There aren't enough American songwriters anymore to fill the list. "We used to write shit in this country" iirc
― death in Skegness (seandalai), Monday, 24 November 2014 21:47 (nine years ago) link
they just don't get coverage anywhere
― katherine, Monday, 24 November 2014 22:30 (nine years ago) link
Hiss Golden Mssngr is definitely the best record I'm gonna under-rate when I make my list
― alpine static, Monday, 24 November 2014 22:38 (nine years ago) link
it's always bizarre to me that these lists come out in november/early december rather than, i dunno, march , by which point at least people might legitimately claim to have digested some if not most of the designated "major" releases of the previous year. myself, i'm still absorbing a lot of high-profile stuff from 2012 (if not 1972).
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 24 November 2014 22:43 (nine years ago) link
i guess people want these lists out in time for Xmas shopping?
has FACT mag released any lists yet? those tend to be worthwhile imo.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 24 November 2014 22:44 (nine years ago) link
I had not listened to Strand of Oaks because the name and the appearance of the singer made me think it would be some Bon Iver shit. I'm pleasantly surprised it's absolutely NOT that.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 24 November 2014 22:44 (nine years ago) link
there are some genres for which i just wait until some of the more insider-y year-end lists to even bother searching for stuff, since i don't have enough time to scour around otherwise. i tend to discover a lot of great hip=hop when the lists come out, for example.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 24 November 2014 22:46 (nine years ago) link
ILX poll respects the (Gregorian) calendar year.
― death in Skegness (seandalai), Monday, 24 November 2014 22:53 (nine years ago) link
"I remember a couple of years ago you were asking "where's this year's 212/Video Games?" at a point when 'Call Me Maybe' had been out for months."
Ha, I'm an idiot then, Matt DC, because I loved Call Me Maybe. I don't remember saying that at all.
― Re-Make/Re-Model, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 11:32 (nine years ago) link
oof, the american songwriter list might be the closest to my own so far (and maybe at all this year) - t-swift, angaleena presley, miranda lambert, lee ann womack, and more than a few that i'd like to hear but haven't yet (is the leonard cohen good?)
As it stands, 2014 feels more like 2008, when pop-oriented critics were asking where was that year's 'Umbrella' while willfully ignoring Katy Perry becoming massive in the background.
i think it's probably a mistake to always assume that the most popular song of the year are going to be the best, or even good, as "i kissed a girl" and "all about that bass" amply demonstrate. let us wilfully ignore them!
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 11:42 (nine years ago) link
The deep-house end of pop / pop end of deep house shouldn't be ignored either. not sure how popular things like Zhu, Gorgon City, Wankelmut and all them lot are in the US but the UK mainstream is loving that AFAIK
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 11:49 (nine years ago) link
The Leonard Cohen album is good but feels a bit like a lesser Old Ideas, although its best moments are very good indeed.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:24 (nine years ago) link
(Old Ideas is one of my favourite records of the past five years so that possibly reads as more negative than it actually is)
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:25 (nine years ago) link
Have there been many other 'institutional artist returns/still has it' albums this year? Soused obviously, but it's not really a return for Walker. I recall the last couple of years have been marked by a number of surprise excellent albums by older artists returning to the fray.
I should really check out more recent Cohen.
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:28 (nine years ago) link
lee ann womack!
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:31 (nine years ago) link
and there have been a ton of less institutional but certainly veteran artists who "still have it" (or got back to it) - miranda lambert, gangsta boo, meshell ndegeocello, even tori amos
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:32 (nine years ago) link
kate bush live bootleg ftw
― john wahey (NickB), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:34 (nine years ago) link
That's quite a broad definition of veteran there.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:07 (nine years ago) link
Neneh cherry! Tbf I think every year this is remarked upon tho, it's a lil patronising & ageist
― why do I hate that thing (excluding imago, marcos) (wins), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:09 (nine years ago) link
pink floyd and aphex have been the headline comebacks i guess
― john wahey (NickB), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:14 (nine years ago) link
That Pink Floyd album must be shit not to make either the Q or Mojo list. I know it only came out like a week ago but you'd expect Q in particular to just hold a slot open for it.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:18 (nine years ago) link
I heard a little on spotify, it was hilarious for a minute then just dulllllllllll
― why do I hate that thing (excluding imago, marcos) (wins), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:21 (nine years ago) link
ultimate classic rock webzine are still to play their hand fyi xp
― john wahey (NickB), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:24 (nine years ago) link
u2 ought to put their album back into everyone's itunes all over again, just to remind all the voters they're still out there
― john wahey (NickB), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:26 (nine years ago) link
Robert Plant's album is very good. I like Bryan Ferry's as well but that's basically just another Bryan Ferry album. The Pink Floyd album was never meant to be a comeback.
I got curious about how many uncontested critic/Top 40 unifiers there have been in the past 10 years, ie Top 3 Billboard and Top 3 Pazz & Jop, and it's not as many as I thought: Gold Digger, Since U Been Gone, Umbrella, What You Know, Single Ladies, Empire State of Mind, Fuck You, Rolling in the Deep, Call Me Maybe, Get Lucky and Royals.
