Archive for the ‘Lists’ Category

« Older Entries

A Statistical Analysis of Pitchfork’s Ratings pt. 2

Monday, March 21st, 2011

About a year ago, I whipped together a quick look into Pitchfork’s album rating system in order to give artists who have been reviewed by the site a better understanding of what their numerical value actually meant. In order to do so, I compiled a more-or-less complete breakdown of p4ks album reviews of original music (no reissues, no live albums, no “greatest hits”) from February 24, 2009 to February 24, 2010 and displayed the scores in more meaningful percentiles. I also made a series of observations concerning their “Best New Music” designation which produced a little bit of a stir.

Now, a year later, I decided it would be interesting to see if the dynamic of Pitchfork’s ratings system has changed over time by briefly analyzing album ratings from February 25, 2010 to February 25, 2011 against my previous data set. Again, I focused my attention on original content which meant I had to go through each album review individually and see if it met my criteria for inclusion. In addition to the items mentioned above, soundtracks, label compilations, and comedy albums were excluded but EPs, remix albums, and mixtapes were deemed OK as I wanted to maintain consistency with the previous year’s analysis. The first astonishing thing I noticed when putting together the data sets was how the total number of original albums reviewed by the site were nearly identical from 2009 to 2010 (1025 and 1027, respectively)!

So without further ado, let’s get to some plots (click on the images to view a slightly larger size):

The above histogram shows the distribution of the scores for each year. Glancing at the figures, you can easily tell that there is good agreement between the two years (in fact, the correlation coefficient is .9336, indicating that the data is strongly correlated). This was expected as any long-time p4k readers can attest to the fact that:

  • Pitchfork tends to not review low performing albums (the reason why the plots are negatively skewed).
  • A majority of album ratings fall within the 6.0 – 8.0 range.
  • An extremely small amount are of high quality, explaining the dearth of albums achieving 9.0 and above.

However, a more detailed inspection between the two histograms show a couple of interesting differences. For one, the most recent data set (I’ll refer to it as “albums from 2010″ from now on, which is somewhat of misnomer but close enough for our purposes) shows ratings centered at a higher value than the previous year’s data (which I’ll refer to as “albums from 2009″). This can be shown more clearly by looking at the two histograms overlapped on each other. What this implies is that the albums from 2010 were rated more favorably than albums from 2009.

Another interesting find when you compare the two histograms is that the most frequent album rating has changed from 7.0 to 7.5 over the past year. Not only that, but the number of occurrences for the most common rating has increased 20% (51 vs. 61 albums). In a related point, the 2010 histogram is noticeably more concentrated in the 6.5-8.2 range than the 2009 plot. This implies that Pitchfork is not distributing the scores as evenly in 2010 as compared with 2009. It’s common knowledge that Pitchfork doesn’t fully utilize the 100 potential rating options in the most effective manner (see: normal distribution), however, the fact that they are classifying more albums in less of a range is disheartening at best and troubling at worst. I call this trend towards album ratings homogeneity the “Rolling Stone Effect.”

Looking at the box plots of the data confirm both of these conclusions:

Notice the median score, denoted by the red vertical line in the box, shows an increase of .2 points between the two years (7.0 to 7.2) as well as lower quartile increase of .2 points and an upper quartile increase of .1 points. This confirms that, according to Pitchfork, albums from 2010 were generally better than albums from 2009. Also, the difference between the lower and upper quartile has shrunk by .1 (1.4 from 1.5) — and it would have been reduced a further tenth of a point if not for an uncharacteristically high amount of albums garnering an 5.8 rating in 2010 (notice the spike on the histogram at that value). This indicates that the range where a majority of albums score is indeed reducing.

Here are the percentile breakdowns for 2009 and 2010 so that any artist or band whose been fortunate enough to have gotten reviewed by the site can see how they stack up against other albums released within the same year. These percentiles also show how in 2010 an artist had to score a higher value in order to remain in the same percentile, further convincing us that p4k viewed 2010 as a better year in music than 2009:

Switching gears and looking at album’s that achieved the “Best New Music” designation, much of the same complaints from last year still apply:

After last year’s post, a lot of people expressed the position that the “Best New Music” category was meant for high quality albums that are easily accessible to the average music listener. As a result, this would automatically disqualify genres such as metal, electronic offshoots, and jazz. Even if taking this stance, I personally feel that these high scoring albums from “unfamiliar” genres should at least be better represented in the year-end lists (Kylesa landed at #44 and Forest Swords at #48 with Actress and Guido getting Honorable Mentions).

Well that does it for this year! If you want to run some other stats of your own, you can download my raw data here. I have a lot of ideas on where to go further with this project that (dependent, of course, if I have the time). Oh, one last thing I’d like to point out before saying adieu: of all the hyperlinked items and searchable content that is on the pitchfork site (artists, albums, labels, etc…), I find it incredibly surprising that you can not search for album reviews by rating or writer. It isn’t too terribly complicated to code these features and they would be incredibly helpful for site readers (especially data miners like myself). OK, on to the discussion!

Tags: , ,
Posted in Album Reviews, Lists, Musical Musings | 15 Comments »

Top 10 Cassettes / 7”s of 2010

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Really, this list could be “PT-Music’s Top Ten Cassettes/7”s of the latter half of 2010″ since almost every entry is from July forward. I don’t know what my deal was for the first part of 2010, but I guess I didn’t buy that many records. Anyways, in no particular order here are some of my favorite cassette and 7” releases from Oh Ten:

Angel Olsen // Strange Cacti

Easily my favorite cassette of the year. Released by my favorite tape label Bathetic Records (and quickly re-released to no avail – both “pressings” are sold-out), Olsen sweetly croons about love, loss, and lost love. At the surface level, you get a series of pleasant sounding singer/songwriter tracks which you eat up like candy, but when you start attentively listening to the lyrics and storytelling (not sure how much is story and how much is real life for Olsen) you discover the haunting undertones and the darker side of the songs. A truly breathtaking recording.
Angel Olsen // Creator, Destroyer

Ducktails // Lost

Another sold-out cassette (sorry guys! not meaning to rub it in your faces…), this instrumental by Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile “combines outtakes from the new record (Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics), plus some lost gems from the past year.” Although most of it is just Mondanile dicking around playing seemingly improvised guitar licks with innumerable combinations of pedals, it’s nice to get a intimate peak at how some of these songs are constructed from the ground up.
Ducktails // Hamilton Road

The Numerators // Human Blanket

Coming at you with six tracks in a whopping 10 minutes and 52 seconds, it’s no stretch to say that this cassette released by Brooklyn (via Lubbock) acid/garage rockers The Numerators packs a punch. Although not a replacement for their live show, you do get an idea of what the band’s about (most notably the spastic 28 second “Take It Easy” that leaves you asking “what the fuck just happened”) which, when talking about The Numerators, is no easy feat!
The Numerators // That’s So Raiden

Coasting // S/T

My favorite 7’’ of the year comes from a badass duo of Brooklyn garage-rockers Madison Farmer and Fiona Campbell. These ladies have no qualms about leaving your face smeared on the dashboard, taking you into warp speed 9 with their blazing guitar licks and fast-tempo drumming. What’s great about this Group Tightener release is that it includes my two favorite tracks: the instrumental shred-fest “Coasting” and the more subdued (with vocals!) noise ballad “Hots for Teacher”.
Coasting // Coasting

Memoryhouse // Caregiver

One of two Suicide Sqeeze 7’’s I bought this past year (the other being a Coathangers/Numerators split), this bedroom-pop record by Canadian dreamers Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion keeps pace with the myriad of mp3s released by the duo in 2010. Smooth and airy, it’s easy to get lost in the melodies and vocals of any Memoryhouse song with “Caregiver” and “Heirloom” (the two tracks featured on this 7’’) is not an exception.
Memoryhouse // Caregiver

Gobble Gobble // Lawn Knives

I don’t know if there is a musician who is held at such high esteem in the blog world as Cecil Frena. I’m by no means a noteworthy blogger, yet every e-mail I get from him is friendly, personalized, and – as expected with Gobble Gobble – highly interesting. After coming onto the scene like a nuclear explosion, blasting out mp3-after-mp3, a pair of “proper” releases (courtesy of Royal Rhino Records) finally graced our presence at the end of the year. For those who want an introduction to the spastic concoctions Cecil & Co. produce, the 7’’ is a perfect start.
Gobble Gobble // Lawn Knives

Magic Kids / Smith Westers // Split 7’’

My favorite split record from the past year, this Fat Possum released 7’’ features the raucous anthem-ready jam “Imagine Pt. 3” from Chicago underage indie-rockers Smith Westerns and the bouncy, light-hearted “Superball” from Memphis’s Magic Kids. The 7’’ also gets my album cover trophy of the year, with each band parodying a previous album’s cover from the other.
Magic Kids // Superball

Cosmetics // Sleepwalker

Although not as good as their previous Captured Tracks 7’’, “Sleepwalker” is a woozy, synth-heavy dance track that you’ve come to expect from the Canadian couple. Printed on clear vinyl (a nice touch!), this recording is almost too beautiful to play! When you finally decide to take the plunge and place a needle on it, you get transported to a nameless trendy club where upstairs they’re playing the A-side and downstairs, in the dark basement, their spinning the B.
Cosmetics // Sleepwalking

Seamonster // Two Birds

This five-track (!) 7’’ gives The Numerators a run for its money when it comes to bang-for-your-buck. Seamonster is the brainchild of Virgina’s self-professed “ambient/psychedelic/folk” musician Adrian Todd Webb, and with Two Birds you get just that: ambient/psych/folk tracks pieced together perfectly. Head over to Gold Robot Records to cop the release.
Seamonster // Oh Appalachia

Cloudland Canyon // Mothlight Pt. 2 | In the Cold

The first vinyl release from Bathetic Records and it’s a doozy! Smooth fuzzed out jams that you can seriously vibe out to — what more could you really want?
Cloudland Canyon // Mothlight (Part 2)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in 7'' Series, Lists, Musical Musings | 1 Comment »

Top 35 “Albums” of 2010

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

Got to say, work and stuff had me a little delayed with creating my year end lists for 2010 and I did a little bit of a half-assed job with constructing them (I’ve already thought of two glaring omissions) but nevertheless, it’s time for a celebration!

For me, Twenty Ten was a stellar year in music, choke-full of inventive and highly imaginative albums, which made it incredibly difficult to narrow them down to a Top 100 yet alone a Top 35! For this year, I decided to do the list a little differently. Instead of scrupulously going through every album in my iTunes library to find the ones from this past year — a process which is a bit more time consuming than my limited free time allows — I decided to just use my memory to list out the albums which stuck with me the most.

For anyone who knows me, this process seems laughable (when it comes to names/facts, I have a terrible retention rate), however I feel like I got down almost all of my favorite albums. To correct any errors, I’m going to post a second part to the list entitled “The Best Of The Forgotten” a couple of weeks from now, so if you have any suggestions/recommendations of music which I’ve overlooked, feel free to leave a comment!

So without further ado, here are my favorite albums of 2010 which I remembered. Oh and one more thing, if you just want a bulleted list without the descriptions, scroll down to the very bottom (there is also a .zip file containing all the tracks featured). OK NOW, LET’S DO THIS:

Stalker // mp3s

This year’s recipient of the Scott Walker award — given annually to a far out-there yet interestingly enjoyable album — is not even an album at all, but more of a collection of molasses-paced mp3s by Chicago innovator Stalker. Signed to fellow forward-thinkers Tri Angle Records, Stalker’s modus operandi is chopping & screwing further than what most people like to chop & screw a track, pushing radio-friendly hits (Lindsey Lohan and These New Puritans have both been slow-moed) to uncomfortable boundaries.
Stalker // Final_1

Joanna Newsom // Have One on Me

I don’t know if it was unintentional or maybe a slight to the inevitable critics complaint that Have One on Me is a bit long-winded, but I absolutely loved how Ms. Newsom opens up her latest opus with a track entitled “Easy” – something that, for the listener, this album is definitely not. For those who still can’t get past the uniqueness of Newsom’s voice or choice of instrumentation (aka “the haters”), the 3xLP is three-times as grating, but for the lucky ones, we get two plus hours of sweetly melodic, musically intricate, and always lovely hit-after-hit.
Joanna Newsom // In California

Salad Fork // A Mixtape for Haiti

Probably more so than any other year, I’ve fallen prey to the ever expanding collections of mixtape compilations that circulate the web at roughly 3.00*10^8 m/s. In an effort to not overpopulate this list with these e-gems, I narrowed it down to a single one: Salad Fork’s Mixtape for Haiti. Although the cause was enough for a donation (relief for earthquake victims in Haiti), the album itself boasts one of the nicest blends of tracks that can fit on an artfully decorated two-sided cassette. Well done Lou!
Weekend // All-American

Woods // At Echo Lake

Like most, I was incredibly amped when Brooklyn based psych-folk outfit Woods released “Suffering Season” a mere days before At Echo Lake was scheduled to drop, instantly making it one of my most anticipated albums of the year. Unfortunately, these incredibly high expectations were ultimately too much to overcome (and placing below the number 15 ranking Songs of Shame garnered last year), but regardless, we’re left with a collection of ten well-composed palatable tracks that I’ll always like to listen to on rainy days.
Woods // Death Rattles

Pocahaunted // Make It Real

At the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have dared put money that Bethany Costentino (aka Best Coast) would have found herself below the band she had jilted. Where Costentino went “safe” with her boy-crazy debut LP, Pocahaunted vaulted deeper into the freak-out/you-don’t-know-what-the-fuck-is-about-to-happen realm (something I was hoping a little bit more of from Woods), creating one of their best efforts to date.
Pocahaunted // UFO

Casiokids // Topp stemning på lokal bar

It’s been no secret that I’ve been following this fun-loving Norwegian electro-pop group since pretty much its I N C E P T I O N, championing anything and everything that the band has released in the past three years. After much waiting, we finally find ourselves with the debut from this collection of kids-at-heart that’s perfect for any afternoon play dates in the sandbox. As an added bonus, the remix album (featuring reimaginations of Casiokids’ songs from Familjen and Captain Credible among others) paired with the release is just as good!
Casiokids // Verdens største land

Cloud Nothings // Turning On

2010 seemed to be a year where up-and-comers overshadowed indie rock stalwarts, and Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings is one of the best examples of this. Turning On is chiefly a collection of the guitar-centric, fuzzed-out mp3 and 7’’ releases that Dylan Baldi had made through the latter parts of 2009 and early 2010 and was a staple on both my turntable and my car’s stereo.
Cloud Nothings // Hey Cool Kid

Flying Lotus // Cosmogramma

A schizophrenic assault on the ears, Fly Lo’s latest is a complicated assortment of sounds and layers that, although not as digestible as Los Angeles, shows when it comes to music producing no one is as experimental as him.
Flying Lotus // Computer Face / Pure Being

Gobble Gobble // mp3s

In a year that was deep with exciting new acts, there was nothing this year – or any year, in fact – quite like the spastic musical outpourings of the gang that call themselves Gobble Gobble. Whether it was taking a hyperactive spin to a classic favorites (The Pixies “Where Is My Mind”) or reinventions of other emerging groups (Diamond Rings, Cloud Nothings, DOM, etc…) or their very own dance-party-in-a-track concoctions, one thing is for certain with Gobble Gobble: you’re guaranteed to have a good time listening to every track!
Gobble Gobble // End of Days

Liars // Sisterworld

Got to admit, I was a bit disappointed with how Sisterworld turned out. I was hoping for a mind-altering musical experience when the needle struck the vinyl for the first time, and what I got was another album cut in almost the same weird-rock mold as its two predecessors. Although not meeting my expectations, I still thoroughly enjoyed Sisterworld. I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, eh?
Liars // Proud Evolution

Crystal Castles // Crystal Castles

Not to be confused with the S/T which wound up near the top of my ’08 list, the sophomore release by the Canadian 8-bit/electro-er…-something duo was not an instant grab like its predecessor. In fact, I was going to omit it from the list completely if it wasn’t for Jheri from Get Off the Coast campaigning for a relisten! The album’s second chance came in the form of blasting it out on some high quality home stereo equipment (a method which made Sleigh Bell’s “Treats” passable for an album), and needless to say the dance-worthy tracks appeared less flat and more energetic than I remembered while the ballads remained just as potent as ever.
Crystal Castles // Vietnam

Toro y Moi // Causers of This

Another album that was a slow grower for me, I really didn’t get a complete impression of Chaz Bundwick & Co. until after I saw them live this past autumn. Too high-brow to be considered glo-fi (or whatever the nom du jour is) yet still capturing the nostalgic feeling as his contemporaries, Toro y Moi fulfills a niche that the myriad of imitators somehow missed. And did I mention his live show is awesome?!?
Toro y Moi // Causers Of This

Twin Sister // Color Your Life

I’ve had a Twin Sister post in my queue for about seven months now which I revisit often, never quite putting to words the impression this NYC band makes on me. I’ve tried and tried rewriting it countless times but somehow it’s always deficient and incomplete. So I’ll just throw up my hands and tell you you should download this album (if you are one of the two people who haven’t done that already) and get lost in their pleasant pop sounds.
Twin Sister // All Around and a Way We Go

White Denim // Last Day of Summer

Maybe it’s a Texas thing, but I’m always impressed by the recordings of Austin’s White Denim and am constantly surprised by the lack of coverage of them by the blog-o-world. For the past four years, this four-piece has been consistently releasing hit “indie-rock” (I use the term loosely) record after hit record yet they somehow get lost in the shuffle. Whether it’s your first exposure to them or if you’re already a fan, Last Day of Summer is sure to be a great listen.
White Denim // Some Wild Going Outward

jj // K I L L S Mixtape

Let’s be honest, jj’s no.3, also released in 2010, should have been a collection of B-sides to no.2 rather than a fresh LP. Thankfully, the Swedish hip-hop inspired electro-pop duo of Joakim Benon and Elin Kastlander redeemed themselves in the nick of time with the release of this badass mixtape on Christmas Eve. KILLS is a collection of hip-hop samples and rap lyrics (sung sweetly by Elin) amalgamated in quasi-random fashion to surprisingly great results – an end-of-year treat to a solid year of music!
jj // STILL

Harlem // Hippies

My favorite original garage rock release of the year, Harlem’s tracks are more like short stories with their albums bounding them into a nice collection. The group finds the perfect balance between hard-driving melodies and storybook lyrics that captivate you in perfect three-minute chunks. In an album of sixteen tracks, it’s amazing that there is not a throwaway in the bunch.
Harlem // Tila and I

Various Artists // Sahel Sounds

For lovers of “world music” (like chillwave, another moniker I can’t stand), this collection of cell-phone recorded tracks from Sahara Africa is a must-have. Nothing boils my blood more than when people describe African music as nothing more than a novelty listen – pleasant enough, but uninspired. With Sahel Sounds, you get such inventiveness in a dearth of instrumentation (most tracks feature just an acoustic guitar) that it makes you wonder about the state of monochromatic singer/songwriter “coffee shop” music that inundates the Western world.
Abba Ahmedou // Ishumar Guitar

Mountain Man // Made the Harbor

Even before a proper release, the near-a capella sounds of Vermont’s Mountain Man made many Best of 2009 lists (including yours truly). 2010 was a banner year for this all-female folk trio, releasing an EP on Underwater Peoples and an LP on Partisan Records that collected their massively downloaded mp3s of the prior year along with some new gems. Although the recording doesn’t come close to capturing their captivating live performance, it serves as a good representation of the band’s talent.
Mountain Man // Animal Tracks

Oneohtrix Point Never // Returnal

One would be crazy to think that you represent the complex synth sounds of Daniel Lopatin in a few sentences without the aid of psychotropic drugs, so I won’t even try…
Oneohtrix Point Never // Stress Waves

Explode Into Colors // Quilts

Similar to Mountain Man’s full-length, this “LP” by Portland garage rock band Explode Into Colors is more of a collection of their already released works (three sold-out 7’’s) than a new record. Regardless, for the uninitiated Quilts serves as a good introduction (or I guess conclusion since the band is now-defunct) to the wild bass/drum-dominated tracks this trio of women seem to effortlessly produce.
Explode Into Colors // Coffins

ceo // White Magic

You will not find a bigger lover of Swedish music than myself. It’s impossible. Whether it’s coming from Stockholm, Malmö, or Göteborg (arguably the epicenter) it doesn’t matter. If it has umlauts, some crazy vowel/consonant combination, or a feeling of icy ethereal to the music, I’m bound to love it. I’m constantly amazed by the impact this Scandinavian country of a paltry nine-million people have on music these days. Case in point, the electro-pop dance-tunes of ceo. The only complaint I have about the album is it’s short duration – twenty-eight minutes is enough to whet, but not satiate, my appetite for the inventive tracks of Eric Berglund.
ceo // White Magic

Glasser // Ring

Can we all agree that True Panther has been knocking every release out of the park? Ah man, just thinking about this album gives me the shivers: the combination of Cameron Mesirow’s angelic voice sung over sparsely laid instrumentation is a power to behold. I always love albums/songs which seem deceptively simple but when you start attentively listening to elements you find that they are overwhelming intricate, and Ring is one of the best examples of this this year.
Glasser // Apply

Pantha du Prince // Black Noise

When I first heard this album through the incredibly inadequate speakers on my laptop, I was like “meh”, but when I blasted from a more proper sound system I was like “Whole.Lee.Shit.” A lot has been made about Pantha’s dominance when it comes to composing bass lines, but I found myself gripped more from the oddball percussive elements he sprinkles and spatters across a track much like paint on a Pollock canvas. An amazing composition and no doubt one-step forward for electronic music.
Pantha du Prince // Abglanz

RxRy // Omega

Speaking of steps forward for electronic music, this year was fortunate to house the breakout albums (yes, plural) of semi-anonymous producer RxRy. Where most ambient electronic music is snooze-worthy, RxRy found a way to not only keep you interested in the music but also perk up your childhood imagination a little bit. When listening to Omega (the third of three LPs released this year by RxRy) you can’t help but envision a slew of fantasy micro-climates (lush rainforest, coastal crags, unending bodies of turbulent water, etc…) making it all the more enjoyable getting lost in the sound.
RxRy // Aertgo Lapsees

