2009 Year-End Comp

[jonnyhambone]

worked great for me - in iTunes no less. The artist name disappeared and sorted itself out correctly as FA said above.
Really like the Bonnie Prince tune (been wanting that album for awhile), Cosmos is cool, always good to hear some Robyn H. Thanks

[Troy]

Simple answer- iTunes is dumb.

God forbid the possibility that mediamonkey is the dumb one . . .

My experience was exactly the same as FA's except I modified the titles before they could modify themselves automagically.

However hinky the process was, understand that I do appreciate anyone willing to make the effort to share musics with us.

And I actually DO like some of the songs. More on that later.

[ForeverAutumn]

I just assumed that I was the dumb one.

[noddin0ff]

Yeah, actually it all works the way its supposed to and the way you intended it, at least it did for me in iTunes. It's just an issue that the iTunes fields populate with the original track numbers from the parent albums (even though they play in the proper order), not the track numbers relative to the comp. The playlist puts them in the right order but when you start using the iTunes features to sort and browse your library you can get them out of order pretty easily. The iTunes album field also populates with the names of the parent albums so all in all it gets a little confusing over the long haul. That's why I rename and renumber, to clear up future ambiguities in my own library mental management.

Like I say, I don't find it a big hassle. My comments above all pertain to converting the flac to apple lossless using Max then importing to iTunes. All these intermediary conversions are generally pretty good for retaining metadata and album arts but I find that I prefer to twiddle it some myself to keep everything organized the way I like.

Music management in the digital age just required a different kind of devotion that not everyone is completely up to speed on, a little practice and it'll all work out.

[Troy]

About those songs . . .

You know, it's not bad, overall. Definitely a specific tonal range and sensibility.

The one that really sticks out for me is the Super Furry Animals track. Saw these guys open for Grandaddy. They really are a studio band . . . This is a great hooky, radio-ready production. Radio for this? Not in the US, unless it's a parallel universe. Had one studio album of theirs, tired of it quickly, but I'll definitely keep this clever, tongue in cheek track.

The slithery The Black Heart Procession track is another top-level keeper. Never heard this band before. Speeding ticket music. Is this typical of their sound? I need to do some R&D.

The Future of the Left are another band I'm going to want to learn more about. So British, so 1979. Are you a Cardiacs fan? There's a lot of similarity.

That Built to Spill singer makes me laugh . . . but I don't think it's supposed to. What a whiner. Nice 12-string electric thing going on though. I sold all my BTS albums a few years ago. That singer's like the indie Geddy Lee, a real deal breaker for lots of people.

I like The Fruit Bats. More of that rootsy '70s-style country rock like The Band that goatee'd BTS fans like. Bar juke box music.

The Doves track is real nice too, different then I remember them. Kind of a 1982 arty british new wave thing. Japan, Visage, one of those kindsa bands. I've had a few Doves albums over the years and I got over them pretty quick. A few nice tracks, but a lot of it felt filler-y. Coldplay-lite.

Pacer by Systems Officer sounds like the Doves that I remember. Kinda sleepy and over-produced. Totally prog. Indie prog, but prog, nonetheless. Not bad, but I think I'd tire of it quickly.

I love Lee Harvey Osmond's name. Does he ever rock or is this lounge lizard king thing all he does?

The Califone takes too long to get going. Again, kinda whiny. More indie-prog for hipsters turning 40.

The Decemberists sounds too much like Greenday here, though I do find the lyrics deeply amusing. Another painfully whiny band!

I'm a Hitchcock fan from way back. This sounds like a prototype RH song with it's jangly mid-tempo arrangement and it's cute/clever lyrics. This is enjoyable enough. Good album?

Jason Lytle is the guy from Grandaddy, right? Man, that band made 2 excellent albums this decade. What I've heard of the stuff after Sumday is too acoustic and slow. This is a little better. How's the album?

The John Vandersclice sounds like a generic '70s singer/songwriter. An Al Stewart clone.

The . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead . . . song is like their name: They need the get rid of the pointless and deeply, eye-rollingly pretentious ". . ." at both ends, but that middle third is impressive and histrionic. I've always though this band was too densely produced. I like bands that have a more open and dry sound. The singer's a low point for them too. Totally prog.

