Yeah, $6.99/$0.79 track don't move me - some great albums but mostly on the short side. No Arhoolie in the Amazon sale (I had already looked) but anyone interested might consider physical CDs - some aren't much more than the MP3 price (at Amazon) but more to the point if you feel like venturing try the New from Other Sellers - some under $4 to be had. I've bought a few things this way lately and so far so good - from as far away as Germany and the UK.
I'm surprised there's been no announcements of the apocalypse on the emusic discussion board after Lady Gaga making their end of year list. On the other hand last tiume I looked their list had three likes, so maybe no-one's reading it. Or maybe all the people ready to commit sepukku if major label artists were praised already did so. Or maybe they just wore everyone out complaining about other stuff.
Yeah, I found a forum post from January from BigD which prompted my memory that there was a new Arhoolie and an old Arhoolie atsome point; we still had the old but not the new. Now we have neither. I'm gonna email them about it.
In the meantime, between Swallow, Valcour, the Tompkins Square Amede Ardoin set, Maison de Soul, Mardis Gras labels and a few other bits and pieces I have loaded up on more Louisiana music. I already have a heap but over xmas I read Louisiana Music by Rick Koster and made a lot of notes of names. I am sated ... for now.
I don't see Lady gaga there either? They've only put up their bottom 60 so far. My tastes are never well represented but I didn't even vote this year given they put the link up in the middle of the worst of the site snafu, and when I went back to it it was gone.
Well on the screen I'm looking at Lady Gaga is no.50 and so the first to appear in the list. Ah, I see, I think you're looking at the other list. I'm looking at the members poll. Question is, does this appearing on the members' list signal a shift in the composition of the membership at all?
The list mostly looks like a normal emu demographic to me - high on the indie end. To be completely honest, if I was doing a personal top 50 for year, Lady Gaga might be on it. Might have to be because I doubt I got 50 things this year that were released this year. So from that perspective her inclusion makes sense to me. I am surprised though that nobody's screaming about it on the messboard. Maybe if it was Brittany or Taylor it would bother people more?
Yeah times have changed. In the indie days, the emu list was my favorite list, because it was a list of stuff that was all available to me, it was a pretty eclectic list, and best of all I could get a lot of it in any given month. Now I have a hard time keeping my eyes open for the whole thing. I am honestly curious though if Jonah had any input.
Tunnel Six and Kekko Fornarelli were the only two of my choices that I know were put on the list (we were asked to list six favorites). I haven't been keeping up with the list to see if any others made the list too.
Of the Top 100, I only wrote the thumbnail review for Fornarelli's "Room of Mirrors".
P.S. If memory is working, my other nominations were Sarnecki's "The Madman Rambles Again", Lieberman's "Ibeji", Lugerner's "Narratives", and Avital's "Free Forever".
Zzz, snore Nothing against Bon Iver Bon Iver Bon Bon Iver Iver or any of these albums, really. More like, 'The same albums we've been promoting all year are now the albums of the year! Who would of guest?'
Hey kargatron - brighternow linked to a free Bhob Rainey and Weasel Walter download on the what are you listening to now thread - it's on Rainey's Bandcamp - seems like something you'd be interested in.
We get a different emusic top 100 of the year - so no Lady Gaga or Brittney Spears, or even most of Jonah's six choices. It is of course limited to those labels available over here, so it does actually contain more indie recordings
Tunnel Six and Kekko Fornarelli were the only two of my choices that I know were put on the list (we were asked to list six favorites). I haven't been keeping up with the list to see if any others made the list too.
Of the Top 100, I only wrote the thumbnail review for Fornarelli's "Room of Mirrors".
Hm, just noticed that not only is my piece on TunnelSix now included by their selection in the Top 100 list, but my same review of the album has been cycling through Page One of the emusic site, as has been my thumbnail review of Kekko Fornarelli's "Room of Mirrors". Well, that's a cool development.
Also, can't help but be proud that my two selections, TunnelSix and Kekko Fornarelli, are currently the top two most downloaded jazz albums on emusic. I'm not sure what the algorithm is for that type of thing, whether that counts for most downloaded ever or just the last 30 days or one week, but it's still pretty nifty. I'm glad people are getting to hear those wonderful albums and hopefully enjoying them as much as I do.
P.S. They knocked Michael Buble and David Ian out of the top two spots... no small feat, that.
