Magazine/website/record store BEST OF 2011 end-of-year list pile-up

from FACT, files this under "don't use wikipedia as a source"

The production values on Take Care really were staggering, and made even more impressive by the fact that whether it was Lex Luger, Just Blaze or Jamie xx

from FACT, file this under "people comparing 'take care' to the wrong kanye west album"

More than anything, this album was Drake’s College Dropout

From the Filter list--is this more than just retro blue-eyed soul? Haven't heard it yet...

No, but imho I think its really, really well done retro blue-eyed soul. I usually cringe at this shit, but my brother in law does some promo for Hawthorne and pushed the album on me and I found myself really liking it.

alright, i take back anything nice i ever said

Like Outkast’s Stankonia before it, House of Balloons also appears to have brought everyone together this year

despite lex's best protest in march, it was not a big year for r&b full lengths

yet three of my top 10 are r&b, plus a further five in my top 30?

and the anthony hamilton isn't out yet either

I'm sorry lex, I am still staring in shock at the quote v-nasty posted otherwise I'd ask which 3 R&B albums you're repping (I'm guessing Marsha is one of them? She was on the Soul Train Music Awards last weekend and sounded really, really sick ;_;)

poor love.

beyoncé, dawn richard, nikkiya, meshell ndegéocello, marsha ambrosius, goapele, raphael saadiq, diddy dirty money (r&b remix mixtape)

i'm not even that into the lloyd album compared with his past work (but it's still better than the weeknd/ocean OBV)

co-singing that goapele

i rep for trey songz anticipation 2

the musiq soulchild album was pretty good too, and the cherri v mixtape was excellent

and the anthony david album! this song is one of the best songs of the year full stop, amazing stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__khgIzMyaM

oh yeah Musiq Soulchild, I played that album maybe three times and then forgot I owned it

Sure, ‘NY is Killing Me’ became annoyingly inescapable,

i've never heard this

I love the Marsha Ambrosius record; it's held up well all year.

beyoncé, dawn richard, nikkiya, meshell ndegéocello, marsha ambrosius, goapele, raphael saadiq, diddy dirty money (r&b remix mixtape)

i'm not even that into the lloyd album compared with his past work (but it's still better than the weeknd/ocean OBV)

― lex pretend, Friday, December 2, 2011 9:53 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

this is what i'm talking about in terms of a 'big' year for r&b, beyonce aside. saadiq and maybe ambrosius are household names, but the rest of them are kinda the FACT list for r&b heads

yeah, i just came to the marsha album recently. 'far away'!!

of that FACT top 10, clams and araabmuzik will make my EOY list (the latter top ten, probably), still haven't listened to the rustie or prurient albums, FO and barwick didn't leave much of an impression on me, sort of avoiding weeknd/drake, haven't heard of the other two

i'm wending my way through that NPR 'other sounds' list - if you like gorgeous ambient drifty things, that nicholas szczepanik album is wonderful

lol @ Diddy Dirty Money being more obscure than homegirl from Floetry

well yeah. but the diddy dirty money remix mixtape is pretty far under the radar.

oh leave me my cheap lols, they're all I have

the real problem w/ the FACT list isnt the music they choose, which is w/e, but the aesthetic incoherency and the embarrassing way it seems to misunderstand/misevaluate its own constituency of tumblr whites

