2010 Magazine's Albums Of The Year Thread For Posting Lists and Discussion

An East Coast "indie" paper over-privileging East Coast acts? I AM SHOCKED.

i would say that the dedication to finding 100 worthwhile tracks mainly from 200 mile radius is in its own way depressingly impressive except that the #1 is a nas song that was on a mixtape for a promo of carmelo anthony's new sneaker

take it where you can get it, i suppose

An East Coast "indie" paper over-privileging East Coast acts? I AM SHOCKED.

― "Kiss Players♥" (DJP), Tuesday, December 14, 2010 2:23 PM (49 seconds ago) Bookmark

ha, over-privileging vs pretending like the southern & western parts of the US fell into the ocean

& that's also a lame excuse because rap fans from other parts of the country don't act like the the east coast doesn't exist -- it's only the other way around

You lived up here at one point, didn't you? I'm more amazed that the entire list isn't all Boston than anything else.

basically that list is v.v much in character for The Phoenix

nah i've only lived in miami & missouri

it's just sad to see someone (or people) that clearly loves & follows rap but is so hermetically sealed

"Hermetically Sealed" could be Boston's motto, is the thing

i didn't know the phoenix had such a curated taste in rap

still think it's bullshit but w/e

lol, I still remember my college radio career being cut off before it even began when I went to the first meeting for the alt-rock DJs and the guys running the station announced "if you're looking for someplace to play your favorite Cure or Smiths albums, leave now; we are about REAL alternative, which means our vibrant local scene"

now, I'm not denying that Boston DOESN'T have a vibrant local scene but really, gtfo with that talk, ESPECIALLY AT FUCKING HARVARD

We had plenty of bleedover at KLA at UCLA when I started in college radio -- the Cure et al weren't banned or anything but we were encouraged to make sure we didn't JUST play that, which considering the 800 lb gorilla in the room called KROQ made perfect sense...

boston college radio: the alternative to the alternative to the humdrum.

I missed the relevant clusterf**k ;_; but I don't think it's pointless to talk about the fact that these year end lists from magazines with particular aesthetic brands tend to lapse back into consensus-think once they move beyond their primary critical focus - this is not some conspiratorial thing either, it's a product of the fact that most critics do this w/r/t their own personal tastes.

More distressing to me than the placements and rankings that result from this is much of the related writing, which by and large also seems to plunge precipitously into focus group anonymity - like, try to find a rock critic take on James Blake that doesn't sound exactly like every other rock critic take on James Blake (ironically, of course, praising his trailblazing individuality).

This isn't a comment on Wire, I think pretty much every publication suffers from this to some disagree.

Mind you year end list write-ups are particularly conducive to anonymous-feeling writing, and I expect I suffer from this as much as anyone else, so w/e.

I've just tabbed my 100th list for Sound Opinions Message Board end of year album countdown, we are now at 925 different nominated albums which is obvious just over 9 unique albums per list (with average size being 30.76 albums.)

So far so boring, but I also have the age of almost 90 of the voters, meaning I can tell you the average age of voter for each album which is pretty interesting.

I'm not posting the results, others are but I'll drop a note in here when it starts as I intend to really go to town on analysis of the votes.

Also if you have an account there, go post a list (deej!)

Did anyone else read Jennifer Kelly's piece over at Dusted today? Girl knows what's up:

http://dustedmagazine.com/features/945

"A week or so ago, when first trying to piece together how I felt about 2010, I ran across a kind of depressing discussion about which, if any, of the big records of the year would top the polls. The consensus was that there weren’t any consensus records. The ones that everyone had heard of — Arcade Fire’s Suburbs for instance, or The National’s High Violet — were not very exciting. Both were weak-ish efforts by well-liked bands, not terrible, but nothing to rally around. Grinderman’s 2, which came up as well, was quite a good record, but in a solid, middle-of-the-pack kind of way. You can’t imagine waking up feeling different about the world the morning after you’d played it. Sleigh Bells had the opposite problem, being vaguely exciting but not quite good. Nothing like Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillon, with its combination of sizzle and meat, had emerged for 2010, and it made you wonder whether the everyone-on-the-same-page enthusiasm for it last year had been some kind of anachronistic fluke. It’s a bit late to observe this but 2010 underlined it: the lowest common denominator has become so dull that not even the pack cares about it much.

In one way, that’s fine, because it’s become easier than ever to explore whatever part of the periphery you prefer. Yet, I think because music is such a social phenomenon, listening to great music, music that is 100 percent targeted to your taste, but listening in isolation, is ultimately unsatisfying. We all want a consensus, a sort of mythical community where everyone agrees with us. That’s why we sometimes have discussions, not about what the best records of the last year are, but which ones are likely to score the highest. How well-accepted a record is becomes almost as important as how it sounds. The rating process becomes a hall of mirrors in which opinions are reflected and refracted into infinity, and the actual object that they’re based on fades into insignificance. Which is how people can propose The National’s third- or fourth-best album as Record of the Year, or Arcade Fire’s pallid third. It’s all about what we think other people have heard of, what they might like, and how we can position ourselves in the midst of some dubious communal sentiment. It’s pretty dicey and almost intrinsically dishonest.

And yet the alternative, of somehow separating the records you enjoy from the circumstances under which you heard them, the people you were with, the jokes you told, the food you ate, is also untenable. There’s no such thing as an unbiased experience. What you hear is, at least in some sense, inextricably linked with who you are at the moment the record goes on. I’m still not sure why The Soft Pack’s self-titled elicited the instant “yes” that it did, or why the effect of what is essentially a very good guitar-rock record persisted for the whole year, but I’m guessing it says as much about me and where I was this year as about the album itself. I know, on the other hand, that Wetdog’s Frauhaus triggered a whole bunch of positive post-punk associations, and that though it sounds like home to me, it might not to someone who came of age later or earlier. Still all the positive associations in the world couldn’t make Alejandro Escovedo’s over-slick, over-produced, back-up singer’d, big rock Street Songs of Love from sounding like the worst kind of AAA commercialism, and the fact that I’ve spent countless hours in the car listening to The National with my son (his favorite band at one point) didn’t make High Violet any less disappointing.

