They’re starting to dribble out already so let’s round them up here.

Paste magazine, I am lolling @ u

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2011/11/the-50-best-albums-of-2011.html

50. Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones

49. Mates of State – Mountaintops

48. Drake – Take Care

47. Real Estate – Days

46. Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost!

45. Those Darlins – Screws Get Loose

44. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

43. The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

42. Wild Flag – Wild Flag

41. James Blake – James Blake

40. Portugal. The Man – In The Mountain, In The Cloud

39. Foster the People – Torches

38. Over the Rhine – The Long Surrender

37. The War on Drugs – Slave Ambient

36. Mister Heavenly – Out Of Love

35. Childish Gambino – Camp

34. Seryn – This Is Where We Are

33. The Head and the Heart – The Head and the Heart

32. Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

31. Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines

30. Tom Waits – Bad As Me

29. Feist – Metals

28. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes

27. Black Lips – Arabia Mountain

26. The Low Anthem – Smart Flesh

25. The Antlers – Burst Apart

24. TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light

23. The Belle Brigade – The Belle Brigade

22. The Black Keys – El Camino

21. Charles Bradley – No Time For Dreaming

20. Beirut – The Rip Tide

19. Cults – Cults

18. Wye Oak – Civilian

17. The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow

16. Yuck – Yuck

15. Deer Tick – Divine Providence

14. Adele – 21

13. Radiohead – The King of Limbs

12. Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean

11. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

10. The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

9. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

8. Dawes – Nothing Is Wrong

7. Wilco – The Whole Love

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – It’s A Corporate World

5. Middle Brother – Middle Brother

4. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l

3. My Morning Jacket – Circuital

2. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

1. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

god help paste magazine if they really haven’t heard any albums better than those 50

Yep, totally dismal

Songlines top ten albums

http://www.songlines.co.uk/world-music-news/2011/11/best-albums-of-2011/

Abigail Washburn—City of Refuge

Aurelio—Laru Beya

Carminho—Fado

Blind Note—Blind Note

Boban & Marko Markovic & Fanfare Ciocarlia—Balkan Brass Battle

Cecil Sharp Project—Cecil Sharp Project

Söndörgő—Tamburising

Dawda Jobarteh—Northern Light Gambian Night

Anda Union—The Wind Horse

Anoushka Shankar—Traveller

Rough Trade shop—top 100 albums

1 josh t pearson—last of the country gentlemen

2 nicolas jaar—space is only noise

3 kurt vile—smoke ring for my halo

4 gillian welch—the harrow and the harvest

5 pj harvey—let england shake

6 veronica falls—veronica falls

7 zomby—dedication

8 john maus—we must become the pitiless censors of ourselves

9 the head and the heart—the head and the heart

10 white hills—h-p1

11 sbtrkt—sbtrkt

12 lykke li—wounded rhymes

13 metronomy—the english riviera

14 calvi anna—anna calvi

15 bon iver—bon iver

16 pollyn—living in patterns

17 beirut—the rip tide

18 ema—past life martyred saints

19 cults—cults

20 balam acab—wander / wonder

21 ghostpoet—peanut butter blues and melancholy jam

22 lanterns on the lake—gracious tide take me home

23 drive by truckers—go-go boots

24 tom the lion—the adventures of tom the lion

25 civil wars—barton hollow

26 emmy the great—virtue

27 the low anthem—smart flesh

28 black lips—arabia mountain

29 seahawks—invisible sunrise

30 villalobos ricardo and max loderbauer—re: ecm

31 jeb loy—the jeb loy nichols special

32 wild beasts—smother

33 wild flag—wild flag

34 yuck—yuck

35 cook hollie—hollie cook

36 wooden shjips—west

37 waits tom—bad as me

38 tucek sarabeth—get well soon

39 still corners—creatures of an hour

40 dum dum girls—only in dreams

41 arctic monkeys—suck it and see

42 wilco—the whole love

43 the stepkids—the stepkids

44 washed out—within and without

45 the leisure society—into the murky water

46 carlyle mara—floreat

47 iceage—new brigade

48 dawes—nothing is wrong

49 blake james—james blake

50 the vaccines—what do you expect from the vaccines

51 peaking lights—936

52 radiohead—king of limbs

53 azari and iii—azari and iii

54 danger mouse and daniele luppi—rome

55 male bonding—endless now

56 cashier no 9—to the death of fun

57 the war on drugs—slave ambient

58 unknown mortal orchestra—unknown mortal orchestra

59 bjork—bibliophilia

60 cat’s eyes—cat’s eyes

61 moore thurston—demolished thoughts

62 little dragon—ritual union

63 king creosote and jon hopkins—diamond mine

64 the field—looping state of mind

65 fucked up—david comes to life

66 the decemberists—the king is dead

67 martyn—ghost people

68 flashman—to the victor—the spoils

69 wu lyf—go tell fire to the mountain

70 other lives—tamer animals

71 explosions in the sky—take care take care take care

72 cornershop ft. bubbley kaur—cornershop and the double ‘o’ groove

73 the felice brothers—celebration florida

74 dirty beaches—badlands

75 real estate—days

76 richmond fontaine—the high country

77 dury baxter—happy soup

78 she keeps bees—dig on

79 dark dark dark—wild go

80 planningtorock—w

81 pete and the pirates—one thousand pictures

82 kitty daisy and lewis—smoking in heaven

83 fleet foxes—helplessness blues

84 the horrors—skying

85 moon duo—mazes

86 big deal—lights out

87 locussolus—locussolus

88 new look—new look

89 kode 9 and the spaceape—black sun

90 beastie boys—hot sauce committee part two

91 woods—sun and shade

92 love inks—esp

93 summer camp—welcome to condale

94 jehst—the dragon of an ordinary family

95 i break horses—hearts

96 shabazz palaces—black up

97 big troubles—romantic comedy

98 neon indian—era extrana

99 tune-yards—whokill

100 tyler the creator—goblin

an improvement on the paste list but still way too much boring indie

also, a top 100—who can even take that all in?

not me for a kick off.

