How are your AOTYs holding up this decade?

Music
1

Assume most of us here decide on an official AOTY each year. How has time treated them?

2010: Eleven Tigers - Clouds are Mountains
I still love this to bits and it’s top 5 of the decade right now for me. It sounds very much of its time with the massive nods to Burial but, while the prevailing trends in what might loosely fall under IDM have moved on, I think this has aged very well. Still AOTY.

2011: Active Child - You Are All I See
Eesh. This album has not had staying power, although I still really enjoy the opening two tracks. I think partly tainted by the astounding drop in the quality of his subsequent output, which has been saccharine guff. Wouldn’t make a top 10 of 2011 these days for me.

2012: Shackleton - Music For The Quiet Hour
Shackleton has that thing Aphex does where his sound seems to be totally unique and immediately identifiable. Still bung this on once every couple of months and it’s only grown in stature over the years. Monumentally good. Still AOTY.

2013: Boards of Canada - Tomorrow’s Harvest
Now the dust has settled, I’d call this a solid 9/10. Definitely still among my favourite releases of the year, but there’s other records I’d put above it in retrospect. Not AOTY, but probs top 5.

2014: Aphex Twin - Syro
Listening to the opening moments of Syro and getting that reminder that no one else can do what he does is one of the most brilliant non-gig musical memories for me. Like with BoC, it’s taken a while to separate the thrill of a new release from a quasi-objective subjective assessment. Still think it’s a masterpiece and AOTY.

2015: Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
It’s lost some of its impact over the 2 years, but it’s still beautiful when I’m in the right mood for it, and no other album has touched me emotionally like this did at the time. In retrospect, it’s been surpassed by the Everythings for 2015, but is top 10 of the decade for sure.

2016: Hammock - Everything & Nothing
Still my AOTY for 2016, but a record I probably overplayed at the time and have burned out a bit on recently. Imagine I’ll rediscover it in 2018 at some point and remember how wonderful it is.

1 Like
2

Someone dig up all the old DiS AOTY voting threads so I can remember what I put plz

8 Likes
3

Hmmm, not 100% what I voted as my number one album pre-2013, but I think this is accurate:

2010: Kanye - My Dark Twisted Beautiful Fantasy (although it might have been Age Of Adz)
2011: Destroyer - Kaputt
2012: El-P - Cancer 4 Cure
2013: Public Service Broadcasting - Inform, Educate, Entertain
2014: Kiasmos - S/T
2015: Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
2016: Anderson.Paak - Malibu

Don’t think there’s any regrets here, think they’re all still brilliant. Only 2013 that, in hindsight, I might have changed for either Sunbather or Immunity.

1 Like
4

2010: Deftones - Diamond Eyes
I mean, it’s still a great album, up there with their best. Maaaybe my second favourite Deftones album? Not listening to them much at the moment. I had This Is Happening at number 2 and I’d say this really should have been AOTY that year. Also, at this time I still thought Kanye was a prick and wouldn’t give him time of day but MBDTF has probably since become my favourite album of the decade.

2011: Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness
Absolutely loved this at the time and still think it’s great but it’s not even my favourite LC! record. Probably the year after I got into St Vincent, Youth Lagoon, Danny Brown and years later Tycho’s Dive so no way would Hello Sadness still be my favourite album from 2011 now. Toss up between Strange Mercy and XXX

2012: Japandroids - Celebration Rock // Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes
Yep, still stand by both of these. Celebration Rock probably edges it, because Flying Lotus is a plum.

2013: There Will Be Fireworks - The Dark, Dark Bright
No question on this one. Still an absolute, all time favourite. Sunbather is also well up there though.

2014: Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Again, no moving on this. Still an incredible record and nothing released that year touches it for me. Good year though, Twilight Sad, Sharon Van Etten and The Hotelier still on heavy rotation now.

2015: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
If anything I think I like it more now that I did then and I made it AOTY. Mindblowingly good for me, Clive.

2016: Departures - Death Touches Us From The Moment We Begin To Love
Still a great album, by far their best work. I don’t listen to it as much now but would still consider it my personal favourite of the year. Frank Ocean and Rival Consoles have been on heavy rotation this year though.

