Frank Kogan

The last album I really listened to as an album was Taylor Swift's Fearless. Which isn't to say that there've been no albums since then that have had an identity for me, such as a common sound to the whole thing or interesting ways the tracks play off and sometimes against each other. In Babes Wodumo's Crown, for instance, from my 2021 albums list, every single song on it has a density of sound and interplay unlike anything else I've heard in gqom or amapiano. So the album itself has a signature sound, just as Blackout or Exile On Main Street have. Maybe even more interesting along those lines is the Sounds Of Pamoja compilation, also on the 2021 list, a bunch of different artists from Dar es Salaam scratching the same itch and clawing the same walls.*

Except the way I use those two albums isn't as albums (in the way as a teenager I'd decide to listen to Side Two of Crown Of Creation). Rather, the songs on them became fodder for playlists, basically. Essentially that's what I do with albums these days; pull tracks from them. Or listen to them several times for "context." Or, near the end of a year, listen to a number of them (not that big a number) for the sake of finding titles for end-of-year poll ballots.

As for end-of-year polls, I use them for schmoozing, partying, and proselytizing; less for taking stock of a year much less deciding what's good or not. But it's always interesting to see if anyone likes what I listen to, and it's instructive and kind of funny to see sheets and sheets of stuff I've never heard of. Of course singles are way better than albums for sampling morsels off the passing food trucks. But albums are still what these polls center on, and if I want in on the party then I'll make a list of albums. And hope someone listens to one of those albums.

So for the sake of doing it I made a last-second list of albs for the November 30 Uproxx poll (results here), leaning heavily for my listening on recommendations from my friends Don, John, Chuck, and Dave. And then the idea was that for a bunch of weeks in December I was going to listen to at least one new-to-me EP or album a day, and of course relisten to others, and so on, in time for the Pazz & Jop Rip-Off poll. And, of course, this rarely happened, between my submitting a song for TSJ's Amnesty Week and my watching football highlights on YouTube. Then in January, um… Anyhow, with my P&J Rip-Off ballot done on Jan. 1, ballots for the Expert Witness Poll are due in one-and-a-half days [EDIT: make that one day] and I'm sort of panicking. In the meantime, this was my Albums ballot (half of which are actually EPs) for the Jan. 1 Pazz & Jop Rip-Off Poll (poll results here):

DJ Jeffdepl - Forrozinho CD De Carnaval 2023 - 14
MTS No Beat - Outubro 2023 - 13
D'Athiz x Ke-nny x Locomeister - What's The Sound? - 11
DJ Ws da Igrejinha - Caça Fantasma, Vol. 1 - 10
MC Madan - Controle Mental - 10
99 no Beat - Tremzinho do 99 - 10
Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra - America: The Rough Cut - 9
NewJeans - Get Up - 8
V/Z - Suono Assente - 8
Actress – LXXXVIII - 7

DJ Jeffdepl - Forrozinho CD De Carnaval 2023


The Jeffdepl CD is part of a trend whereby someone presumably from the Brazilian northeast takes a rural or rural-like rhythm and throws a whole bunch of urban baile funk songs or samples on top, possibly including a whole bunch of non-baile funk material as well. Or that's what seems to be going on, though Jeffdepl's collaborations with MC Danny seem to be originals. And seemingly every month Jeffdepl puts out a mix CD and usually his fans upload it as a YouTube mix (I'm including in the category "fans" people who want to attract Jeffdepl listeners to their own YouTube channels). The Carnaval CD was February. And I'm giving you two links for it, the first to one of these uploads (same as the embed above), and the second to a playlist I made separating it out into discrete standalone tracks rather than forcing you to swallow the whole thing in one breathless continuum. Also, you can find the title as Forrozinho - CD Carnaval 2023 or Forrozinho Carnaval 2023 or 2023 Forrozinho CD Carnaval or CD de Carnaval 2023 (Forrozinho). And some of those have an extra eighth track, a different one on each, which seems to be uploader's choice and sounds nothing like the rest or like Jeffdepl.

