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

the Katy B has been the perfect December record.

i was going to say this about the andy stott or demdike stares discs, if and when it finally gets cold around here.

The Andy Stott is now out in a 2CD version with bonus tracks (which are of a similar level of quality to the rest)

i dont read the guardian so i dont know what the 'comments box massive' listen to generally, but i can make a guess at radiohead,gapdyxx,fleet foxes, bon iver etc?

― Minga Frump (Jimmy Riddle), Thursday, 15 December 2011 13:25 (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

the thing is that most ppl who comment there literally just do so to complain about stuff, so for the most part who the fuck even knows

to an extent that's because there's no real sense of community and personal interaction that you get on an actual messageboard, but I think another important factor is that they're the worst group of people on the face of the planet

I used to love pop music, and the pop music I used to love back then I still love now. But this is rubbish, and all of the other items on your list are rubbish. The rot set in about 1987 and we've had a terminal decline ever since that leaves us with just this drek to listen to. And you know it too: you can pretend all you like, but you feel the vacuum deep inside.

:D

Terrible, awful pop nonsense - and for the record I really do like good pop music. Ting Tings was a superb pop album. This is not.

^this is the best so far I think

Innerspeaker
15 December 2011 1:25PM
Response to rupert303, 15 December 2011 1:17PM

Hang your head in shame, Guardian Music.

Both Katy B and Beyonce are in the Hipster's Bible's (Pitchfork's) Top 30 albums of the year.

You know, just saying....

duly noted, person named after Tame Impala album

also: wtf @ Machine Head making one of the best metal albums of the year? They were around when I was in high school I think...?

the thing is that most ppl who comment there literally just do so to complain about stuff, so for the most part who the fuck even knows

to an extent that's because there's no real sense of community and personal interaction that you get on an actual messageboard, but I think another important factor is that they're the worst group of people on the face of the planet

― Extreme Lifestyle,

so if pj harvey wins everyone will moan its predictable safe boring ,a nadir for music journalism and rockist and if its excluded they will instead complain the guardian is out of touch, a terrible shame on music journalism, a nadir for the guardian and poppist ?

Wonder if the daily mail or the sun publish a best albums list. I would imagine the comments there would be far worse.

also: wtf @ Machine Head making one of the best metal albums of the year? They were around when I was in high school I think...?

is there any writers there who cover metal or did they just pick it out of nowhere?
Anyway having not heard it i cant comment on it, but I doubt it's one of the best but maybe it has crossover potential? Their 3rd album had some terrific pop moments on it.

Neu75

15 December 2011 2:47PM

Pop lists tend to be a bit homogenus these days.

Take 1981 for example for the #1's:

NME - Nightclubbing - Grace Jones
Melody Maker - Penthouse And Pavement - Heaven 17
Sounds - Dare - Human League

No doubt PJ Harvey's album is good but where's the variety or are the media class that decides these things are all of a similar mindset?

lex youre a part of the guardian mindset!

Heaven 17 and Human League? My god, how diverse!

lol

lex is totally right though about getting the popcorn out for the comments section. I think whoever said they dont even know why they are arguing or what about is totally right

really really fuck these people who are voting the clams casino instrumental versions of 'i'm god' and 'motivation' over the lil b vocal versions. i know lil b isn't always great but he absolutely owns those two tracks :'(

and "I'm God" is nearly two years old at this point

Yeah! Fuck all these guys who aren't voting for something even its fans admit is patchy as fuck!

Machine Head will be Dom Lawson's number one I guess. Good to see him writing for the Graun. About time they had a dedicated metal writer. (Although they did have some sterling work done by sub Jamie Thomson.)

i've listened to so little of these lists apart from the rap/r&b. even all the electronic music listed i've mostly never heard of and i've probably been out clubbing more / listened to more house music than ever before. even that RA albums list is looking like fact-music to me. hopefully their singles list will be better.

and "I'm God" is nearly two years old at this point

the instrumental version appears on one of the lists upthread

Fuck all these guys who aren't voting for something even its fans admit is patchy as fuck!

i didn't say those songs were patchy as fuck, i'm saying they are classics.

I was agreeing with you tpp

ah sorry - having a bit of a bad day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyS9kU4F9x4

:-) love that song

Machine Head will be Dom Lawson's number one I guess. Good to see him writing for the Graun. About time they had a dedicated metal writer.

That's cool. He used to write for Kerrang didn't he? and now Metal Hammer

btw as an aside doran, as you know I've been really critical of Metal Hammer in the past, but ive bought the last 2 issues (yeah im a sucker for lists) but they are covering some of the bands I like and its not bad, even if really expensive £4.75!!!! It's not as good as Terrorizer or ZT or Rock-A-Rolla for me but might pick it up again if there's someone i really like in it. Enjoyed the Subterranea section, wish the whole mag was like it though! and again it's nice to read a magazine with loads of reviews.

also it's first time since 2008 that hawtin/villalobos haven't taken the top 2 places of the RA DJ chart

*sigh*

To all the rockist complainers why don't you just accept that rock music is creatively dead and The Guardian writers are acknowledging that also proving they are not luddite old farts stuck in the past of rocks history like the great majority of posters here.
The only way this list could be ruined would be if a metal album was number 1. And I'd hope Guardian writers would have more taste than liking the whitest anti-minorities music of all time. Funny how black metal is played and listened to by exclusively white men. Metal is very much a whites only club so all of you whinging that there is no Mastodong, Wolves In The Bathroom or Shiturgy should go read kerrap or terrorizer with the other spotty oiks in their midlands estates.
I just wish Katy B or Beyonce had been number 1 to see all your collective heads explode.

if that guy is typical of the commentors on the site then fuck them

i might use wolves in the bathroom as a d/n though

Fair enough about 'lady gag'. Im not trying to be hipster. i just find her whole persona so empty and her songs more-so. I think for reading articles linked under culture in one of the most popular newspapers in the world we can do better.

