i've heard of maybe ten of those fifty
― k3vin k., Monday, 1 December 2008 15:20 (fifteen years ago) link
That list is full of OK semi-experimental music that gets lost in the pile
― uәʇɹɐƃu!әʍ ˙ƃ ʎәu!Ⴁʍ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 1 December 2008 16:53 (fifteen years ago) link
from Vice London
Number 35: Bonkers novelty rap collective. Shows staff have sense of humour.Number 34: Reserved for Britpop 'survivors' who’ve made 'their best album in years'.Number 33: Wacky side-project of big-name band singer, which is a wacky electro-pop concept album about magic animals.Number 32: Something from Iceland.Number 31: The name that keeps turning up on every electro/house compilation CD released that year. eg. Simian Mobile Disco in 07.Number 30: Real authentic alt.country dude who made the album in a cave in the Appalachians/once dated Joanna Newsom.Number 29: Return of once-derided old-timer who used to symboise naffness, but has subverted expectations by making an album of honest, brooding ballads with a hip young producer.Number 28: This space is reserved for Bruce Springsteen if he makes an album in the year of the list. If not, The Gaslight Anthem or Hold Steady should sub-in.Number 27: Nick Cave.Number 26: Disappointing third album from previously much-touted act, so bad editorial embarrassment means its been crowbarred in here as a Pravda-style exercise in shrinking them slowly rather than dropping them like a hot brick as would be most appropriate.Number 25: The band that everyone was tipping as the year's biggest act in January.Number 24: You've never even heard of this one. You never will. Even as your read the blurb, you find your mind simultaneously erasing the entry.Number 23: Glitchy & worthy & difficult record you've listened to once. Squarepusher, basically.Number 21: British Sea Power.Number 20: Token world muso.Number 19: The band who've got a reputation for being 'influential', and have a geographically specific 'scene' organised around them that they put on semi-mythical 'parties' for at a semi-mythical 'venue'. eg: No Age & The Smell, Chairlift & Concert Hall Of Williamsburg.Number 18: Band who wrote album of songs inspired by the tragic accidental/drug death of their bass player last year. Somewhere, the blurb says 'courageous'.Number 17: Laura Marling.Number 16: Cheesy pop band masquerading as 'wonky-pop'/'nu-pop'/'underground pop', which only barely disguises the fact that they're Roxette with alt. dress sense.Number 16: Put in a 'stunning' performance on Jools Holland.Number 15: DJ who made “the year's party-starting mash-up compilation” that you've never actually heard at a party that wasn't put on by media-insiders. And never made any of those partygoers do more than pout extra aggressively. Number 14: Elbow.Number 13: Hyper-obscure album everyone was bamboozled into voting for cos Pitchfork gave it a 9.9, despite sounding like every other folk album ever.Number 12: Rapper facing child sex charges.Number 11: Dizzee/Bizzle (pop grime slot shared on a rotational basis)Number 10: Album described as a 'groundbreaking fusion of dance and rock'.Number 9: Tape of Bob Dylan coughing up some phlegm in June 1972, found in someone's attic, dusted off, reissued, and hagiographised in the Sunday papers as a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.Numbers 8 – 2: Records that were OK: no one was mad about them, but no one disliked them much either, so they swum through the middle course, whereas intense records that some people were truly passionate about but others really hated all ultimately failed to make the cut.Number 1: Coldplay (Q), Arctic Monkeys (NME), Sven Vath (Mixmag), Neil Young (Uncut), Neil Young (Mojo), Neil Young (Classic Rock), Neil Young (Home & Garden), people humming transcendentally over distorted tape loops of concrete being laid (The Wire).
― uәʇɹɐƃu!әʍ ˙ƃ ʎәu!Ⴁʍ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 1 December 2008 17:40 (fifteen years ago) link
that's not very funny
― dat dude delmar (and what), Monday, 1 December 2008 17:48 (fifteen years ago) link
It's (not very) funny cos it's true
― DavidM, Monday, 1 December 2008 17:50 (fifteen years ago) link
― jordan s (J0rdan S.), Monday, 1 December 2008 17:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Concert Hall Of Williamsburg
CHOW
― gabbneb, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I always kind of liked Yancey Strickler's taxonomy of top 10 lists:
01 The Consensus PickThe first choice sets the tone for the entire list. A critic can either go for the consensus top pick, which earn the trust of a reader, or could make a grand statement by choosing an unlikely number one. 95% of the time a critic will opt for the cultural product he likes that most other people like as well.
02 The Real Number OneI generally assume that the number two item on a Top Ten list is a writer's real number one, especially if it's something that's not especially familiar to the reader. It takes courage to put one's idiosyncratic tastes front and center; it's safer to tuck it in just a bit.
