Posts Tagged: Lists

Feature — 37 Comments
2
Dec 08

The Thinking Man’s Take On: Year-End Lists

The Thinking Mans Take On: Year End Lists feature

OMG. Can you believe that [X Magazine] didn’t include [underrated album Y] on their 11/12ths-of-the-Year-End List of the best 142 albums?

Does In Rainbows count for Best of 2008 lists? What about Oracular Spectacular? Can they be on Best of 2007 AND Best of 2008 lists? Who makes the rules for these year-end spectaculars? Is it the Web Sherriff?

Is making a Best-Of-2008 list in November like selling 2009 car models in the spring of ’08?

How can Paste Magazine’s top two albums – the best two records produced in the last year – not even merit mention in Blender’s top thirty-three? (Sidenote: the explanation for this is that Paste is crazy)

Is the Pitchfork 500 a NASCAR race?

All these questions have been bouncing around in my head over the past month, and I think it’s time to let them go free. After picking on The Hype Machine last week, I think it’s only right to look at another trend that fits the mold of Things (I Love) That Are Wrong With Music.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE year-end lists. Love them. In fact, I love lists in general – grocery lists, places I want to travel lists, Franz Liszt – all of them. There’s something very satisfying about looking back at what just happened and saying, “Hey! That was great!”. But for me, Year-End Best-Of Music Lists are like those little candy corn pumpkin things. I’m addicted to them, even though something inside tells me they’re wrong.

And they are wrong. Or rather, they’re done wrong. Everyone and their mother does Year-End Music Lists wrong. Here is how, in my fantasy universe, music lists would work:

The Thinking Man’s Commandments for Making Best-Of Music Lists: Continue reading →

Feature — 12 Comments
30
Nov 08

Paste Magazine’s Top 50 Albums 2008: Pros, Cons and OMGWTFS?!

Paste Magazines Top 50 Albums 2008: Pros, Cons and OMGWTFS?! feature       

 

End of year lists are pretty important to me. I’m not going to get all sentimental, emotional, and break down in tears (OK, maybe just a little sentimental) or even waffle on for too long about myself, but I do think that this is relevant concerning just why end of year lists are so important in an increasingly disposable music industry that has started to merely linger over new releases, before moving on and looking for the next big thing. I spent the entire of 2007 a blissfully ignorant 15 year old, reading NME and talking about how groundbreaking the Pigeon Detectives were with my “cooler” friends. In the Christmas break, I stumbled across hypem.com and discovered hundreds of people talking about what had been the best album of 2007. I expected names like Radiohead, Arcade Fire and Arctic Monkeys. What surprised me were bands like The National, Panda Bear, Band of Horses and Justice. Why hadn’t NME been talking about these people? And so I discovered a whole year’s worth of great music in a couple of weeks, and cancelled my NME subscription.
This, I have come to feel, is the purpose of end of year lists. They may serve as a grand effigy of self applauding wankery to the more pretentious blogger, but end of year lists are the best way to introduce new music to people. Sure, you can spend 364 days of the year telling everyone why Cut Copy are the bottom line of music in 2008, but until you put your money where your mouth is (so to speak) and place them above everybody else in your end of year list, permanently chronicling your opinion for all of posterity to judge and deride, people will find it regrettably easy to overlook them.
And so it was with the unmistakable twinge of déja vu that I opened up Paste Magazine’s “Signs of Life 2008:Best Music“. The process had started again, a year had passed, and somewhere in the world, a young me or you logged on to Paste Magazine’s website and stopped listening to Scouting for Girls… But… just how impressive is Paste Magazine’s list? Continue reading →
Best of 2008 / MP3 / Music — 26 Comments
26
Nov 08

Blender’s Top 33 Albums of 2008: The Good, The Bad, and The OMGWTF

Blenders Top 33 Albums of 2008: The Good, The Bad, and The OMGWTF best of 2008

Blender Magazine recently released their top 33 albums of 2008.  Although it’s by no means close to what my top 33 albums would be, I gotta give them credit for coming up with a pretty eclectic mix.  I mean, they cover it all from Erykah Badu, to Katy Perry to Girl Talk.  It is the latter’s presence on the list that gives us some comfort knowing they didn’t just focus on albums released on major labels.  And the presence of artists like Bon Iver and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks confirms that they didn’t just focus on mainstream artists.  Even old folks like Randy Newman and Al Green made the cut!  But let’s take a deeper look at the magazine’s choices:    

GOOD: Girl Talk is #2! And really, who doesn’t enjoy that album? Even though I liked Feed the Animals way more than I did Carter 3, I gotta hand it to Lil Weezy for making such a major comeback and being #1 album of the year.  I still remember when he was a little twerp running around with the Cash Money Millionaires back in the ’90s.

Although Lykke Li is my Swedish pop star of choice, it was cool to see Robyn beat Katy Perry and Mariah Carey at #6.  I don’t want to hate, but Mariah needs to give up already.  Daydream was a great album, but that was a long time ago.        

BAD: This list just might be a little too eclectic.  The variety makes you wonder if Blender sat down and grouped 2008 releases into different genres and categories, and then tried to pick at least one from each.  I’m definitely puzzled at Fall Out Boy’s appearance on the top 10.  I mean, people still like them?  Not only that but they beat Bon Iver and My Morning Jacket.  And what is with the Roots actually making it as #24? Don’t get me wrong, I love them, but Rising Down was pretty disappointing and there are definitely better hip hop albums released this year (i.e. Atmosphere, Murs, Common Market).      

OMGWTF: Mettalica is back!? Just kidding. I’m not sure if they deserve to be the 4th best album of 2008, though. What’s really shocking is they didn’t completely suck! That and they beat Hot Chip’s Made in the Dark! Even more shocking is that country music actually made the list. Way to go Hayes Carll & Taylor Swift for filling the last two spots on the list.   I’m betting it’s Taylor’s good looks that got her on the list in the first place.   

How does Ponytail make it on here as #18, or even Usher as #26, but MGMT is nowhere to be found?! I mean, C’MON!! I thought everyone loved MGMT.  And Coldplay didn’t even make top 20. Instead they got #22 behind Erykah Badu, Wale and Katy Perry.

Blender’s Top 33 Albums of 2008 Continue reading →