Oh, so "Gossamer" is the title for the Passion Pit record! I was wondering why someone kept posting a picture of the Looney Tunes monster in various list comment threads here. It all makes sense now!
Yeah, I couldn't believe that Burial wasn't even in the EP-length list of 2012 EPs. Is Burial just such a critical given by this point that people don't even feel the need to put him on lists anymore? I can sense his musical ghost secretly haunting all these lists. . .
I've had a hard time getting into Tame Impala myself. I think part of it is that when my reason for listening to something is because it's appearing on a bunch of lists, I naturally listen with an air of skepticism that wouldn't necessarily be there if I was just listening out of pure curiosity. It's like I'm going into the song already imagining that the song will ultimately justify my assumption that that album doesn't belong on whatever list. But also I just don't listen to many male-fronted indie bands anymore.
Not saying that your reason for not getting into Japandroids is the same as my difficulty getting into Tame Impala. But it's definitely a different experience listening to something with the awareness that it's supposed to be good, as opposed to listening to it because it has a cool album cover or title, and then having it turn out that you really like the music too.
Yeah, Gorilla vs. Bear's list is the most personally satisfying list I've seen so far. Not surprised to see Grimes tie with Chromatics for #1, since GvB have always loved Grimes, and I certainly agree that Visions is one of the best of the year. I also love to see Burial and Jessie Ware in the top 5, and Laurel Halo on the list.
My favorite list of 2012 tracks has to be Michael_'s, especially since it includes Charli XCX's remix of How to Dress Well's "Cold Nites."
Back when Fearless came out, she was quite popular too. I even remember that album being on one or two individual staff lists (Tom Ewing might have been one) at Pitchfork, though I can't find those lists now. Maybe people (me) got bored with her sound when Speak Now came out. In any event, Red sees her back in the spotlight and fully in control of her destiny. Well, I for one am ready to embrace this album. With the release of Red, we find Swift back in control of the spotlight. It's a red spotlight. It's pointed directly at Swift as she stands on stage, ready to sing, or having already sung. With the release of Red, Taylor Swift finds Swift back in the Red, fully in control, singing. Singing her songs. Red debuts at number 1 for the third week in a row. I'm going to buy this album, if I haven't already.
Saw this comment a while ago, and it occurred to me that the last I'd heard or seen of JoJo was when she was in "RV" with Robin Williams. I admit this made me a bit skeptical about the potential quality of her music. Then I listened to "Demonstrate," "In the Dark," and her cover/remix of "Marvin's Room". Short story long, I'll be paying attention to her from now on. And I will not doubt you again, Sloth.
http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/img/misc/cartoon/whatsupdoc.gif
Out of curiosity, I also tried to see if there were any pictures of Lola Bunny coming out of a hole. But "Lola Bunny hole" turned out to be the wrong thing to type into Google image search. Let's just say there are a lot of unwholesome pictures of Lola on the internet. There's one that features her 69-ing with Minerva Mink from Animaniacs.
Yeah, I was wondering that. Also, what's it gonna take for Chromatics to appear on one of these lists? Spin, will you correct this? Or will we have to wait for Pitchfork's list? Can we wait that long?
But that's where Charli XCX and Burial and Jessie Ware and Bat for Lashes are! Maybe if they set up a quarantine around the NME office, you could exist there without worrying about living under the specter of NME and Mojo and Q magazines. Does anyone know if there are any music mags in England that match the awesomeness of the electronic scene there? I can't think of any off the top of my dome, other than Mixmag, which i consider to be a good magazine because they once had a Katy B interview in there. Even Paste and Spin are reliable by comparison to NME, and Under the Radar and The Big Takeover are vastly better.
This has been "The History of British vs. American Music Magazines." I'm crabtron. You're reading Stereogum. Stay tuned. I'll leave the light on for you. Good night and good luck. I'm Robert Osborne. You're watching Turner Classic Movies. I'm crabtron. I'm losing my mind.
The bar started off on the ground, and now it's been raised up to a position slightly higher than that. But it's still low enough to trip a hermit crab. Guess we'll have to count on the Gummy Awards to set the bar high this year. I voted for Chromatics, so I'm doing my part.
Her "Super Ultra" mixtape is pretty good too, especially the second half.
On another note, I admit I have seen none of the "Best Viral Videos," and there's no option to not select one. So I guess "Drunk Man Sings Seal To Cat" is going to win, since it's first on the list. And that's a video I don't even need to watch. All I need is the title and my imagination.