ClashMusic (UK) EOY 2011

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/the-top-40-albums-of-2011

40. DANGER MOUSE / DANIELE LUPPI - ‘Rome’
39. WHEN SAINTS GO MACHINE - ‘Konkylie’
38. WOODEN SHJIPS - ‘West’
37. WAGON CHRIST - ‘Toomorrow’
36. RICHARD DONOSO - ‘Progress Chance’
35. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - ‘I’m With You’
34. WHITE DENIM - ‘D’
33. KASABIAN - ‘Velociraptor!’
32. JAY-Z AND KANYE WEST - ‘Watch The Throne’
31. LITTLE DRAGON - ‘Ritual Union’
30. RYAN ADAMS - ‘Ashes And Fire’
29. MATTHEW HERBERT - ‘One Pig’
28. FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE - ‘Ceremonials’
27. THE LOW ANTHEM - ‘Smart Flesh’
26. BON IVER - ‘Bon Iver’
25. EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY - ‘Take Care, Take Care, Take Care’
24. BIBIO - ‘Mind Bokeh’
23. WILCO - ‘The Whole Love’
22. M83 - ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’
21. ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER - ‘Replica’
20. DJ SHADOW - ‘The Less You Know The Better’
19. LYKKE LI - ‘Wounded Rhymes’
18. GRUFF RHYS - ‘Hotel Shampoo’
17. PLANNINGTOROCK - ‘W’
16. BEASTIE BOYS - ‘Hot Sauce Committee Part Two’
15. WILD BEASTS - ‘Smother’
14. KING CREOSOTE AND JON HOPKINS - ‘Diamond Mine’
13. FLEET FOXES - ‘Helplessness Blues’
12. BJÖRK - ‘Biophilia’
11. BEIRUT - ‘The Rip Tide’
10. ZOMBY - ‘Dedication’
9. MY MORNING JACKET - ‘Circuital’
8. ADELE - ‘21’
7. THE KILLS - ‘Blood Pressures’
6. METRONOMY - ‘The English Riviera’
5. RADIOHEAD - ‘The King Of Limbs'
4. BATTLES - ‘Gloss Drop’
3. PJ HARVEY - 'Let England Shake'
2. THE HORRORS - ‘Skying’
1. MODESELEKTOR - ‘Monkeytown’

wagon christ is still a thing?

x-post

tumblr whites

my new band's name

it would be a good name for a laundry detergent

wagon christ is still a thing?

Yes, he's still going and he's become very, very boring.

I do like that Modeselektor album but it's not top ten material, let alone the best album of the year

best thom yorke record of 2011

wagon christ is still a thing?

This was exactly my reaction

saadiq and maybe ambrosius are household names

Whose households now?

BBC music writers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcmusic/2011/12/bbc_music_writers_top_25_album.html

25 - Bright Eyes - The People's Key
24 - Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
23 - Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
22 - Trap Them - Darker Handcraft
21 - The Decemberists - The King is Dead
20 - EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
19 - Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
18 - Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
17 - Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
16 - Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
15 - Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - We're New Here
14 - Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
13 - Katy B - On a Mission
12 - SBTRKT - SBTRKT
11 - Björk - Biophilia
10 - Iceage - New Brigade
9 - Bon Iver - Bon Iver
8 - Josh T Pearson - Last of the Country Gentlemen
7 - Beyoncé - 4
6 - Metronomy - The English Riviera
5 - Tom Waits - Bad as Me
4 - The Antlers - Burst Apart
3 - The Horrors - Skying
2 - Wild Beasts - Smother
1 - PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Whose households now?

households that listen to R&B

Raphael Saddiq has been famous since Tony! Toni! Tone! and Floetry got a lot of exposure back in their day (not that I realized that's who Marsha was until this weekend).

man, that SBTRKT album is almost as overrated as that Bjork album

I really hate the SBTRKT album. Primarily cos of the vocals

i love "pharaohs" on the sbtrkt album but the rest of it, not really, and yeah mostly cuz of the vocals.

ambrosius got a #2 album in your country and two grammy nominations, that seems to indicate it's on a different level of success to eg the weeknd

households that listen to R&B

Oh, well, that's fair then. They're prominent R&B singers for sure. But I don't think of either of them as being crossover artists.

she might not be a household name to indie audiences but who cares about them

^^^^ otm

surely to be a household name all types of audiences (including those who pay no attention to music) have to know who they are?

in a culture where ppl claim to never have heard of Lady Gaga, you are basically saying that there is no such thing as a household name

love it when people snootily dismiss artists as "not crossover" as if that absolves them from having to care about them, as if "crossover" is some sort of pinnacle that all artists should aim for, and as if "pitchfork-approved r&b" isn't so much crossover as a very specific niche itself

by love i do not mean love

"Michael who? Johnson? Is he the one who did that song about the Corvette?"

lex I think you are arguing a different point than was being made. Nobody was really trying to bring "crossover" into this, just saying that a standard working definition of "household name" usually means appealing to a wider audience than just the cross-section that would typically be aware of such a figure.

Exactly.

I'm not dismissing Ambrosius or Saadiq at all! In fact, I probably should listen to those albums since I've heard good things.

I'm just saying they're not household names. Like, my parents would have no idea who either of them are.

oh god if we're going to the always-irrelevant "who have my parents heard of" argument, i don't think any pop star could be called a household name. i am fairly sure my parents have no idea who lady gaga is.

in a culture where ppl claim to never have heard of Lady Gaga, you are basically saying that there is no such thing as a household name

otm. this is pretty standard "death of the mononculture" stuff. my parents will only have heard of current music if it gets played on NPR, for example.

