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

TY FOR THAT LINK, LEX

Fleet Foxes album is great

I got 4 songs into the Fleet Foxes album before the creaky voice did for me. Which is really sad because I genuinely genuinely love Shape Note harmonies, which are all over their record. But just... I can't.

Lol Lex, Badu's concerns are straight cultural studies dept. At a state university...

Also, it's unfortunate that Kitty Empire thought it necessary to include Childish Gambino in her top 10 list

^^^ like this is totally valid criticism of the Fleet Foxes record imho. I guess I just feel like there's a lot of this kneejerk "ugh harmonies and beards and folk" dismissal of them. I think they are doing a lot more interesting things with folk than, I don't know, that terrible Decemberists record (and I actually used to like them too).

(xpost)

The Fatima Al Qadiri EP is indeed supergreat, I've been pushing it on the Outloud room.

How is Kitty Empire the name of a real person and not a villainous movie heiress?

or paradise on earth

cuz british music journalists with wite ppl names magically acquire better ones

Yeah it's not her real name, also the title of a Big Black song.

XLR8R's Best of 2011: Tracks
http://www.xlr8r.com/features/2011/12/xlr8rs-best-2011-tracks-part-2

20. Holy Other "Feel Something" (Tri Angle)
19. Rustie "Ultra Thizz" (Warp)
18. Teeth "Shawty" (502)
17. Martyn "Masks" (Brainfeeder)
16. Omar-S "Here's Your Trance Now Dance" (FXHE)
15. Kingdom "Let You No" (Night Slugs)
14. xxxy "Ordinary Things" (Ten Thousand Yen)
13. Unknown "Sicko Cell" (SWAMP81)
12. Jacques Greene "Another Girl" (LuckyMe)
11. Classixx "Into the Valley (Julio Bashmore Remix)" (Green Label Sound)

10. Tycho "Hours" (Ghostly)
9. Virgo Four "It's a Crime (Caribou Remix)" (Rush Hour)
8. The Weeknd "The Morning"
7. SBTRKT "Wildfire (feat. Little Dragon)" (Young Turks)
6. Martyn "We Are You in the Future" (Brainfeeder)
5. Holy Other "Touch" (Tri Angle)
4. Mosca "Done Me Wrong" (Numbers)
3. Scuba "Adrenalin" (Hotflush)
2. M83 "Midnight City" (Mute)
1. Julio Bashmore "Battle for Middle You" (PMR)

OK, well, the idea of a music critic adopting a fanciful pseudonym is kind of eye-roll.

cuz british music journalists with wite ppl names magically acquire better ones

it doesn't really happen any more, i've noticed

i like having a wite ppl name b/c it tends to result in commenters and sundry other haters yell at me about being white, which amuses me greatly. one particular hater, formerly of this parish, was so pressed that he resorted to calling me "culturally white" lololololololololol

I like it - Johnny Cigarettes, K-Punk, Julie Burchill etc...

I thought it was about still being able to sign on the dole while drawing a teeny tiny paycheck from NME reviews that didn't even cover the drinks tab at yr average gig?

also about writing for rival publications when you weren't meant to? not sure

i can't think of a british single music journalist of ~my generation~ (and uh younger) who uses a pseudonym - there was miss amp but she's a bit older and doesn't do music writing any more?

can I go back to the RA singles list for a second, because I'm currently playing Storm Queen's "It Goes On" and basically everything I've heard on this list so far has been good to fantastic

Even now, as the UK's diplomatic links with Iran unravel

Isn't that nice and agentless?

PJ Harvey's vocals annoy me here (I don't remember what she sounds like elsewhere) and the songs are so-so as songs.

(I was never a fan of hers.)

I was, but i still prefer White Chalk over this album. Dunno why.

what little Storm Queen stuff I've heard sounded rad but my personal favourite thing is that it shares its name with an early 80s NWOBHM band from the Welsh valleys who were managed by Rod Liddle

extreme lifestyle = dj mencap?

if it wasn't clear already then it is now

yes

hi!

(when is the terrorizer issue with the top albums out?)

note to self: never pay attention to FACT ever again

xp start of Jan I guess?

ok cool.

this Guardian contributors list is very different to all the others

Dom Lawson

Albums

1. Machine Head – Unto The Locust
2. MOONWAGON – Night Dust
3. WOLFSBANE – Wolfsbane Save The World
4. OPETH – Heritage
5. NECROPHAGIA – Deathtrip 69
6. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR – A Grounding In Numbers
7. STEVEN WILSON – Grace For Drowning
8. HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE – 17th Street
9. DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT – Deconstruction
10. DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT – Ghost

Tracks

1. MACHINE HEAD – Darkness Within
2. WOLFSBANE – Live Before I Die
3. OPETH – The Devil's Orchard
4. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR – Highly Strung
5. HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE – The Grain
6. KORN feat. Skrillex – Get Up
7. MACHINE HEAD – Locust
8. NECROPHAGIA – Naturan Demonto
9. RIVAL SONS – All Over The Road
10. DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT – Juular

lol @ #3 album

He also seems to have picked most of his fave tracks from the albums he chose

CAPITAL LETTERS FTW!

Skrillex presumably doesn't get caps due to FALSE METAL.

I guess I just feel like there's a lot of this kneejerk "ugh harmonies and beards and folk" dismissal of them.

i love harmonies, but more the journey-type. if fleet foxes dump the pretense of seriousness and become a 70s yacht-rock act (but a self-aware 70s yacht-rock act), i think i'll love them.

what's wrong with seriousness

I would argue that "seriousness" is the least of Fleet Foxes' problems

unfortunately the argument would end there because everything about them short-circuits my ability to form coherent arguments and takes me straight to "thank god I live in a world where I never, ever, ever, ever, EVER have to hear these guys, even by accident"

Also I am happy that Dan is loving the 2011 techno bobbins but dude don't miss out on the Oliver $, it is a thing of glory.

O_O

HOLY SHIT re: OLIVER $

YES MOTHERFUCKER I AM HAVING A GOOD TIME

You would not believe how well that goes off on dancefloors. Actually you would, it's obvious, but still...

Loving Chunklet's "analysis" of Greg Kot's top 20 of 2011 list: http://www.chunklet.com/index.cfm?section=blogs&id=709

Mmm, seems terribly unfunny to me tbh

That is really laboured and not funny in the slightest.

that's Chunklet for you

you can't do "snarky know-it-all" and then go "I don't know who Raphael Saadiq is"

idk i get some p good lols out of imagining what that dudes band sounds like

i bet theyre really good and wear plaid shirts when they play shows

ayo dan thank you for compiling the ra list into a spotify thing

really enjoying this

ra list is amazing, but still kinda baffled that the consensus tiger & woods track on these EOY lists was originally released in 2010 and is probably my least favorite thing on the album (tho the fact that it got on the p4k list is still kinda cool, idk)

god damn i am loving this morhposis record

NPR Listeners Pick Their Favorite Albums of 2011:

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. The Black Keys - El Camino
7. Wilco - Whole Love
8. Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
9. Beirut - The Rip Tide
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/Kanye West - Watch the Throne
22. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
23. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
24. Cults - Cults
25. James Blake - James Blake

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/14/143717007/listeners-pick-their-favorite-albums-of-2011