Previously critically acclaimed and/or successful acts who are already being written out of attempts at '10s canon-building

Reading a lot of decade retrospectives right now and there appears to be a quiet, maybe unmentioned consensus that the critical hosannas handed out to 'Random Access Memories' were a huge mistake. Migos seem to be conspicuous by their absence as well.

UK lists appear to have had collective amnesia about pretty much any black British records or scenes that appeared prior to the release of 'That's Not Me'. What else is being collectively written out?

All dubstep, almost all EDM, basically anything I found on hypemachine, not that it got that much critical acclamation in the first place.

looking back at old pitchfork lists, kanye has really had a fall from grace. who listens to "Otis" or "Niggas in Paris" in 2019?

the biggest one is surely tune-yards

If so it's a shame as she's been consistently brilliant.

SReynolds just did a big retrospective piece about trap's domination of the 2010s with Migos referenced heavily throughout. I guess their importance depends on which musical lense you view them through. Still think Culture is one of the best albums of the decade, but then I don't encounter much actual trap in the wild, because of my a/s/l

I'm not sure Kanye's recent missteps have really dented the reputation of MBDTF or Yeezus very much. Likewise EDM was never cool in the first place (although there have been some respectful Avicii articles in recent weeks) and the reputation of Skrillex has if anything improved.

Straight-ahead dubstep was more of a 00s thing really but it does appear to have been cast aside in the rush to heap plaudits on Ben UFO/Hessle Audio and later Hyberdub, yeah.

not looked at many lists but anyone talking about footwork in these things? save for jlin and Rasharkin ofc

Yes they are, and 'Double Cup' in particular is being rated very highly.

I think people might have cooled a bit on trap in general, momentarily? Hopefully, once the dust settles, Culture will be seen for the masterwork it is.

Tune-yards is weird. Her whole thing was always controversial, and she did drop the most unique and experimental aspects of her sound after whokill. Her next albums never sounded as out there, while still being politically... an acquired taste. But hopefully the music will be rediscovered. Seeing her live in 2012 was one of the best live shows I saw this decade.

xxp Rasharkin? What the hell, phone? Rashad, obvs.

It does feel like trap peaked around 2015-2017, with Rae Sremmurd and Migos releasing their overlong, not-as-good-as-the-previous-album New Jerseys at roughly the same time

but, i mean, it's not even that long ago..

I take it Merriweather PP is placing, but what about later Animal Collective and later projects?

*sigh* I miss the days when I used to like that band. I can't listen to them at all any more.

mpp was 09 and nothing they've done since has been that acclaimed

haaa of course it was.

didn’t we just do a thread about this not too long ago?

Artists/bands that were once quite popular, yet nowadays are mostly ignored in canonical history books

We're talking about this decade and the canon-building that is taking place now, so no, that's not the same discussion.

Well then. Carry on.

the @arielxpink erasure from the albums of the decade list gets funnier the more I think about it pic.twitter.com/u4xfCmLIvw

— brentwurst 🌹 (@brentrockafella) October 10, 2019

Before Today got a 9??? That's ridiculous.

I don't think I've ever heard an Ariel Pink song.

Lol, yeah, Ariel Pink is a good one. Also, Benji. People really went 'yeah, that was a bad idea, sorry for encouraging him'.

I like his early album 'Worn Copy' which was all done on a really cheap multitracker in his basement and really did sound like a lo-fi relic several years before the whole retro vaporwave craze blew up. Later he formed a band and started making 'proper music' and came out as a totally conceited incel dickhead and the magic was somewhat ruined

I liked Benji at the time but hadn't and still haven't heard a note by Kozelek outside of that. He also strikes me as a massive prick.
I really liked the Swans albums I bought in the 2010s and thought they were amazing live, but I can't listen to that band any more.

'The Doldrums' still a top 10 record of the century for me, probably, but Later he formed a band and started making 'proper music' and came out as a totally conceited incel dickhead and the magic was somewhat ruined this is completely otm. Woeful live performances also not helping.

Thread is good but FUCK "IMPORTANCE"

And tbh god help anybody who was listening to shite like Ariel Pod in the fust place

I don't have much to add to this thread yet but seeing the bloom come off of Random Access Memories fills me with so much joy

same

Do Discovery next pls.

Yeah ILX needs a thread for people to be iconclastic

Just one?

James Ferrro's Far Side Virtual hasn't appeared on anything as far as I can see

Random Access Memories was the weirdest damn thing, so many people who were unaware or barely aware of Daft Punk when they were A Thing suddenly being super into them a decade after the fact. I still have never sat and listened to the album all the way through but I'm certain I'm familiar with every song on it. Or was familiar before forgetting about the album completely until this revive.

I'm still seeing Random Access Memories feature a lot in these lists. Maybe not as high as once expected, but I'm not convinced people have done a complete u-turn on it yet.

I feel like as we went into the decade Hot Chip were still a huge deal critically, but I haven't seen them pop up in a single list. In Our Heads or One Life Stand deserve a place IMO. They're both aging better than This Is Happening which I'm surprised to see is still rated so highly. No sign of American Dream though.

Yeah the world needs more shitty Elvis Costello faux dance acts

Haha, I'll always have a soft spot for them.

Check out Daft Punk's new single "Get Lucky" if you get the chance. Sound of the summer.

— twitch.tv/Limmy (@DaftLimmy) October 18, 2019

One thing that Ariel Pink and Daft Punk have in common is the acclaim for those records was at least partially retroactive acclaim for their work/influence in the previous decade.

Random Access Memories was the weirdest damn thing, so many people who were unaware or barely aware of Daft Punk when they were A Thing suddenly being super into them a decade after the fact.

Daft Punk were in a pretty unique position, not only did they have that 2007 live album/tour which made them seem better than they actually were but there were also a lot of popular new EDM acts like Justice & Skrillex that were citing Daft Punk as a major influence. they seemed relevant in a way that say, The Prodigy or Underworld or even The Chemical Brothers really weren't anymore

Santigold seemed "critically important" for a minute but looking at the timeline it seems like the height of that was late 00s rather than 10s. So far everything I think of for this category turns out to be 00s, which I guess is a sign of aging and how fast time passes.

Critics are wrong more often than not when they try to pick *NEW IMPORTANT ARTISTS* imo, because the hallmarks of importance don't have much to do with what's good.

was at least partially retroactive acclaim for their work/influence in the previous decade

If Daft Punk and Ariel Pink have this in common then so does anyone

The only thing they have in common for me is that two third of their output this decade I have no desire to listen to again but the other half remains good to great

FTR
---

I will be shocked if Get Lucky is this summer's song -- it sounds like a cover of itself by a really tight wedding band.

― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, May 30, 2013 9:57 AM (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I just realized this record reminds me a lot of the first Lionel Richie record, and I don't think it compares favorably.

― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Sunday, June 2, 2013 4:16 PM (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

but the other half remains good to great

other third!

Was 'One More Time' not a huge huge hit in the US? Seems like that was the big mainstream crossover household name choooon that broke them over here

Never liked it, and it actively put me off listening to Discovery for a long time

I think One More Time was a minor hit in the US -- I def remember hearing it, seeing it on MTV, but I don't think it was ubiquitous

yeah I remember seeing the video a few times but iirc people got sick of it pretty fast

"Harder Faster Better Stronger" was the big one, maybe cuz it was a bit more gimmicky while still being pretty great. I remember sites like YTMND & Ebaums using that tune a lot which in retrospect was not exactly insignificant

They've only got two worthwhile tracks: 'Da Funk' and 'Around the World'. Everything else is eminently disposable.

"One More Time" was a "oh I've heard this in a sporting arena"-style hit in the US; it only got to #61 on the charts.

The funny thing with Random Access Memories is that it's an explicit attack on the whole scene Daft Punk spawned, instead going back to 'real' music made with real musicians and based on real grooves, and with real singers like Pharrell. So it was a late reckoning of their influence, but combined with an attack on everything they'd made before.

I don't think it needs to be completely 'written out' of the music history, it's a good album with a lot of weird tracks, but it was definitely massively overrated in 2013. Or whenever.

There's loads of enervated Pitchorkish stuff from the early 10s that doesn't seem to have survived in reputation, most of what they were repping in 2011 barely gets talked about now.

In retrospect the 'watching the end of a party through smoke' torpid sadsack end of R&B won the battle for attention but the shine appears to have come off 'House of Balloons' in the interim, certainly compared to Frank Ocean etc.

My theory about the predictable but no less infuriating embrace of Ariel Pink in 2010: an abashed cop-a-feel toward acknowledging '70s pop was cool but still needing lo-fi incompetence to sell it.

The history of indie music in the 21st century in one sentence

They've only got two worthwhile tracks: 'Da Funk' and 'Around the World'. Everything else is eminently disposable.

nah, there's actually a bunch of great stuff on Human After All, plus "Rolling and Scratching" is A+

(although I do agree that they were never the Best House Group In The World)

xp to Fred - another part of that was the fact that the album was very meticulously produced and expertly engineered, the polar opposite of the heavily brickwalled & side-chained stuff on the charts full of blaring compressed synth noises. trends which Daft Punk helped usher in of course.