The following EPs and albs are still in play for Expert Witness, not just because I'm always changing my mind and have several new discoveries but because it has five more slots, owing to Brad's including a separate five-entry EP** category.

MC Rogerinho - "085"


DJ Alef Rodrigo - Evolução do Mandelão
DJ Arana - EP A.Mago (Playlist do Mago)
MC Rogerinho - DVD Pode Crê (Ao Vivo)
DJ Jeffdepl - Casca de Bala
d.silvestre - Espanta Gringo
Felo Le Tee x Mellow & Sleazy - The III Wise Men
DJ Black Low - Impumelelo
JPEGMafia and Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes Vol. 1
Lakecia Benjamin - Phoenix
Jason Moran - From The Dancehall To The Battlefield

...plus whatever else I scrounge up or stumble across in the next day and a half.

The What's The Sound? EP edges out the other two South African long-players by being the most arty and abrasive of the three, also therefore getting along better on this list with my Brazilian entries (abrasion contains five-sixths of brasil).

D'Athiz x Ke-nny x Locomeister – "Gumba Fire"


I will interrupt this disquisition to say:

EOY, EOY Oh!

JJ Fad "Anotha Ho"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldrcZNTYfmA&t=91s

( MC Madan, Sparks, Rolling Stones, the life of rock )

( Old ballots )

( Footnotes )

CROSSPOST: HTTPS://KOGANBOT.LIVEJOURNAL.COM/391412.HTML

CROSSPOST: https://koganbot.substack.com/p/eoy-eoy-oh

Beneath these comments is my ballot for ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll

We could vote 25 of each, though only for tracks and albums nominated by the voters; there were over 900 tracks, but I only nommed three – the first three on my ballot – since it seemed to miss the spirit and the adventure to nominate a whole bunch of tracks and then vote for what I nominated.

I obviously didn't listen to all 900+ tracks, but the poll did what I wanted, which was to introduce a bunch of stuff to me and let me rethink some of what I'd met before incl a handful I'd only heard a couple of times as part of Tom's 2021 poll. The only new-to-me track to actually make my ballot was Karol G's "El Makinon," which I may still be underrating. Kept another of hers off my list for being too 2020; listening as we speak to her album to see if it'll make my Expert Witness ballot. (Probably not, which isn't fair given how few listens it'll get prior to deadline. Life isn't fair.)

Karol G & Mariah Angeliq "El Makinon"


Went through a lot of contortions convincing myself to knock things off my ballot to make room for Busta's good-hearted and poignant amapiano, "Ngixolele," which ended up not making it after all. At the end I decided PinkPantheress's "Pain" was more unique or at least more crucial for doing mood-brushed, spacey-self-involvement that I otherwise rarely like.

"Pain" and Taylor's long redo of "All Too Well" are ones that sound better when I'm listening to them than when I'm remembering them. Taylor finally got the boot for not being as fun as Carly Pearce's similarly retrospectively resentful "Next Girl," which also didn't make my list, and for being 10 whole minutes of nuanced unhappiness. Listening, though, there's a "With Or Without You" emotional swell, which doesn't often get yoked and yoked well to singer-songwriter nuance and phrasing. Am almost certainly underrating "Pain" as well; hard to make that stuff sound as strong as this does. PinkPantheress is currently earning my nuanced nonappreciation for her more boring tracks racking in the votes and praise elsewhere. Whatever. It's my list and I can do what I want. Maybe.

Was going to say that RXK Nephew wins the award hands down for Favorite Artist I Least Want To Have Buttonhole Me At A Party. Actually, that would probably be [name redacted] or [name redacted], but that's based merely on their lives as revealed through their public behavior whereas for RXK Nephew it's his life as revealed through his art, which I suspect is his life as lived from moment to moment. Anyhow, his LP is typically and not surprisingly inconsistent, which is a good match for his ideas.

