Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

jesus christ...

lol @ the top 50

haha

Mojo:

1. Beck - Morning Phase
2. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
3. Sleaford Mods - Divide And Exit
4. Jack White - Lazaretto
5. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
6. Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather
7. Julie Byrne - Rooms With Walls And Windows
8. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
9. FKA Twigs - LP1
10. The Bug - Angels & Devils
11. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
12. Caribou - Our Love
13. Ty Segall - Manipulator
14. Elbow - The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
15. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
16. Wild Beasts - Present Tense
17. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness
18. Kate Tempest - Everybody Down
19. Robert Plant - Lullaby And... The Ceaseless Roar
20. Manic Street Preachers - Futurology
21. Aphex Twin - Syro
22. Future Islands - Singles
23. Scott Walker & Sun O))) - Soused
24. Mirel Wagner - When The Cellar Children See The Light Of Day
25. Pharrell Williams - GIRL
26. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
27. East India Youth - Total Strife Forever
28. Real Estate - Atlas
29. Kasai All Stars - Beware The Fetish
30. Leonard Cohen - Popular Problems
31. Morrissey - World Peace Is None Of Your Business
32. Temples - Sun Structures
33. U2 - Songs Of Innocence
34. The Black Keys - Turn Blue
35. Nick Mulvey - First Mind
36. Flying Lotus - You're Dead!
37. Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens - Cold World
38. Ian William Craig - A Turn Of Breath
39. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
40. Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
41. Lee Gamble - KOCH
42. Swans - To Be Kind
43. David Kilgour & The Heavy 8s - End Times Undone
44. Wilko Johnson & Roger Daltrey - Going Back Home
45. Neil Young - A Letter Home
46. J Mascis - Tied To A Star
47. Young Fathers - Dead
48. Pixies - Indie Cindy
49. King Creosote - From Scotland With Love
50. Dr. John - Ske-Dat-De-Dat... The Spirit Of Satch

NB: 27 of the Mojo 50 are also in the Q 50.

in what world is the Mojo top 50 more interesting than the Q one? (not that there's much in it. must be an extremely lousy year for guitar music if War on Drugs are top 2)

24. Mirel Wagner - When The Cellar Children See The Light Of Day

whoop whoop!

must be an extremely lousy year for guitar music if War on Drugs are top 2

It isn't, but since when have Mojo and Q stood for 'guitar music' as opposed to 'music that your elderly conservative dad might like'?

i think half my own top 10, as it currently stands, is comprised of guitar music this year

xpost I know, I know. Just didn't want to miss an opportunity to dig my elbow into WoD. Still, cool to imagine Mojo readers getting into Lee Gamble. And Sleaford Mods at 3 is pretty surprising.

they had karen gwyer in their list last year - there's always one or two things you wouldn't necessarily expect

and 48 or 49 you totally would tbf

i think i'm gonna feel disconnected from a lot of critics polls this year. again.

"Disconnected" is a few steps better than what musicians call this time of year ("Suicidal Ideation Month")

Seems a lot of people really love that snoozy Beck album

i think the height of hilarity is that mojo managed to squeeze the dogshit pixies album on there - not that one expects anything from them other than "real" guitar music with "integrity," but, that record was actively bad. smacks of desperation.

War on Drugs will win P&J, won't they?

good lord

so... many... dudes

so... many... dudes

― maura, Monday, November 24, 2014 9:58 AM (10 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It'll be interesting to see how much love, say, Ex Hex gets on these lists.

could it win the ilx poll though? xp

hell. no.

:(

War on Drugs? I'll leave ilx if that happens.

that'd eclipse kaputt

already pretty sure what the top 3 will be for ILM but i'm never right, so i'm probably wrong.

not even comparable with kaputt, which may have been indie but was also total ilx catnip.

However, I do hope that War on Drugs makes the top 77 and Sun Kil Moon does not, because fuck Mark Kozelek.

this is going to be a year where I'm disconnected from all critics' lists but only because I don't exactly have albums to substitute

part of me hopes War on Drugs tops Pazz & Jop albums and "War on Drugs: Suck my Cock" tops the singles.

lol

Right now this year seems reminscent of 2011 in that there isn't really a strong a consensus pick for AOTY, and that year Tune-Yards managed to win Pazz & Jop. War on Drugs seems like the closest thing to one, with St. Vincent maybe being a runner up.

Meanwhile on ILX, I'm half expecting Taylor Swift to win the year end poll.

not even comparable with kaputt, which may have been indie but was also total ilx catnip.

― Tim F, Monday, November 24, 2014 4:13 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I meant in terms of divisiveness. I wasn't taken with it at first but I've definitely warmed to it over time.

FKA twigs seemed like a sure-fire favorite a few months ago, but its profile has diminished a lot in just a short time based on polls I've seen so far (though the polls I've seen so far are more rock-oriented/specialized).

FKA Twigs, St Vincent and OP are ILM locks for sure.

not sure what the consensus is with TSwift. I'm not a follower, but I liked 'Shake It Off' quite a bit and I'm surprised ILM fans weren't so keen on it.

we've got other T-Swift singles to think about.

War on Drugs will win P&J, won't they?

― Frederik B, Monday, November 24, 2014 10:47 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

St. Vincent, albums
Taylor, singles

book it.

The thing I can imagine War on Drugs doing the best in is Readers Polls.

st vincent seems about as consensus an album as there's been

taylor, surely not? so many critics hate that single

Yeah I think Whiney's right. War on Drugs and FKA twigs for the Top 5.

I don't much like Shake It Off but there hasn't been a Get Lucky/Call Me Maybe this year so I don't know what else would be #1.

https://soundcloud.com/thequietus/girl-band-why-they-hide-their

there hasn't been a Get Lucky/Call Me Maybe this year

For a while it seemed like Pharrell's "Happy" would never go the fuck away, so I'm glad it finally did.

"happy" hasn't gone the fuck away nearly enough, but it's 2013 (and it's not like it only exploded this year, it was huge on release and just never fucked off)

in terms of ubiquitous commercial success the song of 2014 is obviously "fancy" but no one really reps for it among critics. oh and that fucking meghan trainor atrocity as well

also "rude"

Oh god

Meanwhile on ILX, I'm half expecting Taylor Swift to win the year end poll.

this not being on Spotify might knock it out of the top spot (kind of like Beyonce last year--though that came out way late in the year too)

i have still managed to avoid hearing the entirety of "rude" :)

"hideaway" maybe? not in any other year but it was pretty ubiquitous and people seemed weirdly invested in kiesza as an artist rather than one hit wonder

huh, I thought it was the opposite in just about every way (only ubiquitous among critic/indie-types, no one giving a shit about kiesza as an artist)

Anybody other than me voting for Lana this year?