So, instead of making a new thread for each new year-end list (as I was doing, like a dumbass), why not post any lists you might find of interest here?

My free local newspaper in the STL ( The Riverfront Times) has its year end bests out, but it strangely breaks them up by genre (hip-hop, local underground/indie, dance, heavy/black metal, and pop-rock) instead of combining them.

I;m gonna post the pop-rock list, but you should be able to find them all at:

www.riverfronttimes.com

If not, let me know which list you'd like me to post for you.

Pop-rock:

1. Franz Ferdinand-S/T
2. The Futureheads-S/T
3. R.E.M.-Around the Sun
4. Rilo Kiley-More Adventurous
5. The Faint-Wet From Birth
6. Rogue Wave-Out of the Shadow
7. Avril Lavigne-Under My Skin
8. Taking Back Sunday-Where You Want to Be
9. Snow Patrol-Final Straw
10. V/A-Garden State Soundtrack

I like some of these picks, but the R.E.M. was a dog and The Faint has escaped my radar this far. I guess Avril is an anti-indie choice (it's so uncool, it's circled back around to being cool?) but I find her caterwauling quite noxious. My buddy Cliff SWEARS by Taking Back Sunday, but it sounds like a slighty more melodic garden variety screamo to me....

I guess that I will include Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of the year" here. But I must first warn you that it is in alphabetical order, and now I must stake one major beef with the list:

Aerosmith has a new album? Who knew? I doubt that it deserves to be on any list other than worst attempt to stay in music this year. They haven't produced a good album in years. The list includes some "Pop Culture" things but it also includes Wilco, so it is eclectic in that sense.

This ones kind of fun.

Mostly electronic releases.

I check this website every once in a while.I think it updates once a month.Kind of a cooky uk site.

Check IT

This is a really good list.

More electronic and hip hop goodness.

I actually own most of these.HA....cant say that about many of the lists i have seen...that all seem similar or singular.

Here ya go!



Back to Back posts...so sue me!

Another good list!

I like this one.Kind of.

An interesting list.

I've still not heard a note from Animal Collective. What am I missing? A whole lot of people love that record...maybe I should be paying more attention.

Any words of wisdom about it? What/who does it sound like?

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
I've still not heard a note from Animal Collective. What am I missing? A whole lot of people love that record...maybe I should be paying more attention.

Any words of wisdom about it? What/who does it sound like?

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I've only started hearing it in the past week myself and have little to offer in the way of words of wisdom. I've been kind of shaking my head and saying, "So?" That's why the quote from the above list:

"When this one first came out, I thought it was a decent release. Then, I kept playing it and playing it and before I knew it I'd be humming along with different songs while I was sitting in the bus on the way to work or even repeating vocal lines aloud while I was walking somewhere. So infectious and inspired, this is a release that I kept finding new things to love over the course of the year. I still listen to it on a regular basis."

Caught my attention. That's happened to me with several albums this year and I'm wondering if it will be the case with Animal Collective as well.

For that matter, I've only been hearing The Arcade Fire for the first time over the past week and so far I'm having the same lukewarm reaction, but I've been absolutely loving the Fiery Furnaces, which I started spinning based on the number of raves it was receiving.

In the latter I diverge from Sweetie and pE, two people's whose taste if often a lead for me to follow.

I have to say, I really do love year-end lists. It's one thing to read a rave review, but year-end lists really give you a sense of what folks have loved this year. I'm really looking forward to the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop 2004. It's always all over the place.

Now Playing: The Chargers leading the Colts 31-23 late in the 4th

If you're going to check out Animal Collective, get Here Comes The Indian first. Really, that's all you need.

quote:

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Originally posted by LinnTate:


For that matter, I've only been hearing The Arcade Fire for the first time over the past week and so far I'm having the same lukewarm reaction, but I've been absolutely loving the Fiery Furnaces, which I started spinning based on the number of raves it was receiving.

In the latter I diverge from Sweetie and pE, two people's whose taste if often a lead for me to follow.

I have to say, I really do love year-end lists. It's one thing to read a rave review, but year-end lists really give you a sense of what folks have loved this year. I'm really looking forward to the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop 2004. It's always all over the place.

