Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

Hiss Golden Mssngr is definitely the best record I'm gonna under-rate when I make my list

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 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 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.

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.

ILX poll respects the (Gregorian) calendar year.

"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.

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!

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

The Leonard Cohen album is good but feels a bit like a lesser Old Ideas, although its best moments are very good indeed.

(Old Ideas is one of my favourite records of the past five years so that possibly reads as more negative than it actually is)

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.

lee ann womack!

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

kate bush live bootleg ftw

That's quite a broad definition of veteran there.

Neneh cherry! Tbf I think every year this is remarked upon tho, it's a lil patronising & ageist

pink floyd and aphex have been the headline comebacks i guess

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.

I heard a little on spotify, it was hilarious for a minute then just dulllllllllll

ultimate classic rock webzine are still to play their hand fyi xp

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

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.

The Judas Priest album was well-received as well.

Sonic (Sweden)

1. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
2. Lykke Li - I Never Learn
3. FKA Twigs - LP1
4. Caribou - Our Love
5. First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
6. Kindness - Otherness
7. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
8. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
9. Flying Lotus - You're Dead!
10. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
11. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
12. Aphex Twin - Syro
13. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2
14. Ison & Fille - Länge leve vi
15. Hollie Cook - Twice
16. Lorentz - Kärlekslåtar
17. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Pinata
18. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
19. Hurray For The Riff Raff - Small Town Heroes
20. Jessie Ware - Tough Love
21. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness
22. Kevin Gates - By Any Means
23. Rosanne Cash - The River & The Thread
24. Tinashe - Aquarius
25. Doug Paisley - Strong Feelings

That War On Drugs album had better sound like chocolate ice cream...

More like flat Michelob.

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

your 80s was markedly different from mine

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.

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.

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

FWIW i really like the Benji album, despite never having knowingly heard anything else by Kozelek

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

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.

has FACT mag released any lists yet? those tend to be worthwhile imo.

― 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

ha

There was so much parochial bullshit in that Fact list.

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.

lol it's so sad that fact followed p4k's lead on that one ;_;

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!?

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.

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.

i bet i'll prob end up loving bloody War on Drugs now if I listen to it.

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.

I feel like that about every record on here

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.

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

huh War on Drugs doesn't sound anything like I thought it would

I guess ppl in 2014 really missed David Gray?

that is theeeee weirdest comparison i've heard so far! the biggest ref point/complaint seems to be like, dire straits & shit of that nature

yeah i don't really care what the #1 slot is or if some of the choices are a little challopsy. i just like to have some decent recommendations and i can sort it out myself.

xpost