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

eMusic always has the best critics lists by the way. They're indie rock dudes for sure, but its never just rehashes of pfork stuff and it's not just OMG CHALLOPS stupid shit just to prove how they're not pfork

OTOH, The Gaslight Anthem was eMusic's No. 1 last year.

Gaslight Anthem was the Hold Steady of 08. so whatevs

that all being said, i wish my credits would fucking roll over already so maybe some of those albums they listed could get tweet-reviewed

Double-check. I think they've recently gone to a rollover policy.

i got love for emusic; I'm a subscriber. just saying that there are very specific lines to color within. In some ways that's likely a blessing.

(Plus, there's a Booster Pack sale. I didn't jump on it (yet), b/c of that crazy 7Digital sale that abruptly began and ended) (xp)

Gaslight Anthem was the Hold Steady of 08. so whatevs

Ughhhhh (*skull explodes in flames*)

Double-check. I think they've recently gone to a rollover policy.

I may have misunderstood your point, Whiney. FWIW, I meant that I think eMusic now allows you to carry over unused credits from one month to the next (this is mostly second-hand intel, but I did have one credit unused at the end of last month, and it did roll over when my downloads refreshed).

The samples and storyline for eMusic's No. 13 -- Theatre of Voices' choral work, The Little Match Girl -- are devestating, but compelling.

I have list fatigue. Which is odd for me because I normally love lists.

Ah, Daniel, I'm on a monthly plan and get a certain # a month, and I pretty much blew through all my December ones in like three days getting stuff for my tweets!

<3 emusic, got like half of my favorite albums of the year from them. haven't checked but i hope they're doing another user poll this year.

I like the emusic list, everything from black metal to modern composition. has anyone heard the Ran Blake album? "All That Is Tied" from 2006 was excellent.

I'm also curious about the Mayer Hawthorne, Tanya Morgan and Georgia Anne Muldrow albums. and the snippets I've heard from Lightning Dust sound interesting

eMusic also has a reading audience that expects the site to guide them to good stuff in many genres, so the picks in classical, global, etc., are part and parcel with what the site covers. Its position as a sales platform actually works to the list's advantage: to pick an older example, when Ornette Coleman would show up on Pazz & Jop, it could be read as a token pick, and not necessarily a bad one, but it stood out. Same if Pitchfork included a classical album on its list. Whereas eMusic including stuff that's farther-flung to its largely indie-rock subscribers is par for the course.

forks your DN requires 1 more comma

(Sorry, all of that is super-obvious.)

Any major publications still to publish their lists?

eMusic's pretty much got the best crop of music writers anywhere in the universe tbh

Yeah. In a way, it's a shame that they make all their editorial content available freely, since it's their best feature (plus the selection). But obv., paywalls are no solution (ask the NYT).

Any major publications still to publish their lists?

Entertainment Weekly's year-end just came out: Animal Collective was their LP of the year, YYYs the rock LP of the year, and Phoenix, Grizzly Bear, and Dirty Projectors made their top 10 singles list.

(Rihanna, Miranda Lambert, and Kid Cudi also won "best in genre" LP awards; LPs by Kelly Clarkson, Lily Allen, and a few others were also mentioned; and "Empire State of Mind" was their single of the year.)

thanks for the info on emusic, guys! I've enjoyed reading the reviews of the albums on their list and listening to the music samples. I'm going to have to sign up.

Empire State of Mind" was their single of the year

Yeah, I can't disagree with this.

Right at this moment, Empire State of Mind is making it slightly less unbearable to be at the office writing a reply brief on this cold (for South Florida), beautiful night.

I enjoyed reading the reviews of the Pitchfork top albums too, Scott.

I see that EW is backtracking on their opinion of the Rihanna album, which they originally gave a B.

Animal Collective was their LP of the year, YYYs the rock LP of the year

This is kind of interesting -- do people generally consider AC much less "rock" than the YYYs? (I guess they are, really, but I would've just assumed that most EW readers, at least, consider them both the same genre. Unless "rock" means "music that actually gets on commercial radio.")

And of course, whether you think they've improved or not, YYYs sound less traditionally rock-band-like than they used to. I wonder if EW would consider, say, Radiohead, a rock band. (I'm not arguing with their choices -- I like YYYs way more than AC, and neither would come anywhere near my own list -- just find it curious. Though maybe AC were just disqualified from the genre awards, since they won the big trophy.)

I think it's more that they won the big trophy. The blurb: "With their latest, this crew beardy-weird psych-rockers became full-blown art stars. Their intoxicating jumble of cosmic electronics, organic instruments, and undersea vocals is one extended, ecstatic sonic jubilee."

"We like Karen O's garb."

I see that EW is backtracking on their opinion of the Rihanna album, which they originally gave a B.

They said as much in the mag and offered an parenthetical explanation/dig that the original review was written based on a label listening event, so good on them on both accounts.

Bah. I'm sort of kicking myself for not buying that Rihanna disc from 7Digital when it was $2.00.

