January 9, 2009
Lists! Just can't get enough of those 2008 lists, I'm going to post one every day until I kill myself for being the worst. Actually I think we all safely thought year-end list season was over, except that obviously it's not over. This last one -- Hype Machine's painstakingly compiled Zeitgeist aggregate -- is by necessity a late comer, pooling data from 774 music blog rankings to make one blogger-sanctioned meta-list beast. The project had its inception a few years back with Heartonastick's perfectly named Bloggregate, which later merged with/was subsumed by Zeitgeist: powered by Hype's inherent ability to track what the rest of us are getting hyperbolic over. Being what it is, there aren't many surprises (i.e. look here for hints) but the end product is well assembled, featuring a Blog Fresh Radio component (discussing results with various bloggers), links to raw data and individual source lists, and most impressively, full album streams for each of the top 50. Here it is in a glance:
Continue reading 2008's Last List Is A List Aggregating All The Blog Lists Into One Final List-Of-Lists...
Posted at 5:21 PM by amrit in ,
latest by astro
December 24, 2008
We love year-end lists, it's really a shame that no one made any this month. To remedy that, we asked a handful of our favorite artists what music they dug most over the last twelve months. No Age, Grizzly Bear, Girl Talk, Antony Hegarty, Robin Pecknold, Sara Quin, and Kevin Barnes are among the familiar names participating along with respected folk from more outsider realms. Because we are nothing if not flexible and so good at copy editing, we've allowed these contributors to submit frenzied, unranked lists of albums, songs, or something else entirely. For example, Marissa Nadler wrote a Neil Young concert review while Carey Mercer shared an essay about a Spanish amusement park. Kanye's list of high-end sofas wasn't ready by deadline.
Continue reading Stereogum's Favorite Artists' Favorite Things In 2008...
Posted at 3:21 PM by Scott in ,
Tags: Antony And The Johnsons | Antony Hegarty | Atlas Sound | Carey Mercer | Cold Cave | Department Of Eagles | Final Fantasy | Fleet Foxes | Frog Eyes | Girl Talk | Glenn Donaldson | Grizzly Bear | High Places | Marissa Nadler | No Age | of Montreal | Sara Quin | Six Organs Of Admittance | Tegan And Sara | Tiny Vipers | Travis | Valet
latest by Winnie
December 19, 2008
It's almost January, which means we've seen plenty of Year End Lists. A few offered ridiculous #1s (and numbers in between), but they all have at least one thing going for them: They're slightly different, even if at times it seems like every music writer in the the world owns an iPod that only allows the same 50 records to be played over and over. To the matter at hand: You'll see a bit of a correlation between Pitchfork's top 50 albums and their 100 Tracks Of 2008, but tracks are different than albums, so there's no real reason for their to be that much overlap. This list includes a couple of my own favorites in the 45-50 range (Crystal Stilts, High Places) and also gives deserved nods to Fennesz, Fuck Buttons, Vivian Girls, and especially Grouper, Fucked Up, and Gang Gang Dance. But hey, still no metal -- like no Krallice, Enslaved, Nachtmystium, or even Torche and Harvey Milk, who both had to content themselves with an Honorable Mention a couple days ago. (Full disclosure: I write about metal for Pitchfork, but did not vote in this list ... obviously.) While we're talking about things that are missing, keep your eyes peeled for Will Sheff. But hey, the band at the no.1 spot looks awfully familiar.
Continue reading Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums Of 2008...
Posted at 9:41 AM by brandon in ,
latest by Brian
December 16, 2008
100 songs clearly cover a number of bases. It's fun seeing bands like Sic Alps on here, though it's difficult to gauge what having the 90th best track of the year means. The songs in the upper decks (75-100) come off like miscellany -- an understandable excuse to include dark horses. It doesn't seem to start mattering much until you get significantly closer to 50. Still, miscellanies are often where the most interesting things happen, at least if you're bored of lists with the same 40 bands on them, e.g. every list we've seen to this point. One complaint I'll lodge: Where's the metal? It was a good year for it, but not a single track shows up, not even by a pop-metal band like Torche. Then again, most of these lists seem to ignore that genre as much as they ignore country and (over) embrace hip-hop. But good to see Gang Gang Dance, Vivian Girls, Fuck Buttons, and the man pictured above. Fittingly -- this is about single tracks -- DFA makes a strong and repeat showing.
Continue reading Pitchfork's Top 100 Tracks Of 2008...
Posted at 9:25 AM by brandon in ,
latest by vincent pollard
December 11, 2008
The list parade continues, this one from the other side of the pond. NME's top 50 includes folks you'd expect it to include (Verve, Oasis, Spiritualized, and other British bands), but it also has surprises. So far it's the first we've seen that charts Scarlett Johansson (brave). They also give deserved respect to Fucked Up. It's interesting what a label change will do: When Fucked Up released the truly awesome Hidden World in 2006, the mainstream media didn't give a shit, but with their move from Jade Tree to Matador for their second full-length, it's suddenly OK to like the kids. Asides aside, the top 10 is where things get strange, at least to the ears of this Yankee ... though no. 1 and no. 2 belong to bands who live in that American city called Brooklyn.
Continue reading NME's Top 50 Albums Of 2008...
Posted at 5:37 PM by brandon in ,
latest by SarahDublin2009
We like to play hide-the-ball when it comes to the top spot of these year-end lists, but after Rolling Stone's top albums of 2008 rundown -- and SPIN's very own during the year of Cookie Mountain -- there's no surprise (but maybe a little nostalgia) to this shit here. TV On The Radio put out an album this year, and it is good, but their swelling stature and base of deferential enthusiasts is making the band start to fulfill some of those "America's Radiohead" tags in more ways than one. Of course, there are outliers: no Skeletal Lamping, a love of the UK ladies (Kate Nash, Duffy), Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson's first inclusion, and a big yes to Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (yay) and Black Kids and Chinese Democracy (lol).
Continue reading SPIN's Top 40 Albums of '08...
Posted at 11:08 AM by amrit in ,
Tags: TV On The Radio
latest by John
Yesterday we gave you Rolling Stone's top 50 albums of '08. Here, they break it down to singles and expand the list to 100. This assures extra room for as many "feat. Lil Wayne"'s as possible. It marks '08 as an election year via will.i.am's "Yes We Can" (the the cringe-worthy video is likely why it's only at no. 100). Also, Axl continues proving Dr. Pepper wrong. There are a couple big surprises in the top five, one by a band from the west coast (Portland) and one from the east (Brooklyn). Any guesses? That woman in the above picture makes a good showing, too.
Continue reading Rolling Stone's 100 Best Singles Of 2008...
Posted at 10:55 AM by brandon in ,
latest by FUDGE
December 10, 2008
RS's list is an interesting and at times odd mix of fogies and new blood, with a few representatives from each camp who don't seem like they really belong here. For instance, it's the second list in two days that shows kindness towards Chinese Democracy. The Jonas Brothers also did quite well. Outside of that, you'll recognize names from the Gummys, and the Magnetic Fields' Distortion received a deserved nod.
Things become a little strange in the top 20, Axl and Lars, but the top spot goes to a band that's been quietly placing high on just about all the year-end lists we've seen so far.
Continue reading Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums Of 2008...
Posted at 1:40 PM by brandon in ,
latest by Ally
