xpNo John Cale and that was the best of the old timers.
― fun loving and xtremely tolrant (Billy Dods), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:01 (eleven years ago) link
When UK funky came about I said somewhere that a huge part of why I liked it was its very specific disinterest in sound design frippery!
i don't know if this is true for the early days of uk funky, given how much it drew on house music with impeccable sound design!
― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Friday, November 30, 2012 9:58 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
otm its classy high-end sound design was part of the appeal!
― D-40, Friday, 30 November 2012 16:05 (eleven years ago) link
and it was specifically a contrast to the grime that preceded it!
― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:08 (eleven years ago) link
There was a bit of both, the Perempay & Dee/Crazy Cousins end was pretty glossy but "high end sound design" is probably overstating it a bit. A lot of it was pretty rudimentary in its production values though although maybe not to grime levels.
― Matt DC, Friday, 30 November 2012 16:13 (eleven years ago) link
sure but on the super clean & sculpted tip, opposite end of the spectrum from anything dubby/blurry/post-burial etc, right?
― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:15 (eleven years ago) link
For what its worth, Dylan and Womack both have a fair shot of making my Top 10.
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:15 (eleven years ago) link
friday, 16:15, can i be bothered
nah it's all yours finney
― r|t|c, Friday, 30 November 2012 16:20 (eleven years ago) link
This year's best old-timers: Cohen, Cale, Womack, Cooder, Byrne and Dr John.
― Deafening silence (DL), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:24 (eleven years ago) link
the thing that gets me about the old-timer lists is that they don't even acknowledge young fresh'n'new artists in the same genres! like i'd love to see the mirel wagner album get some EOY love but i haven't seen it crop up anywhere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciBpDFjzl6I
― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:30 (eleven years ago) link
xpost I will cheerfully shout for ZZ Top in the best old-timers category. But they are not respected and deep old timers, so no one gives a shit.
― Manfred Mann meets Man Parrish (ithappens), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:34 (eleven years ago) link
xp You're missing the point - Uncut don't want young fresh'n'new. They want legends who are (a) still alive and (b) not disgracing themselves.
― Deafening silence (DL), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:35 (eleven years ago) link
Death to Young Fogeys
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:38 (eleven years ago) link
nb dorian i think you'll REALLY like that mirel wagner song/album
― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:39 (eleven years ago) link
No Scott Walker in the Uncut list, do they hate his record or is this more of a timing thing?
― Albert Crampus (NickB), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:40 (eleven years ago) link
Timing I reckon.
xp I'll certainly check out Mirel Wagner Lex. Thanks for the link.
― Deafening silence (DL), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
Imho none of Byrne's melodies on the new one rival Talking Heads in their prime.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 30 November 2012 16:42 (eleven years ago) link
I just ordered THIS: http://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/item.asp?PID=26326 thanks to Scott posting a video on Youtube. It better be good!
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:43 (eleven years ago) link
Vincent steals the show on Love This Giant. Byrne's lyrics have had a tendency to come off a little trite and facile in recent years, and that puts me off a bit. I think it's a good album - solid 3.5 stars - and it helps I got given it on my birthday, so I made a point of acquainting myself with it properly. Some of the horn work is exceptional.
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:46 (eleven years ago) link
I started a Mirel Wagner thread early in the year when I heard No Death, but it kind of petered out quickly. She'll certainly be on my ilm ballot.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 November 2012 16:51 (eleven years ago) link
"Some of the horn work is exceptional."
You are Allan Jones and I claim my five pounds.
― Manfred Mann meets Man Parrish (ithappens), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:52 (eleven years ago) link
lex i adore that mirel wagner album, but for some reason i thought it came out last year?
― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Friday, 30 November 2012 16:55 (eleven years ago) link
It came out last year in Scandinavia/Europe, but this year in US/UK iirc.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 November 2012 17:01 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah the Mirel Wagner is great. Goth as hell though and weirdly brittle sounding so I don't feel the urge to listen to it very often, but when I'm in the mood it's amazing.