Shit, religious people startin' to scare me
Shit, the government wrote the Bible
They knew who was gon' win American Idol
I never liked Simon off American Idol
I ain't really like how he talked to black people
How the fuck Flava Flav still alive?
Shit, before Kobe, before Deebo
I expected his ass to up and die
I ain't got nothin' against Flava Flav
They said I was ugly as Flava Flav
Now I got twenty hoes like Flava Flav

RXK Nephew "American tterroristt"


Squid's Bright Green Field sounds more like Red Dark Sweet than does anything else I've ever voted for in a poll, including 75 Dollar Bill, who have someone who was in Red Dark Sweet. Specifically thinking of the Squid guitars, which can go from abrasive to dreamy in a second, like you put the Velvets and the Byrds together in your slow cooker.

75 Dollar Bill seem similar to, surprisingly, Mdou Moctar. Moctar's alb is mostly nice-sounding Niger gentle fock-rock with psychedelic touches, with one blazing hard rock guitar track (which nonetheless sounds melodically like Phil Ochs in circularly tuneful style). Anyway, 75 Dollar Bill are similarly tuneful noodle, but with math-thump, and generally stronger. Only one listen in on either of those albs but 75 Dollar Bill likely to get a second before tonight's Expert Witness deadline.

Wrote this on Twitter about Billie Eilish's "Happier Than Ever":

I'd be fine with her singing [that is, I'd be fine with the song given how well she sings it] even if the words were terrible, but they're thoughtful, so many specifics, a whole feeling of how deep she was IN this thing, so "wish I could explain" applies to her too, not just to the person who won't understand.

Spelling and capitalization as they appeared on the nominations list, from which we copied-and-pasted our votes.

Frank Kogan's ballot, ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll

TRACKS:
DJ Wesley Gonzaga, MC Cyclope & MC Laureta - Sarra Nela Com Fuzil na Bandolera
DJ Malícia, MC Jhenny, Thammy - Vulgo Malvadão
MC J Mito, MC Yuri & MC Menor da Alvorada ft. DJ Will DF - Aquecimento do Striptease
Sho Madjozi - Jamani
Wet Leg - Chaise Longue
Go_A - SHUM
Ashley Monroe - Siren
Pale Waves - Easy
Squid - Narrator
Billie Eillish - Your Power
KAROL G & Mariah Angeliq - EL MAKINON
Squid - Pamphlets
Shygirl - TASTY (Boyz Noise Remix)
Mitski - Working for the Knife
City Girls - Twerkulator
Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
rxk nephew - american tterrorist
audiobooks - LaLaLa It's The Good Life
RXK Nephew - Squabble
Joy Orbison, Lea Sen - Better
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Dodonpa
Billie Eilish - I Didn't Change My Number
Amyl And The Sniffers - Guided By Angels
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
PinkPantheress - Pain

ALBUMS:
Squid - Bright Green Field
Ashley Monroe - Rosegold
75 Dollar Bill - Live Ateliers Claus
Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
RXK Nephew - Slitherman Activated

PinkPantheress "Pain"

Tonight's The Night
Frank Kogan, top 50 songs in reverse alphabetical order
Posted originally at Rockcritics.com

The Shirelles' "Tonight's The Night" isn't about the night, it's the need for the night. And Debbie Deb, from her other dance hit, "Lookout weekend, here I come," not the party but anticipating the party. "When I hear music it makes me dance, you've got the music, here's my chance." Something about to happen, something asking to happen, something needs to happen; longing and fear of what might happen. This song is the ache, the need. Say you're gonna meet me (tonight's the night), but I don't know, I just don't know, I might...

On the other side there's the Stones, something twisted, something off: I'm watching my TV, a man comes on and tells me he can't be a man, I can't get no, no no no, the drums, wham wham, pop-pop-pop, and the guitar, the (in its day) subversion, the daring fuzz noise, the great drama (in its night), aggression and excitement, anticipation... Fast forward to Brazil, DJ Guuga, don't worry about your ex-wife, come to the cabaré. DJ Wesley Gonzaga – my friend David Cooper Moore's description, "For a good stretch this song is propelled primarily by a gun being cocked and a synth piano line that sounds like what happens when you're about to change the battery in your smoke detector and it chirps right in your face. And it fucking rocks." So the dance is no longer coming up from the bass but down from that high annoying screaming beep. And if you forgot or never knew what 1965 was like, the impact of the guitar, it was the piercing smoke alarm, the noise that Keith Richard unearthed, a man comes on the radio... the need, the night in the distance, I can't get no.

