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The lede from my Fading Frontier review:
Around the time of 2010 career pinnacle Halcyon Digest, it became clear that Deerhunter were the greatest indie rock band of their generation. By “indie rock” I mean the fertile niche of guitar-driven noise-pop pioneered by the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Pavement and their ilk — bands that have a deep reverence for rock ‘n’ roll’s old, weird past and an ear for its future. But however you want to define “indie” or “rock,” which of Deerhunter’s peers has assembled a more captivating, challenging, rewarding catalog over the past decade?
LOL @ the notion that Halcyon Digest, one of the albums of thee decade, wouldn't have deserved AOTW (although I don't think AOTW had been established yet in 2010)
Assume Form is out this week! And part of the reason Deerhunter never got AOTW is because their last three albums got Premature Evaluations. No correction or further context needed re: Steve Gunn, though.
This is a great comment! I just want to dispute the notion that my tone is asking readers to "get with the times." There's basically no prescription and only a little value judgment in this piece (the main thing being my ongoing complaint about Top 40 boxing out so much extremely poppy rap). It's mostly just observation about where things stand, with a bit about how we got there and where we're going. Not telling you how to feel about it.
Yeah... everything is more atomized now, so even if Drake had statistically the best year, I don't doubt that MJ was subjectively much bigger in his day.
