scott: pfork's categoration of the css album as, like, derivative haughty dancepunk, and its resulting failure to recognize it as candid and genuinely personable (it might sound like other bands, but that's because that's who these guys are! it's a testament to getting drunk and talking about boys, bands, and, well, art bitches) was hugely disappointing. i think fluxblog put it well: "meeting paris hilton," for example, isn't some posturing about the depravity of celebrity or an attack on american culture. that's not what these dudes are about: lovefoxxx just tells us how funny it was to meet paris. and isn't that honesty why everyone loves the hold steady album so much?

add this to the neglected #1 count, like I'm at all surprised

is anybody else reminded by prefuse 73's "one word extinguisher" with that booka shade album?

Yeah, good list for the most part so far. Bozz/Sunn, Jesu, Helios albums are all awesome. I need to get around to hearing Diadem.. and Movements.

not really, but this makes me want to revisit that booka shade album and find out.
Man did that Prefuse 73 album blow my mind when I first heard it, (to bad he has become pretty uch inessential since then, although his last ep was promising)

Also I'm slightly disturbed that IIRC Black Mountain didn't even make the list last year, which is odd when the one billionth as good Wolfmother did this year.

yup. it was pushed through and locked down while I was on the way to roskilde, at a time in the year that we had a tight, unmovable schedule because of me working out of the country. like I said, it's the most undeserved treatment any lp got. I ended up voting for it in the top 20, I think, and in the top 10 for that Idolator poll.

---

Matmos making the heatseekers chart is amazing in itself!

i think a few of the songs have the kind of beats you'd hear on a prefuse album

Pearl Jam hate: Really? Isn't that just too easy, people?

(Yeah, I voted for it. Shush.)

I don't know, the CSS album isn't that good. They're great live, which made the album seem better in hindsight, but everyone felt a little disappointed upon first listen. It's not produced well, sounding sterile. The vocals are horrible.

they seem like another gimmick band. bad one though.

could someone fill this lazy non-indie rocker in: who are CSS?

thanks

edit: nevermind, I found out myself. I thought you guys were being cool and
abbreviating

It's not looking too good for Van Hunt and Herbert.

I love PJ, but that album sucks

Guessing Mastodon will be my highest pick to make it (#6...fingers crossed).

#80.




The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love

US Chart Position: #113 / #1 Heatseeker

UK Chart Position: #40

Charting Singles: "Get Myself Into It" (#36 UK)

Acclaimed Music Ranking; #52 (Year) (Bubbling Under)

Pitchfork Review: "These missteps aren't deal-breakers, though, and for lovers of schaudenfreude expecting a Hindenburg of hype, Pieces of People We Love will be a disappointment. The time for a statement on behalf of dancepunk is probably long past; it surely died when LCD Soundsystem spat "Everyone keeps on talking about it/ Nobody's getting it done," or when it morphed into colorful dance-not-punk from the likes of the Go! Team or Cansei De Ser Sexy. But Pieces nevertheless makes a statement on behalf of the Rapture alone, that they're a group with the exuberance, the right producer rolodex, and the right ear for influences to string together multiple albums that will persist long after their newsworthiness fades." (7.8/10)

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Albums Lists: Echoes (#19 in 2003)

Ranked Highest By: No Mangets (#5)

Amazon Link

Alright! We're back up and running again. Merry Christmas!

#79.




Mogwai - Mr. Beast

US Chart Position: #128 / #11 Indepdent

UK Chart Position: #31

Charting Singles: "Friend of the Night" (#38 UK)--their first top 40 hit

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #32 (year), #304 (decade), #2423 (all-time)

Pitchfork Review: "Unfortunately, restraint is a major point of order on Mr. Beast, as it has been to varying degrees on their past few studio efforts. Though the record is at no loss for power, it mostly stores it as unrealized potential: This doesn't sound like the same Mogwai that flattens audiences and then asks if the show was loud enough [...] Mr. Beast's shortcomings lie not with what's present, but with what's missing. Mogwai are capable of tremendous beauty, poignant gloom, and ear-splitting sonic pyrotechnics, but only transcend when they combine each of these elements. Here, they rarely give themselves enough building room to conjoin these moods and styles. Resultantly, despite its peaks, the album is no match for Mogwai's best work."

