The BBC Sound of 2013 longlist poll

Weakest list in many years would really take some doing.

This is between AlunaGeorge and HAIM for me, but I find it funny that The Weeknd is even on here.

Given they put Lil Wayne on the list in 2008 they're ahead of their own curve here at least.

alunageorge are so fucking weak

angel haze is the only person here worth caring about and if you don't vote for her you are doing it wrong

What are Chvrches like?

I didn't mind Savages when I heard them - not amazing or anything, but not dreadful. Kind of like the Horrors but a bit shoutier and spikier with a female singer.

I've seen much weaker (and blander) lists than this - I like a bunch of stuff here.

so these are all shit, right?

I look forward to these lists for the thread alone. If The Weeknd do become massive over here I look forward to the BBC taking the credit for tipping them 18 months late.

ooh, less po-faced Joy Div wannabes than usual

they are still pretty po-faced i'd imagine

yeah but it's nice to see this year's trend-breakers being shit in whole new ways that are rip-offs of 90s crap instead of 80s crap

oh god i missed the Palma Violets's blurb first scan thru, thank god somebody's flying the flag for indie rock and roll with attitude in 2013

oh god i missed Peace's blurb second scan thru

pretty sure Kodaline were a Kings of Leon tribute band last month

angel haze is the only person here worth caring about and if you don't vote for her you are doing it wrong

co-sign

What on earth are The Weeknd doing on here?

i like the annual reminder this list provides of the futility of the idea of newness in hip pop

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/528xn/p012cf72.jpg

- Bob Marley

Laura Mvula's blurb says "an almost novel-like interiority". Is there such a word? Sounds horrible. They all sound horrible actually. Is this really the best hopes the music industry can find?

yeah, "novel-like" means "like a novel, it's a kind of book with a long made-up story in it.

xp Grouch grouch grouch. Get thee to the Guardian blog.

you know how to wound a guy, huh?

i do wonder what the point is of every year fashioning some identikit replacements for stuff that already exists tho. this might be what being old is like but it's quite liberating.

What are AlunaGeorge and Angel Haze replacing?

i like what i've heard of Angel Haze and i don't know AlunaGeorge but even there this whole "newness" element is a red herring, stuff doesn't need to be pushing music forward in some bullshitty Whig history version of culture, the premise of music crit as racehorse punditry is probly what i object to as much as anything, but it does also create its own market for novelty that's unfulfillable as pop music tropes get slower and slower under the weight of accumulated history

so do you hate these bands for being new, or being old or what?

it's a view of culture that wants progression and growth as paradigms at a point in history where progression and growth are starting to look like bad paradigms for human existence in general

redundancy isn't necessarily a question of new or old

also at a point in cultural distribution where "dig the new breed" appears to be more pointless than ever

i agree with NV, see also the primacy placed on "innovation" as a quality that's seen as innately positive or necessary

pop music as rhizome vs pop music as garden running to seed

Who the fuck are these people?!
GET OFF MY LAWN!

i agree with NV, see also the primacy placed on "innovation" as a quality that's seen as innately positive or necessary

― #YOLO ONO (lex pretend), Monday, 10 December 2012 16:49 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pop music as rhizome vs pop music as garden running to seed

― let's hear it for the women (Noodle Vague), Monday, 10 December 2012 16:49 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jesus H Fuck.

to put it another way - my objection to people on the list is basically aesthetic, plus a bit of splash-back from the stupidity of list-making and tipsterism, but vaunting the "newness" of most of this stuff is especially ironic given the amount of retreading of sounds revived umpteen times before. i don't think they're bad because they're old, but nothing about being "new" makes you good or interesting.

plus some other stuff i'm quite serious about about the barrenness of a lot of pop music ideas now

A culture of conservatism fuelled by music industry terror probably doesn't actually help either. I mean these lists very rarely end up being representative of what actually happens in the year ahead, bar the one or two obvious choices who end up massive.

too many young people making music these days - i feel very old.

I've heard of five of these, which is more than usual at this point in the year. Let's say I feel very middle aged then.