The bottom 50 of a top 100 usually tends to be a lot more interesting to me than the top.

Because, if it’s caused by voting listmaking, it means that at least 2 people have ~really~ loved something which was either ignored or loathed by everyone else. Which is the sign of a marmitey album that I might love more than the dull boring critical consensus ones.

it’s true! someone needs to develop some sort of app for filtering out the dull consensus picks

just noticed that they mistitled the bjork album at 59 :)

i do not have the brain for this kind of list-making, but the frank ocean & colin stetson lps are on neither, & are interesting lps. i know that’s picky but that they’re reasonably highly thought of inside their non-indie-genres seems illuminating.

i’m fucking livid at that paste list

35. Childish Gambino – Camp

35. Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino

dealwithit.gif

DECIBEL EOY List:

1. Tombs—Path of Totality

2. Opeth- Heritage

3. Mastodon—The Hunter

4. In Solitude—The World. The Flesh. The Devil.

5. Brutal Truth- End Time

6. Hate Eternal—Phoenix Amongst the Ashes

7. YOB—Atma

8. 40 Watt Sun—The Inside Room

9. Inquisition—Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual.......

10. Junius—Reports From The Threshold of Death

11. Graveyard—Hisingen Blues

12. Primordial—Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand

13. Exhumed—All Guts, No glory

14. False—False

15. Autopsy—Macabre Eternal

16. Revocation—Chaos of Forms

17. Trap Them—Darker Handcraft

18. Obscura—Omnivium

19. Drugs of Faith—Corroded

20. Subrosa—No Help for the Mighty Ones

21. Ulcerate—The Destroyers of All

22. Fucked Up—David Comes to Life

23. Atriarch—Forever the End

24. Disma—Towards the Megalith

25. Moab—Ab Ovo

26. Gridlink—Orphan

27. Skeletonwitch—Forever Abomination

28. Vallenfyre—A Fragile King

29. Crowbar—Sever the Wicked Hand

30. Mournful Congregation—The Book of Kings

31. Machine Head—Unto the Locust

32. ABSU—Abzu

33. Negative Plane—Stained Glass Revelations

34. Origin—Entity

35. Darkest Era—The Last Caress of Light

36. Deafheaven—Roads to Judah

37. Hammers of Misfortune—17th Street

38. Krallice—Diotima

39. Rwake—Rest

40. Graf Orlock—Doom Box

i’m fucking livid at that paste list

I can only assume you’ve never seen a Paste list before, since this is par for the shitty course.

THE FLY

01—BURST APARTTHE ANTLERS

02—THE ENGLISH RIVIERAMETRONOMY

03—SKYINGTHE HORRORS

04—DYE IT BLONDESMITH WESTERNS

05—A DIFFERENT KIND OF FIXBOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

06—LET ENGLAND SHAKEPJ HARVEY

07—SMOTHERWILD BEASTS

08—FATHER, SON, HOLY GHOSTGIRLS

09—WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM THE VACCINES _ THE VACCINES

10—GLOSS DROPBATTLES

11—SMOKE RING FOR MY HALOKURT VILE

12—THE KING OF LIMBSRADIOHEAD

13—YUCKYUCK

14—PALAFRIENDLY FIRES

15—ANNA CALVIANNA CALVI

16—WITHIN AND WITHOUTWASHED OUT

17—BON IVERBON IVER

18—JAMES BLAKEJAMES BLAKE

19—VERONICA FALLSVERONICA FALLS

20—CEREMONIALSFLORENCE & THE MACHINE

21—UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRAUNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA

22—DAYSREAL ESTATE

23—ARABIA MOUNTAINBLACK LIPS

24—A CREATURE I DON´T KNOWLAURA MARLING

25—D—WHITE DENIM

26—HAPPY SOUPBAXTER DURY

27—HELPLESSNESS BLUESFLEET FOXES

28—GO TELL FIRE TO THE MOUNTAINWU LYF

29—NATIVE SPEAKERBRAIDS

30—GARDENS & VILLAGARDENS & VILLA

31—A THOUSAND HEYSMAZES

32—CADENZADUTCH UNCLES

33—LAST NIGHT ON EARTHNOAH & THE WHALE

34—HOTEL SHAMPOOGRUFF RHYS

35—STRANGE MERCYST. VINCENT

36—SUCK IT AND SEEARCTIC MONKEYS

37—PAST-LIFE MARTYRED SAINTSEMA

38—WOUNDED RHYMESLYKKE LI

39—MIRROR TRAFFICSTEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS

40—SBTRKTSBTRKT

41—SLAVE AMBIENTTHE WAR ON DRUGS

42—MYLO XYLOTOCOLDPLAY

43—BLACK UPSHABAZZ PALACES

44—CEREBRAL BALLZYCEREBRAL BALLZY

45—BUILD A ROCKET BOYS!—ELBOW

46—ANGLESTHE STROKES

47—PARADISESLOW CLUB

48—VALHALLA DANCEHALLBRITISH SEA POWER

49—PASSIVE ME, AGRESSIVE YOUTHE NAKED AND THE FAMOUS

50—THE BIG ROARTHE JOY FORMIDABLE

Sonic (Swedish magazine) Albums

1. PJ Harvey—Let England Shake

2. Gillian Welch—The Harrow & the Harvest

3. My Morning Jacket—Circuital

4. Paul Simon—So Beautiful or So What

5. Lykke Li—Wounded Rhymes

6. James Blake—James Blake

7. Fleet Foxes—Helplessness Blues

8. Ryan Adams—Ashes & Fire

9. Tinariwen—Tassili

10. Feist—Metals

11. Bon Iver—Bon Iver

12. The Weeknd—House of Baloons

13. Shabazz Palace—Black Up

14. Wilco—The Whole Love

15. Frank Ocean—Nostalgia, Ultra

16. A. A. Bondy—Believers

17. Kurt Vile—Smoke Ring for My Halo

18. Adele—21

19. Tim Hecker—Ravedeath, 1972

20. Tyler, The Creator—Goblin

21. Deportees—Islands & Shores

22. Zomby—Dedication

23. Ison & Fille—För evigt

24. Holy Ghost!—Holy Ghost!

25. Jonathan Johansson—Klagomuren

Blitz from Portugal.

