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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Jim Connelly's
Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jesse Steichen's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Friday, January 12, 2007
Bill Bentley's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Anthony Carew's 13 Fave Albums Of 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
SXSW 2006: Finding Some Hope In Austin
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Letter From New Orleans
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums of 2005
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Music For Dwindling Days: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Sean Fennessey's 'Best-Of' 2005
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Albums Of 2005
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings of 2005
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Michael Lach - Old Soul Songs For A New World Order
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Found In Translation — Emme Stone's Year In Music 2005
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
Dave Allen's 'Best-Of' 2005
Monday, January 2, 2006
Steve Gozdecki's Favorite Albums Of 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Johnny Walker Black's Top 10 Of 2005
Monday, December 19, 2005
Neal Block's Favorite Recordings Of 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Jenny Tatone's Year In Review
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
Jennifer Kelly's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2005
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Ben Gook's Beloved Albums Of 2005
Monday, December 5, 2005
Anthony Carew's Fave Albums Of 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Prince, Spoon And The Magic Of The Dead Stop
Monday, September 12, 2005
The Truth About America
Monday, September 5, 2005
Tryin' To Wash Us Away
Monday, August 1, 2005
A Psyche-Folk Heat Wave In Western Massachusetts
Monday, July 18, 2005
Soggy But Happy At Glastonbury 2005
Monday, April 4, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 3: All Together Now
Friday, April 1, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 2: Dr. Dog's Happy Chords
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 1: Waiting, Waiting And More Waiting
Friday, March 25, 2005
Final Day At SXSW's Charnel House
Monday, March 21, 2005
Day Three At SXSW
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Day Two In SXSW's Hall Of Mirrors
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Report #1: SXSW 2005 And Its Hall Of Mirrors
Monday, February 14, 2005
Matt Landry's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
David Howie's 'Moments' From The Year 2004
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Noah Bonaparte's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Kevin John's Fave Albums Of 2004
Friday, January 14, 2005
Music For Those Nights: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Neal Block's Top Ten Of 2004
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Jenny Tatone's Fave Albums Of 2004
Monday, January 10, 2005
Wayne Robins' Top Ten Of 2004
Friday, January 7, 2005
Brian Orloff's Fave Albums Of 2004
Thursday, January 6, 2005
Johnny Walker (Black)'s Top 10 Of 2004
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums (And Book) Of 2004
Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Mark Mordue's Fave Albums Of 2004
Monday, January 3, 2005
Lee Templeton's Fave Recordings Of 2004
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Monday, Feb. 3, 2003
The Neumu Top 20
Neumu's Steve Gozdecki writes: When people say I'm a curious fellow, it has a double meaning. And after enjoying my colleagues' lists of 2002 favorites, I asked my curious self a simple question: "Self, what would a composite top 20 list of everyone's lists look like?"
So I figured it out. The methodology I used was pretty simple, maybe even overly so: I took each top 10 list and assigned points to each album in reverse order of where they appeared — hence, each critic's #1 album was worth 10 points, each #2 was worth 9, etc., down to 1 point for 10th place. There were some complicating factors — mainly caused by writers not ranking their lists or including more than 10 albums (never both, fortunately) — but I think I've worked around these issues. Take a look at the notes at the end of this list if you're curious as to how I did so.
In all, our 23 participating writers waxed enthusiastic about 225 different albums on our various lists. Not as big a population as you'll find in the Village Voice's annual "Pazz and Jop" Poll, but I think it's a large enough number that you can get some sense of a collective, "market intelligence" approach to (or agreement regarding) some really good music.
So, here's this writer's interpretation of Neumu's favorite 20 albums of 2002. Note that the first number shown after each title is the total points, while the number in parentheses is the number of Neumu-ies who included it on their lists. The top 10 also each include one of my colleagues' annotations from their own individual lists.
1. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch) 63 (10): "Possibility of cynical marketing and overwrought declarations of 'weirdness' aside, Wilco put out one of the best pop-rock records of the year with YHF. My initial experience of disappointment has been expressed by many folk — how can it be avoided when a record is swallowed by reviewer hyperbole? — but with expectations having subsided, it stands as a great record." (Ben Gook)
2. Beck, Sea Change (Geffen)50 (9): "It's an album saturated with beauty, with sadness, with that rare quality of being brand new but seeming like it's been around forever, and with something this artist, whose talent has never been in doubt, rarely provided until now: the truth." (Jesse Zeifman)
3. Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (Warner Bros.) 35 (7): "I don't know where the sunbeams end and where the starlight begins, it's all a mystery." Every time I hear this record I'm overwhelmed with a childlike wonder and, more often than not, can't stop grinning." (Kate Guay)
4. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Source Tags and Codes (Interscope) 33 (7): "The last thing needed is another pure rock album, but it's hard to deny one as good as this. Trail of Dead's Sonic Youth/Unwound homage served them well on the first two records, but Source Tags & Codes finds the Texas quartet eschewing artier impulses and locking onto big guitar sounds. It suits them perfectly." (Yancey Strickler)
5. Solomon Burke, Don't Give Up on Me (Fat Possum) 32 (4): "In descending order: vintage voice, vintage production, vintage songs. Records this good don't come out anymore. Thank you, Solomon Burke." (David Zahl)
6. DJ Shadow, The Private Press (Universal) 31 (9): "Anyone can pick up a bunch of vintage vinyl and start to sample some cool sounds. But, although many have tried to copy Shadow's signature style since 1996's Endtroducing ..., nobody can manipulate those cool sounds with the precision and unique character of the innovator himself." (Ryan Dombal)
7. Spoon, Kill the Moonlight (Merge)29 (7): "Moonlight is simultaneously au courant and retro. I always get Iggy vibes from it (it has Iggy references), and it's got an underground energy that spews up skyward exuberantly. Highly structured, angular songs are stripped down, yet full of telling details.... Ballsy yet elegant, Britt Daniels is a singular talent, from vocals to guitar to writing, and even bass." (Jillian Steinberger)
8. Streets, Original Pirate Material (Vice) 26 (5): "I don't care that this guy represents the new wave of British hip-hop. I don't care that this guy is an average geezer representing England's youf of today.... No, mainly I care because he made a record that was compelling for its sonics, its lyrics, its totality — a party record, a solitary record, a record that continued to reveal secrets hidden behind trompe l'oeil beats long after the punchlines had worn off their setups." (Philip Sherburne)
9. Interpol, Turn On the Bright Lights (Matador)25 (7): "There's a certain urgency and uneasiness in these songs that breed neither redundancy nor apathy. Interpol pursue these sensations; the driving tension and occasional cathartic moments are perfect." (Vanessa Meadu)
10. Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head (Capitol) 22 (4): "I value Coldplay for their ability to dig into the core of who I am right now and push me into places I don't feel comfortable, even as I can't deny the urge to go back again and again." (Ryan DeGama)
11. Paul Westerberg, Stereo 22 (3)
12. Missy Elliott, Under Construction 21 (4)
13. 90 Day Men, To Everybody 19 (3)
14. Sleater-Kinney, One Beat 17 (4)
15. Múm, Finally We Are One 16 (3)
16. Guided by Voices, Universal Truths and Cycles 16 (2)
17. Idlewild, The Remote Part 16 (2)
18. Notwist, Neon Golden 16 (2)
19. Paul Westerberg, Mono 15 (2)
20. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP 15 (2)
Honorable mention: Noriko Tujiko, Make Me Hard 14 (4); Roots, Phrenology 13 (3); Nagisa Ni Te, Feel 13 (2); Metro Area, Metro Area 12 (2); Low, Trust 11 (2); Sonic Youth, Murray Street 11 (3).
Notes:
- Four writers did not rank their records, so their nominees each received a score of "6" (5.5 would be more precise, but who wants to work with decimals?).
- Lists that went over 10 items got a "1" for each record ranked 11 or lower. Generous, perhaps, but I don't think it affected our top 20 to any significant degree. A mathematician might disagree, of course.
The InsiderOne Daily
Report appears on occasion.
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