Definitely. Also I put Johnny Jewel for male crush. (Female crush: Charli XCX of course. "Heartbreaks and Earthquakes" is my second favorite album of the year.)
A few shots from Double Indemnity, several pictures of Humphrey Bogart playing chess (one vs. Lauren Bacall), Orson Welles in The Third Man, a hand holding up the blue key in Mulholland Dr.,a couple pics of Tracer Bullet from Calvin and Hobbes, Barbara Stanwyck seductively posing with one foot on a stool, and a shot from "Dance for You" with Beyonce seductively posing in the doorway.
My "Sample Pictures" folder contains a screen-cap of a really good game of computer Hearts I once played.
I was thinking, "man, Emily Kai Bock really has range as a director if she did both of those videos."
I admit that I really like behind-the-head shots of people walking, so I liked the Purity ring video for that reason at least. Still, it almost felt like a watered-down Andreas Nilsson video, which just reinforces the apparent influence of the Knife on Purity Ring. And it's definitely less of a "best video of the year" than Grimes' Oblivion video, directed by Emily Kai Bock, a name that was also mentioned in the first sentence of my comment here in this comment section.
She looks like a brooding god, gazing down upon the insignificant "Papa John." Also, here's a picture of her subjecting her fans to some Domino's:
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv186/alicesaylem/Taylor%20buys%20pizzas%20to%20her%20fans/taylor-swift-pizza-party-04.jpg
Heh, thanks. I do admit that I was mischievously trying to lure you into getting downvoted, since that's generally what happens when people post links to their blogs on this site. But now I feel a tad guilty, and so as an act of penance I will actually read your blog now, so that your effort was not in vain.
Listened to "22," and it is quite enjoyable. I will say that it feels almost interchangeable with Avril Lavigne's "Smile" (production-wise), which isn't surprising considering they were both produced with Max Martin and Shellback. I don't have a problem with this, since they're both good songs to me. Still, it would be fun to hear her do a song with someone like Danja or Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, if she's going to be working with more dance-pop producers. I can't even imagine what that would sound like, but it would probably be worth hearing. Or maybe all I really want at this point is for Araabmuzik to take some Taylor Swift vocals and just use them in one of his own tracks.
I like her album "Fearless," though I haven't heard much of "Red" yet. I actually don't mind the idea of music as a product. It can still be art at the same time, and all music that's sold could be called a product to some extent. I also don't mind how much studio wizardry is thrown at a particular album, as long as it actually sounds good (not just "polished") in terms of songwriting and craft.
Say, Alex, think you could post a link to that blog of yours? Preferably post it as a reply to somebody else's comment toward the top of this thread, so that it's easy for everyone to see.
Pretty darn close to my list as well. I like how Hail to the Thief defies the list, and refuses to have a number in front of it. It's too raw, too unrevised to play by such rules.
I'm also with you, and it's not so slight for me. I'd go with Kid A, then In Rainbows, then OK Computer. I got into Radiohead late (around 2007), and OK Computer was their first album that I listened to. It was great, sure, but I was listening to a lot of 90s trip hop/electronic music at the time--Massive Attack, Bjork, DJ Shadow--and OK Computer just felt a bit sonically thin compared to these artists, and even compared to another 90s "rock" album, Loveless.
At some point, I found out about The Knife's Silent Shout, and in the Pitchfork review it was compared to Kid A, an album I hadn't yet heard, since I had somewhat moved on from Radiohead after assuming that OK Computer was the best they'd done, according to most critical rankings of their albums. Given all this, when I first heard Kid A, it felt like the perfect culmination of that 90s trip hop/IDM type of sound. It didn't feel like a "gutsy career move" so much as the full realization of their potential, no longer fettered by the rock-centric notion of a "band", and all the member roles that that notion entails. Kid A wasn't a move away from a particular sound, so much as a move towards a superior one. It just seemed like the most logical progression to me. If I'd've approached Radiohead as someone who had heard and loved The Bends first, then perhaps I'd have a different opinion, but coming from a more electronic-focused background, Kid A sounded like the album I'd been wanting all along. Not to imply that any fan of OK Computer is purely a rock fan, or that any fan of Kid A is purely an electronic fan--of course there's going to be plenty of overlap. But this is just how I happened to get into Kid A.
