DiS Staff: Top 20 Albums Of the Year!

DId anyone even vote for The Bees? Forgotten classic of '02...

Why in a new window? People can click 'Back' to get back to the poll, y'know.

Are you nuts?!

What have you all got against the coral?! I voted for them cos i think theyve made a brilliant album. I like music like that, is that wrong?

I quite like what I've heard tho I admit it's not much. OK, it's nothing very new but then what is these days (apart from the Streets I guess)? So... yeah, stuff.

Martin.

the bit where he dances as Patton, that's good

otherwise, puh.. the Wicker Man video's quite good tho

ollie.

Coldplay??
Oh No! Of course not DiS!!
You think it's dull MOR shite, don't you?? Music for the simple, the plodding middle aged Nick Hornby loving 44 year old who likes a bit of Bon Jovi while he's doing the washing up (he's divorced of course. Sees his son on a Saturday). Why do you think this?? COs it COOL. And DiS loves the cool, don't we chaps?? It'c cool to hate the NME, cool to have "diverse" music tastes and sit your way through pointless little Brit Hip-Hop albums when you'd much rather be making your own Embrace B-Side compilation tape. It's cool to diss band that appear on CD:UK because after all that's giving in. Giving in to the system you try all so hard to hate, to rally against.
The fact it's beautiful, simple, affecting music seems to passed you lot by.
Like I care.

Hmmm...... quite a cool list, but you want our top 5's so here goes:

1) The Vines - Highly Evolved
2) Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
3) Idlewild - The Remote Part
4) Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
5) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

this list is based on what I played the most but other albums I thought were amazing this year include: Red Animal War, Chamberlain, Crosstide, Boards Of Canada, Mudhoney, Jay-Z (its long, and i still can't quite get my head round it but I can't stop playing it!), Desaparecidos, greatest hits by Ash and The Manics, Midtown, New Found Glory, Sum 41, Simpatico, lovejoy, the lucksmiths and Hot water music .. oh and the Nme covers album was mind blowing

hasn't it just been an amazing year for music?

ps. beth orton's solo record as well, and the gomez album - and lambchop - this is getting ridiculous!!!

how different is this list to the NME's? As much as DiS pretends to be an alternative, it's not. Hyping a few sub-metal bands with flashy haircuts does not a good webzine make.
Which is a shame, because the people who design the site have obviously got some good ideas, it's the music that lets it down - DiS is a music site, it seems to me, for people who don't really like like music, a site for people who will be accountants in 2 years time, once they've finished University.
And why can't you spell Mary Hansen's name properly? The only reason, Sean, that you didn't do an obituary, is maybe because Stereolab are a little too clever to you, they're not middle class pricks pretending to be angst ridden. Your 'obituary' was culled from all over the place. A disgrace.
Still, at least you're being 'proactive' I suppose...now, go and read another management manual...

"how different is this list to the NME's? " - exactly. Its just looks like a list of stuff which looks happening on Paper...(personally, I think the Streets are the biggest bag of overhyped poo ever. And an embarassment to my hometown Birmingham...)

This list didnt even have 2 Many Dj's by Soulwax in it, (my album of the year) so maybe thats the only difference.There again, that made the list in Q (i think), so thats gotta be a no-no!!!! (even if QOTA and the Foos made the same list...which blows that theory, but who'd give a flying shite about the foo's if Grohl hadn't been the drummer ina certain band??? They'd be nowhere near as big as they are)

DiS certainly seems to me to be a webzine thats too busy chasing its own tail for the next big thing.Which goes back to the age old question, when does the alternative become mainstream?

Looking at DiS's expansionist policy (gig promotion, paper fanzine,s compilation album) might answer the questions you ask Sam...is DiS another wannabe NME-style media-brandname in the making? Well, thats what I think.

1. Coldplay are class
2. Streets are shit
3. Thoria are class
4. Coral are shit
5. Silverchair are class
6. Vines are shit

It's a chart. It's the stuff that the *most* staff like. It's the antithesis of alternative, you moron. Explain to me how you have an alternative chart. Prizes to the first person.

I was under the impression new windows were easier to use... are they not?