― Matt DC, Friday, 30 November 2012 17:16 (eleven years ago) link
That Uncut top ten is quite the old man list, 80% if you count Grizzly Bear and Jack White as honorary geezers.
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 30 November 2012 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
Ha! Thought the exact same thing re: Jack White when I read the list. That said, it's another one that might make my top 10. I, too, had a pretty geezer friendly year, it seems.
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Friday, 30 November 2012 18:05 (eleven years ago) link
oh the smallpeople recordhas Black Ice on it, that was one of my favs of last year....rest of album seems pretty understated, nothing partic jumping out but nice enough
― coal, Friday, 30 November 2012 18:12 (eleven years ago) link
i'm not entirely comfortable with the idea that all these ancient dudes, as much as i like them, are making more important music than people of my generation. maybe this year is just a fluke in that regard but it looks a bit like laziness on the part of the writers to shoe-in so many classic names. i want year-end lists to point me towards cool new artists i missed, not remind me that bob dylan is awesome for the 900th time
― ciderpress, Friday, 30 November 2012 18:20 (eleven years ago) link
wow mirel wagner! neverheardofher!
― scott seward, Friday, 30 November 2012 18:33 (eleven years ago) link
is the whole album that good?
― scott seward, Friday, 30 November 2012 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
everything on the album sounds like that, in the best way (and it's a pretty short album too)
― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Friday, 30 November 2012 19:37 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, it's a pretty uniform album soundwise, but some songs are better than others.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 November 2012 19:58 (eleven years ago) link
Why, every year, do people bother complaining that a magazine unashamedly aimed at middle aged white men picks albums of the year aimed at middle aged white men? It's like saying Good Housekeeping's best Christmas presents guide doesn't have enough bukkake DVDs.
― Manfred Mann meets Man Parrish (ithappens), Friday, 30 November 2012 20:30 (eleven years ago) link
the lists from the narrow specialist mags are easily one of the most interesting things about these threads too
― trinidad jokes (some dude), Friday, 30 November 2012 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
xp lex' complaint was that they magazine unashamedly aimed at middle ages white men missed out on an album by a new artist middle aged white men would love because they are preoccupied with releases by old artists though
― flopson, Friday, 30 November 2012 20:35 (eleven years ago) link
Also, Uncut used to cover a slightly more adventurous range of music. Martha Redbone is a new name for me. It sounds decent, certainly on par with the other folky singer-songwriter geezer type of albums being overrated. However, and this may not be fair, but it would sound more appropriate to me softly playing in the background of a cafe, yuppie coctail party or corporate event than on my stereo.
That Go-Kart Mozart album is quite an ordeal at 17 songs. It's just jarring for me to hear Lawrence's voice over the quirky, too-precious electro-pop after being a fan of Felt for so long. The Norman list got me excited about Gnod, BEAK>, Death And Vanilla and Cold Pumas, but none really stood out to me.
When I get home I'm gonna check out The Helio Sequence - Negotiations. Comparisons to Eno, Talk Talk, Roedelius and Manuel Göttsching have me interested.
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 30 November 2012 20:42 (eleven years ago) link
xpost Was more directed at ciderpress than Lex.
My guess would also be that declining print sales and the continued recession forces titles like Uncut to retreat even further into the safety of the core demographic. There aren't any new sales to be found, so it's more about keeping old readers.
That said, if Uncut's list was the result of an unmanaged vote, with no editorial postproduction, then it's spectacularly elderly. I know plenty of their writers personally like much more outlying stuff than that list suggests.
Declaration of interest: I was involved in the Guardian's list. There was a suggestion this year that it be managed, but thankfully we decided on an unmanaged vote in the end.
