When considering my list idea, take it with many grains of salt and bearing in mind that I'm the rare person who found this article explaining how Far Side Virtual ended up on top of the Wire's list fascinating and found Far Side Virtual itself fascinating. Which is to say I like outliers and overlap failures.
As with grading student work, choosing the quantification system will significantly determine the results. For instance, another way to go that would throw in a wild card would be to say that you can submit anywhere from 10-30 albums and you have 50 points total to award to them. If you want to submit four albums and give 40 points to the first one it will likely make the list.
Not really advocating this (it might mean that for those who spread thin none of their selections made the list), just saying whatever way we do it is not objective, so that starting thing might be to decide what values the final list should represent - e.g. should it be rigged so that everyone who takes part gets an album or two on it?
I really like the idea of a collective list, and it's the one thing that might convince me to actually make a list. But how about this; instead of cutting off the collective list at 20, just run it out to however far it goes.
Why not allow each individual to pick three or four albums to go on the list?
ETA: picking one favorite amongst them all shouldn't be difficult (which I suspect would be Frank Ocean). Ranking twenty to fifty albums is a bit much.
I'm certainly going to start thinking about my list - but as I have discovered not everything on itunes listed as 2012 was released this year - it is more like when emusic made it available! But easy to check out.
Why not allow each individual to pick three or four albums to go on the list?
Because I'd rather see the full, long, list with everybody's everything on it; the long list would be a cool snapshot of emusers weird eclectic mix, and because I suspect I might find a lot of interesting stuff in numbers 100-200 of the long list than the top stuff. I already know about Channel Orange, Tempest, and gsybe.
Thought I'd add my 2 cents' worth - I'm just awful at making year-end 'best-of' lists because I rarely pay attention to release dates. However, there are a couple of very good 2012 releases that come to mind off the top of my head and I can probably come up with a few more, so I'd enjoy making a list and sharing it. I like the idea of an emusers collective list and/or an MiG '2012 best' like we did last year.
I also think such a collective list would be more promising for new discoveries than Paste's list. And, Doofy - thanks for the heads up on the Gioia list. I'm looking forward to checking that one out more closely.
Huh - I have surprised myself by actually coming up with 11 albums on my list - and still working on it. Usually I struggle to come up with 5, mainly because half of the albums I think of actually turn out to be older than I thought. Well, I guess 2012 has been a great year for me for new music.
I've got the first draft of my top 20 done (ordering wise. Nothing written about the albums yet). I actually ended up with 30, so I'm listing the last ten as honorable mentions in alphabetical order. Not writing anything about those ones, though.
I've reached the stage where I keep listening to albums hoping to eliminate them from the list (which still has nearly 50 entries) and instead liking them and getting absorbed in them.
Hmm, I'd assumed (perhaps influenced by the Paste inclusion) that the gy!be album would be on my list. But it's dropping down the rankings. I like it. It has some sections that I find superb. But it's still not 'Skinny Fists'. The sense of narrative has faded since those days. It's a really good album, but I am not yet persuaded it's a great one.
My personal list is going to have to go up very late in December. Taylor Deupree just released a CD that judging by the sample tracks may well be high on my list. I decided I needed it on CD and put it on my Christmas list. I've been tempted to listen to it so as to be able to review it...but it would be more fun to hear it the first time on the CD after a wait. There's a second CD on my Christmas list that could conceivably sneak in. So the data will not be in until Dec 25.
Rudie... in times like this try right-clicking on the image and selecting 'Save Image As...' oftentimes the name of the .jpg file for the image will give you the vital clue that you need.
Of course...Classix Nouveau; no doubt preparing their reunion/comeback tour as we speak. Men Without Hats just came through town, I thought they must have been the last 80's band that hadn't reformed already, but I stand corrected.
Thank you GOP and Lud. I'll now be able to sleep tonight.
Not sure Classix Nouveaux would reassemble so easily - Salvador Solo (the bald guy) converted to Catholicism and went to making solo recordings of contemporary music for youth mass and the like. And of all the bands of that little slice of the 80s, although Classix Nouveaux were one of the ones my teenage self liked best of all, my sense listening now is that their music has over the passage of time held up least well of any of what I listened to then. Even with the sheen of nostalgia that still has me downloading Thomas Dolby, Japan, Funboy Three, etc, I find Classix Nouveaux virtually unlistenable now.
Comments
Not really advocating this (it might mean that for those who spread thin none of their selections made the list), just saying whatever way we do it is not objective, so that starting thing might be to decide what values the final list should represent - e.g. should it be rigged so that everyone who takes part gets an album or two on it?
ETA: picking one favorite amongst them all shouldn't be difficult (which I suspect would be Frank Ocean). Ranking twenty to fifty albums is a bit much.
Because I'd rather see the full, long, list with everybody's everything on it; the long list would be a cool snapshot of emusers weird eclectic mix, and because I suspect I might find a lot of interesting stuff in numbers 100-200 of the long list than the top stuff. I already know about Channel Orange, Tempest, and gsybe.
I also think such a collective list would be more promising for new discoveries than Paste's list. And, Doofy - thanks for the heads up on the Gioia list. I'm looking forward to checking that one out more closely.
Craig
Craig
=
?
(And to think I thought that latter image was way cool when I was 14)
(Skin from the Brittish rock band Skunk Anansie)
Thank you GOP and Lud. I'll now be able to sleep tonight.
Mission by Cecilia Bartoli:
http://open.spotify.com/album/6KRnfm5u0UGXjGa7ic4Og7