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

also, is there an actual honest to goodness country album on "folk-country"

yeah those lists are pretty pathetic

4. D-Sisive Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye (Urbnet)

wtf is this

Kinda pissed that the Sunny Sweeney album didn't make it onto the American Songwriters list tbh.

Xp no idea lol

lol exclaim! is the absolute worst, despite being free i somehow always regret picking up a copy

lol at how you can tell the metal list was typed up by someone who has never heard of any of the bands or albums

Rumba (FI) EOY 2011

Finnish songs
1. Regina: Jos et sä soita
2. Rubik: Laws of Gravity
3. The New Tigers: Pocketful of Sand
4. Regina: Unessa
5. Regina: Haluan sinut
6. Mirel Wagner: No Death
7. Burning Hearts: Into the Wilderness
8. Rubik: World Around You
9. Sansa: Boys (Summertime Love)
10. Chisu: Kohtalon oma
11. Suvi Isotalo: Kaikki sanat
12. Matti Johannes Koivu: 80-luvun lapset
13. Yona: Toisen oma
14. Regina: Lepään aalloilla
15. Black Twig: Lake Song
16. 22-Pistepirkko: UFO Girl
17. Chisu: Sabotage
18. Stella: Kutsumattomat vieraat jääkää kotiin
19. Regina: Mustavalkeaa
20. Rubik: Storm in a Glass of Water
21. Freeman: Tuhatjalkainen
22. Supo: Se tulee olemaan helppoo
23. Shine 2009: So Free
24. Jätkäjätkät: Uusi moottoritie
25. Von Hertzen Brothers: Miracle

I've heard of one of those bands, go me

seriously...y'all know how every EOY list is made? it really is as simple as just balloting writers. no publication can be bothered to rig or fix the results, or craft a list that "espouses" a "hivemind" or "worldview".

― lex pretend, Saturday, December 3, 2011 3:25 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

this is so cute^^

― HUSTLA DA =:3 (dealwithit.gif), Saturday, December 3, 2011 6:49 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Permalink

the thing is that because of the vvv few 'notorious' (used relatively obv) examples of that kind of manipulation, you get rafts of messageboard blowhards thinking they have some sort of 'industry understanding' and that every single publication anywhere crafts its polls to reflect a personal brand

whereas in fact most of them don't even have enough of a defined brand to make it in anyway worthwhile, and even if they did what would flipping around two ho-hum indie records on a list of 40 or whatever actually tell anyone

That the magazine wants to 'keep in' with Noel rather than Liam?

Quietus list has gone up:

http://thequietus.com/articles/07520-quietus-albums-of-the-year-2011

Really need to hear the Cut Hands record.

GORILLA VS. BEAR | Albums of 2011

30 Nicolas Jaar | Space Is Only Noise
29 Andy Stott | Passed Me By
28 The Weeknd | House of Balloons
27 Clams Casino | Instrumentals
26 Schoolboy Q | Setbacks
25 Elite Gymnastics | Ruin 1 + 2
24 Run DMT | Dreaming
23 Burial | Street Halo
22 Mina Tindle | Mina Tindle
21 Young Galaxy | Shapeshifting
20 Toro y Moi | Freaking Out
19 Pure X | Pleasure
18 Ford & Lopatin | Channel Pressure
17 Washed Out | Within and Without
16 Darkside | Darkside
15 Holy Other | With U
14 The Caretaker | An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
13 Grouper | A I A
12 Sleep ∞ Over | Forever
11 The Sandwitches | Mrs. Jones’ Cookies
10 Puro Instinct | Headbangers in Ecstasy
09 Julianna Barwick | The Magic Place
08 Real Estate | Days
07 araabMUZIK | Electronic Dream
06 Korallreven | An Album By Korallreven
05 A$AP Rocky | LIVELOVEA$AP
04 White Denim | D
03 Panda Bear | Tomboy
02 Peaking Lights | 936
01 Shabazz Palaces | Black Up

as much as i absolutely ADORE a couple of sleep over tracks, there's no way that album is top fifteen material.