So here are 10 very good albums that hit me the hardest this year. I can’t make the case that they are objectively the best, and they certainly aren’t the most popular, but all 10 are worth listening to and passing on to friends. And maybe that’s the only way to build consensus, driven by real love and in increments of one or two at a time."

Does she not know that Kanye exists?

IF ONLY there was a critically championed record in 2010 everyone was rallying around! Where are you, record?

Based on the list of albums she then pimps I think it's more a case of her not knowing that non-indie exists.

Girl knows what's up

prolific

I don't think I've ever seen Dusted review a Kanye album. They certainly lean heavily toward the indie and experimental side of music. The albums she listed are about as "popular" as they review.

Girl knows what's up
1. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
Girl knows what's up
1. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
Girl knows what's up
1. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
Girl knows what's up
1. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
Girl knows what's up
1. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
Girl knows what's up
1. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
Girl knows what's up
1. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
Girl knows what's up
1. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack

tbf
I’m still not sure why The Soft Pack’s self-titled elicited the instant “yes” that it did, or why the effect of what is essentially a very good guitar-rock record persisted for the whole year, but I’m guessing it says as much about me and where I was this year as about the album itself.

this is the main part I disagree with
Grinderman’s 2, which came up as well, was quite a good record, but in a solid, middle-of-the-pack kind of way. You can’t imagine waking up feeling different about the world the morning after you’d played it.

as opposed to the Soft Pack

eh I have trouble arguing with her list because she's straight-up saying it's not a best of the year, or even a favorite of the year, but "here are some albums that impacted me, for whatever reason, this year"

Whiney, don't you think your implicit labeling of her picks as "bad" underlines the entire point of her piece?

Edit: what n/a said.

We're all rock critics nhttp://26.media.tumblr.com/avatar_3f47ac2e601d_128.pngw

It's not the list, it's the preamble talking about the lack of critical unifying albums in 2010 (when clearly her critical sphere is claustrophobically small).

most critical spheres are rilly small. like, tiny.

You really think she hasn't heard the Kanye album?

Regardless, I think her second paragraph is OTM.

if i wanted to read the "this is my personal top 10" list from someone who clearly has little understanding/interest of anything besides the most loudly trumpeted indie rock and the occassional Wire favorite, I could visit ANYONE'S BLOG ON EARTH. The fact that this appears on Dusted instead of somerandombullshit.blogspot.com doesn't change anything

you should update the whineyzing 3000 & switch out "blogspot" w/ "tumblr" tbh

dusted dude who put the allesandro bosetti album on his list gets a big thumbs up from me. hardly anyone heard that album and it rules. its going on my pazz & jop thing.

most critical spheres are rilly small. like, tiny.

Yes in isolation I approve of this. It's when people patch together their critical worldview via a short-circuit between their tiny critical sphere and we are the world consensus that I start to think they have less than zero self-awareness.

i love going to my home town and having the record store clerk tell me they didn't even order one Animal Collective album and who the fuck is Janelle Monae

Grinderman’s 2, which came up as well, was quite a good record, but in a solid, middle-of-the-pack kind of way. You can’t imagine waking up feeling different about the world the morning after you’d played it.

i feel precisely the opposite way. i think g2 should eventually be considered a classic, "canonical" rock album.

"We all want a consensus, a sort of mythical community where everyone agrees with us."

is this really what people want? maybe they do. i mean, its nice when people you talk to like the same things as you, it makes conversation easier.

is this really what people want?

God help us if so.

You can’t imagine waking up feeling different about the world the morning after you’d played it.

maybe these records that will make a grown adult feel that way aren;t always going to be found in the 50-year-old art form of rock music?

"Yet, I think because music is such a social phenomenon, listening to great music, music that is 100 percent targeted to your taste, but listening in isolation, is ultimately unsatisfying."

and this just makes me feel like a loser. cuz i have almost always listened to music alone. and it has satisfied me plenty.

i always assume what you're quoting is one of the attractions of "popism," at least when popism is paired against underground/indie rock music.

It almost seems like a question of faith on her end. (In that some -- a lot? -- of her mindset strikes me as the equivalent to those who pay lip service to the idea of being strong in their personal spiritual/religious beliefs but in practice can only function in some sort of comfort social zone so they never have to put those beliefs to the test.)

is this really what people want?

Why else spend hours on blogs, messageboards, and music publications trying to convince others that what you're listening to is worthwhile? Why bother voting in a year-end poll?

She probably makes it out to be more black/white than it actually is, but I do think we're all ultimately competing to have our likes be more prevalent and our dislikes to disappear.

we're all ultimately competing to have our likes be more prevalent and our dislikes to disappear

What, all the time until the end of our days? Sounds horrifying.

you're glad Loveless is only this board's favourite album ever then? :]

It's nice that it is, wouldn't care if it wasn't. (As it stands I had completely forgotten about those polls until you mentioned it.)

we're all ultimately competing to have our likes be more prevalent and our dislikes to disappear

More truthfully: we're competing for validation of our own aesthetic preferences by

(a) having others agree with us; and

(b) having been seen to be a cause of (or contributor to) any emergent critical position w/r/t X piece of music.

Hence all the passive-aggressive (and i'm not immune) "yes, it's great that X has belatedly endorsed this, note that I loved it way back when" stuff.

i was making that argument in like 2004, btw

:P