I find it hard to mount any sort of compelling argument against somebody who's taken the time to listen to and review The Man's entire discography, but... Moondance at #7? That didn't rock my gypsy soul.
I see these complaints pop up every time one of these posts roll around, and I really don't get it. You're on the internet right now - how often do you really spend your free time on the internet doing something that ISN'T ultimately pointless? You don't like these lists? Fine, don't bother handing them a page view. But goddammit man, I DO like a good list.
...So with all due respect, fuck your opinion.
Wow, I did not intend for that to be posted up here. I really don't know what happened.
...Please, Stereogum, forgive me for being a jackass.
http://img.pandawhale.com/post-32801-Oh-God-Panda-What-Have-I-Done-HSur.gif
I switched around number 10 at least seven different times, but I'm feeling pretty comfortable with where things are at right now, so I'll just submit this before I can change my mind again:
1. Jai Paul - "St8 Outta Mumbai"
2. Rhye - "Open"
3. James Blake "Retrograde"
4. Afterlife - "Arcade Fire"
5. Kurt Vile - "Wakin on a Pretty Day"
6. Blood Orange - "Chamakay"
7. Tegan and Sara - "I Was a Fool"
8. Phosphorescent - "Song for Zula"
9. Vampire Weekend - "Ya Hey"
10. J Cole - "Power Trip"
Notable omissions: Burial, CHVRCHES, Haim, Autre Ne Veut, The National, The War on Drugs, Mutual Benefit, The Knife... fuck, this was hard.
Given that The Fragile and With Teeth are lyrical embarrassments, I would put The Slip and (probably) Hesitation Marks ahead of both. However, if you were to cut out approximately half of The Fragile's garbage out, it would arguably be NIN's best album, so I could understand why someone might place that album higher on the list.
1.The Downward Spiral (also lyrically immature in spots, but somewhat justifiably so)
2. Year Zero
3. The Slip
4. Pretty Hate Machine
5. Broken
6. Hesitation Marks
7. The Fragile
8. With Teeth (this is actually the first CD I ever bought)
9. Ghosts I-IV
But where do you draw the line? There's plenty of artists who have arrived rhythms, chord progressions and whatnot independently of each other. Should Dave Grohl and Courtney Love have filed a lawsuit against Jack White for "I Can't Wait?" And should Tom Petty have sued the Red Hot Chili Peppers over "Danny California?" Should they both have sued The Black Keys over "Little Black Submarines" a couple years back? I'm not saying there's an element of dishonesty at play here, but allowing every artist more freedom to sue every sound-a-like is only asking for a mess.
If "Everlasting Arms" had made it over "Diane Young," that might've made me think twice about choosing "Get Lucky" before voting for it anyways.
On a slightly unrelated note, I feel like it's a shame that more people aren't aware of just how killer Jai Paul's "Str8 Outta Mumbai" is. Definitely still a highlight on my summer playlist.
Not at all. Kanye is clearly attempting to capture some of the dangerous, aggressive, industrial-rap sound that Death Grips has just about perfected. While I'll admit that I love this production on most of Yeezus, the album's Lil' Wayne-quality lyrics make it pretty clear that this dark sound is just another attention grab for Kanye, rather than any sort of meaningful transformation. If the two artists seem to be "completely different" right now, that's only because one appears genuine, while the other leaves the aftertaste of a cheap shock-rock album.
Also, defending the album's obvious missteps by saying they're "evidence of a sort of genius that’s powerless to detect its own terrible ideas" ?
That's probably one of the best Stereogum-isms since "we need to accept the possibility of a record so excellent we don’t understand it yet."
Give Yeezus a few more listens. Kanye's delivery is rarely angry enough to sell the sound, and the lyrics are (outside of a few entertaining one-liners) some of the worst of his career. Honestly, the thing everyone's most excited about is hearing a new Kanye album; after you get past the shock value of the sound - which, in reality, is just an easy-listening version of Death Grips - you'll realize that this is a fairly good album at best, and probably the second worst in his catalog.
For all the fuss suddenly being made about this album, I expected to hear something a bit more... inspired. Guess I'll just give it another listen tomorrow and hope for the best.
I've listened to Daft Punk. It was a problem before, and the added emphasis on vocals only makes it even more of a problem now. We can't justify it just because it's Daft Punk.
Not to mention he's saying
"If you lose your way tonight, that's how you know the magic's right."
I mean, I can't be the only one who cringes from half the lyrics on this album.
Like Human After All, most of these songs sound half-assed - and that's before even approaching the lyrics. It'll be interesting to see whether they can mesh these tracks into their live act as well as they have with past missteps. Fairly disappointing.
Highlights: Get Lucky, Giorgio by Moroder, Motherboard, Contact
Cringe-worthy: Within, Touch
I'd say the only problem with the busy tracks is their sequencing. Placing "Finger Back" next to "Worship You" seems like a bit much. Sticking a relatively straightforward track like "Don't Lie" in between the two would offer a welcome reprieve from the madness. As it is, I feel like "Don't Lie" gets completely overshadowed by "Diane Young" and "Hannah Hunt"'s greatness.
Admittedly, this is nitpicky as hell. The album is fantastic.
I really think that Vampire Weekend are just too smart to release anything less than fantastic, and the more eccentric they get, the better. The first album will always be a personal favorite of mine, but this is definitely their most impressive collection of songs to date.
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