50) The Dodos: No Color

49) Mastodon: The Hunter

48) Bill Callahan: Apocalypse

47) Zomby: Dedication

46) Wild Flag: Wild Flag

45) TV on the Radio: Nine Types of Light

44) Toro Y Moi: Underneath the Pine

43) Patrick Wolf: Lupercalia

42) David Sylvian: Died In Wool

41) SBTRKT: SBTRKT

40) Jessica Lea Mayfield: Tell Me

39) Radiohead: The King of Limbs

38) Gang Gang Dance: Eye Contact

37) The Weeknd: House of Balloons

36) Smith Westerns: Dye It Blonde

35) Friendly Fires: Pala

34) Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials

33) The Field: Looping State Of Mind

32) tUnE-yArDs: w h o k i l l

31) Tinariwen: Tassili

30) Justice: Audio, Video, Disco

29) Metronomy: The English Riviera

28) Afrocubism: Afrocubism

27) Trap Them: Darker Handcarft

26) Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto

25) Chico Buarque: Chico

24) Lykke Li: Wounded Rhymes

23) Feist: Metals

22) Wild Beasts: Smother

21) Low: C’mon

20) Jamie Won: Mirrorwriting

19) Diddy Dirty Money: Last Train To Paris

18) Jonathan Wilson: Gentle Spirit

17) Britney Spears: Femme Fatale

16) Beyoncé: 4

15) Tyler, the Creator: Goblin

14) Katy B: On a Mission

13) Anna Calvi: Anna Calvi

12) Destroyer: Kaputt

11) WU LYF: Go Tell Fire to the Mountain

10) Adele: 21

09) Tom Waits: Bad As Me

08) Laura Marling: A Creature I Don’t Know

07) Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring For My Halo

06) Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks: Mirror Traffic

05) Bon Iver: Bon Iver

04) Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues

03) Nicolas Jaar: Space Is Only Noise

02) PJ Harvey: Let England Shake

01) James Blake: James Blake

Recordstore.co.uk

1. Connan Mockasin Forever Dolphin Love

2. Metronomy The English Riviera

3. The Horrors Skying

4. Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo

5. Azari & III Azari & III

6. Little Dragon Ritual Union

7. Cut Copy Zonoscope

8. Unknown Mortal Orchestra Unknown Mortal Orchestra

9. Smith Westerns Dye It Blonde

10. Shabazz Palaces Black Up

11. Cat’s Eyes Cat’s Eyes

12. Thurston Moore Demolished Thoughts

13. Radiohead The King Of Limbs

14. The Antlers Burst Apart

15. Baxter Dury Happy Soup

16. Bon Iver Bon Iver

17. Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost

18. Yuck Yuck

19. The War On Drugs Slave Ambient

20. Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes

21. Black Lips Arabia Mountain

22. EMA Past Life Martyred Saints

23. Dum Dum Girls Only In Dreams

24. Laura Marling A Creature I Don’t Know

25. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi Rome

26. Slow Club Paradise

27. Dutch Uncles Cadenza

28. Beastie Boys Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

29. Wooden Shjips West

30. Papercuts Fading Parade

Q’s Top 50 Albums Of 2011

50. Justice—Audio Video Disco

49. Frank Ocean—Nostalgia, Ultra

48. Noah & The Whale—Last Night On Earth

47. Mastodon—The Hunter

46. SBTRKTSBTRKT

45. Miles Kane—Colour Of The Trap

44. Death In Vegas—Trans-Love Energies

43. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins—Diamond Mine

42. Josh T Pearson—Last Of The Country Gentlemen

41. Girls—Father, Son, Holy Ghost

40. Danger Mouse & Daniel Luppi—Rome

39. James Blake—James Blake

38. Feist—Metals

37. Washed Out—Within And Without

36. Katy B—On A Mission

35. Cass McCombs—Humor Risk

34. Gruff Rhys—Hotel Shampoo

33. tUnE-yArDs—W H O K I L L

32. Radiohead—King Of Limbs

31. Beastie Boys—Hot Sauce Committee Part II

30. Lady Gaga—Born This Way

29. Kasabian—Velociraptor!

28. Gillian Welch—The Harrow & The Harvest

27. Ed Sheeran—+

26. Lykke Li—Wounded Rhymes

25. Wild Beast—Smother

24. Real Estate—Days

23. Bjork—Biophilla

22. White Lies—Ritual

21. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds—Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

20. The Weeknd—Thursday

19. Cass McCombs—Wit’s End

18. Anna Calvi—Anna Calvi

17. Metronomy—The English Riviera

16. Kurt Vile—Smoke Ring For My Halo

15. Baxter Dury—Happy Soup

14. The Weeknd—House Of Balloons

13. Bombay Bicycle Club—A Different Kind Of Fix

12. Laura Marling—A Creature I Don’t Know

11. The Horrors—Skying

10. Elbow—Build A Rocket Boys!

9. WU LYF—Go Tell Fire To The Mountain

8. St Vincent—Strange Mercy

7. Arctic Monkeys—Suck It And See

6. Jay-Z & Kanye West—Watch The Throne

5. Coldplay—Mylo Xyloto

4. Bon Iver—Bon Iver

3. Adele—21

2. PJ Harvey—Let England Shake

1. Florence + The Machine—Ceremonials

1. Connan Mockasin Forever Dolphin Love

waht is this?

i’m fucking livid at that paste list

― dealwithit.gif, Tuesday, November 29, 2011 8:48 AM (1 hour ago)

they had drake ; )

Connan Mockasin album is decent psych-pop, but is also a 2010 album rereleased in 2011 under a different title (was previously Please Turn Me Into The Snat, so you can see how a change helped).

glad he had a rethink on the snat before the wish anus turned up

How do you think the wish anus came to be?

that truly is the riddle of the sphincs

the fact that the decemberists placed so much farther ahead of some of my favorite records in that paste list just blows my mind

xp hahaha

o_O at Florence #1 in Q.

