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

adele's lack of risk-taking and "inoffensiveness" isn't her problem (and neither is the BORING strawman of the boring square mondeo driver who only wants comforting familiarity)

dog latin you are coming out w/some real clichés right now

It's difficult to get annoyed about Adele really, I don't actually like her voice that much, I don't here very much emotion in it at all really, it's like she sings like that because that's how soul singers are supposed to sound.

I don't here very much emotion in it at all really, it's like she sings like that because that's how soul singers are supposed to sound.

Interestingly, I feel that way about pretty much every Adele song I've heard EXCEPT "Rolling in the Deep"; I feel like she connected with that one.

well, adele isn't really my regular thing, so excuse cliches (although not entirely sure which bits you're exactly referring to here). can't help feeling that way. Is Rolling In The Deep the one that's just piano accompaniment and the same verse/chorus structure all the way through?

Is that Loutallica's highest placing so far?

my (lack of) response to adele is along much the same lines as my (lack of) response to frank ocean and the weeknd. you just don't move me guyzzz and none of you are as interesting as you think you are

"someone like you" is borderline top 10 track imo

I don't mind her voice or arrangements; it's that I don't find her songs memorable.

i'm not sure if adele finds herself that interesting

"rolling in the deep" is a pretty great song - i agree with dan that that's the one time i've felt she could be as special as her hype says she is. it's been way overplayed this year though, kinda turned me off it - BUT this version of it RULES MY LIFE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idaoG74UKzg

(dan especially, watch that!)

Is that Loutallica's highest placing so far?

It's their first placing outside of SE Asia!

LOVE YOU, WIRE

I think I might love "Rolling in the Deep" if Alison Moyet in '85 had sung it.

ken stott gave it a good review in the wire

Is Rolling In The Deep the one that's just piano accompaniment and the same verse/chorus structure all the way through?

That is "Someone Like You", and criticizing a pop song for having "the same verse/chorus structure all the way through" shows a fundamental misunderstanding/misconception of what makes a pop song.

she sings like that because that's how soul singers are supposed to sound

This^^ And it goes with a number of other singers - it's like a really good impression of how a singer ought to sing rather than inhabiting a song with one's own personality, which leaves this uncanny valley effect that's really prominent with Adele. It's like someone sucking their stomach in and over-compensating their posture during a job interview. I'm always left hanging on every note, waiting for her to completely fuck everything up and come out with some wonky braying baritone canard.

Lol good trolling on the part of Wire

VT are probably stocking up on the ltd box so they can punt it on ebay to stupid wire readers

Amazon.com - Best Music of 2011

Top 10 music editors’ picks for best albums of the year
=======================================================
1. Adele, “21”
2. Bon Iver, “Bon Iver”
3. The Decemberists, “The King is Dead”
4. James Blake, “James Blake”
5. The Civil Wars, “Barton Hollow”
6. Cut Copy, “Zonoscope”
7. Cults, “Cults”
8. Little Dragon, “Ritual Union”
9. tUnE-yArDs, “W H O K I L L”
10. Foo Fighters, “Wasting Light”

Top 10 customer MP3 favorites for 2011:
=======================================
1. Lady Gaga, “Born This Way”
2. Adele, “21”
3. Original Broadway Cast, “The Book Of Mormon”
4. Coldplay, “Mylo Xyloto”
5. The Decemberists, “The King Is Dead”
6. Fleet Foxes, “Helplessness Blues”
7. She & Him, “A Very She & Him Christmas”
8. Death Cab for Cutie, “Codes and Keys”
9. The Civil Wars, “Barton Hollow”
10. Bon Iver, “Bon Iver”

gross

I think it was just a typographical error on the part of the Wire - it was meant to read "9. Ilx - Precovers Lulu'

okay wau @ X-Factor "Rolling in the Deep"

smh @ dog latin

yeah that was dope

That is "Someone Like You", and criticizing a pop song for having "the same verse/chorus structure all the way through" shows a fundamental misunderstanding/misconception of what makes a pop song.

― OH NOES, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 16:58 (24 seconds ago) Bookmark Permalink

No, come on. There are fantastic pop songs out there that don't rely on bludgeoning repetition and inertia to get the point across. I found that song infuriating because it was a pleasant idea utterly wasted. There's nothing to come back to - no uplift, no tension, no bridge, no nothing -just the same melody repeated over and over in this really uninspiring way. I call this the Beautiful South effect. You can sing the song in 20 seconds and just paste it back-to-back on itself for four minutes and boom: there's your hit. That's not songwriting - that's coming up with a catchy riff and forgetting to finish the job.

okay wau @ X-Factor "Rolling in the Deep"

misha b was voted out last weekend, having consistently come in the bottom two, because the british public are racist morons. SORRY she just wasn't "likeable" kmt

my favourite thing about misha's "rolling in the deep" might be her chorus following the rap - those low notes, so fierce

xpost not that repetition is a bad thing, I mean one of my favourite songs of the year was King Creosote's "Your Young Voice" which is essentially a one-line tone poem. But this is done very deliberately. There's no meat to that Adele song.

I don't think I've actually heard Rolling In The Deep, so I'll listen to that when I get home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dis1iGn48EE

There's no meat to that Adele song.

gonna let this one pass, i think

anyway i always forget that year end time on ilx drives me up a wall bcuz dog latin comes back and starts saying inane shit

was there much love for blaqkout in that year's non-ILM lists?

