Today sees the release of year-end lists from Time, New York magazine, and the Observer Music Monthly. Instead of our usual single-list appraisal, these three seem to offer an opportunity to try and locate some sort of consensus, since they represent (respectively) the mainstream, the middlebrow, and the muso. Compare and contrast:
THE CONSENSUS: Everybody loves Weezy! After weighting and combining the three publications’ rankings of any album mentioned more than once, the overall top 7 would run like so: Lil Wayne just edging out TV On The Radio, followed closely by Bon Iver, then Portishead, Vampire Weekend, Santogold, and Kanye. Also mentioned on more than one list, weirdly: Duffy’s Rockferry. But what made the lists different?
What we’re currently missing at this evening’s Brit Awards thanks to the almost-up-to-the-minute magic of the Guardian’s (snoozy) liveblog: “20.10: Despite actually showing up this year, and doing so in fancy dress, Take That just won Best Live Act over the Arctic Monkeys.” Ah, sweet justice. More »
Does anyone want to help me point out the reasons why this this statement–“Ageing performers whose records are ignored and whose concerts no longer sell out often grumble that the music they are recording today is just as good as it ever was. More »
The Guardian music blog readers’ poll: Squint hard enough and you’ll think that it’s a poll by real critics, what with In Rainbows topping the albums chart and “All My Friends” landing at No. 1 on the singles poll. (The singles list even has the token “Umbrella” mention! Way to go, everybody!) More »
The Guardian music blog readers’ poll: Squint hard enough and you’ll think that it’s a poll by real critics, what with In Rainbows topping the albums chart and “All My Friends” landing at No. 1 on the singles poll. (The singles list even has the token “Umbrella” mention! Way to go, everybody!) More »
LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver–which, based on my rough estimation of the number of times we’ve had to use the album cover illustration over the past few weeks, seems to be running away with this year’s top-albums lists, at least in the UK–topped the Guardian critics’ poll, with its now-familiar listmates Radiohead, the Hold Steady, M.I.A., and the Klaxons rounding out the top five. Full list after the jump.
THE GOOD: Because the Guardian‘s list reprinted lines–and star ratings–from each ranking album’s original review, we can all see that either the music writers have changed their stance on the Klaxons or the Guardian‘s fired the person who gave Myths Of The Near Future one star, saying that “Indie chancers trying to pass this ropey stuff off as a dance revival is insulting and pointless.” But maybe I appreciate this because Myths grew on me over the course of 2007, too.
THE BAD: Feist’s The Reminder at No. 10. Britney Spears’ Blackout at No. 17. Hey, if you’re going to have the year’s most talked-about dance-pop album on your list, why not get really ballsy and put it ahead of the snoozy dinner-party music?
THE WHAAA? “Like a hunk of blue cheese, Tennessee’s Kings of Leon seem to be getting better with age.” Really, Guardian? Really?
The Guardian is cranky today! Under the blunt headline “2007 Has Been A Stinker For Indie Rock,” writer Ben Myers goes on a tear about a genre that’s apparently “artistically long dead and more discernibly derivative than ever.” To be fair, I’d probably agree with him wholeheartedly if I had to live in England.
Listen, I know that it’s silly to take the British press seriously when they write trend pieces about genres, and coin names for new subgenres and movements. It is a truth universally acknowledged that writers for publications like NME and the Guardian are kinda silly, and sometimes have a tenuous grip on reality. It’s not so bad, actually–sometimes it results in totally improbable things becoming popular for five or ten minutes. But c’mon, Guardian: Nu-Gazing?
Hot on the heels of an incredibly dubious-sounding study that found that smart kids like metal, today’s Guardian music blog examines the perception that head-bangers are stupid: In my day job as features writer for Kerrang! More »
Today’s Guardian music blog questions whether concert guest-lists have grown out of control, using a recent Arcade Fire concert at Brixton Academy as an example:
…even Arcade Fire, bastions of creative integrity, have become victims of a success they cannot control. First off, it didn’t bode well that the queue for the complimentary tickets and guest list at the gig almost equalled that for standard tickets. A large number of complimentary tickets usually means a great deal of handouts from sponsors to, dare I say it, people who are only there for a free night out, as opposed to the thousands of people who tried desperately to pay for tickets only to be left disappointed when the band’s UK shows sold out in a matter of minutes. Sure enough, on entering the stalls, I realised I was surrounded by people who didn’t really care very much about being there, certainly not half as much as they cared about getting the next round in and fiddling constantly with their mobile phones.