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I really just don't like Elanor's voice. Not much more can be said from my end. Oddly enough, as I was writing this I was being annoyed by the streaming track from KEXP. It was "Don't Dance Her Down" by the Fiery Furnaces. Eerie. Now I'm being annoyed by Cat Power.

When does the Pazz and Jop '04 come out? I had around 50 of their 240 best releases of 2003.

You don't like Cat Power?!?!?

Village Voice's list usually comes out at the very end of January.

No Cat Power for me. I just don't get it. And she put on a godawful live show that has made me reluctant to try her again.

Now...for more listmania...

Here's MAGNET magazine's top 20 for 2004, artists only.

1. Tom Waits
2. Modest Mouse
3. Comas
4. A.C. Newman
5. Comets on Fire
6. Guided by Voices
7. Franz Ferdinand
8. Mark Lanegan Band
9. Black Keys
10. Ambulance LTD
11. Iron and Wine
12. Interpol
13. Earlimart
14. Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter
15. TV On The Radio
16. Magnetic Fields
17. Veils
18. Jolie Holland
19. Ulysses
20. Animal Collective

They also have a list of the "10 Records You Missed in 2004" which include:

Dungen, Hold Steady, Menomena, Old Crow Medicine Show, On!Air!Library!, Reigning Sound, Rogue Wave, Ulrich Schnauss, Sleep Station, and Standard.

In the column "Where's The Street Team?" (where Andrew Earles deliberately baits the readers by slagging critical darlings) you get shots taken at Tom Waits (he's not "stylistically different from a child screaming in a restaurant"), Franz Ferdinand (they are "the airline pretzels of rock"), Magnetic Fields (a "Midol casserole"), Loretta Lynn (a record for people who are "between 50 and 80, a TV Guide subscriber, or a Nascar fan"), Brian Wilson ("Stop, Brian! That's not cereal! It's cat litter!" is the allegedly pithy comment here), and Wilco ("the dumbing down of obscure influences into one smooth package for the masses" which is "grandstanding in the name of experimentation" and rehashing krautrock that "Stereolab and a thousand other post-rock bands" had already done in the 90's which leads to Wilco being the "best purveyor of mortgage rock.")

Discuss.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philosopherEric,

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Wilco ("the dumbing down of obscure influences into one smooth package for the masses" which is "grandstanding in the name of experimentation" and rehashing krautrock that "Stereolab and a thousand other post-rock bands" had already done in the 90's which leads to Wilco being the "best purveyor of mortgage rock.")

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An appropriate statement, for sure. But the most accurate and scathingly poignant satire of Wilco's music is something I found here:

The alternate cover to "A Ghost Is Born".

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
They also have a list of the "10 Records You Missed in 2004" which include:

Dungen, Hold Steady, Menomena, Old Crow Medicine Show, On!Air!Library!, Reigning Sound, Rogue Wave, Ulrich Schnauss, Sleep Station, and Standard.

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That ulrich schnauss album should be in alot more top 10's that is one incredible album from fron to back...maybe its not because i think it came out in 03' and then was re-release din 04' for some reason.

All i know is my friend had a copy of it in 03' maybe it was a demo or something...but besides that this aan enchanting album.

I'm pleased to see Jollie Holland on the Magnet list and will second the mentions of Old Crow Medicine Show and Sleep Station. Holland and OCMS made my own Top 50 and Sleep Station was close, but didn't quite make the cut.

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
In the column "Where's The Street Team?" (where Andrew Earles deliberately baits the readers by slagging critical darlings) you get shots taken at Tom Waits (he's not "stylistically different from a child screaming in a restaurant"), Franz Ferdinand (they are "the airline pretzels of rock"), Magnetic Fields (a "Midol casserole"), Loretta Lynn (a record for people who are "between 50 and 80, a TV Guide subscriber, or a Nascar fan"), Brian Wilson ("Stop, Brian! That's not cereal! It's cat litter!" is the allegedly pithy comment here), and Wilco ("the dumbing down of obscure influences into one smooth package for the masses" which is "grandstanding in the name of experimentation" and rehashing krautrock that "Stereolab and a thousand other post-rock bands" had already done in the 90's which leads to Wilco being the "best purveyor of mortgage rock.")

