btw, i haven't gone thru it yet, but the individual lists on dusted's year-end summary are always interesting (no total-staff best-of list at dusted).
― Daniel, Esq., Friday, 16 December 2011 13:48 (twelve years ago) link
The Best Rhythm and Blues of 2011http://www.popmatters.com/pm/tools/full/152019
01 Maya Azucena - Cry Love02 Rashaan Patterson - Bleuphoria03 Mamas Gun - The Life and Soul04 Lalah Hathaway - Where It All Begins05 Beverly Knight - Soul UK06 Goapele - Break of Dawn07 Patti Austin - Sound Advice08 Van Hunt - What Were You Hoping For?09 Daryl Hall - Laughing Down Crying10 Ledisi - Pieces of Me
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
no yardbirds?
― Anyone need a (Jimmy Riddle), Friday, 16 December 2011 13:59 (twelve years ago) link
^agreed. It's an outrage.
― he said "grody" (henrietta lacks), Friday, 16 December 2011 14:19 (twelve years ago) link
luckily we have tuneyards
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:24 (twelve years ago) link
I don't normally like to bash P4K, but their list is less inspired than the NME's.
Who looks to these lists for inspiration?
― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
this muthafucka
http://rlv.zcache.com/look_to_the_light_business_card-p240048209533610449yq46_400.jpg
― nashwan, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:42 (twelve years ago) link
Here's the tracks off of the RA list I could find on Spotify:
http://open.spotify.com/user/djperry1973/playlist/1hyXkhovMXjdch00K74y6B
― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:46 (twelve years ago) link
fyi 15 seconds in and I already like this list much much more than the FACT list
― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:48 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah it's pretty good. Already discovered a few keepers i wasn't familiar with
― Number None, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:49 (twelve years ago) link
okay I am in LOVE with this Sneaker track, which is essentially one measure of music repeated for 12 minutes
― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:05 (twelve years ago) link
What was the guardian number 1? pj harvey?
― Anyone need a (Jimmy Riddle), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:18 (twelve years ago) link
yarp
― dog latin, but cool (dog latin), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:19 (twelve years ago) link
WateryTart16 December 2011 1:27PM Let England Shake – a genuinely great piece of war art – was made by a woman, too, though in 2011 we really should have moved beyond finding this unusual. ... Female singer-songwriters are supposed to be winsome things who write about their feelings for guys. ... Folk singer Linda Thompson, part of a panel of judges who voted Let England Shake Uncut magazine's album of the year (it won the Mercury prize, and was Mojo and NME's album of the year, too) put it like this: "I was impressed that a woman could go through a whole album and not mention some stupid bloke, except a stupid dead bloke."You have got to be fucking kidding me."She's a girl but she writes about war and that's innovative and unusual for a girl, though we really shouldn't have to say that. But we will. Because she's a girl. And her album is full of deep stuff, not like what girls usually write about. It's good when girls don't write about what girls usually write about."I must reiterate:You have got to be fucking kidding me.
16 December 2011 1:27PM
Let England Shake – a genuinely great piece of war art – was made by a woman, too, though in 2011 we really should have moved beyond finding this unusual. ...
Female singer-songwriters are supposed to be winsome things who write about their feelings for guys. ...
Folk singer Linda Thompson, part of a panel of judges who voted Let England Shake Uncut magazine's album of the year (it won the Mercury prize, and was Mojo and NME's album of the year, too) put it like this: "I was impressed that a woman could go through a whole album and not mention some stupid bloke, except a stupid dead bloke."
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
"She's a girl but she writes about war and that's innovative and unusual for a girl, though we really shouldn't have to say that. But we will. Because she's a girl. And her album is full of deep stuff, not like what girls usually write about. It's good when girls don't write about what girls usually write about."
I must reiterate:
― Anyone need a (Jimmy Riddle), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:26 (twelve years ago) link
okay really?
― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:29 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i thought that was a pretty weak summation of why this is a good album. I'm still looking for an "in" to it, but being told "it's good because it's a girl singing about war" is not only plain sexist, but the least interesting thing about the record.
― dog latin, but cool (dog latin), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:30 (twelve years ago) link
I love that album for several reasons:
- The totally different, delicate vocal color of PJ's singing voice, particularly the stunning floated headvoice used on "On Battleship Hill".- The connected narrative running through the album.- The music arrangement of the songs.
― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:34 (twelve years ago) link
yeah dan, reallyhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/dec/16/pj-harvey-let-england-shake
― Anyone need a (Jimmy Riddle), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:35 (twelve years ago) link
Linda Thompson's summation is lame but Kitty Empire's is a lot more nuanced than that.
― Matt DC, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:40 (twelve years ago) link
i can't really think of anything more to say about LES - having written about PJH a lot this year - but every time i see someone suggest that LES : UK :: Destroyer : USA (in that UK critics care way less about Destroyer than US critics, and US critics care way less about PJH than Destroyer), I am tremendously thankful to be on the right side of that
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:40 (twelve years ago) link
Let England Shake – a genuinely great piece of war art – was made by a woman, too, though in 2011 we really should have moved beyond finding this unusual.
Yes durr.
But Harvey's gender, and her upbringing on a Dorset farm, are both inherent to its greatness.
Also true.
