Thread for all 2016 albums of the year lists

bon iver is white?

idk maybe he just spent too long in that cabin

Sad that you hold on to your hatred towards me like grim death, Calzino. There are ways you know: killfile me, or simply ignore me if I offend you that much.

attempting to fish a conversation thread out of the undrained swamp:

to be more precise I don't mean merely commenting on what's popular (though Bieber was surely on all these lists last year; Sia maybe too), I mean the writers who compile these lists engage in music socially. like part of why I am into "Work" or Lemonade are because my friends are too and they were part of conversations/life, and this is also true of writers.

god this is banal and obvs but it makes more sense than trying to uncover the office and identity politics at work behind every list

― rob, Wednesday, December 14, 2016 2:25 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's impossible to separate social listening from office politics, is the thing. for people in notably incestuous fields like music journalism, they are often one and the same. (The example that always comes to mind is "Classic Man" making more lists than its midlist-airplay corniness otherwise might have merited because of an inside joke that I think happened around Pitchfork Music Festival that year.)

that song was always good though. it got a belated boost from ppl who were initially like "hmm not trap enough" & ignored

but yeah i disagree w/ rob's point, a critic does not owe an audience deference to what their social experience was, if anything my exp has been ppl want to be told how to like things & when labels/writers/whoever are too reactive ("oh this has a lot of views") it ends up peaking early & forgotten one year later

the number of times i listened to critics & industry ppl theorize that desiigner was some kind of musical savant bc everyone liked hearing panda in teh club .... lolz

http://www.stereogum.com/1914718/the-40-best-metal-albums-of-2016/franchises/2016-in-review/

Kinda amusing that everyone on this thread (and on facebook in general) are bemoaning the same acts appearing in all the lists but this metal writer is complaining that the metal lists have no consensus and how lists/genres need consensus

I could go either way on this one, but I think I’m primarily sort of dispirited by the fact that nobody in metal appears to be having the same conversation as anybody else. (Incidentally, by my count, 10 titles from Decibel’s list are included on our own top 40 below.) I think music benefits from having ubiquitous figures inspiring universal debate. I think prominent artists push forward the entire art form. I think metal today lacks standard-bearers — and maybe even standards — and as such, it fails to meaningfully engage with the culture at large. Right now, it barely seems to understand how to substantively connect with its most-devoted community members. You can be a serious metal enthusiast and probably not give a shit about a single one of the 40 albums on Decibel’s list — or our list, for that matter. And while I understand how we got here, I think that’s ultimately probably not a great development for metal.

Stereogum’s own Tom Breihan summed it up pretty damn well in his late-November review of Worm Ouroboros’ What Graceless Dawn, saying:

Underground metal is a funny thing. These days, it feels less like a genre and more like a loose constellation of vaguely connected mini-scenes … Seriously: Sometimes I think metal is less a kind of music and more a design sensibility.

It’s hard to argue with that, except perhaps to say that even the design aspect is pretty inconsistent at this point. Notably, a number of metal bands enjoyed brief periods of commercial success in 2016. Anthrax’s For All Kings debuted at #9 on the Billboard 200. Both Korn’s The Serenity Of Suffering and Volbeat’s Seal The Deal & Let’s Boogie debuted at #4. Megadeth’s Dystopia debuted at #3. Deftones’ Gore debuted at #2.

In a different world, that would mean something — those albums would be central to our collective understanding of this music. But in this world? Nah. None of those albums were included on Decibel’s list. None of them are included on our list. But, like, then you see that two of them were included on Rolling Stone’s list. So, I mean, I dunno. I’m not trying to single anybody out here. I’m pretty egalitarian in my view. Nobody’s right, nobody’s wrong, but mostly, my point is, nobody’s talking about the same music.

also

To get an idea of how decentralized metal became in 2016, you need look no further than Decibel’s list of the year’s 40 best albums. I think it goes without saying at this point that Decibel is the most respected and vital metal-specific publication in the world right now (as it has been for about a decade),

If the world only includes North America.

Do you happen to know a good top X of 2016 black metal albums, from some medium or website I'm unaware of?

Nope, not aware of any black metal only albums of the year

but you could try rate your music

http://tinyurl.com/RYM-BlackMetal-2016

The first twenty of that list are all worthwhile I'd say, in particular ColdWorld, Urfaust, Anaal Nathrakh, Furia, Moonsorrow, Deströyer 666.

Michael Nelson is such a good writer

Thanks Siegbran 'n Kerr. My fave this year was Spectral Lore's Gnosis, but always find it very hard to find a good place recommending me stuff.

This site has served me well, still waiting for the EOY list though.

You need to have a listen to Mesarthim - Isolate btw. Its like Summoning IN SPACE

would like to import my opinion from the metal thread here and say that michael nelson is a horrible writer

"So, I mean, I dunno."

do you think that sentence is colloquial by mistake or design

do u think the giant paragraphs manage to say absolutely nothing about their subject by mistake or design

thanks for explaining blogging though niels

lol np

anyway I'm more interested in the thoughts expressed than his style, and I find his thoughts on metal inspiring - this is a genre I'm not too familiar with though, so perhaps if I was more knowledgeable I'd be more annoyed

find his writing on pop and the music industry pretty darn good too

generally speaking trying to come up with a Grand Statement about a global umbrella "genre" is not a good starting point for anything that might come into striking distance of a point

"I think music benefits from having ubiquitous figures inspiring universal debate" is an interesting idea, I dunno if he uses too many paragraphs to explore it, but I'd like to hear your thoughts

It is true that icons like Beyoncé, Drake and Rihanna "help" frame the discourse on R&B/pop?

then again, it's also good to disrupt stylistic hegemony and though fx some jazz musicians may be nostalgic for a time when jazz superstars were a central part of musical discourse I imagine few want to roll back the developments that made contemporary jazz possible

I know next to nothing about metal but that Stereogum article is great. I rarely visit Stereogum do they have a metal section and is Michael Nelson the main writer?

