The best way to approach these lists — and we’re stepping in with some advice only because we’re getting sympathy pains, after reading your comments, for all the heads that must be banging against walls every time we post one — is to consider the source. That’ll help excuse the Brits for considering last year’s albums that only came out there this year, for loving Arctic Monkeys over of Montreal, etc. By that sliding scale of standards, Time‘s shown some good taste here, or at least taste mirroring yours and ours to some degree. Sure Feist, Radiohead, and Kanye are sort of obvious choices for a list obviously trying to be hip, but it’s nice to see a mag that pushes its intellectual wares on a set more intellectual (and wary) than we are to have done a little homework and put those Warp weirdos up there. Nice plug for Miranda, too.
10 Kanye West – Graduation
09 M.I.A. – Kala
08 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
07 Battles – Mirrored
06 Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
05 LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
04 Miranda Lambert – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
03 Feist – The Reminder
02 Radiohead – In Rainbows
01 Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
Of course the little issue, then, is sitting Amy Winehouse at the tippy top there. Well, “Rehab” topped their singles list, so maybe it’s a bold attempt at reminding folks there’s more to her than coke-faced stumbles through Soho. Or, maybe it’s just a nice dollop of sympathy.
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at least sound of silver’s up there
close the tag!
Miranda’s been on a couple of these now, hasn’t she? Any body listen to mainstream country?
WTF no Foo Fighters????? kidding..not a bad list though considering it is Time.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK this list right in the face.
why hasn’t anyone been talking about ‘in rainbows’ as music. all we hear about is the “pay what you want” scheme, but nobody is talking about the actual album. it’s making a lot of ‘best of’ lists, probably because of the late release, way it was released, and the band name. is it even really that good? say something.
Be snarky all you like, but girl can eff’in sing.
meh…I’ve seen worse.
Happy to see Battles so high up.
I agree with ko, we get it..it’s a different new business scheme but go back to what the album is really about: the music.
Time has an end-of-the-year list? Who would’ve thought?
I like how Spoon is at number 6.
re: in rainbows… perhaps i’m jaded as a longtime radiohead fan, but it really is a solid album. there’s two tracks i don’t much care for but the other ones are great, and it’s cohesive as an album. it’s my #1 of the year.
Still can’t stand the Winehouse.
“Be snarky all you like, but girl can eff’in sing.”
No.. no.. she fucking sucks.
How bout the fact that only non hipster publications are brave enough to put Feist in the top 5.
Doesn’t everyone know that indie is the new mainstream? If weren’t for her popular success she would have the # 1 album on a majority of these lists.
Being hip is officially lame…
As usual, a middle-class, middle-aged Christmas shopping list for bored nine to fivers. You’ve done it again, MSM!
What else would you expect from Time. They’re just mixing a couple of familiar names with some latently familiar names so when your mom is in the waiting room at the doctor she can be like “oh yeah, i’ve heard that name.”
Gimme a break. Amy Winehouse put out one of the only classic albums of 2007. Who’s gonna be listening to that Battles bullshit in 2017?
I will
so will i.
The Feist record was stunning even if she was to sell every song for cell phone commercials. Radiohead was just more Radiohead really and for a Spoon fan, I was so underwhelmed by the new record I couldn’t believe the hype they received. But we got some good records this year as music fans. Better than last year I think. Fuck a list of ten. You can’t please everyone.
Or Kanye for that matter. Even after a few years of his being an ever-present fact of life, all I think of when I read Kanye West is “Alpha step, Omega step.” Which is an awesome song, but K.West gets old real fast. A few of those on that list are quite good albums, though.
And might I add, Where’s Panda Bear?
If only Time Stood Still for Aimee Mann, too.
Miranda Lambert…sweet. Maybe my Gummy vote wasn’t in vain.
When I think of the fact that The Spoons have put out 4 terrific albums in a row, three of whose titles start with the letter G, I wonder how they dared to start one of them with the letter K, and wonder further whether they’ll ever be that reckless again.
the spoons?
Whoo! Go Battles! Hopefully their placement on this list will turn some of the masses on to them. But not too many, so I can see them play at the local shithole again.
The list isn’t too bad. I think it’s the best one so far that’s been posted here. Most of the artists deserve to be top ten, maybe not necessarily in their respective orders but top ten nonetheless.
I wonder how much cocaine Amy Whinehouse gave Time Magazine over the past year in order to get on top of their albums list and their singles list.
i’m happily surprised about battles. on time magazine’s top 10! it’s not the type of music i usually listen to, yet i love the album so much and i saw them live almost 3 weeks ago here in buenos aires…they totally blew me away! so yay for them getting recognition from an unexpected source! hopefully some unknowing people will listen to the record out of curiosity and experience an inner revolution
I’m really shocked the Allison Krause/Robert Plant album isn’t higher. This list seems a little more on point than any other publication I’ve seen thus far, and from Time Magazine??? WTF?? That’s pretty random…
Another damn list to talk about? I get it, the year is ending but can you please put a little more effort into your writing guys? Please?
i’m annoyed by nostalgia trends. the only reason amy winehouse’s music stands out is because it has that jazzy, ragtime, bluesy sound. now, there are actual vocalists who have been doing that, and much better than her, for years and years with no recognition at all. but a white chick does it and suddenly its all ‘hip’. mix that with the wankers and mild-mannered businesspeople who still want to be ‘hip’ of the norah jones crowd and there you go. people always eat that shit up. yeah she has a good voice, but there are a million and one better vocalists. ‘rehab’ is not even really an interesting song, and i really hate its helpless ‘damsel in self-inflicted distress’ message as well.
You have really spent a lot of time thinking about this, haven’t you?
Let go of the rage man. It’s just an album.
My grandfather read Times and he was very conservative (musically and otherwise) so I think it’s very surprising and cool that this kind of magazine put M.I.A., Spoon and Feist on their list. But it’s good music and it deserves to be on there. Back to Black is an amazing album so I don’t really mind that it’s number one.
I agree with ko that people haven’t said enough about the music of Radiohead’s “In Rainbows.” I was thrilled to see it on this list, especially that high. But, regarding the album content, i think that it is very solid and should be widely discussed. You, and everyone else for that matter, should hear it. It’s an album not just for devout radiohead fans as well. I have many friends who have never listened to them before who love it.
Friends who have never listened to Radiohead before??? Unspeakable…
No arcade fire?