Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

Objection, your honor!

(I was listening to the J. Cole an hour ago and thinking, man, why the fuck are my students so excited by the Sheena Easton of Kanye-influenced hip hop?)

irl lols at that description

tbf he's more aggressively mediocre/boring and overpraised than actively bad.

http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2014/12/15/magnets-top-25-albums-of-2014/

WINNER: Ex Hex!

i almost think it would too much honestly if the other guys were super animated anyway with the leader singer as he is, would be overkill imo

― you say tomato/i say imago (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, December 15, 2014 8:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. It stops the whole thing becoming a clownshow. Let the other guys just get on with making the music.

One thing that always puzzled me - if there are only three members, who plays drums?

p sure most of their drums are programmed, but maybe they have a touring drummer?

yup and touring drummer is a somewhat recent addition they used to just use a drum machine for shows

21 Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence

This kind of sticks out like a sore thumb on that MetalSucks list. I did not know that metal dudes were into Lana Del Rey.

people who dug happy hardcore, chiptunes, electroclash and stuff like Tatu back in the day

is this supposed to be one group of people?

Shamir comin with the "212" of 2014

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, December 15, 2014 11:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They don't actually sound similar at all, not sure what's the deal with everyone (i.e. you + a thousand or so youtube commenters) saying this, is there a subtext going on here we should be aware of?

Have always disliked Sophie but Hey QT is giving me full-on red mist.

― Re-Make/Re-Model, Tuesday, December 16, 2014 1:18 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Know we all care about music, but jesus, this better be hyperbole, surely there are better things to get angry about?

people who dug happy hardcore, chiptunes, electroclash and stuff like Tatu back in the day

is this supposed to be one group of people?

Why judge music on its own merits when you can make assumptions about an imagined target audience, eh?

I have enjoyed all these things in my time

xp Um, yeah, it's hyperbole. I don't actually get enraged by a pop song.

i can assure you my rage was real tho :)

Pc music is rubbish but no worse than anything else on the list

So you think all 100 songs on the list are equally bad? Wow.

It was a flippant and uncalled for remark - I haven't heard all 100 songs and ive only heard one pc music song

oh.

Resident Advisor top mixes and compilations of 2014:
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?2335

Xgau's list of albums of 2014 has been online for a couple of days:

https://medium.com/cuepoint/robert-christgau-expert-witness-790131a548da

xp This is a serious infraction. There is no room for flippant and uncalled-for remarks on ILX, sir.

music is so PC these days, you can't say anything anymore!

irl loooools

*rimshots*

wondering sound 75 best songs!
http://www.wonderingsound.com/gallery/best-songs-2014/wondering-sound-best-songs-2014

also grantland's top 10 singles and 40 albums, markedly less interesting for various reasons: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-best-a-k-a-my-favorite-music-of-2014/

Is that the first list to have Hesitant Alien on it?

i don't know for sure but i wouldn't be surprised.

R&B top 20
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/20-best-r-b-albums-of-2014-20141215

10. Echosmith, “Cool Kids”

steve hyden steady the worst

buncha great records in the wrong order on the rs r&b list

FKA Twigs is R&B?

I like Hyden's post-poptimism, lighthearted take on rock n roll, but other than that everytime I read him I'm left scratching my head and wondering wtf's in his mind.

I love his prose, not so much his taste, but if you're Grantland's chief music critic I'd rather have it that way around than the opposite.

what's good about him is he is able to not take the dopey rock he likes seriously, what's bad is that he takes the time to argue why it "matters" in a macro sense aside from him liking it.

FKA Twigs is R&B?

― example (crüt), Tuesday, December 16, 2014 12:37 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes.

don't get what people even see in his "prose"

really nice to see fatima and k michelle repped by RS!

not that fka twigs has no r&b dna in her, but she was totally right when she said that if she was white there'd be a lot less of that talk

what's good about him is he is able to not take the dopey rock he likes seriously, what's bad is that he takes the time to argue why it "matters" in a macro sense aside from him liking it.

IMHO not taking his subjects entirely seriously makes him lose steam mid-article in those long pieces he writes. It's like he lacks the drive for such long arguments. Everytime I read him I start with some degree of enthusiasm, then get bored sometime around the tenth paragraph.

not that fka twigs has no r&b dna in her, but she was totally right when she said that if she was white there'd be a lot less of that talk

― lex pretend, Tuesday, December 16, 2014 11:52 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the problem is that we dont consider white ppl who do that kind of music R&B, not the other way around

what, like björk?

banks is definitely considered r&b, more or less, and not just in that RS list (and is also most assuredly white). if twigs was white i'd still think the rhythmic core of her sound was more r&b/hip-hop than like, bjork.

BUT, i see why twigs would say that. she has also expressed frustration with the "alt r&b" label, i believe

fka twigs is extremely static rhythmically

i dont listen to bjork but like grimes or bat for lashes or w/e, it's all R&B

banks being considered r&b is also a bit confusing to me, just seems like trip-hop redux x synthy pop

grimes and bat for lashes are not r&b!

if twigs was white i'd still think the rhythmic core of her sound was more r&b/hip-hop than like, bjork.

― franch montana (slothroprhymes), Tuesday, December 16, 2014 5:59 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

rhythmically the closest comparison to lp1 is vespertine imo

the problem is that we dont consider white ppl who do that kind of music R&B, not the other way around

― deej loaf (D-40), Tuesday, December 16, 2014 12:55 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How did we ignore the great white R&B albums of 2014 like HOW TO DRESS WELL and ROBIN THICKE'S PAULA