I still jam Daftendirekt all the time

I don't support Daft Punk revisionism, just RAM revisionism

(although I do agree that they were never the Best House Group In The World)

the 2007 pyramid tour made them seem that way for a moment. their singles were classic but I never felt the LPs were on par with The Chemical Brothers, much less say Underworld

If you'm desperate for a stadium act then you don't get House music is the thing

All those big gig duos are just the student disco dance experience writ more or less large

Random Access Memories was also made to be something not so easy to sample and that might be a factor in its critical 'decline' given context. More than that though it's too studied a homage for it to really stand up as a record with real cultural impact this decade.

And regarding Ariel Pink it's not so evident on Before Today but the subsequent records operate more like John Maus fwiw (I'm not really bothering to check lists at least not yet but I would've thought We Must Become The Pitiless... is still turning up in a few of them)

This thread is making me want to pull out the Daft Punk live album, which is the only thing I still own by them.

This is probably still my favorite employment of Daft Punk's music in any context

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpU2HNp6Tjc

Random Access Memories was also made to be something not so easy to sample

i'm generally blah about RAM and debates around it, but i hadn't heard this before - they made it so that it couldn't be sampled easily? but why?

Discovery is still a front-to-back amazing album.
Still think Homework sounds like a bunch of okay-to-decent dance 12"s that would sound better with the pitch adjuster notched up a couple of tempos

Homework only really makes sense to me when I think of its primary audience as being DJs mixing it into other records

xposts I'm not basing it on anything they said themselves about it, I just think it's evident in its construction and the effect of this being to create something there would be no real point in sampling (at least not to try and create a hit around although I've lost enough interest in the charts over the last five years to not know enough if that's even true either!) both because of how busy it is on a technical level (without there being too much in the mix or just musically) and because it's so resolutely like what it's homaging that you would be better off just going straight to the source of that

that's how I think of it frogbs. I can't really listen to it as a 12 song album experience like I do Discovery

And this is why it's a better release than Discovery

Can you please stop talking about 22-year old albums on this thread?

RAM is better than Discovery though i still think both are sub-Homework, their album from 1997.

(knocks, sheepishly pokes head in) Hi, is this the thread where we discuss the work of musical recording artists Daft Punk?

I think there are two main factors at play here:

- Musicians or scenes who people just stopped checking for in the latter half of the decade, who went out of fashion or went nowhere or had minimal impact despite the hype at the time
- People who fell firmly on the wrong side of the generational/cultural/political watershed that took place in the middle of the decade.

Ariel Pink fits squarely in both categories.

big boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

^^^ I listened to this the other day and most of it still holds up; very sad that it's been forgotten

I still support Random Access Memories. EDM fans wanted a deadmau5 album and they got a Deodato album instead. What's not to love?

In a similar case to Ariel Pink, Crystal Castles was also cancelled after Ethan Kath was accused of sexual misconduct from 4 women including former bandmate, Alice Glass.

Another act which fell from critical grace in the later part of the decade, but which was well beloved in the first half of it: Arcade Fire.

Loved CC second album but yeah that has sunk like a stone in my listening since Glass spoke about that

iirc there was an ilx post that characterized random access memories as daft punk doing in a more obvious way what they had already achieved on discovery, synthesizing the quincy jones productions and jazz fusion and yacht rock records in their collection into dance music. i like ram, but that has felt more and more otm to me as time passes

iirc the goal was to create a record that sounded like all the records they used to sample

Not completely ignored but other acts which were strongly hyped around mid-decade but had some of that early love fade away: Blood Orange and Dev Hynes related projects, Actress, Kurt Vile, Deerhunter, Flying Lotus, James Blake, Bon Iver.

I just love Instant Crush and don't care about contextualising DP's fashionability

Put on Blood Orange recently and it just felt really, really thin. I think some of those names will survive the 10's though. xp

"Harder Faster Better Stronger" was the big one, maybe cuz it was a bit more gimmicky while still being pretty great. I remember sites like YTMND & Ebaums using that tune a lot which in retrospect was not exactly insignificant

2007: I think it was 'Stronger' by Kanye & the accompanying video that really cemented Daft Punk into mainstream consciousness in the US. The massive buzz around the 2007 Alive tour added to that as well.

yeah ariel pink doesn't really belong on any best album lists for this decade, save maybe pom pom, and even that is a stretch. As alluded to above, it's really his albums from the 2000's (doldrums, house arrest, worn copy) that deserve recognition. everything he's done since 2010 has just been well executed AM pastiche, whereas the early stuff was like a pastiche of something that never even existed ... he gets a lot of hate now for the person he has been ousted as and the albums he has put out on major labels, but u gotta have ur head up ur ass not to recognize how groundbreaking and influential his pre 2010 home recordings were

iirc the goal was to create a record that sounded like all the records they used to sample

― 💠 (crüt), Friday, December 6, 2019 10:50 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it was! but the result feels more like a studied recreation than its own thing. also it's approximately 10000000 years long. i agree with nv that "instant crush" is a jam though

i mean every daft punk record is long but i really feel the length of ram

there are probably several posts in the ram thread where i reveal myself as extremely down with studied recreations but i'm not denying the album felt exciting at the time

Is anyone else imagining Matt in a pub telling other UK ILXors "I knew I shouldn't have put Daft Punk in the opening post as I was typing it but I thought maybe people would just take it as the example I meant for it to be"?

yes lol

i *have* been trying to think of other examples

Gnarls Barkley finished #1/#5 in the P&J singles/albums polls

well that's obviously not the '10s so forget it

Great ILM polls from 2010 that never were: who will end the decade richest out of Diplo, Mark Ronson and Calvin Harris?


Flying Lotus maybe fits the thread premise but probably had already peaked before 2010 in terms of acclaim and has always been kinda first among equals in a scene that's not really club-orientated.

It doesn't seem like there are that many obvious examples tho really and too many lists already seem way too obedient and deferential to early-10s critical consensus.

well that's obviously not the '10s so forget it

But "Fuck You" was. Remember when critics went crazy over that song?

lol that won P&J too

Also I find it interesting that for all this talk about Daft Punk and Ariel Pink that Allmusic still upgraded Before Today and Random Access Memories to 5 stars during their end of the decade uprades.

considering how vaunted Let England Shake by PJ Harvey was in 2010, its disappointing to see the relative lack of placement in EOD lists - a shame b/c that album is fantastic & has held up really well (both in general and w/r/t PJH's catalog). I'm guessing this has to do w/ her not really releasing much else since, except for one album in 2016 that was pretty good, but not on the level.

Also, I haven't looked into many end of the decade lists, but I doubt "Blurred Lines" is on many of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88zQ_sf6BMg

do critics still rate R.A.P. Music / Run The Jewels?

Most of the Ariel Pink stuff from this decade is really good. Especially Before Today.

Remember that Dr. Dre album that people lost their shit over for like 2 weeks and then forgot about completely?

vice's best of albums of the 2010s list makes a case for salem's importance to ~the decade~ for what it's worth, i also think they're remembered fondly by a lot of people

sleigh bells

Ariel Pink's work got better in the 2010s anyway

not sure I agree. Worn Copy is the Ariel Pink album I really love.

I thought Benji was interesting for a few listens but don’t want to revisit it now.

Far Side Virtual is something, I think its relentless cheeriness is kind of hard to take but maybe it will be a rediscovered classic a few decades from now

Round and Round is great though

I really liked and related to the amateur quality of Ariel Pink's first recordings. the inspiration was so perfect that It was hard for me to accept him as a star after that

"harder better faster stronger" was not a bigger hit than "one more time" lol. "one more time" was daft punk's first single to get any appreciable airplay at top 40 stations in the states, tho as noted above it didn't go especially far in that respect. getting any airplay at all >>>> being incorporated into a couple cute animations on newgrounds/ebaumsworld/ytmnd

sleigh bells

― kornrulez6969

They were relevant for a minute yes but that was in 2009.

remember when Lil Yachty was going to beckon in a brand new era of youth music?

My answer would be completely biased by what I think should be forgotten, which is really just what I never caught to. Ariel, trap, dubstep are all there. For example I also really hate all abstract / industrial hip hop. I hate stuff like Car seat Headrest. But I'd be reading too much into it if it does not appear in decade-list: it does not mean much anyway. Lol at being surprised at not seing EDM for example, that's a specialized genre that does not appeal across the audience so I wouldn't read any denial into it.
"Significance" is really a pompous term as well.
10 years is a long-time too: something not being fresh anymore doesn't mean it stopped being good...
And imo you're all flipping on RAM: I get lucky and other hits belong to any good 2010s playlist. Kanye's songs also really endure, idk, Fade came on yesterday, what a song !

dr luke

Oh fucking car seat headrest. That is one of those acts which I’m thankful of how they’ve faded into nothingness.

