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

man, i love albums. i'm sick that way. i listen to thousands every year. never gets old.

Hot Tub

man, i love albums. i'm sick that way. i listen to thousands every year. never gets old.
--scott seward

Otm

Lol at aborted hot tub time machine joke still making an appearance in that post

it is strange that, with the thousands of albums released every year and freely-available via the internet, that there's anything approaching a concensus about the best albums of the year.

Too much choice = people retreat to old favorites. That's not a value judgment, either; I do it, everyone does it to some degree. But I don't think it's a coincidence that the more music there the less that gets covered.

"more music there IS"

For Scott, Top 100 Korean pop songs from Nov. '09 to Nov. '10: http://cassipeasworld.blogspot.com/2010/11/bugs-top-100-songs-for-2010.html

Also, Top 10 Anime Songs: http://www.lw-concepts.com/lw/?p=6422

Very interesting end-year chart (with sound illustration) at Pontone.

Here's the first part (50-34):
http://pontone.pl/tones-of-the-year-2010-best-50-albums-vol-1-50-34/

the next one should be out today

Pitchfork's Honorable Album Mentions:

Actress - Splazsh
Baths - Cerulean
ceo - White Magic
Curren$y - Pilot Talk / Pilot Talk II
DOM - Sun Bronzed Greek Gods EP
Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Glasser - Ring
Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner
Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Guido - Anidea
Liars - Sisterworld
Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts
Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers
Pantha du Prince - Black Noise
Perfume Genius - Learning
Sam Amidon - I See the Sign
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky
Toro y Moi - Causers of This

ceo, pilot talk 1, charlotte gainsbourg, gold panda, liars, male bonding, pantha du prince, and surfer blood were all best new music, so a little surprising to see that none of them made the actual list

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

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
― skrrr boi (Whiney G. Weingarten)

Of all the boring personal top tens, why does this particular one draw such contempt? I don't know if she writes much outside of Dusted, but skimming through her stuff (http://dustedmagazine.com/writers/kelly), Kelly is no ignorant hack. She just has a preference for indie, psych and post-punk. Her list is hardly random -- she pretty clearly stated that they're her favorites. Since when is specializing a crime? Should we start bludgeoning the hip-hop and r&b crits who neglect country? Or call the metal writers ignorant fucks because they clearly have little understanding/interest of dance-pop? If one wanted an update on Brazilian albums here, you're all useless.

The whole indie backlash thing is kind of funny, but ultimately comes off as peevish and pointless. The way I see it, anyone who bothers to dismiss an entire genre of music most likely couldn't be bothered to listen to much of it and is in a weak-ass position to judge. Hearing and hating the Arcade Fire and the National is understandable, but ridiculing a writer for a top 20 that you probably hadn't heard more than a third of? Now that's some bullshit.

The Soft Pack certainly has no pretentions of being 'important' but it does have 7 excellent songs on it, which is more than one can say about many of the others topping this year's lists.

the most loudly trumpeted indie rock and the occassional Wire favorite

Within the realm of trumpeted indie rock in 2010, her list is reasonably atypical. If anyone finds it completely humdrum content-wise (I'm talking about the specific albums chosen, not whether or not you personally find them any good), it's because you've probably heard as many or more records this year than she has. 8 of her 10 records aren't exactly commonplace in the blogspot circles.

My issue was with her preamble not her content. Why ask "where is this year's merriweather post pavilion to unite us all" if you're not even interested in anything that falls outside of a pretty narrow sphere. It's the implied borders around "what matters", rather than what she actually likes, which gives off a blinkered indie rock critic vibe.

Resident Advisor: Top 20 albums of 2010
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1264

20. Prins Thomas - Prins Thomas [Full Pupp]
19. The Black Dog - Music for Real Airports [Soma]
18. Lindstrom & Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool [Smalltown Supersound]
17. Peter Van Hoesen - Entropic City [Time To Express]
16. ASC - Nothing Is Certain [NonPlus+]
15. Darkstar - North [Hyperdub]
14. Bonobo - Black Sands [Ninja Tune]
13. Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal [Mego]
12. Virgo - Virgo [Rush Hour]
11. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening [DFA]
10. Matthew Dear - Black City [Ghostly International]
09. Mount Kimbie - Crooks & Lovers [Hotflush]
08. Scuba - Triangulation [Hotflush]
07. Four Tet - There Is Love In You [Domino]
06. Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise [Rough Trade]
05. John Roberts - Glass Eights [Dial]
04. Actress - Splazsh [Honest Jons]
03. Shed - The Traveller [Ostgut Ton]
02.Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma [Warp]
01. Caribou - Swim [City Slang]

MPP did unite, though. It united people into two opposing camps!

