05.) Avey Tare - Down There
A collection of sounds and meandering synths without a glimmer of structure or meaning.
04.) M.I.A. - Maya
Faux political commentary and complaining over lifeless beats.
03.) Vampire Weekend - Contra
Autotune, out of place references, and a continuation of their love of stealing from Paul Simon's "Graceland". They teach plagiarism at ivy league schools right?
02.) Best Coast - Crazy For You
Weed, Cats, and Boyfriends, oh my! Simple pop melodies with the most atrocious lyrics of 2010. The writing on this album is on the level of a middle school diary.
01.) Salem - King Knight
If an idiot raps in a low voice over horrible synths and beats will anyone care? Apparently so as critics love this record. It's the Jersey Shore of albums. The death of art and culture. And never forget the lyrics:
If you were here too I'd still be me and myself
I don't feel alive say I can't hear myself
I'm far away lost and I don't want help
If you come with me Beth I'll kill myself
That's not myself
That's just my cell
I don't know if you could tell
but I don't need help
I don't know if you noticed
but I have been smokin'
my arm might be broken
I'm so sick of jokin'
I'm sick of your talkin'
I kinda like the new MIA, but I'm the only one. Salem isn't music.
ReplyDeletepretty good list with the exception of Avey Tare... it certainly wasn't great or even pretty good, but there were far worse album to be realsed this year.
ReplyDelete- Greg
http://www.fellinlovewithadrummer.com/
I actually only dug the beats on MAYA. Rusko, Diplo, and Sleigh Bells samples are what made it listenable. haha.
ReplyDeleteohhh Salem...x_x
I initially really dug the Best Coast record, but now I can't seem to get through a single song.
ReplyDeleteDisagree with VW though. You can certainly dislike the songs all you want, but it's hard to deny they're extremely talented.
Hurp durp, I don't understand Witch House and thus say Salem has the worst album of the year.
ReplyDeleteCritics who loved the Salem record are "lyin' with the flesh / lyin' with the bone."
ReplyDeleteIt's not so much Witchhouse as it is Hot Topic-branded blackface.
YESSS I agree with you on MIA, there's something about her music that gives me a headache. It's a combination of her voice and the weird beats.
ReplyDeleteBest Coast was okay, but she was such a fad that faded.
One of my favorite reviews of the year, a comment left below Rolling Stones' 4 out of 5 star review for MIA. goes like this:
ReplyDelete"I joined RS literally just to say that your review is absolutely incorrect. This album is by far, one of the worst I've heard all year. There are so many bad production decisions, ranging from the annoying to the fact that certain tracks literally become unlistenable. Tequilla's synth parts are so harsh and loud I cannot listen to it, and songs like Lovalot have breakdowns that literally are stupid, unmelodic trash that sound like a 4 year old got ahold of a sampler. This album is awful, and I'm sure everyone else that hears this album will think the same thing. Of my 6 or so friends whom I've played the album for, they've all agreed."
-Amen
Honest question: did you actually listen to the Salem record front-to-back? Seems like you didn't-- if you did, you'd know that there's rapping on maybe three or four tracks tops on an 11-track record. Your issue seems to be the rapping, which isn't very present on the album at all. Not saying it's a good record (in the end, it's not), but it seems like you didn't have much other reason other than "mad hits" to make this your #1 worst album of the year since your attached generalizations seem to be fairly misrepresentative.
ReplyDeleteAvey Tare: "meandering synths without a glimmer of structure or meaning"
You know that album is about him being depressed, right? Just because you didn't connect with it personally doesn't mean it didn't have meaning at all, that's projecting and if you actually want to be taken seriously as a critic you should try to avoid that. Also, doesn't seem like you actually listened to this one either, since there is synth work on two tracks and that's it (unless you are grouping "instruments with keyboards" in the "synth" category, which is, uh, wrong).
Vampire Weekend: "a continuation of their love of stealing from Paul Simon's "Graceland"."
Could you point to specific tracks on the new one where they actually steal from Graceland? As a fan of Graceland (not a fan of the new VW record although sounds like I gave it a fairer chance than you did) the similarities between it and Contra are non-existent. Your "plagiarism" comment is pretty ironic, considering your tokenist Graceland reference is pretty much ripping off every person who's been saying that before you did. Who's copying who?
You guys love to hate, and your Twitter feed suggests that you love to hate more than you actually like posting to your blog. Maybe you should focus more on writing about the music you like and less on trying to add your two cents on everyone else's opinions-- I know the latter has gotten you plenty of followers on a Twitter account that's attached to a blog that few read when you're not writing Kanye West reviews. Are you afraid that if you spend more time writing about bands like (ugh) Reptar and the Pass, people will continue to remain oblivious of your blog's existence? Maybe.
A really good website man, very thankful and hopeful that you will write many more posts like this one.
ReplyDelete