Amazon.com: Music / Best of 2004
When I was a kid, I thought the holiday season should start September 18th. That would give everyone three months and a week to get ready for Christmas. I've always loved a countdown, I suppose.
Nevertheless, I'm a bit shocked to see Amazon's Best of 2004 list during the second week of November. The decision to post the list today may make good business sense right now--I'm pretty sure the inclusion of Modest Mouse in the top 10 accounts for the people who gave my review of Good News For People Who Love Bad News helpful votes today, and thus implies added traffic for the whole slew of albums--but think of how this will look as a historic document! I'm hard pressed to believe that U2's new album and Eminem's new album wouldn't make the top 100 for the year if they held eligibility open another week. Instead, it appears that most of the choices hail from much earlier; I'm pretty sure they cut it off at the end of October, which also exiles Elton John. I'm not arguing with the albums Amazon did consider--far be it from me to dispute a list when I own seven of the top ten albums and plan to buy an eighth--but I'm not sure it makes sense to pretend November never happened, especially when so many artists release albums then to capitalize on the holiday rush.
With that said, Paul and I have agreed to cut off our own list eligibility during this month for the purposes of our December list-making. Paul cut himself off after yesterday's releases; I'm considering doing the same but also open to including U2, Eminem, and Rufus Wainwright among the eligibles by waiting to close the door until November 23. This leaves less time for reflection and for an album to either grow on me or bore me, so we'll see.
The difference, of course, is that I'll go back and revise later. The original 2003 list, for instance, included several albums that were later surpassed by albums from last year that hadn't even reached me yet in December. If you scroll down the sidebar today, it's the final list you'll see, not a list made with incomplete knowledge of what albums from 2003 I would eventually come to love. (Figuring out when to stop revising is difficult, but that's another discussion.) Because today's list from Amazon is probably the final word from them on 2004, folks browsing five years from now wondering what good albums from 2004 they may have missed out on will be out of luck. Maybe I'm the only person who does this sort of thing. I tend to think not. I hope, if Amazon insists on foisting its list on us weeks before Thanksgiving, they'll revisit it around St. Patrick's Day. Releasing an album in November shouldn't doom it to a list-less oblivion.
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3 comments:
I was frustrated to find my final 2003 list change so much from the initial list from December. Many CDs made the first list without enough proper consideration (basically CDs released in Oct./Nov./Dec. had a huge advantage).
I decided that a certain amount of revision is inevitable so rather than fight against it, I'll embrace it by admitting the first draft is incomplete. So Rufus W., U2, Eminem, and others will get consideration in a February revision.
I can do this because I'm not a major online retail store. I agree that Amazon jumped the gun. By the way, I have 3 of the top ten and only one will make my list.
A well-said explanation, Paul.
I won't promise a revision by February--once the other year-end top ten lists come out, I may buy a bunch more CDs and I need time to listen to all of them. I will say that of the seven of Amazon's top ten that I currently own, three are likely to make the December cut--and I'd be hard-pressed to argue against anyone who praised any of them. But Wilco at number three? Hmm...
Even if they were a bit premature, I reviewed the editors' picks and I have to say that I love LOVE them for putting Ray Lamontagne's Trouble in the top 20! I'm in love with that album. I highly recommend that you add it to your list!!
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