Has Entertainment Weekly done their list(s) that way before? I just recall they would have their 2 main critics do best of and worst of lists.

Here's the Other Music store list -new and reissues plus individual lists from their staffers
http://www.othermusic.com/2009december18update.html

A good year for Ethiopian Mulate Astatke on both the new and reissue front.

new mulatu did not do a lot for me. nice enough.
i feel like i should really check out that dam-funk thing.
Anybody here into it?

hell yes, there's a thread, too

thread of DâM-FunK

Is the Boomkat list the only one to mention the Desire record? Even though Ive heard better albums this year its probably the one ive enjoyed and listened to the most.

The Wire list is pretty predictable (ive not subscribed this year so was hoping to see something other than the same old names) other than having the Focus Group and Broadcast record at number one, ive not even heard it

Heres the Wire list

1 Broadcast & The Focus Group- Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
2 Oneohtrix Point Never - Rifts
3 Bill Orcutt - A New Way To Pay Old Debts
4 Alasdair Roberts - Spoils
5 Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
6 David Sylvian - Manafon
7 Group Doueh - Treeg Salaam
8 Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor
9 Ben Frost - By The Throat
10 King Midas Sound - Waiting For You
11 Harappian Night Recordings - Glorious Gongs of Hainuwele
12 Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
13 Shackleton - 3EPs
14 Sa-Ra Creative Partners - Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love
15 AtomTM - Liedgut
16 Mordant Music - SyMpToMs
17 Masayuki Takayanagi - Archive 1
18 Matias Aguayo - Ay Ay Ay
19 Hecker - Acid In The Style Of David Tudor
20 William Basinski - 92982
21 The xx - xx
22 Flower-Corsano Duo - The Four Aims
23 Gary War - Horribles Parade
24 Courtis/Moore - Brokebox Juke
25 Leyland Kirby - Sadly The Future Is No Longer What It Was
26 Group Bombino - Guitars From Agadez Vol 2
27 Peter Evans - Nature/Culture
28 Kevin Drumm - Imperial Horizon
29 Dam Funk - Toeachizown
30 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
31 Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino - Shall I Download A Blackhole And Offer It To You?
32 Moritz von Oswald Trio- Vertical Ascent
33 MEV - MEV 40
34 Black Dice - Repo
35 Emeralds - What Happened
36 Position Normal - Position Normal
37 Belbury Poly- From An Ancient Star
38 Julie Tippetts & Martin Archer - Ghosts of Gold
39 Billy Bao -
40 Sun Araw - Heavy Deeds
41 Richard Youngs - Under Stellar Stream
42 Subway - Subway II
43 Lionel Marchetti & Oliver Capparos - Equus
44 The Stooges - You Don't Want My Name You Want My Action
45 Eliane Radigue - Triptych
46 Fuck Buttoons- Tarot Sport
47 Glenn Jones - Barbecue Bob In Fishtown
48 Black to Comm - Alphabet 1968
49 Cold Cave - Love Comes Close
50 Hildur Gudnadottir- Without Sinking
POSTED BY FUME AT 12:28

You mean the album II, out on the Italians Do It Better label?

It was also in FACT Magazine's Top 20 (see upthread).

(xp)

I stand corrected

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/arts/music/20pareles.html?_r=1&ref=music NY Times columnists weigh in. Here's Pareles. I seem I'm not the only person who liked Rokia Traore's '09 US release.

I'm pretty sure that The Hold Steady were the Hold Steady of '08.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/arts/music/20caramanica.html Caramanica's got the New Boyz, Raekwon, Paramore, and more

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/arts/music/20ratliff.html

Woa, Ratliff's got Rudi's(the poster formerly known as RS) salsa fave Bannakumbi on his singles list. Wonder if Ratliff's been lurking on the Afro-Latin Salsa, Reggaeton thread?

I don't know that the Wire list is just 'the same old names' - I'd say that about half those acts haven't appeared in the Wire end-of-year lists before, and there really isn't all that much crossover with the other lists posted here. Sure, there's Sunn 0))) and Sylvian and O'Rourke and Basinski, but there plenty of other stuff besides.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/arts/music/20chinen.html

Chinen like Ratliff brings the jazz. Plus he's got Rihanna, Brad Paisley and Mali's Oumou Sangare

Caramanica riding hard for Drake is probably the most I've felt disappointed in a critic I like this year

i'd really like to be friends with whoever runs rock-a-rolla magazine

― airin' brrr (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, November 25, 2009 7:12 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

kinda cosigning with ship

god, okay, that Black to Comm album was sorely disappointing, imho. it just made me want to scream at him, "STICK WITH THE FUCKIN AWESOME DRONES DUDE AND FUCK THIS FORAY INTO 'MUSICALITY' BULLSHIT."

Review in the Wire made it sound ten times cooler than it actually sounds, but I'm going to stick with it for a while longer I think. Ben Frost album does not disappoint though, that thing is beautiful.

I thought this Tyondai Braxton was going to be Toni Braxton's little sister or something.