Year-End Critics' Polls 2011

is there a thread for best mix/ mixtape/mix album in general of 2011? couln't find one

christina perri had the song about the jar of hearts that 'broke' on so you think you can dance

very musical-theatric

"jar of hearts" is seriously one of the worst songs i've ever heard but the follow-up was surprisingly tolerable. she's definitely not so famous that anyone should worry about not having heard of her, though.

So how do they end up in the Last.fm top 10 then? (Which I guess is a way of asking, what are Last.fm's biases?)

I don't know if there are biases, just the number of times people listen to these songs on a device that scrobbles (or tracks) each listen.

"Jar Of Hearts" was a big adult contempo hit, was #55 on the year-end Hot 100 list, so i mean...it was a popular mainstream song, it just i guess had a bigger impact on whatever lastfm's demo is than w/ other audiences. (xpost)

xp Right: but do Last.fm users skew to a particular demographic? (I'm guessing they're disproportionately young and British.)

well i mean there HAS to be some demographic skewing, whether we can summarize it in 2 or 3 words or not.

Like, it is also kind of amazing to me that someone like James Blake could be in the Last.fm top 20. But maybe it shouldn't be, I dunno.

I guess I just remember looking at Audioscrobbler/Last.fm charts five years ago and it was all Coldplay/Muse/Green Day/RHCP.

Yeah I misread your post jaymc, I think overall it definitely skews young, but afaik its distributed pretty widely around the world - I notice users from lots of different places.

xp OK so I guess that is still essentially true of its weekly chart: Beatles, Radiohead, Adele, Rihanna, etc. So now I'm just confused how some seemingly less-popular acts make the year-end rankings.

E.g., the only artist in this week's Top 100 that I haven't heard of is Avicii, down at #78.

well i mean, the overwhelming majority of people listening to music on earth do not 'scrobble,' so of course you're gonna get statistical hiccups like The Strokes being the 7th most popular artist of 2011. not much we can really do or say about that beyond making the obvious jokes and generalizations.

it's possible that those lesser-known artists on the yearly list each have REALLY dedicated cults that just listen to their favorite acts more consistently over the course of the whole year than people who listen to less music or use lastfm less or something.

well i mean, the overwhelming majority of people listening to music on earth do not 'scrobble,' so of course you're gonna get statistical hiccups like The Strokes being the 7th most popular artist of 2011. not much we can really do or say about that beyond making the obvious jokes and generalizations.

Yeah, I get this. Like I said, I was mostly confused b/c when I've glanced at Last.fm charts in the past (which I guess were just the weekly ones), it was mostly full of mainstream and big indie artists.

Strokes at #7 isn't that shocking to me. James Blake and the Vaccines (whoever they are) in the top 20 is.

it's possible that those lesser-known artists on the yearly list each have REALLY dedicated cults that just listen to their favorite acts more consistently over the course of the whole year than people who listen to less music or use lastfm less or something.

Possibly?

Actually, is it possible that Last.fm's Top Artists of the Year only counts tracks released in 2011? That would explain the absence of some of the classic-rock artists that routinely show up in the weekly charts.

i dunno if you asked me "who had a good year among music fans on the internet in 2011," James Blake's name would come up a LOT faster than The Strokes

i think you're EXACTLY right about that list being only people who released music in 2011 (whether the figures only count their new music or all their music, i have no idea)

James Blake had a bigger year among music critics/nerds on the Internet, but I am not so sure about the broader pool of "fans."

i dunno, this is a worldwide list! he had pop hits in a few countries!

afaict the strokes didn't really have a top 10 hit anywhere last year

he had pop hits in a few countries!

OK, I guess I didn't realize quite how popular he was in the UK/Europe. #1 album in Flanders, huh.

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-Dean-s-List-Christgau-s-Best-of-2011/ba-p/6657

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/Dad-Rock-Makes-a-Stand/ba-p/6659

Christgau's year-end essay

"sleeper hit" isn't really the right description for an album that debuted at #1 with 300k copies sold, stayed there for a week and then returned a few weeks later

is there a thread for best mix/ mixtape/mix album in general of 2011? couln't find one

― Sébastien, Thursday, 12 January 2012 20:20 (Yesterday) Bookmark

It's this http://dismagazine.com/disco/mixes/14817/nguzunguzu-the-perfect-lullaby/

2 albums by Wussy in the Christgau top 10. I think I listened to one song of theirs once. Maybe I should give them more listening time.

afaict the only fans Wussy has on earth are Christgau and his disciples

Yep.

Predictable from me I know, but I like checking out the various African releases he includes. Usually he has some in his top 20, but this year they seem further down. He and Jon Pareles from the NY Times give love to afropop.

Plastic People of the Universe put out an album recently?

I was not aware of that either

The Plastic People record on his list came out in mid-2010. I wonder if it's placement has to do with Havel's passing.

That sounds like something Christgau would do, though it could just be that he heard it late and liked it a lot.

Havel's death might have brought them to mind and he checked out their latest. Who knows.

there are over a dozen 2010 records that he presumably first heard in 2011 peppered throughout the list, all with "'10" noted in parentheses

He's written about the Plastic People a fair amount over the years as well (so whenever he became aware of it, it's not surprising it would make his list)

Nice year-end show here:
http://radio.maximumrocknroll.com/mrrradio1278/

Been a loyal listener ever since they introduced me to Kitchen's Floor.

James Delingpole's Records of the Year 2011

Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know (Virgin)
Kate Bush – Director’s Cut (Fish People)
Seasick Steve – You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (Play It Again Sam)
Jack Cheshire – Copenhagen (Safety First)
David J Roch – Skin & Bones (Dram Music)
Paul Kalkbrenner – Ich Wieder (Rough Trade)
Cashier No. 9 – To The Death Of Fun (Bella Union)
Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow (Fish People)
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (Island)
Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome (Parlophone)
The Pierces – You & I (Polydor)
Other Lives – Tamer Animals (Play It Sam)

http://jamesdelingpole.com/images/logo.png

Christgau has the 2010 Extra Lens album on his list but not he 2011 Mountain Goats one. Weird.

All critics of ILM, please apply your critical faculties to voting in the end-of-year poll! If you've already done a 2011 list for somewhere else it's double-easy: just check which of your choices have been nominated and send off a ballot.

ann powers agrees with me now ...

Congrats. But what did she say or write that prompted this?

Check her fb

ah, now I get it

She is arguing that over the years now the media has gotten worse and only covers tiny subset of pop stars;

Yeah a trend her coverage has been more or less emblematic of since ... this thread

That’s not fair to her entirely ofc, I don’t think she didn’t cover interesting or niche or whatever stuff (I only followed so closely) — But it was def an underlying uhh ... dynamic I feel like I was trying to get at in this thread

She’s gotten more into roots Americana stuff since moving to Nashville ( but she’s missing out on less hyped southern soul, zydeco, blues, brass band , whatever Americana)