Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

I thought Spoon would be much higher on all the indie leaning lists.

that Hammock album is great but I never listen to it

Just relistened the other day. Still great, they remain an astoundingly underrated act.

26. Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble: Intergalactic Beings (FPE Records)

oooh, wanna hear this

I thought Spoon would be much higher on all the indie leaning lists.

― Evan, Tuesday, December 2, 2014 12:10 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i found myself nonplussed by it aside from the first single and "rent i pay"

I'm not particularly invested in the album myself either. I was just expecting it to show up more often.

gotcha. yeah it is definitely catnip to those people, what gives

"those people"

I could support marginalizing Spoon fans in 2014 with total derision.

ilx jumping over itself to make sure everyone knows it doesn't have indie cooties: an xmas tradition since 2001

"those people"

― i did it all for the 'nuki (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, December 2, 2014 12:44 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are you seriously gonna zing me for this jesus fucking christ

wait, i already know the answer to that

chill out man

but in the interests of not being a glib total dick, i'll clarify: I meant more the editors/listmakers/whatever who would include that record on a list just to check off a box even if it was meh (which it isn't in this case, just wasn't something i loved like previous spoon records)

CTRL + F: Isaiah Rashad "not found." What gives?

released early in the year, easily forgot (tbf i haven't listened since it came out) but it was pretty impressive! i feel the same way about oxymoron but that was underrated from the jump imo

...would include that record on a list just to check off a box even if it was meh

― hanley ramirez ordering a pizza (slothroprhymes), Tuesday, December 2, 2014 12:50 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is what I'm talking about. I feel like I'm seeing other albums that I suspect are in lists for this reason, yet not Spoon who I'd expect.
But maybe that whole premise is pure cynicism about the list making process.

It's kind of exciting that I haven't even HEARD of anything on that Textura list

I thought Spoon would be much higher on all the indie leaning lists.

― Evan, Tuesday, December 2, 2014 12:10 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i found myself nonplussed by it aside from the first single and "rent i pay"

― hanley ramirez ordering a pizza (slothroprhymes), Tuesday, December 2, 2014 11:28 AM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Isaiah R will get a slot in my top singles, but the album...eh. Bad year for Black Hippy.

I didn't really like These Days... but I feel like I'm one of the only ones who remembers that Oxymoron even came out this year and still bangs, despite that painful Prescription-Oxymoron to The Purge stretch.

Oxymoron did have a couple bangers, didn't it? But maybe it tried to be too many things to too many audiences.

It's kind of exciting that I haven't even HEARD of anything on that Textura list

have heard quite a few of them but yes, i do like lists where it feels like you've just lifted up a rock and found umpteen new species of fauna below

OTM

btw Nicole Mitchell rules, all 3 albums I've heard are great AACM-influenced psychedelic jazz

it's heartbreak when you find out they're all actually spoon spin-offs xp

these days was wild boring, if not abjectly bad. Oxymoron is really, really good. it's got holes ("studio," the bonus tracks) but it works across the 12 proper tracks more or less.

i actually like "prescription" as far as intense personal black hippy tracks go it's no "sing about me" or "m.A.A.d city", but i bought it.

I loved Oxymoron a lot and played "Los Awesome" to death this year

"Los Awesome" is a ton of fun, agreed

i liked oxymoron at first but i've really cooled off on it and am not feeling it much anymore. still like the isaiah rashad album tho.

xps to a million posts above, it is wholly predictable that an indie-leaning list would include the eric church album considering the main reason it appears to have caught those ppl's attn in the first place was its overbearing rock-rebel posturing

Isaiah Rashad is definitely great. Don't know yet where it will fall in my personal rankings, but it will be there.

holy shit at Nux Vomica on that Stereogum list! good on the 'gum for that one.

you know there was some discussion at HQ about that one vs. Woods of Desolation. "well, we put a post-rock-y metal album way up high last year, let's go crustier this year" ... no Deafheaven last year, I bet WoD is 9 and Nux Vomica is 25 or w/e

srsly, tho, I appreciate Stereogum's metal coverage in general.

what is textura

There's a Platinum Breakz 4?!

is anyone other than glenn gonna build spotify lists for this stuff or should i volunteer

xxxpost out of all the metal records i have caught up on today based on finding them in various EOY lists/on the metal polling thread, nux vomica is my favorite thus far i think

Magnet - Best Of 2014: Noise
http://www.magnetmagazine.com/category/best-of-2014/

MAGNET’s Raym0nd Cumm1ngs picks the best noise releases of the year

1 Yellow Tears Golden Showers May Bring Flowers (Septic World International)
2 Bloodeath Bloodeath (Totally Gross National Product)
3 Philip White Documents (Infrequent Seams)
4 Zaimph & Yek Koo L’intérieur de la Vue (Obsolete Units)
5 Pharmakustik + Tanner Garza Pleuraraum (Jehu & Chinaman)
6 Diaphragmatic Fear Biters (Alien Passengers)
7 Good Area Pronunciation (Hanson)
8 Bob Bellerue Cure The Antidote (Los Discos Enfantasmes)
9 White Suns Totem (The Flenser)
10 Barrier Of Broken Leaves Spite (Turmeric Magnitudes)

Paste Magazine - The 50 Best Songs of 2014
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/12/the-50-best-songs-of-2014.html

glad "Collard Greens" made it.

singles lists that include fka twigs but not beyonce need to have some special kind of code that alerts readers prior to reading

which is not to say pendulum won't make my list but rating it without acknowledging the gifts of flawless or haunted seems myopic

I am now knowingly listening to Sylan Esso for the first time just to see what the deal is. I already hate this woman's voice.

Sylvan, even.

I'm kind of surprised that there was only one single off of the Phantogram album and that that single wasn't "Howling at the Moon"

I don't know, you guys, this sure doesn't sound like it's the best song of 2014, but I'm sure Paste writers are all congratulating themselves at this moment for throwing a curveball like that.

xxxxpost i think the lack of beyonce prob stems from people having no fucking clue whether to stick the beyonce album or its songs on 2014 lists for like, technicality reasons

what in the name of god is this ages and ages garbage

xp maybe? but in a rich year for daring r&B/indie hybrid singles, turning twigs into the defacto blanket token representative suggests a lack of listening

How exactly does it follow that liking FKA twigs means you must also like Beyonce? (I mean, I like both of them but that is because I'm a gothy dude who likes R&B; they're doing distinctly different things, IMO equally well, and liking one is only tangentially related to liking the other)

some special kind of code that alerts readers prior to reading

PASTE didn't tip you off on its own?

ahh the Magent list is a little messed up - went straight to the top 10 and #1 & 4 both came out last year and for #6 they picked pretty much the worst track on the New Pornographer's album!