NME

Who Is Missing from ‘NME’s’ Top 50 Albums of 2012?

Long-running Brit weekly mag NME has just published its 50 Best Albums of 2012, and as Stereogum points out, the list is a mixed bag of good, bad, and predictable. The top five spots went to Tame Impala at number one, with Grimes, Frank Ocean, Crystal Castles, and Alt-J following closely behind. Australian psych outfit Tame Impala will be kicking off their 2013 tour with the first US stop at New York’s Terminal 5 in February, celebrating the release of new album, Lonerism. Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die made the cut at number 45, but Fiona Apple’s The Idler Wheel… is mysterious missing. We’re also lamenting the lack of Swans on this list, but we have Pitchfork TV’s 27-minute, behind-the-scenes doc to tide us over for now. Who else deserves a spot? Head past the break to see the countdown in full, and chime in, below. … Read More

Which End-of-Year Music List Is Right For You?

December is nearly over, which means that pretty much every music publication has filed its obligatory end-of-year list and gone off to gorge itself on turkey and mulled wine. Looking over said lists, it’s interesting to note how they’ve become an exercise in critical homogeneity — you see the same names cropping up over and over again on list after list, and the days of gloriously off-the-wall choices like NME dubbing the long-forgotten Sugar’s Copper Blue as the best album of 1992 are long behind us. Still, having said that, pretty much every publication manages to include at least a couple of names that no-one else does, and it’s these idiosyncratic choices — both worthy and/or laughable — that tend to reveal the most about the publication in question. If you’re wondering which one might be right for you, then look no further — after the jump, we dissect 10 leading outlets’ top 10 lists, and consider what their choices say about them (and us). … Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Walter Breuning, who is officially recognized as the oldest man in the word, died yesterday in Montana of natural causes. At 114 years old, he lived through both the stock market crash of 1929 and the birth of the computer — and was around to see Halley’s Comet pass through twice! [via … Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Winter’s Bone, a gritty family drama that’s set in the Midwest and based on Daniel Woodrell’s 2006 novel of the same name, won top honors at the Gotham Independent Film Awards last night. [via WSJ]

2. “How does it feel to know that you could have any man in the world? Or… Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. The New York Times asks where all of the quote-worthy movie moments have disappeared to in the aughts. Maybe Hollywood screenwriters have simply run out of annoying catchphrases.
2. Jon Stewart is expanding his “Rally to Restore Sanity” to the West Coast. The satellite event will be held in Los Angeles… Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Comedian Chelsea Handler has been officially announced as the host of the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12. [via ArtsBeat]
2. Yesterday Facebook announced a new, optional service called Places that’s just like Foursquare without the badges and only for people who have an iPhone. [via WSJ]… Read More

Brit-Pop Is Over Because NME is Annoying

In a recent piece entitled “It’s Time to let Brit-Pop Die With Dignity,” writer Mark Beaumont argues that Brit Pop has “become such a dirty word.” I couldn’t agree more: brit-pop is annoying, and it’s because of… Read More