|
Load Blown isn't in my top ten, SYRFox, but I do rank it; I have it at number twenty-seven. I've been doing these lists every year for five years or so, and the last time a Black Dice album made my top ten was in '04 with Creature Comforts. Although Broken Ear Record ranked around the same as Load Blown, I do think the latest is better.
One comment about year-end best of lists that I've not made yet before is germane to atsonicpark's posts. I downloaded the Rhys Chatham earlier this year (which I think he has at number one), and listened to it. For me, it was an interesting listen but I feel it does not merit inclusion on a top fifty. My primary reason for judging it as such is because last year one of my favorites was a live show I downloaded for Glenn Branca's Symphony No. 13 for 100 Guitars "Hallucination City" recorded in '01. To me, The Chatham sounded like the same sort of thing with guitar tones that weren't as appealing. And that's letting it off lightly, because on the whole, it did absolutely nothing for me.
Many seem to unduly slam on a lot of good artists. For instance, I'll choose Deerhoof as a case-in-point. Friend Opportunity is a good album. In my opinion, it contains some of thier strongest and most accomplished work to date. The single, "The Perfect Me" is a good example. It also, for the most part, unfortunately contains some of their weakest material of late, so, for that reason, I didn't rank it as highly as I have other Deerhoof albums in the past. For people to make blanket statements that Deerhoof as a band are "overrated" or "suck" is out-of-line. To me, these are simply the obnoxious rantings of a blow-hard. And in this thread, in the post above, yet another salvo is fired against Animal Collective. If someone can't tell that they are one of the most innovative bands around, then I don't know what album they are hearing. Animal Collective are now doing actual songs and employing the same experimental ethos they did when they were only just doing aural compositions. That's no easy feat. When one downloads a live show from Animal Collective or Battles one can actually formulate a setlist. Imagine that! The same cannot be stated of many, if not most, of the other groups that appear on various lists.
There are a number of albums that I rank from 30-50 (that I know people here will shake their heads at) that could have removed and replaced with other "cooler" recordings, but I'm not like that. This list reflects my honest opinion. It's also my informed opinion because these were all listened to, most more than a few times, on a disc playing in a good stereo system and not on a computer with headphones or some rinky-dink speakers.
Although, I do think that this year's best are better than last year's, it's not like I am head-over-heels with enthusiasm with the general state of music today. That's not to write that I'm completely bummed though; I made a two-disc compilation set containing many of my favorite songs of the year.
Again, I've seen no year-end top albums list from any publisher or person that has has much musical variety as my list.
1 The Original Silence - The First Original Silence
2 Battles - Mirrored
3 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
4 Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II
5 Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy
6 I'm Not There Motion Picture Soundtrack
7 Bruce Springsteen - Magic
8 Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
9 Melt-Banana - Bambi's Dilemma
10 Björk - Volta
11 Meat Puppets - Rise To Your Knees
12 Patti Smith - Twelve
13 Bad Brains - Build A Nation
14 The Stooges - The Weirdness
15 Suzanne Vega - Beauty & Crime
16 Liars - Liars
17 Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
18 Radiohead - In Rainbows
19 T.I. - T.I. vs. T.I.P.
20 Einstürzende Neubauten - Alles Weider Offen
21 XBXRX - Wars
22 Magik Markers - Boss
23 Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound
24 Zu & Nobuzaku Takemura - Identification with the Enemy: A Key to the Underworld
25 Brad Mehldau - Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz Radio Broadcast
26 Wolf Eyes - Black Wings Over The Sand
27 Black Dice - Load Blown
28 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
29 Xiu Xiu & V/A - Remixed & Covered
30 John Fogerty - Revival
31 Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
32 Ween - La Cucaracha
33 The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
34 Built To Spill - You In Reverse
35 Grinderman - Grinderman
36 Ron Carter - Dear Miles
37 Cowboy Junkies - At the End of Paths Taken
38 Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior
39 Merle Haggard - The Bluegrass Sessions
40 Public Enemy - How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?
41 Tomahawk - Anonymous
42 Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
43 The White Stripes - Icky Thump
44 Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. -
Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under the Stars
45 The Fall - Reformation Post T.L.C
46 Duran Duran - Red Carpet Massacre
47 Low - Drums and Guns
48 Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker
49 The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
50 Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
|