― Matt DC, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:41 (twelve years ago) link
I was more boggling at Linda Thompson
― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:42 (twelve years ago) link
i also liked Kitty E's write-up
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:42 (twelve years ago) link
NY Times critics top 2011 picks
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/from-retro-yuck-to-foodie-rap.html?ref=music Jon Caramanica
Likes Yuck, Action Bronson, Drake, Beyonce and more
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/music-of-heartache-mortality-and-success.html?_r=1&ref=music Jon Pareles
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/pistol-annies-yob-deaf-center-paul-simon.html?ref=music Ben Ratliff
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/ambrose-akinmusire-drake-the-roots-st-vincent.html?ref=music Nate Chinen
― Another Suburbanite, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:43 (twelve years ago) link
guardian critics' lists:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/dec/16/albums-2011-critics-voted?intcmp=ILCMUSTXT9384
― bayou goo, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:44 (twelve years ago) link
Harvey began writing lyrics for the album before setting the words to music. She has cited the poetry of Harold Pinter and T.S. Eliot as influences, as well as the artwork of Salvador Dalí and Francisco de Goya and music of The Doors, The Pogues, and The Velvet Underground.[7] She has also spoken of researching the history of conflict, including the Gallipoli campaign, and reading modern-day testimonies from civilians and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
this is very kinda 'ambitious sixth former'
― schalke nult fear (nakhchivan), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:44 (twelve years ago) link
well luckily her execution is way beyond "ambitious sixth former"
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:45 (twelve years ago) link
Diamond Mine has appeared 6 times ITT and always in the lower ranks. When Saints Go Machine appeared only twice, and just once in the higher echelons. And today I bought a scotch egg and there was no egg in it. Fuck this world!
― dog latin, but cool (dog latin), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:45 (twelve years ago) link
on a related note why is so much conceptual ambition in art, esp that which involves actual research, always dismissed as "sixth former" or "undergraduate"? as if it's somehow juvenile?
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:47 (twelve years ago) link
if it is, the people responsible for slating it should be shot in front of their families (Etc).. Maybe this is some throwback to the punk-rock conceit that "concept albums are for nerdy art-fags who like classical music" or something?
― dog latin, but cool (dog latin), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:49 (twelve years ago) link
and US critics care way less about PJH than Destroyer
I don't really see this though, PJH has seemed to show up ahead of Bejar on a lot of lists.
― shakur rump (I left my login in El Sandboxo), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:50 (twelve years ago) link
...from U.S. centric outlets, I meant to add.
Lolololololol at Reynolds putting Woebot's album in his top 10.
Also there's a Woebot album wtf?
― Matt DC, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:51 (twelve years ago) link
idk this album but those all cohere into a particular sort of late-adolescent worldview
― schalke nult fear (nakhchivan), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:51 (twelve years ago) link
why is so much conceptual ambition in art, esp that which involves actual research, always dismissed as "sixth former" or "undergraduate"?
in this case i think it's partly to do with the listed influences being sort of obvious touchstones to young people just discovering literature/music and the idea of naive "anti-war" themes.
nb i've got no idea what the record's like i'm just explaining why that bit of review reads that way
― Angles that bitch (Julie Lagger), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:51 (twelve years ago) link
woebot has been releasing for years!
nv gracious to the bleachers as ever
nb u cd just as easily make a list of trying-too-hard slightly more obscure references. it is the way that paragraph is written that gives off the vibe i think
― Angles that bitch (Julie Lagger), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:52 (twelve years ago) link
Because Sixth Form was the last time in their lives that any of these people did any actual research or conceptual thinking, for pure intellectual curiosity, or any other reason.
― Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely (Fotherington Thomas), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
The list of influences is kinda sixth-form actually But ambitious six-formers tend not to talk to soldiers back from Afghanistan and Iraq or do much research into Gallipoli, in fairness. Also yeah the execution.
― Matt DC, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:54 (twelve years ago) link
they all do Gallipoli! it must be every GCSE History syllabub ever!
― Angles that bitch (Julie Lagger), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:55 (twelve years ago) link
ha that's what i was gonna say but i couldn't get the sentence out right. when it comes to thirst for knowledge i'd take most 6th formers over most adults.
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:55 (twelve years ago) link
i never did gallipoli! before i reviewed LES i had to ring my dad to talk to him about WW1
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:56 (twelve years ago) link
and then i did my own internet research, like PJH before me
"WWI = tragic WWII = noble"
― Angles that bitch (Julie Lagger), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:56 (twelve years ago) link
― Matt DC, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:54 (1 minute ago)
hah it's exactly the mix of entrylev highbrows and socially engaged extracurriculars that give it the school yearbook feel
― schalke nult fear (nakhchivan), Friday, 16 December 2011 15:57 (twelve years ago) link
how would an actual grown-up approach this kind of material in your opinion then?
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, 16 December 2011 16:00 (twelve years ago) link
Unless you're a child-genius autodidact you shouldn't be singing about anything other than cars and girls.
― dog latin, but cool (dog latin), Friday, 16 December 2011 16:00 (twelve years ago) link
Tom Lamont
Albums
1) The Antlers – Burst Apart2) The Decemberists – The King Is Dead3) Noah and the Whale – Last Night on Earth4) Bon Iver – Bon Iver5) Laura Marling – A Creature I Don't Know6) Owl City – All Things Bright and Beautiful7) Papercuts – Fading Parade8) Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues9) The Low Anthem – Smart Flesh10) King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
man I'm a nice guy but just looking at this is making me feel like Biffa Bacon to his Cedric
― Extreme Lifestyle, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:03 (twelve years ago) link
lex u ought to have noticed this is something quite specific! not the old nme reviewer staple of 'sixth form poetry'
insofar as polly j is successful it's cuz she preserves a sort of adolescent directness and vitriol very well
― schalke nult fear (nakhchivan), Friday, 16 December 2011 16:04 (twelve years ago) link