End of year stuff (music)

So I promised myself I wouldn’t do end-of-year tops, cause in my experience they’re nothing else than reminders of how stupid I was, and how little music I had listened.

Not that this will be any different, but I hope these observations are closer to truths which I’ll consider truths a few years looking back.

• Lana del Rey is going to be pretty huge, because of talent, big industry machinations, or – most probably – a combination of both.  All we can do is say that we loved/hated her before it was cool.
• Gotta love the ’80s. Well, sorta. Sometimes. Actually, gotta love the ’80s that M83 distilled in Midnight City – which, coincidentally, is this year’s hit (it’s not a top if it only has 1 entry) – not the ’80s the Eastern Block got (famine, random power outages and revolutions – not that I was here to witness it) – I’m talking about exuberance, earnestness, bright neon lights and OMGSAXOPHONESOLO.
• Stuff happens in Cluj, in Romania, and in Moldova. Good stuff, too. Honestly!
• People take solace in the past, cause the future‘s pretty discouraging. I’m not saying dubstep is the future, but it’s one of the few (the only?) new (sub-)genres to gather mainstream attention lately.
• Maynard James Keenan is kind of a genius. Well, I kinda knew that already. But goddamn.
• Trent Reznor was meant to score movies.
• So were Daft Punk.
• So, Steven Wilson is done. Except nah, not really.
• Four years after hearing it for the first time, David Sylvian‘s voice is no longer “too classy” (my own words) for me.
• Post-rock can still knock my socks off. – Explosions in the Sky released their best album to date, and I don’t think a month passed by in which I didn’t discover at least an awesome new band/album.
• My New Year’s Resolution is, as ever, to put out my first album this next year, Fifth time’s the charm, eh?