A*M*E - all the relevant bits are in place for what would otherwise be an almost-competent Major Lazer rip if the song itself wasn't so irritating. There's a good pop star in there maybe but the record itself feels like a box ticking exercise.

This AlunaGeorge song has been knocking about for what feels like months already. It was pleasant enough at first but listening to it again it's got that kind of enervating Morcheeba feel and the video pander to its demographic much more if it tried.

Angel Haze - this is awesome obviously but I get the feeling her 2012 will turn out to be more significant than her 2013.

Arlissa - There's a great pop song in here but god why does she sing like that? What is that accent supposed to be? Nas is super-phoned in but if this gets played everywhere next year I'll probably cave in.

CHVRCHES - This is exactly what I would sound synthpop made by a former member of Aereogramme to sound like. Wet as hell. Will do absolutely nothing next year.

HAIM - A lot of these acts sound like more mainstream prepped versions of long-forgotten bands you'd have found clogging up the Hype Machine in 2007 or 2008 but this is better than most of them and there's a fantastic Lindstrom & Prins Thomas remix of one of their tunes. Still a bit short of personality and so self-consciously going for that credits-roll-at-end-of-80s-teen-movie vibe but enjoyable enough.

King Krule - this is kind of 50% Weller 50% Doherty and he went to the Brit school. Will be massive among a certain breed of music fan who will all get rabid about him while ignoring the bedroom-based glitchcore or fake grime mixtapes he makes on the side. Is this what Ed Sheeran sounds like?

Kodaline - there's at least one of these things voted into this list every year but thirty-something music types who don't seem to have cottoned onto the fact that the time for this stuff has been over for like a decade. And this is limp even by 1998 Evening Session band standards - I'm pretty sure if I went back and listened to Puressence or Subcircus or Jocasta some other post-Britpop band no one in their right mind ever listens to they'd have more vitality than this.

Laura Mvula - will probably have a reasonable career and sell enough records to people who like this sort of thing and I will never listen to her ever again.

Little Green Cars - this is the sort of echo chamber indie music you get when the band in question don't listen to anything other than echo chamber indie music from the last 10 years or so. Just unbelievably ponderous and clumsy even after it kicks in half way through.

go savages

Weakest list in many years?

*cough*Jessie J*cough

this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtHiMJMn2Dg

That's pretty cool in such a small dose. Don't think I could take a full lp's worth.

just so you know who to shoot, i wrote the blurbs

i don't see "newness" being pushed really except insofar as this is a list of people who haven't had a top 20

Savages I actually approve of. Like the song isn't very good or anything but you get the sense they actually understand what rock music is for, and they could end up doing something fantastic.

The Tom Odell guy has managed to ape Coldplay so well he's even perfected the Chris Martin bobble head.

lol have you gotten to kodaline yet?

yes, i was.... kind to a few acts but there are self-evidently those out there who like them

"UKG" and "interzone" in the same sentence should have been a clue to an ILM connection

hee hee

arlissa accent = german mom + american dad + born in london... whatcha gon do

little green cars only thing i've heard of here, so voted for that, even though they're not terribly interesting

i'm just about to watch the film savages now so... that's my contribution to the thread

urgh who the fuck is this king krule guy, i thought that was la roux

and he's signed to rinse??? christ, for shame

used to be called zoo kid

http://rinse.fm/artists/statesofemotion/

ohhhhhhh my fucking godddddddddd what are they doooooiiiiing i'm not even gonna link to the music

maybe j bugg really was the harbinger

i guess this would be the sole benefit of ever reading factmag, not being so nastily ambushed by this kinda filth

ugh Trace i don't hate you but this ugly stupid game c'mon the FYOOCHORE = sneaky boys's kudos points for a week and a half after Freshers's Week

ohhhhhhh my fucking godddddddddd what are they doooooiiiiing

literally my exact reaction when that PR email dropped into my inbox

i blame sheeran

i am genuinely baffled as to the weeknd's presence here

tom odell let his followers know he made the list by retweeting his record company, bless

chvrches are great from what little I've heard

NV i basically didn't understand anything after "i don't hate you" in that post :/

i've been reading a lot of comment sections for my sins and oddly this is one of the few places where this list isn't being taken at face value, i.e. a list of what establishment and quasi-establishment music writers and DJs in the UK think should get more recognition over the next year. even a quick glance at the list should disabuse you that there is any overriding injunction for newness, or coolness (above and beyond what might be baked into the voters' responses)

probably safely ignore my last post, i thought i went straight to bed last night.

