I present my review of MetaCritic’s Best Albums of 2008.
1 Welcome To Mali by Amadou & Mariam
Well, at number one it’s the token african “ethnic” music, and it certainly got a lot of token ethnic music votes. This album is exactly what you would expect – the type of CD bought by yuppies to play in the background at dinner parties to demonstrate their diverse sensitivities. It’s not bad as such but its appearance at #1 says a lot more about the people that voted it there than it does the album itself. This year’s Youssou N’Dour. Apparently Obama has it on his Zune.
The first track, Sabali, is so strongly reminiscent of another song that it drives me nuts.
2 London Zoo by The Bug
Unlistenable junk from some dickhead in London who thinks he’s way cool because he’s in, well, London. Worthless.
3 Fed by Plush
Boring indie tosh, originally released in 2002 and deservedly ignored then. Appears to have been chosen as this years’ “obscure pick” from the type of person who assiduously cultivates a reputation of “someone who knows obscure music”. Unfortunately, the entire herd of critics decided this simultaeneously, pushing this mediocre effort way, way above its natural ranking of, say, #8,671.
4 Dear Science, by TV On The Radio
Exactly what you would expect from a band calling themselves “TV On The Radio”. Refreshingly identical to all the other weird-name indies rock you’ve ever heard. Sound like they want to be early REM, or something. When I listened I thought “these songs sound like they should be at the endings of films”.
5 Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968 by Neil Young
Live album from an artist my parents owned LPs by. What the hell?
6 Exit by Shugo Tokumaru
Ooh, another “token ethnic” album, this time demonstrating the listener is “hip” to the “Japan sound”. Needless to say, no-one outside the Japanese indie scene has ever heard of this weird hobby artist and upon (doing your best at) listening it’s easy to see why. There’s some nice melodies on there which are systematically wrecked by constant dischordant noodling over the top. I have nothing against inaccessible experimental music but this album was not really made to be enjoyed, so why pretend to?
I kind of hate artists like this actually. “Oh wait, this song sounds too good. Let’s add some random flute”. The artist’s contempt for the listener deserves nothing less in return.
7 For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver
This is actually a very nice album. Not really my style, but credit where credit is due. This is almost certainly the best album actually made in 2008 so far listed.
8 Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
Whimsical choral ballads from some band in Seattle. Kind of interesting if you like that kind of thing, I guess. Not up with the whole nostalgic ballad scene really. Reminds me of something else.
9 Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Haven’t listened to it. Maybe it’s OK, I like some Nick Cave (The Ship Song).
10 Hercules And Love Affair by Hercules And Love Affair
Haven’t listened due to my instant prejudice towards bands with ridiculous names.
11 Robyn by Robyn
Haven’t listened to Robyn by Robyn. Sorry, Robyn.
(I’ll skip any further entries I haven’t listened to)
18 Third by Portishead
Awful comeback attempt by Portishead, a band I used to like. Really abysmal.
20 In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic by Kasai Allstars
Haven’t listened, but certainly wins any “album title of the year” competition.
22 Chemistry Of Common Life by Fucked Up
Starts promisingly and you think you’re onto something good before you realise that every song on the album sounds exactly the same – screaming Canadian punk – and the best tune was on the first track. That first track is good, though, if a little long. Here it is.
Other albums that appear on individual critic’s top-ten lists
Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend
Pretty nice-sounding indies rock album. Not my thing but again, credit where credit is due.
Tha Carter III by Lil’ Wayne
Rap album to show that the critics are down with the urban beat. It’s pretty good actually, if you like near-freestyle rap over what sounds like early 90s Amiga game soundtracks.
Feed The Animals by Girl Talk
The sole album that is on both my top 5 list and the critics’. Basically the best mash-up of rap and 90s-contemporary/oldies pop you are ever likely to hear, so if that sounds appealing, check it out.
Saturdays=Youth by M83
The album you buy when AIR haven’t released anything and you’re in withdrawl. Unfortunately it’s methadone to AIR’s heroin and leaves one ultimately unsatisfied.
Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust by Sigur Ros
Another good album which somehow found its way onto a critic’s list.
Distortion by The Magnetic Fields
A new album from this classic band. Unfortunately, it sounds terrible. The songs are good, but the production is awful. They never exactly had a hi-fi sound but now it just sounds like a mess. The concept worked for acoustic, but when the style turns to rock I find myself just wanting a clean sound!
…
Well, I’ll stop there.
This year’s is possibly the most pitiful effort yet from the Expert camp. There are very few albums here which, absent pretension, small-network-effects and misplaced hype, would end up on any objective reviewer’s list. The bias is so heavily towards a tiny genre of American college rock that all others apparently merit little or no consideration – the fact that the critics include a handful of non-genre releases somehow makes it worse, because it shows they’re not just making a list of “best college radio releases” for 2008, they really are pretending to cover the whole gamut.
I won’t go into too complex an examination of why I think the critics’ lists are invalid and/or useless, but I think it’s got a lot to do with the compulsion to list albums by perceived merit rather than actual listening pleasure – “I should, rather than do, like this.” This is not a new idea, of course – it’s the general cancer afflicting all “modern art”. One would hope that something as simple as making a damn list of the CDs you listen to most that year would be simple enough to escape this phenomenon. Apparently not.
Take me. If you have read my list above, you’ll notice that on several albums I sound quite complimentary. I say the album has merit, or is nice, or interesting. And yet if you click across to my own “Best Albums of 2008″ list, you won’t see those albums there. Why? Because I don’t listen to them. That’s the razor, basically, and I believe that any other criteria are useless.
This approach has a drawback, of course, and that’s simply that my taste in music is pretty much unique to myself. I like many different styles of music, but what I like and why I like it are all pretty specific. I don’t know a single other person whose tastes exactly overlap mine – or even close. Who does? Taste is a personal thing, shaped by any number of factors.
But to try and widen the appeal of my lists by including music I think just has perceived merit, that I “should” like, is wrong. If I don’t like it, why not? Maybe it’s not my style. Maybe it’s in a genre I don’t particularly enjoy. So how would I know what is actually good in that genre? I wouldn’t, I’d be guessing. In other words, my opinion is worthless. Like the MetaCritic lists, then.
These lists shouldn’t be called “Best Albums of 2008″. They should be called “Albums of 2008 that we thought we, and by extension you, should like”. These are not the albums the critics really like, they’re the albums they pretend to like in front of their friends – and, of course, other critics. Awarding Shugo Tokumaru’s Exit the title of “Top 10 Album of 2008″ is the musical equivalent of conspicuously reading Milton’s Paradise Lost at Starbucks. Not even Milton liked Paradise Lost, and I’d wager that Mr. Tokumaru can’t sit through his whole album either. Neither artist intended their work to be particularly enjoyable, so what’s Exit doing on the list?
So the lists are useless. Really, what is the point? Where is a non-American, non-pretentious music fan to turn for his music news? I do my (extremely) limited best here, but there is no way I could hope to provide a balanced summary of all music releases. Is there anyone who does?
Where do my readers turn, wonders I? Any music fans who actively search for new music – please let me know your most successful sources in comments.
Tags: music