Posts Tagged “year-end list”

And so continues my year-end push of four years of year-ends that hopefully soon will reach an end. 2011 was great and all but 2012 was many rungs up on the spectacular ladder.

This entry has been laying dormant for a few years with a handful of finished reviews alongside scattered drafts. So let’s instead default to a flat list to get on with it. Male-dominated as per usual. Privileged white men muddying the waters of music criticism?

Still playing catch-up as I tick through years of writing backlog as my 2009 list indicated. This time it’s short and sharp with a showcase of 20 great records. I believe my goal in these lists is to reveal that the album is not dead as long as artists commit to their vision. iTunes/YouTube ADHD culture and the downfall of physical media can’t kill conceptual songwriting mastery and emotional honesty.

Just a wee bit delayed. 2009 was the year I finally realized there is no filter or time management processes that will permit me to take in all music I wish to. Even though journos now go the Twitter route for ADHD snippet reviews, I decided to make this list an extended one to make up for my 2008 abbreviated summary. Hence why it took four years of peck-ish writing.

Another year of quantifying tastes, this time with more links and less prolix. Begin!

This article is late for many reasons (mostly slothfulness) since I scour other year-end lists to ensure I don’t miss out on anything important. OCD has its advantages. So I’ll cover some bands rediscovering their roots, art metal being described as “dirgy”, middle-class dudes ripping off channeling Joy Division (yes, still), and some post-rock groups incorporating actual human vocals. That’s innovation !! I’ll run out of adjectives, make blatant misuse of semicolons, and repeat the same sentence in each review via synonyms.

My original intention was to scale back this year’s list since 2006’s article turned into a 10,000+ word behemoth. I never even expended that much energy for upper-year university papers. A little bit shorter, a whole lot sweeter, so was the plan that was made to fail. Now let me condescend your place in the world by using the collective terms “kids” and “folks”.

Do you like Huey Lewis and the News? I find talking about music is such a subjective experience, throwing about vague assertions while trying to claim it’s just an opinion, but kind of fact. Then there are those that use it as an excuse to stretch thin their English lit degree. I did it because I’m a narcissist. Over a year ago I wrote up my Top Albums of 2005 with brief descriptions of each album, and then a few months ago, supplemented that with my 2005 catch-up list. This time, it’s more extensive.

In the past I had refused to write about music as to not contribute to the nit-picky industry of music critics. I’m beginning to think the reason was my own general laziness. When reviewing my list, please keep in mind that I have never cared too much about lyrics. As long as they lack heavy-handiness and cheese, focused tends to hone in on production and melody. The ordering in this list is somewhat unexplained subjectivity that I refuse to think about!