Ranked Higehst By: Velocity (#3) (also ranked #4 by Nic and #5 by Calley)

Amazon Link

I should probably listen to this. I've never heard any Mogwai but I'm supposed to like them.

#78.




The Annuals - Be He Me

US Chart Position: #10 World Music (???)

UK Chart Position: n/a

Charting Singles: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Pitchfork Review: "Adam Baker is the architect of this attempt at the recorded equivalent of a building by Gaudi-- and the North Carolinian's not but 20 years old. Wow. In concert, his five-piece backing band swap instruments and hustle after his compositions like stormchasers, putting various tourmates (except for the equally vital Evangelicals) at risk of being outed as indie rock plain bagels. Refreshingly unconcerned with perpetuating cool, Annuals' attack is fundamentally escapist: Baker seems to prefer living inside his ever-aburst music, and listeners will be lured by the world it creates, a place of freakishly sustainable energy fluctuations where surprises would be routine, naps would raise heart rates, and sighs would result from exhilaration rather than exhaustion. Diehard residents of actuality might even find the Annuals' abstract plane inaccessible, or preferable at a distance."

Ranked Highest By: Bottledwater (#5)

Amazon Link

Great start. The Rapture have the best musical moment of the year, with the screaming in The Devil, and Brother and Dry Clothes make me go aSAdasdasJHJKHKHKHKDshkdhkhkasd

Still don't think they've been signed here. Tearing shit up live in London though. I have to go soon. Glad the chart hasn't been sullied though.

Artem, where have you been? I haven't seen you on AtEase for a while

That first track - "Brother" - is my favorite of the year, but the rest of Be He Me is terrible. Half-assed Incubus/Jack Johnson-type stuff. Still, that first track is almost enough to carry the dead weight of the rest of the album.

#77.




The Futureheads - News & Tributes

US Chart Position: #24 Independent

UK Chart Position: #12

Charting Singles: "Skip to the End" (#24 UK)

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a (bubbling under)

Pitchfork Review: "Some will tell you the kernel idea, the knee-jerk impulse, the gut rumble that's our cue to get moving, is always the brightest moment. So if News & Tributes comes up short of the band's last record it's ultimately because it lacks the urgency of a one-shot glory bid. But it's impossible to play every song like it's your last when you plan to stick around a while, when you've earned something to lose."

Ranked Highest By: Pavement Ist Rad (#1) (also ranked #5 by Dr. X)

Amazon Link

$9.99 most everywhere I look. I should've picked this up a while ago.

Jack Johnson is probably the last comparison I would have made. The last couple tracks crescendo really strongly, and the middle of the album has some standout moments. It has been slipping off my radar every since I got it, though.



lollin

The SOMB 80-100 looks like a hella list compared to a lot of 1-20's. Pretty impressive.

listening to "Brother" right now. If the rest of the album is worse than this, then wow what a piece of shit it must be.

worst faux-Arcade Fire track I've ever heard

who, css?

Not a defense of css or an jab at artem, but it's cute that having your own sound is considered a gimmick but, like, a band who sounds exactly like everything else around or just reuses tired touchstones is somehow organic and natural and fine. In 2006, I'd think "I want to sound like Sufjan/Arcade Fire" blogrock would be considered a conceit to scoff at. Alas, nobody ever does this. edit: haha, elastico proves me wrong!

#76.




Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go

US Chart Position: #180 / #16 Independent

UK Chart Position: n/a

Charting Singles: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #29 (year), #286 (decade), #2269 (all-time)

Pitchfork Review: "On the whole, The Letting Go is amazingly consistent, Oldham and McCarthy meandering tunefully through subtle but effective changes in texture and tone. Unlike Oldham's best work, The Letting Go doesn't pull you into its own emotional world; it doesn't ask much, and you're free to take as much from it as you'd like. The beauty and eccentricity of The Letting Go doesn't provoke deep absorption or self-reflection so much as a kind of fond familiarity."

