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Stereogum Ranks The Top 50 Albums of 2015

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Yeah, this is the issue. It's kind of like if the nominees for Best Picture at the Academy Awards were Transformers and Twilight and The Hunger Games and shit.

Not quite an apt comparison. Those are blockbuster movies, so they could be used if the top albums of the list were from huge pop acts like Swift, Gaga, or Adele.
As the post you quoted stated, though, these are more indie-pop so something small but with a vocal fanbase like Ex Machina or It Follows would be a better analogy.
Or, actually, perhaps standard Oscar bait movies are the proper comparison after all. :p
 
Yeah, this is the issue. It's kind of like if the nominees for Best Picture at the Academy Awards were Transformers and Twilight and The Hunger Games and shit.

Grimes will be lucky to go gold.

And considering you're stanning for Muse circa 2015 I don't think you're in a position to criticize people valuing bland easily digestible music
 
Just listened to Emotion and it was good, but Courtney is so great. I mean, lyrically it's like comparing the Mama's and the Papa's and Bob Dylan. Courtney is still my #1.
 

Servbot24

Banned
Musically that album was far beyond this Carly album. Far superior compositions, better beats, better arrangements. The gap is something like Miles Davis vs Kenny G. Not that any of these pop stars are within an order of magnitude of Miles, but I'm saying the gap is huge.

Lorde isn't even all that great, but Emotion is lightweight popcorn. It's the musical equivalent of carnival cotton candy. Which can be fun to eat, but it's not getting any Michelin stars.
Lorde? Lorde? Come on man.
 

elguero

Member
Nice to see Julien Baker make the cut. Really, really loving her debut. Any fan of Waxahatchee would probably enjoy.
 
Not that I'm up to date with those genres, but what were the best albums in them respectively? The Stereogum list does a pretty good job of representing the highest critically acclaimed albums of the year.

It sure doesn't seem like it when those two genres were completely ignored on this list and both had incredible years.
This is obviously completely subjective, but punk had the best year the genre has seen in a decade (that might not be saying much...), with Night Birds' "Mutiny at Muscle Beach", Jeff Rosenstock's "We Cool?", Atlas Losing Grip's "Currents" and punk/metal hybrid band, Strung Out, who have been around for over 20 years put out what is by far their best album this year, "Transmission.Alpha.Delta".
Not saying my tastes are the right choices or that any should he on any list beyond my own personal list, but it is kind of odd when a "Best Of" list leaves off entire genres.
Like I said, at least they got Kendrick right!
 

Aegus

Member
It sure doesn't seem like it when those two genres were completely ignored on this list and both had incredible years.
This is obviously completely subjective, but punk had the best year the genre has seen in a decade (that might not be saying much...), with Night Birds' "Mutiny at Muscle Beach", Jeff Rosenstock's "We Cool?", Atlas Losing Grip's "Currents" and punk/metal hybrid band, Strung Out, who have been around for over 20 years put out what is by far their best album this year, "Transmission.Alpha.Delta".
Not saying my tastes are the right choices or that any should he on any list beyond my own personal list, but it is kind of odd when a "Best Of" list leaves off entire genres.
Like I said, at least they got Kendrick right!

Maybe Stereogum caters to a different audience?

I wouldn't go to a metal site and expect to see Carly Rae in the top 50.
 

big ander

Member
those genres are on there though, just sparingly or in hybridized forms. mainstream blogs aren't going to have extremely niche picks, pure hardcore punk or black metal. someone like Rosenstock could've appeared here but increasingly niche genres of course aren't likely to show up on collective best-of lists because they're divisive. for instance if I made a list there'd be some ambient/electroacoustic or drone something on it, but I don't expect anything like that to show up in lists like these.
 
Not that I'm up to date with those genres, but what were the best albums in them respectively? The Stereogum list does a pretty good job of representing the highest critically acclaimed albums of the year.

Pointless in arguing sis. These lists are usually most critically acclaimed albums. It's always the same group coming in complaining metal, punk or whatever other genre isn't represented on these lists. Then they say everything on these lists are shit despite having not listened to them.

I'm sure there were some good metal or punk albums this year. I haven't been into punk in a long time, but those genres aren't really in line with the type of online music community that makes up the people these lists reach. There are other sites that cater to that. Usually it's a pick here or there that has reached a mass critical acclaim that ends up on these lists.

Thing is, music is subjective. What someone might think is the best thing ever is completely terrible to another. These lists just compile the albums that most people think are great.

And this is just the first big list of the year. There will be plenty of other threads to bitch about favorite artists getting snubbed.
 
I only brought up the genre thing in here because this is the most diverse year-end list I've seen this year and goes beyond the "this was super popular so let's put it on the list" mentality so I found it interesting. Nothing will please everybody!
will never understand the Drake love though
 

overcast

Member
AV Club top 15:
1. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly
2. Sleater-Kinney, No Cities To Love
3. Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell
4. Grimes, Art Angels
5. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
6. Vince Staples, Summertime ’06
7. Beach Slang, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us
8. Waxahatchee, Ivy Tripp
9. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
10. Torres, Sprinter
11. Protomartyr, The Agent Intellect
12. Kurt Vile, B’Lieve I’m Goin Down
13. Julien Baker, Sprained Ankle
14. Wilco, Star Wars
15. Hop Along, Painted Shut
 
AV Club at least is sane enough not to put fucking Carly Rae Jepsen in the top 15.

Grimes will be lucky to go gold.

And considering you're stanning for Muse circa 2015 I don't think you're in a position to criticize people valuing bland easily digestible music

Muse are neither easily digestible nor bland, but that's neither here nor there. They put out a better album than Emotion anyway.

Lorde? Lorde? Come on man.

She's so much better than Carly Rae. I was using her as an example of what good songwriting in pop might look like.
 
AV Club at least is sane enough not to put fucking Carly Rae Jepsen in the top 15.



Muse are neither easily digestible nor bland, but that's neither here nor there. They put out a better album than Emotion anyway.



She's so much better than Carly Rae. I was using her as an example of what good songwriting in pop might look like.

Have you listened to Emotion? Because if you have and can still say the bolded, you must have a completely different album than I had. Her album is legitimately good but if you intend to solely go off "Call Me Maybe" and make your statements, be my guest.
 
Sure I'll die on that hill. Dead Inside and Reapers are so vastly superior musically to anything Carly has ever shit out you might as well be comparing some random glee club chick to Idina Menzel. Pretty sure Carly herself would be embarrassed to have you making that argument.

Psycho isn't a great song, sure. Not great examples you picked for the other two though. You should have gone with Revolt. That song is shit. Picking Reapers to make a point about Muse sucking though :jnc

"The Rolling Stones are awful in 1980, have you heard this POS Start Me Up?"

Edit: yes, I've listened to Emotion. Once when it came out and again when this thread came out. It isn't terrible. It's decent even.
 
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