Toodles to You Bitches: LPTJ Best of 2010 Results/Mix

[mountmccabe]

Also I rather liked Thank Me Later even if it wasn't much of a contender for my top 20. I am not sure what is supposed to be wrong with it? Did I miss a big chunk of the hip hop thread where this all went down?

[reebty]

Six in common, mostly the higher stuff: Impala, Swans, LCD, Deerhunter, Monae, Big Boi. Deerhunter is in about the same position. I thought Owen Pallett would get in there somewhere.

[Ignatius]

more boring every year. boo taste

[Danen]

 

Just had the best laugh I've had in a while. The great thing is that I can laugh at the Kanye and still like the album (somehow, strangely, considering that I've never cared that much for Kanye). Bunch of mine got in there, and I think Swans deserve greater, but hell with it. Mix looks awesome and I look forward to driving through tomorrow to it. Thanks so much!

[Antero]

I don't have any interest in metal personally, but listening to "Ichor" I definitely understand why it was on the year-end lists for those of you that do.

[jm]

SO how many tracks can I listen to before I very decidedly switch to something else?

[jm]

but lo my shits is confounded by the fact that my comptar speakers put out an absurd–and ever-increasing–amount of bass.

[narlus]

wow was that tyler song ponderous.

[narlus]

good god is kanye west unbearable.

[Antero]

wow was that tyler song ponderous.

I'd prefer "French" as the representative for that album.

[Babar]

Another year, another stellar job by dieblucasdie.

I think all of my tiny list made it, huh. interesting. Definitely gonna listen to the mix and skip NO track. all shall be absorbed.

[Babar]

just listened to the whole thing minus the stuff i'd already heard.

tame impala - I like the old school tape edit delay thing going on, but I hear nothing that wasn't done better in the swinging 60s. yeah, and the melody of the chorus gets tired the second time around.

the roots - Hmm, doesn't really have me rushing to listen to the album. It's kinda dull. There's no firepower.

grinderman - pretty good. from the beginning of the song it promised an explosion somewhere along the way, when it came it was underwhelming to me. still a pretty good song.

the walkmen - This is the kinda indie rock song I plain don't like. It comes and it goes and leaves nothing behind. not bad, not good, just bland. uninspired.

titus andronicus - the guitar melody around 4:30 is like something out of an irish riverdance, not that that's bad. the song though ehhh, has it's moments but kinda drags on. guitar oat meal.

swans - oh yeah. first song i actively like. the riff has a mantra-like feel to it before coming to a halt. would listen to in own time. ok nice, now the song has completely changed and there's a singer. the quality of the song did not change though.

shearwater - kind of an 80s rock ballad vibe with the vocals right at the beginning. it's kinda like that bad song on an otherwise good album that you always skip. i like some of the ideas the band presents in the song but the song itself is dull. the singer was also quite off-putting except for the 80s rock ballad vibe (or was that maudlin?).

the tallest man on earth - hmm so this is that tallest man on earth everybody's talking about. nothing remarkable, but nothing terrible either. the melody is not engaging but the song had nice strumming work in the background. don't really hear Dylan except for in the vocals.

sun city girls - experimental shit isn't shit that should be harshly judged after one listen but I'm gonna do it anyway. C-

superchunk - I like it. It's fun, it's catchy, I Won't actively seek it out but if it'd ever, for some reason, come on my car radio I'd crank it up and think to myself "I like it".

lcd soundsystem - ehh, during the first minute i thought i'd like it. then it kinda just remained the same, in a bad way, and the "i can change" chorus is like, seriously, i thought this guy was good. although come to think of it, i've never really liked any lcd songs i've heard so it's shouldn't be surprising that this isn't up my alley but down my cul-de-sac.

tyler, the creator - yeah, definitely need to check this out. this might be the album I hoped Aceyalone's The Book of Human Language would be. i like the saw hits from the synthesizer. looking forward examining the lyrics with a compass.

deerhunter - i'm guessing this song is not the best song on the album but "represents" it best and is conveniently short. it's ok, i probably would have dug it more when i first got into indie rock, but now i'm so royally hard to impress, call me Louis.

the national - seriously guys, 5th place? alright, i'm a sucker for cliches so the silence midway through to emphasize vocals cranks it up from an F to a D-.

verdict is in: Swans and Tyler, the creator win! Looking forward to checking that out more thoroughly. This also affirms my usual stance of not emphasizing checking out new music. not that new music is worse, but natural selection deems that overall there are more great albums released in 70+ years time than in 1 year.

