The 2009 Magazine Albums Of The Year Thread For Posting Lists and Discussion.

Lady Gaga is the last.fm No 1 Artist of the year (based on most album Scrobbles)

1 LADY GAGA
2 The Killers
3 Lily Allen
4 The Prodigy
5 FRANZ FERDINAND
6 BEYONCÉ
7 ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
8 GREEN DAY
9 YEAH YEAH YEAHS
10 KANYE WEST
11 BRITNEY SPEARS
12 FALL OUT BOY
13 TAYLOR SWIFT
14 MUSE
15 BLACK EYED PEAS
16 PHOENIX
17 PARAMORE
18 KELLY CLARKSON
19 PLACEBO
20 LA ROUX
21 GRIZZLY BEAR
22 ARCTIC MONKEYS
23 A DAY TO REMEMBER
24 RÖYKSOPP
25 PASSION PIT
26 BAT FOR LASHES
27 THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS
28 NICKELBACK
29 GUNS N' ROSES
30 U2
31 DEPECHE MODE
32 FEVER RAY
33 EMINEM
34 THE XX
35 METRIC
36 THE FRAY
37 REGINA SPEKTOR
38 KASABIAN
39 FLORENCE + THE MACHINE
40 LITTLE BOOTS

don't know why you bolded Kasabian at #38 when The Killers are at #2

It's kinda funny that most Paramore fans also are Nickelback fans.

where in london can i find this party?

night slugs, beyond, circle, wifey, the producers house, air...the pure "uk funky" nights are def more classy, aspirational &c (no bad thing at all), less so the nights that mix it w/dubstep, garage, techno, dancehall &c.

"dubstep" is getting a bit misleading i think: you'll rarely hear the lairy, macho end of dubstep at these nights (a good thing), more the hyperdub/purple wow end.

and seriously i've said this before but NO DUBSTEP FAN I KNOW IGNORES UK FUNKY----

― lex pretend, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 8:36 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is def related to you living in london. in the u.s. there are tons of dubstep heads & i know maybe three ppl who know that funky house exists that dont write for pfork

^agreed

People listen to dubstep outside of London? ;)

http://www.topdesblogueurs.fr/ -- 37 French bloggers choose their favorite albums. (Saw this on 17 Dots.)

aucuns sufjan, aucune crédibilité

Um I think Prodigy @ #4 is about a billion times more mindblowing than Killers @ #2.

aucuns sufjan, aucune crédibilité

actual lols

u mean aucutual lols?

So am I going to be the first one to say all the music on all these lists is terrible. I'm going through each band 1 by 1 by listening to their new stuff on myspaces. It's all filler music and crap. That is all

well, tbf I wouldn't mind tripping out to some stuff like Fuck Buttons at a concert. I enjoy most all concerts though. Good places to drink beer

Pitchfork 50-26 albums list up now:
http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7744-the-top-50-albums-of-2009/

Not really anything that surprises me in that list. Glad to see Sunn O))) in there.

Pfork top 10 albums prediction:

Animal Collective
Bat for Lashes
Dirty Projectors
Fever Ray (here's hoping...)
Fuck Buttons
Girls
Grizzly Bear
Phoenix
The xx
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Resident Advisor Poll: Top 20 albums of 2009

20. Moderat - Moderat
19. Peverelist - Jarvik Mindstate
18. Black Jazz Consortium - Structure
17. Brock Van Wey - White Clouds Drift On And On
16. Ben Frost - By the Throat
15. Dinky - Anemik
14. Lawrence - Until Then, Goodbye
13. Black Meteoric Star - Black Meteoric Star
12. The Field - Yesterday And Today
11. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
10. 2562 - Unbalance
09. Redshape - The Dance Paradox
08. Ben Klock - One
07. Matias Aguayo - Ay Ay Ay
06. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
05. Shackleton - Three EPs
04. Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Vertical Ascent
03. Martyn - Great Lengths
02. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
01. DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues

definitely have to rep for the redshape, shackleton and black meteoric star albums on the RA list - those were the three house/dance full-lengths that really grabbed me this year

The Fever Ray toasting is perhaps a bit over the top.

Yep, the Black Meteoric Star album is excellent, wish that'd show up on more lists this year...

should we have "post your year end top 10 list" or do we already?

wanna start it john?

usually ppl who vote in the ilx poll are supposed to wait until after that goes down iirc

i was wonderin if there was a poll so that's why i held off on starting a thread

i thought you didnt go in for lists, j0hn?

I generally don't but like end of year lists start running everywhere and it's like being a grinch an succumbing to the xmas spirit & I was really intrigued by the resident advisor list so I wondered what else I might learn about from people's lists on ilx. I dislike hierarchical/we have a winner lists but enjoy seeing what people liked.

!~!~!~!~!~BOOM BOOM ALBUMS N TRAX POLL 2009: NOMINATIONS due Dec 31~!~!~!~!~!

fyi re: poll. you should vote!

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2009/12/lists_washington_post_pop_musi.html?hpid=news-col-blog

Chris Richards from the Washington Post-top 10 plus quick list of 10 through 40

1. Maxwell, “BLACKsummers’night
2. JJ No. 2
3. Animal Collective
4. DJ Quik
5. Paramore
6. Brad Paisley
7. Phoenix
8. Wale
9. Aventura
10 Jon Hassell

So both he and Slate's Jody Rosen like the latest bachata pop from NYC Dominicans Aventura

I'm going to start compiling a list of the things-i-haven't-heard on lists to start exploring in january. that's really the only benefit I'm aware of with all this listmania: learning more new stuff.