My God at that Q list.

where is kate bush band???

1. Tombs—Path of Totality

haha are there really 2 metal albums named path of totality this year?

No – my god at that Paste list.

are there any good lists, anywhere

Piccadilly Records Albums of the Year

Not going to type out all 100, these are the top 20:

1. Peaking Lights—936 (yay!)

2. Kurt Vile—Smoke Ring For My Halo

3. The Phoenix Foundation—Buffalo

4. Maria Minerva—Cabaret Cixous

5. Metronomy—The English Riviera

6. Wooden Shjips—West

7. Other Lives—Tamer Animals

8. The Kills—Blood Pressures

9. Black Lips—Arabia Mountain

10. Widowspeak—Widowspeak

11. Shimmering Stars—Violent Hearts

12. Dum Dum Girls—Only In Dreams

13. Pure X—Pleasure

14. Jonathan Wilson—Gentle Spirit

15. PJ Harvey—Let England Shake

16. Harvey Presents Locussolus—Locussolus

17. Vetiver—The Errant Charm

18. J Mascis—Several Shades of Why

19. Real Estate—Days

20. Washed Out—Within and Without

Only one list so far has featured Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Funny how everyone scans over the metal list as “oh, well, they just cover metal so of course they’re gonna have a list full of metal albums” yet every time something that just covers shitty indie has a list made up of shitty indie people are LIVID.

haha are there really 2 metal albums named path of totality this year?

lolyes

xp but it’s not even good indie :(

I’d say Q at least pretends to cover more than shitty indie? I guess they do include Jay-Z and Kanye to demonstrate they know about the rapping too.

Rounder Records (Brighton) top 50:

1.THE HORRORS—“Skying” (XL)

2.SUUNS—“Zeroes QC” (Secretly Canadian)

3.THE WAR ON DRUGS—“Slave Ambient” (Secretly Canadian)

4.PJ HARVEY—“Let England Shake” (Island)

5.HYETAL—“Broadcast” (Special Branch)

6.FORD & LOPATIN—“Channel Pressure” (Software)

7.NEON INDIAN—“Era Extrana” (Transgressive)

8.JOHN MAUS—“We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves” (Upset The Rhythm)

9.MOON DUO—“Mazes” (Souterrain Transmissions)

10.PEAKING LIGHTS—“936” (Weird World)

11.THURSTON MOORE—“Demolished Thoughts” (Matador)

12.SBTRKT—“SBTRKT” (Young Turks)

13.METRONOMY—“The English Riviera” (Because)

14.YUCK—“Yuck” (Mercury)

15.MAYER HAWTHORNE—“How Do You Do” (Universal Republic)

16.CAT’S EYES—“Cat’s Eyes” (Polydor)

17.BOOKER T JONES—“The Road From Memphis” (Epitaph)

18.THE FIELD—“Looping State Of Mind” (Kompakt)

19.STEPHEN MALKMUS—“Mirror Traffic” (Domino)

20.VERONICA FALLS—“Veronica Falls” (Bella Union)

21.WILD FLAG—“Wild Flag” (Wichita)

22.JOHN TEJADA—“Parabolas” (Kompakt)

23.JUSTICE—“Audio, Video, Disco” (Edbanger)

24.BEASTIE BOYS—“Hot Sauce Committee Part Two” (Capitol)

25.JAMIE WOON—“Mirrorwriting” (Interscope)

26.MEMORY TAPES—“Player Piano” (Something In Construction)

27.LOCUSSOLUS—“Locussolus” (International Feel)

28.NO JOY—“Ghost Blonde” (Mexican Summer)

29.GUI BORATTO—“III” (Kompakt)

30.WIDOWSPEAK—“Widowspeak” (Captured Tracks)

31.MOGWAI—“Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will” (Rock Action)

32.MARTYN—“Ghost People” (Brainfeeder)

33.ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER—“Last Summer” (City Slang)

34.J.MASCIS—“Several Shades Of Why” (Sub Pop)

35.TORO Y MOI—“Underneath The Pine” (Carpark)

36.THE KILLS—“Blood Pressures” (Domino)

37.WASHED OUT—“Within & Without” (Weird World)

38.RINGO DEATHSTARR—“Colour Trip” (Club AC30)

39.DENNIS COFFEY—“Dennis Coffey” (Strut)

40.EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY—“Take Care Take Care Take Care” (Bella Union)

41.GRUFF RHYS—“Hotel Shampoo” (Ovni)

42.TOM WAITS—“Bad As Me” (Anti)

43.MODESELEKTOR—“Monkeytown” (Monkeytown)

44.HOLY GHOST—“Holy Ghost” (DFA)

45.RUSTIE—“Glass Swords” (Warp)

46.KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS—“Smoking In Heaven” (Sunday Best)

47.WOODEN SHJIPS—“West” (Thrill Jockey)

48.BALAM ACAB—“Wander/Wonder” (Triangle)

49.ST. VINCENT—“Strange Mercy” (4AD)

50.BLOOD ORANGE—“Coastal Grooves” (Domino)

^^^ decent list

I’d say Q at least pretends to cover more than shitty indie?

Q doesn’t even cover very much shitty indie. They cover old man rock music.

