Ben's End Of The Year (Part 2)

Really... I'm almost done with my list.. but while I put the final polish on it, here's part two of the miscellaneous bullshit:

11. Worst Album That I Secretly Hoped Would Be Actually Awesome -- A Hope That Stemmed Solely From My Love Of The Song "Le Disko" -- That, Thank God, I Didn't Buy On A Whim, Because Wow, It Really Is Just Awful:
Season Of Poison
by Shiny Toy Guns
Sigh. Oh, "Le Disko," at least we'll always have each other.

12. Absolutely Most Useless Guest-Drop Within An Unnecessary Remix Included On A 25th Anniversary Re-Issue:
(Tie)
Fergie on "Beat It" from Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)
&
Kanye West on "Billie Jean" from Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)
Why did these things happen? Why?

13. Stupidest Remix Move Apart From The Atrocities Listed Above:
"Paper Planes (DFA Remix)"
by M.I.A. (and, you know, that James guy that kinda looks like Markley)
Why in the name of fuck would you take the gunshots out of the chorus? Seriously? The chorus doesn't even make sense without them. I know, I know... who fucking cares anymore? We've all gotten absurdly sick of the original song anyway, but still. It's so clearly phoned in that it gets under my skin a bit.

14. Favorite Guilty Pleasure:
You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into
by Does It Offend You, Yeah?
There was no doubt when this came out. It was a fun record but not a brilliant record. But hey, sometimes you don't take a record home to meet the family -- doesn't mean you can't have some fun some night when you're both drunk. There's no denying that "We Are Rockstars" and "Let's Make Out" were great spring flings.

15. Artist Who Desperately Needs To Wait Until 2010 To Put Out Another Record So They Can Really Get It Right, As Opposed To Releasing The Merely Okay Skeletal Lamping:
Of Montreal
Yeah, Skeletal Lamping's okay. Not bad. Not great. Take a year off, Kevin. We get the Bowie thing you're doing, and it's cute and all. If you have a power animal, imagine it constantly whispering "Substance over spectacle."

16. Album That, While It Is Totally Good, I Can't Get Excited About Putting In The Top Ten, Or Even The Honorable Mentions, Mainly Because It Just Feels So, So Much Their First Record -- And Also Happens To Have A Really Dumb Title:
Directions To See A Ghost
by The Black Angels
Man, I loved Passover so much, and accepted that The Black Angels (much like fellow pysch-rockers Vietnam) were not really setting out to break any new ground. That's all well and good. But, for reasons I can't explain, I can't seem to get excited about their follow-up. I still intend to buy a copy on vinyl one of these days, but... I dunno... it just doesn't excite me at all, and I've spent most of the time since it was released forgetting that it exists. Also, it happens to have a really dumb title.

17. Artist Who I Feel Compelled To Hate On Some More:
(Tie)
Fleet Foxes
&
Vampire Weekend
God, I hate you both so much.

18. Stupidest Use Of Alliteration In A Band Name:
Fleet Foxes
Plus, it's the dumbest use of F's since the Foo Fighters.

19. Stupidest Use Of Vampires In A Band Name, As Well As Stupidest Use Of The Second Word In Said Band Name Happening To Start With The Letter That Consecutively Follows The Letter That Begins The First Word Of The Band Name:
Vampire Weekend
Yeah, take that. Fucking boat-shoe wearing dicks.

20. Length I Was Willing To Stretch For That Last One:
Fairly far, it appears.
Yeah... well... yeah.