There's no sense of DISCOVERY, no sense that the critics know something I don't. Other Top 10 lists might have a popular artist on them that i'll give a second listen to ('oh, The Times rates Justin Timberlake's new album, i'll give it a listen instead of dismissing it') or obscure stuff that i'll want to track down or...
I'm not sure it's that other lists are interesting because critics don't know something you don't. Critics are just people who are paid to listen to as much music as they possibly can, to think about music and take it seriously as an art, and to write about it at every opportunity. However, critics are people who steep themselves in a certain artform; while the bulk of their work is simple "reviewing", they also write cultural pieces, contextualize and re-contextualize the art, and fashion critical pieces about genres, bands, eras, albums, etc etc.
So as pretentious as it is, if critics know something you don't, it's because that's their job. Critics give their opinions on music, but they also give you a good idea if you'd like the music even if they didn't. They help people discover bands by talking about them, giving them press, whether it's via simple reviews or critical pieces, or lists. So while I hate the idea of ranking albums as better than others, they do tend to help people say "why did this album I've never heard of get placed above one that I love?!"
This is a long winded way of saying, I agree and understand with what you're trying to say about this list being boring and safe.
Exactly.
I'm a sometime critic, though I don't get paid for it- it just means that this year i got sent free music, and some of you probably didn't. By being forced to listen to all that music, i've got a wider knowledge base (slightly wider, since i'm not much of a critic and I didn't get sent many albums). In this case it just makes me say 'yeah, The Hold Steady, same stuff you've heard from every other critic, best band ever, etc'- the limited selection I got sent dosen't have anything that'll make me say 'to hell with Joanna Newsom and Tom Waits, you need to check out [Melbourne dream-pop band] Gersey' (though you really should).
BUT I saw the Amazon Top 10 indie albums list, and that was mostly albums I didn't have. In one case they mention Band of Horses and i'm thinking of paying to see them tommorow based on the review. Its new things - the critics got mailed a bunch of albums and listened to them and said 'no, check THIS out'. I like lists where i'm like 'wow, i need to check out this album!'
But then you get into valuing obscurity over talent. Maybe this list is correct, and that while there might be more obscure records that I haven't heard, in the end you can count on Newsom and M Ward and Bob Dylan and Waits for quality, and that my conservatism in buying/pirating their albums was justified (also conservatism in the sense that they are old artists or work with very old forms)
Jolijn, i'm not convinced that M.Ward should have been 1 or 2 after having listened to it these past few days, and with some of these artists i'm not sure how you can grade them - Joanna Newsom and Tom Waits MEAN certain things to me, and MEAN them in such a fashion that i'm not sure where you can rank them with other artists. What context can you put her into?