Funny so many places are rating Shabazz Palaces and not Death Grips, IMO.

They're totally different though

That Panda Bear album's really good. Miles better than Merriweather or pretty much any AC album since Feels.

NN: Maybe so - I've only really scraped the surface of those but they both fall into the undie-hop (or whatever it is) category afaik and the Death Grips sounds so much more interesting to these ears.

undie-hop

please tell me this is a typo. there's a genre called undie-hop now?

;_;

oh, err.. i think it's an old term that used to get applied to people like Cannibal Ox to mean "underground hiphop". Backpacker hiphop was another, more derogatory term. i know shit all about hiphop on the whole, so i could be talking bull...

Well the Shabazz album is a lot less confrontational than the Death Grips so it doesn't surprise me that it's found a wider audience and I suppose coming out on Sub Pop hasn't hurt it's profile either. It's a great record though so who cares really?

Wasn't shooting the messenger DL :)

Here's ours for people who don't actually want to visit the site:

1. PJ Harvey Let England Shake
2. Azari & III Azari & III
3. Tim Hecker Ravedeath 1972
4. The Haxan Cloak The Haxan Cloak
5. Perc Wicker & Steel
6. Cut Hands Afro Noise
7. Katy B On A Mission
8. Wild Beasts Smother
9. Death Grips Ex Military
10. Prurient Bermuda Drain
11. Årabrot Solar Anus
12. Laurel Halo Hour Logic
13. Sandwell District Feed Forward
14. John Maus We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves
15. Cold Cave Cherish The Light Years
16. Alexander Tucker Dorwytch
17. Pinch & Shackleton Pinch & Shackleton
18. Mastodon The Hunter
19. Oneohtrix Point Never Replica
20. Cornershop The Double O Groove
21. John Foxx & The Maths Interplay
22. My Disco Little Joy
23. Frank Ocean Nostalgia/Ultra
24. Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats Blood Lust
25. Hype Williams One Nation
26. Leyland Kirby Eager To Tear Apart The Stars
27. EMA Past Life Martyred Saints
28. Yob Atma
29. Destroyer Kaputt
30. Roly Porter Aftertime
31. Battles Gloss Drop
32. The Fall Ersatz GB
33. Zun Zun Egui Katang
34. Fucked Up David Comes To Life
35. Snowman Absence
36. Clams Casino Instrumentals
37. Obake Obake
38. Elzhi Elmatic
39. Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells Everything Is Getting Older
40. The Master Musicians Of Bukkake Totem Three
41. Thurston Moore Demolished Thoughts
42. Wolves In The Throne Room Celestial Lineage
43. British Sea Power Valhalla Dancehall
44. Bjork Biophilia
45. Skull Defekts ft. Daniel Higgs Peer Amid
46. Maria Minerva Cabaret Cixous
47. Mogwai Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
48. Byetone Symeta
49. Amebix Sonic Mass
50. Liturgy Aesthetica

I just finished reading through the Quietus. I've been on vacation without web this past week, so I've got some catching up to do. Glad to see this thread in the sandbox.

With the Quietus post on my FnB FB page I wrote:

'One of the best lists you'll see from any publication, web or print. It's interesting that PJ Harvey topped it. I can't complain, she's one of my favorite artists, but while the uniqueness of her album is an accomplishment, I can't pretend to like her choices such as substituting a twee little-girl voice for her normally thunderous pipes. The switch-up to autoharp and saxophone may keep some people interested, but the music is too demure for my tastes. Nice to see Mastodon and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. It's strange that Quietus never got on board for White Denim or TVOTR, but it makes their lists all the more unique, with about a dozen albums I still need to check out.'

Strange is probably not the right word, nor surprised. TVOTR's domination of previous polls makes them clearly not cool to like anymore, heh. That's alright, as long as they kept expanding their audience, I would hope. Not sure that they did though.

Funny so many places are rating Shabazz Palaces and not Death Grips, IMO.

