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

is the Bon Iver album an 80s-retro thing?

At least partly, yeah. One song sounds like Toto (without the rhythm section, kind of like the song you know I won't hold you back).

Surprised they went for seemingly every Benoit & Sergio *except* Everybody which I thought was kinda the acknowledged anthem.

I'm kind of sad the Art Department album didn't make any EOY lists, this year.

speaking of dull

an art department where all the paint is grey

ha xp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph05AIKuJGY

This is the Art Department and is pretty decent - but there's also Soul Clap and Onsulade input there as well.

Generally I think they're fine when there are no vocals getting in the way.

I didn't think it was grey. certainly moody, but quite emotional and affecting.

Tiny Mix Tapes (USA) Albums EOY 2011
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/2011-favorite-50-albums-2011

50 - Tom Waits - Bad as Me
49 - Liturgy - Aesthetica
48 - Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One: Les Gens de Couleur Libres
47 - Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo
46 - A Winged Victory for the Sullen - A Winged Victory for the Sullen
45 - Tiziana Bertoncini and Thomas Lehn - Horsky Park
44 - The Psychic Paramount - II
43 - St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
42 - Zomby - Dedication
41 - Fabio Orsi - Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul
40 - Kreng - Grimoire
39 - Arrington de Dionyso’s Malaikat dan Singa - Suara Naga
38 - Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1
37 - Telebossa - Telebossa
36 - Future Islands - On the Water
35 - The Men - Leave Home
34 - Panda Bear - Tomboy
33 - Rafael Toral - Space Elements Vol. III
32 - M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
31 - EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
30 - Lil B - I'm Gay
29 - Thee Oh Sees - Castlemania
28 - Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/Dream
27 - The Weeknd - House of Balloons
26 - Amen Dunes - Through Donkey Jaw
25 - Hype Williams - One Nation
24 - Bill Orcutt - How the Thing Sings
23 - PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
22 - Death Grips - Ex Military
21 - James Ferraro - Far Side Virtual
20 - DJ Rashad - Just a Taste
19 - Sean McCann - The Capital
18 - Flaming Lips - The Strobo Trip: Light and Audio Phase Illusions Toy
17 - Dirty Beaches - Badlands
16 - Kwjaz - Kwjaz
15 - Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
14 - Peaking Lights - 936
13 - Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
12 - tUnE-yArDs - WhoKill
11 - Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
10 - Demdike Stare - Triptych [2010]
9 - Destroyer - Kaputt
8 - Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
7 - John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
6 - Grouper - A I A: Alien Observer / A I A: Dream Loss
5 - DJ Diamond - Flight Muzik
4 - The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
3 - Colin Stetson - New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges
2 - James Blake - James Blake
1 - Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica

^ decent enough list, huge improvement on pitchfork imo

much more interesting. James Blake in second place is a bit of an odd one, considering the quality of the stuff that precedes it, but big props for putting DJ Diamond so near the top.

yeah, the tiny mix tapes list is interesting. i mean, there's a lot of overlap and re-ordering of the titles on the P4K list, but there are also interesting items on the TMT list that didn't make it to the P4K list (e.g., dirty beaches; demdike stares; peaking lights).

btw, i haven't gone thru it yet, but the individual lists on dusted's year-end summary are always interesting (no total-staff best-of list at dusted).

The Best Rhythm and Blues of 2011
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/tools/full/152019

01 Maya Azucena - Cry Love
02 Rashaan Patterson - Bleuphoria
03 Mamas Gun - The Life and Soul
04 Lalah Hathaway - Where It All Begins
05 Beverly Knight - Soul UK
06 Goapele - Break of Dawn
07 Patti Austin - Sound Advice
08 Van Hunt - What Were You Hoping For?
09 Daryl Hall - Laughing Down Crying
10 Ledisi - Pieces of Me

no yardbirds?

^agreed. It's an outrage.

luckily we have tuneyards

I don't normally like to bash P4K, but their list is less inspired than the NME's.

Who looks to these lists for inspiration?

this muthafucka

http://rlv.zcache.com/look_to_the_light_business_card-p240048209533610449yq46_400.jpg

Here's the tracks off of the RA list I could find on Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/user/djperry1973/playlist/1hyXkhovMXjdch00K74y6B

fyi 15 seconds in and I already like this list much much more than the FACT list

Yeah it's pretty good. Already discovered a few keepers i wasn't familiar with

okay I am in LOVE with this Sneaker track, which is essentially one measure of music repeated for 12 minutes

What was the guardian number 1? pj harvey?

yarp

WateryTart

16 December 2011 1:27PM

Let England Shake – a genuinely great piece of war art – was made by a woman, too, though in 2011 we really should have moved beyond finding this unusual. ...

