Thanksgiving Weekend!! Time for turkeys to meet their doom, the Detroit Lions to lose a football game, Best Buy to open at the obscenely unnecessary hour of 4am & of course Matty B to release the updated, re-revised, over-devised & sometimes despised rules for- The 5th annual Top Ten Albums Lists of 2007!
That's right!! It's that time of year again! Time to lock yourself indoors, crank up your stereo, start making the tough decisions & post your favorite albums of the year on my weblog http://lettershomefromcamp.blogspot.com/ (which if you've been keeping track is a new home for the lists this year......which coincidentally has also gone without an update since like...August).
Ya gotta do this dude!! It's not only great opportunity prove your music snob superiority to your peers, it's a most excellent way to learn about awesome music you might have missed or overlooked.
Also...let's not forget the gala event of the lists- The Top Ten Albums LISTENING PARTY at The Pabst Theater Pub!! December 28th 8pm
Last year's listening party was a blast- we posted our lists all over the pub, talked boatloads of music & enjoyed fine free beverages...
This year for the listening party we are doing a MIX CD Swap! It's easy! Bring a bunch of mix CDs of your fave albums of the year along with copies of the track listings & trade them with your friends!! Also make sure to bring along either your MP3 player or Top CDs & YOU get to play guest DJ throughout the evening!
so without further ado.... here they are:
THE RULES
Top Ten Albums of 2007
1. Album must have a release date between November 1 2006 and January 1 2008- Always rule #1...always the toughest rule for people to follow. If you haven't listened to 10 albums yet this year....grab a friend's iPod & get crackin' ...still a month to go. Good sources for verifying release dates include www.allmusic.com, amazon.com & itunes. An additional wrinkle to this equation includes albums that have future release dates & have leaked to the internet (HEY! what are you doing with that thing already anyway!)...well realizing the realities of the internet age, this year, future albums are ok (posting the same album for both 2007 & 08 however is generally frowned upon)
2. Every selection must be accompanied by a short yet poignant explanation- Ok... so you don't have to write a novel (like i usually do), but if you don't tell us why these are in your top ten.... it's just a list. (and nobody will know what it means) Make your case & prove to us why these albums are your top ten!
Below is my list along with few other examples of particularly good explanations from last year:
http://soundopinion.blogdrive.com/archive/95.html http://soundopinion.blogdrive.com/archive/102.html http://soundopinion.blogdrive.com/archive/101.html
3. No Greatest Hits, Reissues or other bogus crap like that- I know, I know--Notorious B.I.G. came out with his greatest hits album this year, so this is gonna be a hard one however last i checked it didn't make Biggie any less dead...it also doesn't make the songs new or different than they were when the came out in 1994.... let's not encourage the record labels to release any more of these cash cows than they need to.
4. B-Sides, Soundtracks, Compilations and Live Albums need special explanation - See review of "Now That's What I Call Indie" style compilation here http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/45021-this-is-next for an excellent example of great music shamelessly compiled for no reason, however on the other side of it, we have seen some classic examples of Top 10 worthy albums especially in the Soundtrack category.
5. Comments Welcome- The blog space has a section for comments that I would greatly encourage you to use. A great dialogue is what this is all about! Harsh criticism is also fully acceptable (although if you're gonna go mean, you better have your list up & you better identify yourself...so backlash is an option)
6. Visual aids encouraged- The obvious choice is the CD cover (which is a heck of a lot easier to do on the new site than it was on blogdrive)...however youtubes, myspace links, live shots, audio embeds... anything to help state your case. If you need help with this, drop me an e-mail & i'll
7. Honorable Mentions, other lists, awards all welcome & encouraged- Couldn't squeeze an album you really loved into your 10? No prob....honorable metions can still let your friends know you heard it & it didn't suck.... on the other hand, if something sucked so much you feel the need to tell the world... go right ahead. Other stuff that doesn't fit into albums such as best song, live show, new artist etc are all excellent items to include
8. Please share this e-mail with friends- Everbody's invited to participate, everybody can come to the listening party.... the more lists, the better....
9. Your list must be posted in a timely manner in order to be taken seriously-The listening party is December 28...I think that's a pretty realistic deadline... a few days late is no biggie...let's just try to keep it out of the summer months.... mmmkay?
10. Any of these rules can be bent, reinterpreted or broken at any time- Rules?? I make you read all of these stupid rules & then the last rule says that none of the rules matter? ....yep....that's pretty much right.
How to post & view the lists
As stated earlier... there's a new home for the lists..... easier to use. however there are new posting/viewing directions.... so listen up:
All of the lists will be posted at http://lettershomefromcamp.blogspot.com
to post
login in to sound opinion at
www.blogspot.com
Username: top10albums
Password: oftheyear
Under "Manage Your Blogs" click "New Post" and start typing...
OR
if you e-mail your list and explanations to me at: top10albums@gmail.com
I will be more than happy to post them on the site
Ok... time to get to that list! Looking forward to seeing your picks!
have a great weekend!
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