I haven't heard any of the albums so far so I'm not going to sing praises or bitch about what's picked or not picked. It seems odd though how little discussion its generated though outside of praise for those who've written reviews.

I'm also surprised at some of the things that have made the cut...not based on my perception of their quality or lack of quality but based on a seeming lack of interest in the albums by obners in general.

I don't remember many of these getting a lot of discussion on the board this year other than maybe the strokes (mostly loogar) and brother kite. I did a camera obscura search and came up with Bee Ok's posting of a review at year end with a few replies mostly of a one sentence nature saying like or dislike. There were a few other concert information threads but that seems to be about it.

Was all the discussion of this album held in some Timus email exchange or has most of the board completely stopped talking about the music we like at all?

off the top of my head...on this board we talked alot about

strokes
brother kite
decemberists
josh ritter
belle and seb
the format
silversun pickups
tv on the radio
Phoenix
neko case
my morning jacket (live album)

I didn't vote so I was trying to stay out of it but the Obner list like many years before it is quite pedestrian. It's always going to be the Top 20 albums that most people have listened to, so it kind of defeats the purpose to participate or discuss it.

I do not agree. I always enjoy it, and try to chip in and vote even though I don't listen to a tenth of what a lot of others do.

I get a lot out of it.

OMG, OPA. I just turned avatars on for the first time in months and rainbows and flowers just shot out of my eyes upon seeing yours.

On topic, nothing so far has been part of my list and I've been a bit surprised as well.

I was suprised by some of the results, too, but you might be reading too much into it.

I think people may already be tired of talking about a lot of these albums. Others, like Camera Obscura, I dunno. I've seen it mentioned a lot, but not a whole lot of discussion on it.

I'm pretty sure every other album on the list has had it's own thread that made it to 2 or more pages at some point.

This is, also, the lower end of the list. The total point values for these albums is not astronomically high. I'm guessing that once shmoo posts the full list (assuming he does), we'll see that votes may have been spread pretty thin across a wide variety of albums.

maybe it happens in chat?

What horrible logic

same here.

I will say that, as far as I could tell, none of the people who volunteered to write blurbs had Silversun Pickups high on their list. I picked FT to do a positive write-up on it, and it was his #24.

I mean, I know it topped a few people's lists, but who are those people? Dalen? Timis? Who else?

I agree... seems like a lot of the "fill out the list" choices so far - not a lot of discussion on any of these....

Except for Silversun, of course, since that's the one so far that I voted for

yeah i was shocked to see it as low as it was....i was expecting somewhere in the top 10


my guess is either tv on the radio, the liars, or belle and seb will be #1

...or M. Ward.

to guess on just 1, i'd say b&s #1.

my guess would be b&s, m ward, tvor, & dbt's in no particular order as the top 4

Billy I'd say that of the ones listed so far only the Junior Boys and YLT didn't get much discussion.


I certainly wouldn't say it's a "pedestrian" list. I'm not even sure what the hell that means. Looks like a cross section of tastes so far.

Also, the list is coming almost a month into 2007 and most people have seen a hundred lists so far and read tons of blurbs on all kinds of albums. That's most likely the reason for lack of discussion.

That camera obscura is awesome, way better than I expected, and I only listened to it because of it's spot on la list.

It's a consensus. It is what it is. It's an average.

Even in some of the more "cutting edge" music publications, end of the year composite lists put together by no more than a dozen or so writers will be brought down to the lowest common denominator. That means some of the more interesting, leftfield albums that some of the individuals had been pushing throughout the year get left off in favor of the less polarizing, more widely appealing stuff.

C'mon OPA, calling the list "pedestrian" is kind of… well… pedestrian. Seems like we hear this every year. It's not like most of the stuff I really loved ended up in the Obner top 20, either.

Then let's call it Obner's Most Listened To Albums of the Year. This is surely not the best albums of the year list.

Agreed. I liked it a ton better than the Belle and Sebastian album.

Well, if you figure out how to get 100 people to agree on what the "best albums of the year" are, let us know.

And I should listen to that Camera Obscura.

Well, I don't think an Obner List is necessary. Personally, I enjoy when people post their individual lists.

But why not compile them? It makes for an interesting survey of people's tastes around here. The results can be predictable, but not entirely and not enough to keep it from being worthwhile.

WTF is with you today?

Enjoy whatever lists you want Chris. Don't crap on the work it took to try and do a board top 20.

Also, lists are all subjective anyway and YES this is the OBNER BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR.

I suppose I'm not allowed to have an opinion now, is that it?