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

Dave Weigel, Reporter, Slate.com

* Rick Ross - Teflon Don

XD

i'm sure i'm not the first to say this but i would not have predicted the emergence of "did it on em" as the consensus nicki minaj track on these list. in retrospect it kind of makes sense, but really?

Charles Homans, Associate Editor, Foreign Policy

* Das Racist: Shut Up, Dude

it's all hip-hop/rap though!

like, if someone puts out a year-end list that's 100% "in my world of white guitar ppl" we all lose our shit

deej's list is similarly zzzzzzzz, right?

― i genuinely thought when i first joined that he was the admin (ilxor), Wednesday, 22 December 2010 15:46 (7 hours ago) Permalink

ilxor, I think you and contenderizer are riding this whole anti-anti-indie steez too hard. No-one's gonna complain about a list of white guitar ppl that is called "best white guitar ppl of 2010". It's the short-circuit between white-guitar-ppl (and kanye) with "best music anywhere in the world" that gets negative reactions.

I hinted at this upthread but one of my favourite sets of lists are those done by juno, which are even more severely circumscribed e.g. "Best Electro-House Tracks of 2010" etc. - these are genuinely helpful, and actually focus the minds of the listmakers on what constitutes "best" within particular parameters (with particular barometers). It's all these "best albums of 2010" with the same 20 f***ing records that are much more zzzzzz IMO.

Alright, people probably would have a problem with the title "best white guitar ppl of 2010", but not because it's genre-specialist.

^^^lol

otm

It's the short-circuit between white-guitar-ppl (and kanye) with "best music anywhere in the world" that gets negative reactions.

i've never seen a yearly best-of list that really addresses the "best music anywhere in the world." all such lists are limited by the culture and broad genre boundaries from which they come ("western pop music" being an example of a broad genre boundary). it's a matter of how broad you claim your list to be in relation to how broad (or how narrow) it actually is.

otoh, i'm not a critic, so maybe i'm not in a position to opine.

i've never seen a yearly best-of list that really addresses the "best music anywhere in the world."

Yes this is true in practice, but:

it's a matter of how broad you claim your list to be in relation to how broad (or how narrow) it actually is.

Right. Any list which states that it's a list of the "best albums of 2010" and includes at least a couple of albums by a couple of genres is implicitly saying that there are few if any formal restrictions on what can be included.

I much prefer a list which is formally constrained and, as a result, is more inventive, unusual or informative.

cosign on the juno lists, btw. but i wish they'd have two extra filter categories, for "songs with buzzy, arcade effects" and "songs without buzzy, arcade effects"

They could rename those categories "overrated in 2010" and "underrated in 2010".

im sure there are ways to make interesting cross-genre lists -- but maybe these are just easier as radio formats ("quiet storm") or DJ genre constellations ("balearic") than critics lists

ha!

(xp)

im sure there are ways to make interesting cross-genre lists -- but maybe these are just easier as radio formats ("quiet storm") or DJ genre constellations ("balearic") than critics lists

Yeah DJ constellation (or similar) round-ups can be the best because the very act of listing the songs together also performs that process of drawing the constellation in a way that doesn't exist for straight "best of" lists and isn't necessary for official genre lists.

& obv 'personal lists' qualify that way too

speaking of, i made a youtube playlist of the top 50 rap songz

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3FF03078C1191155

good job, more yt playlists already

ilxor, I think you and contenderizer are riding this whole anti-anti-indie steez too hard. No-one's gonna complain about a list of white guitar ppl that is called "best white guitar ppl of 2010". It's the short-circuit between white-guitar-ppl (and kanye) with "best music anywhere in the world" that gets negative reactions.

oh man... appreciate the sincere response. honestly i was bored at work (office is DEAD this time of year) & about 20 minutes into the day, posted a couple straight-up trolling posts on ilx to make my day a bit more interesting. was hoping for a good whiney/deej/j0rdan response or something fun. i don't actually believe any of what i wrote there ;)

i agree w/ you tim & also really like deej's list -- in fact, i said as much upthread:

i love everything i know from that list (about 20% of it, naturally) and am really thrilled w/ all the youtube links: that's one of my favorite year-end formats, when i can quickly click over and check out the stuff i haven't yet heard

― i genuinely thought when i first joined that he was the admin (ilxor)

Alright sorry ilxor, I couldn't remember your prior posts when I saw the last one.

props to Andy K for including the Mathew Jonson album, that's the record i loved the most this year that hasn't been getting much list love

tim... no worries, & no need to apologize, no offense taken! i just saw yr response and was all O_O

ilxor, I think you and contenderizer are riding this whole anti-anti-indie steez too hard.