EDM was one of the biggest trends in pop this decade so it's interesting that very little of it caught on critically much at all

also, what other hits on RAM? "Get Lucky" was the only hit from it. it's a decent enough track and it's nice that Daft Punk had a world-conquering hit and all but it was certainly overrated at the time and it's not really one of the best tracks of the decade. RAM as an album doesn't really hold up well at all either. there's some decent enough stuff on it but it's really bloated and a lot of the songwriting is lacking.

'Let England Shake' has been placing very highly in UK lists but I'd argue it resonates particularly strongly right now given the direction Britain is going in.

Terius Nash is mostly a 00s phenomenon but considering songs as undeniable as Yamaha and Schooling Life dropped this decade he's fallen off heavily in almost every way and no one's really talking about him right now. I'm not sure that would have been expected in 2010 but he feels firmly on the wrong side of the generational divide and you don't even encounter him working with A-List artists any more. Punching your pregnant girlfriend will probably do that to a career, mind.

Sleigh Bells is a good answer.

EDM was the sound of the first half of the decade, of course it never got any kind of critical respect, especially among the "former punks who now like rap" demographic which always seems to be very vocal in certain publications. But, if you were into mp3 blogs / hypemachine at the time though, it was a very different picture.

Let England Shake is much too positive about England for my taste, even more so in 2019.

'What is the glorious fruit of our land? The fruit is deformed children' a bit too glowing for you?

Punching your pregnant girlfriend will probably do that to a career, mind.

Argh never even heard about this

Let England Shake is nowheresville in recent US polls, but was #2 Pazz & Jop 2010

xxp was thinking more of "England"

xp

er.. I meant 2011. btw, see also: ' Kaputt' by Destroyer

i've seen kaputt in a bunch of decade lists high enough up

"former punks who now like rap"

add to rap "pop, r&b, and mainstream country for some reason" and this category comprises the majority of people born before the millennium who currently write about popular music

kaputt definitely still has clout

- People who fell firmly on the wrong side of the generational/cultural/political watershed that took place in the middle of the decade.

― Matt DC, Friday, December 6, 2019 12:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

this is otm but unfair, because it assumes there was some massive poll or election. I am loath to evoke 'rockism' in this discussion but what you are talking about is a lot of collateral damage based on qualities that are not so much explicit as they are (most often wrongfully) perceived. Guy with guitar = OK Boomer. It also reeks of ageism tbh

https://pics.me.me/people-always-say-ok-boomer-but-never-you-ok-boomer-65677572.png

Remember that brief moment in 2015 when all the critics were highly praising Tobias Jesso Jr? That was weird.

lol xp

How about Real Estate? Feel like Atlas and especially Days were universally acclaimed when they came out. When Pitchfork did their half way list, both albums were in there with Days just outside the top 10. They barely made an appearance in end of decade list and I've not seen them appear anywhere else. Maybe I'm just influenced by how little I listen to them anymore.

xp FWIW I have no dog in this fight: 90% of the new music I listen to is techno, experimental, and metal that would never bother any EOY lists, and I've never knowingly heard a note of music by Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile, Sun Kil Moon, etc

Remember that brief moment in 2015 when all the critics were highly praising Tobias Jesso Jr? That was weird.

― MarkoP, Saturday, December 7, 2019 10:01 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this was a very, very dark period during which the indieverse decided it needed its own James Blunt I guess. I am very glad that's over

How is War on Drugs' stock these days?

xp FWIW I have no dog in this fight: 90% of the new music I listen to is techno, experimental, and metal that would never bother any EOY lists, and I've never knowingly heard a note of music by Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile, Sun Kil Moon, etc

― Paul Ponzi

if you have no dog in the fight why are you jumping into it?

Also, I haven't looked into many end of the decade lists, but I doubt "Blurred Lines" is on many of them.

I was dancing at a bar with colleagues on a work trip a few nights ago. The DJ started with ’90s hits, and gradually mixed in more current stuff (until he was playing mainly current rap). The sound system was very loud, really banging. Of the 40 or so tracks we heard (including many well-loved classics), “Blurred Lines” was the only one that made me go, “Oh shit...” as it played.

I don’t care how creepy that Thicke guy is, or how much $$ he & Pharrell had to pay out — it’s a great track.

R.A.P. Music in my top 15

So is Let England Shake.

Oh fucking car seat headrest. That is one of those acts which I’m thankful of how they’ve faded into nothingness.

They’re still around, touring, etc.; their follow-up releases to Teens of Denial have just sort of been punts (a re-recording of an older album, and a live LP). Anyway, how were they (of all acts) plaguing your ears at any point? You sound like you’re talking about The Offspring or something, not an easily avoidable indie rock band.

How about Real Estate?

Any legacy they might have had was tainted by Mr. Ducktails, no?

if you have no dog in the fight why are you jumping into it?

― Agnes Motörhead (rushomancy), Saturday, December 7, 2019 10:17 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I guess because as an old I find the knee jerk and arbitrary drawing of "generational/cultural/political" battle lines wrt criticism troubling and generally Bad For Art. (I also acknowledge that such demarcations are not at all new thing)

I guess because as an old

― Paul Ponzi

...you do have a dog in the fight?

As someone who definitely doesn’t have a dog in this fight, because dogfights are cruel, i want to point out that it’s possible to have an opinion about something without being personally connected or affected by it

Carseatheadrest was not avoidable 2016/2017, he was being hyped in almost every forum and zine I frequented at the time except for ilxor, thank god. Label was even pushing money for him to appear in every music related youtube vids for a while, top of my mind I remember he was doing npr, kexp, tonight shows and it kept appearing as recommended music vids.

I’m overreacting but his music gave me a very visceral reaction.

true
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Japan

Xpost

Billboard has a 100 songs that defined the decade which features some of the biggest hits of the 2010s and several of these have been snubbed by many eod lists :

https://www.billboard.com/100-songs-that-defined-the-2010s

I mean they were not critically acclaimed but they were definitely successful for a minute. I had to double check if LMFAO was a 2010s thing.

List is missing Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand.

'Random Access Memories' so thoroughly achieved what it set out to do. It'll still probably make the Musicophilia decade top 50. But I still like the mix I made inspired by it (and by its likely inspirations) better:

https://www.mixcloud.com/musicophilia/the-gold-and-the-silver-dream-1971-1982-a-tribute-to-daft-punks-random-access-memories/

Various Artists – ‘The Gold and the Silver Dream’ (2013)
(After Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’)

01 [00:00] Amon Duul II – “Spaniards & Spacement” (Only Human, 1978)
02 [05:43] Brian Bennett – “Solstice” (Voyage, 1978)
03 [11:43] Beaver & Krause – “Looking Back Now” (All Good Men, 1972)
04 [15:35] William Sheller – “Inroit” (Lux Aterna, 1972)
05 [18:45] Zeus B. Held – “Nice Mover (Backing)” (Nice Mover (Gina X), 1979)
06 [22:51] The Jacksons – “Wondering Who” (Triumph, 1980)
07 [27:08] Francis Personne – “Fresques” (Towards, 1977)
08 [30:04] Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “Romance of the Telescope” (“Joan of Arc”, 1981)
09 [33:20] Vuolo & Grande – “Leaving” (Desert, 1979)
10 [37:27] Roxy Music – “The Space Between” (Avalon, 1982)

11 [41:58] Space Art – “Welcome to Love” (Play Back, 1980)
12 [48:33] Le Orme – “Al Mercato delle Pulci” (Storia o Leggenda, 1977)
13 [52:29] Cerrone – “Give Me Love” (Supernature, 1977)
14 [56:53] Roland Bocquet – “Paradia” (Robot Rose, 1982)
15 [61:38] Nilsson- “The Moonbeam Song (Demo)” (Nilsson Schmilsson, 1971)
16 [65:05] Curt Boettcher – “California Music” (California Music, 1978)
17 [68:16] Gino Soccio – “Closer” (Closer, 1981)
18 [72:03] Munich Machine – “In Love With Love” (Whiter Shade of Pale, 1977)
19 [78:17] Stardrive – “Funkascensions” (Stardrive, 1974)
20 [83:49] Eno & Cluster – “The Shade (Excerpt)” (After the Heat, 1978)

[Total Time: 85:00]

Carseatheadrest was not avoidable 2016/2017, he was being hyped in almost every forum and zine I frequented at the time except for ilxor, thank god. Label was even pushing money for him to appear in every music related youtube vids for a while, top of my mind I remember he was doing npr, kexp, tonight shows and it kept appearing as recommended music vids.

Not denying that car seat guy was much more prominent a couple years ago, but have you thought about the algorithm’s role in pushing it to you, specifically, based on other music you listen to?

Gotye’s Somebody that I used to know was both a hit and received critical praise iirc, featuring in many eoy lists, and I’m not sure if I’ve seen it in any eod list so far.

