Muso's Guide's writers' top 50 albums of the year
I got all self-important on myself and started whoring around my website's writers' top 50 albums of the year. And we just revealed the number one.
If you would like a gander, you are best advised to have a look at these:
Notes on how we formulated the top 50: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-a-pre-amble/8641
50-41: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-50-41/8642
40-31: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-40-31/8653
30-21: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-30-21/8652
20-16: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-20-16/8699
15-11: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-15-11/8697
10-7: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-10-7/8693
6-4: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-6-4/8691
*drum roll* 3-1: http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-3-1/8543
And now I can go to Butlins while you ruminate.
- Relevant artist taggings:
- Animal Collective »[x]
- The xx »[x]
- Antony And The Johnsons »[x]
- Wild Beasts »[x]
- "All songs are about The Sex" - DiS waves farewell to Singles columnist Wendy Roby
- This Week's Singles 12.11.12: Omega Male, Animal Collective, Roses Gabor, Dutch Uncles
- Animal Collective - Centipede Hz
- News Mixtape: July 2012 ft. Frank Ocean, Death Cab's Ben Gibbard, Peter Broderick, Lykke Li and more
- Behind The Screens: DiS meets This Is My Jam
- ATP Animal Collective: the very belated DiS review
- In Photos: Primavera Sound Festival 2011 @ Parc del Forum, Barcelona
- Primavera 2011: the DiS review
Animal Collective
Antony And The Johnsons
Wild Beasts
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This list...
pretty much sums up what all the reviews have been saying all year, though it would have been nice to see a few more wild cards in there. I guess that what happens when you have an amalgamated vote.
popular things win popular vote
SHOCKER!
Yeah few surprises in the Top 10
which is fair enough.
Nice to see Antony and the Johnsons getting a mention, deserves more praise.
22/50
Very UK-centric list. And Placebo? Really?
Yeah that was odd.
And also, anyone that has ears must surely realise that the Cribs experiment with Johnny Marr was a dismal failure. Really disapointing album that one.
24 hours ago I would have agreed with you
But seeing as I'm off to see them at Doncaster tonight I've been playing the album constantly today in an effort to get into it, and I must say it has grown on me a LOT. Still think it's a massive dip from 'The New Fellas' and 'Mens Needs...' though
'Pointless' =
'I disagree with it'
It tends to be fairly writer-driven from what I gather, and often covers quite a lot of regional stuff, you'd never see on DiS.
So yeh, this list is a bit of box-ticking exercise but the actual proper web content can be quite good, and admittedly sometimes a bit meh - but that's the nature of being more article focused as opposed to editoral-based, I guess.
What is it with you and popularity?
You remind me of a friend of mine I knew at uni who would instantly sell any CDs belonging to a band as soon as more than 2 people heard of them.
Yeah yeah we know, you're more 'adventurous'. Well done you.
;-)
what is your top three of the year by the way?
i've never actually seen you talk about anyone you like
suprised to see the soulsavers record
i enjoyed it but wouldn't say it was particularly 'adventurous'...seeing as that's what you go for.
you might like the first starsailor album actually if you're big into that emotional, white-gospel piano/strings sound. very similar vibe.
Do you really see anything similar
between Wild Beasts, The XX and Animal Collective's sound, then? Honestly?
Damn right *This*
I don't get the love for the xx. I really don't.
Yeah me neither
But then I also think that MPP sounds like a record with 3 belters on it and a whole heap of filler produced to 'sound' good Brian Wilson style. And The Horrors second effort is also a decent album bookended by two crackers.
I think people always get confused in these lists and vote for the albums with the 2 or 3 best songs on as opposed to the records they listened to and enjoyed in their entirety.
Glad to see Micachu getting some love. That album has grown on me so much...
Maybe if a lot of sites feature the same albums in their lists...
... it might mean that, y'know, they're great? I dunno.
These lists are an odd beast but we're going to temper this democratic one with loads of other stuff like lost albums of the decade, editor's (my) choice of the year, bits and bobs like that. It is a self-congratulatory exercise in seeing where the overlap lies, after all, and I'm pretty pleased that its meeting-points were mostly at brilliant albums. Save the exceptions, as I've done!
It's done as a representation of a growing site like ours, to give us a sense of situation amongst the rest. That's my reasoning. And the more personal content will realign that a bit.
What do you recommend?
And what is 'adventurous'? Not sure I know what it means.
He only listens to Somalian Death Jazz
but as soon as we start listening to Somalian Death Jazz he'll make a big point about how unadventurous and mainstream it has become and start listening to something else instead.
That wasn't a reply to your list Natalie
Just that I too don't quite get the adoration being showered on The XX, Horrors and Animal Collective across the board. I often think popular records top these things kind of rightly (eg. 'Funeral' or 'Sound of silver'). But those three records to me sound like a half-finished promising EP, a fairly ok nod to the 'shoegaze' scene and a good record with 3 great songs on.
