i'm not complaining about the 30 posts thing - it isn't too much to ask.

as far as music is concerned - how many of you guys are going to include the field and/or stars of the lid on your best of lists? i find both of their albums are missing the mark for me. maybe i just don't have an aptitude for minimalist techno and little-changing ambient music. it is not as if this was a one listen dismissal either. what albums have you guys been listening to that are very highly regarded that have not resonated with you?

I wasn't able to get my hands on many albums this year (a measley 13 at current count!), but the one that I've had the hardest time warming up to is Andrew Bird. I bought it the day it came out and have listened to it consistently throughout the year, but I'm still just lukewarm to it. It will be on my list, heck they all will with only 13 contenders, but it won't be as high as I thought it would.

I haven't heard The Field or Stars of Lid yet.

I consider myself part of the small folk/alt. country minority on these forums and my top 20 albums lists is full of albums from those two genres. That said, I have picked up several of the most highly regarded albums on these forums and have liked (though maybe not loved) many of them, including Menomena, Of Montreal, and Amon Tobin. But in particular there are three albums that I just do not get and those are: Radiohead "In Rainbows" (I will never get the Radiohead obsession), Panda Bear "Person Pitch", and that Animal Collective album. This dislike is mostly due to the fact that I simply am not a big fan of the more experimental noise elements of both Panda Bear and Animal Collective, I guess I am a traditionalist of sorts...

"peacebone" by Animal Collective is probably the worst song i've heard this year...i think it's ex-equo with the avenged sevenfold single "almost easy" or something....yuk...

The Field will be near the very top of my list... Stars of the Field might be in there somewhere. I also might note that both Person Pitch and Strawberry Jam will end up in my top 5.

Stars of the Lid?

The Field I got early this year and I loved it. Still do. I think it's totally great, I was immediatly captivated when I went to his myspace and heard "Everyday" (one of my top songs of the year). I celibrated that it stayed #1 on the list for as long as it did.

I can't find Stars of the Lid anywhere, although I've heard some of their earlier stuff and it doesn't appeal to me.

Burial's new disk has one utterly blinding song on it "Archangel" (My #1 TOP SONG OF THE YEAR) and at times the whole album can be good to listen to during periods of dark, inward reflection, but other than that, it's not an entirely impressive CD. "Archangel" was good enough to make me get his self-titled debut though.

That's how I stand on the top 3.

Sadly though, I can't seem to get up on what eveyone else seems to find so easy to love; Jay-Z and Radiohead. I've just never really "gotten" either of them, and it's not like I havent tried. I own 4 Jay-Z albums, including his newest, and I jst cant seem to get really into any of them. Same with Radiohead, I can tell both artist are doing really cool things, but I can't get a grip enough to really enjoy it.

countless highly heralded albums didn't settle well with me..

wincing the night away, hissing fauna, neon bible, the field, sky blue sky and the list continues

i defanitely enjoyed stars of lid which will probably make my top 10 of the year.

Didn't particularly like The Field album, but I really enjoyed Stars of the Lid. It is the kind of ambient music I listen to as background music, kind of like classical music.

quote:

The Field I got early this year and I loved it. Still do. I think it's totally great, I was immediatly captivated when I went to his myspace and heard "Everyday" (one of my top songs of the year).

ha. the same thing happened to me.