Year-End Critics' Polls 2014

that folks are meant to get more exclusionary and critical as they get older and listen more but what a horrible condemnation that is, to age and appreciate less.

eh idk that I appreciate *less* there is an awful lot of recorded music out there

xp

yeah the lee ann womack record is in my top five, i cry every time i listen to it. it's so well paced, tells a whole story, probably the best case anyone could make for the relevance of the album in 2014

xp I have a friend whose ambition is to find something to enjoy in every record "except Hue & Cry".

i was having this conversation with a group of college students recently: i think one of the big goals I'm aiming for in life is to honestly enjoy everything i hear. the standard seems weirdly inverted, that folks are meant to get more exclusionary and critical as they get older and listen more but what a horrible condemnation that is, to age and appreciate less. fuck that: i am going to fight hard to hear the best in everything. it isn't always easy and there's absolutely artists and songs and albums that burst on the windshield but so much opens up if you make a concerted effort. at least it does for me.

― a stupid red mute juggalo (forksclovetofu), Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:57 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i totally admire that and i try to stay open-minded - always trying to remind myself that "i might not hear much in this now but i might later", but at the same time i am quite happy to say "this is not for me" and move on, b/c it's not like there is a shortage of music that IS for me. there are like a million artists and genres that i have just a little glimpse of in my head that i haven't yet explored more deeply in my life that i don't feel the need to say "fuck i really need to find something i like in this garbage-sounding modern country single" apart from just curiosity. i posted some things in this thread wrangling with some of these country songs but on my drive home i'm going to put on hissing of summer lawns or something, never to think again about that maddie and tae song i heard today

I just care less about keeping up with whatever was released in a given year

will listen to this womack record though

xp

there are like a million artists and genres that i have just a little glimpse of in my head that i haven't yet explored more deeply in my life that i don't feel the need to say "fuck i really need to find something i like in this garbage-sounding modern country single" apart from just curiosity

^^^ this

I live my entire life trying to hear the best in everything. That is what led me into being a music nerd in the first place. The necessary by-product of that stance is that I also get to define the arbitrary, ever-shifting line where the best a piece of music has to offer crosses over into something I actively want to hear; my disdain for the wishy-washy dude with bad veneers making horrible platitude-laden puns over a serviceable band should have absolutely nothing to do with whether you get anything out of it. (My rules with hip-hop are different out of necessity; no one is clutching their purse and crossing the street when I walk down the street because Blake Shelton fits a menacing stereotype of me that's been handed down through our culture for centuries.)

eh idk that I appreciate *less* there is an awful lot of recorded music out there

xp

― Οὖτις, Thursday, December 11, 2014 2:01 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, my appreciation just grows and grows as i get older even i like outic care less about what comes out in the given calendar year

i keep thinking maybe ill get into country, but so far ive only really gotten into kacey musgraves. that album is dope. imo

hm "Sleeping with the Devil" is p nice re: Womack, very Dolly

that's my favorite

tbh contrary to Alfred I tend to kind of hate it when modern country apes modern rock. the stilted attempts at doing funk-rock beats and whatnot. blech

I mean you can put some chuck berry wiggle in there (and country has done that for generations) but when you start doing 90s rap drum fills I kinda wanna turn it off

that being said the backwards country-funk breakdown on the Simpson record is awesome

also i think classic country had more of an appreciation for really really good pedal steel players, and i like that. it's just not a part of modern country to the extent that it used to be. pedal steel players weren't the major stars obviously but the songs really showcased their playing, apart from the vocals the pedal steel is usually the emotional heart of a classic country song imo

listening is an immensely personal and experiential process; I don't mean to suggest that faceboook-ish rant should be anyone/everyone's preferred means. it just grates when folks glibly dismiss whole, fast-moving bodies of active and vital culture is all. a lot of this on my end is baggage from a household where there was strictly definable GOOD and BAD music and no room for interpretation.

There's plenty of pedal steel in the Womack album, it's also very present in some tracks of Lambert and Presley albums.

if you're still fussing over why the #1 song in that spin country list isn't for you then you're completely beyond help and don't deserve any music at all tbh

― lex pretend, Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:06 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lex i generally admire your writing and presence but sometimes you write horseshit like this

― marcos, Thursday, December 11, 2014 1:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol also i don't know if it's worth the time unpacking this, but are you referring to the subject matter of the song? because you can write and record a shit-sounding song about a noble and worthy topic, it's been done before and i shouldn't feel any great allegiance to the song just because the topic is important

it just grates when folks glibly dismiss whole, fast-moving bodies of active and vital culture is all

i too am driven batshit by such thinking, especially regarding music.

lex is not worth unpacking

xp

is fast-moving a virtue

i think of "fast-moving" as a sign that multiple minds are influencing, re-shaping and exploring new ways for the art to be heard, so i would say generally yes.

fast-moving = evolving in this context (i think) and it certainly can be a virtue imo, idk if it is one by default

that sounds like a tagline for Spotify more than anything else

(was an xp)

i guess fast-moving could be a definer for math rock too

idk I just have no faith in capitalism's endless NEW PRODUCT MUST HAVE rationale, I don't think it has anything to do with the vitality of an artform and everything to do with naked demands of commerce.