That John Roberts album sounds like it might be a good 'un, need to give that a shot.

Why ask "where is this year's merriweather post pavilion to unite us all" if you're not even interested in anything that falls outside of a pretty narrow sphere. It's the implied borders around "what matters", rather than what she actually likes, which gives off a blinkered indie rock critic vibe.

yeah, but "what ought to matter" is inseparable from "what you like," no matter who you are. indie rock critics aren't any more congenitally blinkered than other genre-bound voices. dance critics speak to dance partisans, rap critics to autogoon united, and so on. we all pretend, from time to time, that our private stomping grounds = that which matters. which is perfectly fine, afaic. i like kelly's list. it's personal, intelligent and engaged. i wouldn't list a single thing on it among my personal favorites, but so what? she's entitled to her enthusiasms, indie as they might seem.

yeah, but "what ought to matter" is inseparable from "what you like," no matter who you are.

― phish in your sleazebag (contenderizer), Wednesday, December 15, 2010 2:47 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i disagree

so tell me all about the irredeemably awful (yet hugely important) shit that ppl ought to be paying attention to, iyo

imo, kanye is hugely important & kinda wack

imo, dj quik & kurupt last year was way dope but not v important

i like the kurupt & quik (mostly whatsha wan do) and the dark twisted fantayzee equally, but if i didn't like them personally, i wouldn't think of recommending them to anyone. i mean, i'm not the hague. i don't have to worry about objectivity.

and there's nothing nowhere near as good as whatsha wan do on MBDTBDMBTWDF

i'm in the middle of writing something on why there needs to be a moratorium on the word "important" because it's so awful & meaningless

i don't have to worry about objectivity.

it's not about objectivity for critics either. or at least, it shouldn't be.

if a record is "important" for whatever reason and by whichever definition you use, this really does only become apparent after time has passed.

^ supermanning it

Of all the boring personal top tens, why does this particular one draw such contempt?

i also agree with this - i don't care about the records on her list and find her tastes narrow and blinkered, yes, but no more so than ANY GIVEN PITCHFORK WRITER apart from their genre specialists

sorry, i think some things are important

i'm not gonna get into it here cuz this is stuff i'm trying to work out in a piece that's on hold while i deadline-surf elsewhere today, but what do you mean by important, really?

sorry, i think some things are important

i'm sure i will come around when they are prying my guns from my cold dead hands

but what lex said: really?

and like, you're willing to bring this up wr2 dusted mag/indie fan critic who fails to pay proper respect to IMPORTANT THINGS, rather than ben chasny/rick bishop record that like 5K people are ever gonna hear, tops? we should all be talking about kanye records that you don't even like?

idgi contenderizer/lex, you are defending this writer when clearly she is upset that there were NO IMPORTANT ALBUMS THIS YEAR - which you say is critically wrongheaded!

The enemy of my enemy steez only gets you so far in music crit: just because she's not deej doesn't mean she is correct.

I think I'd hold with Dark Twisted Fantasy as "important" more than I would Merriweather Post Pavilion. One's the new album of one of the biggest pop stars in the world, the other is a record by a cult indie band that's deemed important because enough people in the right position say it is.

i'm not "defending" her tim, but she's not guilty of any more wrongheadedness than like three quarters of all other critics making EOY lists atm

i mean, i think the critical culture is kinda fucked atm, but it's not just her propagating it

"i'm in the middle of writing something on why there needs to be a moratorium on the word "important" because it's so awful & meaningless"

And "interesting" while we're at it.

"interesting" as a superlative doesn't carry the sort of weight that fuels several thousand words of year-end appraisal, though

Quite. Important is like a brick in the face. Interesting is like death by a thousand cuts.

idgi contenderizer/lex, you are defending this writer when clearly she is upset that there were NO IMPORTANT ALBUMS THIS YEAR - which you say is critically wrongheaded!