― Manfred Mann meets Man Parrish (ithappens), Friday, 30 November 2012 20:48 (eleven years ago) link
If The Helio Sequence still sound like they used to, you're going to be disappointed. xp
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 30 November 2012 20:48 (eleven years ago) link
jarring for me to hear Lawrence's voice over the quirky, too-precious electro-pop
Where have you been for the last... 15 years? That's what he's been doing for ages. I like the new album, not sure yet if it'll make my top 25, but it's pretty charming in that Lawrence-y way.
― emil.y, Friday, 30 November 2012 20:48 (eleven years ago) link
Don't want to put you pn the spot here, but in what direction would a managed Guardian list be likely to go? How do you think it would have been different?
― Albert Crampus (NickB), Friday, 30 November 2012 20:58 (eleven years ago) link
I did hear one other Go-Kart Mozart album and couldn't get into it either. I didn't say I was surprised. Maybe I hoped he'd changed his sound again. It just sounds wrong.
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 30 November 2012 21:01 (eleven years ago) link
I will agree with you that good Felt is easily his best. They did a few dodgy things but when they were up there, man, so far above both Denim and Go-Kart Mozart.
― emil.y, Friday, 30 November 2012 21:06 (eleven years ago) link
xpost I don't know - I haven't been running it, just been a voter and seen everyone's individual lists and been sorting some of the content and production. As it is, the list ticks quite a lot of different boxes, so it might have been more a question of placings than a load of completely different albums. I think it's a pretty reasonable list, actually - by no means all to my taste. One thing I know from years of being involved with it, though, is that it doesn't take a big change to the voting base to make big changes to the outcome of the poll. This year there are a couple more R&B/dance favouring writers than there were two or three years ago. But had a three or four of the more "rockist" occasional writers been asked to contribute (to be fair, they may have been asked and not voted. I don't know) then I'm pretty sure some of Lex's favourites would have been a whole lot lower down.
Years ago, when I edited FourFourTwo, we did a poll of managers on who the best manager of all time was. We had a very good response - half the managers in England and Scotland voted – but it still only needed one third place vote to get to 20th place.
― Manfred Mann meets Man Parrish (ithappens), Friday, 30 November 2012 21:11 (eleven years ago) link
― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Friday, November 30, 2012 7:58 AM Bookmark
The point isn't that it didn't have good sound design, but that it didn't seem overly focused on it as a pursuit in itself.
― these bitches is my sons and i make dad jokes (The Reverend), Friday, 30 November 2012 21:51 (eleven years ago) link
Thanks ithappens! I'm generally in favour of comments box outrage from dunderheads so I think the poll is panning out v nicely at the moment.
― Albert Crampus (NickB), Friday, 30 November 2012 22:03 (eleven years ago) link
not that anyone wants to jump back to that stupid indie/pop argument from a few days back BUT i was looking back at ilm's top 77 tracks of 2010 and we had arcade fire, ariel pink and robyn all in the top 10. ARIEL PINK BEAT THE-DREAM (with a great song, but still)
― J0rdan S., Friday, 30 November 2012 22:48 (eleven years ago) link
how are you classifying robyn there?
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 30 November 2012 22:48 (eleven years ago) link
So two out of ten tracks were indie? Exactly what does that prove? (And Robyn may be 'pop that indie types like' but she isn't indie in any way, she's quite clearly a pop artist.)
― emil.y, Friday, 30 November 2012 22:50 (eleven years ago) link
well she's pop in sound, that's about it
― J0rdan S., Friday, 30 November 2012 22:55 (eleven years ago) link
also "somebody that i used to know" was no. 39 on the list last year and all the comments after it got posted are "huh?" and "i heard it's big in australia"
― J0rdan S., Friday, 30 November 2012 22:56 (eleven years ago) link
Robyn in 2010-2012 is mainstream enough, especially considering that a lot of the people voting her prob don't live in America
― trinidad jokes (some dude), Friday, 30 November 2012 22:57 (eleven years ago) link