Feist Unites The Gentlemen Of The New York Times

jharv | December 24, 2007 9:30 am
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The only real consistency across these three lists of the year’s Top 10 albums, as compiled by the Times‘ pop critics, is the appearance of Leslie Feist: She lands at No. 2 on Jon Pareles’ list, places No. 6 on Ben Rattliff Ratliff’s rundown, and takes the top spot for Kelefa Sanneh. (Look, Idolator just refuses to believe we’re the crazy ones; that album is a nap-and-a-half.) Looking past the fact that the Times can’t even get a dude’s name right these days, we’ll momentarily drop the grousing, brought on by year-end exhaustion, in interests of holiday cheer and note that these are interesting, diverse lists (look, jazz and music made by people outside of the Anglophone world!) with the bonus of nary a Neon Bible in sight.

THE GOOD: Queens Of The Stone Age finally make a year-end Top 10 that doesn’t have the word “hotties” in it. And perhaps a well-placed Times endorsement will finally break that Tracey Thorn solo album out of sales purgatory. THE BAD: Blah blah Feist blah blah shrug. No real beef here. It’s the Christmas miracle. THE WHAAAA? “In a year with shockingly few big albums…” Sales-wise, perhaps true. (Perception-wise among the mass public, perhaps also true, since pop perception is always tied to sales to some extent.) But allowing for us having to redefine the world “big” in a niched-to-death music industry, didn’t most of the high-placers on 2007’s year-end lists (Radiohead! Arcade Fire! M.I.A.! Bruce!) prove we had the usual crop of traditionally crit-friendly, statement-making, and/or zeitgeist-exploiting/exploring “Big Albums”?

JON PARELES Top Albums 1. RADIOHEAD: ‘IN RAINBOWS’ 2. FEIST: ‘THE REMINDER’ 3. AMY WINEHOUSE: ‘BACK TO BLACK’ 4. IRON AND WINE: ‘THE SHEPHERD’S DOG’ 5. CALLE 13: ‘RESIDENTE O VISITANTE’ 6. ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS: ‘RAISING SAND’ 7. LUPE FIASCO: ‘THE COOL’ 8. BATTLES: ‘MIRRORED’ 9. PANDA BEAR: ‘PERSON PITCH’ 10. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: ‘ERA VULGARIS’

Top Songs M.I.A. “Paper Planes” SHAKIRA “Hay Amores” JONI MITCHELL “Hana” KANYE WEST “Stronger” NEIL YOUNG “No Hidden Path”

BEN RATLIFF Top Albums 1. JOSHUA REDMAN: ‘BACK EAST’ 2. GILBERTO GIL: ‘GIL LUMINOSO’ 3. ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS: ‘RAISING SAND’ 4. BILL MCHENRY: ‘ROSES’ 5. NO AGE: ‘WEIRDO RIPPERS’ 6. FEIST: ‘THE REMINDER’ 7. SAM YAHEL TRIO: ‘TRUTH AND BEAUTY’ 8. KARTET: ‘THE BAY WINDOW’ 9. ALICIA KEYS: ‘AS I AM’ 10. NINA NASTASIA AND JIM WHITE: ‘YOU FOLLOW ME’

Top Songs RIHANNA “Umbrella” VON SüDENFED “The Rhinohead” SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA “Sácala Bailar” CAFé TACUBA “Volver a Comenzar” JESU “Conqueror”

KELEFA SANNEH Top Albums 1. FEIST: ‘THE REMINDER’ 2. TURF TALK: ‘WEST COAST VACCINE: THE CURE’ 3. PANDA BEAR: ‘PERSON PITCH’ 4. JOE NICHOLS: ‘REAL THINGS’ 5. UGK: ‘UNDERGROUND KINGZ’ 6. TRACEY THORN: ‘OUT OF THE WOODS’ 7. JENS LEKMAN: ‘NIGHT FALLS OVER KORTEDALA’ 8. PROJECT PAT: ‘WALKIN’ BANK ROLL’ 9. MARNIE STERN: ‘IN ADVANCE OF THE BROKEN ARM’ 10. THE-DREAM: ‘LOVE/HATE’

Top Songs RIHANNA “Umbrella” R. KELLY FEATURING T.I. AND T-PAIN “I’m a Flirt (Remix)” MARTINA MCBRIDE “Anyway” SOULJA BOY TELLEM “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” LINDA SUNDBLAD “Lose You”

EDIT: Dudes, I totally misspelled Ben Ratliff’s name in a post where I was making fun of the Times for getting my name wrong. God (or Santa) just pantsed me on the Internet. As usual, I blame the nog.

Of Radiohead and ‘Rehab,’ ‘1234’ and Calle 13 [NYT] //www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/arts/music/23ratliff.html?ref=music [NYT] Few Big Albums, but Small Ones Sounded Just Fine [NYT]