Blender Bows To Kala
For those of you that still have a little pent-up aggression at the year-end list marathon, you may wanna take it all out here; don't think there's many more crooked arrows left in 2007's quiver. For all the analysis of these lists -- and the meta analysis of said analysis -- these ranked wrap-ups provide a valuable function to people slightly less music obsessed than you and me. And hopefully, they help point people to some albums that maybe they hadn't heard about that were awesome, or just give 'em some framing and context with respect to the rest of the year's artistic output. With that, and with our last listed, listless breath, we give you Blender's faves:
25 Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad
24 Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
23 Lily Allen - Alright, Still...
22 Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
21 Okkervil River - The Stage Names
20 Brad Paisley - 5th Gear
19 Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Sank
18 Justice - †
17 Bruce Springsteen - Magic
16 Jay-Z - American Gangster
15 Alison Krauss & Robert Plant - Raising Sand
14 The White Stripes - Icky Thump
13 Feist - The Reminder
12 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
11 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
10 Rilo Kiley - Under The BlacklightSo, class, what did Blender's list teach you? Aside from how to pluck big names equally, and across genres?
09 Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
08 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
07 The Dream - Lovehate
06 Radiohead - In Rainbows
05 Against Me! - New Wave
04 Kanye West - Graduation
03 Lil Wayne - The Carter 3 Sessions
02 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
01 M.I.A. - Kala
Posted at 5:04 PM in Year-End List
Tags: M.I.A.
lil wayne huh..
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! me against against me !
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I have year-end list overdose.
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It's weird: I'm a big Rilo Kiley fan but I didn't really like Under the Blacklight. And yet I'm oddly pleased to see them some love on year end lists.
Anyway, this list seems really random.
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I have no idea what / who The Dream is / are, but it sticks out like a sore thumb on this list that reads like Best Buy's "Hear It First" section in their Sunday ad flyer.
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What is the attraction to Lily Allen, exactly?
And, um, where the hell is Of Montreal?
Sorry, I didn't learn much here - I have more questions than I have answers.
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what the hell, Wincing The Night Away isnt on the list. gay.
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hate to go against everyone- although i don't like MIA or Lil' Wayne...what is wrong with this list? Okerville River, Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, Spoon, LCD,White Stripes, Band of Horses, Radiohead...don't see too many problems. Why can't a magazine have diversity in their lists? and why does everyone take such offense to all of them- it's just a matter of opinion...anyone with me?
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Some Modest Mouse love FINALLY!!!
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the moral of this story. pitchfork is always the most reliable. ha. just admit it. those kids know what's up.
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tim, you are correct if you want to look at it in the post-modern way, we are all free to have whatever opinion we choose and there is no such thing as best. but, there is a difference between your FAVORITE albums and the BEST albums. the "best of" should highlight what albums/tracks were the most complete on a number of levels that, i am willing to admit, are not necessarily followed by many lists at all. That being said, having a mag like Blender give their best is like Stereogum having a best of cutlery list.
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with the exception of modest mouse FINALLY getting some love, this list really isn't much different than all the others.
i'm entirely underwhelmed.
and "in rainbows" still isn't that good.
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Don't get me wrong, I love Lil' Wayne and Da Drought 3 is a great, great mixtape but it doesn't deserve to be ranked that high. What's more interesting, however, is to think how everyone is going to receive The Carter III next year b/c is painfully obvious that its "cool" to like Weezy.
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to be honest here, Jay Andrew Allen, im quite confused as to how you bisit this site, enough to post on it, and havent heard of Of Montreal anytime in the past year.
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Ehh, this is perhaps the saddest list I've yet seen. Inasmuch that it's purty much shite.
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oh, Im an idiot. That's the Carter III sessions on their list. didn't that like come out yesterday?
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i just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
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rybear,
jay andrew allen said "WHERE the hell is Of Montreal", not "WHO the hell is Of Montreal".
and i have to say, i agree with him.