As it goes, I've got 3 or 4 of the choices from the list in my top 10 too. These things are never all agreeable.
I was merely saying I think a few folks will look back on those 3 records and think "Yeah, they were a bit average in hindsight weren't they?"
Nup, it's ok.
I was replying generally.
I'm not a massive fan of MPP (it's not in my personal top 20) but a for the others two, I reckon they'll still sound great a few years on.
And I think
People will look back and say 'Animal Collective and that Horrors album were both pretty great'. Well I don't think that, because I don't claim to be psychic.
Well neither do I
It's just that we all have them; records by The Killers, AC Acoustics, Alanis, Keane, etc. LP's we thought were great at the time and now seem a bit... crap? We've probably all bought about 3 more this year.
Maybe they'll click with me and I'll find them to be amazing in 2 years time. Who knows? I just think AC's latest sounds little different from what BSS were doing 4 years ago and The Horrors and The Xx 'sound' like great records due to their production but actually lack much content.
But anyway. Time for me to change the record.
Alanis, Keane, The Killers?
Maybe you thought they were great at the time...
Animal Collective = Broken Social Scene? Eh? Am I getting my abbreviations wrong here? Because those two are nothing alike.
I mean don't get me wrong
You certainly don't have to like Animal Collective (I love them, I can see why some hate them), but I don't think I've ever heard them compared to BSS before.
Well I liked Alanis. But I was 15.
The others were all bands I've seen adored on here for 6 months and then openly hated. Like Florence. But I always hated her so I was hating first slow coaches.
Yeah I did mean BSS. I think there's lots of stuff on 'MPP' that reminds me of their self-titled effort. The lead vocals, the layered instruments, the slightly psychedlic production, thing like the emotional outpouring at the end of 'Shoreline'...
Maybe it's just me?
I really liked it at first. It just got boring after a while...
I heard they were pap live as well.
Much of the top 20 is typical enough fare for these lists.
But when you look outside of the top 20, the list looks a bit more interesting and diverse.
I think everyone's drawn the conclusion already that AC, Grizzly Bear, XX, Wild Beasts, Dirty Projectors are all staples of most top 20s already.
on the 10-7 page,
number 8 comes up as a smiley face with shades. anyone else?
How hard is this list trying?
Really hard is the answer. Looks like it was knocked up in a excel spreadsheet to calculate indie cool points.....
Maybe they genuinely thought these were the best albums?
Smiley face with shades.
Yes, I know. <b>9)</b> on Wordpress, see. Gah. Unavoidable. Also quite funny.
We've got xxxcel, AlistairCampbell.
You need to worry less about indie points
Mabye focus on the music instead yeah?
Let's be fair if you were trying to rack up indie points you wouldn't use excel
you'd use some open source buggy crap software that hardly works but was created by a bearded guy in Dalston.
Dalston?
Get out of 2007, it's east Dulwich these dayz.
I'll point out,
to those who don't seem to have noticed while it may appear unimaginative etc. (that's your opinion, and you're more thaa entitled to it) it was calculated, yes, but through the votes of all the writers for the site. Nat spent ages slaving over this (and the top 50 singles, next week). There's nothing predetermined about it. I seem to remember she was somewhat reluctant to do one in the first place, but has done it anyway, and spent a lot of time on it too.
Personally, only about 3 albums out of my own top 20 got into it (my no. 1 was no. 2, my no. 7 was no. 1... actually I think that may be it)! Which was a bit disappointing, but there you go.
Realised after submitting that I completely forgot to include the Telepathe album, was pretty annoyed with myself about that slip up.
And I couldn't
give a flying fuck about Animal Collective.
This'd
(apart from a few songs)
Don't sweat it
Not everyone on dis is an indier-than-thou-I-can't-believe-you-listen-to-them-they're-so-mainstream-nowadays pointscorer. It's a good list. Like all lists it is different to mine and like all lists it generates debate and discussion about music and this can only be a good thing.
Good to hear
Guess I got a little bit irked by a certain poster's dismissiveness, I know I shouldn't have... Plenty people leapt to MG's defense though, so that's cool with me... Debate is good, ultimately, you're very much correct on that front.
Nearly all those records made my list, so I rather like it.
You know, there's going to be a shitload of people who don't follow music obsessively like we do who are gonna say, Oh Wild Beasts, who's that?
But yeah, maybe you guys coulda got together and found a couple more "sleeper" records to keep the obsessives involved. Maybe that's what Sean and Mr. Ludowski are gonna do with the "DiS 9"--sorta sprinkle them in to a top 50 format. That'd be cool. I like surprises!
Might as well follow this up
by shoving you a link to my very own albums of the year, done to balance out all of the above. Hopefully there'll be a couple of things on there that are new to most of you. Well, not hopefully, it's not why I love them, but it would be great if it meant The Puddle and Lights got a few more sales.
http://musosguide.com/the-best-albums-of-2009-editors-choice/8684