As has been mentioned in several recent year-end wrapup posts, the merits of putting together arbitrary listings of the year’s “best” musical phenomena are somewhat negligible beyond their ability to create some controversy among music nerd types. For me, the ideal when I’m filling out one of the ballots proffered to me is that someone out there might check out one of the albums listed that the world at large hasn’t shared my particular enthusiasm for up to that point (The Myriad’s You Can’t Trust A Ladder, now in stores!). What I’m wondering is this: Has reading any of these lists actually inspired you to make a music purchase this year?
Last year, Stephen King could only pick seven albums that he liked from the year’s offerings, but 2008 has apparently been kinder to King’s ears: Not only was he moved to pick a full top 10, he placed two albums—Buckcherry’s Black Butterfly and the Pretenders’ Break Up The Concrete—at No. 1. Whoa, don’t get too crazy now!
THE GOOD: Hey, I liked that Al Green album too.
THE BAD: The gallisticle (my new term for those pageview-inflating lists that are presented as galleries: feel free to pass it along!) is peppered with “dancing about architecture” punnery and “aw, gosh, EW, you don’t have to give me space in your mag” bloviation like the following: “Of all the things I write about for EW, pop music’s the hardest, because a columnist doesn’t get paid for saying, ‘I dunno, I just like it.’ But can I really explain why I love ‘I Kissed a Girl’ by Katy Perry and would be delighted never to hear Taylor Swift’s ‘You’re Not Sorry’ again? No. All I can say is that I find ‘the taste of her cherry ChapStick’ in ‘Girl’ entrancingly sexy, while everything about ‘You’re Not Sorry’… makes me sorry.” That’s the sort of wordplay that gets Uncle Stevie the big bucks! Suck it, layoff victims!
THE WHAAA? “This is as dense and allusive as James Joyce’s Ulysses, only you can dance to it.” Guess what copyright-busting PC user he said that about? Somewhere, some dude who gets paid to write about rock full-time (well, at least most of the time in this economy) is sobbing for not having thought of the Joyce allusion first.
Uncut came along as a more postmodern younger brother to Mojo‘s starry-eyed ’60s fetishism, so it makes sense that its album of the year honors go not to Fleet Foxes, which places second, but an album whose sonic coordinates date a little later: Portishead’s Third. Of course, the mag’s already awarded a “best album” prize (decided by a panel of mag folk and biz insiders) to Seattle’s scruff-folk darlings. But since 2002 or so, Uncut has flown the Americana flag even harder than its competing Britmags, so this victory is at least a little surprising, even if the list proper isn’t: The Top 5 is as concentrated an ur-template for lists to come as any.
THE GOOD: Portishead–good choice. And hey, I like the Vampire Weekend and the DBT and the Hold Steady, sometimes a lot.
THE BAD: It’s odd. Like most people I’ve been reading on this topic, I’ve felt 2008 to be pretty lackluster overall–until I go back and consolidate the stuff I’ve enjoyed, which is a pretty large amount. But if I wanted to attach a grand overarching narrative to the year, I’d feel pretty bad if it was the one suggested by this Uncut list. So much of it is stuff I’m basically indifferent to: TVOTR, Nick Cave, Goldfrapp, Weller, Hot Chip, MMJ, even that Malkmus record I never listen to. I’m not mad at these acts, but there’s not a tremendous amount of impulsive pleasure to be had from this list. It’s very boys-and-their-statements. I have a lot of room for that, lord knows, but it’s also harder to hear it as something new, and while I realize that as a nostalgia-driven mag Uncut doesn’t need to be about anything new, I wish their selections had a little more give to them. As it is, they feel in aggregate like polished woodcuts rather than living, breathing things.
THE WHAAAA?: Does Paul Weller (No. 10) have incriminating photos of most of the British rock press? Just wondering. And isn’t it kind of universal that Goldfrapp’s album (No. 17) was a giant disappointment? Oh wait, I forgot, this is the one where she started dressing all freak-folk, isn’t it? Grrrreat.
In order to attempt to cover every angle of the year-end list industry, today’s spotlight lands on Christian Music Today, the online music outlet of the print mag Christianity Today, which has offered up a top-12 list of what the edit staff sees as the year’s best Christian albums for a few years. (Note that the site makes a distinction between these albums and the best “worship” albums, which are collected on a separate list that includes discs by Chris Tomlin, Lincoln Brewster, and Charlie Hall.)
THE GOOD: Switchfoot singer Jon Foreman collection of four EPs covering the seasons was probably the most interesting Christian music project, and he rightfully deserves his No. 2 slot on the list. It’s nice to see Kirk Franklin on the list (No. 7), although the copy’s contention that this album is his first in years worth recognizing is a bit puzzling (hello, Hero?), as is the disc’s status as the only selection from the gospel side of things. Personal favorite the Myriad also got a mention, although 11th seems far too low to this admittedly biased observer. Anberlin’s New Surrender (No. 5) would have probably been my choice for No. 1 based on the site’s criteria, which included some sort of “Is it Christian enough?” test that Anberlin’s previous material didn’t apparently clear. Oddly, the band’s newly holy disc is its first for a secular label.