This list. It's all Shirelles and Rolling Stones, in different times and places, inhabiting different bodies, wearing different clothes. That's the trouble with best-of lists; it's a highlight reel, but a highlight reel isn't the game. So my list (top 50 songs, hah) not only doesn't represent the world, or music, it barely represents me, either. You wouldn't know that at age 9 I'd memorized every silly song on the 1st Allan Sherman record and the 3rd Tom Lehrer, or that from 2004 to 2016 my end-of-year lists had almost all female singers (on this list they get superseded by 2003 earlier and male Soundcloud creeps later), or that funk didn't just reorganize my sense of musical relations but of human relations.



Methodology: I was going to take 5 songs per decade from the 1930s to the 2010s, no more than 2 from the Stones; only 2 or 3 from the 1920s, 'cause I know fuck-all about the '20s, and anyway the record industry didn't rev up big until '25; and 1 or 2 from 2020-21 – so that's maybe a total of 5 from the '20s! – and if there are a couple spots left I'll give one more each to the '70s and '80s. Anyway, I got 2 from the 2020s and only 2 from the 1920s, and it turns out I also know fuck-all about the '40s, so only 3 there, and I know fuck-all about the '30s but have no shortage – so with 3 spots in hand I give one extra to the '70s, pass over the '80s, and give one more to the '10s and another to the '30s – and since I know fuck-all about the '30s I don't know the grumpy old peak achievements so instead I have fun, Billie swinging and Stanley yucking it up on behalf of Anne Boleyn and all the joke songs and show songs and folk songs I'd otherwise left off (first heard it on a Kingston Trio record), and we finally get our party.

Here's the playlist.

In reverse alphabetical order:

Waring's Pennsylvanians "Love For Sale" (1931)
The Wailers "Jailhouse" a.k.a. "Good Good Rudie" (1966)
V.I.M. "Maggie's Last Party" (1991)
Hugh Roy (U-Roy) & Hopeton Lewis "Drive Her Home" (1971)
Trick Daddy & Trina "Nann Nigga" (1998)
Les Têtes Brulées "Têtes Brulées" (1990)



Teddy Yo "Gurage Tone" (2007)
t.A.T.u. "Kosmos" (2005)
T-ara "Lovey-Dovey" (2012)
Donna Summer "I Feel Love" (1977)
The Stooges "Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell" (1973)
Spoonie Gee "Spoonin' Rap" (1979)
Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time" (1998)
Slade "Cum On Feel The Noize" (1973)
The Shirelles "Tonight's The Night" (1960)
Sheck Wes "Do That" (2018)



The Sex Pistols "Anarchy In The U.K." (1976)
The Ronettes "Be My Baby" (1963)
The Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965)
Elvis Presley "Baby Let's Play House" (1955)
Playboi Carti "Magnolia" (2017)
Charley Patton "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" (1929)
Charlie Parker's Ri Bop Boys "Ko Ko" (1945)



( P through A )

Chuck Eddy sent me his Pazz & Jop and his Country Critics ballot early last month (which I've reprinted down in the comments along with shitloads of other stuff from Chuck and other people's lists). I actually had no idea there still was a Pazz & Jop. I'm not commenting on the results because I haven't read them yet — still — but here are my Freaky Trigger Readers' Poll ballot and my ILM tracks ballot. Haven't looked at ILM results yet either, but here's the link; here's the link to the ILM album results, though I didn't vote in the album poll. Here are the four links to the Freaky Trigger results rollout: link, link, link, and link.