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Feh. Good concept, but poor execution this go around. Perhaps I might have liked it more in context.

Ironically Something Awful did a better send up of Tom Waits unique style in their review of Magnet:

quote:

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Cover Story: Tom Waits. Apparently he coughed. More specifically, he coughed out a new album. I didn’t bother reading the cover story or listening to the record, but let’s assume it’s a lugubrious, alcohol-fueled collection of raspy ballads about working-class characters. Is that a fair assumption? Please, somebody who’s heard it, e-mail me and tell me that Tom Waits’s new record is NOT a lugubrious, alcohol-fueled collection of raspy ballads about working-class characters. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants? What if it were a collection of lighthearted pop songs sung in Waits’s heretofore unheard wispy falsetto that he keeps locked away in that thorny gulch that he calls a throat for special occasions?

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Pop Matters has posted indivdual writers' year end lists. There's a bit more variety than their collected list, though that's hardly surprising.

Now Playing: "A Black Machine" The Standard Wire Post to Wire (Yep Roc)

This is funny...


I love Stylus...they trump pitchfork anyday.

I don't visit Stylus enough, Imprezu21. Thanks for the link.

From your own backyard, KEXP has posted their Top 90.3 of 2004.

Anybody who listens to the station will find few surprises here. It is the only year-end list I've seen so far that includes Citizen Cope, which is an album I think I need to check out.

Now Playing: "Medical Aid" The Perceptionists Definitive Jux Presents III (Def Jux)

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
So, instead of making a new thread for each new year-end list (as I was doing, like a dumbass), why not post any lists you might find of interest here?

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It's actually "millenium-end", rather than "year-end", but I've always enjoyed perusing Scott's List

Scott Miller was the singer/songwriter/guitarist/mushroom-hair-frontman for the San Francisco avante pop bands Loud Family & Game Theory.

The list is a compendium of his personal "Top 20" picks for every year from 1965 thru 1999.

Some interesting selections in there.

.

List

These are some prety good lists.They cover alot of ground.

This is also a good website for reviews.

quote:

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Originally posted by Imprezu21:
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1403


I love Stylus...they trump pitchfork anyday.

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It seemed like a list that was aimed squarely at the Pitchheart.

I owned 4 of the 40 worst records (including one of my top 10 records, American Music Club) and liked all 4. But the list was funny and some of the barbs were well-deserved.

It's funny, though...the indie folk always toss barbs at the pop folks, but eventually the indie-er folks target the broader indie crowd. Apparently, you're really only cool if your the ONLY ONE to ever hear of an artist. The backlash against, say, Franz Ferdinand or Arcade Fire, whether it's well-deserved or not, only goes to show this.

I thought somebody already posted this year-end review from John Allison's Scary Go Round, but if they did I couldn't find it. I love the take on Brian Wilson's SMiLE among others:

This is the best burned-out hippie music ever. It is nice to hear an old fellow singing about things that bother him, such as vegetables and fire, and how he likes his wind chimes. It is a shame more old people don't write songs as they clearly have something to say.

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
It's funny, though...the indie folk always toss barbs at the pop folks, but eventually the indie-er folks target the broader indie crowd. Apparently, you're really only cool if your the ONLY ONE to ever hear of an artist. The backlash against, say, Franz Ferdinand or Arcade Fire, whether it's well-deserved or not, only goes to show this.

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Often the indie backlash takes two or three albums to come into play, as has started happening with Wilco with AGIB. I much prefer same year/same album backlash like we've had with Franz Ferdinand, so much more efficient and all.

Now, here's a list if you really want to establish indie cred. When somebody tells you how excited they are over the Slint reunion, you can roll your eyes elaborately and inform them that they can have those mainstream sell-outs, you'll be listening to Bernhard Gunter, thankyouverymuch.

In all seriousness, though, this is a list of some very good, very challenging music. A lot of folks around here would probably some of these albums, if you can track them down. I have to admit, though, this is the first year in a long, long time I've not owned a single one of One Final Note's top 10.

Now Playing: "7.5" Chris Potter Lift: Live at the Village Vanguard (SunnySide)