Year-end list time is here, and Mike at Idolator did us a favor by throwing together the album picks from New York, The Guardian and Time. Wait, Time? Since when did their music picks become relevant? Since their Top 10 started looking more like someone hit the random shuffle on our iPod and less like someone hit the random shuffle on our mom’s iPod:
(1) Lil Wayne and (6) Kanye West, both obvious but completely relevant, choices. (2) TV On The Radio, (4) Girl Talk, (5) Vampire Weekend and (7) Santogold — someone has been reading their Stereogum. (3) Metallica, (8) Portishead and (9) Lucinda Williams are oldies but goodies, and while VH-1 friendly talent like (10) Duffy is just the kind of artist who we’d expect to see Time salute, we’ve always liked her.
Obviously list author Josh Tyrangiel is much cooler than we would have thought — but is he working off from some weird formula? Call us really crazy conspiracy theorists — because in this case we are — but in many ways this could be a replay of last year’s list. Sure the names are different, but they are similar ideas at work.
Take a look at the eerie parallels we’ve unearthed after the jump and see if you agree.
1. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black (Lil Wayne – both are critically and commercially successful artists who get arrested a lot) 2. Radiohead – In Rainbows (Metallica – both are aging bands with a cult following and really strong opinions about digital downloads) 3. Feist – The Reminder (Portishead – both make make-out music) 4. Miranda Lambert – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Duffy – both are young, blond and kind of forgettable) 5. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (Girl Talk – both one-man acts heart musical mash-ups ) 6. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (TV on the Radio – both are indie bands who made earlier albums that we liked a lot more) 7. Battles – Mirrored (Vampire Weekend – both have aggressive names and highly-blogged debuts) 8. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Raising Sand (Lucinda Williams – they’re all talented mavericks who blur the boundaries between genres) 9. M.I.A. – Kala (Santogold – both are big fans of the best parts of the ’80s — including the really bright clothing) 10. Kanye West – Graduation (Kanye West)