#12

It’s all personal opinion of course, but whilst I absolutely love Carrie and Lowell (one of the five or six best albums of the decade, no question) I never got on with Age of Adz and the rest of the stuff you list is a bit insubstantial.

His decade was the noughties, I think - Seven Swans, Illinois, Michigan, The Avalanche, Songs for Christmas.

Big Thief haven’t come close to the brilliance of Carrie and Lowell, but they have released four excellent albums in the last three years.

It’s a close one, as I said, but it’s Big Thief for me, although I admit I’m slightly influenced by not wanting the semis to be a 100% sausage fest.

#13

I think Everything Everything benefit in a poll like the previous round from having little in the way of middle ground. People tend to love or loathe them. You only get their promoters in a poll (until they get some plaudits and then you sure do hear from their detractors…second only to the National in the ‘don’t people who don’t like them love to tell you so’ stakes).

I’d been meaning to write something about them in the last round, but didnt get around to it. Get To Heaven really resonated with me when it came out, being all about these big themes it was easy to become obsessed with like the rise of IS, right wing populism, identity etc. I think Arc is another 10, and Fever Dream probably an 8, though they don’t quite have the same cohesiveness as GTH.

I had a weakly tangential link to someone very publicly killed by IS that I had to do some work on and we had EE tickets the week after the Bataclan attack. I remember being really nervous all week at the thought of going, wondering whether it was still a good idea, seeing loads of people on Twitter trying to sell their tickets because they were suddenly ‘unable to go’ and arriving at the Apollo to see security staff everywhere. I’m not trying to turn it into some kind of terrorism porn experience, but it made for the most intense gig I’ve ever been to. There was this kind of nervous energy in the air that exploded when they came on and opened with ‘To The Blade’ which couldn’t have been any more on the nose in that moment.

They’re a trojan horse of a band where just hearing the singles on Radio 1, you could easily get the impression that they’re just an indie pop group like Bombay Bicycle Club or whatever with catchy songs and silly lyrics (though I really like that they’ve managed to achieve this crossover appeal), but there’s loads of depth if you then pursue them further.

They’re all great musicians Higgs feels very underrated as a writer to me. He’s always got something to say, writes on themes that are very relevant to now - and he does so in a thought provoking, nuanced way…but with loads of flair and humour, so you never feel lectured or bogged down by it. There’s a nice article here (Line Of Best Fit) where he talks through the inspiration for each song on GTH.

Frank would be my other main contender for the poll (so thanks for that match up :wink:), and most of the others have albums that are among my favourites of the decade, but EE are the one that also have something on a personal level that gives the edge and makes them special.

EDIT - what ATT said far more concisely…

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#14

100% dont associate sufjan with this decade

Big Thief I’m baffled how they’re even in the conversation period. What a crap bracket

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#15

I have to confess that they completely pass my by - I wouldn’t say anything negative about them because they are almost entirely outside my frame of reference. On the odd occasions I hear anything by them I would file it under inoffensive but unexceptional. They obviously have a decent number of passionate fans though, which is interesting.

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#16

Big Thief have done amazingly well to get into the last eight as they didn’t start realising music until 2016 - all the others have been around either throughout the decade or at least since about 2012.

Despite that none of the others apart from Thee Oh Sees have released more albums in the decade and they have been remarkably consistent and excellent. I think they have as much of a right to be in the knock-out phases as some of the others that are (although of course there are artists like Beyoncé and many others that deserve it more)

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#17

Yeah, I’m in no way trying to press gang anyone into liking them, but I think the interest in polls like this (especially when the winner’s clear from the start) is in people writing why they’re passionate about what they are.

Similarly, I’d have been unlikely to have given Lana Del Ray’s latest much of a shot if it weren’t for the enthusiasm from folks like you on the end of year polls. I thought her debut was fun, but her schtick was a bit hackneyed. I wasnt fussed about hearing more of it, but I’m happy now that I belatedly did.

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#18

Perhaps BT perfectly embody a decade of short termism?

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#19

Nick Cave vs Deafheaven is my final! Incredibly tough choice, but voted DH on the grounds that they are entirely of this decade, and my love for Nick is largely based on his 80s and 90s work.

Thee Oh Sees beat Kendrick because they are just so spectacular live, plus as I said in the other thread, KL’s constant calling women bitches really jars for me and spoils his records.

The other two brackets are spoilt ballots, I’m afraid. Either don’t like them or not heard enough to form an opinion, so I’m just drawing crude genitalia instead.

#20

I’ll probably always have the closest attachment to Nick Cave’s 80s albums, and it would certainly be weird for someone that’s been releasing music since the 70s to be the artist of this decade. On the other hand he has released three genuinely, truly p, great albums since 2010 and very few others can say that (perhaps only Kendrick).

#21

I reckon if we did a poll of best artist of the last forty years, Nick would walk it for me. Tender Prey to Murder Ballads is as good a five album run as anyone has put together, and nothing after that is worse than very good. I just don’t think of him as a 2010s artist, is all.

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#22

Another visitor from the timeline where nocturama doesn’t exist! :grinning:

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#23

Never really got the hate for Nocturama. It’s certainly not peak Nick, but then I would say the same about Abattoir Blues / TLOO, which everyone seems to love. They are both treading water records for me - decent, competent stuff, but ultimately locked in a holding pattern that would have killed him as an artist if the Grinderman reboot hadn’t happened. I really don’t like The Boatman’s Call either, but at least he was doing something different and trying to change it up there.

#24

I agree with all of that, but I’m still going to find the likely Cave/Ocean semi quite tough. The Bad Seeds albums this decade have been utterly amazing, a late career run that has lifted Nick Cave into the realms of the proper immortals like Bowie, Dylan and Joni and laughing Leonard Cohen in my view.

And yet…Frank Ocean’s albums, especially Blonde, are absolutely of the moment and define the sound of so much of the most forward looking music of the decade.

It’ll be a match up that tests the idea of what it means to be an ‘artist of the decade’.

#25

Abattoir blues has plenty of lyrical and musical fire and invention. The story telling on lyre is up there with his very best and the choir vocals are pretty stunning throughout.

Nocturama does have lyrical and musical ambition but it’s all compressed into babe I’m on fire. The rest of it is bland as fuck imo

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#26

Polls will close in the morning and I’ll put the semis up.

#27

Fuck me,
image
Two albums, one in 2015 (!) and people are giving him artist of the decade over Big Thief?!

Where’s @Severed799 and his crew :smiley:

#28

Don’t even know what Syrian Stevens is

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#29

forgot about some of this non-album stuff to be fair (still enjoy All Delighted People more than Age of Adz actually) but i still think of him more as one of the definite artists of the 00s instead (same with Cave and the 80s/90s)

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#30

I’d argue that Everything Everything are the most important indie band of the last decade, but most people don’t know it or very vocally don’t want to hear it. They’re definitely the underdog vote in a Quarter Finals like this, I’m just immensely pleased they got here at all.

#31

Age of Adz is one of my favourite albums of the decade, so would be happy enough with that on its own. & the live show for that album was also astounding, and pretty much better than 99% of other shows I’ve seen since then.
The Planetarium (collaboration) album is really good also, and didn’t get the praise that it deserved.
(And not that fussed with Big Thief or any of the other artists remaining, so will be voting for him all the way. Give me an S! Give me a U! Give me an F! Give me a J! etc… Oops, wrong decade).

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