The enemy of my enemy steez only gets you so far in music crit: just because she's not deej doesn't mean she is correct.

― Tim F, Wednesday, December 15, 2010 1:57 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, that's fair, but at this point i'd rather hear some indie-besotted "critic" mope about the lack of a consensus album (in light of unlistenable shit like MPP, even) than hear someone else bitch about same. we all have our threshholds, and i've hit mine.

okay, in all honesty, her list is boring as fuck, and her intro makes me wonder what planet she and i do not share, but w/e (enjoying "w/e" atm)

^^^yeah that

i have no interest in her list but seeing pitchfork writers pile on it is a bit "physician heal thyself"

(i know the writers in question aren't representative of their site's tedious narrow-mindedness but still)

Kelly's piece hits on something (sorry, Doran) interesting but then doesn't explore it far enough, and makes some massive assumptions. I hate this idea that we're all pretending to like certain records, as if The Suburbs is scientifically proven to be the weakest Arcade Fire album (hand on heart, it's my favourite of the three). There's some truth in her second paragraph but I could say the same thing about MPP, which she obviously considers unimpeachable genius. She's in no position to throw words like "dishonest" around - it's the same trap as deej's polarisation of subjective opinion and truth in the Kanye thread. I dislike it when a critic dismisses "critics" en masse, as if only they can see through the veil (lex being the honourable exception just because I'm used to it by now).

Boomkat's Top 28 Tracks of 2010 - part one

1. The Soft Moon 'Into The Depths'
2. Raime 'This Foundry Regis Version'
3. DJ Elmoe 'Whea Yo Ghost At Whea Yo Dead Man'
4. Joe 'Claptrap'
5. Hype Williams 'The Throning'
6. Antony Shakir 'Detroit State Of Mind'
7. Umberto 'Temple Room'
8. Mika Vanio 'It's A Muthang'
9. Keith Fullerton Whitman 'Generator 6'
10. Demdike Stare 'Hashashin Chant'
11. Pump 'The Wife Container'
12. Au Revoir Simone 'Tell Me' Villa Nah Remix
13. Dadawa 'Know How You Stand'
14. Cold Cave 'Stars Explode'

Boomkat's Top 28 Tracks of 2010 - part two

1. Airhead & James Blake 'Lock In The Lion'
2. BABE RAINBOW 'Care'
3. Rene Hell 'IV'
4. RAMADANMAN 'Tumble'
5. oOoOO 'Burnout Eyess'
6. Laurel Halo 'Embassy'
7. LA Vampires & Zola Jesus 'Bone Is Bloodstone'
8. IIBIIS ROOGE 'Skirling Birl'
9. Teengirl Fantasy 'Floor To Floor'
10. LUKID 'Boxing Club'
11. SILENT SERVANT 'Sampler Silent Servant' (Regis Edit)
12. PSYCHIC ILLS 'Mantis' (Juan Atkins Remix)
13. ACTRESS 'Purrple Splazsh'
14. RANGERS 'Airport Lights'

keep seeing oOoOOOooOOO or whatever their name is pop up in these lists - wish the ▲▲witch house▲▲ vote would go to white ring instead, soOoOOO much better

It's the same guy right? I like both of them on record (and fostercare, Jokers Of The Scene and Gatekeeper for that matter) but White Ring were utterly awful live.

i guess the creep/romy xx single is coming out too late to place in these lists - wondering if i should hold off on nominating it for the ilx poll. why would anyone release a single on 20 dec, gah

xp i'm sure they're different acts - hang on, when did you see white ring live? i saw them at the nest, i thought they were ok! even if coming out to set their stage up beforehand ruined their ~horror movie ghost~ mystique a bit

my problem is that i dislike it when critics speak to some universal "we" that they assume from out the vapour in order to validate (or contend with) their own tastes. like she is not she, but merely another node on the consensus-generating online readership chain. i'm not saying i don't like it when others agree with me, but i'm more than a little tired of contemporary deference to the rendered opinions of the info-cloud. fuck that. whatever world you imagine you inhabit is at best a tiny slice of reality as a whole, and more likely a figment of your own imagination. i'd rather share the music i like with my friends in the here and now than wait for some random blogger to tell me it's cool. [/toughguy]

re actress: how come no one keeps talking about "maze"?