I'm with you! I was originally gonna write this feature (though I'm thrilled Ryan did it instead) and my list would've had Mellon Collie at 1, Siamese Dream at 2. And everyone would've hated me.
I initially had a note about Red Hot -- this was the third comp they put out, and they continue to release benefit albums today, most recently Red Hot + Fela earlier this month -- but I cut it because it was getting real wordy up in there. But your point is well taken.
Did the Belly fan club link to this page? I didn't take issue with Throwing Muses' Real Ramona at 479 or the Breeders' Pod at 463. I have nothing but respect for Tanya Donnelly! But those Belly records are not all-time greats!
I must say I am astonished at the defense of Star. I'm not gonna bash the album, but to say it's better than all but five jazz albums in history is dubious. (Not even gonna get into NME's treatment of metal.) But let's limit the conversation to albums that are at least in genres and eras similar to Belly: Star is not better than Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville, not better than everything by Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon, not better than everything by Slowdive. It's not better than Ride's Nowhere. Not better than Yo La Tengo's Painful, Smashing Pumpkins' Gish, Guided By Voices' Bee Thousand. It's not better than EVERY SINGLE REPLACEMENTS RECORD. I don't hate Belly or anything but it's pleasant pop at best and it's hilarious to see their name right there lodged between two of the most critically lauded records in history.
To be clear: I worship Different Class as a flawless masterpiece. But it's not the 6th best album of all time; not even sure it's the best of the peak-Britpop era.
Yeah maybe poor choice of wording on my part -- I just meant that they went to unnatural lengths to advance/adapt their sound/style and commercial appeal, working with David Kahne instead of Gordon Raphael, cleaning up Julian's vocals, much shinier and "bigger" sound all around, and yeah a ridiculous album length with quite a few clunkers IMO. But I agree with your point -- pare that thing down to 10 songs and it's a whole different conversation.
Yeah, you could be right. I guess I was looking at it from the perspective of trying to keep up with it as an editor, not from the POV of a fan for whom keeping up with it might actually be pretty cool. Consider that remark stricken from the record. The song is still just awesome, IMO one of the best I've ever heard from them.
Do you mean to say my 400-word live review of an event that I basically said could not be described in words is somehow less of an accomplishment than the 35-part series Cosmo spent more than a year writing? I'm sorry, but I take offense at this!
And his court date was moved back to 11/1, so Nacht will officially not play their scheduled CMJ date (which I kinda figured wasn't gonna happen anyway). http://www.metalsucks.net/2013/10/14/nachtmystiums-blake-judd-will-remain-jail-november/
This is accurate. I have amended the text to reflect this correction, for which we thank you, Nick. Ryan, consider the strike-thru above a black mark on your permanent record (to say nothing of mine as your editor). For shame.
Your argument has merit! No goin' back now, though. But like I said, it's not like we didn't consider including her, and it's also not like we won't include her on other lists come December.
Yeah TOAD was strongly considered and maybe not including them was a mistake. Windhand released an LP in Feb. 2012 (Soma is their sophomore album) so I think they're legitimately not eligible but if they were, NO QUESTION they would have been on this list -- that album is incredible.
Not to demystify the making of the sausage but: I fought hard against including Waxahatchee not because I don't like her (in fact I do!) but because her first album had been widely praised in the mainstream media including NPR and the New York Times in 2012 (and she was a member of PS Eliot before that); also our own Liz Pelly had listed the first Waxahatchee record as her own No. 1 album of 2012. Parquet Courts' Light Up Gold was released on 8/18/2012, less than a month before we published our 2012 Best New Bands list, at which point we were well into the planning stages, so they never had a chance to make it last year, and the album was given "wide" release in January 2013, so they made the cut for this year's list. Anybody who was sleeping on Deafheaven was sleeping on Deafheaven, but that band has been featured on Stereogum as far back as June 2011. That said, this really isn't a perfect science. If you want to find flaws in our methodology, you probably will.
There's nothing wrong with simply not connecting with any piece of music, but as someone who has written positively about Sunbather, I will say emphatically that it's not hype or wishcasting; that record is a legit masterpiece. (Which, again, doesn't mean you have to like it or even understand why other people like it.)
Yeah I can say with some confidence backed by empirical data that black metal is nowhere even remotely close to the mainstream. (Nowhere closer than it has been at any other point over five years at least.) If the cover of Sunbather looked like the cover of Transilvanian Hunger, they wouldn't have used it in this spot.
It's absurd, that's like a festival lineup, although I will say that Windhand (whom I LOVE) are gonna get their lunch eaten every night by those bands. Kvel and HoF literally put on the two best shows I saw in 2013. (And 2011 for that matter.) Kvel and HoF are both like godhead other-level in terms of live game right now. But absolutely go see WIndhand and buy their rad merch!
I fully and enthusiastically co-sign Windhand for AOTW, and would have done the same for Carcass or SubRosa ... or Grave Miasma or Pinkish Black, or even Wolvserpent or Ulcerate. I'm just glad to see a metal album in this spot because the genre kinda outdid itself in terms of new releases this week.
I remember this: Prior to the album's release, Geffen set up a 1-800 number you could call to hear a snippet of "Heart-Shaped Box" (maybe the first 45 seconds or something). The equivalent, I guess, of the YouTube teasers bands post today. And I (along with several friends) called that number like 30 times a day for a week just to immerse ourselves in that tiny bit of music.
It's a great record, as are (to slightly lesser extents) the two that followed it. I think the irony helped the band get noticed, but it also kept lots of people from engaging with the music on anything but an ironic level. I'm vexed by it to this day.
Comments