(btw i came around on no intention re: dirty projectors)

I love that Washington Post let one writer compile their list (that the writer happens to be Chris Richards is a double bonus). This year the committee-compiled lists have been so homogeneous that they're practically useless; all the good, new recommendations are coming from lists like this one.

o
t
m

Jim DeRogatis

1. Ida Maria, "Fortress 'Round My Heart"
2. Neko Case, "Middle Cyclone"
3. Kid Sister, "Ultraviolet"
4. Phoenix, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"
5. Lily Allen, "It's Not Me, It's You"
6. Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavilion"
7. The Decemberists, "The Hazards of Love"
8. Screaming Females, "Power Move"
9. Japandroids, "Post-Nothing"
10. U2, "No Line on the Horizon"

Greg Kot

1. St. Vincent, “Actor”
2. BLK JKS, “After Robots”
3. Cymbals Eat Guitars, “Why There are Mountains”
4. The xx, “The xx”
5. Phoenix, “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”
6. Neko Case, “Middle Cyclone”
7. Kid Cudi, “Man on the Moon: The End of Day”
8. Rihanna, “Rated R”
9. Japandroids, “Post-Nothing”
10. Kid Sister, “Ultraviolet”

x-post

If committee lists provide variety from folks knowledgeable in various genres and the lists are presented in an understandable manner I'm for them. The Washington Post used to also run lists from the 5 or so freelancers who review cds for their Friday Weekend section, but they do not do that anymore. If Richards had only listed 10 predictable artists from 1 genre that would not have been very interesting. That's why that Time magazine list is nice--whether by committee or 1 person it seemed well thought out and varied.

The Washington City Paper's editor decided he did not like lists, so their music year-end issue does not contain any lists(just features-One on the impact Wale's lack of commercial success will have on DC rap; one on how the remaining punk group houses in suburban Arlington have all now been largely destroyed and replaced with punk-less upscale homes; a jazz isn't reaching young non-music nerds even if some jazz guys like Glasper, Argue, and S. Harris are into hiphop and indie; and more)

ugh fucking kid sister

<3 kid sis

though it wouldn't have made my top 10. good to see that someone's giving the rihanna album props too.

I agree about the Time list, curmudgeon. It had a lot of character and made interesting recommendations. It's funny because I never think of Time as a reputable music publication, but that's the paradox of this year's lists: Some of the best music resources have had the dullest lists, while some of the most unlikely ones have had the most rewarding lists.

I do think magazines will have to start re-thinking these lists in the future. There's so much overlap that most of these lists have no value. Publications will have to begin finding more novel ways of covering the best of the year if they want to really stand out from the pack.

did you ever think that these lists aren't *supposed* to be about standing away from the pack, but about finding consensus?

that's why the lists all look so similar?

i think the thing that most of us are complaining about isn't the lack of "originality" or what have you, but more the lack of adventurousness or even interest in what people find consensus on

lists compiled by just one person are always going to have more outliers than a democratically consensised (is that even a word) or compiled vote

I knew someone would say that about the indie-rock consensus.

I knew you'd take another kick at that dead horse

i knew we would have this conversation yet again this year!

pretty stoked to see Jon Hassell on the WaPo list - love that record to bits.

Bottom line is that the democratic "consensus" for lists like these wasn't always so limited as most of the lists here suggest. The indie-rock domination is a fairly recent development, so dead horse or no, it's worth bitching about. And it's true -- the more conservative outlets (mid American print publications, whatever) seem like they might have more interesting ears these days. And give me hope that Brad Paisley and Kid Sister (both of whom made my ballot fwiw) might make the Pazz & Jop chart, if enough out-of-it old fogeys like me vote for them.

Actually, I doubt Kid Sister has a chance in hell, but it's a nice surprise to see her on a few other people's lists anyway.

i'm gonna vote for miranda lam

You should've voted for one of her good albums, Whiney! (I.e., the first two. Actually the new one's good, too, just a lot less good.)

i think the thing that most of us are complaining about isn't the lack of "originality" or what have you, but more the lack of adventurousness or even interest in what people find consensus on

OTM supremo

Re: Adventurousness, if any publication put an "adventurous" record at #1 with MPP in the same Top 10 ILM would crash from the crush of CHALLOPS! indignance.

Every year X # of people who only knew X much X many years ago will have learned enough to feel caught up with, and no longer overwhelmed by, all that music out there. So I won't condescend to say "I said that in 2007" or "We had this thread last year". They are realizing what is obvious to the critics and obsessive listeners who make these lists: that we already spend all year on the internet debating what is good, and that to restate our conclusions in December is anachronistic devotion to form. The only people it serves are the lazy and ignorant. Who are, ultimately, our masters. Oh. Em. Gee. Shocka.

idk. So far, I don't see this year's set of lists having any more of a concensus than in other years of the decade. In fact, except for a common cluster of discs at the very top, I've seen more unfamiliar titles on 2009 year-end lists than I've noticed in the recent past. Admittedly, I'm not following it as closely as others here are, I'm sure.

BTW, eMusic's Nos. 21 and 14 of the year? Nixon In China and Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion.