perfidy

A cabal of three critics (Sasha Frere-Jones, Keith Harris and Rob Sheffield) are doing an end-of-the-year music roundup on Slate (a wholly owned subsidiary of Globocorp). The general concensus is that this year was a bery, bery good year for American pop music in general, and indie rock, hip hop and microhouse in general. Since I no longer live in New York, and no longer go up in da club ever since I realized that "da club" is in general a shitty experience, I have no idea what microhouse is. Very short house songs? House music where the hook is deconstructed and turned inside out? I already know about Moodymann, and I've always felt that house tracks go on too long. But that bit of Manhattanite insularity aside, go read: 's fun!

I haven't bought an album of new music this year since I picked up Erin McKeown's disappointing third album this past Spring, at least that I can remember. But I do listen to the radio a lot and watch MTV and VH-1 in the morning, when they play actual videos. So. Was it a good year for music? In general, sure it was. One of my personal favorite trends in hip-hop continued with artists boosting totally unlikely styles and making them work like a twenty-dollar lapdance. Li'l Joe's "Get Low" used schoolyard handclaps, Missy Elliott's "Pass The Dutch" used jumprope rhymes and Kelis' "Milkshake" used street percussion (you know, those dudes who play 5-gallon buckets and trashcan lids for money outside the subway). Coming on the heels of Truth Hurts' "Addictive" late last year, which featured a ridiculously great Indian taxi-driver music loop, I thank God every day we live in a global culture. It really is the shit.

Indie rock does seem to be on a bit of a run. The White Stripes have become more than critical darlings and are actually played on the radio some. Jet ripped off of the Strokes ripping off Sweet ripping off the Dolls with their excellent "Are You Gonna Be My Girl." The Strokes released a second album, I hear. I bet it's pretty good. But do a handful of great singles indicate a breakthrough for indie rock to mirror the "alternative" breakthrough of the early 90s? No. But it sure sounds good on the radio.

Disappointingly, Liz Phair and Jewel both released boring albums. We expected this from Jewel, who has all the talent of a roll of paper towels. But Liz... come on, Liz. "Volcano!" Remember "Volcano?" This glammy pop shit we can get from Madonna. Just about the only critic that disagrees with me on this is Sasha Frere-Jones writing at Slate. Her take:

We understand that Liz Phair is flipping the mainstream syntax something fierce, but others think she "committed an embarrassing form of career suicide" with her brilliant new album. Her new album has sold 245,284 copies in six months, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while her previous album whitechocolatespaceegg has had five years to sell 274,542. This is why we love record companies! Because, for all the wrong reasons, they can get it right sometimes.

Well, Sasha, I disagree with both your opinion and your reasoning. Her new album isn't brilliant to my ears, merely tired and calculated. And to compare her new record, which got both pop radio and MTV exposure, with whitechocolatespaceegg which got neither and was widely recieved as a fan-only record to boot, is fatuous. I'm thrilled that "wcse" sold a quarter million, and a little surprised. I'm only sad that Liz Phair's moment of greatest exposure came when she apparently has run out of interesting things to say.

My favorite album of the year: Speakerboxx/The Love Below by Outkast. It's like Prince driving the Mothership with Eric B. and Rakim riding shotgun. It really is that weird and it really is that good.

I don't have a least favorite album of the year. I don't buy albums I don't like.