Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

There was so much parochial bullshit in that Fact list.

less institutional but certainly veteran artists who "still have it"

they're not Cohen or Judas Priest, but I think the new Old 97s album falls into this category. I loved their output from '96-'01, didn't care for anything after that. but their new one sounds like it could be a lost record from their heyday. i can't even believe how good it is; it's truly shocking. if shuffling Texas roots-rock songs about becoming a creepy old man with a thing for recreational drug use is your thing, then "Most Messed Up" is your thing.

lol it's so sad that fact followed p4k's lead on that one ;_;

I feel like I'm actually gonna have to listen to at least some of that War on Drugs album now, even though I don't give a shit about it at all.

And why has everyone seemed to have forgotten about Against Me!?

The first of Lex's EOTY "I know nothing about this but I know it's awful" posts is like the first window on an advent calendar.

The War on Drugs album isn't terrible, but half the songs go on extended tangential outros for whatever the fucking reason and it ruins it for me. Chop the tails off those songs and the whole album would be better for it.

i bet i'll prob end up loving bloody War on Drugs now if I listen to it.

The first of Lex's EOTY "I know nothing about this but I know it's awful" posts is like the first window on an advent calendar.

I feel like that about every record on here

war on drugs album is good - but it is also p overrated and most of the criticisms against it thus far (sounds too much like boomer/80s rock, various songs are overlong) are completely understandable.

The Fact half-decade list was at least interesting

The War on Drugs seems to be a very big deal with all of these publications. I wouldn't have thought it would be likely to top P&J but now I'm beginning to wonder

huh War on Drugs doesn't sound anything like I thought it would

I guess ppl in 2014 really missed David Gray?

that is theeeee weirdest comparison i've heard so far! the biggest ref point/complaint seems to be like, dire straits & shit of that nature

yeah i don't really care what the #1 slot is or if some of the choices are a little challopsy. i just like to have some decent recommendations and i can sort it out myself.

xpost

I mostly going off of the dude's voice

referring to FACT mag list

xpost

decent recommendations = not the same shit that everybody puts in their lists/stuff everyone has already heard

DJP sort of nailed it there with the David Gray voice comparison.

xp Yeah, FACT's contrarianism can be comical but it leads me to new things in a way that a more conventional list wouldn't.

Relistening to this TWoD album again for the first time in a while, I find it's a very timid record. They're scared to go the full Don Henley or the full Dire Straits or the full Daniel Lanois or whatever other styles they're trying to bite and in the end it just sounds like a little bit of each of those things but in a bad way.

Not a *bad way, but an *unsatisfying way.

tbh i have less and less interest each passing year in what albums might be "best"/"better" and i've always been skeptical of critics' attempts to render coherent narratives of the chaos of a year's worth of music. those narratives can be important but the first drafts are not usually very compelling (i.e. we probably need some distance before we can make sense of it all). i'm happy just to kind of dip my toe in the stream and find some things that appeal to me.

It's probably because they're mixing all that with the ambient/spacerock/droney elements which prevent them going full on AOR, but I've gone into this on their own thread.

, FACT's contrarianism can be comical but it leads me to new things in a way that a more conventional list wouldn't.

what makes it contrarian or non-conventional? its not really my thing, but it just seems like a list of the records they feature on their site as far as i can tell

what makes it contrarian

"I Miss You" being the Beyonce pick

that's a great song tho

every time I see "Dire Straits" as a referent in the same sentence as War on Drugs I wonder if the writer means "the synthy parts of late eighties Cure + Billy Idol echo"

no, there's a definite twangy thing going on, but obviously it's at a bit of a lower skill level

I tended to hear it as much in the wheedling of dude's 'Why can't I be Dylan' voice.

^^^otm - dylan vocal bites, where would indie duderock be without them

where would indie duderock be without them

where it is now: dead, like all rock music.

I tended to hear it as much in the wheedling of dude's 'Why can't I be Dylan' voice.

you're so folksy, I'd do anything
ape you from the scoops to where the pitch begins
you're so precious, you're so right as rain
you make me make me revisit the highway again

War of Drugs > Bob Dylan

:mic drop:

xxpost thought it was p clear that was not a serious statement or one meant to laud indie duderock

where would indie duderock be without them
where it is now: dead, like all rock music.

― Daniel, Esq 2, Tuesday, November 25, 2014 12:16 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao i love the inherent patting of self on back whenever someone says "rock is dead"

so hip now with it and wow

The reason why I like WOTD is the same reason it's hard to say anything new about them. It's such a simple idea - blue-collar space-rock, aka what if Tom Petty and Bruce Horsby dug krautrock? It appeals to the same part of me that likes dance re-edits of Springsteen or Spiders (Kidsmoke) by Wilco or Balearic. I'm not sure I've discovered any great depths beyond that simple idea so it feels slightly lacking as an album of the year but for me the pleasure's instant.

it has certain combinations of sounds that remind me of certain FM rock radio memories while placing them in a slightly skewed context

there's a definite twangy thing going on, but obviously it's at a bit of a lower skill level

Yeah, TWoD owes a lot more to Knopfler's rhythm playing than his lead playing.

War On The Drugs?

i don't think anyone's saying war on drugs dude is notting hillbillies material! big knopf is a monster

lmao i love the inherent patting of self on back whenever someone says "rock is dead"

so hip now with it and wow

i mean, it kinda is, or at least on life support...i don't really have any positive or negative opinions on that fact tho, and good bands that play rock music are still good bands obvs, i do believe war on drugs is one of them

it really isn't.

I don't know what "rock is dead" even means but it sure sounds cool to say.

I saw an "ART IS DEAD" sign in someones window. I don't know what that means either, though I bet that person is pretty edgy.

yeah i'm not sure either. "rock" has become many things; i feel like a lot of the music i listen to wouldn't exist without "rock" but some people here might not consider it "rock."

the whole notion of relevance seems really boring to me and less and less important when everything's just a big mess on the internet and spotify now

if there are good bands then it's not dead or if it is dead and there are still good bands then who cares if it's "dead"? i don't care about big outsized bono/woodstock notions about rock having to be big or an important cultural force

this is likely the only time I will say this but for the love of all that is good and holy, won't someone post another list

xxxpost all around boston someone has been spraypainting NOT ART on things lately, throughout somerville & cambridge, both v edgy places in the minds of many residents, as anyone who lives here will know. to be fair, i loled

shakedown otm

Top 10 Cool Rock Bands Of 2014

1 The War on Drugs
2 Crazy Eyes from Orange is the New Black
3 The Pizza Underground
4 Pallbearer
5 Blue Oyster Cult
6 ESPN 30 For 30 - Rand University
7 Mr. Pibb
8 Sleaford Mods
9 Ricky Rubio
10 Old Fashioned Minnesota Grape Salad