1 Like
5

dunno what i put for each year but AOTD e•mo•tion is still a banger, so i’m happy

3 Likes
6

I think I had a single one at the time for every year except 2011 when I couldn’t decide.

2010: Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
I haven’t listened in awhile just because I’m in a completely different headspace than I was in 2010, but I can confidently say it’s still one of the best albums ever written. Patrick Stickles is a genius and one of the greatest lyricists of all time. The National’s High Violet comes close, but 2010 belongs to “The Monitor”.
Still album of the year? Yes

2011: Radiohead - King of Limbs / Blink 182 - Neighborhoods / Yuck - Yuck / Wye Oak - Civilian / Bon Iver - Bon Iver / Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
Weird year, and I don’t think my taste in music fully formed until 2012 when I moved across the country and had nothing to do but listen to Spotify. I still like and/or love all of these albums (even the Blink 182 one, I’ll happily defend them) but none of them would go on to remain album of the year, though Bon Iver held the spot until I discovered Burst Apart in October of 2012.
Still album of the year? No. The Antlers - Burst Apart took it.

2012: The Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania
I don’t care what anyone says, it’s a fantastic album. The songs “Glissandra” and “Oceania” in particular are phenomenal. It’s loud at times, melodic and pretty at others, and often all at once. It’s Billy Corgan. Sometimes I want to give it to METZ, Swearin’, or even The Mars Volta for their secret monster of an album Noctourniquet, but in my heart it’s Oceania.
Still album of the year? Yes

2013: Youth Lagoon - Wondrous Bughouse
This has aged really well for me, even if sometimes I think Sigur Ros or The National eclipsed it. It’s secretly some of the best music ever written, especially “Raspberry Cane”, “Third Dystopia”, “The Bath”, and “Mute”. The slightly lesser / more circus-y sounding songs do a great job of setting up the highlights, and after 4 years, those opening notes of the first track are still like being jabbed by a finger in the sad spot of the brain. It’s a magical album.
Still album of the year? I guess so. Kveikur has overtaken it for periods, and Trouble Will Find Me has been getting better and better each year, but when I think of 2013 “Wondrous Bughouse” is the first thing I think of.

2014: The Antlers - Familiars
I still really like this album, but sometimes I think some of my initial excitement about it was leftover Burst Apart love. It’s one of the best few in a year that had more good music than any other I can think of (but less truly great music than almost all others), but a few others ended up surpassing it, most notably The Afghan Whigs, Nothing, and The Hotelier.
Still album of the year? No. The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace Is There takes it.

2015: Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
It’s still beautiful and his best album, and “John the Baptist” and “All of Me Wants All of You” still can stop a room in an instant. I always wish I could give Titus Andronicus’s “The Most Lamentable Tragedy” AOTY due to its sheer ambition, but the more bar-band-y stuff on that one combined with the melodies on this one prevent it.
Still album of the year? Yes

2016: Strange Ranger - Rot Forever (done under the name Sioux Falls)
It’s still just as sad, angry, melodic, intense, sprawling, and packed with emotion as it was a year and a half ago. I love it even more now, and really wish more people would give this band a shot. There’s something really special in their music.
Still album of the year? Yes

3 Likes
7

This was one of my biggest surprises of 2016, I had never heard of them before. I loved this and can tell it’s one of those albums that’s going to age incredibly well.

1 Like
8

I was the same. Think there was a post in the ambient thread which turned me onto it. I have like 70 plays for Dissonance last year…

9

Definitely much less fond of MBDTF which is a bit messy in retrospect

2 Likes
10

Sacrilege to say it, but I’d bin off the entire second half in retrospect

1 Like
11

2010
Shout Wellington Air Force - Clean Sunset.
Keeping this

2011
Gazelle Twin - The Entire City
Would now swap for: Blackout Beach - Fuck Death

2012
Liars - WIXIW
Would now swap for: Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship

2013
Majical Cloudz - Impersonator
Sticking with this one.

2014
Wife - What’s Between
Yup, keeping this

2015
Farao - Till It’s All Forgotten
Would now swap for: Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect
(that was a hard one, lots of great stuff in 2015)