These were both "tracks" polls, so I included singles and nonsingles.* For the ILM poll you vote for tracks that are nominated; anyone can nominate a total of 30 albums and tracks, split however you want (say, 29 tracks and 1 album), but I always nominate very few so that I'll vote for/pay attention to stuff that at least some other people are plumping for. My two nominees this year were Kidd Kenn's "Slide Remix" and KeshYou & Baller's "Swala La La." The deadlines for the two polls were three-and-a-half weeks apart (Dec. 31 for Freaky Trigger, January 25 for ILM); sharp eyes will notice that I keep changing my mind on the relative merits of the Kidd Kenn, the Cassie, and the KeshYou & Baller.

*My 2018 top 100 or so singles playlist is still ongoing, if you want to take a look at its current makeup; and in late December I finally posted my Top 100 Singles And Commentary for 2017, where in the comments we talk about 2018 and 2019 too (esp. Jvcki Wai, who's like a 16-year-old just discovering anarchy and the joys of anticlericism, which is pretty appealing even though she's 22).

My ILM's 2018 End of Year Tracks Ballot

Kidd Kenn - Slide Remix
Cassie - Don't Play It Safe
KeshYou & Baller - Swala La La
bhad bhabie ft. lil yachty - gucci flip flops
Cardi B - Be Careful
Valee ft. Jeremih - Womp Womp
Niniola - Saro
Bali Baby - Backseat
Cardi B ft. Bad Bunny & J Balvin - I Like It
Bích Phương - Bùa Yêu
blocboy JB ft. drake - look alive
Dladla Mshunqisi ft. Nokwazi & Prince Kaybee - Wangibamba
Tropical Fuck Storm – Rubber Bullies
DaniLeigh - Lil Bebe
LOOΠΔ/Olivia Hye ft. JinSoul - Egoist
Doja Cat - Go To Town
NCT U - Baby Don't Stop
Wande Coal - So Mi So
Vince Staples - FUN!
Lil Kesh - Apa Mi
MEUTE - You & Me (Flume Remix)
Tropical Fuck Storm - Chameleon Paint
Panic! At the Disco - High Hopes
Lady Leshurr - RIP
City Girls - I'll Take Your Man

My Freaky Trigger Readers' Poll Ballot 2018

1. Lil Pump "i Shyne"**
2. Bhad Bhabie ft. MadeinTYO, Rich The Kid, Asian Doll "Hi Bich (Remix)"
3. Cassie "Don't Play It Safe"
4. Franko "La remontada (Freestyle)"
5. Ninety One "Ah!Yah!Ma!"
6. KeshYou & Baller "Swala La La"
7. Kidd Kenn "Slide Remix"
8. Fairies "HEY HEY ~Light Me Up~"
9. Zulu Mkhathini ft. DJ Tira "Uniform"
10. 6ix9ine "Billy"
11. Bhad Bhabie "Thot Opps (Clout Drop) / Bout That"
12. Bhad Bhabie ft. Lil Yachty "Gucci Flip Flops"
13. 6ix9ine "Mooky"
14. Sheck Wes "Do That"
15. Cardi B "Be Careful"
16. Niniola "Saro"
17. A$AP Rocky ft. FKA twigs "Fukk Sleep"
18. Crowd Kontroller ft. Niniola "Bambam"
19. Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J. Balvin "I Like It"
20. Bali Baby "Backseat"

Despite not looking at P&J and ILM results yet, I will say that by one definition of "pop" — poppy-sounding stuff that's popular or at least semi-popular — Anglo-American pop these days is worse than at any other time in my life and has been for a decade (though maybe the earlier part of the decade qualifies as another time in my life; I don't know). But by another definition of "pop" — stuff in styles that are popular from all over the place, especially including hip-hop — pop is doing great, even in Anglo-America, and even with K-pop having an off-year. Anyway, I won't elaborate on these opinions just yet. Robyn is worse. Ashlee is worse. But neither is particularly representative of what I mean. As for my lists, the Bhad Bhabie I have as number two for Freaky Trigger is a remix of a track I liked even better last year but only had as number ten (though it made it up to number five when I eventually closed my 2017 singles list); so the top of my list may not be up to the top of last year's list but I assure you my number 100 will be way better than last year's number 100. Lots of really interesting stuff from all over. Very little I vote for or listen to represents my sensibility, owing to people culturally like me having stopped making good music around 1980, so in mucking about the world on YouTube I always feel like an outsider. But I'm sure my lists still manage to represent my attitudinal footprint in some way, "the sort of stuff I get taken by" or something, even if I don't feel at home in the musical worlds that are generated and depicted.