― Re-Make/Re-Model, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:27 (nine years ago) link
The Judas Priest album was well-received as well.
― jmm, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:27 (nine years ago) link
Sonic (Sweden)
1. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream2. Lykke Li - I Never Learn3. FKA Twigs - LP14. Caribou - Our Love5. First Aid Kit - Stay Gold6. Kindness - Otherness7. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music8. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots9. Flying Lotus - You're Dead!10. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There11. Sun Kil Moon - Benji12. Aphex Twin - Syro13. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 214. Ison & Fille - Länge leve vi15. Hollie Cook - Twice16. Lorentz - Kärlekslåtar17. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata18. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days19. Hurray For The Riff Raff - Small Town Heroes20. Jessie Ware - Tough Love21. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness22. Kevin Gates - By Any Means23. Rosanne Cash - The River & The Thread24. Tinashe - Aquarius25. Doug Paisley - Strong Feelings
― TTAGGGTTAGGG (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 15:22 (nine years ago) link
That War On Drugs album had better sound like chocolate ice cream...
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 15:26 (nine years ago) link
More like flat Michelob.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 15:35 (nine years ago) link
war on drugs is like a scene in an 80s teen movie where a half-size springsteen-bot goes out of control on the dancefloor and vigorously starts dry humping everyone's legs
― john wahey (NickB), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 15:54 (nine years ago) link
your 80s was markedly different from mine
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 15:57 (nine years ago) link
I'm not sure about the whole War on Drugs album but Red Eyes is one the songs of the year no doubt. I guess a lot of people are desperately craving non-shitty anthemic rock.
― Re-Make/Re-Model, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:01 (nine years ago) link
Yeah I love it and its one of my favourites of the year but it does hit several comfort-food bases at once. Given how little rock music I have time for these days that's probably the main reason.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:09 (nine years ago) link
the sum total of my knowledge about war on drugs (and sun kil moon) is that absolutely laughably pathetic diss track. rock is dead, i don't care
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:15 (nine years ago) link
FWIW i really like the Benji album, despite never having knowingly heard anything else by Kozelek
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:20 (nine years ago) link
the sum total of my knowledge about war on drugs (and sun kil moon) is that absolutely laughably pathetic diss track. rock is dead, i don't care― lex pretend, Tuesday, November 25, 2014 4:15 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― lex pretend, Tuesday, November 25, 2014 4:15 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The diss track was by SKM wasn't it? Unless did WoD do a response song? Anyway, lol at saying 'rock is dead' based on a single phoned-in joke song by an egomaniac with a bee in his bonnet about stage sound issues.
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:26 (nine years ago) link
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, November 24, 2014 10:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
they got ahead of everyone and did their best Albums/Tracks of the decade so far a couple of weeks ago
wut won
― Number None, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:48 (nine years ago) link
ha
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:48 (nine years ago) link
There was so much parochial bullshit in that Fact list.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:50 (nine years ago) link
less institutional but certainly veteran artists who "still have it"
they're not Cohen or Judas Priest, but I think the new Old 97s album falls into this category. I loved their output from '96-'01, didn't care for anything after that. but their new one sounds like it could be a lost record from their heyday. i can't even believe how good it is; it's truly shocking. if shuffling Texas roots-rock songs about becoming a creepy old man with a thing for recreational drug use is your thing, then "Most Messed Up" is your thing.
― alpine static, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:51 (nine years ago) link
lol it's so sad that fact followed p4k's lead on that one ;_;
― dyl, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:51 (nine years ago) link
I feel like I'm actually gonna have to listen to at least some of that War on Drugs album now, even though I don't give a shit about it at all.
And why has everyone seemed to have forgotten about Against Me!?
― MaudAddam (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:53 (nine years ago) link
The first of Lex's EOTY "I know nothing about this but I know it's awful" posts is like the first window on an advent calendar.
― Re-Make/Re-Model, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 16:53 (nine years ago) link
The War on Drugs album isn't terrible, but half the songs go on extended tangential outros for whatever the fucking reason and it ruins it for me. Chop the tails off those songs and the whole album would be better for it.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 17:00 (nine years ago) link
i bet i'll prob end up loving bloody War on Drugs now if I listen to it.
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 17:00 (nine years ago) link
I feel like that about every record on here
― saer, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 17:00 (nine years ago) link
war on drugs album is good - but it is also p overrated and most of the criticisms against it thus far (sounds too much like boomer/80s rock, various songs are overlong) are completely understandable.
― hanley ramirez ordering a pizza (slothroprhymes), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 17:04 (nine years ago) link
The Fact half-decade list was at least interesting
The War on Drugs seems to be a very big deal with all of these publications. I wouldn't have thought it would be likely to top P&J but now I'm beginning to wonder
― Dan S, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 17:05 (nine years ago) link
huh War on Drugs doesn't sound anything like I thought it would
I guess ppl in 2014 really missed David Gray?
― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 17:06 (nine years ago) link