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List season has been like one of those nights where you drink 3 or 4 kinds of alchohol and most of them aren't very good but you kind of agree with the fact that there's alchohol in them so you keep going. Stylus's list was like the really good beer you start it out with before the goal becomes just to get shitfaced. Everything in between was the Prestige+Canada Dry/ Gin and Juice/ Ill Advised PBR kegstands/ shots in honor of pregnant celebrities. Pitchfork's list was the moment in the partying night where some dude you've seen before shows up with a joint. Finally, this list is when you get to such a plateau of drunken recklessness that you mix the remains of 3 bottles of hard stuff with what (you assume/hope) is wine and end up inarticulateley telling off an ex before throwing up on her.
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lol@superunison.
you nailed it!
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YES - there is yr MOTHERFUCKING MODEST MOUSE GODDAMN YOUS. Now you know the crowd you need to run wit' - BLENDER and the Dennis Publication crew of fuck-ups.
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west - carter 3 session came out a few months ago. the story is that wayne had the carter 3 done, then someone stole a CD-R of it out of his car, so he released it as a mixtape and scrapped the whole album... the ACTUAL carter 3 was supposed to come out yesterday, but it got bumped to mid-febuary. with the amount of mixtape and guest shit wayne is doing, you'd think he'd be able to record a full length in a weekend, but carter 3 has taken him over a year. going to be BIG.
also, the dream is a songwriter who just released a solo album.. he's the dude that wrote umbrella. the album is really good, but none of you will give it a chance because he's not a pasty white dude.
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No The National, no respect.
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bad. just bad.
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Why all the end-of-the-year lists? It seems like a lot.
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Ummm, why is no one mentioning the fact that Brad Paisley is on a top anything list that we are talking about?
And Against Me!, despite the "we used to be acoustic" schtick sound like any other crappy pop-punk outfit to me.
Not to mention Lil Wayne. No one who has Lil in there name or fronts with a teardrop tattoo deserves a hoot in my book.
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Hey hipsters, don't be so pissed. You won! Look at the top two! In a list that actively made the decision to include many various styles of music, you have the top two albums, congratulations. Half of the albums on this list are ones that have ended up toward the top of many blogs' year end lists (including the Gummys).
Take it easy, Panda Bear isn't that great anyway.
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"No The National, no respect."
Ditto.
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25 Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad
24 Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
23 Lily Allen - Alright, Still...
22 Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
20 Brad Paisley - 5th Gear
16 Jay-Z - American Gangster
14 The White Stripes - Icky Thump
11 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
09 Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
08 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
07 The Dream - Lovehate
02 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
01 M.I.A. - Kala
What a bunch of crap!
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Well, there's always AbsolutePunk's end-of-2007 Best Album list to look forward to.
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@nick: I'm sure no one will give The Dream's album a chance because all of the songs will surely sound as repetitive as his single.
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stream of consciousness time.
how about who gives a shit what blender thinks when they have the guitarist from fountains of wayne writing a column on how not to write a good song, and he isn't using fountains of wayne songs to illustrate his points?
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oh yeah, and panda bear isn't that great anyway?
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Uryu - that's the thing though, they dont. its a really dark, complex album. give it a shot. "shawty is the shit" is one of 3 obvious songs they dropped on there to be singles.
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James Murphy told them to "Get Innocous", and they listened.
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I can't do anything but love a list that gives MIA the crown.
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I think the list is fine. I agree that there are some strange choices that I would not have put in the top 100 let alone top 25, but then again, I dislike country and rap. Who's to say that in those circles the albums chosen were not superb. Also, with the exception of Of Montreal, I see pretty much everyone of my favorites from this year (White Stripes, MIA, Arcade Fire, MODEST MOUSE,Feist, Spoon, etc.) Take a step back and just acknowledge for a second that just because its not up your alley doesn't mean that it couldn't have been the years best for someone else.
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where the hell is broken social scene presents... kevin drew-spirit if? battles-mirrored? most serene republic-population?
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People, people, where is your objectivity? Kevin Drew..."Spirit If" OK, fine. If you liked that release that's great. I'm a huge BSS fan, though I didn't love "Spirit If". But come on, do you really think "Spirit If" was objectively a top 25 release?
On the other hand, Radiohead's "In Rainbows" was a top 25 release. If you hate Radiohead, fine. Hate Radiohead. However, you can't objectively claim that it doesn't belong in the top 25.
Someone earlier got it right. This isn't a list of "favorites", it's a list of the "best" cds hopefully in one magazine's objective opinion.
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