Best Albums of 2011 - The Lists Begin

[bono_212]

"Baby's Arms" need to listen to that album again.

These lists are ridiculous.

Amazon. Com's is pretty decent.

My break is over, and goodbye.

 

[cobl04]

So it begins. Publications have started dropping their end-of-year lists. I figure we could use this thread to compile all the official lists and maybe have a separate one later in the year for our own personal lists.

Here's what I found so far. Add as the days go by.

Paste Magazine

Q Magazine

Uncut Magazine


Rolling Stone

NPR

NME

MOJO

I'd have to say that NPR's list is my favorite so far. It doesn't numerically order the albums and it actually contains music from all genres, including classical and musical soundtracks. Least favorite is Rolling Stone's painfully predictable list.

n/a, n/a, 31, 42, n/a, 44, 41.

Not good enough.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

You had better not have looked at any of these lists, Travis!

Can I just say how aweome it is that you used the mad wife smilie?

 

[LuckyNumber7]

No love for The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once

 

[bono_212]

Can I just say how aweome it is that you used the mad wife smilie?

I am glad someone recognized my artistry with emoticons

 

[Zootomic]

Adele's fair share of haters actually comes from the Gaga fans or so it seems But I think the same whenever Pink releases a new album and all the singles sound like they all came off the last album, I don't understand the praise. Maybe its cause Adele is "new" on the scene...its only a matter of time before someone else comes on the overhyped train.

But even if Adele cleans up at the Grammys, do they actually mean anything these days?

I don't hate Adele or even dislike her. I think she's very talented and I agree with someone upthread that it's nice to see an artist with her talent find mainstream success. But I just think her album isn't nearly as good as some critics have made it out to be. She certainly has the talent to put out a truly great album, but 21 wasn't it.

The reason a lot of Gaga fans are fed up with the Adele hype is because a lot of critics feel the need to include thinly veiled swipes at Gaga while they're praising Adele. You know what I mean - saying things like how Adele doesn't have to dress weird for attention. Personally, I think that when Gaga sits down at her piano and just sings she is as good, if not better, than Adele and critics need to stop acting like Gaga is somehow a lower form of singer just because she also likes the theatrical side of entertaining and doesn't just sit on a stool and awe people with her voice.

As for the overhype train, I believe that it may have already picked up its next passenger - Lana Del Rey.

 

[cobl04]

Lana Del Ray is hot as fuck.

 

[bono_man2002]

I don't hate Adele or even dislike her. I think she's very talented and I agree with someone upthread that it's nice to see an artist with her talent find mainstream success. But I just think her album isn't nearly as good as some critics have made it out to be. She certainly has the talent to put out a truly great album, but 21 wasn't it. .

I wasn't singling you out either. There was just a heap of crap about a month back where Gaga fans were supposively having a dig at Adele. Slow news day I guess.

 

[intedomine]

I don't enjoy listening to Adele's voice

 

[Zootomic]

I wasn't singling you out either. There was just a heap of crap about a month back where Gaga fans were supposively having a dig at Adele. Slow news day I guess.

Yes, I remember that. Apparently some of Gaga's less mature fans were remarking unkindly on Twitter about Adele's weight. Gaga happened to be in the UK at the time so an interviewer there asked her what she thought about it. Of course, this left Gaga with no choice but to condemn her own fans for their behavior and to say how much she loves Adele. Just another instance of the media (the British media in particular) protecting Adele from criticism while at the same time taking a swipe at Gaga.

 

[corianderstem]

No, I'd say Gaga was right on the money with that response. Adele doesn't need to hear a bunch of shitheads comment about her weight. It's not like she isn't aware she is physically bigger than many other pop stars.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Rolling Stone's list covered the most ground, so I'll give them props for that. Too bad you could've thrown darts at those 50 albums and come up with a list just as reasonable, if not better. Talk about random.

Moreover, Rolling Stone continually seems to have a conflict between the mainstream and the underground. They've been "going Pitchfork" more and more over the years, but there's still plenty of major label loyalists working for that publication, hence the reason their list seems pretty diverse.

Paste had the Childish Gambino album on their list. That invalidates the entire thing outright.

As for Adele, does anyone else feel that her weight helps give her good press and extra fans? It's not the type of music that most teen girls are into anyway, rather, middle aged women orgasm over her stuff. And isn't a chubby girl more marketable to said demographic than someone really skinny? I dunno. Almost seems like a sympathy reaction of sorts.

 

[cobl04]

Obviously you weren't invited to Camp.

 

[iron yuppie]

As for Adele, does anyone else feel that her weight helps give her good press and extra fans? It's not the type of music that most teen girls are into anyway, rather, middle aged women orgasm over her stuff. And isn't a chubby girl more marketable to said demographic than someone really skinny? I dunno. Almost seems like a sympathy reaction of sorts.

No, and I don't think that you have any way of measuring her demographic with any degree of accuracy; downloading culture makes it extremely difficult to track who is listening to what albums. I would wager that most people who like Adele have no clue what she even looks like.

 

[Zootomic]

No, I'd say Gaga was right on the money with that response. Adele doesn't need to hear a bunch of shitheads comment about her weight. It's not like she isn't aware she is physically bigger than many other pop stars.

True, but Gaga takes constant shots from shitheads on Twitter about her physical looks but you don't see any mainstream American reporters asking Madonna or Katy Perry or Beyonce what they think about their fans trashing Gaga.

Back on topic - Time Magazine has done a video post of their top ten albums. It's interesting and fairly eclectic until #1 where, of course, Adele is parked. Arghhh.

