Following Q and Uncut, MOJO is the third major British rock magazine to reveal its year-end list of its top 50 albums, and a pattern is emerging. British critics love the shit out of PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake; it topped the Uncut list, and it tops this one as well. And given MOJO‘s rep as a flame-keeper for various boomer-friendly strands of old music, it’s hard to find a lot of fault with their #1, or with the rest of their list. The MOJO by is dominated with dark, heavy themes and weird sounds; the Horrors, Kate Bush, White Denim, Josh T. Pearson, and King Creosote & Jon Hopkins all do very well for themselves. And this is the first list I’ve seen that recognizes my own personal #1, EMA’s Past Life Martyred Saints, which it’s about goddam time. It’s a bit weird when Shabazz Palaces is the sole rap entry in a top-50 list, though. Check it out below.
50 Joe Henry – Revere
49 Frank Ocean – Nostalgia, Ultra
48 Wire – Red Barked Tree
47 Radiohead: The King Of Limbs
46 Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
45 tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l
44 Glen Campbell – Ghost On The Canvas
43 Gwilym Simcock – Good Days At Scholss Elmau
42 Booker T. Jones – The Road From Memphis
41 Destroyer – Kaputt
40 Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming
39 Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See
38 The Sand Bag – All Through The Night
37 Duane Eddy – Road Trip
36 Shabazz Palaces – Black Up
35 Tinariwen – Tassili
34 Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest
33 Glenn Jones – The Wanting
32 Björk – Biophilia
31 Nick Lowe – That Old Magic
30 Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
29 Wilco – The Whole Love
28 Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
27 Arbouretum – The Gathering
26 Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots
25 The Stepkids - The Stepkids
24 EMA – Past Life Martyred Saints
23 Bill Callahan – Apocalypse
22 Beirut – The Rip Tide
21 The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient
20 My Morning Jacket – Circuital
19 James Blake – James Blake
18 Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
17 Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older
16 Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver
15 Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What
14 King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
13 Cat’s Eyes – Cat’s Eyes
12 Kurt Vile – Smoke Rings For My Halo
11 Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
10 Wild Beasts – Smother
09 Tom Waits – Bad As Me
08 Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi
07 Josh T Pearson – Last Of The Country Gentlemen
06 White Denim – D
05 Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow
04 Jonathan Wilson – Gentle Spirit
03 Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
02 The Horrors – Skying
01 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
You can check out Stereogum’s Top 50 Albums Of 2011 list here.
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“Where’s Bon Iver?” – someone soon
1000TimesYes’ take on the mass amount of love shown for Bon Iver this week has been great:
https://twitter.com/#!/1000TimesYes/status/141535632395730944
https://twitter.com/#!/1000TimesYes/status/142273232291106816
At #16?
Some things I like are not present on this list.
Some things I like are not as high as I would have placed them.
Some things I do not like are present on this list.
Some things are placed higher than I would have placed them.
I agree with your opinion on that one thing, I too would have liked to see them higher, let’s have a brief fleeting dialogue about why.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see
Oh shit dude! I’ll totally check you out! I hope you make it onto the list next year! You have a bright future!
Haha, I love that someone downvoted this comment, I hope it stays. SERIOUSLY FEELGOOD, TAKE YOUR SELF-PROMOTION ELSEWHERE PS KURT VILE SHOULD BE HIGHER.
The comment was so real it went past being fake back to real again.
PPS peeple think I sound like Dr Feelgood try the link
http://www.myspace.com/dingdongdingdongboys
y’all were great on fallon
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I feel you Chad,
Some things I like are not present on this list.
Some things I like are not as high as I would have placed them.
Some things I do not like are present on this list.
Some things are placed higher than I would have placed them.
Other than no St. Vincent, it pretty much looks like all the other lists so far (except the metal list, I guess). Also, Wild Flag must not have been a big hit across the pond.
No James Blake as well, which is surprising for a Brit Mag.
What’s not surprising? My immaculate use of short-forms.
down votes for what was obviously a very controversial and polarizing comment.
#19. Perhaps people should take a note from Santa and check the twice list twice before pointing out omissions. That is, unless either you or Mojo were referring to the tennis player, if said tennis player also put out a self-titled album this year.
Sure but Bon Iver wasn’t on this list either
fucking hell. and i did check it more than once. my bad
Dingdongdingdongboys and Dr Feelgood should be higher on this list.
“I’ll fucking snap. This is MY year”–Bon Iver
“I really like your name”–the yingyangyingyang quadruplets.
“This is my third consecutive fake quote comment”–Tom Sproat
DDDDB are overrated and botox their faces.
as long as they don’t botox those voices (voices of angels, btw)
Excuse me, the dingdongdingdong boys have been playing to empty bars and writing their own songs for 8 years, they’ve worked hard and they deserve all the press they’ve been getting, and you’re just jealous and that comment was full of hate, show the dingdongdingdong boys some respect. Good songs, good music, that’s all that matters
*this comment was paid for by dingdongdingdongboys’ indie label Lucky Kid Hat Man, a subsidiary of Sony Music Inc. all rights reserved
“ding dong! who is that at the door? it’s the dingdongdingdong boys, silly!”–catch phrase for their PR campaign, probably
Wrong, its:
Ding-dong, Ding-dong
yo who at the door
it’s the dingdongdingdong boys
And we’re back for more
yo whats that name again, is it the Ding-Dong Boys?
Fool you must be playing, it’s the dingdongdingdong boys
Is it just me, or did So Beautiful or So What sound like a complete Vampire Weekend ripoff?
Because Vampire Weekend sounds nothing like Graceland…
I see what you did there, a.j. I get it.
M83?
At least this one has Anna Calvi on it.
Who is The Sand Bag? Nothing besides this list came up if you do a google search on the album.
ATTENTION EDITORS:
enough; unequivocally, HypeMachine (Zeitgeist) and LargeheartedBoy have the list-compiling covered.
If continuing these lists, for whatever reasons — sparking comment discussions? fine — then at least /contribute/ something.
Editorial commentary already appears — e.g. “Arbouretum, who have flown too far under the radar for too long”; “And this is the first list I’ve seen that recognizes my own personal #1, EMA’s Past Life Martyred Saints, which it’s about goddam time.”
So, why not add meta-critical element overtly? Identify bands you’ve championed (e.g. “SG’s 40 Best new Bands”) or unique/exclusive “picks” by these magazines? I suggest a step one further, a practical purpose for “community” value toward discussion: select songs for these albums.
This encourages/enables discussion going beyond simply statements of ranking surprises and/or omissions.
I’ve begun a Spotify playlist for you, to this end; start by adding label-authorized mp3s of albums unavailable, then update the duplicates with the SG Staff Picks — especially replacing the opening-tracks of ubiquitous selections. (Compiling with album openers was most efficient for me.)
http://open.spotify.com/user/garamondo/playlist/0wa0DDGhtcJdWwXquaSwiK
‘Downvote’ for metadiscourse and vocabulary! InB4L @_@