Sure, everyone has their right to their own opinion and we live in an age when we all have access to unlimited information, we get to choose our sources and either keep up with them or move on to others that suit our needs better, whether it's about the news or the stuff we like to watch closely; like music for instance.
Sure, the sources regarding music these days are limitless and almost everyone of the major popular websites and magazines is doing a great job covering what's going on in music today, but man, every December when the season of the Lists is in full bloom, it makes you want to give up everything and stop bothering.
Dissing on all the lists some of the major music websites published these last couple of days isn't fun. Good writers get paid to write about music, listen to stuff in advance, go to shows and conduct interviews and every end of the year, they all come up with more or less the same releases like a unanimous verdict about which albums, you the poor plain listener should have listened to and forced yourself to like. Look at one of them and you have seen them all, with a little bit of ranking shuffling and the occasional surprise entry that would provide colour and "individuality" to one's list compared to all others, you get everything you need, your average dose of rap messiahs, indie rock rascals, sensitive singer-songwriters, stylish EDM big-deals, metal extremities (sure, we should have one metal hero each year - let's all like Deafheaven now), surprising pop entries and whatnot. You don't even have to read all these lists individually. Just Google "best albums of 2015" and you'll get a list of the same albums shuffled up.
It all comes out as snobbish, maybe even ignorant and ultimately disappointing.
Here follow a few recent releases we haven't had the chance to feature properly, but which definitely require attention.
Prepare for our end-of-year coverage. Wait to see how pretentious we are.
Loma Prieta: Self Portrait
Cult Leader: Lightless Walk
Sunn O))): Kannon
Algiers: Algiers
The Black Heart Rebellion: People, When You See The Smoke, Do Not Think It Is Fields They're Burning.
ZR