I had a train to catch and wanted to mailout about it before everyone goes home from work for xmas.

I can't believe YOU of all people can mention spelling mistakes! Pots and Kettles.

Stop making it sound like you left of your own accord. We got sick of you being a boring, long-winded, movie giving away, only really interested in medicore bands from the late 80s, record collector review writing, wannabe political activist...

Ah yes, of course, just cus I've never got into Stereolab i'm a cretin, how can i forget? cus i'm dumb, probably..

If you put together 48 peoples favourite 5 albums you get the 5 albums that were marketed quite a bit that they remember, or the last thing they listened to quite a lot and a few tactical votes for smaller things they think several people will vote for. So, it's very much a flawed list, in many respects. And some of those people have only written 2 reviews for the site all year. And others picked 5 albums no-one or one other person voted for and these show up in the 50.

If you don't like what we're doing, you can fuck off. We're not a site that's coming and going.. some of the invidividuals may come and go but very soon we'll have a few paid members of staff and a proper core team of staff writers - which ups the quality when you actually pay for peoples prose and specialism, rather than wanna be "music journalists" with nothing very interesting or biting to say.

There are a lot of really amazing people who make this site happen and a lot of what they do gets washed out and thinned down but a lot of the crap that slips up on the site. We're working to rectify that.. my dyslexic spelling mistakes included!

Well you clearly do care don't you? Otherwise you wouldn't have bothered with that rant.

But the point is that this was a chart voted for by about 50 people, and if you think we all sit around going "ooh, we can't like Coldplay, they're too mainstream" then you're even more of an idiot than I thought.

We voted for our favourite albums individually, we didn't compile a list of what we thought would make us look cool as a site. Coldplay will be in the top 50 somewhere, just like Badly Drawn Boy will (I hope), and Gomez, and countless others. That's the problem with democracy, and if you think we're going to fix the chart to put bands like Coldplay in to appease people like you, or take them out to make us look "alternative", you need to stop being so cynical and look at the bigger picture.

Martin.

how different is this list to the NME's? As much as DiS pretends to be an alternative, it's not. Hyping a few sub-metal bands with flashy haircuts does not a good webzine make.

I agree about the sub-metal bands with flashy haircuts. Most of these (naming no names) will never make it out of the camden town pub rock circuit - there's a reason these bands are 'underground'- cos they're not actually that good. Hyping them doesn't make the site alternative, it just makes everyone think you're just bigging up your mates on the london gigging scene. Rock is dead. Seriously - I haven't heard a rock band that's really excited me in quite some time. Sure a few that are nice or fun to watch live but nothing thats really inspired me. We need more diversity... Chasing after ones own 'alternative rock' tail leads nowhere..

Which is a shame, because the people who design the site have obviously got some good ideas

Cheers, yeah I try :)

it's the music that lets it down - DiS is a music site, it seems to me, for people who don't really like like music, a site for people who will be accountants in 2 years time, once they've finished University.

Think that's a bit harsh. The site doesn't have so much of a clear direction as that. It's just what comes about when we give a bunch of fanzine writers (who, perhaps regrettably, seem to be almost entirely dominated by alt rock kids) the chance to write about what they like.

Maybe it's escaped your attention that when someone calls coldplay boring MOR shite, it's not because they're trying to look cool but because that's what they actually think? You think it's beatiful affecting music. Fine. I don't. I can't get past the boredom/cringe factor.

You're right though, having a diverse music taste is to some extent cool. And that's no bad thing. It's all about open-mindedness really. If you're content to live in your own world of embrace B-sides so be it... but to me, being really interested in music means being open to a broad range of styles and being able to sort the sound-alike dross from the interesting ideas in whatever styles/genres you come across, without rejecting any of them out of hand. Admittedly it took me a few years of being an NME reading indie kid to realise this, but still.

I've just been called a moron by someone who thinks Silverchair are 'class'..deary me...

If you read my post, it says that alternative doesn't exist. Everything is the alternative of everything else, surely? Girls Aloud are an alternative to Extreme Noise Terror. Belle & Sebastian are an alternative to Extreme Noise Terror. Girls Aloud are an alternative to Belle & Sebastian, and so it goes on....