Memoryhouse // mp3s

Although releasing a couple of 7’’s, we unfortunately were not graced with a full length by bedroom-pop extraordinaires Memoryhouse. I don’t care, I’m including them on the list – and high up on it — anyways. I probably played every single mp3 of Evan Abeele and Denise Nouvion a hundred times, that’s how easily I drifted away alongside their sweet melodies and comforting vocals. One of my favorite emerging artists of this past year and I can’t wait for what 2011 has in store for them!
Memoryhouse // To the Lighthouse

Robyn // Body Talk

Team Sweden strikes again! If I had to describe to some alien what pop music is, I would probably slap Robyn’s Body Talk onto the turntable and give them a listen. To me, Robyn is the essence of pop and it’s unfortunate (or maybe, more appropriately, unjust) that it’s the Britney Spears of the world selling out arenas from Indonesia to Arizona rather than her.
Robyn // Hang With Me

Lower Dens // Twin-Hand Movement

Probably one of the few bands on this list that I can see both myself and a young adult version of parents listening to. Although distorted at times, Twin-Hand Movement is mostly a smooth enjoyable listen that’s fairly easy on the ears. The album is nothing particularly revolutionary but rather it’s just a great uncomplicated record done extremely well — something you don’t get too often nowadays.
Lower Dens // Completely Golden

Rraaiillss // 1098

I feel like Rraaiillss is The Sandwitches of 2010: a group (or in this case an individual) who makes unbelievably high quality music yet surprisingly doesn’t garner a shred of coverage. 1098 is an incredibly solid album that blazes through genres as diverse as shoegaze to bedroom-pop, leaving in its smoldering remnants a stunned and amazed listener whose only response is to hit replay. Equally unbelievable is the fact that the music – from drums, guitar, vocals, electronics – is produced solely by one person, Adam Anderson, who also somehow finds time to do some electronic stuff on the side.
Rraaiillss // Red String

Big Boi // Sir Lucious Left Foot

Although the masses might disagree, any diehard music fan would probably concede that Big Boi is the heart and soul of Outkast, with Andre 3000 providing the funk and funky. With Sir Lucious Left Foot, Big Boi showcases what he does best, writing fast-paced, complex rhymes over head-banging big-band beats which you can bump even in a 1996 Corolla. In a Lil Wayne-less year of music, Big Boi’s rapping provided a suitable replacement.
Big Boi (ft. Gucci Mane) // Shine Blockas

Kanye West // My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Of the stacks and stacks of positive reviews and effusing articles discussing the new Kanye album, the statement that stuck with me the most was from The New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones: “Good luck figuring out what kind of music this is, though it does contain rapping.” And that’s exactly why I love this album so much – it pushes the boundary in a genre that seems to have become overwhelmingly stagnant the past half decade. If anything, West deserves a gold medal for finally scrapping the most annoying thing about rap albums: skit interludes.
Kanye West // Power

How to Dress Well // Love Remains

I found myself coming back to this album by How to Dress Well more and more as the year ended. Maybe it’s the Bon Iver-esque falsetto vocals offset not by acoustic guitar but rather ambient R&B beats or the complexity in simplicity mantra (much like Glasser’s Ring), but whatever it is, I found myself absolutely loving this album when winter rolled around. Who knows, maybe if it was released a few months sooner it would have snuck into the top spot!
How to Dress Well // You Won’t Need Me Where I’m Goin’

The Knife In Collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock // Tomorrow, In A Year

No doubt the most cerebral of albums I listened to this year, this score for a Charles Darwin inspired opera composed by the Swedish electronic duo The Knife twisted and warped the concept of evolution in highly imaginative ways. Although their distinct pitch-shifted vocals are noticeably absent (except on the well-received track “Colouring of Pigeons” which features the singing of Karin Dreijer Andersson), the composition itself is a 22nd century incarnation of The Knife’s sharp synths and unusual sounding melodies. Tomorrow, In A Year is certainly not for the casual listener, but for the people who take the time to attentively listen and deconstruct the album, it’s a worthwhile treat.
The Knife // Colouring of Pigeons

Deerhunter // Halcyon Digest

What more can you say about Bradford Cox that hasn’t already been said? With a Ryan Adams-like proficiency – and more critically acclaimed to boot – the guy churns out high-quality albums like its second nature to him. Halcyon Digest is the latest in his dense discography (well, at the time of printing Halcyon Digest seems to have been replaced by a hefty FOUR albums Cox recorded in his bedroom that was released at the end of the year) and is one of his best. 60s pop-rock inspired, Cox shows that he knows a thing or two about how to string together simple melodies with sing-song songwriting to produce automatic hits.
Deerhunter // Desire Lines

James Blake // CMYK

Hands down, my favorite album(s) (CMYK is one of three EPs released in ’10) from an up-and-coming artist this year came by way of twenty-two year old British producer James Blake. Although dubstep and ambient are no doubt influences, I’m not quite sure you can conveniently pigeonhole Mr. Blake’s compositions into a nice little well-packaged genre. As you’ve seen from many of the prior Best Of picks, this lack of categorization seems to be desirable not only from my perspective but also from more influential music lovers (it’s only a matter of time before “ungenre” becomes a genre). The combination of the age and the music makes me so excited to see what Blake has in store for us with his February scheduled debut LP release.
James Blake // CMYK

Beach House // Teen Dream

Hands down, the most listened to and most loved album of the year for me (and it seems for a lot of other people as well). I was a little late to jump on the Beach House bandwagon — in ’08 I famously declared to many that I just didn’t “get it”— but Teen Dream helped bridged the gap in my lack of understanding. Like most, I’ve helplessly fallen head over heels for the sweet crooning of Victoria Legrand and the delicate melodies composed by her keyboard playing and Alex Scally’s guitar plucking. In a year that saw so much complex and boundary-pushing music, it was always refreshing knowing that I had Beach House’s simple, yet beautifully constructed tracks to cleanse the palate when all was said and done. A great album that tops a great year in music!
Beach House // 10 Mile Stereo

You can download all the tracks featured in this list from the two .zip files here and here. I recommend sorting via “Date Created” to get the tracks in order. Here’s a recap of my Top 35 Albums of 2010:

1: Beach House // Teen Dream
2: James Blake // CMYK
3: Deerhunter // Halcyon Digest
4: The Knife // Tomorrow, In a Year
5: How to Dress Well // Love Remains
6; Kanye West // My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
7: Big Boi // Sir Lucious Left Foot…
8: Rraaiillss // 1098
9: Lower Dens // Twin-Hand Movement
10: Robyn // Body Talk
11: Memoryhouse // mp3s
12: RxRy // Omega
13: Pantha du Prince // Black Noise
14: Glasser // Ring
15: ceo // White Magic
16: Explode Into Colors // Quilts
17: Oneohtrix Point Never // Returnal
18: Mountain Man // Made the Harbor
19: Various Artists // Sahel Sounds
20: Harlem // Hippies
21: jj // KILLS
22: White Denim // Last Day of Summer
23: Twin Sister // Color Your Life
24: Toro y Moi // Causers Of This
25: Crystal Castles // Crystal Castles
26: Liars // Sisterworld
27: Gobble Gobble // mp3s
28: Flying Lotus // Cosmogramma
29: Cloud Nothings // Turning On
30: Casiokids // Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar
31: Pocahaunted // Make It Real
32: Woods // At Echo Lake
33: Salad Fork // Mixtape for Haiti
34: Joanna Newsom // Have One On Me
35: Stalker // mp3s

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Album Reviews, Can't Get Enough, Lists | 5 Comments »

Pitchfork // A Statistical Look at Their Ratings

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

About a week or so ago, there was a hearty discussion on twitter from well-known music bloggers about the controversial 7.6 rating by Pitchfork of Toro y Moi’s excellent debut LP Causers of This. Since I am guilty of being more of a mathematician than a writer, I decided that this was a great opportunity to dive right into the numbers and do a brief statistical study of Pitchfork’s rankings from a period of one complete year and see where exactly Chaz Bundick’s 7.6 grade stacked up in comparison to his peers. After sifting through the data most of yesterday afternoon, I have to say there are some pretty interesting finds (including some statistical anomalies) behind Pitchfork’s rating system for albums.

Before beginning, I feel I should make a brief mention on how the data was collected. Initially, I was going to write a script to go through Pitchfork’s Record Reviews, logging each numbered grade between February 24, 2009 and February 24, 2010. However, knowing that p4k has an affinity for rating reissues and compilations very favorably (an unbelievable 30 reissued albums scored higher than the highest rated contemporary album — chalk that up to the Beatles, Neil Young, and Radiohead re-releases), I figured the only sure fire way to get accurate data on non-reissued material was to look into each review, see if it fits my criteria for a new release, and jot down the score. A cumbersome process to say the least! There were several things I decided to omit when classifying an album as “original”: soundtracks, label compilations, live recordings, and of course reissues. This left a relatively large sample size of 1,025 records of newly released, original albums to run analysis on. Is this result error free? Of course not — no doubt I tallied a handful of albums as “original” when they weren’t and vice versa. However, with the sample size large enough and my propensity to err small, any stray mistakes can be deemed statistically insignificant. The following is a histogram plotting the number of occurrences of each rating (click for larger view):

If you are a frequent follower of p4k, then most of the plot doesn’t come as a surprise. The bulk of the histogram centers around the 6.5-8.5 range with a score of 7.0 being the most common rating (51 times). Also, because pitchfork tends to not publish reviews on horrendously bad albums, it’s a no brainer to see the plot negatively skewed significantly. Similarly, exceptionally performing albums (i.e. 8.7 and above) are also relatively rare events.

Probably one of the most interesting results of the histogram is seeing whole number ratings occurring significantly more often than its x.9 and x.1 neighbors — in fact enough to be considered a statistical anomaly. Notice how the peaks at 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 are noticeably higher (almost twice as high in some instances) than 5.9, 6.9, and 7.9 respectively. My theory behind this is that when it comes to “on the fence” reviews, p4k tends to give the benefit of the doubt to the artist. Knowing that perceptively a rating with a unit higher whole number looks more impressive (also explains why things are priced $6.99 rather than $7.00 — we subconsciously think it is a lot less), they tend to bump up the score more often to show a more positive review. Now if it is true that individual critics are responsible for giving an album a score rather than a collective following a loose outline of established “rules”, then this result is very interesting both from a mathematical and a sociological point of view.

To see a better idea of the break-down of scores and a loose determination of percentiles, a box plot was performed (click for larger view):

This plot tells us a couple of things, most notably establishing a line between OK albums and great albums. One can see from the plot that the 1st quartile, representing the “top” 25% of rankings occurs at the 7.6 line. What this means is that our beloved Toro y Moi album would be statistically defined as on the border of the upper tier. Confirming our natural inclination that a majority of albums are rated around the “7″ mark, the box of the boxplot, representing the middle 50% of scores, occurs from 6.1 – 7.6. The final interesting part is that if an album scores below 3.9, it’s considered a statistical outlier (meaning Lil’ Wayne can breathe easy knowing his rock album just made the cut). Refining the results further into 10% percentiles, the following is established:

In my opinion, the above table gives a better way for bands to determine the meaning of their p4k rating than what the actual numerical score can provide. Take for example a hypothetical review of 7.7. Without any context, it is a rather meaningless number which invokes a wide-range of opinions (C-grade, “better than most”, underwhelming, etc…). However, when comparing it to a large sample of past albums’ ratings and seeing that it is in the 60th percentile — meaning it is better than 60% of the albums they’ve graded — then you understand the score a lot better.

The final thing I’ll mention is a couple of points when looking over their Best New Music selections and the seemingly arbitrary way they assign the label. With how much significance is attached to a BNM nod (record sales, exposure, tour upgrades), it was rather unsettling noticing some trends that seemed to pop up:

  • All albums scoring 8.6 and higher was automatically made Best New Music.
  • If you are a metal fan, you’ve gotten royally screwed over and overlooked by p4k. Only two albums were selected for BNM within the past year: Sunn O))))’s Monoliths & Dimensions and Isis’s Wavering Radiant (both with scores of 8.5). Adding insult to injury was that out of the 15 albums that scored an 8.5, 11 of them made BNM. Two of the four that didn’t make the cut were metal-related records (Baroness’s Blue Record and Converge’s Axe to Fall) — both occurring on days when no other record made BNM.
  • Another one of the four albums that ranked 8.5 and was not stamped with a BNM was contemporary jazz musician Jon Hassel’s LP verbosely entitled Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street, supplying another example of a high performing album from a more obscure genre getting the shaft. In p4k’s defense, Yacht’s superb See Mystery Lights was BNMed that day which leads me to my next point…
  • If you release a great record, make sure you don’t get reviewed on the same day as another great record. I don’t have an individual statistic for this, but I often saw high scoring albums (8.2-8.5) not get a BNM because another even better (or same ranking, just more hyped) album was reviewed the same day.
  • If you are a hyped record or are an established act, you have a better shot of getting a Best New Music when you are on the cusp. Now this seems kind of obvious, but there were some egregious instances where this occurred. Of the 41 albums that scored an 8.1 and 8.2, five were chosen as BNM: Surfer Blood’s Astro Coast, Atlas Sound’s Logos Cass McCombs’s Catacombs, Bill Callahan’s Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, and Wavves’s S/T
  • Yeah, I have no idea what they were thinking BNM-ing that Mos Def record (the lowest score and, out of 36 records that scored an 8.0, it was the only one to get BNM-ed).

This was a fun project which allowed me to brush up on some of my Matlab skillz. In the future, I would like to dive deeper and provide a more detailed analysis, but that will have to wait until I get some free time. If you have comments or would like to speculate on p4ks ratings, or if you have any insight on how they are determined (individual vs. collective), just leave a comment. If you want a copy of my data so you could run your own analysis, I would be happy to supply it to you (EDIT :: You can download the data set here).

Tags: , ,
Posted in Lists, Musical Musings | 29 Comments »

20th Century Songs

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Today I did a search in my music library for Phoenix’s hit song “1901″ and noticed that there were a ton of tracks that had a year from the 1900s referenced in the title. Even more surprising is how good a lot of these songs are! Here’s some of my favorites in chronological order:

Phoenix // 1901 (Live & Unplugged)

Woody Guthrie // 1913 Massacre

Swan Lake // Petersburg, Liberty Theater, 1914

Califone // 1928

Harry Nilsson // 1941

Neutral Milk Hotel // Holland, 1945

Ryan Adams // 1974

The Mountain Goats // Chino Love Song 1979

Lucero // 1979

Smashing Pumpkins // 1979

The Tough Alliance // 1981

The Mountain Goats // Sept 15, 1983

M. Ward // From a Pirate Radio Sermon, 1989

Crystal Castles // 1991

Department of Eagles // 1997 (Daytrotter Session)

Suburban Kids with Biblical Names // 1999

A brief search for past centuries yielded paltry results in comparison (just a Slagsmalsklubben “1888 Franklin” song and a handful of year 2000 references). What’s also interesting is a lot of the 1900s referenced tracks were made in the aughts, highlighting how nostalgia was certainly in vogue the first decade of the 20th century. Anyways, just thought this was something pretty cool to find!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Lists, Musical Musings | 1 Comment »

Pitchfork’s ’09 Review // Guest List

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Now that the dust has settled on the year that may or may not be the end of a decade, no doubt a lot of best-of lists have been popping up around the web (yours truly included). Among them, shoved in the corner of Pitchfork’s ridiculous amount of year-end coverage, is a four-page article highlighting artists’ personal favorites of 2009.

Ranging from hyperactive electronic performer Dan Deacon to Canadian hard-rockers Fucked Up and pretty much everything in between, Pitchfork provides an opportunity for the music fan to see not only what their favorite group has been spinning all year but also their potential influences — something that is pretty hard to do unless you personally know the band. Now I know there are a bunch of P4K haters in the bunch, but I think we can all agree that this compilation sure beats developing carpel tunnel trying to track down interviews through repeated google inquiries.

Below are just some of the many interesting tidbits I gleaned going through the article:

  • There’s some love for little-known Detroit punk-rock pioneers Death (well, little-known before this article) as LA garage rockers No Age listed them as their favorite.
  • There was a mutual love-affair between tour mates HEALTH and Pictureplane, as they both mentioned each other as “Best of the Year”.
  • Unfortunately Anand Wilder of Yeasayer didn’t take the list seriously, opting to enumerate the Top Ten diseases of the year.
  • Best write-ups go to New York indie bands Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Cymbals Eat Guitars, Thermal‘s bassist Kathy Foster, sample-master Girl Talk, and Alan Palomo of Vega/Neon Indian fame who could probably get a job as a writer if this whole “music thing” falls through.
  • El Perro del Mar and I seem to have identical tastes (Fuck Buttons, jj, The xx, Nite Jewel, Fever Ray, etc…)
  • Paul Collins of Beirut gets the prize for the most eclectic mix with Sunn O)))) and Jewels of the 78 RPM Era 1918 to 1951 Compilation going 1-2.
  • I have a hard time believing that Langhorne Slim listens to the metal band Russian Circles, but then again I thought the same about John Darnielle. Regardless, what he says about Dawes being damn good live is 100% true.

