Tis the season Albums of the Year 2018 – Rough Trade SPOILER: Here Are Decibel’s Top 40 Albums of 2018 | Decibel Magazine Introducing the new Uncut... and our Review Of The Year! - Uncut
I wonder if the bigger publications will hold out a little longer this year, especially with major releases like the 1975 scheduled at the end of November, or they try to get ahead of other publications and post stupidly early
Seriously, what is the argument for posting this early? Is it all about being the first/beating the rush? I love making EOTY lists, and I really enjoy reading them too, but at least wait until December. There are still so many release days left, and you never know what surprises might come along. It's always ridiculous when these publications jump the gun and then have to figure out a logic for including a late-breaking surprise like Beyonce on the next year's EOTY list.
In the case of Decibel, they want to get their End of the Year list out for their physical January issue and someone seems to leak it out early every year. They're just trying to beat people to the punch. Plus, a lot of publications probably have had access to bigger releases for a while before their proper release date so they have had a chance to check shit out before the general public.
I think the argument is that they’re magazines and would rather miss a release or two than not be on the shelves with an end of year issue in December
I kind of think it's bullshit to put an album on your EOTY list before that album is even out for people to listen to. You should at least have to wait until all the albums you're listing have been released. Like, is that half-assed TIME blurb the first official "review" of The 1975 record? As far as I know it's embargoed.
Nick Wiger Voice: It's fine! I just find it to be flawed. I don't think it's mindblowingly good and I certainly don't think it was the best album of the year, hip hop or otherwise
You'd think publications would be especially wary given that shit like Black Messiah and Beyonce and such dropped after lists were posted in recent years. They really want to miss out on (I hate this term in culture) the zeitgeist just to be first?
I remember in 2015, they came up with some weird justification for putting Black Messiah on the Pitchfork list. It was like “albums that had their biggest cultural impact in 2015.” It was pretty transparent as a “we missed the boat on this last year because we posted our list too early” move.