It's only music after all....

you missed the point.

it's not a list compiled by one person running his/her finger down a list of PR rosters and picking the ones that look the best onscreen. it's a representative idea of what we've been listening to - and ENJOYING - this year. 48 of us [i think..i didn't do the adding up] voted. we put down the albums we enjoyed. for many of us, they're not albums that were sent our way by pr types; i put six by seven down as my fave album, because i haven't stopped listening to it since i bought it, because it makes me feel and hurt and smile, and because i think it's an astonishing record, the best thing they've ever done and certainly the best thing that's been released this year.

i think the streets are a fucking pile of shit. however i know a lot of people who think the opposite, and were impressed by the album. quite a few of those people write for DiS. that's why it made the list, and for that reason it deserves to be there.

a backlash is always inevitable when you get together and vote for these kinda lists... hey, at least it gets people talking. they're just our opinions, we don't claim that they're any more important than anyone else's. take them or leave them.

and for the record i'm a lazy fuck, and i wouldn't bother writing for this or any other site if there was anything in this life more important to me than music. without presuming to speak for the other writers, i don't think any of us are apathetic about music.

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I meant *an alternative*, not 'alternative' as in a non-exsitent music style.

Just because they do it for nothing doesn't make them great writers Raz. I do the washing up for nothing, but I'm still shit at it.

Surely criticism can only make DiS better? Or do you only want sycophants reading the site?

Yours terribly upset,

Sam

It appears in this case that bribing the editors with chocolates would not have helped! :-D

Or it could just be that AROBTTH wasn't that great an album.

The Delgados, Sigur Ros, Doves... all more beautiful and affecting if maybe not as simple but why should they be?

I guess you'll pull my hair next

hahaha.

oh, and people who like the streets are clueless fucks

Thats a fair point. Parachutes isn't that bad. 10 times better than the fucking Remote Part. Woomble really has lost it - they havn't matured they've just gone bad.

It is only a bloody fanzine. People get can very upset over things for no reason at all. As someone said places like this come and go. What DiS says or does about certain bands isn't going to have a great effect on the music scene - however many clever clever fucking badges they give to people that probably already read the site. And if you dont like it then dont read it.

I dont see the fuss about Kenesis, they're just a tad rubbish. And nothing like the Pixies.

"If you don't like what we're doing, you can fuck off. "
have you any idea how arrogant and up yer own arse that sounds? What happens if everyone takes your advice?????

"ups the quality when you actually pay for peoples prose and specialism" - which means you now have paid hacks rather than people doing it for the love of music. Fucking hell, you are NME-Lite.

Dave asked: "You're spending so much time slagging DiS off anyone would think you were disappointed not to be writing for them anymore"

Just to tie these 2 comments together (the response is sort of linked thematically) I'd rather write for DiS than not, but my complete lack of enthusiasm for the way the site has progressed can be seen in the way that the frequency of articles I wrote tailed off to fuck all. In the last month I think i wrote 2 things, if that. That shows how I felt about the site; completely unmotivated to write for an editor whose only opinion of me was "why don't you get the hint and fuck off?"

You see, the point there is that whilst I enjoy writing ,writing for DIS became something I did not enjoy thanks to one person. I did not enjoy the arrogant, power-hungry, London media-scene player, up his own arse twunt that Sean has turned into lately, turning into a site dictator and treating people like mere pawns. I wouldn't take that treatment from anyone, and being a pain in his side was its own reward. I knew sean wanted me off the site for about 6 months before it happened: and I've no truck for people like that, and I'd rather tell Sean to fuck off than ever write for him again. Quite frankly, I could live quite happily without any further contact with him, becuase He's no friend of mine. And setting no example for an editor by resorting to such tactics as here.

I've no problem with anyone else who writes for the site, they do a lot of commendable work, but Sean really is an arrogant prick who thinks the sun shines out of his own arse, and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. I know he feels as highly of me, judging by his personal attacks on me in the thread here

If you think I wanted to carry on working for you Sean, you are sadly deluded. I'm just not a quitter, period.

