Entertainment For Lively Minds
2008 Album Of the Year - The Poll of Polls!
One of my end-of-year rituals is to compile a chart based on the Top 50 albums of the year lists put out by Mojo, Uncut, Q and NME, mostly to help me see what I've missed, what the overall consensus is, and help me put together my Christmas list!
Anyway, I thought the Word massive might find the Top 10 interesting (with total points scores out of 200, and the number 1 albums per magazine as stated - strangely, each magazine had a different top album this year):
1) FLEET FOXES - Fleet Foxes (186) [Mojo No. 1]
2) TV ON THE RADIO - Dear Science (172)
3) GLASVEGAS - Glasvegas (165)
4) NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (152)
5) ELBOW - The Seldom Seen Kid (150)
6) VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Vampire Weekend (140)
7) BON IVER - For Emma, Forever Ago (138)
8) PORTISHEAD - Third (137) [Uncut No. 1]
9) KINGS OF LEON - Only By The Night (134) [Q No. 1]
10) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (127) [NME No. 1]
I also like to look at the highest placed album for each magazine that none of the others rated, and the highest-placed albums conspicuous by their absence from each mag's lists, as it gives another indication of how they perceive their readership, so:
Mojo - like THE BUG, don't like VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Uncut - like JAMES BLACKSHAW (who?), don't like LAST SHADOW PUPPETS
Q - like KEANE, don't like NEON NEON
NME - like FOALS, don't like PAUL WELLER
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James Blackshaw
sorry being dim
the points scores are worked out how?
As he's collating the Top
As he's collating the Top 50's of four magazines, I'd possibly take a punt at 1st place being 50pts, 2nd being 49pts, 3rd being 48pts and so forth?
Though am ready to stand corrected from the chap himself.
4 mags, 50 chart placements
If all 4 mags said the one album was their number 1 then it would get 200 points.
Yes, that's it!
50 points for number 1, 1 point for number 50, exactly as the mags themselves do it I believe... sorry, I should have made that clear...
why not the lowest best?
just add up the chart places lowest wins
So
That's 10 albums I do not own or have listened to this year.
I'm dooomed!
These lists are shite.
As is evidenced by the appearance at number 3 of the most turgid, unimaginative, derivative bilge since the last Oasis album.
Colours. Mast. Nailed.
I know people always say this but...
....honestly has there ever been a time in the history of popular culture when it mattered less which was the fourth best album of the years and which was the third?
Wot?
No Rhydian? Phooey.
Foxed
I've been trying out the Fleet Foxes and the MGMT records and I just don't get either of them. What in the world is wrong with me?
nuthin.
you either get 'em or you don't. From other posts you've made here, Pat, i think we'd have broadly similar tastes of a stones/bruce/traditional 'rawk' variety. Fleet Foxes, i just can't get a grip on either, but with MGMT it's my love of bits of electro pop that hooked me. I think it was Tom Dunne who played Kids back in Janaury as i was driving somewhere and the keyboard riff and rhythm grabbed me and i was hooked.
It's the sound you either like or you hate. I know a few people who'd be a fecks sight more open minded than I am about music who have issues with MGMT too. I'd tread warily of the Culture/what's-good-and-what's-bad debate down below, but y'know yerself - potayto potahto...
Fleet Foxes
For me it took a little bit of time to love the album. I think it's superb now. Keep trying :)
fair enough steve
i'll give 'er a rattle again!
Fleet Foxes/Coldplay
I've tried to listen to the Fleet Foxes album too - I reckon I must have got half way through the fourth play when I realised that it was as tedious as it seemed on the first play and it has been banished from my ipod forever. I think I felt the same about the first Coldplay album that everyone else seemed to be raving about.
Ah...I see the problem
The poll does not take in Classic Rock or Kerrang...
Yes!!!
Quality reply;)
From your analysis of the NME's preferences
I find myself surprisingly in agreement with them.
This year, I was mostly disappointed with Paul Weller's "22 Demos".
Hate to sound politically correct...
....but does the fact that we're expected to believe the most significant pop records of the year were all made by white males bother anyone?
Yes
See other thread
No
It would be expected when most magazine staff are white and male. According to the suggestions made on this blog, so are the majority of readers.
I wish it was different. Just as I wish the ads on TV for online bingo would stop showing women as their target audience. It's not big and it's not clever.
I don't think it's to do with the ethnicity of a magazine staff
The majority of the readers of Britain's national newspapers would be male and white but if you asked them to name their favourite records of the year I think you'd find lots by artists who were neither.
white males
the randomiser selections show more variety but blog contributor lists of top 5 albums for the year show a very heavy preponderance of
1 white artists
2 male artists
and less so a predilection for the british isles
of course everyone else in the world could be crap but I dont think so.
antipodean
You might be right...
..providing you expect the answers to be Leona Lewis, Britney Spears, Ne-Yo, Katie Melua, and Sugababes. And if you think they've made the best albums of the year, then good luck to you.
Personally I'd say Erykah Badu's was one of the best records of the year, but if you go down the aisles of your local Tesco and Asda and ask `the majority of the readers of Britain's national newspapers' I'll bet 90% of them have no idea who she is.
Metacritic 2008
Maybe a slightly broader sample of magazines is needed. I was quite suprised by this collation of this year’s reviews...much easier than doing it yourself btw.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2008.shtml
Still dooomed
Looked at the list and never listened to any in the top 30. Recognised a few names though - does that count?
Q-Tip? has Paul Young revived his former band? Missed that one.
Does it bother the compilers at Word?
According to page 59 of the magazine in front of me, the 10 Best CDs of 2008 were made by 1 white female, 1 black rapper and 8 bunches of white males.
(This is meant to be a response to David Hepworth's comment above, but I messed up!)
And if you look at the Best of Now Hear This 2008..
...you find four women, three people "of colour", one old Californian, a bunch of folk from Iceland and a damned sight more variety than in any of these lists.
On first listen
it's a darned good compilation. I'm warming to Sigmund Ros too. Any relation to Edmundo?
Were was the compulsory christmas track? Pfft!
OK, but
if I'm reading your sleeve notes correctly, The Best of 2008 artists were nominated by the readers. I assume the Word's best 10 were chosen by the Word editorial. Which means The Readers win whatever silly argument it is that we're having!
And, to go back to your original question, we're not bothered by what's in an end of year list because we're enjoying what we actually choose to listen to.
TV On The Radio
4 out of 5 members are black you know.
Significant?
The most popular albums listed by professional music listeners don't necessarily represent the most significant albums. The new TV on the Radio album isn't about to change anybody's life or have a great affect on the future output of other bands but some people might have found it the most enjoyable.
Oh and BTW 2 of the bands have female members
one of whom is lead singer and third (clue) of group.
Where is White Chalk?
I cannot understand why this wonderful LP doesn't appear, or at least, way more prominently. Now, let me get this straight, no great fan of Polly Harvey have I been until now, apart from the Thom Yorke (of all people) duet off her last one and the Glasto footage from several years back, with her looking all skinnysexy in a catsuit. but this is different. Piano based, with chilling ethereal songs of wispy beauty, a bit reminiscent of Kristn Hersh during her child disturbing "childrens songs" period. I came across this by chance in the last week or 2 and it has seriously unsettled me: I can't physically remember any of the tunes, but the mood keeps coming back to haunt me.......
Last Year
White chalk was released in September 2007. Great album though, I agree.
Ha
I should refresh the page more often.
White Chalk
was 2007, wasn't it? Blinding stuff though.
Aggregation of UK music glossies is always likely to lead to dominance of white boys with guitars, isn't it? That's not a defence, more inevitability.
I'd put Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes and TV On The Radio in my Top 10, no sweat. Underwhelmed by Glasvegas, and Kings Of Leon seem to get more flabby with every passing album.
Shite.......
(I did wonder.) I only heard it last week, for as stated, I didn't think I would like it........
www.acclaimedmusic.net
This site compiles reviews and gives overall ratings going back decades. You can search by album, artist, year etc. It's rather good.
I like the end of year lists
It's a tradition, almost part of christmas. I am sure they have not always been so narrow. It's partly a reflection of the current music scene perhaps - the decline of dance music, that kind of thing. The metacritic one is more varied and interesting - probably because it comes from more sources and so represents a wider range of views.
Irrespective of Heppos riposte above......
...about the motley crew on Words "best of those we have been able to persuade the record company for a freebie, again", I would dearly like to thank Word for opening my ears, thru' the medium of articles and reviews, to many of the what I call "young peoples music" that graces the best of lists, surprisingly uniformly, across this and the competition. I have thus investigated such as MGMT, Kings of Leon, Elbow (OK, young fogeys music....), finding them all to my taste, even if I find the MGMT vocals a bit of a let down. For years my tally in the best of lists has been getting impressively shorter, picking up only in the specialist genres and re-issues. Sure, sure, this is nothing to crow about, but I feel invigorated that I have been challenged to exit my (are you listening, Fuzzy?)comfort zones of folk, jazz and country. This year, across the top 50s of all the mags, from Word (who don't do that) to Observer Music Mag, I at least recognise most of the names by name and by sound.
My favourite, BTW, I have been listening to today, and that is the Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely: possibly the most exciting record I have heard for a long time. It makes you want to whoop and punch the air as you drive along, as do they, in actuality, on several tracks. (I listen in the car, by and large). With even banjo gracing one track, with punchy brass and mandolin elsewhere, and a lot of Zeppelin having been listened to in its genesis, what is there not to like? (Well, a couple of the tracks are even a little too crystal-methylated for me, with the vocals erring off into aerosmith shriekery, since you ask, but otherwise......)
P.S. I still think the Scrote Wipes, sorry, White Stripes, are shite.
Hepworth!
You have made my day with your ridiculous post.
Stop hiding!
A retraction is required.
For what it's worth, I don't think it matters one bit if you had been right.
I don't choose what I listen to based on anything other than whether I'm moved or not.
It doesn't matter if all the bands are blue! Can you hear race, creed or colour when you listen? Maybe you believe that you can and that's why you missed the fact that TV on the Radio have black members. Don't they sound black enough for you?
Seriously, I'd really like to hear you explain why it matters to you and why it should matter to anyone else.
A famous (black) man once said 'We are all racist, it's how you deal with it that matters'
Chasandmorph - which famous
Chasandmorph - which famous black man said that??
my tuppenceworth (you've been overcharged)
In no particular order, my Top 10 of the year.
1. Howling Bells Howling Bells (Australian band)
2. Summerland The Herd (not crappy Frampton band,but
another Australian hip hop/ funky/
politically astute band)
3. Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
4. For Emma, Forever Ago Bon Iver
5. Glasvegas Glasvegas
6. The Fall & Rise Of King Curly ('nother Asutralian
band)
7. Tell Tale Signs Bob Dylan
8. When The Haar Rolls In James Yorkston
9. Oracular Spectacular MGMT
10. 10 Trees Wide The Groovy Wardrobes
I appreciate the only person interested in lists is the one who compiled it, but check out Howling Bells and The Groovy Wardrobes.
Happy Crimbo and a peaceful and good music laden 2009 to everyone...
NME publish this list of lists from 11 different sources
1. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
2. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
3. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
4. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
5. Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
6. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
7. Glasvegas - Glasvegas
8. Portishead - Third
9. Amadou And Mariam – Welcome To Mali
10. Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night
After checking the totals i can see that they have got this wrong!
The actual positions are as follows - [these are based on top ten placings only - so 10 points for 1st etc]
1. TV On The Radio – Dear Science [53]
2. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes [47]
3. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago [43]
4. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular [34]
5. Portishead - Third [30]
6. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend [29]
7. Glasvegas - Glasvegas [21]
8. Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night [20]
9. Amadou And Mariam – Welcome To Mali [19]
10. Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends [18]
When you factor in the scores from Mojo which were not included in the original 11 the totals look like this
1. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes [47 + 10 = 57]
2. TV On The Radio – Dear Science [53 + 0 = 53]
3. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago [43 + 7 = 50]
4. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular [34 + 0 = 34]
5. Portishead - Third [30 + 0 = 30]
6. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend [29 + 0 = 29]
7. Glasvegas - Glasvegas [21 + 4 = 25]
8. Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night [20 + 0 = 20]
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! [14 + 6 = 20}
10. Amadou And Mariam – Welcome To Mali [19 + 0 = 19]
Top 10
Sorry - normally can't get too steamed up about these things, but I'm beginning to worry that my ears may have had a major re-think as to their core purpose.
Glas-frigging -vegas ?
Does anyone else remember those Jack Docherty / John Sparkes various characters who paid the rent via Rab Nesbitt type shows which regularly featured some kind of bagpipey guitar dirge, scaffolding sub-football crowd chant banalities with an accompanying video which set the bar for the next Ultravox outing ?
and it all comes heaving back as Glasvegas and we're expected to take it seriously ?
Alex Harvey must be t'ing in his G.
I couldn't agree
more.
Very poor
I am not sure how they got so big, it is all so dreary and overblown. But then I feel the same way about Elbow. And am I the only one who thinks the drums on the Vampire Weekend album are so bad as to make it virtually unlistenable?
TV On The Radio
The frontman of TV On The Radio (whose album is ranked second on the above list) was black the last time I checked.
Lost Wages
And, as a name, Glasvegas is one of the very worst. It's wrong on so many levels.
For me the Secret Machines' new album ("Secret Machines") is pretty damn good.
Oi Hepworth!
Don't we just like the music that we like? Who's bothered about the colour of the musicians who made it? So do we only like Bob Marley because he is black? Did you know that most of TV on the Radio are black? If you didn't, does it matter? Get with the programme Mr H, most of us are colour blind these days, but we're not yet deaf...
last.fm top ten albums ...
... of 2008:
http://www.last.fm/bestof/2008/album/10
MGMT
At least they're in the Last.fm top ten. After all, isn't one of them black? Or is that just boot polish or face paint? Does any of this really matter anyway if you actually like the music (which I absolutely don't, but not because one of them is, or is he, black). Like what you like, then do the analysis of whether the band is black or white, English or American, gay or straight. The music is the music, everything else is secondary.