THE BAD:This category could probably just be replaced with an extra large “WHAAA?” section in this list’s case. While there’s nothing incredibly suspect, there are a few rather dodgy choices, beginning with the list-topping Brooke Fraser. While whoever wrote up the copy spends a fair amount of time justifying Albertine‘s eligibility for this year’s list (the disc was a 2006 release in Fraser’s home of Australia), no one seemed to notice that it just isn’t very good, milking a sound more reminiscent of the Lilith Fair era than anything groundbreaking or particularly modern.
THE WHAAA?: Like Pitchfork, there’s some disconnect between the site’s reviews and the year-end list, with several 4 1/2 star reviewed discs not making the cut. There was room for the hot mess of scattered influences that’s the NewWorldSon disc (not good at all), the somewhat dull punk pop of Children 18:3, and the dated sounds of DecembeRadio, but not for previously recommended discs by Sandra McCracken, Emery, The Classic Crime, or even the five-star Joel Willoughby? Maybe those discs weren’t Christian enough.
It’s still a little strange to see top 10 lists now, but if it’s not too early for the onslaught of Christmas music to invade every public space I seem to go to, I suppose it’s OK to start trying to wrap 2008 in a cute bow. Which brings us to what’s apparently British music mag list day, with the once-entertaining Q and the real-rock bible Mojo battling it out to see, once and for all, which publication has better taste in American music.
THE GOOD: Both lists feature titles I assumed would have been on more lists already (Coldplay, Hercules & Love Affair, Drive-By Truckers, Portishead), so it’s nice to be validated a bit. Personally, I was happy to seerecent Pitchfork discovery The Gaslight Anthem on the Q list (No. 20), although the violent involuntary headshaking that ensued upon seeing Razorlight a spot below erased that brief moment of joy. Also, the Mojo list has a good number of British acts I’ve never heard of that I can proceed to champion for a few weeks to my unsuspecting friends on the basis of their American obscurity alone.
THE BAD: I suppose this is going to be a trend, but seeing the Fleet Foxes disc ranked near the top on both lists (Q, No. 2; Mojo, No. 1) makes me think that at some point in the near future I’m going to refer to 2008 as “The Year of the Bland.” I don’t mind the Fleet Foxes as much as some around here, but it’s hard for me to swallow the idea that this is the shining example of what’s great, exciting, and/or wonderful about music in 2008. When Rough Trade (the store) called the band “Seattle’s answer to CSNY,” they hit on an appropriate and damning description. (Even if the store’s list had Fleet Foxes at No. 2 as well.) I’m not someone who expects every bit of music I listen to be challenging aesthetically, but at very least, I expect it to be sorta moving. (See also Bon Iver: Mojo, No. 4; Q, No. 34.)
THE WHAAAA?:I say this as someone who actually enjoyed both of their previous releases to differing degrees, but having Keane’s Perfect Symmetry place as high as No. 12 seems like Q is trying to ham-fistedly apologize to British musicians for the deluge of American acts surrounding them. Speaking of Q and American musicians: John Mellencamp (No. 41)? Huh.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the magazine in question’s penchant for featuring him in its pages, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III topped Blender‘s year-end list of albums, which has swelled from 25 contenders to 33 for reasons that probably don’t involve the vinyl revival (if they did, then where’s that extra 1/3?). Full list after the jump, but here are a few thumbnail reactions:
THE GOOD: It’s nice to know that someone remembered the early-’08 reissue of Robyn’s album (No. 6).
THE BAD: More evidence that indie rock has become the “center” for the music-writing set comes from the 11-19 slots on the list, which (save Al Green) could have been cribbed in part from a the elbo.ws chart. (And yes, I include Katy Perry in that list. Haven’t you heard her MGMT cover?) Sure, Blender‘s initial mission of finding some sort of consensus in popular music, and covering every player within said group obsessively, is sorta quaint in the infinite-playlist era, but… I guess I just was hoping for something a little more curveballish than “no, really, My Morning Jacket is great,” is all.
THE WHAAA? I would think that the atonal, grueling presence of “Moving Mountains” would disqualify Usher’s Here I Stand from any year-end lists that weren’t focused on disappointing sales figures from superstar artists. But I’m wrong: It’s No. 26 here, right ahead of the similarly soft-selling E=MC2.
Paste‘s 2008 best-of isn’t unlike the magazine itself: largely predictable, but with a few surprises seemingly thrown in to confuse or distract. The list hews rather closely to their adult alternative aesthetic, but as likely obligated by law, they threw in Lil Wayne (No. 29). He’s not quite as good as MGMT, in case you were wondering.