X I mean excluding this billboard one.

what the heck is carseatheadrest

Not denying that car seat guy was much more prominent a couple years ago, but have you thought about the algorithm’s role in pushing it to you, specifically, based on other music you listen to?

― Peaceful Warrior I Poser (Karl Malone)

I don’t think indie rock or rock in general would be in my top 3 most listened genres. I’m all in for what’s lumped into indietronica, or indie r&b or indie pop but I avoid indie rock and carseat headrest is a good reminder of why I do so.

Bon Iver

I was like "wow, this is a great example, people were over the moon for that record but it feels so thoroughly forgotten now that I would have thought it was from the 2000s" and I looked it up and, indeed, it was 2008 (yes, I know Bon Iver released albums after that one but my sense is that the ultra "greatest ever I got this tattooed on myself" phase for Bon Iver was centered on the one he recorded in a log cabin

I feel like Twenty-One Pilots were, in a way, critically acclaimed (a lot of articles of the form "you probably don't like this but it's the future of music and it is doing something important and big that most people over 20 aren't equipped to read" and then their followup to Blurryface didn't make as big of a splash and when did you last hear them mentioned?

I don’t think indie rock or rock in general would be in my top 3 most listened genres. I’m all in for what’s lumped into indietronica, or indie r&b or indie pop but I avoid indie rock and carseat headrest is a good reminder of why I do so.

sure, not saying it's a good recommendation! i just mean don't you think the almighty algorithm knows that you're all in for indietronica, indie r&b, and indie pop, and comes to the conclusion that it should advertise the latest indie rock thing that a lot of other people who are algorithmically connected to you are listening to?

I feel like Twenty-One Pilots were, in a way, critically acclaimed (a lot of articles of the form "you probably don't like this but it's the future of music and it is doing something important and big that most people over 20 aren't equipped to read" and then their followup to Blurryface didn't make as big of a splash and when did you last hear them mentioned?

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, December 7, 2019 10:52 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s funny bc that followup (trench) was their first good album

Carseatheadrest was not avoidable 2016/2017, he was being hyped in almost every forum and zine I frequented at the time except for ilxor, thank god. Label was even pushing money for him to appear in every music related youtube vids for a while, top of my mind I remember he was doing npr, kexp, tonight shows and it kept appearing as recommended music vids.

Fair enough, I guess... I don’t frequent any of those things. (I did watch his late-nite TV performances afterward on YouTube, as they were excellent.)

making this point not because of anything special about you and carseat guy, but just one that could apply to a lot of people in this thread - songs and artists that seemed to be heavily hyped (a few years ago, but the phenomenon gets stronger every day as the algorithms get slightly "better") but have now seemingly "gone away". some of that is tied into the real cultural effect of the artist, but the targeted advertising plays quite a role too

I meant the 2011 self titled Bon Iver album. Pitchfork really likes that one - and every album he released this decade - but I’m not sure I’ve seen it mentioned elsewhere as much.

I guess because as an old I find the knee jerk and arbitrary drawing of "generational/cultural/political" battle lines wrt criticism troubling and generally Bad For Art. (I also acknowledge that such demarcations are not at all new thing)

I do find myself falling back on a remark in a roundtable that followed Reynolds' Retromania where someone spoke of the aging brain's decreasing ability to perceive novelty. I seem to fall either on the side of "why should I invest myself in something that sounds like things I already like?" or that of "why hasn't autotune been dispensed with already? why would anyone identify with these digitally strangled voices?" I always liked things that were old, though. I love Ariel Pink, even though his "cancellation" seems just to me, politically anyway. Reynolds loved him, too; I think the sense of sedimented history, nostalgia, and longing in his music, including that from the '10s, is unquestionably rich. But there doesn't seem to be much "new" that opens a space for him anymore, just these tiny pockets of retro hipster culture, and I don't really see him changing to fit a wider present. The current Haunted Graffiti reissue series seems as untimely as the original releases were.

I still haven't read Gravity's Rainbow, but the notion of personal density:temporal bandwidth highlighted in a NYRB essay a few years ago seems germane.

I think people might have cooled a bit on trap in general, momentarily? Hopefully, once the dust settles, Culture will be seen for the masterwork it is.

Lmfao

xp Great insights here. I struggle with some of these same questions. Agnes' question to me upthread (which I read in good faith) actually makes me wonder why I do care. I'm not a musician or a critic, have no investment whatsoever in either the disruption or maintenance of the canon, and dgaf about modern indie or guitar rock. As I said I do find the baby / bathwater scenario vaguely unsettling but I think it's worth reflecting on why this is, and why I don't feel this way about anything other than music. The elephant in the room, sadly, is probably a kind of nostalgia that I am reluctant to admit to being prone to.

I must have heard only a song or two but I’m guessing the special hate for car seat headrest is due to the insane over hype they received plus the dumb name and passionate millennial male lolindie vibes... cause I really do not remember them sounding that bad or offensive?

I did mean it in good faith! I've taken to questioning my motives before expressing opinions about things on the Internet.

I have never heard any car seat headrest

It does feel like trap peaked around 2015-2017, with Rae Sremmurd and Migos releasing their overlong, not-as-good-as-the-previous-album New Jerseys at roughly the same time

― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Friday, December 6, 2019 5:23 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

only the most dilettante of dilettantes could think this ... lil baby and gunna and thug & tons of other stuff still outstream most of the other stuff mentioned in this thread

2007: I think it was 'Stronger' by Kanye & the accompanying video that really cemented Daft Punk into mainstream consciousness in the US. The massive buzz around the 2007 Alive tour added to that as well.

― Legacy of Banality (Pillbox), Friday, December 6, 2019 11:56 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

random but i feel like ppl never recognize swizz beats/busta rhymes had a hit record w "touch it" before kanye did this

remember when Lil Yachty was going to beckon in a brand new era of youth music?

― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Saturday, December 7, 2019 3:35 AM (twelve hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is a good one tho

Didn't Car Seat Headrest have a bit of a revival recently? I took my son to see them earlier in the year. Not exactly my thing, but they were good enough, kind of like emo Springsteen.

Obviously a single-album issue but I was listening to the last ATCQ and it seems like that one’s been kinda overlooked on decade lists relative to the last Bowie.

(this is a bad post I know but) it’s nice to hear that so much music I don’t like has not endured in popularity/hipness/influence whatever

My hot take on the decline in RAM’s standing is that it is actually due (in a roundabout way) to Pharell’s “Happy”.

lol I don't particularly care about Car Seat Headrest but to say they've faded into nothingness is pretty funny. They're bigger than ever, just opened for Interpol at MSG and I would guess when he finally gets around to releasing another album, they'll be playing 1500+ cap theaters and concert halls and there will be an interview in the NYT Arts section.

they're just between stuff right now, basically.

How is opening for a band that was relevant 20 years ago by basing their sound on a band that was relevant 40 years ago a sign of being bigger than ever?

Just for you, Moka, here's a recent RYM review of Twin Fantasy:

my favorite album of all time.
my favorite album of all time.
for so many reasons.

this album makes me feel accepted
this album makes me feel comforted
this album makes me feel understood
this album makes me feel happy, sad, angry, whatever i want to feel at the time.
this is the only album in existence that holds that type of power for me.
i feel like im living out my "indie movie boy fantasies" during some listens,
and feel like rocking back and forth in the corner of my room during other listens.
it never gets old.
ive never had an album feel so in touch with my emotions before.
i dont know if id ever be able to talk about this album from a critical standpoint. it means too much to me.
as long as i can listen to this album i think be okay.

(I have no idea what this band sounds like and no interest in finding out tbh.)

Also this discussion is defeating the purpose of me forgetting that carseat headrest ever existed as an appraised act and I wont engage any further because I really don’t care about his music

emo Springsteen

The stuff of nightmares.

this is otm but unfair, because it assumes there was some massive poll or election. I am loath to evoke 'rockism' in this discussion but what you are talking about is a lot of collateral damage based on qualities that are not so much explicit as they are (most often wrongfully) perceived. Guy with guitar = OK Boomer. It also reeks of ageism tbh

Good lord this is one hell of a missed point. It has nothing to do with guys with guitars and everything to do with artists who come across as creeps and/or abusers. (TBH a lot of the stuff that's lapsed into irrelevance is post-AnCo washed out enervated synth music rather than anything based around guitars per se).

Also there was a massive election. Trump, Ferguson, #MeToo - these are pivotal historical moments that had a profound and almost immediate impact on music. A lot of music that precedes these events feels like it's coming from a different *world*.

The ageism/guitar argument also overlooks the fact that some of the most immediately canonised records of the decade were from boomer heroes or older dudes that were saturated in death and mortality and in some cases from artists who were actually at death's door. Blackstar, You Want It Darker, the last two Nick Cave records etc.

Fall Out Boy - Save Rock and Roll
Non Kendrick TDE artists
Mega summer singles like whether garbage like Pharrell ‘Happy’ and’ or good like ‘Cheerleader’.
One Direction and their many solo careers. I remember Steal My Girl and zayn and harry styles getting big writes ups at the time.
Also in that regard, BTS?
Grime and British black music existed before skepta won the mercury, right?