I try to read this site so maybe i can find something inspiring that relates to my life, but with gaga its just insipid i find..there is nothing there.

Btw i dont hate pop music. Blondie are my favorite band, i just cant stand meaningless bland over-hyped pop, which i find gaga to be.

'all songs considered' listeners taking a stand

1. Bon Iver: Bon Iver

2. Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues

3. Adele: 21

4. The Decemberists: The King Is Dead

5. Radiohead: The King Of Limbs

6. Black Keys: El Camino

7. Wilco: The Whole Love

8. Florence + the Machine: Ceremonials

9. Beirut: The Rip Tide

10. Foster The People: Torches

11. M83: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

12. Feist: Metals

13. Iron & Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean

14. tUnE-yArDs: w h o k i l l

15. St. Vincent: Strange Mercy

16. The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow

17. Death Cab for Cutie: Codes And Keys

18. Tom Waits: Bad As Me

19. My Morning Jacket: Circuital

20. Bright Eyes: The People’s Key

21. Jay-Z and Kanye West: Watch The Throne

22. Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto

23. PJ Harvey: Let England Shake

24. Cults: Cults

25. James Blake: James Blake

Mastodong, Wolves In The Bathroom or Shiturgy

quite funneh actually.

forgot death cab even put out an album this year

i wouldnt go that far dog latin.

I think there are now plenty of indie/rock kids out there who are ready and willing to diversify and explore other styles, but for whom diving straight into the deep end of r'n'b is just a little outside their comfort zones. When an artist is presented in the way of Frank Ocean, it doesn't feel like such a leap and hopefully this will lead to further exploration: "Well I can deal with Frank Ocean, how about The-Dream" and onwards...

way late to this but sort of can't believe this kind of strawmanning still goes on. people are not genre partisans anymore, by and large. (except maybe rap and metalheads I guess lol)

it's really more that there are people who are genre partisans and people who aren't, regardless of genre

there are people who like to think they're not genre partisans (and genre isn't quite the right word tbh)

what is the right word

"aesthetic"? idk i'm multitasking right now

challops partisans

EVERYONE is an aesthetic partisan* though

Oh, I'm probably an aesthetic partisan - not that I like solely a single aesthetic, but that I can quite clearly partition 'my' aesthetics and 'not-my' aesthetics. But that has nothing to do with genre at all.

^ likes pizza aesthetics

Yeah, emil.y makes complete sense - that I think most ppl do have overt or otherwise aesthetic preferences which slot into distinct patterns, though whether that dovetails neatly with "genre" is another kettle of fish.

Fotherington T what did you mean by

This is where JR and I have ~differences~ but I am really uncomfortable with the way that "Metal" has been raised to that position of automatic rockist privilege that "Indie" used to occupy 20 years ago, now that "Indie" has become completely mainstream.

^ likes pizza aesthetics

― Minga Frump (Jimmy Riddle), Thursday, December 15, 2011 4:37 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

aesthetic paisan

aesthetic parmesan

agree with the whole "aesthetics" thing, but really:

way late to this but sort of can't believe this kind of strawmanning still goes on. people are not genre partisans anymore, by and large. (except maybe rap and metalheads I guess lol)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 15 December 2011 16:26 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

you're seriously telling me you never meet people any more who say they hate "all rap" or glorify rock music because "it's more real" or whatever? this is diminishing, which is what i was saying upthread, but it hasn't gone away.

I don't really want to get into it, JR, because this is not the place, and I probably shouldn't have brought it up if it was a challop I was not prepared to get into an argument of. But a lot of the dialogues that I see happening around "Metal" these days just remind me uncomfortably of the discussions around "Alternative" and "Punk" and whathaveyou back in the late 80s and early 90s, in terms of insider/outsider positioning and authenticity narratives.

But I am running on way too little sleep at the moment to pad it out into any cogent argument, so I'd really rather not.

ou're seriously telling me you never meet people any more who say they hate "all rap"

More common for me to meet people who like "all music except country."

you're seriously telling me you never meet people any more who say they hate "all rap" or glorify rock music because "it's more real" or whatever? this is diminishing, which is what i was saying upthread, but it hasn't gone away.

I literally cannot remember the last time anyone said this kind of thing to me. maybe in the 90s in lol college. certainly none of the kids I know talk this way.

you're seriously telling me you never meet people any more who say they hate "all rap" or glorify rock music because "it's more real" or whatever? this is diminishing, which is what i was saying upthread, but it hasn't gone away.

The 'i like everything except rap/metal/country/reggae/rave shite/opera/punk/modern rnb that isnt like the yardbirds' brigade have not gone away. They exist and sadly get younger every year.