03 The One They Will No Longer Like Next YearIf any spot lends itself to listing something that a critic wants to like rather than actually likes, it's the third place. Maybe the critic likes the idea of the product more than the product itself. Maybe the critic thinks that the item gives him a certain amount of cultural capital to wield. In the movie world, this is known as The Foreign Film Slot.
04 The DisappointmentThis is something that early on seemed like a potential number one, but that has not stood up well to repeated viewings/readings/listenings. Always avoid number four.
05 The Sentimental FavoritePlaced any higher and this would stick out as either pedestrian or foolhardy. Put here in the middle, it can instead be merely a curiosity. Number five is a good personality slot — you can tell a lot about a critic by what goes here.
06 Wish They Liked It More Than They DoThis is a retread of number four, only there were lower expectations going into it. There are good moments, but more than likely the critic is the only one who hears them.
07 The Popular KidThe blockbuster/bestseller that the critic didn't completely dislike goes here, simply because it will give the reader a sense of comfort that will be needed through the final three.
08 The TokenSomewhere between number seven and number nine you'll get the token selection from a genre that a critic clearly has no business trafficking in. The token pick implies a much broader knowledge than actually exists. The token pick will almost always be laughed at by specialists in whatever genre, even if they too enjoy the product.
09 The AnonymousIt's here that the critic really shoves around his "heard it all" weight. Seemingly at random, a critic will pluck something from the abyss and declare it overlooked, then smugly sit back and admire his handiwork.
10 The Catch-AllUndoubtedly the preceding nine choices will omit some movement that the critic would be embarrassed to completely ignore, even if he did so during the previous year. To counteract that, the critic then arbitrarily chooses something that suggests that there could be 20 more items on the list that would be equally impressive and well-considered.
― jaymc, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:07 (fifteen years ago) link
from the land of dad-rock (it's ok, i'm a certified dad), and as a longtime eye-roller at fanboys making a case for whatever boring album paul westerberg releases in a given year, lemme just say that i think the album paul westerberg released this year (49:00) is actually his most fun thing since forever -- in a way that all the grandpaboy stuff i think was supposed to be but never really hit for me. yes i like the gimmick, but i also like listening to it.
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:18 (fifteen years ago) link
(and i don't expect to see it on any of these polls, so i probably should have posted that on the other year-end thread, but whatever. i'm easily confused.)
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:19 (fifteen years ago) link
i really wanted to hear that Westerberg album but by the time I got around to getting it off Amazon it'd already been taken down.
― dumb pseud (some dude), Monday, 1 December 2008 18:21 (fifteen years ago) link
Go listen to it on Rhapsody like i did
― uәʇɹɐƃu!әʍ ˙ƃ ʎәu!Ⴁʍ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 1 December 2008 18:25 (fifteen years ago) link
And shut it off after five songs like I did.
Then google pictures of Katy Perry until lunchtime like I did.
― uәʇɹɐƃu!әʍ ˙ƃ ʎәu!Ⴁʍ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 1 December 2008 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
well it's not great or anything. it just has a lot of nice tunes, and i like the shaggy wtf-ness of it all. i got several times my 49 cents' worth out of it.
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:28 (fifteen years ago) link
done and done, at least on the last part (xpost)
― dumb pseud (some dude), Monday, 1 December 2008 18:31 (fifteen years ago) link
you all find katy perry attractive?!
― lex pretend, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:31 (fifteen years ago) link
it's a guilty would blap, but a would blap nonetheless.
― dumb pseud (some dude), Monday, 1 December 2008 18:33 (fifteen years ago) link
she has goggly eyes and in every photo contorts her face into a try-hard pout like the most attention-seeking 8-year-old only child you've ever met.
― lex pretend, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:35 (fifteen years ago) link
i like the complete absence of Chinese Democracy on these lists.
― abanana, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:35 (fifteen years ago) link
katy perry is basically kendley from project runway.
― Gukbe, Monday, 1 December 2008 19:09 (fifteen years ago) link
also at the top of my guilty would blap list
― dumb pseud (some dude), Monday, 1 December 2008 19:16 (fifteen years ago) link
katy perry is the toyota to zooey deschanel's mercedes
― jordan s (J0rdan S.), Monday, 1 December 2008 20:19 (fifteen years ago) link
BUT KATY PERRY IS BI-CURIOUS SO YOU COULD PROBABLY GET HER IN A THREESOME RIGHT
nah, Zooey's less hot and her music's even worse.
― dumb pseud (some dude), Monday, 1 December 2008 20:22 (fifteen years ago) link
I was going to make a "poor woman's Zooey Deschanel" comment, actually.