Maybe I’ve just not looked at enough lists tho.

loads of stuff gets raved about for exactly one month then almost completely forgotten, that Yves Tumor album from last year for example.

that yves tumor record is still absolutely amazing

Nobody talks about Angel Haze any more which is weird given she released a couple of great records, there was a fair bit of buzz about her at the time, and she's exactly the sort of artist/personality you'd expect a painfully earnest woke generation to take to.

canons just don't work in today's age, no matter how much people try. making a canon is a means of exerting control, of promoting a certain narrative and a way of viewing music and, more importantly, people. one can struggle to make an "intersectional" canon but this overlooks that this sort of exercise is, to some extent, a hegemonic exercise, projecting Order and Value and Priority where none truly exist.

I was going to ask if anyone still listened to FKA Twigs but a cursory search of recent ILM posts suggests yes

“Happy” may not be critical canon but it’s going to be a staple of weddings, bar mitzvahs etc for the next 30 years. And I give it credit for being a supremely catchy single that doesn’t really sound like any other hit single I can think of.

Happy is also very very popular amongst 5 year olds

I'm really surprised by Bon Iver's continued success. The albums are fine, I suppose; I dont' love any of them after the debut (which I do think is really great) but he just headlined the Chase Arena in SF. That's the same venue Elton John played. It's fucking huge.

Any other Britishers a bit baffled by some the suggestions in this thread? I mean..I swear you're making some of them up. Car Seat Headrest, Angel Haze, Real Estate, Tune-Yards? I've barely heard of any of these tbh. Were these big, popular acts?

I don't think any of them were "big, popular acts" in the sense that you might expect the person who changes your oil or does your taxes to have heard of them.

I dunno about big or popular but am British and have heard all of those apart from Car Seat Headrest - but I had heard of them because I saw a poster for a gig they were playing a couple of years ago and remarked "what a shit name for a band" or similar

I like Angel Haze - Back to the Woods a lot. Real Estate are pretty bland from what I've heard. Tune-Yards I think are OK? but haven't heard whokill which is supposed to be their best album iirc

Tune-Yards is the only that I have heard, actually. I listened to the album that won P&J after it won (since I'd never heard of them before). The other names are only familiar to me bc of ilx.

Angel Haze for sure in my top 100.

Is Sturgill Simpson figuring in much on any EOD lists yet?

Angel Haze is great, most of the acts on this thread i've never heard i've still heard of

Angel Haze keeps sharing brilliant clips of things she has already given up on releasing, very frustrating

im FRIDA KAHLO in a fitted cap, im BASQUIAT w ten minutes left. im MONET w the semi strapped 🎨 pic.twitter.com/O48cf17DXi

— girl with the gun (@AngelHaze) December 6, 2019

Tune Yards winning the Pazz and Jop albums poll was such a WTF moment.

besides "adorn," miguel would be an example, which is probably in part due to the sexual assault allegations

also, disclosure, although that's a combination of their follow-up singles being OK at best and relatively commercially underwhelming, and their becoming associated with bros

that's a good one.

Grimes seems to have appeared in one way or another on most of the lists I've seen so far, but in the second half of the decade it seems like the critical tide has turned somewhat. Same for Chance The Rapper.

In terms of things that seemed to have completely been lost to the ether, I remember a lot of acclaim for Twin Shadow's first two records but I haven't heard much talk about him since.

Azealia Banks? Not sure her world domination lasted more than one song but people were bumping her thread for non-shitshow reasons for a couple of years.

i think that one song is still pretty widely acclaimed

her singles last year were great too

how's drake doing? it seemed that several of his records and singles throughout the decade were being received as Significant around the time they were hitting

I tend to think of acts like Disclosure as suffering from planned obsolescence. Was there ever anything timeless about their music? Not that Daft Punk is necessarily timeless either but perhaps generic enough to generate massive commercial success.

xxxpost I will say that dismissing Hot Chip as 'faux dance Elvis Costellos' is really pushing it. I don't even really have the stomach for much of Costello's music, it seems like mostly centrist pablum, but is there any actual connection between Hot Chip and him other than the art school look? Not that I pay much attention to Hot Chip's new stuff either, they definitely seemed to stake their claim on the pop/big room sound and stopped making interesting music that I'm aware of.

Same for Bon Iver although his schtick is increasingly clearly the solo drunk dude who wrote an incredible album in recovery from breakup and that was pretty much all he had in him. The song "I Can't Make You Love Me" -- I have this nostalgic attraction to it but more and more and it just seems like a good nom for the thread about passive-aggressive songs written by oblivious creeps or whatever it's called.

Did Azealia Banks actually have any great singles or is that "great" as in pretty good by the standards of dudes who actually know the story behind every act mentioned in this thread (aka Pitchfork writers and their ilk I guess).

Same for Bon Iver although his schtick is increasingly clearly the solo drunk dude who wrote an incredible album in recovery from breakup and that was pretty much all he had in him.

I'm not even a fan but isn't his entire appeal his subsequent innovations SINCE that album (this first one)?

Not the appeal to me, maybe for Kanye? I haven't had the chance to see him live so I don't know which material actually thrives in that niche.

Any other Britishers a bit baffled by some the suggestions in this thread? I mean..I swear you're making some of them up. Car Seat Headrest, Angel Haze, Real Estate, Tune-Yards? I've barely heard of any of these tbh. Were these big, popular acts?

I'm Finnish not British, but this thread is the first time I've ever heard of artists/bands called Car Seat Headrest or Real Estate. Tune-Yards I do remember, mostly because she was hyped a lot on ILX, and Angel Haze I'm a fan of, but admittedly that because she's in the sort of niche of music I still actively follow, unlike some indie rock bands (I assume that's the genre for Car Seat and Real Estate?).

"what a shit name for a band"

how about "Let's Eat Headrest"?

It was less that they were big and popular and more that they appealed squarely to a demographic that thought itself as the centre of the musical universe and were given undue prominence as a result. You look at Pitchfork's Top 10 for 2011 and half of the acts in there had about as much impact on the fishing industry as they did on music. (Drake being one of the obvious exceptions).

How do you measure impact on music? And what kind of music are you talking about?

Matt DC is otm, and I like most of the class of 11. But that year also feels like a lifetime away, it's right before Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar and then Beyoncé changed a lot about what music the pitchfork audience listened to.

What is the class of 11? Danny Brown? Kaputt? St. Vincent? Kurt Vile? Shabazz Palaces?

I want to know more about Drake's impact on the fishing industry.

I don't even really have the stomach for much of Costello's music, it seems like mostly centrist pablum

"Centrist"? His health care plan doesn't go far enough for you?

centrist is the new middlebrow

I like Costello's neoliberal odes to warship construction and the funeral industry

it was only a joke about the geeky awkward-looking twat in Hot Chip tbh, i shd've just said "fuck this shit" and left it

It was less that they were big and popular and more that they appealed squarely to a demographic that thought itself as the centre of the musical universe and were given undue prominence as a result.

This comment is reference to bands like Tune-Yards and Car Seat Headrest?

lol I don't particularly care about Car Seat Headrest but to say they've faded into nothingness is pretty funny. They're bigger than ever, just opened for Interpol at MSG and I would guess when he finally gets around to releasing another album, they'll be playing 1500+ cap theaters and concert halls and there will be an interview in the NYT Arts section.

they're just between stuff right now, basically.

sorry, is this satire

your honor, i think it is time to subpoena mr. car seat headrest for testimony

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes) at 7:43 9 Dec 19

I like Costello's neoliberal odes to warship construction and the funeral industry


his warship industry cover was written by a Marxist!

who?

Robert Wyatt

nevermind I'm wrong haha

I was kind of hoping M@tt was going to say "Car Seat Headrest" just so we could keep that train going

I find it impossible to dredge up any sort of opinion about Car Seat Headrest, but they deserve to be eternally mocked for choosing such a spectacularly terrible name for themselves anyway.

they don't seem any more or less offensive than any of those indie bands with 'deer' in the their name

Soft Carseat Headrest

re Sturgill Simpson he's definitely in this zone, would be surprised if he's the only one mentioned in this thread

that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

However arbitrary they also are, most deer band names at least have a somewhat poetic connotation that is sort of impossible to apply to something as mundane"car seat headrest"

not sure whether to call my tribute band 'cat arse headrest' or 'car seat arsedeth'

as mundane as*

xp

cat shite headrest

cat arse headdress

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/8e/0e/c78e0ea0c696fc5e34ed95b480dd71c6.jpg

Really don’t get why this particular band inspires such hate.

I must have heard only a song or two but I’m guessing the special hate for car seat headrest is due to the insane over hype they received plus the dumb name and passionate millennial male lolindie vibes... cause I really do not remember them sounding that bad or offensive?