THE GOOD: It cheered my heart to see that Ida Maria’s Fortress Round My Heart placed highly (No. 13); the odd, but charming acknowledgment of Torche (No. 34) elicited a similar reaction. For the Christian rock enthusiast portion of my heart, seeing Sandra McCracken buried near the bottom of the list was nice, although almost a wink and a nod to those who wonder if Paste is a undercover Christian rock mag. They may recommend Lil Wayne, but don’t worry, true believers. They still have room for Jesus rock.
THE BAD: Im sure any Idolator reader could pick out a record they don’t particularly care for and go all critically nutzoid, but Girl Talk at No. 7 seems like an odd slap in the face to the parade of “real musicians” who fall afterwards. I like Girl Talk; I downloaded the disc, and it stayed in my car stereo for a few months. But the question ends up being whether these best of lists are really running down the “best” of the year, and that the idea of lasting value and meaning is taken into consideration, or whether a disc’s inclusion just means that it was awesome to hear at parties.
THE WHAAA? Although I was surprised not to see Al Green on the list, and to note that Santogold’s Diplo mixtape outranked her actual album, nothing could top my shock to see She & Him at No. 1. The magazine defends the selection: “Maybe it’s just a sweet little folk record—a tiny, flawless diamond. Or maybe it’s a pristine distillation of harmony and craft; 50 years of songwriting experience served up on a spinning silver platter. Either way, it’s our album of the year.” To my ears, neither assertion is true. Volume One is a cute novelty record that has more preciousness than innovation, skill, or any other sort of metric people tend to judge great albums by. Last year’s number one was the National’s Boxer… this year’s pick is a long slide down in quality.
This year’s first best-of list comes to us from Amazon, which I guess wanted to get a jump on holiday shopping by deeply discounting the albums it found better than the rest way before Black Friday rolled around. Top 50 after the jump, but first, here are a few impressions:
THE GOOD: A top 10 with enough personal favorites (Santogold, No. 2; Al Green’s Lay It Down, No. 4; Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah, No. 7; Estelle’s Shine, No. 8) to make me forgive the obligatory Fleet Foxes inclusion (at No. 3, for real).
THE BAD: Amazon is an e-commerce site, though, and once the list gets into its teens, a few decisions seem to have been arrived at by factoring in both sales and critical appeal. Metallica’s Death Magnetic at No. 19, for example: Surely there were better albums put out by metal bands who were going for a serious image makeover after a string of semi-disastrous albums and a movie that let them get a little to emo? (OK, maybe not.)
THE WHAAA? Yeah, I kind of can’t get over that the first “best of ’08” list that I’ve come across so far has Kings Of Leon’s Only By The Night as No. 1. But maybe you’ve found other rundowns out there? Feel free to send them our way.
Have you recently found yourself pining for year-end lists, those neat little summaries of the year’s best music that provide fodder for argument and giggling as the calendar counts down to Dec. 31? Well, then, you’ll want to plant a big, wet one on The Grand Rapids Press‘ Troy Reimink, whose best albums of 2008 (so far) list , topped by Hot Chip’s Made In The Dark, went live on his paper’s Web site at 7:09 p.m. yesterday. Arguments ahoy! And if you’re like me, they’ll be tinged with at least a bit of despondency over whether bands featured on blogs really did produce the only good music of this year, or if we’re really at a point in pop music where everything’s just too fragmented to have any semblance of “coherency” or “a center.” Full list after the jump, but here are some preliminary findings.
THE GOOD: Nick Cave’s Dig Lazarus Dig is at No. 3; if you really wanna be nitpicky about things the album’s release date in the States actually falls in the second quarter (it comes out April 8), but keep in mind that the awesomeness of Nick Cave doesn’t really kowtow to such silly things as “the space-time continuum.”
THE BAD: The Raconteurs’ Consolers Of The Lonely had been available to the public for not even a week when the MLive.com web technicians hit publish, yet the power of Jack White resulted in it already ascending to No. 12 on Reimink’s list! Imagine if it had been available two weeks before his deadline?
THE WHAAA? Troy, what if some record that’s even better than the Hot Chip album leaks before midnight on Monday? What do you do then? Do you rework the list? Do you demand that it be taken down?
Jess thought last week that we were done with the 2007 wrapping-up, but hey, it’s not February yet, which means there’s still time for more 2007-related head-scratching! The music-blog aggregator The Hype Machine just dropped the 2007 Music Blog Zeitgeist, which compiled 648 of bloggers’ top-albums lists for a 1252-album list of the Internet’s favorite full-lengths of the year. And even with all those voters, and all the albums out there, it was still topped by In Rainbows! Funny, that. Also compiled: the 50 most blogged-about songs, which are broken down month-by-month, and the most-discussed artists.
THE GOOD: By now, you can probably recite which albums landed in the top 10 without even taking a peek at the list beforehand.
THE BAD: By now, you can probably recite which albums landed in the top 10 without even taking a peek at the list beforehand.
THE WHAAAA? The Klaxons were the 10th-most-blogged-about band, but Myths Of The Near Future limped in at No. 46, just behind Stars’ In Our Bedroom After The War and right in front of Rilo Kiley’s How You Like My Micromini Now?