― Tim F, Wednesday, December 22, 2010 3:03 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

hey, i don't think i've even made that point in this thread. not that i haven't made it elsewhere, but...

thing is, my eyes glaze over at relentless indieism, too. tried to get something out of those AMG lists, but if half your contributors stuff up their top 20s with some combo or variation on deerhunter/best coast/arcade fire/lcd soundsystem, then your definition of "allmusic" probably isn't broad enough to justify the name. otoh, lists composed entirely of equally obvious non-indie stuff are just as tedious. it's obviousness and impersonal pack-following timidity, rather than indieness per se, that i find most dispiriting.

not sure it's even timidity, more like people have limited time to listen to new albums, so they listen to the 50-100 most critically trumpeted albums in a given year, then spit out "personalized" lists that rank their favorite 10-20 of those 50-100 albums; it's just rather small pool of albums to begin with, though, so all the lists come out looking like variations on a theme

not that i'm one to talk as my top 10 would include robyn, big boi, four tet, caribou, the-dream etc. etc.

pot kettle black etc.

not sure if this counts as agreeing w tim, & even though this is in some ways the opposite of my own approach to listening to music, i would a hundred million percent rather read someone who focuses on a small number of tightly related genres & knows a lot about them & is consistent and discerning over some cosmopolitan dork overenthusiastically trying to capture some nonexistent zeitgeist who knows nothing. it's really interesting when you feel you understand someone's tastes, that you can see it as an aesthetic set, what makes a song functional or acceptable to them, it becomes possible to rediscover music & see if in a way totally foreign to you, & i think that's easiest to do if it's applied to a more limited range--although it can definitely stretch across genres if necessary

everyone who is a cool music fan should listen to as many albums outside of the most critically trumpeted set as out, imo. big world &c

not that i'm one to talk as my top 10 would include robyn, big boi, four tet, caribou, the-dream etc. etc.

yeah, i know the feeling. i bitch, but several obvious names are at least flirting with my ill-defined 2010 best list. no sin in that, but lists composed entirely of things found on everybody else's list are terribly depressing. i hope, as flopson says, for the expression of an interesting personal aesthetic.

one thing i like to keep in mind is audience. like, to other ILXors and critics, no one really cares that robyn or flying lotus or curren$y or caribou is on a best of 2010 list. seen that shit a million times. but to, say, a friend who casually listens to top 40 radio and that's it, those could be brand new. and great discoveries. not to say best-of lists shouldn't also poke around less critically-lauded circles, or challenge popular perceptions, but not everyone is obsessed with music like a lot of us are. we're looking at these "terribly depressing" lists from a different perspective. i mean, someone else may see arcade fire on a 2010 list not knowing them, and love that shit. who knows!

yeah, sure, it's all good, but i strive to believe, on some hippy-dippy level, that the truer you are to your own personal (and hopefully somewhat idiosyncratic) tastes, the more meaningful your expressions of those tastes will be to anyone who encounters them. even if they seem obscure, uncool, "weird" or whatever. that's something of an article of faith with me.

I'll second Karl on giving props to Andy K for including Mathew Jonson on his list. I have no idea why Agents of Time was so slept on bar that there was no interesting stories tell about the album, except quality.

