quote:

I tend to like and criticize albums for different things than most of the other people on this board, and that seems to make me a target sometimes. But what really makes me like or dislike an album is pretty much empirical measurement of my own tastes. (Which I am well aware, is weird, and don't care).

Disagree, Art,

I for one, find myself agreeing with your choices at least 80% of the time and often search for your new posts first.

In all honesty, I just go with my feelings. I may be the only person who has Neko Case as their #1, but her voice sends shivers right down to my tailbone, and I love the songs. I try to give each album a fair shake (2 or 3 listens) and then I just put them in some order that makes sense to me.

I'm willing to bet by this time next year, though, my 2006 list will be at least slightly different.

Neko was my number one all year long until I heard Grizzly Bear's "Yellow House". Now Neko is a very close second. You must hear this album.

Yeah, so Art (in my professional medical opinion) DOES, in fact, have Aspberger's.

While I admire your vigilance in keeping abreast on good music, Art (and I will pay special attention to your lists in the future because of that), the fact remains that record companies (majors and indies) hold off on their "best," or what most critics are going to call "best," releases until the August-November third.

Just look at last year's best of on Metacritic, the site's or the collective users'.

quote:

Originally posted by Chamberk:
In all honesty, I just go with my feelings. I may be the only person who has Neko Case as their #1, but her voice sends shivers right down to my tailbone, and I love the songs. I try to give each album a fair shake (2 or 3 listens) and then I just put them in some order that makes sense to me.

I'm willing to bet by this time next year, though, my 2006 list will be at least slightly different.

Shivers right down your tailbone eh?
I think the editors of amazon.com might agree with you.

Simple steps to making a year-end list:
1. Sit down with a glass of scotch.
2. Put on your favourite records from the 1980s.
3. Imagine you're an alien gathering data for your thesis: Music Earthlings Enjoyed in the year x.
4. Ask yourself: would I spend my girlfriend's life savings to see this band live?
5. Remember: the amount of time spent on the list will be negatively correlated to the quality of it.

Try it, Chamberk. It really works.

quote:

4. Ask yourself: would I spend my girlfriend's life savings to see this band live?

This doesn't work for me. I saw most of my Top 10 live, but the bands playing to the crowds with the highest concentration of indie rockers I willfully neglected. I love The Crane Wife, but that show would be torturous to me. (I did drive 8 hours to see Tom Waits in Akron, though.)

As the year progresses I toss every album I listen to into a notepad document. I rank them in order of how much I like them, from best at the top to worst at the bottom. Subsequent listens cause me to rerank. At the end of the year I then condense the list, taking out the bottom 75% and usually ending up with about 100 or so. I can then post subsets of this to webforums etc.

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5. Remember: the amount of time spent on the list will be negatively correlated to the quality of it

I agree with this completely. This year I barely did any preperation to make a list - I probably wrote down some prelimanary albums one time. I pretty much just dropped each album in the order I remember enjoying it at the time I first heard it. Any album I'm still listening to gets a bonus. Took me probably 10 minutes to get it done. It all comes in one burst of inspiration, kind of like ol' Sal Paradise

One reason I make a detailed list is so that I don't forget any albums. I try not to agonize over placement that much.

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

quote:

As the year progresses I toss every album I listen to into a notepad document. I rank them in order of how much I like them, from best at the top to worst at the bottom. Subsequent listens cause me to rerank.

Same here. My text document has the 80+ albums I've bothered to listen to this year (90% of which are based on the reviews/buzz out there)....obviously, the albums I listened to once and then deleted (the bottom 40% or so of the list) won't be in a totally accurate order, but I believe this sort of ranking system is the only way to come up with a nice list. I couldn't imagine trying to arrange a Top 20 right now without a ranking already there. It'd take forever and lead to numerous omissions.

The problem with the "favorite records of 1980s" bit is that I didn't grow up listening to music in the 80s. In all honesty I started listening to music around 1998... you know, right about when commercial radio was becoming creatively bankrupt. I basically searched out older music to listen to, and not a whole lot of that is 80s.

quote:

Originally posted by Chamberk:
The problem with the "favorite records of 1980s" bit is that I didn't grow up listening to music in the 80s. In all honesty I started listening to music around 1998... you know, right about when commercial radio was becoming creatively bankrupt. I basically searched out older music to listen to, and not a whole lot of that is 80s.

happy to see that finding hits from the 80s is more difficult than pretending to be an pseudo-intellectual alien.

The hardest part about making a year-end list, for me, is judging surf instrumental against vocal albums. Surf instrumental is by far my favorite genre and I'm pretty easy to please for albums of mostly original tracks. But I tend to judge surf albums harsher against vocal material on year-end lists and place them lower than where I really feel they should be. Maybe I should leave them out altogather or have a seperate all-instrumental album list, though I don't listen to much new instrumental music other than surf. Still, I've heard some exceptionally great funk and electronica instrumental albums this year. I've never included surf in year-end song lists, it'd be way too overwhelming.

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
The hardest part about making a year-end list, for me, is judging surf instrumental against vocal albums. Surf instrumental is by far my favorite genre and I'm pretty easy to please for albums of mostly original tracks. But I tend to judge surf albums harsher against vocal material on year-end lists and place them lower than where I really feel they should be. Maybe I should leave them out altogather or have a seperate all-instrumental album list, though I don't listen to much new instrumental music other than surf. Still, I've heard some exceptionally great funk and electronica instrumental albums this year. I've never included surf in year-end song lists, it'd be way too overwhelming.

I need surf recommends.

quote:

Originally posted by m.leland:
I need surf recommends.

That makes two of us.

quote:

Originally posted by Pulque:

quote:

Originally posted by m.leland:
I need surf recommends.

That makes two of us.

Well, I CRAVE surf recommends.

Cool! I'll make a favorite surf albums of '06 list and post in the best of 2006 forum, somewhere. The new Los Meltones, Long Boards and Reckless Reefers are on their way so I have to hold the list til after I get drenched in these albums.

So far, I'm liking Dr. Surf's "Who is Dr.Surf?" the best for this year, closely followed by The Astroglides' "Selling Out With...". Dr. Surf mixes in elements of spy and monster films as well as French and Mexican beats. The Astroglides are hands down the best surf group to come out of Israel, and thank goodness they stopped their awful punk-vocal tracks. Their sound is harder and more dark. Tube Stone's "Aligretosurfati" is another excellent '06 album. Though it's traditional surf based, the songwriting is excellent (like the Nebulas, who also released a fine album this year).

quote:

Originally posted by crazed:
Cool! I'll make a favorite surf albums of '06 list and post in the best of 2006 forum, somewhere.

That'll be great, crazed. My exposure to surf music consists of "Wipeout"

Out of interest, would you consider Midnight Oil's "Wedding Cake Island" a surf instrumental?

I would. You've never watched The Endless Summer?

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
I would. You've never watched The Endless Summer?

'fraid not, Mark. I'm about as far from a surfie as it's possible to get.

Not all of us Aussies are bronzed