Vendetta Against Year End Lists
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Don't get me wrong. I love High Fidelity. I make Top 5 lists in my head near-constantly. I will, on cue, give you my Top 5 Favorite Eno albums (Music For Airports, Discreet Music, Here Come The Warm Jets, The Plateux of Mirror, Thursday Afternoon) or Top 5 Track One, Side One's (Sonic Youth's "Teen Age Riot", The Jesus & Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey", Joy Division's "Disorder", Mogwai's "Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home", Wilco "At Least That's What You Said") but something in me has it out for these "Best of The Year" Lists. I'm not sure what it is. I think maybe it's because I'm in the firm opinion that music takes a long time to fully sink in, especially when one is young. There are records I loved when I was 18 that I won't even admit to owning today. I'm pretty sure a ska band was listed somewhere in my top records when I was a teenager. And not even one of the good ones. As I've gotten a little older, I've listened to decidedly more mature music. And I've tried to take records in pondering the question "Will I want to listen to this in 5 years?" Some may criticize that as being an elitist or rock snob, but I look at it as more of a financial and emotional insurance. I wasted SO much money on bands I don't even like anymore. They money I spent at Newbury Comics 2002-2004 was probably enough to pay my rent for a year or more. And it was all fleeting, the equivelant of forking your money over to a cheap prostitute and having a fling only to be left feeling more empty than you felt before. Since then I've learned to have a more discerning ear, and while I'm no Rob Fleming (not Gordon, all you Cusack people, read the book) I have developed a fairly stiff backbone when it comes to buying records. I still make mistakes now and then (my Firey Furnaces CD will someday appear in a used record store, I'm sure) I've been fairly sucessfull in purchasing only stuff that I'm sure will stay with me the longest. However, mistake this not as playing it safe. I'm always open to new directions, new sounds. I'm always headed into personally uncharted territory. What I also am doing is knowing myself a little better and giving myself credit for my intelligence.Anyway, back to the list, thing. Year-End lists are deceitful. Music that is critically lauded today is tomorrow the stuff of dollar bins. I guarantee you The Killers will be nowhere in 5 years. If they are, I have serious doubts about the competancy of the American record buying people. I'm convinced that people will eventually realize they sound like terrible rip-off of all their influences. Corrin Tucker said of the whole popular post-punk revival: "They sound like Gang of Four, if Gang of Four sucked." My point is bands that get big are often bands that are forgotten about or even loathed in time. Top 10 records from a sample year during the early 90's would've seen the likes of Nirvana and a plethora of copycat bands equally as praised at the time, but only in retrospect have people began to see through the lesser doppleganger music of the time, while discovering bands they didn't even know about then which are way better then what they were probably listening to (Teenage Fanclub! Chavez!).So, I guess my point in this whole thing is that people should be careful with ther record buying choices. Resist junk food music. It's immediately satisfying, but you'll regret it later. And always re-evaluate your judgements. Don't assume a record will treat you the same way in 5 years as it does today. We change, and the record doesn't. What changes is how we hear the record. (P.S. I apologize for any disgusting spelling and grammar mistakes. I am exhausted.)
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