"I think music benefits from having ubiquitous figures inspiring universal debate" is an interesting idea,

well most people in this thread really dislike that as they all appear in the lists yet many of them will talk about 'event albums' and 'iconic stars' so the truth may just simply be they agree with you niels as long as it's music they like?

I do not like the idea of a definite consensus but a little bit is helpful specially for outsiders. There's two reasons I can't get into metal: 1) It doesn't quite match the aesthetics I want in music but I'm sure there is at least a dozen metal albums I'd love but 2) there's seriously no consensus, the few metal fans I know all recommend me very different subgenres and when they do agree on a subgenre none of the albums match. This is somewhat exciting for me but at the same time I don't want to spend my time listening to 20,000 records of a genre which is difficult for me to see which one sticks and expand from there... consensus records help in this regard.

tbh when quoting what i did i wasnt doing it to talk metal because the quote could be applied to all music

Moka are you saying you prefer consensus on niche/specialist lists but not on all-encompassing general end of year lists?

Yes that's it!

Per example I complained about how dissapointing the ResidentAdvisor one was this year for having artists like Radiohead in there. I know it's a great album but I don't care about having it on RA. I want residentadvisor to show me the consensus albums on the house/techno scene that they usually review since I don't have time to listen to every album on every genre and that's what I want in every EOY list. Niche consensus not every list with Frank Ocean and Beyonce unless that's the sort of music you usually write about.

And obviously not a strict consensus but if I see 3 or 4 house/techno lists and one or two records are praised the same in every one then I know that's probably the best starting points and the albums I missed this year.

but then the same albums all the time in a general list is surely doing the same?

Tho really it just boils down to writers pick their fave albums and the resulting consensus is just what happens.

but can you like lists and still complain about them when you know there will be a consensus as thats what lists do.

Otherwise you have to game lists rather than allow voters to choose their tracks/albums and that is the kind of list I hate!

for instance say in any ilm eoy poll general or niche like metal poll, if we went out of our way not to vote for albums/tracks in other lists just to be different, or dont vote for bands like say animal collective* or whoever because of the abuse you then get in a thread would lead to a bad poll list I think because you werent listing the albums you really liked.

in eoy polls noone should vote tactically because that really does lead to the big known albums you know others will vote for will dominate and the just as awesome but less known albums get locked out.

Really everyone should just vote for the things they genuinely liked best.

* a couple of years ago a few people (one I think was blueski) said they left off anco from their list because of the abuse they would get as the album was on every list.

A question to the writers on this thread who do vote in these lists or in P&J or even ilm eoy poll do you just list your faves in order or do you try to vote for things you know others will or do you deliberately avoid voting for albums you think everyone else will?

Trying to game the system in year end polls is clown shit

Except when we all voted "Lemme Smang It" at number one obviously

I don't mind "tactical" voting aimed at avoiding vote-splitting or wasting votes: if lots of people want to vote for X artist's songs or a track from Y genre, but can't quite agree on what is best, they may be happier to support their second or third or fourth choice than see none of them place at all.

aka politics

Tactics have always been a part of these things - if you count not loading your tracks ballot with multiple entries from your favourite album.

yeah, I mean a truly "pure" tracks ballot for me would have 17 slots taken up by Jeff Rosenstock

Also not everyone has the same approach to deciding what their "genuine" favourites are and it can change constantly. Stop being ridiculous.

But general lists and niche lists are different?

if we're talking about a site in which each writer is in charge of a different section (hip hop, rock & metal, pop & rb, jazz & soul, etc...) there's an obvious problem about consensus but I honestly have no idea how that works. I like better when big magazines either do a best of for each author or a best of by genre.

I can't remember which list was it last year that did this and also had a top 10 classical music which was amazing and I found a couple of keepers in there. The overall list was very agreeable too.

Also not everyone has the same approach to deciding what their "genuine" favourites are and it can change constantly. Stop being ridiculous.

― nashwan,

not sure if you're responding to me or whiney but I was only asking what everyone did.

Response to both. You're only asking and I'm only answering.

lots of xposts to katherine and D-40:

Yeah sorry that was very muddled. katherine is right that “office politics” was the exact wrong phrase. I was trying to capture the idea that there’s a cynical branding/ market-positioning strategy behind every list. The fact that critics hang out, work with, and influence each other’s tastes and ways of gauging what is significant is precisely the social process I had in mind (one that is unsurprisingly similar to how many other humans experience music: socially), not trying to respond to the audience. Like it’s a qualitative process rather than the quantitative one at work in the "Panda" example.

I know you said 'many other' not 'all' and this is off topic but there's friends of mine who would seriously argue that music should be experienced socially. One of them is a huge 'glitch' nerd (alva noto and that sort of music-not-music kind of artists/programmers)... she never shares her music and even gets annoyed when you ask her what is she listening to (unfortunately for her, Shazam is now a thing, unfortunately for me she pauses the music when she sees me open the app).

No point in sharing that but there it is.

yeah "many other" was intentional and obvs there are critics who would also disagree

wherever it is on the scale you may think eoy reviews should lie between top 40 data dump or lone gunmen following their muse, any singles list with 27 songs by 5 artists is negligent journalistically and flaccid polemically

it's kind of dispiriting knowing that is the deliberate point and that there's absolutely no impetus to change it

they have all somehow managed to develop this kind of idk, trite bloviating cultural narrativization that actually has very little interest in zeitgeist. whatever it is it is not music criticism