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The only real consistency across these three lists of the year’s Top 10 albums, as compiled by the Times‘ pop critics, is the appearance of Leslie Feist: She lands at No. 2 on Jon Pareles’ list, places No. 6 on Ben Rattliff Ratliff’s rundown, and takes the top spot for Kelefa Sanneh. (Look, Idolator just refuses to believe we’re the crazy ones; that album is a nap-and-a-half.) Looking past the fact that the Times can’t even get a dude’s name right these days, we’ll momentarily drop the grousing, brought on by year-end exhaustion, in interests of holiday cheer and note that these are interesting, diverse lists (look, jazz and music made by people outside of the Anglophone world!) with the bonus of nary a Neon Bible in sight.
THE GOOD: Queens Of The Stone Age finally make a year-end Top 10 that doesn’t have the word “hotties” in it. And perhaps a well-placed Times endorsement will finally break that Tracey Thorn solo album out of sales purgatory.
THE BAD: Blah blah Feist blah blah shrug. No real beef here. It’s the Christmas miracle.
THE WHAAAA? “In a year with shockingly few big albums…” Sales-wise, perhaps true. (Perception-wise among the mass public, perhaps also true, since pop perception is always tied to sales to some extent.) But allowing for us having to redefine the world “big” in a niched-to-death music industry, didn’t most of the high-placers on 2007’s year-end lists (Radiohead! Arcade Fire! M.I.A.! Bruce!) prove we had the usual crop of traditionally crit-friendly, statement-making, and/or zeitgeist-exploiting/exploring “Big Albums”?
JON PARELES
Top Albums
1. RADIOHEAD: ‘IN RAINBOWS’
2. FEIST: ‘THE REMINDER’
3. AMY WINEHOUSE: ‘BACK TO BLACK’
4. IRON AND WINE: ‘THE SHEPHERD’S DOG’
5. CALLE 13: ‘RESIDENTE O VISITANTE’
6. ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS: ‘RAISING SAND’
7. LUPE FIASCO: ‘THE COOL’
8. BATTLES: ‘MIRRORED’
9. PANDA BEAR: ‘PERSON PITCH’
10. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: ‘ERA VULGARIS’
Top Songs
M.I.A. “Paper Planes”
SHAKIRA “Hay Amores”
JONI MITCHELL “Hana”
KANYE WEST “Stronger”
NEIL YOUNG “No Hidden Path”
BEN RATLIFF
Top Albums
1. JOSHUA REDMAN: ‘BACK EAST’
2. GILBERTO GIL: ‘GIL LUMINOSO’
3. ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS: ‘RAISING SAND’
4. BILL MCHENRY: ‘ROSES’
5. NO AGE: ‘WEIRDO RIPPERS’
6. FEIST: ‘THE REMINDER’
7. SAM YAHEL TRIO: ‘TRUTH AND BEAUTY’
8. KARTET: ‘THE BAY WINDOW’
9. ALICIA KEYS: ‘AS I AM’
10. NINA NASTASIA AND JIM WHITE: ‘YOU FOLLOW ME’
Top Songs
RIHANNA “Umbrella”
VON SüDENFED “The Rhinohead”
SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA “Sácala Bailar”
CAFé TACUBA “Volver a Comenzar”
JESU “Conqueror”
KELEFA SANNEH
Top Albums
1. FEIST: ‘THE REMINDER’
2. TURF TALK: ‘WEST COAST VACCINE: THE CURE’
3. PANDA BEAR: ‘PERSON PITCH’
4. JOE NICHOLS: ‘REAL THINGS’
5. UGK: ‘UNDERGROUND KINGZ’
6. TRACEY THORN: ‘OUT OF THE WOODS’
7. JENS LEKMAN: ‘NIGHT FALLS OVER KORTEDALA’
8. PROJECT PAT: ‘WALKIN’ BANK ROLL’
9. MARNIE STERN: ‘IN ADVANCE OF THE BROKEN ARM’
10. THE-DREAM: ‘LOVE/HATE’
Top Songs
RIHANNA “Umbrella”
R. KELLY FEATURING T.I. AND T-PAIN “I’m a Flirt (Remix)”
MARTINA MCBRIDE “Anyway”
SOULJA BOY TELLEM “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”
LINDA SUNDBLAD “Lose You”
EDIT: Dudes, I totally misspelled Ben Ratliff’s name in a post where I was making fun of the Times for getting my name wrong. God (or Santa) just pantsed me on the Internet. As usual, I blame the nog.
Of Radiohead and ‘Rehab,’ ‘1234′ and Calle 13 [NYT]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/arts/music/23ratliff.html?ref=music [NYT]
Few Big Albums, but Small Ones Sounded Just Fine [NYT]
the queens of the stone age album is really good!
also, no matter how hard i try, i can’t bring myself to find josh homme hot!
@bcapirigi: Dude is a really, really hot redhead.
The QOTSA album is really, really bad.
My naps are way more fun than the Feist album.
Dude, that Calle 13 record is f’ing amazing. I’m glad to see it recognized somewhere.
Also, Josh Homme? So not hot. Ew.
“1, 2, 3, 4, …nehh nehhh nehh nehhh nehh nuh nehh…”
A classic that will be remembered for generations to come.
These lists, especially Pareles and Ratliff, may deviate from the 07 rock-crit canon a bit, but they remain shrouded in standard NYT middlebrowism, typical of a publication with a history of trivializing pop music. And while “Brandy Alexander” is a seductive lark, “The Reminder” album is way too drowsy for its own good. Also, Josh Homme? Still hot for his age, but hotter ten years ago.
The Feist record is only four songs off from a Nora Jones record. Meaning four songs better. Or eight songs its equal. Whatever. They’re both playing right now in a Pottery Barn somewhere.