Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

The Juan Maclean, Shit Robot, Sinkane and Museum of Love albums are all hovering around my end-of-year list. That's the most DFA content that I've liked in a single year since...well, a long time ago.

The Dedication's "I Ain't Gonna Tell You" was the secret best DFA disco jam of 2014 imo

Caribou isn't really like the DFA bands at all. The continued love for Metronomy makes no sense to me though.

less of a barrier for Metronomy and Caribou somehow

― nashwan, Thursday, November 27

Surprised the NME left out Metronomy this year. Along with The Horrors it's most surprising omission on their list considering how much they loved their last two albums (Last one was number two on their 2011 list) It was a really crap album but when does that ever make a difference to the NME.

The Dedication's "I Ain't Gonna Tell You" was the secret best DFA disco jam of 2014 imo

Oooh, this is dope.

Horrors and Metronomy were both big duds after career highs. Just when they needed to nail it they didn't have the songs. The Wild Beasts record was great though - I thought it would make more of a splash.

Re: DFA, bear in mind the simple fact of changing staff at magazines. Maybe the NME just doesn't have a dance cheerleader in the office at the moment. Weak year for crossover electronic albums anyway - there wasn't a Glass Swords or Immunity this year so only Caribou, Terje and Aphex are getting on to these lists.

Rustie's new one just died didn't it?

Both Temples and Hookworms appear to be the go-to token psych albums, on at least six lists so far. I really thought Les Big Byrd - They Worshipped Cats would have been that album, but just wasn't that easily available I guess.

The light psychedelic freakout on Sturgill Simpson's "It Ain't All Flowers" seems to have people slavoring. The Dec 6 show at Thalia sold out and people are paying $175 on up for scalped tix on Craigslist. A friend looking for tix was a bit offended when I teased that this new meta-alt country has struck gold with the dad rock audience. I like the idea of reviving some psychedelic country, and Simpson seems skilled enough, but can't quite get on board.

Horrors and Metronomy were both big duds after career highs. Just when they needed to nail it they didn't have the songs. The Wild Beasts record was great though - I thought it would make more of a splash.

― Re-Make/Re-Model

I thought The Horrors album was great the first time I heard but after about three plays I realised like you say that the songs just weren't there. Nice production but not a lot else. Funny you mention Wild Beasts. This was the first album of theirs I didn't completely fall in love with. They did an interview before it came out saying how they wanted to do something really different and it got my hopes up. Sadly it just sounded like more of the same to me and this was the time they really needed to take some big risks. Still think the first three albums are close to being perfect.

checking out clips of that Ian William Craig records - just voice and tape. Very cool.

I really liked the Horrors album, and I wasn't a huge fan of anything other than Sea Within A Sea before then. It definitely bears repeat listens. It made me go to their debut album and I'm surprised at firstly how different it sounds, and secondly how much better it sounds compared to a lot of UK landfill indie from that era.

I adore the new Juan Maclean but I can't think why anyone who didn't have any emotional connection to prime dfa era having a reason to care. It's executed brilliantly but it's v much comfort food rather than doing anything new. That's not a criticism but I never expected it to get traction

Though it's more bloody exciting than bloody caribou that's for sure

"Pleasant" is one of the most backhanded compliments there is in music, but that's what the Caribou album is. I've only listened to it a handful of times, tbh, but I put it on when I want wallpaper with a beat.

wow – sort of relieved to see that. everyone on the Caribou thread was fawning over the new release and i just didn't get it.

- i think whokill is WAY preferable to nikki nakk, not a fan of the latter. Water Fountain deserves love on singles lists.
- Owen P's new album deserves a spot on most eoy lists; I'm afraid its long past release date tarnishes it for those who should show it the most love. it'll be on mine.
- surprised no one is pointing out the biggest reason publications print best of lists in early december: it's to help sell product, which helps sell advertising

Rustie's new one just died didn't it?
--Re-Make/Re-Model

I actually liked the new rustie a lot - to be fair a good amount of my initial attention came from the danny brown connection but I dug the whole thing.

I'll be perfectly content with DFA fading into critical irrelevance but still popping out a Juan Maclean album and a couple of singles on the regular.

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.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, November 27, 2014 4:10 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree w/remake re: listening to albums the following year. my albums list tends to come to a natural close at 25-30, from the ones i obsess over to the ones i really enjoy to the ones that i feel have something about them that makes them worthwhile listening despite being either patchy or lacking in popthrill highlights

xpost It's the same for me with that Caribou album. I thought it was a pretty big step down from the last two. Can't really remember much about it now.

for me this year has been about trying to listen predominantly to the contemporary in as wide an array as I come in contact with. it's drinking out or a fire hydrant.

it's been as solid a year as ever for dance/electronic albums - francis harris/frank & tony, call super, kassem mosse, leon vynehall, mark barrott, young marco also in/around my final list - though zero of those are crossover-friendly AND BETTER FOR IT

lex pretend how about rock?

i don't care about rock

did you hear/like the Swans album this year, lex?

what - no Kiasmos?!