but the phrase "Sound of 2013" has predictive celebration of the new built right into it ffs

it's actually quite disturbing to see so many british critics etc be all "yay this list!!!1111" on twitter etc

angel haze deserves everything, but the rest of the list is quite sad

Yeah I'm pretty sure that Rinse took one look at Ed Sheeran's grimey dabblings and decided "we want some of that". Aside from The Weeknd he's probably the person here most likely to actually sell records.

The Peace video is not getting enough attention here. For the first few seconds I thought it was actually going to be pretty enjoyable in a slightly shonky Vampire Weekend way but THEN HE STARTS SINGING. AND THEN THE CHORUS COMES IN. But aesthetically they've got this real clueless early 90s hippy thing going on and look at this fucking twat:

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/528xn/p012cf72.jpg

Probably best for your big press shot not to make you look like you're doing the walk of shame home from Stay Beautiful.

i realize this is not likely to get much agreement, but the ed sheeran & yelawolf ep is, in my opinion, a vision of what rap/rock could be. i think it is amazing. not a big fan of sheeran's solo stuff, but his vision seems to combine well with yela.

i got nothing

omfg i didn't know there was a sheeran/yelawolf ep

SHEERAN KEEP AWAY FROM MY FAVOURITE ARTISTS BEFORE I CUT YOU FFS. first taylor now yela ;_; ;_;

adamaaronm
10 December 2012 4:03 PMLink to this comment
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i think this is a very bad list, all the music sounds pretty much the same, and theres hardly any variety. pretty bland and predictable, but what do you expect from the BBC

i regret nothing

i have reason to be biased but it's got to be CHVRCHES.

I wouldn't call AlunaGeorge "weak" until you've heard her previous engagement with the trapped in 1994 Earth Leakage Trip.

Myself, I think the new duo is pretty great.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

CHVRCHES is in at No. 5:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/soundof2013

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow! i didn't think there would be that much consensus

well the others are all VERY rubbish

Little Green Cars 2

Lol seriously?

darraghmac must have worked out how to vote twice

lol CHVRCHES, a band here just changed their name from "adults" to "advlts"

MVULA

my name used to be The Reuerend

i actually like quite a lot of things on this longlist, probably the most in any years. HAIM seem to be mining that Chairlift, roller rink pop vibe which i am always down for. Laura Mvula seems to me to be a cut above most British neo-soul acts; i've enjoyed chvrches singles ("the mother we share" is surely only a commercial or two away from enormous ubiquity). i'm curious to know why alunageorge are week. Savages have the potential to be a brilliant band. and it took me a while but I sort of realised that a*m*e's "play the game boy" is one of the more disappointingly slept on (by the charts) pop singles of the year

reservation was one of my favourite 2012 albums and I haven't been able to really fault much about angel haze so far. my only worry i suppose is that i had similar feelings about azealia banks this time last year and she sort of fizzled out frustratingly. i hope the same doesn't happen to haze. i also find haze's predilection towards shitty music - she's said stuff about wanting to collaborate with train and jason mraz - worrying.

anyway. likeliest to win is probably mvula or tom odell given past form. anything but the palma violets and king krule.

weak*** cripes look at that terrible post

A little surprised that I was the only one who voted for HAIM. I think they have a lot of potential and have been really enjoying what they've put out so far.

haze comes in at..... #3!

"I don't even really like rap music - I listen to Flyleaf, I listen to Gotye, I listen to some French composers"

"On her forthcoming album - she was recently signed up by Island Records - Haze hopes to work with an eclectic range of collaborators including Jason Mraz, Frank Ocean and The Weeknd.

Producer Paul Epworth, best known for his work with Adele, is also involved"

lol @ the thought of darraghmac voting even once, tbph

Palma Violets debut album - if I'm not mistaken, one week at #11 then straight out of the Top 100.