[The Soup Nazi]

...and Trees Outside the Academy is nowhere to be found.

http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2007.shtml

Is this utterly unacceptable or what?

[█████████]

no soup for them.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by █████████

no soup for them.

Right. "Come back - one year!!"

[atari 2600]

The 30 Best-Reviewed Albums of the Year


1Untrue by Burial
2From Here We Go Sublime by The Field
3In Rainbows by Radiohead
4And Their Refinement Of The Decline by Stars Of The Lid
5Raising Sand by Robert Plant And Alison Krauss
6Let's Stay Friends by Les Savy Fav
Neon Bible by The Arcade Fire
8Children Running Through by Patty Griffin
9Kala by M.I.A.
10Sound Of Silver by LCD Soundsystem
11Comicopera by Robert Wyatt
12Person Pitch by Panda Bear
13Mirrored by Battles
14 45:33 by LCD Soundsystem200786
15Boxer by The National
16New Moon by Elliott Smith
17Crazy Ex-Girlfriend by Miranda Lambert
18Ire Works by The Dillinger Escape Plan
19The World Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams by Me'Shell NdegéOcello
20Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon
21Copia by Eluvium
22Sweet Warrior by Richard Thompson
23A Place To Bury Strangers by A Place To Bury Strange
24The Shepherd's Dog by Iron & Wine
25Beauty & Crime by Suzanne Vega
26Frank by Amy Winehouse
27Vieux Farka Toure by Vieux Farka Toure
28The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse by The Besnard Lakes
29Grinderman by Grinderman
3023 by Blonde Redhead


My comments:
The first thing that jumps out at me on this aggregate list from metacritic is that In Rainbows is way too high at an average of number three. I originally had it in my top ten, but it fell to barely making the top twenty by the time the second disc arrived.
I can appreciate that Raising Sand is so high at five, but it only barely makes my top thirty at number twenty-eight. Neon Bible also seems excessively high at number seven. Mirrored and Beauty & Crime seem, in my opinion, too low, but at least they are included. metacritic put Sweet Warrior close to where I did. Many lists seem to be in agreement on the Burial, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Panda Bear and Les Savy Fav, none of which I have heard.
I listened to the Spoon and Blonde Redhead and neither made my top fifty.

[Sheriff Rhys Chatham]

Burial is good but I wouldn't put it in the top.

[atsonicpark]

Let's see.. of the things I've heard:
1Untrue by Burial is shit.
2From Here We Go Sublime by The Field is interesting but didn't really strike me as anything new or mindblowing.
3In Rainbows by Radiohead is fucking TERRIBLE.
4And Their Refinement Of The Decline by Stars Of The Lid is amazing. One of the best of the year, definitely.
6Let's Stay Friends by Les Savy Fav is TERRRRRRRRRRIBLE. TERRIBLE. AWFUL. ONE OF THE WORST ALBUMS I'VE EVER HEARD. Oh my god. This album is pure shit. Everyone who I know who has heard it has also declared it to be terrible -- I guess French Kiss Records doesn't buy ad space from them though..
7Neon Bible by The Arcade Fire I'm not a fan of them but this album's not too bad.
10Sound Of Silver by LCD Soundsystem is awful. Just like everything they do.
12Person Pitch by Panda Bear is pretty good, if you like Beach Boys worship over a bunch of samples. 'Pullhair Rubeye' by Avey Tare is WAY better.
13Mirrored by Battles is okay, if a bit .. disconnected. Their EP's are really good. This album seems like a bunch of different parts pasted together. And that being said, there's some really amazing and compelling parts. But as a whole, it's too long and a bit much. And the production's way too bright. If you want good math rock, again, check out Sleeping People - Growing.
14 45:33 by LCD Soundsystem.. didn't listen to this. But I'm sure it's as good as the rest of their shit: awful.
16New Moon by Elliott Smith .. not a huge fan, but I respect him, so I can see this being well-reviewed.
18Ire Works by The Dillinger Escape Plan .. I think this album is way better than miss machine, so for that alone it deserves recognition. I think all in all it'll be overlooked, and their singer is still godawful. But musically it's great. THOUGH.. again.. Behold the Arctopus - Skullgrid, a similiar album musically, is a BILLION times better, so check that out instead.
19The World Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams by Me'Shell NdegéOcello.. haven't heard this, is this that bald black chick? Fuck her.
20Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon. Haven't heard this, but this band's fucking awful, so...
21Copia by Eluviumis really good.
24The Shepherd's Dog by Iron & Wine.. Awful, boring, bullshit.
26Frank by Amy Winehouse... haven't heard this, but the fact that it's one of the best reviewed discs of the year should tell you something about where critics' heads are at.
29Grinderman by Grinderman. Wow, this disc wasn't very good at all, was it?
3023 by Blonde Redhead. This band gets worse and worse.