Female singer-songwriters are supposed to be winsome things who write about their feelings for guys. ...

Folk singer Linda Thompson, part of a panel of judges who voted Let England Shake Uncut magazine's album of the year (it won the Mercury prize, and was Mojo and NME's album of the year, too) put it like this: "I was impressed that a woman could go through a whole album and not mention some stupid bloke, except a stupid dead bloke."

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

"She's a girl but she writes about war and that's innovative and unusual for a girl, though we really shouldn't have to say that. But we will. Because she's a girl. And her album is full of deep stuff, not like what girls usually write about. It's good when girls don't write about what girls usually write about."

I must reiterate:

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

okay really?

yeah, i thought that was a pretty weak summation of why this is a good album. I'm still looking for an "in" to it, but being told "it's good because it's a girl singing about war" is not only plain sexist, but the least interesting thing about the record.

I love that album for several reasons:

- The totally different, delicate vocal color of PJ's singing voice, particularly the stunning floated headvoice used on "On Battleship Hill".
- The connected narrative running through the album.
- The music arrangement of the songs.

yeah dan, really
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/dec/16/pj-harvey-let-england-shake

Linda Thompson's summation is lame but Kitty Empire's is a lot more nuanced than that.

i can't really think of anything more to say about LES - having written about PJH a lot this year - but every time i see someone suggest that LES : UK :: Destroyer : USA (in that UK critics care way less about Destroyer than US critics, and US critics care way less about PJH than Destroyer), I am tremendously thankful to be on the right side of that

Let England Shake – a genuinely great piece of war art – was made by a woman, too, though in 2011 we really should have moved beyond finding this unusual.

Yes durr.

But Harvey's gender, and her upbringing on a Dorset farm, are both inherent to its greatness.

Also true.

I was more boggling at Linda Thompson

i also liked Kitty E's write-up

NY Times critics top 2011 picks

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/from-retro-yuck-to-foodie-rap.html?ref=music Jon Caramanica

Likes Yuck, Action Bronson, Drake, Beyonce and more

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/music-of-heartache-mortality-and-success.html?_r=1&ref=music Jon Pareles

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/pistol-annies-yob-deaf-center-paul-simon.html?ref=music Ben Ratliff

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/arts/music/ambrose-akinmusire-drake-the-roots-st-vincent.html?ref=music Nate Chinen

guardian critics' lists:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/dec/16/albums-2011-critics-voted?intcmp=ILCMUSTXT9384

Harvey began writing lyrics for the album before setting the words to music. She has cited the poetry of Harold Pinter and T.S. Eliot as influences, as well as the artwork of Salvador Dalí and Francisco de Goya and music of The Doors, The Pogues, and The Velvet Underground.[7] She has also spoken of researching the history of conflict, including the Gallipoli campaign, and reading modern-day testimonies from civilians and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

this is very kinda 'ambitious sixth former'

well luckily her execution is way beyond "ambitious sixth former"

Diamond Mine has appeared 6 times ITT and always in the lower ranks. When Saints Go Machine appeared only twice, and just once in the higher echelons. And today I bought a scotch egg and there was no egg in it. Fuck this world!

on a related note why is so much conceptual ambition in art, esp that which involves actual research, always dismissed as "sixth former" or "undergraduate"? as if it's somehow juvenile?

if it is, the people responsible for slating it should be shot in front of their families (Etc).. Maybe this is some throwback to the punk-rock conceit that "concept albums are for nerdy art-fags who like classical music" or something?

and US critics care way less about PJH than Destroyer

I don't really see this though, PJH has seemed to show up ahead of Bejar on a lot of lists.

...from U.S. centric outlets, I meant to add.

Lolololololol at Reynolds putting Woebot's album in his top 10.

Also there's a Woebot album wtf?

idk this album but those all cohere into a particular sort of late-adolescent worldview

why is so much conceptual ambition in art, esp that which involves actual research, always dismissed as "sixth former" or "undergraduate"?

in this case i think it's partly to do with the listed influences being sort of obvious touchstones to young people just discovering literature/music and the idea of naive "anti-war" themes.

nb i've got no idea what the record's like i'm just explaining why that bit of review reads that way

woebot has been releasing for years!

nv gracious to the bleachers as ever

nb u cd just as easily make a list of trying-too-hard slightly more obscure references. it is the way that paragraph is written that gives off the vibe i think

on a related note why is so much conceptual ambition in art, esp that which involves actual research, always dismissed as "sixth former" or "undergraduate"? as if it's somehow juvenile?

Because Sixth Form was the last time in their lives that any of these people did any actual research or conceptual thinking, for pure intellectual curiosity, or any other reason.