Sorry for writing so much, but I couldn't resist on this one. I still love OK Computer, but Kid A just sounds unbelievably right to me, and it was the album that immediately converted me into a Radiohead fan, rather than just an appreciator of their one most critically acclaimed album that I had heard up to that point.
Everybody should just downvote your first comment here, then upvote the second one. Then you've got both Highest and Lowest Rated in the same thread, back-to-back! On second thought, nah, that would almost be like charity, and you don't need that. I trust you to be able to get it done through the honest toil of posting hit-or-miss gifs.
Shit, I almost forgot to mention: Gas, a.k.a. Wolfgang Voigt. He made four ambient techno albums in the late 90s, and it's worth getting them all via the compilation "Nah und Fern." "Zauberberg" and "Pop" especially rival Aphex Twin's SAW Vol II, although his sound is quite different. "Konigsforst" is pretty great too. Gas is equally difficult to group in with any other electronic artists, but he could be considered somewhat a predecessor to The Field and Pantha du Prince.
Thanks, raptor jesus. Sometimes I feel like I'm just lurking in the comments here, waiting for someone to ask what electronic music they should listen to. This is what I've been training for.
I also recently got into "...I Care Because You Do". I had been holding off because I thought it would be merely some sort of transitional album, and perhaps it is, but it's a great transition.
I also just started listening to AraabMuzik's "Electronic Dream," especially "Streetz Tonight," "I Remember," and "Not Afraid to Die." It's more removed from Aphex Twin's influence, but if you like Burial, Massive Attack, and DJ Shadow, AraabMuzik might be just what you need right now.
Oh, and I second (third?) The Field recommendation.
That was supposed to be a reply to you, drgonzo. As usual I managed to ignore the "reply" button. The Stereogum equivalent of absentmindedly driving past my own house when I'm trying to get home. One of these days I'll learn.
Maybe "I'm God" by Clams Casino (I prefer the version without Lil B's rapping over it, not that I have anything against Lil B). That song reminds me a bit of "Xtal." You might also like Nosaj Thing's "Coat of Arms," if you like Flying Lotus and Boards of Canada. Bibio's "Fire Ant" is a good song from a newer Warp artist. And I highly recommend every song that Air France released in their too short existence as a musical duo. Sincerely Yours is a generally great label. Hope that helps/ is in line with what you're looking for.
Eh. I'm sure it's possible to like both wussy beard flannel mandolin indie folk bands AND macho beard flannel grunge guitar bands, or whatever. I'm not hugely into either of those genres, but they've each got some good stuff to offer. I don't know much about Alice in Chains, except that I remember hearing "Would?" on the radio for the first time, and I will say that that's a pretty awesome song.
I can't really evaluate this album, since I've only heard a couple songs from it. Usually I don't have any ties to these "(Album) Turns (# of Years)" posts, except for the one on Interpol's Turn On the Bright Lights, which is one of my favorite albums. Of course Interpol are an indie band, but they are of the clean-shaven, crisp-suited guitar variety, and one of Paul Banks' biggest inspirations is Nirvana. I guess my somewhat rambling point is that they're not mutually exclusive. It's all connected, man.
Also, I should mention that the only reason I wrote all this was because I didn't have a good ironic .gif ready. I really should build up a stockpile of those. They'd save me a lot of typing.
I'm just now getting into that album Quarantine, by Laurel Halo, and I'm really liking it. So I decided to arbitrarily comment on it in this thread, which as far as I can tell is in no way about Laurel Halo. But if I posted this comment in a dated Laurel Halo thread, no one would see it at this point. All I want is for people to appreciate the fact that I appreciate Quarantine, the album that I'm listening to and liking right now. I don't think that's asking too much.
I quip the following quip: "Jamie xx is the band's wild card"? I would've said he's their "x-factor"!
I just listened to the album on NPR, and was initially disappointed with it as a whole. But now I've zeroed in on three tracks, which I am cycling through: "Reunion," "Missing," and "Fiction." I think I'm going to slowly get to like each track by taking them each out of the larger context, and listening like that for a while. Sim's starting to sound a bit like Brendan Perry--his voice is just fuller on this album. Those "hai-ee-ai--o-o"s in the background of "Missing" sound like they could be in a Dead Can Dance song. Of course, that's pretty much where the similarities end. And I'd say "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove" is more of a club song than anything on this album. Not that I really mind either way.
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