly enjoy everything i hear. the standard seems weirdly inverted, that folks are meant to get more exclusionary and critical as they get older and listen more but what a horrible condemnation that is, to age and appreciate less. fuck that: i am going to fight hard to hear the best in everything. it isn't always easy and there's absolutely artists and songs and albums that burst on the windshield but so much opens up if you make a concerted effort. at least it does for me.

Profound Lore Records
3 mins ·

You gotta be kidding me, the new Old Man Gloom albums (yes all three of them, including the fake one) named as the #4 metal album of the year at Rolling Stone.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/20-best-metal-albums-of-2014-20141211

but obviously only white people will be interested

the Womack album is marvelous.

those of you who pine for classic country will love it.

that folks are meant to get more exclusionary and critical as they get older and listen more but what a horrible condemnation that is, to age and appreciate less.

eh idk that I appreciate *less* there is an awful lot of recorded music out there

xp

yeah the lee ann womack record is in my top five, i cry every time i listen to it. it's so well paced, tells a whole story, probably the best case anyone could make for the relevance of the album in 2014

xp I have a friend whose ambition is to find something to enjoy in every record "except Hue & Cry".

i was having this conversation with a group of college students recently: i think one of the big goals I'm aiming for in life is to honestly enjoy everything i hear. the standard seems weirdly inverted, that folks are meant to get more exclusionary and critical as they get older and listen more but what a horrible condemnation that is, to age and appreciate less. fuck that: i am going to fight hard to hear the best in everything. it isn't always easy and there's absolutely artists and songs and albums that burst on the windshield but so much opens up if you make a concerted effort. at least it does for me.

― a stupid red mute juggalo (forksclovetofu), Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:57 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i totally admire that and i try to stay open-minded - always trying to remind myself that "i might not hear much in this now but i might later", but at the same time i am quite happy to say "this is not for me" and move on, b/c it's not like there is a shortage of music that IS for me. there are like a million artists and genres that i have just a little glimpse of in my head that i haven't yet explored more deeply in my life that i don't feel the need to say "fuck i really need to find something i like in this garbage-sounding modern country single" apart from just curiosity. i posted some things in this thread wrangling with some of these country songs but on my drive home i'm going to put on hissing of summer lawns or something, never to think again about that maddie and tae song i heard today

I just care less about keeping up with whatever was released in a given year

will listen to this womack record though

xp

there are like a million artists and genres that i have just a little glimpse of in my head that i haven't yet explored more deeply in my life that i don't feel the need to say "fuck i really need to find something i like in this garbage-sounding modern country single" apart from just curiosity

^^^ this

I live my entire life trying to hear the best in everything. That is what led me into being a music nerd in the first place. The necessary by-product of that stance is that I also get to define the arbitrary, ever-shifting line where the best a piece of music has to offer crosses over into something I actively want to hear; my disdain for the wishy-washy dude with bad veneers making horrible platitude-laden puns over a serviceable band should have absolutely nothing to do with whether you get anything out of it. (My rules with hip-hop are different out of necessity; no one is clutching their purse and crossing the street when I walk down the street because Blake Shelton fits a menacing stereotype of me that's been handed down through our culture for centuries.)

eh idk that I appreciate *less* there is an awful lot of recorded music out there

xp

― Οὖτις, Thursday, December 11, 2014 2:01 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, my appreciation just grows and grows as i get older even i like outic care less about what comes out in the given calendar year

i keep thinking maybe ill get into country, but so far ive only really gotten into kacey musgraves. that album is dope. imo

hm "Sleeping with the Devil" is p nice re: Womack, very Dolly

that's my favorite

tbh contrary to Alfred I tend to kind of hate it when modern country apes modern rock. the stilted attempts at doing funk-rock beats and whatnot. blech

I mean you can put some chuck berry wiggle in there (and country has done that for generations) but when you start doing 90s rap drum fills I kinda wanna turn it off

that being said the backwards country-funk breakdown on the Simpson record is awesome

also i think classic country had more of an appreciation for really really good pedal steel players, and i like that. it's just not a part of modern country to the extent that it used to be. pedal steel players weren't the major stars obviously but the songs really showcased their playing, apart from the vocals the pedal steel is usually the emotional heart of a classic country song imo

listening is an immensely personal and experiential process; I don't mean to suggest that faceboook-ish rant should be anyone/everyone's preferred means. it just grates when folks glibly dismiss whole, fast-moving bodies of active and vital culture is all. a lot of this on my end is baggage from a household where there was strictly definable GOOD and BAD music and no room for interpretation.

There's plenty of pedal steel in the Womack album, it's also very present in some tracks of Lambert and Presley albums.

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, Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol also i don't know if it's worth the time unpacking this, but are you referring to the subject matter of the song? because you can write and record a shit-sounding song about a noble and worthy topic, it's been done before and i shouldn't feel any great allegiance to the song just because the topic is important

it just grates when folks glibly dismiss whole, fast-moving bodies of active and vital culture is all

i too am driven batshit by such thinking, especially regarding music.

lex is not worth unpacking

xp

is fast-moving a virtue

i think of "fast-moving" as a sign that multiple minds are influencing, re-shaping and exploring new ways for the art to be heard, so i would say generally yes.

fast-moving = evolving in this context (i think) and it certainly can be a virtue imo, idk if it is one by default