Year-End Critics' Polls '08

That Classic Rock list is kind of beautiful. They know what they like, and do not sheepishly shoehorn in token albums from other genres to feign diversity.

^very very otm, even if i disagree with what's good and what's bad

Opeth is the only real head scratcher, in terms of consistency.

They know what they like, and do not sheepishly shoehorn in token albums from other genres to feign diversity.

That's true. You can't really win either way. Too honest and a lot of mags would appear to be typical corny indie but, at the same time, it's very easy to know - especially at this point - when a magazine or person is trying to pretend they also spent a separate but equal amount of time listening to rap, country, meta, etc.

What's funny is that atypical genres will usually make someone's list eventually, but it's more likely authentic when you're years removed when it all came out and the person's had time to discover and let time filter out the pretenders.

NME Albums

1 MGMT Oracular Spectacular
2 TV on the Radio Dear Science
3 Glasvegas Glasvegas
4 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
5 Foals Antidotes
6 Metronomy Nights Out
7 Santogold Santogold
8 Mystery Jets Twenty One
9 Kings of Leon Only by the Night
10 Friendly Fires Friendly Fires
11 Neon Neon Stainless Style
12 Crystal Castles Crystal Castles
13 Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
14 Marling, Laura Alas, I Cannot Swim
15 Last Shadow Puppets The Age of Understatement
16 Ladyhawke Ladyhawke
17 Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid
18 Late Of The Pier Fantasy Black Channel
19 Fucked Up The Chemistry of Common Life
20 Spiritualized Songs in A and E
21 Lightspeed Champion Falling Off The Lavender Bridge
22 Oasis Dig Out Your Soul
23 Johansson, Scarlett Anywhere I Lay My Head
24 Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
25 Portishead Third
26 Verve, The Forth
27 Hercules and Love Affair Hercules and Love Affair
28 British Sea Power Do You Like Rock Music?
29 Cave & the Bad Seeds, Nick Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
30 Hot Chip Made in the Dark
31 Coldplay Viva La Vida
32 Mogwai The Hawk Is howling
33 Deerhunter Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
34 Los Campesinos! We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
35 Mccombs, Cass Dropping The Writ
36 Frightened Rabbit The Midnight Organ Fight
37 Primal Scream Beautiful Future
38 Beck Modern Guilt
39 Chairlift Does You Inspire You
40 Kills, The Midnight Boom
41 These New Puritans Beat Pyramis
42 Alpinisms School of Seven Bells
43 Black Kids Partie Traumatic
44 Li, Lykke Youth Novels
45 Black Keys, The Attack & Release
46 Blood Red Shoes Box Of Secrets
47 Gaslight Anthem, The The '59 Sound
48 Maria, Ida Fortress Round My Heart
49 Bloc Party Intimacy
50 Heartbreak Lies

Tracks on the way

In the 34 years that they've been doing it this is arguably the worst NME EoY list I've ever seen.

21 Lightspeed Champion Falling Off The Lavender Bridge

haha i remember this guy

btw u might be right marcello

Hope you like MGMT guys.

1 MGMT Kids
2 Glasvegas Geraldine
3 Mystery Jets Two Doors Down
4 MGMT Time To Pretend
5 MGMT Electric Feel
6 Metronomy Heartbreaker
7 Friendly Fires Paris Is Burning
8 MIA Paper Planes
9 Kings of Leon Sex On Fire
10 Vampire Weekend A-Punk
11 The Verve Love Is Noise
12 Hot Chip Ready For The Floor
13 Elbow One Day Like This
14 Florence and The Machine Kiss With A Fist
15 Ladyhawke Paris Is Burning
16 Oasis The Shock of The Lightning
17 Spiritualized Soul on Fire
18 Hercules and Love Affair Blind
19 Oasis I'm Out of Time
20 Chairlift Bruises
21 TV on the Radio Golden Age
22 The Last Shadow Puppets Standing Next To Me
23 Fucked Up Year of The Pig
24 Santagold LES Artistes
25 Mystery Jets Young Love
26 Amazing Baby Head Dress
27 The Last Shadow Puppets The Age of The Understatement
28 Elbow Grounds For Divorce
29 DJ Mujava Township Funk
30 Florence and The Machine Dog Days Are Over
31 Laura Marling Ghosts
32 Black Kids I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
33 Vampire Weekend Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
34 Late Of The Pier Space An The Woods
35 Ladyhawke Back of The Van
36 Little Boots Stuck on Repeat
37 Wiley Wearing My Rolex
38 Sam Sparro Black & Gold
39 Vampire Weekend Oxford Comma
40 Heartbreak We're Back
41 Dizzee Rascal Dance Wiv Me
42 Late Of The Pier Focker
43 Glasvegas It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes ME Cry
44 Crystal Castles Courtship Dating
45 Crystal Castles Crimewave
46 Mogwai Batcat
47 Portishead Machine Gun
48 Cave & the Bad Seeds, Nick Dig!! Lazarus, Dig!!!
49 Glasvegas Flowers and Football Tops
50 Maria, Ida Oh My God

As per usual any good choices spoilt by the ridiculous

jesus fucking christ

50 Maria, Ida Oh My God

^^ida maria otm

7 Friendly Fires Paris Is Burning

no such song exists

i do dig that florence & the machine track, had no idea it was some sort of popular thing

The whiter than white NME EoY lists with token Rolex and Dizzee/Calvin input.

