Acclaimed Music Forum

Jacek

Feb 15, 05 - 9:39 PM

Screenagers' best albums 2000-2004 (and a question to Henrik concerning music zines)

Last Friday evening I was a little bored and sleepy. I'm sure all of you feeling - you're too tired to do anything requiring a little intellectual effort, like reading a book, but not tired enough to go to sleep. So I decided to look for some music lists on the net -that's how I found the ones I've been posting lately. I the process I discovered a lot of music-related webzines and they had all their lists. You can't accept them all, because they would quickly start to dominate over established music presss, so my question is: how do you determine if a music zine is "professional" enough for its list to be included in Acclaimed Music? I had my doubts before posting the Porcys lists, but those were measly end-of-year lists, so I thought, what the hell. The one I'm going to post now, however, covers a period of 5 years, 2000-2004, so it's a much more serious issue. It comes from the webzine Screenagers. It is the second major indie-oriented site in Poland (the other is Porcys). But even so it can't be compared with the largest UK and US based music zines like Pitchfork or Pop Matters. Of course the main reason is that in Poland still relatively few people have permanent access to the internet, so webzines like these reach a small audience. Another problem is they mostly deal with indie music isn't even available in the shops in Poland, including internet ones. This means Polish record companies (and Polish divisions of major labels) were cared enough for those webzines to send them promo copies and such. On the hand one could argue they do the same thing Pitchfork does, only the "environment" they operate in is more hostile (no thriving indie community in Poland, you know). So I'll just post the lists and you decide if they can be included.

Best albums of 2003
http://www.screenagers.pl/index.php?service=xtras&action=show&id=19

1. British Sea Power - The Decline Of British Sea Power
2. Blur - Think Tank
3. Mars Volta, The - De-Loused In The Comatorium
4. Stellastarr* - Stellastarr*
5. Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
6. Mogwai - Happy Songs For Happy People
7. Medium 21 - Killings From The Dial
8. The Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle
9. The White Stripes - Elephant
10. Wrens - Meadowlands
11. Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia - My Elixir; My Poision
12. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
13. Cat Power - You Are Free
14. Serafin - No Push Collide
15. Damien Rice - O
16. B.R.M.C. - Take Them On, On Your Own
17. Muse - Absolution
18. Blue Raincoat - Small Town Addiction
19. U.N.K.L.E - Never Never Land
20. (X) is Greater than (Y) - Negative Snow
21. Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
22. Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground
23. The Sounds - Living In America
24. South - With The Tides
25. The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart
26. Denali - The Instinct
27. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
28. Massive Attack - 100th Window
29. I Am Kloot - I Am Kloot
30. Xiu Xiu - A Promise

Best albums of 2004
http://www.screenagers.pl/index.php?service=xtras&action=top04&rank=1

1. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
2. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
3. Seafood - As The Cry Flows
4. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
5. Interpol - Antics
6. The Crimea - Tragedy Rocks
7. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry
8. Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere
9. Razorlight - Up All Night
10. Hope Of The States - Lost Riots
11. Kid Dakota - The West Is The Future
12. PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
13. Delays - Faded Seaside Glamour
14. The Futureheads - The Futureheads
15. Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
16. Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
17. Colour Of Fire - Pearl Necklace
18. The Go! Team - Lightning Thunder Strike
19. The Killers - Hot Fuss
20. The Charlatans - Up At The Lake
21. Mordy - Antrology
22. Six.by Seven - 04
23. Bjork - Medulla
24. Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Please Describe Yourself
25. Junior Boys - Last Exit
26. Ash - Meltdown
27. CocoRosie - La Maison De Mon Reve
28. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
29. (tie) The Plastic Constellations - Mazatlan
29. (tie) McLusky - The Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire

Best albums 0f 2000-2004
http://www.screenagers.pl/index.php?service=xtras&action=top0004&part=1

1. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
2. Radiohead - Kid A
3. British Sea Power - The Decline of the British Sea Power
4. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
5. Blur - Think Tank
6. Modest Mouse - Moon and Antarctica
7. Stellastarr* - Stellastarr*
8. The Strokes - Is This It?
9. The Cure - Bloodflowers
10. Carina Round - The Disconnetion
11. Idlewind - 100 Broken Windows
12. Lenny Valentino - Uwaga! Jedzie tramwaj
13. B.R.M.C. - Black Rebel Motorcycle CLub
14. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
15. Coldplay - Parachutes
16. The Mars Volta - De-loused in the Comatorium
17. Interpol - Antics
18. Notwist - Neon Golden
19. Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life
20. The Coral - The Coral
21. At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command
22. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People
23. Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia
24. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
25. James - Pleased to Meet You
26. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
27. The Libertines - Up the Bracket
28. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
29. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
30. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
31. Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man - Out of Season
32. Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People
33. Bjork - Vespertine
34. The Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere
35. Bright Eyes - Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil Keep Your Ear to the Ground
36. Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk
37. New Order - Get Ready
38. Medium 21 - Killings from the Dial
39. Starsailor - Love Is Here
40. The Crimea - Tragedy Rocks
41. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Take Them On, On Your Own
42. Queens of the Stone Age - R
43. The White Stripes - Elephant
44. The Shins - Shuts too Narrow
45. Sigur Ros - ()
46. Hope of the States - The Lost Riots
47. PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
48. Mogwai - Rock Action
49. Doves - Lost Souls
50. Biffy Cayro - The Vertigo of Bliss

Jacek

Feb 15th, 2005 - 9:44 PM

Re: Screenagers' best albums 2000-2004 (and a question to Henrik concerning music zines)

Sorry for the spelling mistakes!

Henrik

Feb 15th, 2005 - 10:03 PM

Re: Screenagers' best albums 2000-2004 (and a question to Henrik concerning music zines)

The links to the 2004 and the 2000-2004 lists were actually sent to me a week ago by the Screenagers' staff! I will include the lists, yesterday I added the links under "coming soon" on the front page.

They didn't send me the link to the 2003 list though, so I will add this. Many thanks!

I cannot give a clear answer to the zines question. I was much more restrictive to include webzine lists a few years ago, but then it was clear to me that many of these webzines look much deeper into the music than the commercial magazines.

Jacek

Feb 15th, 2005 - 10:19 PM

Re: Screenagers' best albums 2000-2004 (and a question to Henrik concerning music zines)

You're getting famous Henrik. Now it's Screenagers, but soon Rolling Stone and Spin will be sending their lists to you as well.

Jeff

Feb 16th, 2005 - 2:30 PM

Web-zines

I think print media is fast becoming passe. Webzines do not suffer from the same restrictions as those that exist in the physical world, they can be updated with new content and, more importantly, news at anytime during the day. Thanks to Pitchfork and a variety of other sources (Lost at Sea comes to mind), by the time Rolling Stone or Spin hits the shelves, their music news is already badly dated (this means news publications are really screwed). There has also been an industry shift, record execs. are now more concerned with getting good webzine write-ups than with traditional print, they feel that Pitchfork has more sway with people than the majority of print magazines.

Which is probably true, I think people are more inclined to look at a glowing Pitchfork review and go out and buy a record than a glowing Rolling Stone review. Merge Records thinks so as well, they largely credited Pitchfork for breaking the Arcade Fire. The same could be said for Interpol's TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS (the forks album of the year in 2002) selling 300,000 copies in the U.S. Of course webzines are usually more snide than print magazines, they do however come across as less corrupted. They don't really have to appeal to a wide audience in an effort to increase subscriptions either because, well it's free. And now it's been reported that more people visit Pitchfork monthly than read Spin, how's that for a change?

It's mostly a matter of credibility I think, and Rolling Stone has pissed a lot of people off during it's time (coverage of 80's music, the infamous 3 1/2 star reviews) so it's only natural that people would turn to new forms of opinions to get music reviews and news. And they really are more in depth, in that their reviews are usually longer and can work in artist backstories because they are not restricted to the lenght of a printed page. Plus they have daily reviews (I think Pitchfork has around 5 a day) which means that Pitchfork has more reviews in a week than Rolling Stone does in an entire issue.

This may be a bold statement, but I would say that in 50 years, most print magazines will be dead. Only a few of the higher quality niche mags will survive (local newspapers, food publications, Wired and probably Mojo among others). It just doesn't make sense to pay $3.95 for a magazine off the news stand when there's a website offering the same, perhaps better, content for (usually) free.

Those are my thoughts on the matter.

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Jacek Feb 15, 05 - 9:39 PM	Screenagers' best albums 2000-2004 (and a question to Henrik concerning music zines) Last Friday evening I was a little bored and sleepy. I'm sure all of you feeling - you're too tired to do anything requiring a little intellectual effort, like reading a book, but not tired enough to go to sleep. So I decided to look for some music lists on the net -that's how I found the ones I've been posting lately. I the process I discovered a lot of music-related webzines and they had all their lists. You can't accept them all, because they would quickly start to dominate over established music presss, so my question is: how do you determine if a music zine is "professional" enough for its list to be included in Acclaimed Music? I had my doubts before posting the Porcys lists, but those were measly end-of-year lists, so I thought, what the hell. The one I'm going to post now, however, covers a period of 5 years, 2000-2004, so it's a much more serious issue. It comes from the webzine Screenagers. It is the second major indie-oriented site in Poland (the other is Porcys). But even so it can't be compared with the largest UK and US based music zines like Pitchfork or Pop Matters. Of course the main reason is that in Poland still relatively few people have permanent access to the internet, so webzines like these reach a small audience. Another problem is they mostly deal with indie music isn't even available in the shops in Poland, including internet ones. This means Polish record companies (and Polish divisions of major labels) were cared enough for those webzines to send them promo copies and such. On the hand one could argue they do the same thing Pitchfork does, only the "environment" they operate in is more hostile (no thriving indie community in Poland, you know). So I'll just post the lists and you decide if they can be included. Best albums of 2003 http://www.screenagers.pl/index.php?service=xtras&action=show&id=19 1. British Sea Power - The Decline Of British Sea Power 2. Blur - Think Tank 3. Mars Volta, The - De-Loused In The Comatorium 4. Stellastarr* - Stellastarr* 5. Radiohead - Hail To The Thief 6. Mogwai - Happy Songs For Happy People 7. Medium 21 - Killings From The Dial 8. The Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle 9. The White Stripes - Elephant 10. Wrens - Meadowlands 11. Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia - My Elixir; My Poision 12. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow 13. Cat Power - You Are Free 14. Serafin - No Push Collide 15. Damien Rice - O 16. B.R.M.C. - Take Them On, On Your Own 17. Muse - Absolution 18. Blue Raincoat - Small Town Addiction 19. U.N.K.L.E - Never Never Land 20. (X) is Greater than (Y) - Negative Snow 21. Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress 22. Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground 23. The Sounds - Living In America 24. South - With The Tides 25. The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart 26. Denali - The Instinct 27. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People 28. Massive Attack - 100th Window 29. I Am Kloot - I Am Kloot 30. Xiu Xiu - A Promise Best albums of 2004 http://www.screenagers.pl/index.php?service=xtras&action=top04&rank=1 1. The Arcade Fire - Funeral 2. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse 3. Seafood - As The Cry Flows 4. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand 5. Interpol - Antics 6. The Crimea - Tragedy Rocks 7. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry 8. Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere 9. Razorlight - Up All Night 10. Hope Of The States - Lost Riots 11. Kid Dakota - The West Is The Future 12. PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her 13. Delays - Faded Seaside Glamour 14. The Futureheads - The Futureheads 15. Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat 16. Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt 17. Colour Of Fire - Pearl Necklace 18. The Go! Team - Lightning Thunder Strike 19. The Killers - Hot Fuss 20. The Charlatans - Up At The Lake 21. Mordy - Antrology 22. Six.by Seven - 04 23. Bjork - Medulla 24. Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Please Describe Yourself 25. Junior Boys - Last Exit 26. Ash - Meltdown 27. CocoRosie - La Maison De Mon Reve 28. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans 29. (tie) The Plastic Constellations - Mazatlan 29. (tie) McLusky - The Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire Best albums 0f 2000-2004 http://www.screenagers.pl/index.php?service=xtras&action=top0004&part=1 1. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes 2. Radiohead - Kid A 3. British Sea Power - The Decline of the British Sea Power 4. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights 5. Blur - Think Tank 6. Modest Mouse - Moon and Antarctica 7. Stellastarr* - Stellastarr* 8. The Strokes - Is This It? 9. The Cure - Bloodflowers 10. Carina Round - The Disconnetion 11. Idlewind - 100 Broken Windows 12. Lenny Valentino - Uwaga! Jedzie tramwaj 13. B.R.M.C. - Black Rebel Motorcycle CLub 14. The Arcade Fire - Funeral 15. Coldplay - Parachutes 16. The Mars Volta - De-loused in the Comatorium 17. Interpol - Antics 18. Notwist - Neon Golden 19. Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life 20. The Coral - The Coral 21. At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command 22. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People 23. Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia 24. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse 25. James - Pleased to Meet You 26. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 27. The Libertines - Up the Bracket 28. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat 29. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells 30. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand 31. Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man - Out of Season 32. Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People 33. Bjork - Vespertine 34. The Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere 35. Bright Eyes - Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil Keep Your Ear to the Ground 36. Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk 37. New Order - Get Ready 38. Medium 21 - Killings from the Dial 39. Starsailor - Love Is Here 40. The Crimea - Tragedy Rocks 41. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Take Them On, On Your Own 42. Queens of the Stone Age - R 43. The White Stripes - Elephant 44. The Shins - Shuts too Narrow 45. Sigur Ros - () 46. Hope of the States - The Lost Riots 47. PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea 48. Mogwai - Rock Action 49. Doves - Lost Souls 50. Biffy Cayro - The Vertigo of Bliss
Jacek Feb 15th, 2005 - 9:44 PM	Re: Screenagers' best albums 2000-2004 (and a question to Henrik concerning music zines) Sorry for the spelling mistakes!
Henrik Feb 15th, 2005 - 10:03 PM	Re: Screenagers' best albums 2000-2004 (and a question to Henrik concerning music zines) The links to the 2004 and the 2000-2004 lists were actually sent to me a week ago by the Screenagers' staff! I will include the lists, yesterday I added the links under "coming soon" on the front page. They didn't send me the link to the 2003 list though, so I will add this. Many thanks! I cannot give a clear answer to the zines question. I was much more restrictive to include webzine lists a few years ago, but then it was clear to me that many of these webzines look much deeper into the music than the commercial magazines.
Jacek Feb 15th, 2005 - 10:19 PM	Re: Screenagers' best albums 2000-2004 (and a question to Henrik concerning music zines) You're getting famous Henrik. Now it's Screenagers, but soon Rolling Stone and Spin will be sending their lists to you as well.
Jeff Feb 16th, 2005 - 2:30 PM	Web-zines I think print media is fast becoming passe. Webzines do not suffer from the same restrictions as those that exist in the physical world, they can be updated with new content and, more importantly, news at anytime during the day. Thanks to Pitchfork and a variety of other sources (Lost at Sea comes to mind), by the time Rolling Stone or Spin hits the shelves, their music news is already badly dated (this means news publications are really screwed). There has also been an industry shift, record execs. are now more concerned with getting good webzine write-ups than with traditional print, they feel that Pitchfork has more sway with people than the majority of print magazines. Which is probably true, I think people are more inclined to look at a glowing Pitchfork review and go out and buy a record than a glowing Rolling Stone review. Merge Records thinks so as well, they largely credited Pitchfork for breaking the Arcade Fire. The same could be said for Interpol's TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS (the forks album of the year in 2002) selling 300,000 copies in the U.S. Of course webzines are usually more snide than print magazines, they do however come across as less corrupted. They don't really have to appeal to a wide audience in an effort to increase subscriptions either because, well it's free. And now it's been reported that more people visit Pitchfork monthly than read Spin, how's that for a change? It's mostly a matter of credibility I think, and Rolling Stone has pissed a lot of people off during it's time (coverage of 80's music, the infamous 3 1/2 star reviews) so it's only natural that people would turn to new forms of opinions to get music reviews and news. And they really are more in depth, in that their reviews are usually longer and can work in artist backstories because they are not restricted to the lenght of a printed page. Plus they have daily reviews (I think Pitchfork has around 5 a day) which means that Pitchfork has more reviews in a week than Rolling Stone does in an entire issue. This may be a bold statement, but I would say that in 50 years, most print magazines will be dead. Only a few of the higher quality niche mags will survive (local newspapers, food publications, Wired and probably Mojo among others). It just doesn't make sense to pay $3.95 for a magazine off the news stand when there's a website offering the same, perhaps better, content for (usually) free. Those are my thoughts on the matter.