Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

Also Caribou is a way more tokenistic pick than Aphex. RDJ is at least extraordinary at what he does.

When people look back in 20 years time at these lists they will have the same reaction for Sleaford Mods as we do now at 90s lists with Carter USM.

― strychnine, Wednesday, November 26, 2014 6:17 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Carter USM had a number one album and headlined Glastonbury, that's the bit that makes them baffling. Sleaford Mods is more like some random Fall album placing.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, November 26, 2014 6:21 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean...like who cares? who the hell knows what we'll think about anything in 20 years! the sleaford mods might have short shelf life but i love it right now, it's just real ragged and raw and different, feels fresh right now. it's just a drag way to look at music and life, like trying to be this remote "objective" opinion based on how something will hypothetically age or not age well...like some music is meant to be right now and immediate and some doesn't last but a lot of thrown together "trash" music that seemed like a gimmick lasted forever too! so who knows? but anyway better the mods than another dumb haircut band from england imo

i still kinda rep for 30-something actually too

*applause* (xp)

mods dont have haircuts?

xxp the jay-z song??

who the hell knows what we'll think about anything in 20 years!

This x 1000.

One guy has a England guy haircut, the other wears hats all the time probably bald, either way my point stands

I was pretty sure 20 years ago that in 20 years that Primus would still be central to my interests. Projections are worthless.

One guy has a England guy haircut, the other wears hats all the time probably bald, either way my point stands

― i did it all for the 'nuki (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, November 26, 2014 1:34 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not so fast, I think there might be something to this mod haircut counterpoint that you can't handle.

Goddammit, I just pulled up Sailing the Seas of Cheese on Spotify and now I'm getting into it. Primus no longer central to my interests, but I can't use them as a punchline either.

Johnny I think it's finally time to step up to Frog Brigade

Frizzle Fry is the Primus Sweet spot IMO

i don't know if it's 'clickbait' as much as it is 'vestigial adherence to the structures of print media, which required lead times'

Primus? dear god

do they even still exist?

like strychnine

as long as gathering of the vibes & related festivals still exist (so, neo-hippies), les claypool will at least make a living idk about the other dudes

Maura OTM. As this thread shows, print mag EOY lists still come out late November so that's the season for it.

Primus' audience is a Venn diagram of jam band fans, '90s alt rock radio stalwarts, and guitar magazine tech heads, a literal perfect storm of dude loyalty

they will play sold out mid-sized theater gigs until God shuts the lights out the Earth

on tour now, see them Decemeber 6 at Rockfest in Santiago, Chile!

part of the reason beyonce's album got so much press about OMG NEW MODEL IS MUSIC CHANGING is because no one had early copies and they needed immediate articles. iirc there was a rush to immediate judgement on most of the tracks and tempest in a teapot responses galore; I remember 99 thinkpieces on eat the cake anna mae alone. some of the subtext, to my eyes, was a bit of panic on the part of press that recognized the stealth release as an open declaration of the method of negotiation and scheduling with press for cover pieces and review as unnecessary for artists of a certain level. that there's only a score of artists at that level is sort of beside the point; that score provide the biggest reason to buy the magazine/click the article/buy the paper. it would not surprise me if the eoy round ups focus more on the method of release for Bey than the release itself.

BTW, the decision on her part to put the re-release and new material on spotify suggests that she and her team get that, at $26, the platinum edition is selling for the packaging/DVD/calendar as much as anything and that in this case (unlike the initial release), the music is NOT the commodity... it's pack-in.

Not a lot of Katy B and Jessie Ware so far, I would agree their new albums are not as good as their debuts but good enough to place higher than freakin Kasabian or Damon Albarn.

as of next week on the charts bey's streams will count toward album sales too lol, so i guess that helps?

I saw Primus this year and it was p good

Always annoys me how these lists come out earlier and earlier every year.

― rising stones cross (anagram)

It's really silly. There'll be a load of decent releases in December no doubt.

eyes peeled for my "best of 2015" list, coming this March

let's just vote on the best of the 2020s right now. that arbre mort comeback album is surprisingly consistent don't you think?

