Idolator

Before everyone hates on Okkervil River, hating on them is like hating on Grizzly Bear (see today's earlier post)

No point really, nice guys making good music ---nothing about it is so overtly shitty it deserves massive turd tossing.

Icky Thump however...

More people need to hear that Yeasayer record.

I like BOH as much as the next guy, but this record is reeeeeeeeeaally overrated on the lists I've seen so far.

Yeah for Tunng in the top 50! "Catching Bullets" is one of the...(sigh)... catchiest tunes I've heard all year.

I met the one Kings of Leon fan I know earlier this year at the library. She seemed all too pleased that I even knew the band's name.

I hate to go against the flow of Kings of Leon snark, but Because of the Times was really, really good. And a lot more people than you think like them. They just all live in Europe.

And seriously, is Wilco just cruising through this year's rankings on previously accrued indie-cred? Or are there actually people who didn't think Sky Blue Sky was epically shitty?

@SomeSound-MostlyFury:

tis true, haven't heard one good thing about skyblue except from magazines. people who actually buy it, tend to hate it

This is more like it. Drop the top 5 and you have a pretty decent top 3. The Neil Young disc doesn't deserve top-10 placement, but if you drop the two 10-minute-plus tracks it's OK.

Sky Blue Sky is a very good album, so yeah, there are people who don't think it shitty. At least a few.

And go Neil!

@SomeSound-MostlyFury: DISAGREE. I didn't like it at first, but after a few spins it became my favorite Wilco record . . . even though it sounds uncomfortably like the Grateful Dead in spots.

other than the jason isbell record deservedly at #11 and the national and m.i.a. outside the top 10, this might be the most boring list produced this year

@walkmasterflex: #10, 'scuse me

@SomeSound-MostlyFury: Arcade Fire's cruising pretty easily as well as far as I'm concerned.

Kings of Leon and Band of Horses owe a huge debt of gratitude to My Morning Jacket for not putting out an album this year and exposing them for the second-rate hacks they both are.

@tigerpop: Fair enough. Did you ever see that Boy Meets World episode where Eric starts dating a singer/songwriter girl who can't get a record deal because she has no "edge"? And then Eric breaks up with her and she writes an "edgy" Alanis Morisette-esque breakup song that becomes a massive hit? I feel like that needs to happen to Jeff Tweedy....

Wait, no one remembers that episode? No one watched Boy Meets World? Dammit...

@Ned Raggett: Aw, I love making street-teamers happy.

@SomeSound-MostlyFury: Maybe the rock-critic voting base is filled with people who appreciate hearing tracks from SBS during baseball games? Much better than Toby Keith, for sure.

the appeal of kings of leon is beyond me. for reference please refer to said video:

[www.youtube.com]

@SomeSound-MostlyFury:

I very much remember that episode. It was amazing.

@maura: Hahahah! I'm sure she was at that.

I started a new game with these lists, it's called "At What Point Would The List Cease To Be Stocked/Played At Starbucks?"

With this one, I'm thinking probably around (22.)Ted Leo, but I could see it maybe not cutting off til all the way down at (30.)Grinderman.

@SomeSound-MostlyFury: Sky Blue Sky is my #1 album of the year. What makes it shitty? The mellowness? The lack of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-style bloops and bleeps? The 5.2 Pitchfork review?

Or is it just the burning need of some people to shit on an indie band that's become too popular and mainstream for their liking?

Give it a few more listens. It really grows on you.

I now like Harp magazine, whatever it is. Okkervil River put out yet another excellent album, and it's good to see it recognized.

@JedTheMime: Unlike many of Wilco's other disks, Sky Blue Sky interests me less every time I listen to it. (And I'm all about the "grower" album.) I don't know if that makes it bad or undeserving of high rankings, but it bores me.

I can't decided if this list is a yawn, or merely weep-worthy. At any rate, Harp is so totally stuck in played-on-NPR two years ago-ville. Mediocrity as far as the eye can see, basically.

Also: Dr. Dog?!?!? ABOVE MAVIS STAPLES?

Hurrah: Oakley Hall's I'll Follow You gets some recognition. Great record.

