Another day, another End Of The Decade List, this time from Spinner.com. The music site’s editors are saying “fie!” in the face of other lists’ almost exclusively male picks for the top spot and are honoring Amy Winehouse’s soulful Back To Black as the Top Album of the Decade. At last, a chance to reflect on her essential talent, instead of her seemingly endless nosedive. Check out the full list but keep it quick—wouldn’t want you to miss the Slick Rick gig. More »
Yesterday, Paste released its list of the 50 Best Albums Of The 2000s, and the list was topped by none other than Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise, which honestly seems like it was released way longer ago, so established has he become in the indie-rock firmament. Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Arcade Fire’s Funeral, Radiohead’s Kid A, and Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning rounded out the top five. Full rundown after the jump, but first, a few reactions.
THE GOOD: Hey, look, Stankonia! At No. 8! Three places beneath… Bright Eyes. Sigh.
THE BAD: Instead of noting the male-white–breadiness of the list—because that is, after all, the way of Paste, and you can’t expect them to change their stripes just for the sake of a mid-autumn pageview-generation ploy—I’m going to zero in on one totally questionable choice. Namely, the selection of M.I.A. albums on the list. Arular (No. 10) and not Kala? Really? I mean, Arular is fine, but Kala is kinda next-level. Is it because of the (admittedly unfortunate) Timbaland track?
THE WHAAAA? Dear Paste fact-checkers: Not for nothing, but Radiohead’s In Rainbows was not entirely “self-released,” as you claim. I know that would screw up the “it changed everything with its revolutionary pricing methods” that serves as the angle for your gushing write-up of the record. Pity that you muffed the opportunity to write about something so (yawn) groundbreaking by regurgitating a tired, half-true spiel. More »
Our look at the closing lines of new music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to the New Moon soundtrack, the indie-kid-pandering tie-in to the forthcoming Twilight sequel that arrives in stores and online today: More »
Radiohead opened their set at last night’s Reading Festival with their 1992 breakthrough hit “Creep,” which the band rarely trots out these days; Thom Yorke’s vocal delivery was fairly strangled, perhaps because he was acutely aware that he was leading a sing-along more than he was engaging in a performance. One wonders if Radiohead deliberately put that track at the beginning for the benefit of casual fans who wanted to hit the road early, since, according to The Independent: More »
Were you concerned about Radiohead’s “Idioteque” not topping the best-singles-of-the-decade list that the indie-crit behemoth Pitchfork ran last week? Well, fret not: The folks over there still love Radiohead’s 2000 album Kid A, with today’s review reaffirming the 10.0 that it received back in the day, and critic Rob Mitchum calling it “unashamedly… a complete album, one where everything from production to arrangements to lyrics to album art were carefully crafted towards a unified purpose” while nodding to the fact that its creators have made noise about growing weary of that particular format: More »