― Evan, Saturday, December 7, 2019 4:04 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

is my theory

"LOLindie"? The guy's very sincere (his lyrics can be funny)

LOLindie

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5c5e4bd10afcfe56e91c2ee4/2:1/w_790/Car%20Seat%20Headrest.jpg

i thought I was speaking ilx using that term. I just want to be accepted!!!

It's because of how he looks?

yes

Cool.

i'd never heard of carseat headrest before reading this thread, i momentarily thought you all were talking about kendrick lamar's "backseat freestyle"

lots of acts that get written out just have had their moment pass them by and their music doesn't feel quite as relevant, vs any sudden collective acknowledgement of their music being shit. these things ebb and flow over time, and of course a lot of acts that catch critical love at any moment aren't catching it for the wrong reasons, but there's only so many acts that consensus can build around, acts which are extended the benefit of writers and critics taking the time to understand their music and their POV, while other equally (or more) substantial artists aren't give the same treatment bc no one is digging deep into their lyrics and how they play off their personas and so on. a lot of all this has to do with who ppl are fascinated with at that moment in time, the work doesn't necessarily change as much as the timing and the trends do.

i feel like a lot of previously acclaimed acts who are now getting boxed out of the canon will once again have their in-the-canon moment a little further down the line.

Yeah, seven or eight years seems the sour spot for pop culture items to go out of fashion. Seems like artists for whom the hype ended around '12 or'13 are at a disadvantage with arbitrary year-ending-in-nine thinkpieces.

on the plus side, they'll be well-positioned for the 10th anniversary issue in 2022/23, during that lull between the end of the decade and first quarter of the century lists

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and 50.

these are the anniversaries that are ok. 45 is not ok

I would skip 35, too.

omar little otm and this kind of thread always puts me in a peggy lee - is that all there is? kind of mood

I wonder about acts like Titus Andronicus--so much of the hype seems to come from the promise that comes with a strong debut, and then when the promise doesn't pan out the critics lose interest. But I'm still seeing the Monitor appearing on decade-end lists, so who knows.

I would skip 35, too.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson)

same, but it does happen on occasion (https://www.kcrw.com/music/articles/bob-marleys-legend-gets-a-special-35th-anniversary-reissue)

Two or three years ago I would have also argued for eliminating all of the anniversaries ending in '5' except for the 25th, but as the sheer volume of albums continues to skyrocket I feel like it has been sort of helpful to tease out threads five years on.

angel haze was never especially popular. it was always a critical phenomenon & even then a pretty slight one, from an era when ppl were like "where are all the women rappers". Saying nothing abt the quality (I was never a big fan but writers whose taste I respect were) it felt like even when she did briefly move the needle it was in a press narrative rather than musical sense

centrist is the new middlebrow

― Master of Treacle, Monday, December 9, 2019 1:39 PM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I like Costello's neoliberal odes to warship construction and the funeral industry

― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, December 9, 2019 1:43 PM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it was only a joke about the geeky awkward-looking twat in Hot Chip tbh, i shd've just said "fuck this shit" and left it

― éminence rose et jaune (Noodle Vague), Monday, December 9, 2019 1:46 PM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Replace 'centrist' with 'safe'. I classify it as a kind of music that seems marketed to people I know with very safe, centrist views on politics, society, and culture in general and I assume that has something to do with the appeal.

really looking forward to wearily scrolling past all your posts

Yes and cheers for your valuable content input as well

I know you’re not talking about me because my views are dangerous and so are the things marketed to me

angel haze was never especially popular. it was always a critical phenomenon & even then a pretty slight one, from an era when ppl were like "where are all the women rappers". Saying nothing abt the quality (I was never a big fan but writers whose taste I respect were) it felt like even when she did briefly move the needle it was in a press narrative rather than musical sense

sorry, is this satire

could you please be more specific, DJP? i'm looking forward to it.

How is opening for a band that was relevant 20 years ago by basing their sound on a band that was relevant 40 years ago a sign of being bigger than ever?

wtf are you talking about? are you suggesting that the fact that Interpol sounds like Joy Division is a reflection on whether Car Seat Headrest is a viable, growing band or "nothingness"?

this is not complicated: Interpol is bigger than ever - big enough to play a famous arena that holds 20K people. Car Seat Headrest is big enough to play direct support on Interpol's show at the 20K capacity arena. they surrounded that gig with a headlining tour of (mostly) places that hold 1000+, which are bigger than the places they were playing 3 years ago. what does the future hold? who knows. but i don't think it's accurate to say they've faded into nothingness.

then again, this thread is full of posts from people who think because they read about an artist 3 years ago and haven't read much since that they're long forgotten or whatever.

FWIW critical phenomena who were never especially popular still count in this thread, in fact that's a big part of the point.

Sure not saying angel haze doesn’t belong in the thread ... just that this outcome was somewhat predictable

Yelawolf is a good one for this thread too

Yelawolf had almost exactly the same trajectory, right? Initial online/crit buzz followed by bungled major label debut with watery choruses etc. Not sure Angel Haze helped herself by leaking her own album either.

Yelawolf feels like 100 years ago... Wow

Although Spotify tells me he released two LPs this year..

Most ridiculous "news" item on Pitchfork regarding the horribly overhyped crapfest known as Wavves

Enjoyable thread.

Random Access Memories really is the Be Here Now of electronica, isn't it? I have no desire whatsoever to hear any of it again apart from Giorgio By Moroder.

I will be shocked if Get Lucky is this summer's song -- it sounds like a cover of itself by a really tight wedding band.

The "song of the summer" thing is a running gag by the Scottish comedian Limmy, whose tweet that is upthread. Your description of the track itself is spot on though.

RAM isn't even the Be Here Now of Daft Punk, it was just a pleasant irrelevance

the fact that Interpol sounds like Joy Division

this is one of the weirdest musical myths of modern times. how does interpol sound like joy division, other than both singers having deep voices? i think i've asked this question literally 15 times or more and have never gotten an answer, possibly because i'm posting on the internet

looking forward to the detailed answer.

they sound more like the chameleons and even that comparison point is incomplete imo

you know who else sounds like joy division? crash test dummies. i mean they're practically the same band

I am a person who says they sound like Joy Division. it isn't that he has "a deep voice" it's that his voice often sounds like an impersonation of Ian Curtis. The music sounds less similar, but it is still post-punk, so close enough to add to the comparison rather than detract from it.

I think it's that Interpol were part of the "post-punk revival" and Joy Division is the only post-punk band a lot of people can name

Replace 'centrist' with 'safe'. I classify it as a kind of music that seems marketed to people I know with very safe, centrist views on politics, society, and culture in general and I assume that has something to do with the appeal.

― viborg, Monday, December 9, 2019 6:04 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

haha i love this, what do you want, that spotify stream to jump out of your earbuds and knife you in the gut?

RAM isn't even the Be Here Now of Daft Punk, it was just a pleasant irrelevance

― éminence rose et jaune (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, December 10, 2019 9:06 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I bet if you polled 100 random ppl on the street in the U.S., "Get Lucky" would be the only song by Daft Punk they know for like 80 of them

Well, them and Gang of Four. And the guitars weren't 'angular' enough for GoF, so they had to be Joy Division copycats.

I bet if you polled 100 random ppl on the street in the U.S., "Get Lucky" would be the only song by Daft Punk they know for like 80 of them

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

Confirmed by this “college kids react to daft punk”, I feel old as fuck looking at people who have no clue what daft punk is except for get lucky and that’s probably by association to the Pharrell brand.

https://youtu.be/B-tWqdEcGN4

How is opening for a band that was relevant 20 years ago by basing their sound on a band that was relevant 40 years ago a sign of being bigger than ever?

― ✖✖✖ (Moka)

I never said it was Joy Division but it might be try since you jumped into that conclusion. Could've been a reference to the chameleons or the cure or new order. Anyhow I don't really mean to diss on Interpol, I mean to diss on Carseat Headrest and the notion that being an opening act for one night only for a really successful band means you're as relevant as ever will be.

ok just rewatched the college kids react to daft punk and most of the people in the video actually recognize half of the songs in there and can identify it's daft punk's style since the beginning. They don't really recognize any of the videos (including 'get lucky') which I guess makes sense since almost noone watches music videos out of their comfort zone anymore.

Remember that Dr. Dre album that people lost their shit over for like 2 weeks and then forgot about completely?

More like three or four days This happened with a number of big comeback albums – Aphex Twin, My Bloody Valentine, another couple I can't quite recall right now. They were all pretty much forgotten by the end of the week, not because of their quality (though personally I found the Dr Dre album a bit uninspired) but simply because everything moves so fast now.

Avalanches?

Yes! That's one of the ones I couldn't remember.