Phonica's top 100 albums of 2010

100) Guido - Anidea
99) Arp - The Soft Wave
98) Julian Lynch - Mare
97) Moritz Von Oswald - Live In New York
96) ANTHONY 'SHAKE' SHAKIR - Frictionalism
95) COMMIX - Re:Call to Mind
94) DANGERMOUSE & SPARKLEHORSE - Dark Night of the Soul
93) MAGDA - From The Fallen Page
92) RED RACK'EM - The Early Years
91) LUKE ABBOTT - Holkham Drones
90) JOHN GRANT - Queen Of Denmark
89) OVAL - O
88) DONATO DOZZY - K
87) CONNAN MOCKASIN - Please Turn Me Into The Snat
86) JUS ED - Next Level
85) MAKAM - How Long Is Now?
84) JEFF PHELPS - Magnetic Eyes
83) EDWARD LARRY GORDON - Celestial Vibration
82) F - Energy Distortion
81) DUCKTAILS / DRACULA LEWIS - Split
80) WOLF + LAMB - Love Someone
79) PETER GORDON & THE LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA - Love Of Life Orchestra
78) PAUL WHITE - Paul White & The Purple Brain
77) HOT CHIP - One Life Stand
76) THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS - The Hundred In The Hands
75) WALLS - Walls
74) VOICE OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS - Voice Of The Seven Thunders
73) CHILLY GONZALES - Ivory Tower
72) SOLAR BEARS - She Was Coloured In
71) SALEM - King Night
70) AEROPLANE - We Can't Fly
69) ORIOL - Night And Day
68) MR G - Still Here
67) ARP & ANTHONY MOORE - Frkways 3
66) ROBERT HOOD - Omega
65) DEERHUNTER - Halcyon Digest
64) TORO Y MOI - Causers Of This
63) CHRIS CARTER - The Space Between
62) KONONO NO.1 - Assume Crash Position
61) SHIT ROBOT - From The Cradle To The Rave
60) MIM SULEIMAN - Tungi
59) MATTHEW DEAR - Black City
58) GAMES - That We Can Play
57) DEMDIKE STARE - Voices of Dust
56) ARCADE FIRE - The Suburbs
55) THE ALPS - Le Voyage
54) COS/MES - Gozmez Land Chaosexotica
53) TAME IMPALA - Innerspeaker
52) RECLOOSE - Early Works
51) LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - This Is Happening
50) CHARANJIT SINGH - Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat
49) ERYKAH BADU - New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh
48) STL - STL And His Quest For Sound
47) SHACKLETON - Fabric 55
46) DAM-FUNK - Adolescent Funk
45) AUTECHRE - Oversteps
44) JIMMY EDGAR - XXX
43) HEDZOLEH SOUNDZ - Hedzoleh
42) STELLAR OM SOURCE - Trilogy Select
41) DARKSTAR - North
40) MASSIVE ATTACK - Heligoland
39) WBEEZA - Void
38) ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI - Before today
37) ALOE BLACC - Good Things
36) DIGITAL MYSTIKZ - Return II Space
35) SAN SODA - Immers & Daarentegen
34) SUFJAN STEVENS - The Age Of Adz
33) PASTOR T.L.BARRETT & THE YOUTH FOR CHRIST CHOIR - Like A Ship (Without A Sail)
32) LONE - Emerald Fantasy Tracks
31) THEO PARRISH - Sketches
30) CFCF - Continent
29) MARK MCGUIRE - Living With Yourself
28) AARDVARCK - Choice
27) ESP INSTITUTE - Concentration Volume I CD (mixed by Lovefingers)
26) BRIAN ENO - Small Craft on A Milk Sea
25) URBAN TRIBE - Urban Tribe
24) TEENGIRL FANTASY - 7 AM
23) ROLL THE DICE - Roll The Dice
22) NICOLAS JAAR / VARIOUS ARTISTS - Ines
21) GONJASUFI - A Sufi and a Killer
20) SCUBA - Triangulation
19) MARK E - Mark E Works 2005 - 2009 Selected Tracks & Edits
18) EMERALDS - Does It Look Like I'm Here?
17) FLYING LOTUS - Cosmogramma
16) GIL SCOTT-HERON - I'm New Here
15) PANTHA DU PRINCE - Black Noise
14) MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE - Raw Cuts Vol. 1
13) MOUNT KIMBIE - Crooks & Lovers
12) GOLD PANDA - Lucky Shiner
11) SEAHAWKS - Ocean Trippin'
10) ONRA - Long Distance
09) FOUR TET - There Is Love In You
08) JOHN ROBERTS - Glass Eights
07) MAXMILLION DUNBAR - Cool Water
06) ACTRESS - Splazsh
05) ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER - Returnal
04) FOREST SWORDS - Dagger Paths
03) CARIBOU - Swim + Swim Remixes
02) VIRGO - Virgo
01) SHED - The Traveller

Must say I'm glad they mentioned Roll the Dice, Mim Suleiman's Tungi, and Oriol's Night and Day. Tungi is bubbling Fulton-produced goodness, while Night and Day contrasts the sharp cuts of something like the Soft Pink Truth's Promofunk against the hazy blurred discoid glow of the Avalanches. Wally Badarou looks on approvingly.

Boomkat end-of-year charts:

http://www.boomkat.com/charts.cfm

LOTS of different lists from various Boomkat types btw.

Looks like it's brought down their entire site now though - including the shop - so good work.

It was an impressive line up though, a pity it was for only ten seconds or so.

thing is, my eyes glaze over at relentless indieism, too. tried to get something out of those AMG lists, but if half your contributors stuff up their top 20s with some combo or variation on deerhunter/best coast/arcade fire/lcd soundsystem, then your definition of "allmusic" probably isn't broad enough to justify the name.

Those lists are from the willing editors and staff writers. Several people in the department -- some of whom specialize in something other than rock -- don't make year-end lists. I would love to incorporate lists from the dozens of active freelancers who cover everything else, but when it comes to year-end features, we are barely able to justify the time we spend on what we put together. (If you want a broader range of picks, check the genre/style posts. Most of the editors/writers who didn't make personal lists contributed to them.)

Kiran Sand of Blackest Ever Black has a strong look.

http://blackesteverblack.blogspot.com/

Oh yeah that boomkat and friends best of 2010 is awesome. All this stuff around the Raime post satanic techno industrial thing looks extremely interesting!

If someone were up for the task, they could make a master list of all these lists with the consensus ones filtered out. We'd just need to agree on what qualifies as consensus -- appearing on more than two other lists?

the Wall Street Journal weighs in on year-end lists in general (naming Stereogum's the best, among other random/silly awards)

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/12/22/best-of-the-best-of-music-lists-for-2010

this feature is awesome, btw

http://flavorwire.com/134970/stereotyping-you-by-your-favorite-album-of-2010

"I much prefer a list which is formally constrained and, as a result, is more inventive, unusual or informative."

DD!

double ditto

i made a youtube playlist of the top 50 rap songz

Lots of goodness, then E-40's "He's a Gangsta," which makes me want to never look at a computer again.

the video is a bit much -- cant believe they cut messy's verse from it smh