It is, seriously, a disgrace.

Should be Paris, blame Excel for thinking ahead.

why is this surprising? i can't remember nme being ever being legit, but they probably were there in the 80s for a bit

ooooh rhyming!

fresh

That NME list is hilarious. No one can claim they aren't on-brand I suppose.

26 Amazing Baby Head Dress

Which bit of this is the band name and which bit is the song title?

29 DJ Mujava Township Funk

Any idea what this is? I am assuming 'fake baile funk remix of Nirvana'.

Not quite - DJ Mujava's MySpace page is here. And the video for "Township Funk" can be found here.

Amazing Baby is the group, "Head Dress" is the song and they are here.

matt u have almost certainly heard 'township funk' - it has been EVERYWHERE this year

it's ok, much better when u hear it in clubs, at home it's a bit duhn duhn duhn though

That Classic Rock list is kind of beautiful. They know what they like, and do not sheepishly shoehorn in token albums from other genres to feign diversity.

agree w/this!! worst thing about so many indie lists is the tiny nod they give to other genres, as if they're somehow claiming to represent the entirety of popular music just cuz they have one hip-hop writer (to 20 indie writers obv)

actually i'm listening to 'township funk' again and i was wrong, it is a bit of a monster at home as well. the ashley beedle mix is even better!

agree w/this!! worst thing about so many indie lists is the tiny nod they give to other genres, as if they're somehow claiming to represent the entirety of popular music just cuz they have one hip-hop writer (to 20 indie writers obv)

yes. it's disgusting. how dare they like things from outside their assigned genre?

Wilful misunderstanding of a point, classic internet flourish there

I understand the point, but dispute its validity.

The Classic Rock list is by and large an excellent specialist genre list obviously compiled by experts who know their stuff and love it.

But still, Dig Lazarus Dig! WHY???

I knew MGMT was gonna sweep the middlebrow contingent.

I do like them but.

Best Album On NME' s 2008 Albums Of The Year List?

are the NME lists staff-picked or reader-votes? really can't tell anymore

Staff

WIRE top ten:

10. Caretaker - Persstant Repetition
9. The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
8. William S Burroughs - Real English Tea
7. Evangelista - Hello Voyager
6. Advisory Circle - Other Channels
5. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
4. John Butcher - Resonant Spaces
3. The Hospitals - Hairdryer Peace
2. Philip Jeck - Sand
1. The Bug - London Zoo

Have the fifty in front of me - Luomo at 18, Tricky(!) at 26 and Portishead at 38 amongst other things.

post it!

Do a poll!

Yeah right, I'm not typing all that lot in.

You did 10.

Do 40 more. I'll paypal you a dollar.

take a picture i'll last longer

Err, yuck.

suggestion, list them in blocks of ten

7. Evangelista - Hello Voyager

^^ nice to finally see this in a mag's top ten

I typed the wire lists out before. But it wasnt in WH Smiths in Hamilton today.

Okay, under duress:

WIRE cont.

20. Stephan Mathieu - Radioland
19. Bill Dixon - 17 Musicians...
18. Luomo - Convivial
17. Dusk + Blackdown - Margins Music
16. Autechre - Quaristice
15. Kasai Allstars - In the 7th Moon
14. Eric Chenaux - Sloppy Ground
13. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig thingy
12. Ryoji Ikeda - Test Pattern
11. Kevin Drumm - Imperial Distortion

That's 20 cents pal.

how do we know you're not making this up?

Dig Thingy = much better title

xpost Yeah, like "Kasai Allstars" is even a thing.

WIRE pt III

30. Terry Riley - The Last Camel in Paris
29. Earth - The Bees Made Honey...
28. Scorces - I Turn Into You
27. Arther Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me
26. Tricky - Knowle West Boy
25. Robert Ashley - Concrete
24. Jandek - Glasgow Sunday 2005
23. Group Inerane - Guitars From Agadez
22. Hercules & Love Affair - s/t
21. Lukas Ligeti - Afrikan Machinery

23. Group Inerane - Guitars From Agadez

I wanna hear this!

28. Scorces - I Turn Into You

David Keenan's wife band LOL