The Top 10 Albums of 2011 - Video - TIME.com

 

[LuckyNumber7]

downloading culture makes it extremely difficult to track who is listening to what albums.

That's simply not true. An era of online searching makes such a thing much easier.

 

[iron yuppie]

That's simply not true. An era of online searching makes such a thing much easier.

Okay, go ahead and tell me the age range and sex of album downloaders (from torrents and such, not iTunes) based on their IP addresses, and, on top of that, what their stances are on female body image. You might be able to tell how many people have heard the album, but nothing about their demographic breakdown. Maybe concert attendees would be a somewhat accurate measurement, but even that could be unrepresentative.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Okay, go ahead and tell me the age range and sex of album downloaders (from torrents and such, not iTunes) based on their IP addresses, and, on top of that, what their stances are on female body image. You might be able to tell how many people have heard the album, but nothing about their demographic breakdown. Maybe concert attendees would be a somewhat accurate measurement, but even that could be unrepresentative.

Me? I wouldn't able to do that. But that's somebody's job to do that. Based on what people search, you can learn a lot about them. I suggest you read Bill Tancer's Click if you want to know a little bit more about that, but that's basically the concept of trending searches. You can learn about people based upon what they're searching.

 

[bono_212]

I know I keep mentioning it, but not posting a link, but if you want an eclectic, schizophrenic list, check out Amazon's top 100 list.

 

[iron yuppie]

Me? I wouldn't able to do that. But that's somebody's job to do that. Based on what people search, you can learn a lot about them. I suggest you read Bill Tancer's Click if you want to know a little bit more about that, but that's basically the concept of trending searches. You can learn about people based upon what they're searching.

I think we might be talking about different things here. I am fully aware that one's internet activity is tracked by variety of sources, but the browsing tendencies do not reveal anything definitive about demographics. For example, my browser history might suggest that I am a man, but it cannot be proven based on my online shopping, forum usage, etc. This is a major reason why so many of those IRA cases against downloaders were thrown out if they reached court: the IP address that downloaded the files could not be linked conclusively to any single person.

 

[cobl04]

This could end very badly...

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I think we might be talking about different things here. I am fully aware that one's internet activity is tracked by variety of sources, but the browsing tendencies do not reveal anything definitive about demographics. For example, my browser history might suggest that I am a man, but it cannot be proven based on my online shopping, forum usage, etc. This is a major reason why so many of those IRA cases against downloaders were thrown out if they reached court: the IP address that downloaded the files could not be linked conclusively to any single person.

But you can compare one search to another from a unique user. You can determine demographics. It can't be definitive about a single person of course, but speaking in terms of populations you can draw demographics based on trending searches (because people make more than one search).

 

[iron yuppie]

But you can compare one search to another from a unique user. You can determine demographics. It can't be definitive about a single person of course, but speaking in terms of populations you can draw demographics based on trending searches (because people make more than one search).

Fair point. The point that I am trying to make, though, is that correlations in web searches, let's say, for example, between Adele and Pottery Barn, still reveal nothing definitive about the sex or age of the people making those searches. The cultural assumption might be that the majority of people making those two searches are women, but the reality might be something entirely different. More specifically, people might think that, because Pottery Barn markets to women, most of the people searching for it must be women, which assumes that the marketing is effective when in fact it may not be. It is guesswork rather than science.

But I am going to drop this now, as I have already hijacked the thread. I just found the idea that Adele's success is even partially based on pathos for her weight to be rather insulting to her.

 

[u2popmofo]

Popmatters' list:

The 75 Best Albums of 2011 < PopMatters

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

The top two albums of the year are Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes? Are we in 2008 again?

 

[BigMacPhisto]

I feel that the album of the year should be a nice breakthrough of sorts which is why I was fine with Kanye reaping the press rewards last year even though the album wasn't as strong overall for me as some of his earlier records. It was a huge change of pace and a hip hop record like no other.

Having Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes being ranked so highly on this lists is kind of disturbing. Both of those albums are practically retreads of what those acts did earlier, only not nearly as good. In the case of Fleet Foxes, at least they took enough chances to make things different enough working in the same formula. The new Bon Iver record just felt kind of like a cover band doing a runthrough of the first record.

Still, not as ridiculous as Adele topping lists, mind you.

Anyway, from Metacritic's amalgamation of lists, it's clear that PJ Harvey has enough breathing room to emerge as this year's most lauded album. A good artist doing something altogether new.

Again, just me trying to be objective. I don't have the PJ Harvey album in my collection and would prefer to listen to the new records from Bon Iver/Fleet Foxes (which are both in my collection, barely), but I certainly know which one is at least worthy of an Album of the Year win.

 

[u2popmofo]

Their top 3 are a bit of a surprise honestly, but the list over all is pretty good. It's fairly obvious that they probably poll all their writers, and make placements based on albums' frequency and placement (like we do here), hence why 1 and 2 are where they are. Because of that, their lists are typically fairly BS free, and don't seem as forced or "political" as others.

At the end of the day, none of it remotely matters. I think some of you put way too much stock into what a website collectively decides is their writers and editors' favorite albums.

 

[Imperor]

As I've said before, I don't think I'll be making a ranked list this year. But I do still want to choose an AOTY. Drumroll please.

Spoiler

Sorry, Annie.

Spoiler

 

[iron yuppie]

I would take serious issue with the idea that Bon Iver is a tired retread of Emma.

 

[LemonMelon]

I would take serious issue with the idea that Bon Iver is a tired retread of Emma.

Same here. The production is radically different, and many of the songs have a synth backing instead of guitar and vocal overdubs. I mean, OK, it's almost equally slow, but then that's like saying For Emma was a tired retreat of Pink Moon.