I want to check out the Suuns record from that list, it sounds pretty interesting.

SBTRKT album is coming up a lot—any good?

emil.y: http://www.myspace.com/suuns_

btw the Blanck Mass album over in FACT is really good

container album on the fact list is excellent too. check out the track ‘dissolve’ cos that is a banger

Also the Haxan Cloak album, though I do need to listen to it a bit more.

btw the Blanck Mass album over in FACT is really good

truth

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. – It’s A Corporate World

this... this is a real album?

FACT list looks cool, though I’ve only heard two albums so far. But to be fair, I’ve only heard 5–10% on most of these lists...

i need to hear that Haxan Cloak album, actually

it’s okay but not all that great—the roly porter record makes a better fist of the strings plus menacing ambience thing imo

Ooh, I haven’t heard that.

ha, well even that one gets a bit boring too

Holy cow JEHST made a record? In 2011? That made a list? I was just assuming he was working at an twenty four hour petrol station being annoyed at the kids these days.

Or to sum it up, lol.

SBTRKT album is coming up a lot—any good?

Yes.

I want to check out the Suuns record from that list, it sounds pretty interesting.

The pre-album EP was really good, but the album doesn’t hang together so well.

ha maybe my next poll will be Suuns vs. Death Grips

35: JON BROOKSMUSIC FOR THOMAS CARNACKI VOL. 1

This sounds like total emil.y bait:

This remarkable, digital-only album by Jon Brooks – best known for his work as The Advisory Circle on Ghost Box – might just be the last word in hauntology. Under a title that nods to the supernaturally-attuned detective of William Hope Hodgson’s pre-war fantasy fiction, Brooks presents 27 perfectly-formed miniatures of occult ambience, queer-pitched radiophonics and pseudo-classical whimsy. An absolute delight.

Yes! I was surprised that I hadn’t actually heard that this year. Unless the mister has surreptitiously played it—he’s at least as big a Ghost Box fan as me, if not even more.

That Suun album actually came out back in 2010 in the States, its hit or miss tbh. Some really great tracks, but a lot of filler iirc.

what is moon duo like

Fucking awesome. Its a side project of a Wooden Shjips dude, but more emphasis on keyboards. Some fucking jams on that new album.

i’m fucking livid at that paste list

~shrugs~

Looks like a Paste list.

CKotm

Oh, I see that’s been covered.

Yeah, I really like the Moon Duo record. Don’t dig the Doors-isms of Wooden Shjips, but MD are groovy synthy shiz.

Meh, I liked the WS album this year more than the MD album

I liked them both, but I felt like the Shjips record was them on cruise control—fine, but nothing they hadn’t done already. The Moon Duo record was a leap from the previous stuff though, but he best thing they did this year was “Sickener” on the Horror Tour thing.

Jon Brooks – best known for his work as The Advisory Circle on Ghost Box

The guy’s been busy this year. As the Crow Flies is also quite nice.

haha are there really 2 metal albums named path of totality this year?

If you wanna call Korn & Skrillex “metal” that is. But to be a pedant, Tombs is Path of Totality while Korn added The to the front of it.

what are the consensus hip hop and rnb albums this year?

Childish Gambino

haha

LIVID

Camp

Uncut magazine:

50 Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra

49 Arbouretum – The Gathering

48 Cornershop Featuring Bubbley Kaur – Cornershop And The Double-O Groove Of

47 The Caretaker – An Empty Bliss Beyond This World

46 Iceage – New Brigade

45 Mikal Cronin – Mikal Cronin

44 tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l

43 St. Vincent – Strange Mercy

42 Jenny Hval – Viscera

41 Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’

40 Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow

39 Dawes – Nothing Is Wrong

38 His Golden Messenger – From Country Hai East Cotton

37 Little Dragon – Ritual Union

36 Jonny – Jonny

35 My Morning Jacket – Circuital

34 Fatoumata Diawara – Fatou

33 Low – C’Mon

32 Gil Scott Heron & Jamie XX – We’re New Here

31 Destroyer – Kaputt

30 Tim Hecker – Ravendeath, 1972

29 Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What

28 King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine

27 Björk – Biophilia

26 The Decemberists – The King Is Dead

25 Bill Callahan – Apocolypse

24 Real Estate – Days

23 Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts

22 Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact

21 James Blake – James Blake

20 Ry Cooder – Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down

19 Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots

18 Tinariwen – Tassili

17 Feist – Metals

16 Jonathan Wilson – Gentle Spirit

15 Wilco – The Whole Love

14 Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

13 Tom Waits – Bad As Me

12 Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

11 Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know

10 The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

09 Bon Iver – Bon Iver

08 Wild Beasts – Smother

07 Radiohead – The King Of Limbs

06 The Horrors – Skying

05 Josh T. Pearson – Last Of The Country Gentlemen

04 White Denim – D

03 Metronomy – The English Riviera

02 Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest

01 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

not totally horrible

Ha ha, that decibel list explains why I was only assigned one blurb this year…

my problem with paste has always been not that their taste is incredibly boring and lame (which it is of course) but that the writing generally never got past “college freshman kicking it around in the arts section of the school paper” level. i mean, interesting things can be said about tons of artists that paste loves (well maybe not she & him and m. ward and shit) but i don’t think paste has ever really employed those ppl.

tho i think putting iron & wine, the decemberists and wilco in your top 15 in 2011 means it’s time for you to go to doggie heaven.

Ctrl-F Matana Roberts ...

:(

LJ swears up and down that the new Wilco is the best thing they’ve ever done

you mean the guy that made a chocolate & cheese sauce to serve with fish?

new wilco is actually really good if you’re into wilco

that’s a strangely lame list from piccadilly, considering all the hot shit they carry

glad that holy ghost isn’t being forgotten

idolater

http://idolator.com/6092572/favorite-albums-2011-idolator

Foster The People, Torches

Lady Gaga, Born This Way

Beyonce, 4

Will Young, Echoes

Oh Land, Oh Land

Adele, 21

The Sound Of Arrows, Voyage

Patrick Stump, Soul Punk

Ben Folds, The Best Imitation Of Myself: A Retrospective

Britney Spears, Femme Fatale

lol at all these lists, tho my own would include a lot of “indie.”

