Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

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the list i filed to the guardian weeks ago looks hilariously out of date already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

Poll running earlier this year so it finishes before xmas
All welcome to nominate/vote etc
~~~ End Of Year ILM Metal - Albums & Tracks Poll- Nominations 2014 (Ends friday11.59pm UK time Dec 5th) ~~~

Norman Records Top 50

1. Bracken - Exist/resist
2. Ian William Craig - A Turn of Breath
3. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Revelation
4. Last Ex - Last Ex
5. Swans - To Be Kind
6. Virginia Wing - Measures of Joy
7. Morgan Delt - Morgan Delt
8. Kate Tempest - Everybody Down
9. Ought - More Than Any Other Day
10. Memory Drawings - There Is No Perfect Place
11. Neneh Cherry - Blank Project
12. Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit
13. Scott Walker and Sunn O))) - Soused
14. Tape - Casino
15. Grouper - Ruins
16. Ty Segall - Manipulator
17. Mohammad - Lamnè Gastama
18. Aphex Twin - Syro
19. Timber Timbre - Hot Dreams
20. Goat - Commune
21. Fennesz - Bécs
22. Perfect Pussy - Say Yes To Love
23. EIAFUAWN - Birds In The Ground
24. Shellac - Dude Incredible
25. A New Line (Related) - S/T

https://www.normanrecords.com/features/top-fifty-2014.php

Nice to see shoutouts for Tape, Ex-Easter Island Head, Soundcarriers, Jon Mueller's Death Blues on the full Norman Records list.

The absence of Owen Pallett's In Conflict in these lists (#64 on Rough Trade, thats it) is baffling. It was my #1 any time I was asked to vote and I thought I was going to be in good company but no.

Yeah, no OP, no Sunny Day in Glasgow, no YG (though it's not that kind of lists yet). I am out of touch with consensus, more than I think I am. But I realize that every year.

i keep waiting for the uk music press to have a country epiphany. when it comes 3 years late i'll probably be extremely annoyed

no doubt.

10. Memory Drawings - There Is No Perfect Place

Woah I went to a Timberwolves game with a guy in this band w a mutual friend

That's the band with someone from Hood in them right?

yes I guess: "Memory Drawings is the project of Minneapolis hammered dulcimer player Joel Hanson, Hood co-founder Richard Adams and former Lanterns on the Lake violinist Sarah Kemp"

Unsurprising but love seeing Norman Recs sticking with the Hood shout outs. Both the Bracken and Memory Drawings albums are great.

The absence of Owen Pallett's In Conflict in these lists (#64 on Rough Trade, thats it) is baffling.

― Re-Make/Re-Model, donderdag 27 november 2014 14:43 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^ Can only co-sign this. Truly baffling.

To be fair Lex, Uncut writes about a lot of country. Just not the country that you're interested in.

Kacey Musgraves was in a few lists last year but not as many as I'd hoped. Most country artists you like, Lex, don't play very big venues and even then the crowd is mostly expats. I think most Brits can't get past the sound of modern country so I really don't think there's going to be, say, a Miranda Lambert epiphany but maybe Kacey's next record could do it.

Great to see Kogumaza sneak into the Norman list. I'd actually forgotten that album came out this year, it will now be in mine.

Oh wow I didn't know the Hood guy was in that! It was just my friend Joel plays in a band

Well, modern country (not alt!) is what I meant. Brits can get past trad country sounds when it's old established stars but not the relatively less heavy country signifiers of Angaleena Presley or Miranda Lambert? Or Lee Ann Womack if we're talking established names even. When Dolly played Glastonbury there was so much love for her which was great but zero interest in who her current equivalents might be

Well if you knew the sales numbers on that OP record you'd know that basically nobody bought and/or listened to it *wipes away single tear* *accepts another film score gig*

Whaaaaa, really? Boo everybody.

Damn, I just can't understand that! Reviews were good, too right? People suck :(

ya rly.

It's high in my top ten eyol, will campaign more.

Rock was first declared dead on May 26, 1957, by a trio of 'experts' who mainly were just trying to wish it away. Someone's always trying to kill rock, but it's probably more accurate to say it's undead, hanging out in your basement, smoking bowls, eating your food and watching Italian horror movies (Truckfighters, Spiders, Electric Wizard, Witch Mountain, Slough Feg, Pallbearer, Blues Pills, Castle, The Oath, Wo Fat, The Skull, Earth, Serpent Venom, Brimstone Coven, Satyress, Mansion, Purson, Goat, etc.)

Lots of interesting things to check out on Norman list. Guardian list was good last year, will have to see in next couple days.

Random thought, tUnE-yArDs totally dominated lists in 2011, while her second album was ignored. Personally I think both aren't bad, but gradually become more irritating. I guess the total absence of Nikki Nack this year shows, what? Does it confirm they were all fickle bandwagon-jumping lemming MFers?

I actually think that front-to-back Nikki Nack is probably a better album than the last one, but the standout tracks on Whokill elevated it into the mainstream/critical consciousness.

i tried listening to nicki nack and it was grating. i think i forgave her first album as 'grating but clever' and so is this one, but there's only so much grating i can take. a bit like fiery furnaces when they were popular - okay for one or two albums, kind of tiresome when the initial interest wanes.

People are stupid, fgti. It's not too late to start a newsworthy beef with The War on Drugs though.

xp to Lex. Dolly's a special case and I don't think most of the people who adored her at Glastonbury had bought her latest record.

Whokill was actually the second album, but I'm a pedant.

Hopefully when Owen lands in the ILM end of year top 10 that will help undo the wrong of him missing out in these critic's lists.

Another one that I'm shocked hasn't appeared in one single list yet is The Juan Maclean album. Knowing that will also do well in our list makes me really love this place.

DFA had quite a few disappointing years, so the fact they were absolutely killin' it in 2014 might have been overlooked by a lot of people.

Yeah the Juan album is terrific. More consistent than the Todd Terje one, which seems to have placed highly on the basis of the singles.

In a year where for the first time in eons I feel like one of the "everything sucked" crew, "In Conflict" is one of the few albums that does not leave me remotely conflicted. It's great, and inexplicable to be left off any list.

I feel like lists that stretch out to 100 or even 50 hedge so many bets they are useless. But hats off, I guess, to anyone who can find more than 25 albums each year they actively love. I'd love to get a follow-up list of how many listed albums writers still regularly listen to in 2015.

i don't get the love for the todd terje record at all. juan maclean was really solid.

I thought The Future Will Come did quite well in the critic's lists but could be remembering that wrong. It's a shame as This is Happening did so well a few years ago and as much as I like that album, In a Dream is such a better record.

Really interested to see how Todd Terje does in our end of year list. Think it could be like Daft Punk last year when the thread had quite a lot of people saying how disappointed they were with the album but it still manages to make the top three.

I don't think that still listening to an album the following year has any bearing on how good it is. eg Let England Shake was my favourite album of 2011 and probably in my Top 10 since 2000 but I haven't heard it in ages because I played it to death and there's so much new music to listen to.

Every year I have maybe five albums I'm obsessed with, another half a dozen I deeply love and then the rest of my Top 25 is stuff that's somehow flawed or incomplete.