I listened to that Kira Isabella song and eh it's totally leaden, there's no strong melodic hook, the chorus is terrible, features plenty of that *we are rocking* thing that modern country does that I find grating. Lyrics/sentiment eh okay they are timely and admirable (altho tbh there is a long history of this kind of song in country, I don't think it's particularly novel beyond some of the specifics). most interesting thing to me tbh is her dishy south asian (?) guitar player lol

xp

most interesting thing to me tbh is her dishy south asian (?) guitar player lol

precisely the thing to notice in this particular song

I know rite

I'm not really clear on what there is to recommend that song beyond it's topicality marcos otm

the melody is pretty gorgeous and it's really well arranged? like the way the strings recede in parts of the verse? idk

and the lyrics are well observed. For months I thought the song was merely good because her perfunctory voice bothered me; now the perfunctory quality helps the song: the kind of horror observed/done to average high school girls.

I like everything about it except her voice. Which is a bit of a problem when it comes to me loving the song.

also i think classic country had more of an appreciation for really really good pedal steel players, and i like that. it's just not a part of modern country to the extent that it used to be. pedal steel players weren't the major stars obviously but the songs really showcased their playing, apart from the vocals the pedal steel is usually the emotional heart of a classic country song imo

dunno how you're defining "classic" but Rosanne Cash, Dwight Yoakam, Garth, etc eschewed pedal steel for a buncha songs

Instruments don't define genres.

polka tho

Well there's the lyrical details, the narrative pacing, the controlled outrage, the avoidance of melodrama or closure, the chorus melody, the relief of the middle eight, the way the ominous cello comes in just as the car door swings open, the way her voice growls a little on "internet"… It's just great storytelling.

the way her voice growls a little on "internet"

new world description

it's pretty powerful how if you're casually listening it might seem like it's telling a hackneyed high school fairytale à la early taylor swift and then reveals itself to be about something completely different at the exact point the listener starts suspecting something might not be right

I am distracted by this sounding like I heard it on Nashville sometime this year

the lyrics are good, the melody is decent. her voice is not great, and the production and arrangement is typical of country in that it remains the biggest stumbling block for me w/that genre.

iirc the video cops out by exposing and shaming the rapist at the end. The song is brutal about the high-school caste system, hence the emphasis of the title and chorus. The real horror isn't the rape but the way the whole school is complicit in letting him get away with it. And I like that her voice is unremarkable. It gives it an underplayed, plainspoken quality instead of rage or melodrama.

Was just about to post before Lex did that it's like a nightmare version of a Taylor Swift scenario.

Obv the song gets a lot of its power from playing with Taylor's formula and standing it on end

there is an alternative video without the "happy" ending (not sure which came first and can't find it now). the ending of this one makes for a weird and bitter lurch into fantasy, in that it underlines how this would never happen (as the lyrics make clear)

I dont try to hear the best in everything and I dont try to hear something just because its being talked about, in fact just the opposite, I find it stressful. Ive no idea if Lex was or wasnt being proud about not having heard something or other, but why should he have to hear it? The idea of listening to a bunch of talked about records so you can have your own opinion on something you wouldnt otherwise even think about just gives me a headache

The song is brutal about the high-school caste system, hence the emphasis of the title and chorus. The real horror isn't the rape but the way the whole school is complicit in letting him get away with it.

yes, and her performance being so plain and uncathartic casts her - and therefore the listener - into this role of the bystander. listening to her narrate the events is like watching it happen and being unable (unwilling?) to stop it.

fwiw, quarterback improves on multiple listens

lex describing a pop song like being unwilling to stop a rape is posts vmic

what you mean now I have to listen to something more than once? I don't have time for that, there's something else that just came out I have to listen to right now

xp

lol whiney

Totally with forksclovetofu on the goal of becoming steadily more open-minded. The radio-frequency that was once WFNX, in Boston, turned into a Clear-Channel EDM station a while ago, and I decided NOT to take it off my car preset, and indeed ended up hearing a lot of stuff I liked (and plenty I didn't, and way too much repetition). And then some time later it switched again, to Modern Country, and I still kept it for a while. I didn't last quite as long with Modern Country as with EDM, as the repetition seemed even worse, and the songs I hated I really hated (I have a personal antipathy for songs that act coy about drinking). But still, I heard a bunch of songs I thought were great. Miranda Lambert's "Automatic" is likely in my top 10, and Eric Church's "Give Me Back My Hometown" might make my top 20. And I voted for "Cop Car" in the P&J last year, for that matter. And digging deeper into current country music outside of the meager radio rotation, I found lots of other great stuff. I mean, stuff I personally enjoyed in the same way, and with the same intensity, that I enjoy pop or metal or anything else.

And yet, I hated "Happy" as much as I've hated anything since "The Whistle Song". Open-minded doesn't mean indiscriminate.