I didn't even know (or, tbh, care) that Caribou were still putting out records until they started showing up on these lists.

lol lex would hate swans so much

or not
ILM'S TOP 77 TRACKS of 2010

he liked the last album iirc

or a track then

the first of the EOTY "I know nothing about Lex's tastes but I know he'll think this is awful" posts is like the 23rd or so window on an advent calendar

lol given his feelings on rock and pompousness I can't see him getting into say "Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture"

The thing about Tune-yards for me is that whokill did that loop-thingy better than almost everyone - op excepted - and was definitely better at making it pop. Saw them live in 2012, was unlike anything I've ever seen, four people of which two played saxophone. Nikki Nack is a fine record, but it sounds much more conventional, synths and overdubs. But whokill sounded new.

I'm obviously in the minority in preferring Nikki Nack to whokill, though I'm not really sure I could articulate why. More percussion and less ukelele, maybe?

I prefer Nikki Nack to Whokill too. They don't really sound that different to me though, so I'm also a bit baffled about the stark difference in critical reception, but not that baffled, because critical taste is as fickle as anything.

the first of the EOTY "I know nothing about Lex's tastes but I know he'll think this is awful" posts is like the 23rd or so window on an advent calendar

next-to-last is everyone going "omg i actually agree with lex about something for once!!" all week in the countdown thread before it's revealed that lex is actually ranked first on the similarity metric

god forbid a year pass where we talk about any record as much as we talk about lex and/or louis in these threads

I don't believe in miracles.

lol

U sexy thang

What is and isn't a "crossover album" in dance terms is largely dependent on PR these days, particularly whether they bother to promote the record to non-dance journalists. There's no reason why someone like Mark Barrott couldn't generate a bit of buzz with the right climate and tailwind behind it, given how obviously accessible his music is. Frances Harris and Kassem Mosse less so, but hey if Andy Stott could manage it.

Very few of these albums actually cross over (ie sell records), even the ones that get rock press love.

Caribou certainly seems to appeal to a kind of listener who likes the emotional mooniness of post-Kompakt dance music but with a more organic sound palette. Personally I quite like that album but I can't imagine ever finding his drippy "I can't live without yooooooooooou" vocals emotionally moving.

I wonder what it's like being an artist whose last album was all over EOY lists and whose new one, which might be equally good or better, just evaporates eg Rustie and Tune-Yards this year. Not to overstate the importance of critics but it must be quite disorientating to lose their enthusiasm in that way. Meanwhile, average albums by Jack White and Damon Albarn (and arguably Beck, although some people genuinely think it's his best) are getting more praise than they deserve. Weird year.

The geek in me would love to read a behind-the-scenes story about how (a) an anticipated follow-up collapses and (b) a low-key record gathers crossover momentum. It's not solely about quality is it? Often there's some decisive factor - timing, marketing, whatever - that's not obvious to the listener.

You don't find Silver at all moving, Matt DC? It kills me.

i was quite surprised by the scale of rustie's crit-love last time - i loved glass swords but it never felt like a canon-friendly album (or sound) (or artist - rustie's never been marketed as a One Of A Kind Auteur). i think consensus is that the new one's a bit of a fall-off, the same formula but less good, and where other acts often get a tail of support for slightly-less-good takes on their formula (as a vote of support for the formula itself) it doesn't surprise me that rustie doesn't get that.

do music journalists even write about the importance of PR machines these days? not just offhand comments but actual detail about which artists get PRed to which journalists and in what terms. i'm pretty bad at predicting crossover artists based on music, but it's much easier if you base it on press releases

what are some recent low-key records that weren't heavily PRed/didn't get much attention on release that have crossed over?

I do like it but that's really in spite of the vocals - I really wish he'd work with more external vocalists because there's a chord change in that particular song that really does slay me.

People are less likely to tolerate a drop off in quality when the music is really brightly coloured and in your face and hyper. An average mopey album can usually get a free pass on atmosphere alone but having megacompressed sugary Nintendo synths flying at you is just going to be annoying if you don't have the tunes to back them up.

as much as i loved glass swords, it's a pretty exhausting listen and not really something i either need or want another helping of. possibly the same applies to tune-yards?

ha xp!