Thursday, February 02, 2006
Pazz!! (also: Jop)
Thoughts:
1. '05 was the first year I was a paid critic in a real paper publication, and I wanted this to be my first year voting in P&J, but I missed the deadline, which is just as well, because now I can sit on the sidelines and cast stones at "them." I've only kind of lightly browsed through reaction threads like the ILM one (mainly because the internet cable on my street was cut off for most of the day following the publication of P&J), so there's a good chance I'll touch on some already overdiscussed stuff.
2. A quick side-by-side comparison of my top 20 albums of '05 and their P&J rankings, which, Kanye aside, are pretty different: 1: 1, 2: 596, 3: 30, 4: 388, 5: 83, 6: no votes, 7: 86, 8: 327, 9: no votes, 10: no votes, 11: 209, 12: 439, 13: no votes, 14: 1641, 15: 95, 16: 176, 17: 209, 18: no votes, 19: no votes, 20: 126. Someone on ILM does a stat break down of what voters are closest and furthest from consensus, but I don't know if there's any way to tabulate your own rank if you didn't vote.
3. Last year, I said that I hate the internet because the two albums with little/no official release or distribution that ranked highly due to online downloading, The Grey Album and Piracy Funds Terrorism, were cheesy mashup projects (I'm not really mad about Arular at #2 because it was a lock for near the top all year and I'm just happy that it got shut out by Kanye). This year, same old shit with the top 20 placement of The Legendary K.O. in the singles poll. I finally heard that thing maybe last week, and oh my god. You people like that shit? You can get amateurish bootleg remixes/freestyles of current hits off every rap board and soundclick page in the world, and most of them are just as terrible, just not as topical or 'important.'
4. Also last year, I noted that Southern rap (besides Outkast) tends to get the shaft from P&J, and that in 04, the highest ranking example was "Rubber Band Man" at #47 (unless you count "Yeah!" and "Goodies" in the top 40). So it's kind of refreshing to see "Stay Fly" in the top 10 this year, with "Still Tippin'" and "Wait (The Whisper Song)" not much further down.
5. On the other hand, the year of Houston didn't really materialize in the albums poll, with none of the Swishahouse guys or Bun B cracking the top 200.
6. I originally saw Joshua Clover's P&J essay when it appeared on the blog of his sketchy female pseudonym Jane Dark a few weeks ago, and I'm annoyed that that bullshit got such prominent placement. Or I'm more pleased that more people will get to see how ridiculous it is now. Partly it's funny because he keeps going on about what a genius Jazze Pha is while erroneously crediting him with the production of "Lose Control," which he had nothing to do with. But mostly it's just silly shitstirring, operating on the erroneous premise (among others) that only black artists/genres make records that are the creative product of someone other than the vocalist whose name is on the album sleeve, and that P&J needs to suddenly add a bunch of goofy award show-style "best artist" categories to make up for this. (Looking at the ILM thread, it looks like he got taken to task pretty well by them too, although that's to be expected since he calls out "ILXors" in the thing).
7. Well, that ship has certainly sailed.
8. I gave their album a fair chance and even saw a show of theirs, but I've come to the conclusion that The Hold Steady are bullshit. Or at least, all the press that compares them to the E-Street Band is bullshit. Seriously, has anyone who's made that comparison even listened to some old Bruce records? Fetishizing classic rock influences while putting down bands that are still rehashing new wave is just retro oneupsmanship. And "silly rabbit, tricks are for teenagers" is not something I want to hear out of the mouth of someone who's supposed to be a good lyricist.
9. "Trapped In The Closet" was robbed. Chapter 1 placed at #24, but if the 19 votes for Chapters 2-5 were counted with it, it would've moved up 10 whole places to #14. And deserved at least top 10. Yeah I said it.
Thoughts:
1. '05 was the first year I was a paid critic in a real paper publication, and I wanted this to be my first year voting in P&J, but I missed the deadline, which is just as well, because now I can sit on the sidelines and cast stones at "them." I've only kind of lightly browsed through reaction threads like the ILM one (mainly because the internet cable on my street was cut off for most of the day following the publication of P&J), so there's a good chance I'll touch on some already overdiscussed stuff.
2. A quick side-by-side comparison of my top 20 albums of '05 and their P&J rankings, which, Kanye aside, are pretty different: 1: 1, 2: 596, 3: 30, 4: 388, 5: 83, 6: no votes, 7: 86, 8: 327, 9: no votes, 10: no votes, 11: 209, 12: 439, 13: no votes, 14: 1641, 15: 95, 16: 176, 17: 209, 18: no votes, 19: no votes, 20: 126. Someone on ILM does a stat break down of what voters are closest and furthest from consensus, but I don't know if there's any way to tabulate your own rank if you didn't vote.
3. Last year, I said that I hate the internet because the two albums with little/no official release or distribution that ranked highly due to online downloading, The Grey Album and Piracy Funds Terrorism, were cheesy mashup projects (I'm not really mad about Arular at #2 because it was a lock for near the top all year and I'm just happy that it got shut out by Kanye). This year, same old shit with the top 20 placement of The Legendary K.O. in the singles poll. I finally heard that thing maybe last week, and oh my god. You people like that shit? You can get amateurish bootleg remixes/freestyles of current hits off every rap board and soundclick page in the world, and most of them are just as terrible, just not as topical or 'important.'
4. Also last year, I noted that Southern rap (besides Outkast) tends to get the shaft from P&J, and that in 04, the highest ranking example was "Rubber Band Man" at #47 (unless you count "Yeah!" and "Goodies" in the top 40). So it's kind of refreshing to see "Stay Fly" in the top 10 this year, with "Still Tippin'" and "Wait (The Whisper Song)" not much further down.
5. On the other hand, the year of Houston didn't really materialize in the albums poll, with none of the Swishahouse guys or Bun B cracking the top 200.
6. I originally saw Joshua Clover's P&J essay when it appeared on the blog of his sketchy female pseudonym Jane Dark a few weeks ago, and I'm annoyed that that bullshit got such prominent placement. Or I'm more pleased that more people will get to see how ridiculous it is now. Partly it's funny because he keeps going on about what a genius Jazze Pha is while erroneously crediting him with the production of "Lose Control," which he had nothing to do with. But mostly it's just silly shitstirring, operating on the erroneous premise (among others) that only black artists/genres make records that are the creative product of someone other than the vocalist whose name is on the album sleeve, and that P&J needs to suddenly add a bunch of goofy award show-style "best artist" categories to make up for this. (Looking at the ILM thread, it looks like he got taken to task pretty well by them too, although that's to be expected since he calls out "ILXors" in the thing).
7. Well, that ship has certainly sailed.
8. I gave their album a fair chance and even saw a show of theirs, but I've come to the conclusion that The Hold Steady are bullshit. Or at least, all the press that compares them to the E-Street Band is bullshit. Seriously, has anyone who's made that comparison even listened to some old Bruce records? Fetishizing classic rock influences while putting down bands that are still rehashing new wave is just retro oneupsmanship. And "silly rabbit, tricks are for teenagers" is not something I want to hear out of the mouth of someone who's supposed to be a good lyricist.
9. "Trapped In The Closet" was robbed. Chapter 1 placed at #24, but if the 19 votes for Chapters 2-5 were counted with it, it would've moved up 10 whole places to #14. And deserved at least top 10. Yeah I said it.
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