Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

Sun Kil Moon is the new act of a legacy dude, I think War on Drugs have been around for a little while without any great shakes, they had some sort of beef this year (?) and now people are rating their albums highly. I dunno, I like plenty of schmindie bollocks so maybe I would like one or the other record but it just seems so very very unappealing.

Yeah sometimes with these albums I have no idea whether I'd like them or not but the the overall feeling is "can't be arsed". That feeling was entirely vindicated when I heard the Sun Kil Moon album fwiw.

I can see Angel Olsen missing out on any ILX list as well, not detected much in the way of buzz around her here.

The Terje album really is a good EP's worth of material obviously left half-finished and padded out with old stuff. I'm pretty sure I read an interview where he said it was actually unfinished due to family stuff.

sun kil moon's been going over a decade iirc and he got a shiny 'best new music' badge from pitchfork about half a decade ago

Sun Kil Moon has been around since 2003. Though his new approach is distinct enough it's almost as if this version of Sun Kil Moon is a new act that debuted in 2012.

Yeah, I realised after I posted "new act" is a bit of a misnomer, was more trying to emphasise the 'elder statesman' bit. Didn't realise it was *quite* that old, though.

Minor correction: Sun Kil Moon actually never got BNM until Benji.

i love how fact readers are in open revolt btl. the top comment kills me:

Damn Sun Kil Moon is the whitest, whiniest shit I ever heard. That's the best album of the year for what, getting over your dog's death? No fucking thanks.

i can't imagine any fence-sitters or sceptics especially caring about it

No, Born to Die got a pasting in most US publications (it was only #54 on Pazz & Jop) and this one, which has entirely different production, didn't. It's been in 19 EOY lists and has made the early backlash look like old news. So clearly a bunch of sceptics have come around. And Terje is in 20 lists. So I'm still surprised the Guardian skipped them both.

Would love to hear DJP's argument for the three not-terrible LDR, because it's all of a piece. I figured people would either like all of it (ie me) or none of it.

xp haaaahahahahahahaha

xp cheers evan, memory failed me there thought he got one for 'april' - cheers!

clickers at the ready, it's the FACT top 50 tracks list:
http://www.factmag.com/2014/12/11/the-50-best-tracks-of-2014/

they're really trying to make pc music a thing huh

"1 of 51"

xp them and gorilla vs. bear are super bout-it bout-it for PC music, idgi

like that stuff isn't all bad but i fail to see what's remarkable about it

TAYLOR SWIFT – Wildest Dreams (Recycle Culture Hyper Bubble Pop remix)

its hilarious to me that someone could think this improves on the song itself

That's a surprisingly good top five from FACT and their number one is predictable but unfuckable-with. Mystifying Popcaan choice though considering the rest of the album.

'Slug Christ' is sort of moniker a FACT-friendly automatic name generator would come up with though.

I tried listening to War On Drugs just now; why do people keep falling for shit like this???

PC Music isn't nearly as lazy or cowardly as witch house or chillwave was but ughhhh

it was a very cold winter, crüt

FKA Twigs still doesn't click with me but it's exciting that such a weird album is the frontrunner in all these lists

I really liked "Slave Ambient" a couple of years ago, but I can't remember a single thing from "Lost in the dream" other than the first track reminds me of "More than this".

lex in literally never having heard standard indie-rock band shocker...

but yeah, sun kil moon is mark kozelek is red house painters who have been around since forever and ever and ever. benji is the first thing i heard by him though (before the ridiculous feud) and i do really like it (haven't heard the slag-off joke record but i can imagine it's not worth bothering with at all). he strikes me as a bit of an arsehole but the album is sweet and very touching. i love the thrumming acoustic layers and the stories he tells are really well told, especially 'micheline', 'jim wise' and 'clarissa'.

war on drugs are dull as shit shimmery post-freakfolk, post-chillwave nonsense though.

I really liked "Slave Ambient" a couple of years ago, but I can't remember a single thing from "Lost in the dream" other than the first track reminds me of "More than this".

OTM. I was a fan from Wagonwheel Blues, but after awhile his chorus-less songwriting style begins to grate.

other than the first track reminds me of "More than this".

that is a not insubstantial part of why it's being highly praised by those who are praising it

xxp

The Juan MacLean big snob goes on and still hurts me.

snub?

it's a simple design

Cool list in Decoder from the Experimedia guy if you like leftfield electronic stuff:
http://www.secretdecoder.net/blog/2014/12/10/jeremy-bibles-top-10-and-beyond-of-2014/

other than the first track reminds me of "More than this".
......why it's being highly praised by those who are praising it

Yeah, but More Than This had a chorus you could hum, instead of just random Whoooos for 8 minutes.

Yeah I enjoy Benji but his 2010 and earlier material is his peak by far. It's funny how some records resonate so much more when they're backstory/character driven. Like all the fun people had talking about Bon Iver's cabin and GIRLS's cult history probably propelled those record sales regardless of the music. So Sun Kil Moon gets musically lazy but confessional and all sorts of people suddenly learn he exists because the publications write about the stories of the musician and the record gets more exposure.

post-freakfolk, post-chillwave nonsense though

You should probably consider just taking a broom to all these convoluted tangled continuum diagrams with Animal Collective in the middle of all contemporary music dude.

that is a not insubstantial part of why it's being highly praised by those who are praising it

Most of the reviews I've read mention Springsteen, Petty and Kraftwerk but nothing is said about Avalon-era Roxy, so I had no idea that was one of the reasons for the acclaim it's getting.

Would love to hear DJP's argument for the three not-terrible LDR, because it's all of a piece. I figured people would either like all of it (ie me) or none of it.

A cogent requirement would require me to listen to it again, which I respectfully decline to do, but most of my objections are due to the way she uses her voice and the wildly inconsistent results it gives. When she lifts her soft palette and spins the tone in her mid- to upper register, she actually sounds great and it's shocking to hear, particularly when compared the pressed, flat adenoidal honking she does most of the time.

I participated in this: http://www.spin.com/articles/40-best-country-songs-2014/

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, December 11, 2014 8:39 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i checked out the top ten in this list. i guess i just do not get modern country. at all. i can tear up when hearing classic country, just a pull of the pedal steel on a buck owens record gives me goosebumps, i count a lot of older country among my favorite music ever, what am i missing here? it all just sounds like complete garbage to me. i don't want to sound dismissive even though saying it's all "complete garbage" is basically dismissive, but i am also somewhat genuinely curious as to what people here dig about it.

rock music shit the bed and this is all that's left

Modern country = generic 80s non-metal rock

Imagine it all as an ongoing love letter to John Fogerty and The Outfield

Modern country = rock

Modern rock = simpering whiteboy crybaby garbage from imagine dragons down to war on drugs

which is why I listen to Savages

u are both OTM and this modern indie crap is such an embarrassment to all concerned, I would honestly rather listen to some arena-rock "country" on steroids than another whiny white dude with a guitar

modern country doesnt have any whiny white dudes?

Modern country is just pop/rock music that plays it safer and simpler than anything else.

shouty white dudes

Modern country is just pop/rock music that plays it safer and simpler than anything else.

― Evan,

not true lyrically, like, at all

yup

xp Thanks DJP. I dig the adenoidal honking but I get the distinction. I love what she does on Shades of Cool.

I don't hear the stories told by Miranda Lambert, Angaleena Presley, Kira Isabella in other genres. And War on Drugs isn't writing about getting drunk on planes.

Modern country is just pop/rock music that plays it safer and simpler than anything else.

― Evan, Thursday, December 11, 2014 5:54 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jesus christ the ignorance