best of 08: artists
It’s been up over the weekend, so I’m sure quite a few of you have already seen what came out of our member (hi Tim) poll of favorite, underrated and overrated artists and albums. The real treat? Bon Iver is apparently all three, and indeed there was a lot of crossover between all three results.
In terms of overrated, a result that we deemphasized a bit on the proper hub page, Vampire Weekend won easily. More than double that of number two. None of that was surprising. It is clearly the most real-world visible of anything new that we pushed this year.
Underrated was what I was excited to see, just because it’s such a broad and poorly defined word that it invites a million different kinds of responses, and so any sort of consensus was going to surprise me. But we definitely saw one with the 20 records we listed: all had at least ten votes from people, and in a vote that saw thousands of records get mentioned, that was notable. Most pleasing to us was seeing Blackblack make that list — we always felt like Blackblack got shorted on what is a very good record, and so to hear that back from some portion of the membership was gratifying.
Overall, I enjoyed the results to all of the member polling. Certainly indie rock was well-represented — it was, indeed, the only thing represented, as is always the case — but taken as a whole, it feels like a nice, round picture of eMusic and the folks who use it came out of this. Hope you feel the same. Happy holidays, everybody!
Underrated is an oddly-defined word, to be sure, but I take it to mean a strong work that isn’t recognized on a larger scale. In this case my vote went ot Ra Ra Riot, I’m sure, because Vampire Weekend (my overrated) seem to eclipse anything that sounds like indie pop in the Northeast. They’re both good albums I’m glad to be able ot listen to, but VW wasn’t the pop revelation I’d hoped for, and The Rhumb Line was a very pleasant surprise.
It’d be interesting to perhaps see some genre awards, because it does seem that members like myself, who primarily hook up to the indie music, dominate what wins, when a particularly good jazz album, for example, stands no chance.
heh heh member. no just kidding I understand what tim was saying (not that I agree I like emuser but. . . )
I love the fact that both lists OVERLAP soo much and that (in turn) they both overlap the Use. . I mean member poll and the poll by eMusic’s edito . . I mean staf. . . I mean . . . shit what do we call you guys???
probably something not printable in a family newspaper!
LOL
of course neither is fuck buttons
My favorite thing about the underrated list is the passion it showed. Vampire Weekend, Cut Copy, Gaslight Anthem, and BON IVER aren’t getting enough love? You kidding me? But that’s the thing. People loved them so much that, in their eyes, these records couldn’t possibly get enough love! With such strong feelings in the air, it’s inconceivable that some of them don’t end up on the overrated list. Monsieur Yin, permittez moi de vous presentez Mademoiselle Yang. Or you could flip the M. and Mlle. That’s the nature of Yin and Yang, eh?
The other thing that struck me is that some of the biggest indie names of the century(ish) – Conor Oberst, Malkmus, American Music Club, etc. (my standard is, were they ever featured in Entertainment Weekly) — really WERE overshadowed by some of the truly major splashes that “minor” artists made – Ra Ra Riot, Frightened Rabbit, Shearwater, etc. Even though these “minor” artists were listed as underrated, the fact that they made ANY list is a testament to the power of your pimpitude, Yancey. I heard about all of ‘em from you, here and on the front page. (Respect to the rest of the pimp peeps.)
Hey, and speaking of Frightened Rabbit, why no love for the live record? You’ve been pimping (sorry for that word again but it’s TRUE) their live shows for over a year, and now I know why. I could feel the guy’s sweat and spit landing on me when I listened to that thang. In a good way.
These lists were monster fun. Thanks for the idea.
Thanks too for anticipating at least one of my rants (a true hub for editorial features) and for at least humoring me on the “member” thing. And as a 4th generation New Yorker, I feel very comfortable saying in the warmest of holiday fashions: “I got your member right here.”
NOW I’m ready for my group hug.
“My favorite thing about the underrated list is the passion it showed. Vampire . . . Cut Copy . . . [isn't] getting enough love? You kidding me?”
In their 2008 year-end list, Pitchfork mentioned how underappreciated Cut Copy’s disc is (Pitchfork had In Ghost Colours as the No. 4 disc of the year). (n.1)
You’re totally right about most of the others, though (Bon Iver and VW, especially).
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(n.1) “[I]t also had the sense all year of an LP bubbling just under the surface. A corrective, then, that would improve most year-end lists and give In Ghost Colours the profile it deserves: ‘Time to Pretend’ excepted, replace all appearances of ‘MGMT’ with ‘Cut Copy.’” http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/148001-the-50-best-albums-of-2008?page=5
I didn’t vote for underrated or overrated album, or at least I don’t recall. My main challenge was trying to figure out how well rated things are by other people to figure out if an album is overrated or underrated. Now, my vote for overrated would probably go to The Fireman or Bon Iver!
Amid all the Bon Iver love, don’t forget to check out the Megafaun (Bon Iver’s former bandmates in DeYarmond Eddision) album which was true underrated (or at least under-recognized) gem. Justin put the album on his year-end list for pitchfork. (Hopefully he wasn’t just being sarcastic).
There’s lot’s to love in the album I think … great harmonies, little noisy interludes, occasional banjoes, and guitars which remind me a bit of Wilco before they were VWilco.
i don’t really disagree with either bon iver or the fireman being overrated, qwyn, and this from someone who really likes both. with the fireman, i was just surprised that PAUL MCCARTNEY was making a good record. if it were a no-name artist, it would have probably gotten a marching band or au treatment, you know? and bon iver… it’s all about “flume” and “skinny love.” that’s what carries that album, but those songs are also just amazing.
btw daniel, i realized for the first time yesterday that that top ten list taxonomy that you posted a week or two back? i wrote that. i have ZERO MEMORY of writing it, but apparently i did. bizarre!
What’s really funny is that My Morning Jacket showed up on all three lists…
Jim
PS Why did you guys add Bruce Cockburn’s entire catalog to the late 1980s and not tell anyone? Didn’t see a word in the RSS feeds or on your homepage. That’s an incredible addition to this website.
Agreed Jim. I’d have had no idea about the first 20 years of Bruce’s catalog if I hadn’t seen a mention on the message board. That’s among my top 5 emu events of the year…a whole new list, since we can never have enough of THOSE.
I dunno, Yancey. That’s really weird. Drinking too much?
happy holidays
These lists are great. But how the hell are you supposed to be able to find them on the emusic.com homepage if you don’t frequent 17dots? I don’t come to 17dots often, and would have completely missed out on these lists had i not seen them here. Where is the entire editorial / hub section that used to be on emusic (making these things easier to find) on the previous site design?
Will, Yancey (‘s) (and the ) Boys (HEH HEH) assure us that soon the editorial hubs will be back. The Best of lists were on the front page but probably have been remove since.
Metallica freakin RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!