― dog latin, Monday, December 5, 2011 7:10 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

i'd actually heard of shabazz palaces before last week fwiw

not sure that this is the place to ask this but is the new miranda lambert worth hearing? i haven't heard anything about it, or even really realized there was a new one until i saw it on the american songwriter list.

yes it is. especially "mama's broken heart" and "dear diamond". mordy did you hear the pistol annies album too?

four the record might well be the worst album title by an artist i like of 2011 though.

I don't see what's so great about TVOTR - they seem like the middle-ground or the centre-point or the culmination between a whole load of acts who grew popular around the time - everything from Oneida to Wilco to Animal Collective. As such I see why they might be popular as a "default" US alterna-band as viewed by those not really invested in that kind of music, but they're just so boring.

What are White Denim like? I don't like the name...

I'm not a massive TVOTR fan (I just bought Dear Science last week) but I stumbled across them doing an outdoor live show in Boston a few years ago and they were captivating, sonically and visually (ie, it was odd and exciting to see close to a thousand people in a plaza watching a mostly black group playing Radioheadish music).

I like TVOTR for the songs, not for what ground or point they supposedly represent. I don't think they sound like any of those other bands.

White Denim change a bit every album, but they are kind of what I wished Meat Puppets would have evolved into in the late 80s. Chaotically psychedelic guitar riffery, occasional sweet melodies, vocals the evolve and improve every record.

dear science is awes

I did hear they're great live, yeah. But I dunno, I've tried listenign to TVOTR and I struggle to get through a whole song. They make me itchy.

not sure that this is the place to ask this but is the new miranda lambert worth hearing? i haven't heard anything about it, or even really realized there was a new one until i saw it on the american songwriter list.

Definitely worth hearing, but it's a minor record. She saved her best songwriting for the Pistol Annies project.

haven't heard Pistol Annies either. i'll have to check out both

pistol annies is my #4 album of the year. just a brilliant, brilliant record, so concise but every word and note is necessary.

what are they like?

Imagine the Trio project (Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harrirs, and Linda Ronstadt) with sharp self-written songs about rural working class life.

this year's finest recession album too

The White Denim album really is excellent, so much going on in each song.

also, is there an actual honest to goodness country album on "folk-country"

― v-shasty, Sunday, December 4, 2011

Just alt-country-- but of course I am sure they would foolishly insist that this is the real stuff, and that Toby Keith and Miranda Lambert are not.

Mordy you shd def check out the Sunny Sweeney album too, although the first three songs are the most worth hearing imo

the gorilla vs bear schmo being super into ASAP rocky is pretty hilarious

I like White Denim. I usually hate garage rock and they manage to do interesting stuff within the genre but even so it's not end of year stuff.

TVOTR... What happened to them? I thought they were going to be awesome when I first heard them in 2003. The Young Liars EP was bad ass, like an anticon thing with tunes and good singing but it's been a case of diminishing returns ever since. I always want them to come good but everything's a bit too tasteful. The Wilco comparison is a good one. They're obviously a good band with talented members etc but I can't imagine ever thinking, 'Man, I can't wait to get home so I can listen to the new TVOTR album...'

I think there's a really good point for PJH's singing style on the new album but that's probably a different discussion for a different day.

"tasteful" is the word. they do what they do and they do it well, but i've never noticed them going above and beyond their remit. i'd def like to be proven wrong.

not sure that this is the place to ask this but is the new miranda lambert worth hearing?

Very worth hearing. I'm afraid I am once more having to accept that I just don't like country though, despite all Miranda Lambert's talent.

especially "mama's broken heart" and "dear diamond".

I agree with this. "Mama's Broken Heart" really jumped out at me last time I listened. I must not have been paying close attention the first time(s) I heard it.

four the record might well be the worst album title by an artist i like of 2011 though.

Haha.

what does Lambert do differently from other country artists?

I LISTEN TO EVERYTHING BUT RAP AND COUNTRY

Good list Doran