Chuck and I overlap on Bhad Bhabie, Bali Baby, City Girls, and Mylène Farmer, 50% of whom are baby.***



**I probably should've credited this to "Lil Pump and Carnage."

***Well, Dev now too but I hadn't heard "Rock On It" until he listed it. It's yet another year with Cassie, Dev, and K-pop.

Okay, "consensus" isn't and shouldn't be an exact synonym for "unanimity," but the way I use it and dictionaries define it is far closer to "unanimity" than to "some people sometimes have similar opinions on something with some overlap as to who has similar opinions and some overlap as to what the opinions are." The latter seems to be how Robert Christgau and Glenn McDonald and Jack Thompson and probably a myriad others are using it in response to this year's Pazz & Jop poll.

I'm raising this issue not because I think we should always stick with the meanings that were in effect back when there were hula hoops but rather because the word "consensus" in its hula-hoop days (and potentially still) does something good that the new, added usage could well obliterate, which is to describe the process or behavior of an entire group, as a group.

That in the previous Pazz & Jop both Christgau and I and a handful of others put Neil Young's Americana in our respective top tens doesn't mean he and I and they have some sort of consensus on the album. We're not acting as a group and our coming together in this way doesn't meaningfully constitute a group (though maybe the ten of us could get together once a year for a party or something).

I use "consensus" in two basic ways:

(1) Regarding how a group makes a decision, to decide by "consensus" means that everyone or near everyone in the room signs off on the decision. Not everyone necessarily will be 100 percent happy with all aspects of the decision: it might be arrived at through discussion, argument, negotiation, and compromise. But everyone is on board with it. If someone disagrees strongly with a position or course of action, that person in effect has a veto. The word "consensus" here specifically and precisely distinguishes this mode of decision-making from other forms of decision-making, such as a vote in which the majority or plurality of voters carry the day; or a decision by a manager, or owner. In a consensus decision, the process by which the decision is reached may include straw polls, but a minority or faction can't be overridden in the way that it can be in a decision by majority or plurality vote or in a command decision.

Decisions by juries are often by consensus. Decisions by legislatures rarely are.

P&J isn't an election or a decision (though it has the feel of an odd combination of election and opinion poll), but you can see how talking about consensus or lack of consensus among the voters does violence to this meaning of "consensus."

(2) Regarding people's opinions or attributes, a consensus would mean something like "the general opinion of a community or group." So if 97% of climate scientists think global warming is real and man-made, then there's consensus. 80% wouldn't be enough to claim consensus (IMO), even if those 80% are right and the other 20% have no good reason to disagree.

That 65% of P&J voters didn't put Yeezus in their top ten (and presumably it wasn't number one for most who did, so let's say that somewhere between 80% and 95% of voters didn't make it their number one (I don't want to spend the time getting an exact number)), shows how ridiculous it is to say that the strong showing of Yeezus is a sign of some sort of consensus. (And it'd just be babble to turn this around and say that there's a consensus that e.g. most albums outside the top ten aren't the album of the year.)

