News Roundup: 11/3/2009
November 3rd, 2009 | 3:43 pm est |
Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois is the best album of the 2000s, according to a recent list issued by Paste Magazine. Bright Eyes, Radiohead, Kid A, Arcade Fire, and Wilco also occupy the top five. [PasteMagazine.com]
Chris Brown has unveiled the futuristic cover art for Graffiti, the singer’s first release since his highly publicized attack on Rihanna earlier this year. The image features a suit-clad, guitar-wielding Brown aiming a can of spray paint at a clump of cartoon cartoons. [MTV.com]
Guitarist James Williamson will reunite with the Stooges for a 2010 tour, marking Williamson’s first run with the band in nearly three decades. [BBC.co.uk]
Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” is now the top pop song in the country, making Lady Gaga the first musician in the 17-year history of Billboard’s Pop Songs chart to issue four number one singles from a debut album. Avril Lavigne and Ace of Base are tied for second place, both having notched three chart-topping hits from their debuts. [Billboard.com]
Mere hours after the release of his solo debut, Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas has announced his next project: a cover of the holiday song “I Wish It Was Christmas Today,” which originated during a Saturday Night Live skit starring Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, and Tracy Morgan. [Pitchfork.com]
If you want to destroy my sweater, go ahead… as long as you leave my Snuggie alone. Just in time for the holiday season, Weezer has unveiled its own band-branded line of Snuggies, which can be purchased in tandem with the group’s newest album, Raditude. For the more lucrative fan, we recommend the Safari Snuggie deluxe package. [Spinner.com]
Paste Magazine’s list doesn’t contain an album by Modest Mouse, Elbow, Oceansize or Tool. surely Popcritic darlings Radiohead (or beck) appear more than once with albums that sound like 1997. Maybe Pearl Jam, dEUS, Nine Inch Nails could be added in that list too.
At least Arcade Fire got the spot it deserved, the professionals of Paste Magazine were not completely wallowing in their own haughty world.
Yeesh, even [URL=”http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7710-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-20-1/”]pitchfork’s[/URL] list was better than that! But then I bet both of these will probably get a re-evaluation in the future, rushed and short-sighted as they are. Bring on Allmusic’s which should trump them all!
So i am the only person who thought that album was garbage.
At least Arcade Fire got the spot it deserved, the professionals of Paste Magazine were not completely wallowing in their own haughty world.
Sufjan Stevens album has been a favorite of mine and will be for years to come. It is so universal in its lyrics and musical content, but it’s so personal to Stevens, it’s amazing. Illinois truly deserves all of the praise it receives.
Sufjan Stevens? Who? I had to look him up. This album? Terrible. Then I looked up Paste magazine, having never heard of those donkeys either. “… the magazine also covers independent film and books”, according to wikipedia. Which explains a lot.
Why would anybody say it that way, you can easily get your point across in a polite and courteous way. Lets all just get a long.
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randy
wow gold
Look at the list and listen. Do you think anybody will be listening to any of them 5 years from now? How about 3 years from now? Wilco? Maybe, but if the last few years is any indication, maybe not. Wonder how that 50 states, 50 CD project is coming along Sufjan? Oh, and I’m sure we’ll have Arcade Fire around forever . . . . Paste, due to poor circulation, will become a website within a year and then vanish from the planet. “Best of” lists are just a marketing ploy. Go out and make your own music.
Paste was a great magazine when it first emerged and sadly has been going downhill for the last several years, now it seems it’s going the way of No Depression and will just appear online. And just like when Stern went to satellite radio, his audience didn’t follow- I haven’t looked at No Depression in ages, mostly because I just don’t think about it. Thank god for Mojo, the best music mag on the planet!
Eat Paste.
God is spelled M-O-J-O.
I don’t know why people get so upset about this kind of lists. Just take a look at the music each publication covers and thats the kind of list you can expect. If you want other artists to get the mention, go to the mags or sites that cover them.
As for me an this whole “year/decade/century/whatever -end lists” internet thing, I agree with some picks, disagree with others, feel there are omissions in each, just like anybody else; but am i the only one who’s getting that these are just opinions from specific critics and nowhere in them is there a clause that says “we hold the absolute truth about the universe”? jeez. Not even if god made a list would everyone agree.
So, keep bitchin’, or go make your own ultimate list and post it on your blog so everyone can complaint about it and tell you how full of crap you are for prefering something over the other.
couldn’t agree with “daniel o” any more. i think “highonhendrix” probably has a wolfmother album on his top 5 of the decade. why can’t people just be fans of GOOD music instead of genres. paste covers a pretty wide variety of genres.
one thing i DO disagree with Paste on is Wilco. maybe i just don’t get them, but i think they are the most overrate indie darlings EVER. musically, lyrically, tonally: BORING.
I have been seeing a lot of this lists. This is so far the worst of them. So predictable, nothing surprises you, except the omission of several great records. Where’s Joanna Newsom’s Ys or Antony’s I Am A Bird Now ? It was a very rushed unoriginal list. It was like: let’s get pitchfork list, pick 30 of them and add 20. I already have all of these records, and in NO WAY Death cab for cutie album (its a great one, but…) is better than Ys or I Am A Bird Now. It’s a list that tries to be one full of albums that made everyone’s lists, but missing some terrific and important albums that made everyone’s list
So I listened to Sufjan Stevens. Pretty good, but the best album of the 2000s? Definitely not.
I think they’re all great artists, would love to work with any of them.