Excellent list that has given me lots to check out. The list of Berlin shows is almost as exciting to me as I'm finally making my first trip there next month and I'm itching to see some live music on my trip.
Enjoyed the list. Only two of which I haven't yet heard (Black Duck, PJ Harvey). Been praising the Gomes, both on music forums and on my show. Also, check spelling on Dlugoszewski - hard name, so I understand.
I'm not a writer, so I'm wondering why end-of-the-year lists aren't compiled actually *during* the year. You hear something good and write it down - you hear something else good and jot it down above or below the previous recording, and so on. At the end of the year, all you have to do is maybe move a few of them around after extended listening thru the year and you're done. Is it just lack of discipline over the year?
I don't do "best-ofs" on my show - just highlight the things I think are/were worthwhile, but I know that people who like a person's writing style may look to them for some guidance on what to listen to next. I agree that there's a lot of junk released - like our late colleague, Dan Scanlan, used to say picking out an album randomly out of a record bin, "Someone out there thinks that this is the best album ever!" - but the "junk" we're aware of is as influential to our listening habits as much as the "worthwhile" ones with the ratio probably not all that different than pre-Internet times. "Unlistenable" is nearly synonymous with "unreadable" titles inside your local library since the day we were born. All the more reason to be informative in writing as well on the "airwaves" - a consolidator of personal taste that one hopes their readers/listeners will enjoy.
Thanks, Rod, and thanks for the Dlugoszewski correction. Cut-and-paste can spread one typo like wildfire. I should have elaborated on the December process, which is more about trying to catch up on all the things I didn't get to.
Excellent list that has given me lots to check out. The list of Berlin shows is almost as exciting to me as I'm finally making my first trip there next month and I'm itching to see some live music on my trip.
Enjoyed the list. Only two of which I haven't yet heard (Black Duck, PJ Harvey). Been praising the Gomes, both on music forums and on my show. Also, check spelling on Dlugoszewski - hard name, so I understand.
I'm not a writer, so I'm wondering why end-of-the-year lists aren't compiled actually *during* the year. You hear something good and write it down - you hear something else good and jot it down above or below the previous recording, and so on. At the end of the year, all you have to do is maybe move a few of them around after extended listening thru the year and you're done. Is it just lack of discipline over the year?
I don't do "best-ofs" on my show - just highlight the things I think are/were worthwhile, but I know that people who like a person's writing style may look to them for some guidance on what to listen to next. I agree that there's a lot of junk released - like our late colleague, Dan Scanlan, used to say picking out an album randomly out of a record bin, "Someone out there thinks that this is the best album ever!" - but the "junk" we're aware of is as influential to our listening habits as much as the "worthwhile" ones with the ratio probably not all that different than pre-Internet times. "Unlistenable" is nearly synonymous with "unreadable" titles inside your local library since the day we were born. All the more reason to be informative in writing as well on the "airwaves" - a consolidator of personal taste that one hopes their readers/listeners will enjoy.
Thanks, Rod, and thanks for the Dlugoszewski correction. Cut-and-paste can spread one typo like wildfire. I should have elaborated on the December process, which is more about trying to catch up on all the things I didn't get to.