I think the reason that "consensus" has wandered to include a new meaning — vaguely, to note that there are some criss-crossing similarities among some individuals, some things in common — is that there isn't some other shorthand that's available to wave at such similarities. So the word "consensus" gets to be the shorthand, even if this new meaning takes out the far more useful old meanings. But a shorthand is no good if there isn't real, actual consensus as to what the shorthand is short for. If there isn't general understanding, you shouldn't use the shorthand, unless there's at least some common sense of how to take the disagreements further. (E.g., there's certainly no general agreement as to whether Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are real hip-hop, but people know that there's no general agreement here, and using the word "hip-hop" doesn't paper over such disagreements.) In any event — this is a somewhat different complaint — "consensus" is becoming a buzzword, people waving at ideas they've not actually worked out, trying to quickly communicate thoughts they don't yet have.

Was worried that some well-meaning copy editor at the Voice would not believe me when I listed "Wassup" as by Wassup and would change it to the other "Wassup." But they got it right (or more likely there weren't enough copy editors, well-meaning or otherwise). Some other oddness on the site, though: the first time I checked Matana Roberts' Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile, Chuck Eddy wasn't listed as having voted for it, though he had. But a few minutes later, his name was on there.

Not enough ballots from The Singles Jukebox.

I made no comments this time.

1. Crayon Pop - "Bar Bar Bar" - Chrome Entertainment
2. Baauer - "Harlem Shake" - Jeffree's/Mad Decent
3. GLAM - "I Like That" - Big Hit Entertainment
4. will.i.am ft. Britney Spears - "Scream & Shout" - will.i.am/Interscope
5. MBLAQ - "Smoky Girl" - J.Tune Camp
6. EvoL - "Get Up" - Stardom
7. Cassie ft. Rick Ross - "Numb" - self-released
8. Wa$$up - "Wa$$up" - Mafia
9. Tiny-G - "Minimanimo" - GNG Productions
10. Gaeko & Choiza & Simon D & Primary - "난리good!!! (AIR)" - Amoeba Culture

1. After School - First Love EP - Pledis Entertainment - 15
2. Orange Caramel - Orange Caramel - Avex - 15
3. D-Unit - Affirmative Chapter.1 EP - D-Business Entertainment/Windmill Media - 13
4. Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile - Constellation - 13
5. Kate Nash - Girl Talk - Have 10p - 10
6. SNSD - Love & Peace - Nayutawave - 10
7. Kitty - D.A.I.S.Y. rage EP - self-released - 9
8. Cassie - RockaByeBaby - self-released - 5
9. Sturgill Simpson - High Top Mountain - High Top Mountain/Relativity - 5
10. will.i.am - #willpower Deluxe Edition - will.i.am/Interscope - 5

Was thinking of my definition of power pop — "pop melodies with loud guitars and sometimes power chords" — and realized that one could say the same about the music I call "the loud pretties," music like the New York Dolls' "Jet Boy" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." But I don't consider the latter power pop. Power pop (e.g., Crayon Pop's "Bar Bar Bar," which is putting "power pop" on my mind these days) has a much cleaner sound. The prettiness of "Bar Bar Bar" seems separable from the musical attack. The two accompany each other without being integral to each other. Whereas in the loud pretties, the guitar squall and the vocal squall seem one and the same, the melody emanating from the squall.

Jet Boy


Smells Like Teen Spirit


Bar Bar Bar


(The Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and the Who's "I Can See For Miles" are poised between power pop and the loud pretties — though you need to understand that in their time, in comparison to the surrounding sounds, they seemed really loud, especially "Miles.")

34 Pazz & Jop voters listed Korean music on either their singles or albums ballot, as opposed to last year's lonely 18, but if you subtract out those whose only Korean vote was for K-pop's first American hit, the number falls to 10. I won't say that "Gangnam Style" failed to whet anyone's appetite or stoke anyone's curiosity, since I don't know how many people's long lists contained Korean content that didn't make their top tens.* And our sample size is pretty small anyway.

Here's who voted for K-pop that wasn't just "Gangnam Style."** I've put in bold those who didn't vote K-pop in 2011 (though Marsh and Considine included stuff from 2011). "Paparazzi" and "Sherlock" are in Japanese. Luke McCormick is new to me.