[Danen]

To me, the National remain the most overrated band of the moment, and that's siad. I genuinely loved "Alligator" when it came out and thought "Boxer" was an ideal followup. I can't stand the new one at all, though.. It seems so perfectly composed as to smash any of what worked about the last two, it's as if the band said, "so, how can we better reach that old Gap crowd and maybe get some more commercials off our stuff?" I don't want to believe this about the band, but that's the vibe the album gives me.

So glad others dig Swans. Now you guys have given me someone to chase further - Tyler, the Creator. I knew I'd find great stuff based on your lists.

[narlus]

sun city girls - experimental shit isn't shit that should be harshly judged after one listen but I'm gonna do it anyway. C-

it uses some 'exotic' melodies/instrumentation and if you aren't used to Alan's vocals i suppose it comes off as a bit strange, but experimental?

[jm]

wow was that tyler song ponderous.

[jm]

but seriously.  Is this mix made up of the weakest songs from the albums that people named?  Because man, with the exception of a couple of surprises* and a couple of things that I already [knew that I] liked, a lot of this is painfully generic or embarrassingly precious/hyperdramatic.

* namely, Shearwater (!?) and The Tallest Man on Earth.

and edit: The National track would have been included in the surprises, as, while I have long regarded them as "overrated" (or whatever you "there's no such thing as 'overrated'" types want to call it), I actually rather liked it - however, it lacks any kind of dynamic change, and as such, it just kind of stayed in the place I had reserved for it in my music brain.

[edison]

I have to say I was rather mystified by blucas's Janelle Monae and Kanye West picks (from albums that respectively have such obviously great massive hits as "Cold War", "Tightrope" and "POWER"). That said, due props for organizing all the fun, I look forward to checking out the stuff I haven't heard yet (which must amount to four or five songs).

[davy]

All's I know is that The Walkmen track, at least, is awesome.

[jm]

The Walkmen track is one that I was underwhelmed by.  I certainly didn't think any of these were bad (wait, no, I thought the Tyler the Creator track was fucking insufferably tedious).

The Janelle Monae track, I thought, was really good!  I haven't listened to the rest of the album, but it definitely caught me off-guard.

[edison]

It's good, no question about it - just now as "wow, awesome" as a few others on that album. Nitpicking, I know, sorry.

[reebty]

Just reread the first post and realised I have to edit my top ten write up because I used the word "ambition" in reference to Janelle Monae and therefore look like a wanker. I might as well describe Halcyon Digest as "bedroom pop" and The Arcade Fire as "Canadian".

[dieblucasdie]

I didn't use "Cold War" because it's a little straight-ahead R and B, and I wanted to give the unfamiliar a taste of the weirdness on that album.  And obvs I didn't use "Tightrope" because there's a Big Boi song two tracks later.

[Antero]

Aight, so I'm not a Kanye hater - he's definitely made some of my favorite beats ever, and Dropout/Registration/Graduation are all up in awesome music - but

but

what is it about My Dark Twisted &c &c that makes it at all unusual/remarkable, aside from the admittedly awesome robot-gospel-choir-into-Gil-Scott-Heron that closes the proceedings?  Where I'm sitting it sounds like a 72%, say, yet people who I normally consider sensible are completely pooping themselves over it.  What is it that has people in such a tizzy, aside from it being Kanye?

[Ignatius]

Dunno, boss. What is it about Bay area rap that so enthralls you?

[edison]

I didn't use "Cold War" because it's a little straight-ahead R and B, and I wanted to give the unfamiliar a taste of the weirdness on that album.  And obvs I didn't use "Tightrope" because there's a Big Boi song two tracks later.

I didn't think about the latter explanation, true. Fair enough!