Long live DIS : its a great site and everyone except one deserves praise. The site would be nowhere without lots of people doing hard work, but only one takes the credit and its gone right to his ego. My opinion of Sean? I think you can guess. I'd rather not write ever again than ever write for a thankless egotripping editor like Sean again. I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire...

and the worrying use of referring to himself as "we" , mean's he's either trying to pretend it was some sort of democractic decision (in a democracy of one!) , or multiple personality disorder. (or multipule, which is the correct spelling according to this article!!!! )

Graham I completely agree with you!

DiS is NOT a collective as Sean wants its readers to think. It's a dictatorship with a young big headed prick trying to take all the credit for its (un recognised and un credited) slaves.

Erm...Sean's a nice guy...but I don't think anyone here is a slave... Jesus... I have never seen such a catalogue of bitterness as the ex-writers posting their little bitching on this particular comment tree... it's really quite ugly. People have been thrown off the site for bitching about it while they were writing for it, and I see no reason to complain about Sean wishing to have a site where writers contribute positive energies, rather than seek to do down other writers work. Nobody kisses ass... we all criticise each other plenty...but there is a definite line to be drawn when it comes to being polite and good mannered toward each other, and it was definitely a bad thing when certain writers used anonymous pseudonyms to post really hateful comments on other writers stuff...it's called infighting, and Sean would definitely be lacking if he DIDN'T stamp down on it.

The ONLY record I thought worth putting up on a pedestal was The Streets. It really stood out from the crowd, and whether you love it or hate it, didn't sound like the REST.I was surprised, but happy to see it as the number one, but it just goes to show that
most people do love music as a whole. Coldplay have probably been unfairly discriminated against, but it is also a fact that if a band is pitched at the middle of the road 20-40 year old postgraduate market, it's going to alienate the 16-25s who are the main body of the writers in DiS. Their music falls on mainly deaf ears here, which is a shame, because it is good music. Similarly David Gray is unlikely to get time of day ( a quick Rhyme 4 Ya)...though I don't personally think he compares to them...
DiS is mostly written by 16-25s and invariably ends up being mostly tailored toward 16-25s. It is never going to have the same tastes as Mojo or Q... and that is the way it is...

well i've seen you call yourself MD of Dis in atleast one email before...

for a giggle, probably.

some people take everything so seriously - and what's it to you anyway?

why not start up your their site(s) then?

apathy.

ollie.

im so glad to see see through this and leave on you top album chart!! ive been a tctc for a year now and one day funny hairy mad men are gonna rule the world (im refering to tctc)........you keep me happy DIS!

Write for a site that reflects the music you are passionate for, perhaps? That top 20 read so similarly (and as uneventfully) to the NME chart, and Playlouder's, and ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sorry i've died of boredom

It was in my runners up list... and most of my main list didn't make it, let alone my runners up.

The point people seem to miss is that the list was based on the personal tastes of everyone here. Loads of people chose albums that people reckon should've got in, but not enough to get them in the Top 20.

Between Sean, Matt and Martin, some serious man hours have gone into the site. Mainly cause I do fuck all, I'm happy for them to take the lion's share of the credit... at the end of the day though, I think most people write for DiS because they like music and they want other people to like it just as much too. Even if, as Matt says, we like our alt.rock a bit too much... :D

And I do think DiS is an alternative to the NMEs, Kerrang!s and Qs of the world. Our opinions sometimes cross over, sometimes differ, and we say things in a different way to them...

Not to mention the fact a lot of us review bought copies of CDs. I personally have never been too trusting of reviews when you know the reviewer hasn't had to save up, or sacrifice other purchases, for something. That alone changes your opinion on something.

When I said 'MTV' I meant 'digital television'. Never mind.

Shit, if Steve 'I've Lost My Show' Lamacq said it, it MUST be true.
Prick.

I know it's popular at the moment. I meant dead in terms of its originality & cultural significance & blah.

okay, point taken.

"For someone who supposively knows so much, you really need to work on your insults. It's not such a bad thing being a "twat" especially if i was one that belonged to a fittie who's a bit of a nyphy minx."