2016
Gold Panda - Good Luck and Do Your Best
Yup, still love this.

2 Likes
12

Word…but then I’ve no real sympathy for someone who rates this above Kaputt, Ravedeath, Let England Shake etc. :safety wink:

13

Drowned in sound, as a website, was absolutely mad for Burst Apart…but it’s easily my least favourite “proper” (as in Hospice onwards) Antlers album. I think Familiars is underrated…though it is still some way off my album of 2014…

It’s a shame they probably won’t make much more music together :frowning:

14

Was just 2/3 through a long reply to this and it’s gone

@sean!!

I’ll pick it back up when I’m less disheartened

15

My top 10 albums of 2011 were:

Wild Flag
Tim Hecker
Bill Callahan
Dutch Uncles
Ghostpoet
The Duke Spirit
Foo Fighters
Iron & Wine
Anna Calvi
Tune-Yards

I never really picked one album from my top 10s.

2012 was:

Corin Tucker Band
Swans
Bryter Layter
Metz
Gonjasufi
Santigold
Winterfylleth
Debo Band
John Talabot
Blowgoat

Edit found 2013:

Modern Life Is War - Fever Hunting
Lizzo - LIZZOBANGERS
Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
Tim Hecker - Virgins
The Night Marchers - Allez Allez
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
Tessellators - Harvest of Sorrow
Grouper - The Man Who Died in His Boat
Coliseum - Sister Faith
Marnie Stern - The Chronicles of Marnia

16

2010: Errors - Come Down With Me
Great album, no idea if it still stands the test of time though. A lot of artists have occupied the space that still sounded fresh when Errors arrived. Still got some undoubtedly great tracks, but feels a little lightweight listening back. 2010 was the year of a load of artists I like releasing underwhelming albums though. In retrospect it should have been Kanye, MBDTF came out too late in the year to get a proper perspective on it.

2011: The Weeknd - Trilogy
Was a gateway into me listening to more R&B so this one will always have a soft spot for me. Admittedly I thought this was the start of something incredible but the guy’s gotten progressively more boring with every release, but I can’t argue about the impact this one had on me and the first EP in particular is still chock full of greatness.

2012: Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory
Amazing album, still love listening to it, but it’s more nostalgia now than it really having the same visceral impact. Reckon Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music would pip this in retrospect as that’s the best thing Killer Mike or El-P have put their names to in either of their careers and have never achieved its heights since (and that’s speaking as a big fan of both).

2013: Future Of The Left - How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident
Still fucking love this album and still by far my favourite album of that year, no regrets on that choice. So many amazing songs on that album. Definitely the best and most consistent of the post-Kelsom years I think.

2014: Liars - Mess
Mess is a great album, I’ll stand by that, but I will admit that its maximalism did grate after a while. Considering that this as the same year that Spoon’s They Want My Soul came out, I’d have a hard time justifying Mess taking the top spot in retrospect.

2015: HEALTH - Death Magic
Another one like Mess, had that immediate impact that didn’t stick. Seeing them at Birthdays playing those new tracks was an incredible gig and I think there was a bit of residual love from that gig in my reflection of the album itself. Seeing how they’ve been falling apart since though has kind of spoiled it a bit for me somehow. Considering this was the year of TPAB, there’s no way it’d win the #1 spot again in retrospect.

2016: Parquet Courts - Human Performance
This was only last year so unsurprisingly still stand by it. Went on a Parquet Courts binge around the end of last year though, and have been laying off them a bit since, but whenever one of these tracks comes up on shuffle, it puts a smile on my face.

5 Likes
17

RAVEDEATH IS NOT VERY GOOD

2 Likes
18

don’t really know what to say to this

5 Likes
19

Pretty sure I’ve written a masters level thesis of material on why I don’t like Ravedeath on this and the old site. One of the few albums from 2011 I’d still rank below Active Child :wink:

20

Are you a fan of Tim Hecker in general?