I know it’s an old topic as to how one keeps up (or even wishes to keep up) with the wacky world of popular music when there is just so much out there.
Quietus is not exactly my go-to site but out of this Top 100 (Top one bloody hundred!!!) I have heard of roughly 10% of the artists and own precisely 5 of the records. Howsabout you?
http://thequietus.com/articles/20621-albums-of-the-year-first-half-2016
I haven’t heard any of them. Mind you, I haven’t looked. I’m happy.
Do what I do – wait a year and if any are still being talked about investigate then.
A YEAR? I reckon a decade.
I had a quick scroll through and have heard of perhaps ten of them, owning just three or four of the records. I had the misfortune of hearing some of Let’s Eat Grandma recently, and all I can is that if you can’t get on with Bjork’s voice, Wrongness, you’ll have difficulty with these guys.
100 new records on one list is too much to contemplate. More filtering is required if I’m to get to know any of them, whether it’s reviews, recommendations or something else.
Every now and then I like to kid myself that I’m keeping up-to-date with things, then I see a list like this that reminds me I’m really not. Not that it’s something I’m worried about, it’s only if I was completely out of touch that I’d get concerned.
I do like the Quietus tbh, and I’ll have a look through those brief descriptions to see what I fancy sampling on Spotify (assuming they’re available) sometime, but the need to hear every single one isn’t there, even if it was possible to do so.
For the record, I’ve heard of about 40% (though many of them I wouldn’t have a clue what they actually sound like), have heard around 15 (or at least part of them) and own just 3 (Wire, Skee Mask, Swans) though I’ll probably pick up Kowton and Gold Panda at some point. Jambinai & Ash Koosha both sounded interesting when I’ve streamed them, but they’re not something that I’d want to play often enough to justify buying my own copy.
i lost the will to live after looking at the first five items on the list. Not to sat there’s anything wrong with them as I clearly haven’t heard any of them but I can’t drum up any interest.
True, I have more than 100 CDs – after a great dealing of pruning I’m on about 800.
However, I’ve no doubt that I could live the next 20 years just listening to 100/200.
If this is the list so far (bearing in mind it’s only July), the notion of having 200 CDs from one year, let alone a year as ‘after-the-Lord-Mayor’s-Show’ as 2016, is truly farcical.
Agree that doing justice to 200 albums in a year (any year, 2016 is no different to 1968, 1971 or 1988 in that regard) is ridiculous, but that’s not what they’re saying. No-one’s going to like all of them. Seven Quietus writers contributed to that list.
It’s unlikely that someone liking Skee Mask is going to be impressed with Steve Gunn. Probably not too much crossover between the Jessy Lanza and Fat White Family fanbases either. I’ve got no idea what the tastes of anyone who still thinks Radiohead are listenable would intersect with.
Four I’ve got
Three more I’ve heard.
Twenty I’ve heard of.
At least 50 there look like they were made up and put in for a laugh.
Similar to the OP I’ve heard of 12 and own 5 of the albums.
Let’s Eat Grandma?? I wonder what potential band names this lot threw out?
They’re from Norwich.
That probably explains a lot…
Watch it, @Deviant808 😉
The fact that they’re 17 years old probably explains more
Sorry, cheap gag 🙂
No problem, @Deviant808 – fake outrage.
(Although I’ve lived there over half my life now…)
I’ve heard of 12 and a half, and own precisely 1.
Yup, it’s nonsense, by and large, the names so arcane and obscure that only Poppy an/or Duco will have any knowledge of most, and not the same either. Of course, Tiggs beloved Blackstar and Melanie Biasio make the list, and so we have all (had to) got them, if only by persuasion. (How many got the earlier Kendrick Lamarr, tho’, at his behest?) I have also Anohni (not as good as hyped but OK), Underworld (tosh, thought I, compared to their old and to the output now of their counterparts, but I found them annoying on Glastotelly as well)and William Tyler (worth a punt, guitar primitive workouts) Other names like Eno, Swans, Suede, Wire, Julia Barwick are unlikely to make me want to expand on my slim ownerships of their work, as however good they might be, variety ain’t exactly their spice of life. Radiohead i am sort of tempted as well as Pencilsqueezers rated Marissa Nadler.
A few years ago I had friends who’d agonise about keeping up, but you simply can’t anymore. It is literally impossible for any one individual to experience and enjoy all the good music, tv, film and literature that’s being created.
Mind, I’ve heard of people watching box-sets speeded up to save time.
“The way that I visualise this chart isn’t really as a rigidly ranked linear parade in strict order of one to one hundred but as more of an interlinking, three dimensional lattice.”
Hmm.
From the list…
Artists I’ve heard of: 12
Records I’ve heard of: 3
Records I’ve heard: 0
I don’t know whether that depresses me or cheers me up.
Heard of* 11 of the artists, own none of the records.
One or two of them I’ve “heard of” only in the briefest of senses: I’ve seen the name written down or I’ve seen the cover of the record. Wasn’t @tiggerlion singing the praises of King in a thread not so long ago?
Yes. I did a lukewarm Nights In but, since then, it has grown on me and I now like it a lot. It could make my top ten of the first half of the year.
They’re the best nights-in, those lukewarm ones!
Here’s a thought – why don’t we ALL listen to one each off the list then provide a short review either in the Nights In or in one special gigantathread? Just a paragraph, or more if you feel like it. Just pick one at random, and let us know which you’ve got dibs on so that no-one else does the same one. Whadaya say folks?
Ooh, I’m game. Sounds like fun. Let me have a look and I’ll choose one…
Right. I’m going with Widt, by Widt.
I have NO idea.
Excellent! Thanks for kicking things off, AC. I’ll probably start a proper thread after me dinner, unless someone else gets round to it first. (Feel free, chums.)
(I wonder how ‘Widt’ is meant to be pronounced?)
I like Let’s Eat Grandma. Coming from the same place as Joanna Newsom – which to me is good…
I thought that was Wayne Rooney’s new book.
Haha!
I own 2, Bowie and Radiohead, but I know Bowie’s is the album of the year! @Tiggerlion was correct right out of the blocks.
I started to look and thumbed through to about number 86 and then, luckily, realsed it (and things like this) are just not important.
To answer the question: yes there is far to much stuff.
I think they made most of those up.
I was down to number 65 before I even recognised a name. Thank the Lord for John Cale
3
(I was always intending to make it 4, just never got round to buying, or even giving it more than a cursory listen)
I’m not convinced some of them are real, just put in there to show that “we’re better than you”
Enough moaning and self-doubt about how ‘out of touch’ I obviously am
Record Of The Year?
Of those listed: Brain Eno – The Ship
My score is: heard of 26, own 10.
I have to say Roly Porter’s is the most disappointing album of the year so far and Melanie De Biasio should be near the top. However, where is Lemonade?
You lot are just not paying attention. If I remember right, at least a dozen of those have had Nights In or quite a bit of other attention on this very website right here what you are all reading.
There’s a lot of good stuff there (I really dig the Oranssi Pazuzu record), and some that is probably utter dreck, but right now I am listening to some Iranian techno that I almost certainly would never have heard of if it wasn’t for that list, so more power to its elbow, I say.
I have each and every one of these glorious albums.
We are truly living through a golden age of music.
Yes, 50 years from now we (or our grandkids) will be celebrating half a century of Let’s Eat Grandma, with special iPad editions of Mojo and Uncut.
BBC4 documentaries on the LEG phenomenon will be beamed directly to the microchips in our heads.
I had a listen to Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids , purely because I liked the name. They sound very much like a slightly less groovy version of Fela Kuti.
I’m interested to see on the list that there’s a new album by the Norwegian Kristoffer Lo, and his electronically processed tuba drones.
I may get the new album, which was clearly warmly received by the Quietus. In theory, I suppose I could also review it for the Afterword on the other thread. However, I’m a little unwilling to do so, as last time I reviewed a Kristoffer Lo album, I was roundly mocked and taunted by Burt Kocain.
Go for it. I could do with a laugh.
Which one are you going to do, Ian?
Don’t have Spotify (that’s my excuse anyway)
If I do have to buy one, HowzabouFreddie the Freddie and the Dreamers free jazz workout?
Excuse the stutter.
If it’s on the list!
If no Spotify, you can always see which ones are on YouTube or Soundcloud.
Just remind yourself that Burt / Saucecraft has recently admitted to liking ELO, who by any objective measurable standard are worse than ISIS, and you’ll be okay.
That’s fighting talk man. ELO are fine indeed.
… well not actual fighting, but it’s definitely disagreement talk.
…well not actual disagreement but definitely slight difference of opinion talk!
Which reminds me, shortly after he broke up the band #1 and/or Roy Wood left the band (delete as applicable), Lynne was interviewed in Melody Maker after having just taken purchase of a moog synthesiser, moaning that the only noise he could get out of it was aircraft taking off noises. How history might be reversed had he decided to persevere, with Kid D celebrating him and Rob-si cursing. (Kid D and Rob-si are both the same age, if I recall roughly.)