Wow, I just noticed that emu's number one album is PJ Harvey's Let England Shake.
Look, I'm the last person in the world who will ever criticize others for letting their nostalgia color their perceptions, since I let it happen to myself unashamedly, even going so far as to publicly debase myself by posting my musical reminiscences on various forums.
But seriously, there were moments on that Harvey album that made me cringe with embarrassment for her. IIRC, there were a couple songs in the middle of the album where I found myself asking, "Was she even aware that the mic was still on when she sang that?" But, hey, that's just me. Not looking to ruin anyone's enjoyment of the album or anything. Just sort of surprised to see it up at #1.
I saw the PJ Harvey album as 1 on one top 100 list a few days ago - I musyt admit it surprised me, Jonah. As far as the emusic charts are concerned I think it depends upon what you are looking at, eg, freshly ripped, last week or last month. I remember a few weeks ago I downloaded a jazz album and it then went straight to the top of our jazz chart, which is of course different from yours, as it excludes many releases! What I do not know if the lists are completely separate or do my downloads count globally?
I don't think it makes sense to be surprised at a high ranked position on a single list of an album that scored 86 at metacritic, 4th highest of the year for those tracked. I think if there are colored perceptions here, it's that anyone's individual tastes would reliably mirror consensus in any given instance. I'll allow that it's reasonable to feel surprised when you find out you're an outlier but didn't previously realize it.
Yes I agree Kargatron. Whilst surprised at the No 1 position of PJ Harvey, I have downloaded the album, and would expect it to be fairly high in many end of year lists. The great thing about such lists is that one always tends to disagree anyway, because everyone's taste varies
Oh no no no no, sir, you complete misjudge the reality of things... I am the consensus; it's everybody else that's the outlier. And I think it's a reasonable reaction for me to be surprised at everybody's bad taste in music.
But, seriously, it's not so much that it was ranked high on the list; just that it was at the number one spot. Me, personally, I wouldn't rank it anywhere near my own top ten, but I wouldn't have felt any shock to see it in the top ten of others. Just seeing it slotted in that very prestigious number one spot that caught me off guard. My feeling is that for an album to rank that high, it needs to be strong throughout, and LES is definitely not strong throughout.
The public really needs to start clearing their lists with me before publishing them on line. It would make for a much more sensible world.
I am in sympathy with those who would rather discuss music than emusic's incompetence on the emusic discussion board. But I have to say the board over there is very boring when they are not having a crisis. Right now the only thing with more than a handful of replies on the front page is a "poll" on an issue that emusic has already stated they will not further change.
GP, I am likewise in sympathy, and agree with your conclusions. The problem for me is that every time I start to work my way back from disgruntlement to talk about music again, they go and stick another sharp stick in the eye of the customer base, and I just lose all desire to talk about or do anything to help them out in any way. Uggh. This last clusterf**k has just really soured me badly. I almost deleted my Lists, which are becoming increasingly depopulated by distribution changes/dropped titles/whatever anyhow, but I couldn't do it. They still mean something to me - but what's the difference if no one can find them anyway? Given how unwieldy they have rendered the site I just don't much care anymore, not much of an incentive for sharing. Damn shame.
On a completely different subject - WTF? $9.70 for this 1 disc collection of aged scat? Tex Ritter - Capitol Collector's Series. Not to diss Tex (I love High Noon) but even for 25 tracks, 72 minutes that seems awful steep. Crisssakes, it's only $9.49 at Amazon! This sight sux!
My SLF means a lot to me too. I was using like others on here with Spotify and to just remind me of albums I might otherwise forget about. Also glad we have Emusers.org to still talk about music instead of just emu's issues.
I agree GP - I looked at the boards over there yesterday and thought 'where are the music discussions'? Often some of the better threads are dominated by people here anyway. It has become a habit for me to look at the emu board regularly, but I am beginning to cut back.
Yes, it has struck me that a few times when I have posted over there all of the responses have been from people here. It does seem to me that the shenanigans over there has caused significant turnover on the board too, killing some past communities of conversation.