These are just a sample of the great things mentioned in the article, so check it out!

Tags: ,
Posted in Lists, Musical Musings | No Comments »

Part-Time Music // Top 100 Artists via Last.fm

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

One thing that I like to do every now and then is check in on my last.fm profile and look at some of the statistics they’ve accumulated about my music listening habits. One stat I find particularly interesting is seeing how many artists I’ve listened to over 100 times — something that, on average, amounts to about 6 hours of continuous music. Well this time when I checked in it just so happened that an even 100 artists had at least 100 plays, so I thought I would share the results with you guys. The following is the cream of the crop Top 10 with the entire list plus analysis after the jump (included as well are the number of plays):

1. Ryan Adams // 609
2. Bright Eyes // 576
3. Lil’ Wayne // 542
4. The Mountain Goats // 503
5. Sunset Rubdown // 443
6. Wilco // 438
7. Radiohead // 408
8. Stars // 406
9. of Montreal // 368
10. Kanye West // 350

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Lists, Musical Musings | No Comments »

Delicious Scopitone // Best of 2009 Compilation

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

Now I’m going to get all meta with this post and blog about a blog because my e-friend Emmanuel down at the Delicious Scopitone has put together an awesome compilation chronicling some of his favorite found tracks of 2009. Now if you are one of the unfortunate people who haven’t heard about this French blog, the brief rundown is that it’s a website whose chief priority is to discover new talent on a daily basis — regardless of the location or the obscurity of the band. With mp3s or video samples accompanying each post, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t be checking them out right now. Now I know what you’re going to say, “but Bryant, there are PLENTY of sites like that”. While that might be the case, where the Delicious Scopitone is different is that it doesn’t suck, and I’m not the only one to notice this.

Emmanuel’s twenty-song mix, going by the quasi-Latin title of Ecliptic Odious One, features a different Scopitone-unearthed artist for each track. Certainly there are some duds in the bunch (but even the less talented bands have charming characteristics that make them better than about 90% of the acts out there), but the compilation as a whole is a wonderful listen that would make for a great spin at the next get-together with your friends.

While the compilation opens up nicely (the Grizzly Bear/Fleet Foxes sounding “All Packed Up” by Lexington’s Idiot Glee especially), it doesn’t really start getting the ball rolling until the fifth track, the beautiful constructed “The Watcher”, gets to the plate. Sounding like some sort of incantation full of repetitive Gregorian-like chants and isolated drums, Fielded is able to slowly gain momentum and reach a satisfying climax using only layered vocals and scant instrumentation — something that few bands are successfully able to pull off. In similiar haunting fashion, Michigan’s Creepy Crawl’s “Pretty Tendrils” starts off with a sound akin to a Grouper and Burial crossbreed — dark and, as the band name would suggest, definitely creepy — however, when vocals are entered into the equation, the song morphs into an interestingly bizarre track reminiscent of Gang Gang Dance’s “Afoot”.

The mix also features the Washington-based band Pill Wonder, whom I’ve had the ability to see live when they played alongside Real Estate back in November. The song chosen, the animalistic “What We Know”, certainly was a set highlight from that night, causing a slight stir in the form of some “hipster head-nodding” that broke the ice off of the typically motionless crowd.

Now I don’t know if Emanuel or his partner-in-crime Leslie, who has put out an awesome mix of her own, trudges the deep dark depths of the myspace graveyard to find these acts (most have under 50,000 profile views which, for a band, is not that much) or if they happen upon them by chance. One thing’s for certain though, at the rate their going you’re going to be seeing a lot more [via: Delicious Scopitone] credits on your favorite blogs in 2010.

You can hear a sample of the compilation with the mp3s below and, if you like what you hear, you can download Emanuel’s mix here.

Mason Lindahl // Serrated Man Sound [via]

Fielded // The Watcher [via]

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Album Reviews, Can't Get Enough, Lists, Musical Musings | 2 Comments »

Artist Map // Top Albums of 2009

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Taking a page from NPR, I decided to map the locations of the musicians included in my Top Albums of 2009 list. Here are the results:



View Part-Time Music’s Top Albums of 2009 (Artists) in a larger map

If you zoom in where the clumps of pins are, you’ll notice some interesting features:

  • Other than The Flaming Lips, there is no other act in the central part of the United States.
  • If you’re a musician that lives in New York state, you live in Brooklyn.
  • Everyone from New Jersey doesn’t have a hometown.
  • My two-year stint in Scandinavia might have influenced my selection.
  • Only one act from outside North America and Europe, and that was a compilation album.

Some interesting results indeed that makes me want to question my Western-centric music preferences…

Tags: ,
Posted in Lists, Musical Musings | 1 Comment »

Burgers’s Post // Top 30 Songs of 2009

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Since I’m kind of exhausted of putting together lists, my good friend Burgers (who happens to be one-third of the lo-fi garage band The Numerators) took over the reigns and came up with this baadasssss list of his thirty favorite tracks of the year. After going through it, I have to say I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything on here. Chalk-full of great songs ranging from the well known to the more obscure, the list is bound to include some of your favorites as well as a handful of ones you’ve yet to discover. So without further ado, I’ll let him take over:
(more…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Guest Column, Lists, Musical Musings | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries