What’s way more work than writing in detail about your Top 10 albums and songs of the past year?
Trying to write about everybody else’s and what they might mean in the wider context of pop music. That, friends, is labor of mind and spirit and ears. Which is why I haven’t attempted a year-end summary like that since back in the Bright Ages when the Phoenix or rock.com paid me to do it. But that’s also why I think such writing is important and am glad that Robert Christgau, who more or less invented the form and remains better at it than anyone else, still does a Dean’s List commentary. You can read the latest here:
Interesting that the one significant area of disagreement* I have with Xgau’s comments is the stature and relevance nowadays of the Village Voice Pazz & Jop Poll, an issue that I may or may not get around to blogging about. I’m leaning more toward not because I think the matter will take care of itself fairly soon. If not, then I may type out some day.
*In the sense that I don’t think there’s any enlightening disagreement about why we rank Yo La Tengo so differently.
Areas of Agreement:
The Mind Meeting of Pitchfork and Rolling Stone is fascinating, and largely salutory
Man, that Bowie record rilly sux. The most overpraised album of the year and for truly lame, lazy reasons.
Best takedown of Kanye’s latest I’ve read. With it almost word-for-word. It isn’t the music, it’s the performer it presents. And he’s followed an understandable, all-too-common arc as a star personality. The mystery is why anyone should find it fascinating.
Matter of fact, I have to backtrack a bit here — I’m not in agreement about Beyonce, but don’t disagree either, simply because I’ve never been able to make myself care about her. I mean, she makes Luther Vandross seem like Aretha.
Only reason Festival Au Desert didn’t make my year-end discs is that I could not find a way to make the sonics less than a fatal jolt to the flow. I would say it’s my Number 11.
And my final agreement is that, yep, Artpop was the most poorly interpreted album of the year — but hey, it was the people’s Perfect Cheeseburger.
Miles To Go 