And why doesnt it surprise me that you enjoy having the cock up you.

ah, get over yourself! leave the kid alone.

Just annoying if you're trying to navigate around a single site. It's not like you're going off on a tangent (to a new site), which is the idea of opening a new window.

Weren't the 'old folks' saying that 40 years ago? :)

"Rock'n'roll... it's just a fad."

Oh rock has been very significant and culturally important this century... what I'm saying is that it's getting very tired. A long way from saying it was only ever a fad.

I'm sure it'll continue to be popular for some time yet, but people have got to get bored with rehashes sooner or later. Took more time than people initially expected, but still. What's the last band you've seen that's done something truly original with a standard rock band line-up?

don't be such a sexist pig

Oh who gives a toss about originality? I like pop music.

prick!

I bought the terrashima ep for you as I know what a fan you are.maybe one day youll have the balls to go to one of their gigs.

I bet you were offended about the "Clive and Derek" programme on channel 4 last night. I'd forgotten how hilarious that all was....

There's a huuuuge difference between being sexist or using sexism to intensify an insult!

Find yourself a new hole to dig greed. Find yourself a spoon and jab it in a wound, wriggle it around, a little left, a little right, spit in the slice of open skin, finger it til there's blood trickling. Ah go on, it'll be fun.

And you're forgetting, that I was infact called a "twat" in the first place and that description, although it is more powerful, its not demonizing and objecting a piece of anatomy... i guess you think sex must be sexist because as well as women, men get pleasure from it and that orgasms are a deadly sin?

Sean

really, all Andrea Dworkin needs to have a field day is a field and/or a day

there's being sexist (if you're not then you're not human) there's being a feminist, and there's being a screwball

(she's the latter)

ollie.

Yeah, I have to agree. Rock music is more popular now than it has been for the last 5, maybe 10 years, and there's more and more bands appearing on the radio, etc., but none of it's very original, most of it is just better to listen to than Will Young. Maybe that's why it's not a rock album at the top of the chart.

But yes, we need more dance/hip-hop/etc. on this site.

Martin.

would you all PLEASE climb the fuck over it already.

heaven preserve us from the idea that mr adams might have deleted the comments that were here [i didn't see them personally but heard about them] because IT'S EXTREMELY FUCKING BORING WATCHING A POINTLESS INTERNET ARGUMENT ABOUT ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN PARTICULAR ON A FUCKING MESSAGEBOARD.

jesus.

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"..dead in terms of its originality & cultural significance"

I agree. In recent years (say since 1999) it seems that 98% of the rock acts that get any kind of exposure have no ideas, no sense of style or humour, no mystique: nothing that is capable of moving or inspiring anyone outside of the kids-who-don't-really-like-music massive. There are charismatic and original groups out there, but their influence is diminished by the fact that so, so many talentless urchins are currently filling up the magazine space that's dedicated to rock and crowding up venue/festival line-ups. This isn't because charmless bands like Hundred Reasons, My Vitriol, Feeder (and on and on) have actually done anything to earn the spotlight, but essentially because:

(i) record-companies and promoters have realized how lucrative the kids-who-don't-really-like-music market can be: the spiky-haired skater or half-arsed rocker posse who tag along to gigs because they are social events, is an audience in itself. 10 years ago such people had the decency to quietly go along with the Stone Roses or Sonic Youth, or whatever their more sophisticated peers were enthusing about; now The Generic Teenager has his own tailor-made pin-ups of blandness.
(ii) the rise of internet-based fanzines - like Drowned in Sound - staffed as they invariably are by alt-rock bores who can't write - has created an undiscriminating 'anything goes' culture in which bands who really don't have anything to say can slip through the critical-safety net from obscurity to prominence.

The obvious consequence is that the genuinely talented people who want success aren't to be found in the guitar-based universe, but in dance, hip-hop, UK garage (witness Mike Skinner), and even what the DiS majority what probably dismiss as 'mainstream pop'

In short, as long as DiS remains poor, it isn't doing rock any favours.

Think they figure in the Top 50 (maybe even top 100!) which will be up as soon as Raz is back from holiday, he only worked out the 20 before going away.