They played live here at the time, took until nearly 10pm to come on stage (no support band), and the entire set including the encore was 55 minutes. Poor.

there have been a few comeback albums that seemed to stick around for a bit longer in "the discourse", i think the Slowdive release from a couple years ago is one of those, mostly bc it was shockingly good vs some other comebacks which have been merely ok.

they sound more like the chameleons and even that comparison point is incomplete imo

Yes because you left out the 'a nowhere near as good version of' modifier. (FWIW, even if I didn't feel consistently annoyed by them, their willingness to open for Morrissey and be all 'well whatever' about his more open comments of late is Quite a Thing, so now Car Seat Headrest get to be known for being willing to open for them in turn, we all win!)

Just in case you're serious about smearing Car Seat Headrest with that brush (and not making a joke) -- the MSG show was last February, and the Interpol/Morrissey stuff came up later in the year.

This happened with a number of big comeback albums – Aphex Twin, My Bloody Valentine, another couple I can't quite recall right now. They were all pretty much forgotten by the end of the week

I often cynically wonder why artists--particularly artists who create music that is presumably more labored over and time consuming like Dre, Aphex and MBV--even bother, given the nature of modern music consumption. Maybe I don't totally get the artistic impulse or whatever but I couldn't imagine making and releasing an album now. I mean, what for? That's a rhetorical question. I get that people make music for lots of reasons and that many artists (claim that they) don't care if anyone ever hears it and who the hell expects to make money and blah blah blah

Another weird phenomenon I've noticed in my own listening life is that I am far more likely to reach back and listen to a Miles Davis album from 1959 or even a metal record from 1988 than I am an album in any genre from 3-5 years ago that I might have loved at the time. Listening back to things I liked in 2014 or 2015 now weirdly feels like watching a rerun of a baseball game when you already know the final score, or re-watching a murder mystery even though you've already seen the twist ending and know who the killer is. Gah, I'm making myself depressed here.

I don't have anything to contribute to this thread right now but it's very entertaining to read!

Counterpoint!

why do people keep talking about the Mcauley Schenker Group in this thread?

Paul just think for a moment about the radio documentary maker who works on a piece for two months, it goes out on the radio, gets a repeat if you're lucky, then is gone forever. It's how most cultural production works

xpost

authors have long been writing books fewer people will read than will watch or listen to almost anything

'Who Cares If You Listen?', now more relevant than ever.

sometimes i think about all the brilliant, hard-working reporters out there whose work gets paid attention to for one day and then is (largely) forgotten, and studies show that most ppl read the first few paragraphs and then skim or glance at the rest

think about all those podcast ad copy writers whose work gets skipped past 10 or 15 seconds at a time

i always imagine those people to be grateful when others are skipping past their work. writing podcast ads for squarespace must be living hell

Surprising lack of Arctic Monkeys so far in end of decade polls i've seen. The last album i mean, a critical darling 18 months back, now.. not so much.

that album is so incredible, i hate that it's getting forgotten

More like three or four days This happened with a number of big comeback albums – Aphex Twin, My Bloody Valentine, another couple I can't quite recall right now. They were all pretty much forgotten by the end of the week, not because of their quality (though personally I found the Dr Dre album a bit uninspired) but simply because everything moves so fast now.

― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Tuesday, December 10, 2019 11:32 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i love MBV and kinda think it's their best album

fuck you by cee lo green

Out of curiosity, I scanned through the Car Seat Headrest Wikipedia page to see if I was missing some groundswell of public support and apparently they've had two minor hits in Mexico and their last album was in the Billboard Hot 100 for a week. So, it's not like no one knows who they are but acting like they're a huge band is... weird.

I also got curious and checked Car Seat Headrest reviews on Pitchfork. Their album Teens of Denial, which got 8.5 and BNM, had this blurb: On Car Seat Headrest's first proper new album for Matador, frontman Will Toledo reaffirms that he is ahead of the pack as an imaginative singer-songwriter, capable of crafting dynamic indie rock. Who would ever get excited about that? 'Capable of crafting dynamic indie rock', doesn't really sound like end of decade material.

Also, I think he has released one album of new material in six years. The rest are re-recordings and live albums.

And, let us be reminded, the name of his band is Car Seat Headrest.

Look I don't care really but I wouldn't judge whether something is end of decade material based on how lamely worded a positive description of them in a p4k review is.

I also got curious and went into my closet to see if we still had the old car seat headrest for my son he’s too old for it now and I realized we did so I put it in the pile of stuff that’s going to Goodwill

I have no desire whatsoever to hear any of it again apart from Giorgio By Moroder.

I consider this the most embarrassing track on the album - the one where they’re clearly just throwing in a bunch of unremarkable pop-fusion solos to pad out the CD to 74 minutes

xp probably better to invest in a new car seat headrest anyway, for safety

AND comfort

I don't think Goodwill can resell used mattresses or used car seats. Sorta like Car Seat Headrest records.

i love MBV and kinda think it's their best album

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, December 10, 2019 2:32 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

What I found really weak about it is the drum parts, especially compared to the rest of their material.

looking forward to the detailed answer.

someone else will have to give it to you, then. i was just making an assumption at what Moka was getting at because that's always been the narrative. he's playing coy about it, but that's clearly the reference.

Anyhow I don't really mean to diss on Interpol, I mean to diss on Carseat Headrest and the notion that being an opening act for one night only for a really successful band means you're as relevant as ever will be.

you're moving the goalposts here. i didn't say they're as relevant as ever will be. you said they've faded into nothingness. i don't think that's true, and i think being booked to open for Interpol at MSG and touring 1000+ capacity rooms across the country is evidence of that.

So, it's not like no one knows who they are but acting like they're a huge band is... weird.

who is doing this? i put forth a couple of relatively moderate points that i think contradict that they've faded into nothingness. opening for Interpol in a NYC arena and touring 1000+ cap rooms. i don't think they're huge because they aren't! but they haven't faded into nothingness.

in response, we've received a dig at Interpol for ripping off some mysterious older band, as if that's relevant at all to Car Seat Headrest's current standing.

it's fun to prematurely dance on the grave of an indie-rock band with a bad name, i get it.

xxp -- this may just be a sign that I am getting old but I find it 100% unbelievable that there are people who pay attention to music in general who aren't as likely to know "harder better faster stronger" or "one more time" as "get lucky"

(for what it's worth I do still like RAM; I think part of the reason it's been written out is that for all the huge eventness ascribed to it, besides "get lucky" it's a deeply idiosyncratic and sincere record, two things that are not particularly trendy)

katherine, known yacht-rock hater, liking RAM is one of the most surprising things i've ever seen here

too dorky to be the same thing in my mind; I do hate the panda bear song

what!? the panda bear song is the best one in there!

Surprising lack of Arctic Monkeys so far in end of decade polls i've seen. The last album i mean, a critical darling 18 months back, now.. not so much.

― piscesx

The NME list had them at number one (with AM) and the other two albums were in there too, but yeah I'm surprised they haven't featured more overall.

I love all the RAM singles but as usual with Daft Punk they get very repetitive. I don't mind repetition when they're in a more 'house' territory but in songs like 'instant crush' or 'lose yourself to dance' which are closer to popI don't see the need for them to be 5+ min songs. They'd been much successful singles as 4 minute songs.

the panda bear song is absolutely the worst on it but i agree with moka about the singles. they're too static to match up to the disco extended mixes they're going for

xp Ah i hadn't seen the NME's list. I sorta forgot that they'd be doing one.

I'm not seeing many appearances of Mac Demarco on these lists. For the first half of the decade it seemed he was getting quite a push, especially the reaction to Salad Days. His stock seems to have fallen quite a bit. Maybe due to how awful his latest album is or maybe because his goofy shtick lost its appeal? I like some of his stuff, but I never quite got why he was so acclaimed.

They played live here at the time, took until nearly 10pm to come on stage (no support band), and the entire set including the encore was 55 minutes. Poor.

― does it look like i'm here (jon123)

clearly they were just trying to take after creedence and leave the audience wanting more

"Another weird phenomenon I've noticed in my own listening life is that I am far more likely to reach back and listen to a Miles Davis album from 1959 or even a metal record from 1988 than I am an album in any genre from 3-5 years ago that I might have loved at the time. Listening back to things I liked in 2014 or 2015 now weirdly feels like watching a rerun of a baseball game when you already know the final score, or re-watching a murder mystery even though you've already seen the twist ending and know who the killer is. Gah, I'm making myself depressed here.

― Paul Ponzi"

what's your rotation look like? the upside of my taking decembers to binge on the music of the year means that the newer music has been occupying a larger and larger place in my listening (because of the way i consume music the results of those binges _stick around_ and keep popping up) and i'm more and more taken with the new stuff; i'm more pleased to hear it than i am to hear "kind of blue" - in the right mood it hits me right but very often my reaction will be "yeah yeah, heard it" and i will skip to the next thing

I heard "Lose Yourself to Dance" at a party a few months ago and I'm still stunned at how slow the tempo is

I feel like John Maus peaked in the early part of the decade with his 2011 album. A shame since he did the lo-fi synth pop aesthetic better than most.

conspicuous lack of septuagenarian azerbaijani guitarist Rəmiş in end of decade lists

Azeri Mugham could totally have it's moment in the 2020s, though!