― jaymc, Monday, 1 December 2008 20:23 (fifteen years ago) link
it's encouraging to see a mention of Andrew Coltrane here!
also, new Prurient on Cold Spring is very very good. Might surpass And, Still Wanting. Cocaine Death is extremely good too...so good..man..but it's a compilation really
― rizzx, Monday, 1 December 2008 20:33 (fifteen years ago) link
both very boinkable xp
― k3vin k., Monday, 1 December 2008 20:36 (fifteen years ago) link
not so much about polls, but back on the avant- digression, i'm surprised not to see lucky dragons anywhere.
― pshrbrn, Monday, 1 December 2008 21:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Thanks for posting these everyone. The next ones to usually come are:
Clash MagazineDrowned In SoundMuzzle Of BeesGorilla Vs. BearFact MagazineNME
― Fastnbulbous, Sunday, November 30, 2008 4:49 PM (2 days ago)
GvB's list is up. can't tell if he's going for "20 best albums" or "20 best debut records by up-and-coming indie artists BONUS POINTS IF YR LOCAL." predictably, it's terrible.
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 2 December 2008 05:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Any modern classical lists out there?
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 10:01 (fifteen years ago) link
― k3vin k., Monday, December 1, 2008 8:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
dont say this fyi
― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 11:09 (fifteen years ago) link
Keep it to the Katy Perry "blap or no blap" thread, guyz.
― Peter "One Dart" Manley (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 11:11 (fifteen years ago) link
i hope you're not suggesting we invite Kevin Keller to 77
― dumb pseud (some dude), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 13:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Like the guy who's sockpuppeting as him isn't already a 77 regular?
― Peter "One Dart" Manley (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:12 (fifteen years ago) link
will plucky The Verve triumph in the Rocktimists poll?
― GSOHSHIT (blueski), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:13 (fifteen years ago) link
http://bp3.blogger.com/_yRdvdP7_05I/R8Q5UyW-STI/AAAAAAAAAH4/J_Zl5DxLb2k/s400/Sock_Puppet_3_small.jpg
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Talking about whether or not we want to have sex with Katy Perry is frankly much more interesting than talking about where the Black Kids are going to place in the Top 50 of some minor style magazine that nobody reads.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:20 (fifteen years ago) link
i think ilxor is a better sock btw
― deej, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:36 (fifteen years ago) link
You talkin' to me?
― ilxor, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 04:50 (fifteen years ago) link
I mainly use the lists to find music I may have overlooked. The good ones don't start coming for another week or two, so until then:
Favorite Albums You Haven't Seen In The Critics' Polls 08
― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 05:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Fact Magazine - Top 20http://tinyurl.com/69ffhp
State Magazine - State’s 25 best albums of 2008http://www.state.ie/blog/states-25-best-albums-of-2008/Ireland's answer to Pitchfork magazine
― djmartian, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 23:21 (fifteen years ago) link
Last.fm lists their db top 10 listened to artists, albums and songs from 2008:
http://www.last.fm/bestof/2008
Their top 10 songs feature is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Should have added a rule not to repeat song from same artists.(Just so you don't waste your time there's 6 coldplay songs, 3 MGMT and Kate Perry)
― Moka, Thursday, 4 December 2008 06:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Seems like the Last.fm lists would favor albums and songs that were released early in the year, thus having had longer to rack up plays.
― ilxor, Thursday, 4 December 2008 07:00 (fifteen years ago) link
One unusual entry in Fact's list:
03. ZOMBY – WHERE WERE U IN 92? (WERK DISCS)
Anyone heard it?
― Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 4 December 2008 17:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Haven't heard it but I noticed the eMusic bloggers were talking about it yesterday too.
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Thursday, 4 December 2008 18:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Heard it. Needs less airhorn.
― Enrique (Raw Patrick), Thursday, 4 December 2008 19:10 (fifteen years ago) link
when do we usually do our polls around here?
― deviants w. deliriants (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 4 December 2008 19:16 (fifteen years ago) link
usually late at night, when there's noone else in the apartment.
― Dumb Assantino (some dude), Thursday, 4 December 2008 19:27 (fifteen years ago) link
It's nice to see Opeth placing so high on the metal lists, but I'm curious - do people really rate it higher than "Ghost Reveries" - because I don't remember that one doing as well on the year-end lists, even though to me, it's a much stronger album? Is it that the rest of the field is weaker this year, or is it maybe a case of atoning for overlooking a sleeper by overrating the follow-up?
― o. nate, Thursday, 4 December 2008 19:31 (fifteen years ago) link