Terrible.

[Georgekrz]

Just wanted to add where is Feist on this list? She made top ten from all 3 NY Times music critics list, and I believe a number 1 and number 2 on two of their lists. And actually that album has 2 of my favorite pop songs this year.

Also Thurston's album made I think #9 or 10 on the L Magazine top 20 allbums list.

[Everyneurotic]

Originally Posted by Georgekrz

Just wanted to add where is Feist on this list?...

in the toilet where it belongs.

[SYRFox]

Now the real injustice is that no one even thinks to put the new Black Dice in their Top 10. Roll Up = 2007 #1 track

Also, where's Strawberry Jam?

But then again... Black Dice... Load Blown is probably in my Top 3 this year.

[atsonicpark]

Haha Load Blown blows, and Strawberry Jam isn't a jam. That Thurston Moore solo disc was okay, better than Psychic Hearts, but it wasn't that good either.

There's a whole fucking world of amazing music out there that almost no one here listens to. It's fucking ridiculous.

[SYRFox]

Yeah.

For instance: GOMM - 4. Just because they're french doesn't mean they're not great (although most of the french bands are just awful), 4 is a genius album.

[noisereductions]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

Haha Load Blown blows, and Strawberry Jam isn't a jam. That Thurston Moore solo disc was okay, better than Psychic Hearts, but it wasn't that good either.

There's a whole fucking world of amazing music out there that almost no one here listens to. It's fucking ridiculous.

haha. didn't see that coming.

so what bands are in this world of music that none of us know about?

[SYRFox]

Gomm
Gomm
Gomm
Gomm
Gomm
Gomm
Gomm
Gomm
Gomm

[atari 2600]

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

[noisereductions]

Atari, you and I think alike. Your year-end list shouldn't try to look like Pfork's just so you can say you're hip. I mean, yeah I listened to Deerhunter and Panda Bear all year... but I also was really into the new Ryan Adams, the Ratatat remix album, and a lot of other records that aren't necessarily the epitome of cutting edge coolness. By the by, I put T.I. vs T.I.P. as like number 9 if I remember correctly.

[atari 2600]

By the time BET chose T.I. vs. T.I.P. as the album of the year (and rightly so) I had already downloaded a copy, burned it to disc, and decided that it was going to rank fairly highly. Many of his fans hold that King is much better, but for me they are about the same. While King has more standouts, T.I. vs. T.I.P. has a better album feel overall.

Further on the subject of rap and hip hop, P.E.'s new one isn't even as good as the rather uneven New Whirl Odor from '05 (which had a couple of standout tracks), but I still enjoyed it enough, perhaps overly nostalgically so, to include at number forty.

I originally had Redman's comeback at number fifty but it got bumped off the list.

I've listened to a good bit of Kanye and Jay-Z here and there this year, but I don't have either on a disc to really judge them overall.

[noisereductions]

The Jay-Z and Kanye are both good... The Kanye was better I think, which I usually would think the opposite if it were between the two of them. This one is rather creatively a mature step for him I think.

Hip hop wise, Prodigy's RETURN OF THE MAC and Sean Price's JESUS PRICE SUPASTAR were both spun a lot this year for me. Good albums. And there were several Lil Wayne mixtapes that I liked a lot (namely: NONE HIGHER, which was a collection of new remixes). Oh and Devin The Dude's WAITING TO INHALE was a totally Summer/drinking by the pool album.

[atsonicpark]

Interesting, atari. I don't mind disagreements, of course, but I LIKE your disagreements because they are well-thought-out instead of "fuck you u wrong."

Symphony no. 13 -- I need to check that out.. searching now.

[Trasher02]

Grinderman was a fucking great album, don't be so harsh on Nick Adam!

[atari 2600]

As far as I know, you can't buy it. It's a good audience recording that surfaced at dime only just last year.

6/13/01 World Trade Center, NYC Symphony No. 13 for 100 Guitars Hallucination City

Wharton Tiers plays some incredible drums...for an hour straight.
It was later performed in a few cities in 2001 as far as I know. I keep waiting for a soundboard or possibly a studio-recorded release, but I'm not so sure it will happen, at least from the 2001 era. Branca and his guitarists performed the piece again this year a few times. Here's a clip (at nine minutes, the longest one) from the Roundhouse show in London.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8D6j...eature=related
On that landing page there are links to several other shorter clips of the same show from different cams. There's also a snippet from Dublin.

I completely agree with some of your critiques though.
For instance, I'm right there with you concerning Blonde Redhead.