Keeping Your Top 10 of the Year Solid - Music

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

Do you guys have trouble finding out what albums you really love the most from this year? I don't normally have this problem with other mediums (obviously I discovered a lot of 2014 movies through streaming in early 2015, but that lost has stayed pretty solid), but when you're literally working with several hundred albums from 2015, it's so easy to overestimate how much you love one album and ignore another future classic-in-your-eyes.

Last year I really thought I was crazy about

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Soused by Scott Walker & Sunn O)))
But as 2015 came around, it completely fell off my radar. On the other hand, I realized how perfect an album

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Syro by Aphex Twin was.

I know even "real" critics like Anthony Fantano stress how musical love is a temperal thing, but how do you guys reconcile these "lapses" in "judgement"?

meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

Applerill wrote:

I know even "real" critics like Anthony Fantano stress how musical love is a temperal thing, but how do you guys reconcile these "lapses" in "judgement"?

I wouldn't really consider them lapses in judgement, but I often equate this to be the difference between surface value and long term depth. An album can instantly wow you with an original sound (or gimmick), but over time that can wear off. Other records tend to work the opposite way and grow with repeated listens. For me, that's usually stuff with more insightful lyrics, more nuanced playing.

But in relation to top ten, I'd say it's next to impossible for them to remain the same for extended amounts of time. Some will find a solid place there, but there's always something new to discover, or something just outside in the top 20 that really gets you eventually.
_________________
http://jonnyleather.com

Satie

meccalecca wrote:

I wouldn't really consider them lapses in judgement, but I often equate this to be the difference between surface value and long term depth. An album can instantly wow you with an original sound (or gimmick), but over time that can wear off. Other records tend to work the opposite way and grow with repeated listens. For me, that's usually stuff with more insightful lyrics, more nuanced playing.

But in relation to top ten, I'd say it's next to impossible for them to remain the same for extended amounts of time. Some will find a solid place there, but there's always something new to discover, or something just outside in the top 20 that really gets you eventually.

+1, but I also think that listening habits should be considered in this. It's not just that the music is deeper or shallower, but also that tastes can change over the course of a year or two after you've drafted a list. I think the temporal nature of music evaluation is due also in part to the fact that you're always expanding your palette. I think there's a confluence of listener tastes deepening and the music itself continuing to have enough depth to appeal to that listener that asserts longevity. So, basically, it says as much about the listener as it does the music that lists change, and I think you're approaching music the wrong way if your lists aren't in constant flux.

meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

Satie wrote:

+1, but I also think that listening habits should be considered in this.... I think you're approaching music the wrong way if your lists aren't in constant flux.

Absolutely. I was definitely oversimplifying it. It's really fascinating to me how tastes change and how these lists fluctuate. There will be records we build such emotional bonds to that fluctuating tastes don't even seem to effect their statuses as favorites and others that go from being #1 to number #2000 in a couple years somehow.
_________________
http://jonnyleather.com

Precedent

A little, yeah, but I usually end up ranking based on what feels right when I'm updating the chart(s)

Satie

meccalecca wrote:

Absolutely. I was definitely oversimplifying it. It's really fascinating to me how tastes change and how these lists fluctuate. There will be records we build such emotional bonds to that fluctuating tastes don't even seem to effect their statuses as favorites and others that go from being #1 to number #2000 in a couple years somehow.

Yeah, the magic that some records hold over you to be able to last so long definitely kind of attaches them to your soul in a kind of special way. I get defensive enough about Animal Collective, The Beach Boys, and The Velvet Underground after maybe six years of listening that I think I understand on some level why "dadrockers" tend to be so resolute if their favorites are lasting decades.

this post is going to have to be redacted before certain users see it hehe

meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

Satie wrote:

Yeah, the magic that some records hold over you to be able to last so long definitely kind of attaches them to your soul in a kind of special way. I get defensive enough about Animal Collective, The Beach Boys, and The Velvet Underground after maybe six years of listening that I think I understand on some level why "dadrockers" tend to be so resolute if their favorites are lasting decades.

Absolutely. Imagine having a record be your favorite for 20-40+ years and then some teenager hears it once through a shitty set of ear buds and totally trashes it (even if it's Winger, it's hard to take that criticism lightly)
_________________
http://jonnyleather.com

Satie

meccalecca wrote:

Absolutely. Imagine having a record be your favorite for 20-40+ years and then some teenager hears it once through a shitty set of ear buds and totally trashes it (even if it's Winger, it's hard to take that criticism lightly)

I'll have you know I hear most dadrock favorites once through a pair of nice headphones and a DAC/Amp before shitting on their legacies and systematically denying any potential artistic integrity, quality, or influence they're claimed to have had! Razz

zdwyatt

Gender: Male
Age: 45
Location: Madison WI

I like to revisit my top 10 for a given year 5 years later. I've yet to have a year where the top 10 held up. Typically, half of them are still in rotation, with a few that I have forgotten about but still like. But there's always one or two that I am surprised I was so excited about, and one or two that someone escaped my attention the first time around.

SquishypuffDave

Gender: Male
Age: 33

Nobody is probably saying this, but I don't think taste becomes "more correct" over time. There are albums that past-I was more excited about than present-me, but past-my opinions are just as valid as present-mine.