Well, I'm just using my parents as a stand-in for "reasonably well-informed people who aren't R&B fans."

I don't think "household name" implies recognition from 100% of the population, but it's got to be at least half. I think Lady Gaga and Beyonce have gotten to that point, but Ambrosius and Saadiq have not.

I think, from context, you can infer the scope in which "household name" is being used very easily and therefore there's no need to say "a person can only be a household name if ppl who don't give a shit about them know they exist"

Rise Record (UK) EOY 2011

http://www.rise-music.co.uk/browse.php?campaign=AOTW

50.Summer Camp : Welcome To Condale
49.The Decemberists : The King Is Dead
48.James Blake : James Blake
47.King Creosote & Jon Hopkins : Diamond Mine
46.Gang Gang Dance: Eye Contact
45.Bill Callahan : Apocalypse
44.Wild Beasts : Smother
43.Zun Zun Egui : Katang
42.Planningtorock : W
41.Mastodon : The Hunter
40. Little Roy : Battle For Seattle
39.Deerhoof : Vs. Evil
38.Blood Orange : Coastal Grooves
37.Dutch Uncles : Cadenza
36.Cat's Eyes : S/T
35.Cults : S/T
34.Hyetal : Broadcast
33.E.M.A : Past Life Martyred Saints
32.Battles : Gloss Drop
31.Anna Calvi : Anna Calvi
30.Lanterns on the Lake : Gracious Tide, Take Me Home
29.Girls : Father, Son, Holy Ghost
28.Wilco : The Whole Love
27.Tom WaitsBad As Me
26.The Field : Looping State of Mind
25.Other Lives : Tamer Animals
24.Ryan Adams : Ashes & Fire
23.Fair Oh's: Everything Is Dancing
22.Ghostpoet: Peanut Butter Blues & Meloncholy Jam
21.White Denim : D
20.Wye OakCivilian
19.St. Vincent : Strange Mercy
18. Real Estate : Days
17.Lykke Li : Wounded Rhymes
16.Veronica Falls : Veronica Falls
15.Nicolas Jaar: Space Is Only Noise
14. Braids : Native Speaker
13.Wooden : ShjipsWest
12.Balam Acab : Wander / Wonder
11.Metronomy : The English Riviera
10. Shabazz : Palaces Black Up
9. Little Dragon : Ritual Union
8. Antlers : Burst Apart
7. P.J Harvey : Let England Shake
6. Kurt Vile : Smoke Ring For My Halo
5. Josh T. Pearson : Last Of The Country Gentlemen
4. Jonathan Wilson : Gentle Spirit
3. Walls : Coracle
2. Tune-Yards : w h o k i l l
1. War On Drugs : Slave Ambient

altered zones best albums

http://alteredzones.com/posts/2163/2011-albums/

Ash Borer: Ash Borer [Pesanta Urfolk]
Blues Control & Laraaji: FRKWYS Vol. 8 [RVNG Intl.]
The Caretaker: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World [Self-Released]
Death Grips: Exmilitary [Self-Released]
Future Shuttle: Water's Edge [Holy Mountain]
Holy Other: With U [Tri-Angle]
Iceage: New Brigade [Escho]
John Maus: We Must Become The Pitiless Censors of Ourselves [Ribbon]
Julia Holter: Tragedy [Leaving]
Julian Lynch: Terra [Underwater Peoples]
Jurgen Muller: Science of the Sea [Foxy Digitalis]
Laurel Halo: Hour Logic [Hippos In Tanks]
Liturgy: Aesthethica [Thrill Jockey]
Oneohtrix Point Never: Replica [Software]
Peaking Lights: 936 [Not Not Fun]
Pete Swanson: Man With Potential [Type]
Prince Rama: Trust Now [Paw Tracks]
Pure X: Pleasure [Acéphale]
Run DMT: Dreams [Culture Dealer]
Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972 [Kranky]

08: JULIANNA BARWICK - THE MAGIC PLACE (ASTHMATIC KITTY)

heard this for the first time today, going through the FACT top 10, and the song "Prizewinning", near the end, absolutely floored me. i may be biased by the fact that i fell asleep with headphones and it woke me up out of an outstanding dream, but it's a beautiful song. the choral loops that characterize the album are complemented by a bit more rhythm than most of the other songs, via the repeating keyboard bass lines throughout and the addition of the snares that threaten to cave into themselves (nice subtle loopstation work) in the latter half of the song