I mean, not Mugham exactly, but this kraut-ish Iranian kamanche workout is on my best o' teens list.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7b3ORPL0xjhD3cJGcpsoaF?si=YUkWqCv7SFirKxFLYXSggQ

Syro is definitely showing up in lists, I wouldn't say it's been expunged or forgotten in the slightest. I did forget all about that MBV album though.

Their best albums, respectively.

Syro sucks.

Definitely not his best

Sickened by how turncoat "music critics" are writing Snoop Lion completely out of these decade retrospectives. #KnowYourHistory

Lol

Their best albums, respectively.

There is no way in the world Syro is Aphex's bext record. It wouldn't even be in his top five.

It’s not in his top, like, 15.

it might well be his worst, but it's my favourite, for all sorts of reasons

every aphex twin album is the best aphex twin album

Syro is awesome, I don’t understand the indifference among supposed afx fans. They probably don’t like analord either.

worst?!?

xp In my case, you’re right – I don’t like Analord, either! (And I was a huuuuge ‘90s RDJ fan.)

“was”, I gotcha lol ;-)

every aphex twin album is the best aphex twin album

― Bo Johnson Overdrive (crüt)

syro is awesome, but it's possible that many people conceive of the criteria for good aphex as prankster persona plus ababcab nursery rhyme roedelius + industrial raspberry beats.

I love all his personas but Syro is the one I've realistically listened to the most, ahead of the two SAWs.

Syro is accomplished but dull

syro is accomplished and fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm1XwkOHxx8

def not top 5 aphex tho

Had no idea it would be such a challop.

I don’t think it’s a challop

seemed like not a lot of enthusiasm for the soundcloud dump here... lots of “oh no so many songs how can I even begin to deal with this”

here = ilx

sorry, I’ll stop posting shitty

Syro rules it’s top tier Aphex

I also love Syro a lot. I think "XMAS_EVET10" is really beautiful. I like sappy RDJ.

It’s not in his top, like, 15.

I don’t have them ranked or anything, but I’ll take everything he officially released in the ‘90s over Syro (I realize 15 is an exaggeration of the actual number).

(I guess ICBYD would be my fave)

The best Aphex-related project is Power-Pill

one thing about the Aphex stuff from drukqs on is that it all sounds incredible

Discovery is still a front-to-back amazing album.
Still think Homework sounds like a bunch of okay-to-decent dance 12"s that would sound better with the pitch adjuster notched up a couple of tempos

― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Friday, December 6, 2019 11:43 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

A-fuggin'-men!

xp I'm listening to Syro now on headphones, and I agree the production is (as they say on that WATMM messageboard" lush

My 13-year old son is a big fan of Random Access Memories, and he didn't get it from me. Based on this, I predict Daft Punk will be rehabilitated by the zoomer generation!

The recent Aphex I find myself reaching for most often is Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments.

Syro is my favorite Aphex ever, Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt 2 is close behind

My 13-year old son is a big fan of Random Access Memories, and he didn't get it from me. Based on this, I predict Daft Punk will be rehabilitated by the zoomer generation!

― Johan Lif, Monday, December 16, 2019 5:36 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

basically what previously happened with the redditor subset of the millennial generation

(them and/or kanye)

big boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, December 6, 2019 12:27 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Much better record than anything Drake or Kanye did this decade imo

That was is a bit strange because Outkast seemed to have a sort of resurgence this decade.

i like how literally every single album mentioned itt came out in 2007-09

That is literally the worst abuse of the word literally I have ever seen.

thanks thread for getting me to revisit syro which sounds way more wonderful to me rn than it did when it came out

Can we skip ahead to an AFX ILM ballot poll in 2020 or do we have to wait until 2022 at our current pace?

Cheetah is very beautiful sounding also.

Interesting thread, honestly. I’ve been less struck by “vanishing canon” and more caught up in a new “emo extremely matters” movement of the past five years, bands I skipped in the 2000s revealing themselves to be hugely popular/influential.

In terms of “vanishing canon” I’m still sore that Max Tundra/Blechdoms/Kid 606 (all 2000s, not 2010s) seemed to be erased from having any modern day resonance but nerds lose the game in the end I guess; still listen regularly to those records

I always assumed no one took Kid606 seriously even back in the day, but I guess that was mostly because of the ridiculous record and track titles.

I also think the emo thing is interesting bc it’s a scene I know nothing about. Though I just learned a couple days ago about the FACGCE tuning which I think is very cool & might be a window for me to explore that more

Kid606’s we love you mark bell thing from a few years back was pretty good, chill detroit-y, electro-y stuff

I still rather enjoy role model by Cex

In terms of “vanishing canon” I’m still sore that Max Tundra/Blechdoms/Kid 606 (all 2000s, not 2010s) seemed to be erased from having any modern day resonance but nerds lose the game in the end I guess; still listen regularly to those records

― kelis navidad (flamboyant goon tie included)

max tundra was really involved in last year's daphne and celeste record, and that one was great!

a decade ago in the middle of mp3 blogs & meticulous jaxon-style ilx threads i thought, like, everything wd be corrected by the passage of time, all these souljazz reissues & obscurities being uncovered ... now it feels like the opposite is happening, just completely awash in content

what was the name of that band that ripped off led zep that everyone was talking about like a year or two ago

Greta van fleet?

https://loudwire.com/greta-van-fleet-interview-breakout-artist-decade/

At the end of 2009 it looked like Girls was poised to be the next Big Indie Rock Thing, and judging by these decade lists that definitely didn't happen. I still rate Album very highly

well they broke up after their second album which was maybe even more acclaimed than the first and then the main guy went on to make some kinda strange solo albums

How is War on Drugs' stock these days?

boring

i’m so glad girls didn’t happen, one of the worst bands in recent memory. their second album is on the pfork decade list regardless though

Greta van fleet?

Are about to open for Metallica.

Damn surprised you hate Girls so much Brad. I kinda liked the first album, like Elvis Costello as performed by Jesse camp

Not sure which canon Greta Van Fleet is being written out of. One that includes Daughtry maybe

like Elvis Costello as performed by Jesse camp

ouch

At the end of 2009 it looked like Girls was poised to be the next Big Indie Rock Thing, and judging by these decade lists that definitely didn't happen. I still rate Album very highly

― Paul Ponzi

i thought they went on to form viet cong but it turns out i was thinking of women

i hate band names like those, transition or gtfo

possibly one to chalk up to sexism but I don't get a sense that st vincent or neko case or bjork are getting any end of decade attention. but maybe i just read the wrong stuff.

Can't speak for the other two artists, but the 2010s were not Neko's decade.

you're making my point! she released two solo albums, four with New Pornographers and one with kd lang and laura veirs!

Maybe I'm missing your point; but neither of the solo albums is that great (IMO), and the Case/Lang/Veirs album is good but not super notable? I'm a fan, but the 2000s were her big decade.

I think St Vincent definitely will get some end of decade recognition

well she's got 1 day left

Benji getting wiped is one.

Why is tUnE-yArDs getting blanked?

Who's building the canon?

This "I'm boiling down a decade into a mere ten albums" thing I've seen people doing lately is ... something. For casual music listeners, I can see it; for the more serious or pros, this must be an excruciating exercise.

(Though I guess if you're doing the "one LP for each year" maybe it's not so tortuous.)

Agree that Neko’s best output was the 00s. Blacklisted, Fox Confessor, Middle Cyclone + four classic New Pornographers albums.

Her 10s solo stuff is good but each album has bits that are just ok. I still believe she has more classic albums ahead of her though. New Pornos stuff is also mostly just good not great in the 10s, with the exception of Whiteout Conditions which is excellent.

I always liked War On Drugs! They sound like "Wilco, except good" to me

"Lust For Life" is an amazing song but I didn't really understand why people loved Girls so much beyond that. I got in an argument once about how "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine" was a great lyric and I still maintain that it's a great lyric

I like them as background music in Argentine churrascerias and Spanish tapas joints and when colleagues make no grand claims for them: a solid minor band. Compare them Wire Train or something (or maybe CMJ or whoever made grand claims for Wire Train too?).

My jam on that first album was "Hellhole Ratrace"

what tame impala? that dude was talked about a lot at one point. haven't seen much action lately.

*what about

New album in a couple months iirc

maybe that will remind everyone of the previous hype*. . . but not soon enough to make the end of decade lists.

(*hype i never understood, tbh.)

to me, the early part of the decade was characterized by following a lot of bedroom pop that I don't see super heavily represented in these lists, but felt like they were talked/blogged about a lot. I get it; a lot of it hasn't aged the best and is mostly a genre where a lot of those artists cut their teeth rather than make their best stuff, but I still find a lot of that stuff to be charmingly economical but serious songwriting. a lot of the buzzy guitar bands are also less represented than I thought they'd be but I wouldn't say written out (cymbals eat guitars, cloud nothings, that kind of thing)