Vijith Assar - Ga-in "Bloom"
Justin Chun - Dal★shabet Bang Bang, Dal★shabet "Have, Don't Have," SNSD "Paparazzi"
JD Considine - TaeTiSeo "Twinkle," Psy "Gangnam Style," 2NE1 "I Am The Best," Wonder Girls "Like This"
Chuck Eddy - Trouble Maker "Trouble Maker," Psy "Gangnam Style"
Kevin John - G-Dragon "Crayon"
Calum Marsh - Miss A Touch, SNSD The Boys, Miryo Miryo AKA Johoney
Luke McCormick - G-Dragon "Crayon"
David Cooper Moore - Sistar "Alone," Orange Caramel Lipstick, Orange Caramel "Lipstick," T-ara "Lovey-Dovey."
Brad Shoup - SHINee "Sherlock" (Japanese ver.)

This is assuming I didn't miss anything.



I voted for 14 K-pop tracks and albums, which I admit is an absurd number. Last year I voted for 12 (well, 11 for K-pop and 1 for trot).

Nothing from K-pop other than "Gangnam Style" got more than 2 votes, unlike last year, when GD&TOP's "High High" got 3, HyunA's "Bubble Pop!" got 5, and 2NE1's "I Am The Best" got 7. I'm surprised Sistar's "Alone" didn't get anyone other than Dave and me.

( Affinity list )

( Footnotes )

( Whiffing )

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2012:
1. Taylor Swift "Red"
2. Miranda Lambert "Fastest Girl In Town"
3. Charles Esten & Hayden Panettiere "Undermine"
4. Lionel Richie ft. Jennifer Nettles "Hello"
5. Taylor Swift "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"
6. Eden's Edge "Too Good To Be True"
7. Eric Church "Creepin'"
8. Kelly Clarkson ft. Vince Gill "Don't Rush"
9. Luke Bryan "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye"
10. Kix Brooks ft. Joe Walsh "New To This Town"

( Other categories )

COMMENTS: ( Quandary ) "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" has the sort of glorying in self-deception that country lyricists and singers drool over; and even if the sound is fundamentally pop, there's a clarity in the arrangement that likely comes from country. Meanwhile, "Red" is the first time Taylor's written what sounds like an actual teenybopper song, as if it had been created during an elementary school exercise in beginning poetry. That's meant as a huge compliment.

Hayden Panettiere, who as a true teenpopper had thoroughly bored me, suddenly has a bead on my emotions. Talk about finding her voice.

I don't know if "Don't Rush" is a direction for Kelly Clarkson or just a blip. She was confused and feckless on her last two albums, the wrong big blast of this person's and that person's pop rock. And now here she is in '70s middle-of-the-road warmth and pain, and the richness of her pipes returns. And Lionel Richie, who to a good extent defined '70s middle-of-the-road warmth and pain, provides a terrific setting for Jennifer Nettles' half sandblaster of a voice, lushness that doesn't lose its gristle.

Lots of great male voices in country, which is fortunate because in every other genre I pay attention to the men tend to sound ridiculous.

Frank Kogan

Watch on YouTube

Dave over on Tumblr:

I like voting in it — stayed on board for the Jackin’ Pop year (voted in both polls) and have thought about staying on this year, since for better or worse it’s the only huge critics poll. Glenn McDonald is still doing stats, which alone kind of makes me want to participate. Just wondering if anyone is staging a parallel poll or “vote for Hinder” style shenanigans.

I'm voting (also voted in '06, when they fired Chuck and Xgau and, not incidentally, shut the door on me, too). The poll obviously doesn't mean what it once did: it's not going to reveal many surprises, since these days polls and wrapups and sum-ups are all over the Internet weeks and months prior. Also doesn't have the brains on call it once had. But it's the only place where ballots and writers show up in bulk, and it can provide an excuse for mass taking-of-stock all over the Web, not just at the Village Voice site. I remember some exciting ILM back-and-forth back in the day. Better some chance for a mass taking-of-stock than zero chance of a mass taking-of-stock, and there's no good reason for me not to be part of it.

( Sistar Bedbug )