Outside of summer festival season, nothing makes indie music bloggers more excited than the end of the year. It's top 10 album list time! Time to show off your discerning, intellectual and groundbreaking musical tastes to the rest of the world! Maybe Largehearted Boy will link to you this year!
As we get closer to the end of the month, we're gonna see a metric fuckton of these lists spring up all over the place, culminating with the hipster bible, Pitchfork, officially decreeing all previous end of year top 10 lists null, void and/or derivative. But I've noticed in the past couple of years of my music writing/bloggery a certain pack mentality that creeps into these lists. That's cool, great minds often think alike and some albums really are just standouts in a particular year. For example, I wasn't particularly in love with TV On The Radio's Dear Science, but I understand why a lot of people were, and why it's gonna show up on a lot of lists, just as Cookie Mountain did a couple of years ago.
This year, every music list on the internet will have Bon Iver, mark my words. But why? Last year, every indie blogger was pissing their pants over Panda Bear and LCD Soundsystem, and I can't help but wonder how much perceived “indie cred” or the need to be seen as an “authority” plays a role in people's top 10 choices. It shouldn’t!
Building off of a list of top 10 rules from Pretty Much Amazing, here's my list of things you don't have to worry about when coming up with your own list.
1.) It's OK to admit you have not listened to everything that came out this year.
No sane human being with a job and/or a life could possibly do so.
2.) It's OK to not be well rounded.
For example, if you hate indie folk stuff, you are not impressing anyone by adding Fleet Foxes to your list and then giving a half-assed explanation as to why if you would have rather have added Kanye West.
3.) Speaking of which ... it's OK to add mainstream/pop music if you actually like it.
No really, it is. Screw the haters. (Unless that mainstream stuff is Nickelback. That cannot be tolerated.)
4.) It's OK to have less than 10 albums on your list.
I understand that people like those benchmark numbers like 5 or 10. They make people feel better. But if you only loved 7 albums this year, that’s OK too. Love doesn’t always fit into a neat list.
5.) It’s OK to not explain why you like an album.
If you can’t come up with anything more articulate than “ I thought it was awesome” to go with your list, that’s OK. Sometimes, words aren't enough to explain why an album grabs you and never lets go.
So with that said, these were my 10 favorite albums to come out these year, with no order or justification:
- Boris - Smile
- Santogold - Santogold
- NIN - The Slip
- Spylacopa - EP
- Does It Offend You ,Yeah - You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Into
- These Arms are Snakes - Tail Swallower and Dove
- Genghis Tron - Board Up The House
- Russian Circles - Station
- Torche - Meanderthal
- HEALTH - HEALTH
You totally forgot Fleet Foxes! And Him & Her! Or She & He!
Posted by: tankboy | 12/19/2008 at 10:36 AM
I'm working on my "top" list for RFC today and it's definitely not going to be 10 albums because I didn't love 10 this year. And yes, pack mentality, totally. I've never actually read Pitchfork but I imagine it'll overlap with 1,000 other end of year lists. I fully admit to only checking out blog's End of Year lists to snatch up the hott traxx I didn't get around to downloading before now. For this reason I won't post an mp3 of my personal favorite song of the year, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." Some things are popular BECAUSE THEY ARE FLAWLESS.
Posted by: Samantha Vincenty | 12/19/2008 at 09:44 AM