I know it's gauche but I have to remind everyone that my madrigal re-imaginings of Nickelback songs is on its fifth reprinting before we start voting

I have a song I haven't even done the vocals for, so.

I remember 99 thinkpieces on eat the cake anna mae alone.

not to mention the 50 or so on eat the cake "anime"

Not a lot of Katy B and Jessie Ware so far, I would agree their new albums are not as good as their debuts but good enough to place higher than freakin Kasabian or Damon Albarn.

Would've thought katy and jessie would be high up on the Graun's list but who really knows.

I know it's gauche but I have to remind everyone that my madrigal re-imaginings of Nickelback songs is on its fifth reprinting before we start voting

― the farakhan of gg (DJP

how much did it cost to book Sting to imagine them onstage?

Damn I had forgot about Sting's lute phase

I'm still disappointed he never started a band called Lutepack.

I've come around to the Jessie Ware album in a big way (minus two tracks) but tbrr I think that "Champagne Kisses" is going to slay in the ILM trax poll.

I'm fond of the album, but if there were a fire and I could only save one track it would be "Sweetest Song".

Couple of points to make regarding year end lists, It's not even December yet, and ok that was too obvious , second that Decibel left off the fantastic Judas Priest album Redeemer of Souls!!

Does December not count any more or does it just get rolled into next year? Last year, one of my favorite Hip Hop albums, Because the Internet, got short shrift due to it's december release.

I've got at least one track on my personal 2014 faves that came out in mid-December last year. I don't write for any publications so don't have deadline problems but in any case there's no way I could sufficiently process the record in that short amount of time to et a realistic feel for how it stacks up to songs or albums I'd lived with for months.

As this thread shows, print mag EOY lists still come out late November so that's the season for it.

But this isn't because of print deadlines, it's because the publication (whether mag, website or whatever) wants theirs to be the only one that people read/talk about/care about. If they get their EOY list in first then (or so the thinking goes) punters won't bother with any others. Same reason why shops start selling Christmas stuff earlier every year - you buy your Christmas crackers from the first place you see them.

But nobody only pays attention to one publication these days - it's an aggregate thing. Nobody on the publications thinks that theirs is the only list that people will talk about. Weirdly, the increasing earliness is because the likes of the Guardian and NME have moved to coincide with the monthlies in late November. They used to wait till a fortnight before Christmas but now there's a scrum.

Although the Guardian's different because it rolls out so slowly - it took two weeks last year.

the list i filed to the guardian weeks ago looks hilariously out of date already

Same here. I don't know why we had to file a full month before the rollout. I don't think I'd have added many new releases but I've changed my mind plenty.

a full month starting before a rollout that itself starts in NOVEMBER, in an era when big releases are more slanted towards Q4 than ever

the album that's belatedly gaining steam to be my AOTY had been out a couple of weeks at that point but isn't even in the top 10 i filed!

I'd be all in favour of the Guardian's list staying in late Dec. But we do roll out gradually - starting this week means the No 1 gets revealed on Dec 12. I had to argue against a Dec 5 finish date this year: the thing is we're not just competing against the other music lists, but against all the other end of year stuff that will appear in the Guardian. If we leave till the week before Christmas, we won't get any play on the main website.

The weird thing is how much it has changed. I did the first Guardian end of year list in 2007, in the old Film&Music section, and no one gave a shit. Within three years it had started to become the two-week behemoth you see now.

Oh, and you had to file early because we needed to consult with the department that has overseen every department's end of year lists this year. They wanted a unified look, which meant getting the copy in early so they could start deciding the formats and sorting it all out.

But Dorian, Lex, you want to moan about it? Moan to me.

the album that's belatedly gaining steam to be my AOTY had been out a couple of weeks at that point but isn't even in the top 10 i filed

Kind of interested in what this is.

tinashe (didn't even think it was that special for weeks after first hearing)

Yes!