NO BON IVER THO that is gross.

The idea of anyone either praising or going out of their way to mock the Bon Iver is kind of funny to me, its such a bland, boring record that I can’t see anyone inspired in either direction. And I actually liked the first one.

FACT list continues to be the most varied and interesting among year-end lists.

it’s not an easy listen but i love that patten album! andy stott is great too but i probably ended up listening to his other 2011 record (we stay together) more

i think it’s fair to combine both of stott’s 2011 EPs into one album for year-end purposes.

↓ Next page

Skipping messages here...

↑ Previous page

haha doran

LUH-LUH-LUH-LUH-LUH-LUH-LUH-LUH

*holds microphone out benevolently to session guitarist*

Lol, I remember when Jessie J was on SNL early in the year, I was convinced she was going to be HUGE.

this was the woman at the MTV awards doing the between-awards music from a chair, right (I think she had crutches...?) god that was awful

on which subject, jessie j’s thoughts on the crutches episode:

“I’m back in the swing, getting my cast off after nine weeks of this awful Smurf shoe. But it’s put everything in perspective. I have a different respect now for people who don’t have legs.”

...

lmao

lolol

is she one of those graduates from the posh Brits School?

yeah but it’s not particularly posh (common misconception of it)—it’s free to attend

my year end mixtapes if anyone wants em: bit.ly/1000times2011

the picture of britney and the little dog made me think of this CLASSIC MOVIE SCENE

of course, i’m sure britney would never engage in that type of behavior.

(and no, the clip isn’t NSFW)

My Top 40 is here if anyone wants to see it, although not that interesting.

SFJ from the New Yorker 2011 tracks in his Spotify list

http://www.myplaylistisbetterthanyours.com/spotify/playlist/27081/

lol @ token

ooooops. meant 2 say lol @ token hipsterism

I give up.

wait is there supposed to be ONE token hipster track on that playlist? that’s what that means, right?

yeah some dude otm i didnt really notice any

oneohtrix stuck out to me, but shrug. there are definitely things on that playlist i have not heard & am not interested in hearing so maybe i don’t know what i’m talkin about.

lol lamp

if anything sticks out on there, it’s the chris watson track.

Tim Sweeney’s best of 2011:

http://www.beatsinspace.net/playlists/605

The Chris Watron record is superb. I may be biased towards it due to having just completed my first year where I’ve had to get a train more days than not. The Andy Stott ‘We Stay Together’ record has quality train ambiences going on too.

-Watron

+Watson

I’ve hardly seen the Junior Boys album come by on any of these lists, which surprises me.

Terrorizer is meant to be out today, anyone got the top albums list?

Pretty independent-looking list in local weekly:

http://alibi.com/music/39879/Sonic-Deluxe.html

On first 43 seconds, this Caretaker thing sounds great.

(I see it’s already been mentioned a bunch on this thread.)

the first 43 seconds of the caretaker record could be the beginning of a really amazing record but they are sadly just the first of many seconds of the caretaker record

I don’t outright ~hate~ a lot of music.

But for instance: I am not a big Bob Dylan fan. I think this is because I’m less interested in lyrics than I am in interesting sounds, and I also don’t find much appeal in traditional folk/blues structures. I suspect that Dylan partisans are, generally, the kind of people who sit down and pay attention to words and who not only aren’t bored by the trad structures but find strength and emotional depth in them. It’s not my cup of tea, but I can see how he appeals to people who listen to music differently than I do.

― jaymc, Monday, December 26, 2011 9:01 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Permalink

You basically just defined my “problem” with Dylan perfectly. When the sounds of his music are interesting to me, I’m interested. But for the most part the sounds leave me cold.

I notice that I don’t pay much attention to lyrics until a good 5–6 listens in, and I’ll never get that far along if the sounds don’t interest me from the start.

i dont like that jaymc post, makes dylan seem all cerebreally distant instead of visceral. i find my interest in dylan to be fairly visceral & entertaining before i even think abt the lyrics. i mean, no one sounds like him

yeah there’s a whole world of chin-stroking ‘lyrical’ rock out there that is in part derived from dylan but his appeal seems kind of singular (and i say that as not a huge fan myself)

yall need to read Kogan’s Disco Tex essay; classic Dylan is well-enmeshed in the tradition of turning lyrics into the semiotic equivalent of “interesting noises”, all the while working fully in the aforementioned folk/blues structures

1962 and 1963: “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall” and “The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll” are Bob Dylan’s original attempts to resemble the mambo. In Cuba in the ’30s, when everyone was adding horn parts, Arsenio Rodriguez (I’m told) took the call-and-response section at the end of the son and scored the horns in the rhythms of Yuka drum parts, increased the polyrhythms. (Yuka is a Bantu musical form that survived in Cuba, I think. I don’t know what I’m talking about; I took a course once.) Arcano and Cachao did something similarly polyrhythmic to the call-and-response section at the end of the danzon. The call-and-response section tended to grow and grow at the expense of the other sections. James Brown did something similar in the early ’60s, took a song (“I Lost Someone,” “Prisoner Of Love”) and threw a church-derived call-and-response vamp into it; the call and response grew and grew on his records and dominated his live show; finally (on some stuff) he abandoned the “song” form altogether and just did the vamp, and put in new polyrhythms (derived from Caribbean rhythms but jammed tight between the measure bars) to form his characteristically tense North American funk. And Dylan did something analogous (though without the focus on polyrhythm, so it really doesn’t have much to do with mambo or funk, does it?): he had all these words he wanted to put in, so to get them in he’d take a sung line and just vamp on it, adding line upon line of words, rather than getting on with the song. (And it gets real tense, you’re ready to scream while you’re waiting for the tune to resolve.) He’d also use vocal as drone, rhyme as drone, word-repetition as drone, so you had a blues drone stuck in the middle of a folk song:

Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage
And never sat once at the head of the table
And didn’t even talk to the people at the table
Who just cleaned up all the food from the table
And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level

Finally he sold out and went electric and on “Subterranean Homesick Blues” he got rid of song altogether and just did the vamp (and the drone and the repetition).

i think its sorta ‘...’ for ppl like the lex to defend or attack stuff on the grounds of taste like one of the only worthwhile things that comes outta the whole retrograde actually poptimist worldview is that the snobbish class conciousness and false refinement of ‘good taste’ is basically totally bogus

good point

huh?

to what?

for ppl like the lex to defend or attack stuff on the grounds of taste like one of the only worthwhile things that comes outta the whole retrograde actually poptimist worldview is that the snobbish class conciousness and false refinement of ‘good taste’

I can’t follow.

No snark — I just can’t parse this.

pictured: a lamp

i was saying ‘good point’ to lamp — there’s definitely like a word or clause missing in his post that makes it hard to read but i agree with the sentiment

imo poptimisim (or w/e) was in part abt dismantling the sort of assumptions that underlie arguments abt ‘good taste’ many of which are just snobbishness and like lifestlye signalling masquerading as ‘judgement’. like the idea of having ‘good taste in music’ is in itself suspect because it divorces the music from its own context and puts into yrs and also because it makes listening abt like consumer selection rather than comprehension

that’s not really poptimism so much as bourdieu

well i mean i thought thats where they got it from but idk, my limited conception of the ‘project’ was that it was more than just a way of justifying yr girls aloud cds at yuppie london dinner parties

but really i have no clue and am an idiot

i still think saying that something shitty because its in bad taste is lazy worthless criticism but w/e

but really i have no clue and am an idiot

good point

j/k but no really i feel you. i’ve been thinking lately about how i don’t really trust anyone who isn’t enthusiastic about at least some things that are deeply uncool or in ‘bad taste.’ and like when people taunt me about listening to Limp Bizkit or “Moves Like Jagger” or something all i think is isn’t it kind of obvious i’m not really worried about whether people think i have ‘bad taste’?

if your gut has never lead you to some places you’re not 100% comfortable going then you’re probably not actually listening to it

Trying to explain ambiguity or vulgarity to an audience is half the battle of a critic imo.

totally

i mean i will happily needle whoever for listening to drake but it’s not because i’m aghast that anyone likes such a gauche pop rapper, if anything my problem with him is that his music is so disgustingly tasteful and timely

as a guy known for defending purportedly risible crap I can imagine being persuaded by a cogent analysis of Drake, but I’ve yet to read one that didn’t inadvertently paraphrase his press releases (e.g. the buzzwords “introspective,” “tortured,” “speaking his mind,” etc).

haha dismissing stuff as tasteful is even worse imo

i don’t think bourdieu or our revisionist&idealized poptimist project thought you cld have asocial criticism shorn of those biases. it should instead be the aim to bring those values to the fore and mb have ppl engage w/ the contingent foundation their taste is built on.

i think you can make big BLEUGH partisan dismissals w/out being dishonest, blind or self-deceiving about the nature of yr own taste/personal lamp brand

sure but i dont know how ‘worthwhile’ it is? dishonest also isnt really the same as lazy i guess

im probably being foolish simply becaue i really like thinking abt taste and self-image and social position and how they map onto preferences in music and how they help give form and nuance to pop music and its nice if other ppl are doing the same rather than just lol u have shitty taste or w/e

ugh this is all really popmpus and stupid probably but like i do think drake projects a kind of... connoisseurship in his rapping that feels p upper middle-class but that also seems to reflect/intersect with the very this season production work on ‘take care’ which in turn is kindof alienating to me or maybe just of a piece w/his narcissism

i dunno man, i listen to music instead of thinking about self-image and social position (xp)

but otm about drake. kind of ties into how i always felt like he just kind of stepped out of the vapor of 2008/2009 when the 2 biggest rappers were kanye and lil wayne as like this mathematically calibrated halfway point between them, and for all the ways he doesn’t fit the profile of a rap star in and ‘interesting’ way he’s also just kind of a slavish sycophant to other rappers and his audience in general.

sure but i dont know how ‘worthwhile’ it is? dishonest also isnt really the same as lazy i guess

this is the nub of it, right?

Like, the problem with disliking something because it’s bad taste isn’t that it’s wrong but that as a criticism it doesn’t really tell you anything about the actual relationship b/w the speaker and the music (other than in a bourdieu distinction sense). It’s a boring statement, whereas the answer to “what do you mean when you say something is bad taste?” often can be quite interesting. It’s really a “use other words please” issue rather than a “yr critical model is flawed” issue IMO.

To my mind the main relationship b/w bourdieu and pop(tim)ism is the idea that r’ships between social groups and pieces or types of music are there to be interrogated rather than generalised in order to bolster yr opinion.

Needless to say not everyone who likes chart-pop necessarily abides by that injunction.

haha someone around here (hurting, i think) told me recently that for someone with such good taste, i have really questionable taste. i took this as a huge compliment.

i <3 “tasteful” music

i don’t think i’ve ever subscribed to a dogma of poptimism, or of anything. you make your taste up as you go along really.

it is interesting to see what artists are kneejerk acceptable/unacceptable in various social circles though, and i’d agree with shipz that if everything you like conforms to “acceptability” in whatever your social circles are, and you are an adult, you are maybe doing it a bit wrong

if everything you like conforms to “acceptability” in whatever your social circles are, and you are an adult, you are maybe doing it a bit wrong

― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, December 30, 2011

Social circles defn of acceptibility often isn’t static but gradually morphs tho? That group-shift is pretty interesting, I often don’t notice it happening then suddenly realize

In the last few years I’ve felt my own taste move (in relative position) from being kind of one the outside of the social circle (too dry) to being central/integral to the social circle to outside again but in a different way (but this time not dry enough)

but then,

The social circle gradually changed

the taste of the people in both the newer and older sections of the social circle also changed during that time

I gradually changed also

What is tasteful today is tacky tomorrow and viceversa

on ism

Love

NCW

Tang

Fred P

Like

Teengirl Fantasy

Storm Queen

Oktored(!)

