everyone’s making charts and lists right now, websites, blogs, magazines, newspapers, they’re all at it. i like the idea of having a list of x and y but i just get so overwhelmed trying to quantify and then qualify everything that i invariably give up. last year rather than a list of songs or albums i made a list of the people in the industry (as it were) who really made an impact on my year. see here. this year’s dilemma is further compounded by the fact that IT’S THE END OF A DECADE and all that malarkey. so you have to make ANOTHER list for the last 10 years. i wonder how many people are going back to their nine previous best ofs and picked what was number one on that list, and how many people are retrospectively donning their rose-tinted glasses, or picking what they still listen to, or something else along those lines. i tried to think of a list recently and i fired off, after about 40 seconds’ deliberation, something that looked like this….
radiohead – kid a (2000)[2003]
wilco – yankee hotel foxtrot (2002)[2006]
boards of canada – geogaddi (2002)[2005]
jay-z – the blueprint (2001)[2001]
gang gang dance – saint dymphna (2008)[2008]
fleet foxes – fleet foxes (2008)[2008]
sufjan stevens – illinoise (2005)[2005]
unkle – end titles redux (2008)[2009]
eminem – the marshall mathers lp (2000)[2000]
death cab for cutie – transatlanticism (2003)[2005]
you may be wondering what the figure in the square brackets represents. given my rant above, for full disclosure i’ve included the year i first heard that album. now in hindsight, i think i should take out the unkle album and replace it with panda bear’s person pitch from 2007, which i heard in 2007. one great thing i can say about all of the albums above is that i own every one of them (and the panda bear one too). with the exception of the jay-z, eminem and unkle albums, which i bought upon release, i had either borrowed or downloaded every one of them, but i was so impressed/moved by each one that i felt it warranted me parting with my hard-earned cash.
as i said, i came up with this list without putting much thought into it. where’s funeral? where’s discovery? where’s the greatest? where’s yoyoyoyoyo? where’s either lcd soundsystem or sound of silver? where’s this year’s favourite, the future will come?
it’s just so pointless really. and what’s the point of all of these lists? is it for the artist, so that they will gain a new catchment audience? surely the readers of any given list will already be au fait with the contents of that list. and if not, well the writer has messed up there. there is a rather large element of preaching to the converted involved, let’s be honest.
bleurgh anyway. so ignore the above list – you probably know/love/hate it all already. here’s my favourite mashup of the year. yes, i used the m-word.
Kris Menace & The Dream – Walking On Lightning (U-Tern Blend)
haido 