Actually...now that I think about it, I can't reduce my list past these 14 (which incidentally does not include Daughters), in no particular order:
Terrible Love (alt)
Fake Empire
Afraid of Everyone
Secret Meeting
Apartment Story
Bloodbuzz Ohio
Squalor Victoria
So Far Around the Bend
Mr. November
Sorrow
Slow Show
The Geese of Beverly Road
Racing Like a Pro
Abel
I'm in the same boat (having trouble getting into PV). It's an interesting observation about the sequencing, too... Sometimes when I'm having trouble getting into an album, I'll hack up the track order and re-arrange it in a different way (or just listen to certain songs individually before listening to the whole). It's how I came around to Ryan Adams' 29, for example. Having the slow, 8-minute "Strawberry Wine" in the #2 spot was throwing me off the album for the longest time. Once I started listening to the tracks out of order, I was able to appreciate them individually, which later extended to the album as a whole (including, by the end, "Strawberry Wine"). Now it's one of my personal favorite RA albums, but it took a long time to get there.
Absolutely. Maybe it's because Winter was my point of entry for FR, but I don't understand the distaste for that album. It's got "Swim If You Can't See Land," for chrissakes!
This post deserves so many more upvotes. "Risk" - man, you nailed it.
I have to say, every time Mumford and Sons come up on this site, it makes me uneasy. Part of that is because I truly don't think they're as bad as Stereogum commenters like to pretend (and part of THAT is because - and this always gets me downvoted, but whatever - there is an awful lot of groupthink going on here). So I feel like I have to defend a band I don't actually like. But I can't say I dislike them either - it's just that, for whatever reason, their music doesn't click with me. And maybe that's enough. Maybe we spend too much time convincing ourselves that the "MUSIC ISN'T VERY GOOD" (as Hartford said a few comments above) when really it's just "THIS DOESN'T CLICK WITH ME FOR AN UNKNOWABLE REASON." I dunno.
But I really dig this "risk" thing, and that's what I meant to say when I started typing...
I wonder if Jack and Tom would be up for some kind of competition. A battle of wits to settle once and for all: Who is the Bigger Asshole? We could come up with categories and have the guys submit their reasons why they (or the other guy) deserves to win. I'll start:
Who is Trying Harder to Look like Johnny Depp?
Who has Spoiled More Surprises?
...other ideas?
Just to clarify, I wasn't necessarily directing that last line at David, although I can somewhat see why it might appear that way. However, what he stated was not a fact; it's an opinion - albeit an opinion that was stated AS a fact. But, hey...it's December in music-land.
I'm shocked by that, too. I'm still working on my list, but I started writing it before the big sites/publications began publishing theirs, and just assumed Grizzly Bear would be near the top. This is what I wrote about Shields: "It's likely to rank highly on most lists, and the comments section for those it doesn't will likely be filled with complaints that it isn't higher."
Oddly enough, neither of those things have happened. I'm really surprised. Shields is probably my favorite album of the year.
Sorry Dave, but if you don't see the age-related dismissiveness in Tom and Michael's lead-in summaries, then I'm not sure what else to tell you.
While it's easy to say they're, you know, not making good music anymore, some of those albums have been highly praised elsewhere. So to claim that they don't "deserve to be anywhere near the top of anything" is a bit over the top.
I'm just tired of the usual smugness and condescension that people seem compelled to throw around during year-end list time.
Comments