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Tag: Animal Collective

  • Village Voice Pazz & Jop 2009: For the Hipster in You

    Every year, a group of respected music critics gather ’round the proverbial campfire and submit their picks for the Best Music of 2009 to New York’s alternative weekly The Village Voice for what has become an institution-the Pazz & Jop critics’ poll.

    The poll has honored the year’s best album since 1971 (a prize that went to The Who for “Who’s Next”) and has honored the year’s best single since 1979, when the honor went to Ian Dury’s “Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick”. Over the years, top honors have gone to artists running the gamut from straight ahead rock to pop to R&B to hip-hop. Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” being voted 1988’s Best Album was a watershed moment when it came to the critical viewing of hip-hop as an art form. For comparison’s sake, it’s worth noting that, while Grammy voters are widely seen as being out of touch while the Village Voice crew are thought of as hipper than thou, the two have agreed on the Album of the Year choice several times-Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life” in 1976, “Thriller” in 1983, Paul Simon’s “Graceland” in 1986, and most recently, OutKast’s “Speakerboxx/The Love Below” in 2003.

    This year’s winner for best album is Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavillion”. Animal Collective are fairly well known in the indie-rock world, and I must say that the overall flavor of this year’s Voice list is more Pitchfork-y than I’m comfortable with. Perhaps it’s a testament to how out of touch I am when it comes to current popular music, but I only own three albums in the Top Ten (Phoenix, Grizzly Bear and the Flaming Lips), and quite honestly, don’t really have an overwhelming urge to hear anything else on the list. So any argument about whether Animal Collective honestly have the best album of 2009 is one I’m gonna have to respectfully bow out of.

    The year’s winner for best single is Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”, which has been ubiquitous over the course of the past three or four months. Indie rock takes over the next several spots, until an explosion of Lady GaGa occurs in the lower single digits/early teens.

    Dear reading public, as someone who either scratches his head or shrugs his shoulders at the majority of this list, I leave it to you to school me. Check out the list and let me know: do you agree with these choices? What albums or singles got left out?

  • Chart Chat 2/1/09: Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah & More!!

    kellyIt’s been a while since we’ve done one of these: enough for the usually slow-moving charts to change appreciably, thank goodness. Anyway, here’s the latest action on the singles and albums chart, with the charts (as usual) used courtesy of the good folks at Billboard magazine.

    Top 20 Albums:
    1) “Fearless” Taylor Swift
    2) “I Am…Sasha Fierce” Beyonce
    3) “Dark Horse” Nickelback
    4) “808s & Heartbreak” Kanye West
    5) “Twilight Soundtrack” Various Artists
    6) “A Different Me” Keyshia Cole
    7) “Circus” Britney Spears
    8) “Intuition” Jamie Foxx
    9) “Notorious Soundtrack” Various Artists
    10) “The Ballads” Mariah Carey
    11) “Now That’s What I Call Music 29” Various Artists
    12) “Noble Beast” Andrew Bird
    13) “Merriweather Post Pavillion” Animal Collective
    14) “David Cook” David Cook
    15) “Funhouse” P!nk
    16) “Blood Bank (EP)” Bon Iver
    17) “Freedom” Akon
    18) “Paper Trail” T.I.
    19) “Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack” Various Artists
    20) “The Fame” Lady GaGa

    Top 20 Singles

    1) “My Life Would Suck Without You” Kelly Clarkson
    2) “Just Dance” Lady GaGa feat. Colby O’ Donis
    3) “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” Beyonce
    4) “Heartless” Kanye West
    5) “Love Story” Taylor Swift
    6) “Gives You Hell” The All-American Rejects
    7) “Live Your Life” T.I. feat. Rihanna
    8) “You Found Me” The Fray
    9) “Circus” Britney Spears
    10) “I’m Yours” Jason Mraz
    11) “I Hate This Part” The Pussycat Dolls
    12) “Let it Rock” Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne
    13) “Hot ‘n Cold” Katy Perry
    14) “Dead & Gone” T.I. feat. Justin Timberlake
    15) “Womanizer” Britney Spears
    16) “Sober” P!nk
    17) “Untouched” The Veronicas
    18) “Whatever You Like” T.I.
    19) “Mad” Ne-Yo
    20) “Gotta Be Somebody” Nickelback

    *First thing I notice is that the amount of artists who repeat themselves on the singles chart has decreased significantly. Only T.I. (three songs) and Britney Spears (two songs) have more than one song in the Top 20.

    *Taylor Swift spends a seventh consecutive week at the summit of the Albums chart, the longest run in quite a few years (I think the last album to spend that much time at the top was Usher’s “Confessions”). Springsteen’s debut next week will end that run, but either way that’s Pretty impressive.

    *Check out Andrew Bird, Animal Collective and Bon Iver in the Top 20…making a great showing for indie music and artists.

    *Kelly Clarkson zooms to the top with “My Life Would Suck Without You”. Jumping from 97-1, it’s the largest move to the top in history. It’s also Kelly’s first #1 single since her debut, “A Moment Like This”. It also means Clive Davis is in an office somewhere, smiling smugly.

    *Who are The Veronicas?

    *Well, I was right in assuming that they were an all-female band. Let’s hear it for educated guesses. They’re not very good, though.

    *Mariah makes an impressive showing at #10 with a collection of older ballads. Only one track on this compilation dates from this decade, proving in the light of the blah chart showing of “E=MC2” that folks still love Mariah, they just love her more when she’s making good music.

    *Err…I got nothing left. Enjoy the charts,the videos,and the Super Bowl! No titties this year!!

  • The New Music Revue 1/20/09: Mix & Match

    mariahWelcome to the first new release Tuesday of 2009. While most of the country will be fixated on something FAR more important, there’s no reason you can’t duck out of the inaugural festivities to pop into your local pre-recorded music emporium to check out the new releases. Here’s what’s happenin’:

    It’s a good week to be indie and somewhat androgynous, as today brings us new releases from Antony & the Johnsons and Andrew Bird. Jam band lovers will get down to Umphrey’s McGee‘s Mantis, while some of the same indie folks who’ll pick up the Bird and Antony releases will wanna dig in to Animal Collective‘s Merriweather Post Pavilion. Jazz vocalist Jane Monheit graces us with a covers album called The Lovers, The Dreamers & Me (also known as the same title R&B singer Alice Smith gave her album three or so years ago), and AmIdol fanatics will rejoice (or throw up in their mouths) because Sanjaya Malakar makes his debut with an EP only available through amazon.com called Dancing to the Music in My Head.

    With Valentine’s Day approaching, the love songs compilations are going to start arriving fast and furious. Sony Music is unleashing a new ballads-themed series called From the Heart, and the first set of releases in this series come from a wide range of artists including Air Supply, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis. Speaking of Miles, a deluxe reissue of Kind of Blue hits stores today, as does a double-disc love songs set from Frank Sinatra. Thom Yorke‘s The Eraser gets the album-length remix treatment today, and finally, Mariah Carey gets her own ballads collection, featuring many of her best known hits-and no rapper cameos!!

    Happy shopping & Happy inauguration day!!

    Oh, get yer full list of new releases here.