But that Okkervil River album? #1? I think I made it through one listen before it hit my trash file as hard as Lou Reed's last album.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I can't believe I haven't seen a year-end list that has either Electrelane or A Sunny Day in Glasgow on it. Those records have had, without a doubt, the most plays around my house this year, and are easily better than most things past 20 on this list (Manu Chao?!?). Oh, and Person Pitch blows Strawberry Jam out of the water.

@Catbirdseat: Ha! Good one!

Now I did like that Kings of Leon album, it's their best one. And I liked the new Wilco more than a lot of their other records. But I'm old and cranky and haven't had my dose of the Posies or Sepultura today...

@JedTheMime: Don't automatically shit on me because I didn't like an album. It has nothing to do with Wilco becoming "too popular." It has to do with the entire album sounding like Jack Johnson without the steel drums. It's just flat. You can be mellow, hell I love mellow. But it just doesn't...do...anything...it doesn't go anywhere, it justs sits, musically stagnant.

@SomeSound-MostlyFury: Nothing personal. You're definitely entitled to your opinion, but you asked if anyone didn't think it was "epically shitty", and because I'm a huge fan of the album, I wanted to voice my opinion that this is more than just an instance of lazy critics rubber-stamping an album by an A-list group.

You suggest the praise comes entirely from previously amassed indie cred. I think that the backlash (which has been pretty severe) is the inevitable result of that previously amassed indie cred.

But when you break through the indie-geek wonkery and listen to the music, I think it's a pretty classic album.

This list reads like the Harp editorial staff picked 50 random PFM reviewed albums, threw them on a list in no particular order, and published it. Honestly, I understand that some people like really boring indie music, but wtf? There wasn't a single non-indie album that came out this year that Harp liked? Even M.I.A. is hipster hip-hop.

@therichgirlsareweeping:

you sound like a really fun person to hang out with

I've decided I'm automatically disregarding any year-end list that doesn't include Sound of Silver. Sorry, Harp! (And R.I.P., Stylus. *sniffle*)

@prolixrush: Aaargh! This is the first I've heard about the demise of Stylus...just went over to their site. Damn. Oh well.

@Mordy: As for Harp, yeah. But what list isn't indie-heavy these days...?

Challengers...'twas no Twin Cinema.

Anyone seen the Amazon list yet? Seeing Britney there was a bit of a surprise....

This is the last time I'm going to write this anywhere this year.

I also really liked Sky Blue Sky.

I was as big a Wilco fan as you could ever find...

...and then they released "Sky Blue Sky."

For a band that was taking consistent steps forward, their most recent album was a HUGE step back. Yes, it's full of "nice" songs. But is "nice" enough?

It was their first studio album featuring Nels Cline, and they chose to do a disc full of odes to 70's A.M. No thanks.

How they put "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" on one album, only to follow it with an album featuring "Hate It Here" is totally beyond me.

Sky Blue Sky is not boring; people who call keep calling Sky Blue Sky boring or ("a HUGE step back," whatever that means) are boring.

Wilco fans hate every new Wilco record when it comes out. They only come around when the next one comes out.

P.S. 70s AM is better than krautrock.

@SteveHy: ABSOLUTELY RONG.

Krautrock > 70s AM, by far.

@SteveHy: You're just trying to goose Maura's and Jess' pageviews, aren't you?

C'mon. I thought it was boring. Lots of others thought it was boring. A number of others (like yourself) think it's pretty darn good. That's fine. We can disagree. But if you're gonna crap on me (not me specifically) because I have an opinion that differs from yours, well, I may as well head on over to Stereogum if I want that.

This was the first Wilco CD I didn't automatically think on first listen, well, I'll be listening to that five years from now...

@SteveHy: P.S. 70s AM is better than krautrock.

Thanks for that, but I'll stick with Amon Düül over the stylings of Starland Vocal Band.

As for your argument that "Wilco fans hate every new Wilco record when it comes out. They only come around when the next one comes out," I can only say that "A Ghost Is Born" became my favorite Wilco incredibly soon after its release.

"A Ghost Is Born" remains my favorite Wilco record to this day.

Jesus. Wilco fans are just as bad as Tool fans...

...excpet they drive Volkswagens.

Sky Blue Sky is my favorite record of this year. By far. And I'm not weird sniveling diehard Wilco fan either. I just think it's a fantastic album, beginning to end. And yes, I thought it was boring my first time through it.