I'm in a phase right now of very mixed feelings about my SFL. I've been having a fairly determined effort at cutting it back (down to about 30 titles now on the main list). I've been finding that when I add something to my SFL, I start to want to buy it simply because it's on the SFL - I've created a slight psychological obligation even though I might like it less than what I might discover by just browsing instead. And then I want to buy more music simply because there are always more things on my SFL than I can buy with my credit, even if I have not properly listened to what I bought already. Conversely, in a few cases I can get bored with something just because it sat on the SFL for so long, when I might have got more pleasure from just buying it when it came out. I'm wondering if it might be more fun for a while to try to reduce to essentials and then clear the SFL and then spend some months just buying what I fancy instead of doing so much scheming about things I can't buy right now. But given the amount of stuff I'm interested in that is very probably delusional.
Comments
Honestly, I can't imagine anybody's buying that at emusic; it was $.99 for a week at amazon, and I think it's still only 4.99 there.
Wait, where is Lady Gaga in that list?
In the meantime, between Swallow, Valcour, the Tompkins Square Amede Ardoin set, Maison de Soul, Mardis Gras labels and a few other bits and pieces I have loaded up on more Louisiana music. I already have a heap but over xmas I read Louisiana Music by Rick Koster and made a lot of notes of names. I am sated ... for now.
Anyway I did an 8tracks of some of my favourites (13 songs, about 45 minutes).
Of the Top 100, I only wrote the thumbnail review for Fornarelli's "Room of Mirrors".
P.S. If memory is working, my other nominations were Sarnecki's "The Madman Rambles Again", Lieberman's "Ibeji", Lugerner's "Narratives", and Avital's "Free Forever".
Hm, just noticed that not only is my piece on TunnelSix now included by their selection in the Top 100 list, but my same review of the album has been cycling through Page One of the emusic site, as has been my thumbnail review of Kekko Fornarelli's "Room of Mirrors". Well, that's a cool development.
Also, can't help but be proud that my two selections, TunnelSix and Kekko Fornarelli, are currently the top two most downloaded jazz albums on emusic. I'm not sure what the algorithm is for that type of thing, whether that counts for most downloaded ever or just the last 30 days or one week, but it's still pretty nifty. I'm glad people are getting to hear those wonderful albums and hopefully enjoying them as much as I do.
P.S. They knocked Michael Buble and David Ian out of the top two spots... no small feat, that.
Craig
Look, I'm the last person in the world who will ever criticize others for letting their nostalgia color their perceptions, since I let it happen to myself unashamedly, even going so far as to publicly debase myself by posting my musical reminiscences on various forums.
But seriously, there were moments on that Harvey album that made me cringe with embarrassment for her. IIRC, there were a couple songs in the middle of the album where I found myself asking, "Was she even aware that the mic was still on when she sang that?" But, hey, that's just me. Not looking to ruin anyone's enjoyment of the album or anything. Just sort of surprised to see it up at #1.
Oh no no no no, sir, you complete misjudge the reality of things... I am the consensus; it's everybody else that's the outlier. And I think it's a reasonable reaction for me to be surprised at everybody's bad taste in music.
But, seriously, it's not so much that it was ranked high on the list; just that it was at the number one spot. Me, personally, I wouldn't rank it anywhere near my own top ten, but I wouldn't have felt any shock to see it in the top ten of others. Just seeing it slotted in that very prestigious number one spot that caught me off guard. My feeling is that for an album to rank that high, it needs to be strong throughout, and LES is definitely not strong throughout.
The public really needs to start clearing their lists with me before publishing them on line. It would make for a much more sensible world.
On a completely different subject - WTF? $9.70 for this 1 disc collection of aged scat? Tex Ritter - Capitol Collector's Series. Not to diss Tex (I love High Noon) but even for 25 tracks, 72 minutes that seems awful steep. Crisssakes, it's only $9.49 at Amazon! This sight sux!
I'm in a phase right now of very mixed feelings about my SFL. I've been having a fairly determined effort at cutting it back (down to about 30 titles now on the main list). I've been finding that when I add something to my SFL, I start to want to buy it simply because it's on the SFL - I've created a slight psychological obligation even though I might like it less than what I might discover by just browsing instead. And then I want to buy more music simply because there are always more things on my SFL than I can buy with my credit, even if I have not properly listened to what I bought already. Conversely, in a few cases I can get bored with something just because it sat on the SFL for so long, when I might have got more pleasure from just buying it when it came out. I'm wondering if it might be more fun for a while to try to reduce to essentials and then clear the SFL and then spend some months just buying what I fancy instead of doing so much scheming about things I can't buy right now. But given the amount of stuff I'm interested in that is very probably delusional.