― lex pretend, Wednesday, December 7, 2011 11:03 AM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

it had a pretty healthy showing on P&J (#62) and Pitchfork (#25), certainly a larger critical profile than Book of David anyway

I think 'Rolling in the Deep' is a pretty good song, though I get the feeling I might have only heard a remix? I wasn't feeling the X Factor version until the rap, but then I was really impressed with her. I think one thing about X Factor versions is that they aren't really 'songs' but more presentations, right? Because her version doesn't really make any narrative sense at all, but as a presentation of "look, this is what I can do and this is the style I can work with" she's quite compelling.

Is that Amazon list supposed to be the 10 bestselling mp3 albums of the year? How many people bought “A Very She & Him Christmas”???

"Someone Like You" is very droning and monotonous imo, it's really a shame that THAT is the first #1 piano-and-vocals-only ballad in US pop history because it really doesn't do much with those tools

I think one thing about X Factor versions is that they aren't really 'songs' but more presentations, right?

yeah i'm not sure whether this is intent (on the programme/contestants' part) or just a function of the songs having to be edited down to 2.5 mins (cher lloyd managing to cram the backing vox, lead vox and queen pen rap of "no diggity", PLUS a tears for fears chorus in the middle of it all, last year was some mind-boggling feat of timing)

anyway i always forget that year end time on ilx drives me up a wall bcuz dog latin comes back and starts saying inane shit

― v-shasty, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 17:09 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

hmm... this is the first negative thing i've had to say about pretty much anything on these lists so far. And face it like-it-or-not, Adele isn't the most exciting music out this year. I'm not saying she doesn't have talent. She has got a great voice and her songs are pleasant enough. I just don't think anything this tepid should be hitting the high marks in these polls.

half the albums on all these lists are pretty fucking tepid! bon iver, fleet foxezzz! adele is no more tepid than they are

trolling in the deep

No, come on. There are fantastic pop songs out there that don't rely on bludgeoning repetition and inertia to get the point across. I found that song infuriating because it was a pleasant idea utterly wasted. There's nothing to come back to - no uplift, no tension, no bridge, no nothing -just the same melody repeated over and over in this really uninspiring way. I call this the Beautiful South effect. You can sing the song in 20 seconds and just paste it back-to-back on itself for four minutes and boom: there's your hit. That's not songwriting - that's coming up with a catchy riff and forgetting to finish the job.

Sorry, this entire paragraph is flat-out wrong.

The song clearly follows the pattern intro-verse-prechorus-chorus-verse-prechorus-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus-outro with slight variations in the melody in each section with the one strict constant being the arpeggios in the piano up until the third chorus. The entire song does a series of swells that builds to the bridge, which relaxes into the third chorus and crescendos directly into the repeated chorus.

It's not a complicated song, but it is not underwritten or underperformed.

Now, I will say that the piano part is really, really, really simple, like Alicia-Keys-first-album simple, and that has a tendency to overwhelm the song; that's an arrangement problem, and one that I found pretty easy to overcome when I started focusing on what she was doing.

adele has been dominating every album and singles chart and industry awards literally the entire year, it's just kind of boring and silly to pop up with "what a disaster that some magazines put adele on their lists" griping in december

yeah the simplistic piano on "Someone" really bothers me -- if you're going to have only piano accompanying a voice like hers the playing should be equally rich and technically accomplished imo

http://topnews.co.uk/images/imagecache/main_image/Biffa-truck.jpg

bon iver, fleet foxezzz! adele

xpost to the lex

I'm not defending Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes either. My aversion to those bands is the similar as yours to The Weeknd and Frank Ocean. It's like, people assume I must like them, but in fact I find them awfully dull and I get a bit RME when I think about how many other things came out this year that do a similar job but a squillion times better and don't get half way as many props.

i'm finding it rather ironic that there's this deluge of EOY lists when i'm still majorly anticipating albums that are either coming out now or in a week or two - robin thicke, rebecca ferguson, anthony hamilton, young jeezy...

although they have been helping me catch up with several i missed too. zodiac free arts club, kendrick lamar, gazelle twin, gloria estefan, julia holter...

SO MUCH MUSIC

yeah the simplistic piano on "Someone" really bothers me -- if you're going to have only piano accompanying a voice like hers the playing should be equally rich and technically accomplished imo

Not if the intent is to showcase Adele; I think the logic was to make the piano part a simple platform upon which Adele could place a delicate vocal performance, to switch up from her usual "hey I am hollering at you and you love it" style.

The song clearly follows the pattern intro-verse-prechorus-chorus-verse-prechorus-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus-outro with slight variations in the melody in each section

She does a very good job of covering this up ;-)

Okay, I'll shut up about Adele now as it's upsetting people. Obviously, she's not my style or forte, but I still don't think I'm gonna get convinced that she's any more than the Coldplay/Fleet Foxes of her niche.

i'm finding it rather ironic that there's this deluge of EOY lists when i'm still majorly anticipating albums that are either coming out now or in a week or two - robin thicke, rebecca ferguson, anthony hamilton, young jeezy...

From a strictly PR standpoint, I'm still kind of surprised that people schedule these high profile type releases in mid-to-late December. They miss out on the EOY list stuff and, 9 times out of 10, they are completely forgotten about by the time next year's lists come out. I get its partially a holiday buzz thing to get people to buy the album's as Christmas gifts - but thats usually reserved for box sets and cash-grab remix collections or w/e.

yeah i'm sure there is a compositional logic of "Someone" but it doesn't really work for me. usually when there's a rare hit with zero drums (John Legend's "Ordinary People" or Jazmine Sullivan's "Lions, Tigers & Bears") it feels like a nice little breather on radio playlists, but "Someone" kind of feels like dead air to me when it comes on.

From a strictly PR standpoint, I'm still kind of surprised that people schedule these high profile type releases in mid-to-late December

I'm facing this now with the Diddy and R. Kelly.