@SAShepherd: I'm not "crapping" on anybody, merely pointing out that Wilco records are often ripped when they come out and liked later on. Obviously that's not true in every case, but it seems true in the broad sense. If you don't like SBS, that's cool, I don't really care. I'm just sick of reading the same "this record is boring, it's a step backward, it's 'nice' dad rock" over and over again.

And I'm not a "sniverling" Wilco fan, either. I like Wilco just fine, but SBS is their first record I really, really loved.

Can we be friends now?

@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: I think Sky Blue Sky is great BECAUSE it doesn't take a "step forward." While the songs are very 70's AM radio, almost jam band sounding, there's still a lot of fantastic and challenging guitar work there; it's just not as overt as some of the more obvious "experimental" parts of A Ghost Is Born. The songs have finally FUSED with the experimentation, instead of it being "Okay, here's a nice alt country tune, and now here's some crazy guitar noise, and now here's a nice alt country tune again, and now here's a 10 minute long experiment in repetition."

But that's just my opinion. I've got nothing against A Ghost Is Born (or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), but I just think Sky Blue Sky just feels more correct and honest than their other recent work.

"Sniverling"? I meant "sniveling."

@Marth: Thank you for delivering your opinion of the album sans snark.

Believe me, I have tried to get into the album MANY times, as so many folks describe it as "a grower." It just really hasn't grown on me at all. "Side with the Seeds" is the only song that I think I'll be listening to years down the road.

Different strokes for different folks. I will still happily line up to see the band in a live setting, though.

i'm glad to see future clouds and radar up there. i wish more bands sounded like robyn hitchcock. i don't think it's actually the #4 album of the year, but at least it's interesting and it's cool when lists go for things that people might not have actually heard before.

also, wilco had an album this year? i don't think i knew that. color me out of touch.

@SteveHy: Hey, I don't really care about being friends, I don't care about being enemies. I'm assuming that since you're reading this site we'd probably be able to drink a beer together without coming to blows.

I just don't take kindly to being called "boring" because I don't agree with someone's opinion about an album.

And ditto Charlie's thanks of Marth for defending the album without snarkiness.

@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: @Marth: And I also take a bit of exception with people that say this is a "step back." There isn't another record in their catalog that sounds like it.

It's almost as if people charted a progress between YHF and Ghost (because so many people started listening at YHF) and projected what Sky Blue Sky was supposed to be.

If that had been correct, wouldn't that ultimately be more disappointing?

Also the guitars on Impossible Germany are fucking nuts and the whole album really translates live.

Man, if you guys are getting torn up about the fact that someone doesn't like Sky Blue Sky... I hate the Wilco album, I think Challenger is the second-best NP album after Electric Version, when I listen to Band of Horses I want to shoot myself in the face, I think this year's Iron & Wine is a really disappointing follow-up to Our Endless Numbered Days (And The Woman King), I also hate (in no particular order) the Feist album, the St. Vincent album, the Panda Bear album, the Spoon album, and everything Devendra Barnhart did this year, has ever done and will ever do in the history of mankind. Also, where the fuck is Rihanna? Rihanna should be in the top five.

@Mordy: Somebody please play some Band Of Horses for this guy ASAP!

@Mordy: Who knew that dissing a Wilco album would cause this much ruckus?

@bg5000: Jay Bennett learned the hard way.

@Camp Tiger Claw: If you're going to play that card you should be of the opinion that NONE of Wilco's album sound like each other. There's a pretty big difference between each album they've released, barring the two "Mermaid Avenue" discs. I'm not sure those really count, though...

Anyway, it's probably the difference between each of their records that has made them such a good band.

In my eyes, "Sky Blue Sky" is a step back because the band abandoned the song structures they were adopting with "A Ghost Is Born." Compositionally, I find "Sky Blue Sky" to be pretty mundane. It's good at what it does, don't get me wrong... But I don't feel that what it's doing is all that great. Additionally, I find some of the lyrics on "Sky Blue Sky" to be pretty cringe-worthy. I mentioned "Hate It Here" in one of my above posts for a reason...

@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: Tweedy's never been one for giving his lyrics a second read. For example: all of Being There.

@SteveHy: I heard Band of Horses open for Iron + Wine while I+W was touring behind The Woman King EP. My ears started to bleed and I pledged never to listen to them ever ever ever again.

@SomeSound-MostlyFury:
agreed. the kings of leon record almost made my top ten. its a scorcher.