most regrettable choice for album of the year, as chosen by THE WIRE

I do like it when The Wire go to bat for an artist, esp. a newish one, one who is such typical fodder for the magazine. i.e. a band that only The Wire would put at #1, like Ayler, The Books, Actress.

Sorry for confusing verbs + nouns when switching btw "artist" and "band" I don't know how you guys keep it together

whiney please nominate your top five albums of "wire music" for 2011

― los krampusinos! (pomplamau5), Sunday, December 11, 2011 12:59 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

Article coming at the end of Dec, actually!

A GAME OF HORSESHOES

lol

Hate that The Bug POS so much, worse than Burial

Giving Far Side Virtual #1 is admirable trolling, wtg WIRE

the bug album is awesome

A Thousand Leaves is my favourite of these, and Murray Street is my least favourite. I've only heard about half of them though. Haven't heard the Ferraro.

Tony Herrington's comments on the 2011 list are interesting:

Because when you look closely, the individual wills that gave rise to such an outcome (The Wire‘s contributors say James Ferraro’s Far Side Virtual is the best thing released this year) start to appear rather peculiar in relation to it, ie: out of an electorate of 60 voters, only seven actually voted for Far Side Virtual in their individual top tens – that’s less than 12 per cent of the total electorate; and none of those electors who did vote for it actually had it as their individual top release of the year.

PAZZ & JOP
1992 Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months, And 2 Days In The Life Of...
1993 Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
1994 Hole - Live Through This
1995 PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
1996 Beck - Odelay

P&J no different to other lists

I think Murray Street is the last true great SY album. I couldn't care less for the patchy, mediocre ATL. Murray Street is just so gripping, from beginning to end.

ditto

well except some of the ones since then have been pretty great, just not as great

Exactly. Sonic Nurse comes close, but it's no Murray Street

Fom their blog:

http://www.thewire.co.uk/themire/tag/releases-of-the-year

Anyway, sitting conspicuously at the top of The Wire’s Releases of the Year chart for 2011 is James Ferraro’s Far Side Virtual, by dint of the simple and maybe even bleedingly obvious fact that more staff and contributors voted for it than any other release issued this year. But what does that mean exactly? Because when you look closely, the individual wills that gave rise to such an outcome (The Wire‘s contributors say James Ferraro’s Far Side Virtual is the best thing released this year) start to appear rather peculiar in relation to it, ie: out of an electorate of 60 voters, only seven actually voted for Far Side Virtual in their individual top tens – that’s less than 12 per cent of the total electorate; and none of those electors who did vote for it actually had it as their individual top release of the year.

Far Side Virtual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OaIaQ8JefM

Oops sorry for posting that blog post again.

i fucking hate ilm so much

lol

But this is Sandbox ILM Lamp, you can make a REAL DIFFERENCE

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvepu1KTat1qexyuco1_400.gif

2006: Burial - Burial

yeah burial is probably the worst album itt and the most lol in retrospect (and thus regrettable?)

millions now living is maybe the worst choice in light of other options tho

waht... Millions now living is great!

And I still like Burial's album too ;_;

can someone transcribe The Wire's review of LULU from earlier this year? had no idea they liked it. looks like it made their 2011 top ten...

Two writers had it as their #1 iirc (Dave Keenan was one of them)

idg the burial skrillex.gif

the sound of one dubstep joke clapping

the Ayler box set is far and away the best of all of these.

but then the Ayler is the one thing on that list that wasn't contemporary, so it stands out in that regard.

But seriously, the concept of "album of the year" just seems so temporary as it is. And it's such an arbitrary exercise -- like a combo of stuffed-animal arranging and marketing ploy. The idea that years down the road people would discuss what is a "regrettable choice" just seems silly to me -- unless we're talking about having picked something that later led to mass murder, or the artist turned out to be a pedophile, wife-beater or racist or something.

isn't it so regrettable that they chose this one dude who can't even play a keyboard

considering how many singers that can't sing have gotten critical praise --

No idea whats funny about the James Ferraro record - I really quite like it. Prefer it to the others on this list

i have to admit i did laugh at the Casio Sk-1 and line 6 pedal combo -- because it was a cliche which led to an inside joke several years ago.

the Ayler box set, like most box sets, is possibly 'too much of a good thing' - though the track with cecil taylor alone is more 'gound-breaking' than Tortoise cld ever hope to be. when i was last in volcanic tongue, keenan was playing that new ayler live concert disc on hatart and it sounded absolutely FANTASTIC - a better way into Ayler, IMHO.

Is anyone buying a massive box set as a way in? If so, they're nuts.

most people i know that bought the Ayler box were already Ayler fans and thought the box was a very attractive object.

I finally got a copy for myself a few months ago. It's a stunner.

ferraro himself is not funny it's just funny that the wire gave #1 of the year to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfwoSXQx_uw with some bs concept or whatever

I don't know anything about the bs concept! - I only listened to the record because it came up in the EOY list thread and I'd never heard of him before

voted bjork because I can't stand her.

I don't understand the music of this james ferraro guy and I don't care enough to explore any further because it's like listening to raw black metal production applied to indie stuff. he looks like a cool dude though.

most people i know...thought the box was a very attractive object.

― sarahel, Sunday, December 11, 2011 5:52 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

most forks i know...thought the chair was a very attractive object

✔

picks from last 3 years are totally embarrassing

also, with most of the 90s stuff you get the feeling they were trying to do the "#1 albums as big statements" kind of approach to listmaking, the recent picks OTOH are more like random shit put together in a hurry or something. actress and ferraro are laughable choices, c'mon.

That Broadcast & the Focus Group record is great. Not embarrassing at all. To be honest, I wouldn't say the Actress record is embarrassing either, even though I'm not that keen on it.

the actress record is great c'mon

xposts FOUR yrs dude, The Bug

that bug record is great.

wtf man, broadcast and the focus group, actress, the bug are good records.

most people i know that bought the Ayler box were already Ayler fans and thought the box was a very attractive object.

― sarahel, Sunday, December 11, 2011 5:52 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

That's how I felt about it, being a longtime Ayler fan. But I actually felt like I was making certain allowances: yeah, it's got too many embarrassing outtakes from his worst record, but it's also got his Newport set with Milford Graves. Yeah, it's got two entire CDs of not-entirely-coherent interviews, but it's also got his lone recording with Cecil Taylor. I don't know where the idea that this box was supposed to be an entry point into, or even an overview of Ayler's work came about -- it's all previously-unreleased and, one assumes, for fans mostly. It's more important as a historical document than it is as a word -- first, last, or otherwise -- on Ayler's work.

i likes that book album