Specter

Disco Nihilist

Shake

Juju & Jordash

dont know the rest!

Actually just realized the Teengirl Fantasy is the beautiful swimmers mix not the john talabot. talabots is pretty good, but the beautiful swimmers one is definitely the go to mix on that

Reading the blurbs on that ISM countdown makes me think I should listen through the whole list. The only ones I know are Escort, Floating Points, Ital and Anthony Shakir/BBC and they’re all superb.

Is there a Firefox plugin or somewhat that extracts Youtube links from a webpage and turns them into a playlist? There should be.

not the same but http://www.youtubereloaded.com does it via manual pasting of URLs

My copy of the NCW 12

arrived today, only knew of this because of ISM, great stuff

To my mind the main relationship b/w bourdieu and pop(tim)ism is the idea that r’ships between social groups and pieces or types of music are there to be interrogated rather than generalised in order to bolster yr opinion.

r’ships may have been my father’s nickname in grade school

lamp otm itt

Terrorizer top 40 albums list cos I was asked nicely

1 Mastodon—The Hunter

2 Autopsy- Macabre Eternal

3 Trap Them—Darker Handicraft

4 Devin Townsend—Ghost / Deconstruction

5 Amebix—Sonic Mass

6 Altar of Plagues—Mammal

7 Wolves in the Throne Room—Celestial Lineage

8 Blood Ceremony—Living With the Ancients

9 Necros Christos—Doom of the Occult

10 In Solitude—The World. The Flesh. The Devil

11 Today Is The Day—Pain Is A Warning

12 Primordial—Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand

13 40 Watt Sun—The Inside Room

14 The Devil’s Blood—The Thousandfold Epicentre

15 Solstafir—Svartir Sandar

16 Fucked Up—David Comes To Life

17 Tombs—Path of Totality

18 Machine Head—Unto the Locust

19 Negative Plane—Stained Glass Revelations

20 Vallenfyre—A Fragile King

21 Ancient Vvisdom—A Godlike Inferno

22 Opeth—Heritage

23 Craft—Void

24 Sonne Adam—Transformation

25 Brutal Truth—End Time

26 Disma—Towards The Megalith

27 Leviathan—True Traitor, True Whore

28 Yob—Atma

29 All Pigs Must Die—God is War

30 Cave In—White Silence

31 Steven Wilson—Grace For Drowning

32 Will Haven—Voir Dire

33 Decapitated—Carnival is Forever

34 Obscura—Omnivium

35 Rwake—Rest

36 Morbus Chron—Sleepers in the Rift

37 Maim—Deceased To Exist

38 Absu—Abzu

39 Esoteric—Paragon of Dissonance

40 Shining—VII: Fodd Forlorare

not a bad list imo, plenty of stuff I don’t care about but it doesn’t seem manipulated or focusgrouped in whatever way

Thanks!!

Surprised Mastodon won yet I couldn’t see else in the list who would win. Yet again Uncle Acid have been ignored. Maybe next years lists will see them mentioned once its out in the USA.

wasn’t the Uncle Acid an edition of a couple of hundred? Not surprising that lots of people overlooked it.

apparently ppl download stuff nowadays or so I’m told

I’ve still not heard it cos I was so IA at the eBay disposable income prickery / standard Rise Above dick moves

seems like something I’d dig tho

it is

popjustice readers have spoken

beyonce’s 4 was the 3rd worst album of 2011.

http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5928&Itemid=9

I thought the YOB album would be higher in the Terrorizer poll actually. Pleased to see Today Is The Day in high.

they hate party rock anthem? fuck them

My top 100 of 2011, yalllll

http://bit.ly/whogivesashiiiiit

pistol annies! :)

i would never ever have thought you were into nicolas jaar

haha why not!

too tasteful, too pretty maybe? idk

still think he’s maybe one of the artists i’ve discovered in the past 14 months who’s most blown me away but if i was to put together a list of reasons/tracks why, the album would not constitute many of them.

Pistol Annies album is so tuff.

Glad to see Seun Kuti sneak on on there. I’ve been listening to the Matana Roberts this week, and it’s definitely fascinating, though parts are also excruciating.

Lex OTM wrt the Jaar album.

Whiney, Bob Boilen from NPR radio/website All songs Considered site, and the afropop.org site all chose the nice understated kora and cello duet album Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal—Chamber Music (Mali and France)—(on Six Degrees)

It’s growing on me but I went elsewhere with my African music choices

Orchestre Poly- Rythmo-Cotonou Club (Strut)

Jon Pareles at the NY Times also went with this one

That should be Orchestre PolyRythmo

If they had gone with the full TuneYards style lettering they could have made more lists

POX nico jaar:

wouh

a time for us

marks

the bees—winter rose (nicolas jaar remix)

ellen allien—flashy flashy (nicolas jaar remix)

space is only noise if you can see

love you gotta lose again

russian dolls

el bandido

no regular play—owe me (nicolas jaar remix)

If they had gone with the full TuneYards style lettering they could have made more lists

maybe every artist should do this for lols?

pIsToL aNnIeS—h e l l o n h e e l s

tIm HeCkEr—r a v e d e a t h , 1 9 7 2

etc.

It took two hours to compose that post didn’t it