Comments on: Best of Lists Can Miss One Very Important Point

By: muruch

muruch — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:46:32 +0000

Our tastes may vary now, but we apparently had a lot more in common earlier in the decade. Especially what you said about The Libertines (loved the album then, still like it now, but won’t include it on my list) and The Streets (holy crap, what a turnaround. I was obsessed w/ the CD when it first came out, now find it unlistenable).

By: Tart

Tart — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:04:01 +0000

And I wasn’t being rude, merely trying to hijack this thread to a more interesting debate than the “some records are important, some are important to me, and some are important to everyone or fucking well should be – hence important!” See? now THAT’s rude. xoxo

By: Yashin

Yashin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:34:29 +0000

The thing I find interesting about the 00s is that it’s the first decade in which my listening habits have been scrupulously chronicled by a third party. I couldn’t tell you the song I’ve listened to the most over the past decade, but iTunes can. I can’t remember all of the albums I bought in 2006, but iTunes can.

iTunes (or similar database software) will be able to pick out that Death Cab For Cutie album I listened to over and over back in the day, and it’ll be able to tell me that it’s been 3 years since I last listened to it.

Of course if you still listen to a ton of vinyl and listen to CDs in your living room, you’re not going to get this. Yet.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:13:39 +0000

Yes, in a sense. That last category is the one I was talking about. Often these songs don’t really belong on any best of list, because if anyone liked them that much then they’d be played a lot more out of context and hence lose a bit of that strong association with a particular time period.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:34:30 +0000

So really there are three categories you can use define the elusive “Best Of” a particular period.

There are the songs you personally love, the stuff that moves you and has personal meaning and resonance for you. It may be something that you’ve spent a lot fo time with over the period in question. Stuff that falls into the ‘emotional’ category.

Then there are the ‘important’ releases of the period in question. The records that, if you’re inclined to consider things from an intellectual point of view, you would have to acknowledge had a significant historical impact, regardless of whether or not you liked them much personally.

Finally there are the examples that Matthew’s describing, the ones that have an intangible ability to evoke the period. They might not necessarily have a deep emotional resonance for you, or have had a huge historical impact on the course of human artistic endeavour, but are nevertheless enjoyable in a nostalgic sense.

Yes?

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:46:19 +0000

well Matthew, I wish i could add my own insight here and some thoughtful words but …. i agree with basically everything you’re saying. it’s nearly impossible on a personal level to keep the two in perspective *together* – as we grow our wants/needs will be dynamic and continually changing. it really is a great point to bring up.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:22:42 +0000

Slackdad, that’s a perfect description of my emotions when first listening to that album: what the fucking hell was that?!

Subsequently the sheer surprise has given way to a lack of affection, but I will always remember the ‘whoah, fuck, what?‘ sensation I first felt when hearing it. So I may not remember the music fondly, but I will probably still retain affection for the album, if that makes sense.

Tart, you, rude, on the internet? Surely not!

By: Tart

Tart — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:59:02 +0000

Oh! Well the Internet ate a perfectly good stab at you for posting the Libertines track after Pete Dohgerty made such an ass of himself singing the German national (Nazi) anthem last week. I had a link and everything. Pfffft

By: slackdad

slackdad — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:48:30 +0000

Interestingly, (I hope!) “Original Pirate Material” came out top of the Observer Music Monthly’s albums of the decade. I’d agree he’s completely lost his way latterly, but, for me, the “where the hell did THAT come from” sensation I got listening to this when it came out has never left me. So each time I hear a track or listen to it in full I’m still filled with that sensation that was with me at the time. Maybe because of that, I’ve never found it to be as dated as you clearly do. I also loved “A Grand Don’t Come for Free” but the fall since then has been spectacular and looks unstoppable too I’m afraid. Shame.

By: Cogstar

Cogstar — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:12:04 +0000

Whatever the argument, ‘listery’ is a great word