Ranked Highest By: OddestMouse (#5)

Amazon Link

I wish the rest of the BPB album lived up to the greatness of "Strange Form of Life". Such is not the case unfortunately.



and hey, I like CSS too.

Whoa, surprisingly low placement.

Throw my #1 onto the list of those that didn't make it. Unless there was a ton of unshown Swan Lake love. Probably same deal with my number 2 (Springsteen).

Great album, happy it placed.

brent: examples of the horrible vocals, please? do you mean the rampant double tracking and pub style backups and choruses, which are pretty par for the course with dance rock? you can't actually be talking about lovefoxxx's endearing off key slips (which are way more noticeable live!)

honestly I can only think of like, 25 more of the albums to come. this should be interesting

OK Computer for number 1.

#75.




Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah

US Chart Position: #19 / #1 Electronic

UK Chart Position: #1

Charting Singles: "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" (#72 Pop US / #1 UK), "Land of a Thousand Wives" (#19 UK)

Acclaimed Music Ranking: Bubbling Under

Pitchfork Review: "On record, though, their extravagance becomes a hurdle. Not only are the Sisters' bawdy pop tracks overripe with in-jokey musical gags, they're relentlessly, almost confrontationally exuberant. "Subtlety" is not a part of the band's vocabulary; they're practically incapable of committing a hook, rhythm, or vocal to tape that isn't amped to cartoonish levels. While this mostly works for their singles, it makes their albums a different proposition altogether. In other words, if you're not already predisposed to Scissor Sisters' campy ways, Ta-Dah! isn't going to change your mind. Even more streamlined, pop-minded, and high-spirited than their 2004 self-titled debut, it's as if they're single-mindedly attempting to depose the world's problems with a rigorous dance and good times regimen. But by the fourth or fifth song to bite a rhythm from the Muppet Jug Band, it's hard not to feel suspicious-- which is why how you square up with this band ultimately hinges on exactly what you get from their singles. "

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Albums Lists: Scissor Sisters (#15 in 2004)

Ranked Highest By: Hewlett's Daughter (#4)

Amazon Link

What's going on in this cover?

It's his Dick in a Box

it's the indie dance gimmick thing that they got going on that i find dull. omg, we got asian chick singing lite dfa tunes!

i don't think that the band takes themselves seriously either. they're like the darkness, but as i've said a bit worse.

congrats, that's the laziest read on css i've seen yet! again, i ask: did you actually listen to the album? as for "taking themselves seriously": what does this mean to you? you want them to assume the inflated self-importance of the sufjan/arcade fire mold? do you not like bands who have a sense of humor about what they're doing-- they're just in a band!-- or treat their observations, lyrically and musically, with irreverence?

huh?

i haven't heard the whole album. i heard the singles and they were enough for me to not want to listen to that band any more. i don't care much for sufjan stevens or arcade fire either if that matters to you since you've mentioned them twice already.

as i've said there's nothing bad with a band just playing whatever they want and not striving to record something like "tilt" for example. it's just that their gimmick don't appeal to me. the hairy metal/queen gimmick of the darkenss was fun for me.

i don't like artem's gimmick of not listening to albums beloved by many.

Artem, quit dicking around and handle your Best of 2006 Baby over at atease.

Ain't got not one child-support check, neither, you half-a-man.

that's all well and good, but cursory listens to two singles hardly justifies labelling them "asian chick singing lite dfa tunes." and perhaps i'm missing something, but what's their gimmick?

#74.




The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Charting Singles: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Pitchfork Review: "For starters, this makes two albums in a row where a tinny upright piano dragged from a the lounge of a depression-era bordello functions as the signature instrument, stitching together the patchwork songs with Matt Friedberger's speedy little trills. Before it seemed to reference a radio play; here it serves as a reminder that we inhabit the world of one band and one band only. Other interesting choices abound: squelchy Moog that references neither the instrument's classic era nor its 90s update; distorted percussion meant to be disorienting instead of forceful; a disco beat that gyrates in place with quotation marks standing in for the mirror ball."

Ranked Highest By: Petras (#2) (also ranked #3 by Animals and Men, Cerebral Caustic & OddestMouse and #5 by Agrimorfee)

Amazon Link