Does Andrew Bird ever rock? Somebody slap that guy. Ditto the Iron & Wine. It should be "Iron & Whine." This stuff makes me feel like John Belushi in Animal House when he spastically smashes the singer's guitar and then meekly shrugs "sorry."

I have no idea what people see in Wilco. What an epic redneck snore. And the Bonnie "Prince" Billy track. Are you a country-fried hillbilly moonshiner or what?

Hollowpaw has a ridiculous singer. That falsetto vibratto thing he's doing is horrifying. Mixed with the flat sounding trumpet? This is the worst track on the disc.

Not terribly moved by these Old Canes, Spoon and Cosmos tracks either way. They sound ok for what they do, but what they do is not involving for me. A total flat line.

I'd make one of these comps, but I didn't buy enough music in 2009, it would only have a halfdozen songs! Maybe we should do them for the decade . . . Limit it to 10-15 songs, make 'em count.

[Slosh]

About those songs . . .

You know, it's not bad, overall. Definitely a specific tonal range and sensibility.

The one that really sticks out for me is the Super Furry Animals track. Saw these guys open for Grandaddy. They really are a studio band . . . This is a great hooky, radio-ready production. Radio for this? Not in the US, unless it's a parallel universe. Had one studio album of theirs, tired of it quickly, but I'll definitely keep this clever, tongue in cheek track.

This song sounds like Prince to me. It's not really typical of their overall sound. They're more of glam-prog-ish band.

The slithery The Black Heart Procession track is another top-level keeper. Never heard this band before. Speeding ticket music. Is this typical of their sound? I need to do some R&D.

Most of their stuff is slow, somber piano driven. If you like being depressed this is your band.

The Future of the Left are another band I'm going to want to learn more about. So British, so 1979. Are you a Cardiacs fan? There's a lot of similarity.

This is ex-McLusky and this track is representative. Fast 'n punky with silly lyrics

That Built to Spill singer makes me laugh . . . but I don't think it's supposed to. What a whiner. Nice 12-string electric thing going on though. I sold all my BTS albums a few years ago. That singer's like the indie Geddy Lee, a real deal breaker for lots of people.

I'm more a fan of Perfect From Now On so for me including this song is more of a tribute to their past work than a great song in of itself (I still like it though it seems a bit out of place in this context.

I like The Fruit Bats. More of that rootsy '70s-style country rock like The Band that goatee'd BTS fans like. Bar juke box music.

Yeah, total '70s AM radio here.

The Doves track is real nice too, different then I remember them. Kind of a 1982 arty british new wave thing. Japan, Visage, one of those kindsa bands. I've had a few Doves albums over the years and I got over them pretty quick. A few nice tracks, but a lot of it felt filler-y. Coldplay-lite.

Agreed, except I think they're better than Coldplay.

Pacer by Systems Officer sounds like the Doves that I remember. Kinda sleepy and over-produced. Totally prog. Indie prog, but prog, nonetheless. Not bad, but I think I'd tire of it quickly.

It's one half of Pinback, basically. Not a great album but obviously I do like this song.

I love Lee Harvey Osmond's name. Does he ever rock or is this lounge lizard king thing all he does?

Most of the album is more country/roots-rock. Lounge Lizard vocals throughout.

The Califone takes too long to get going. Again, kinda whiny. More indie-prog for hipsters turning 40.

The Decemberists sounds too much like Greenday here, though I do find the lyrics deeply amusing. Another painfully whiny band!

I'm a Hitchcock fan from way back. This sounds like a prototype RH song with it's jangly mid-tempo arrangement and it's cute/clever lyrics. This is enjoyable enough. Good album?

If you like this you'll like the rest of the album.

Jason Lytle is the guy from Grandaddy, right? Man, that band made 2 excellent albums this decade. What I've heard of the stuff after Sumday is too acoustic and slow. This is a little better. How's the album?

Acoustic and slow.

The John Vandersclice sounds like a generic '70s singer/songwriter. An Al Stewart clone.

The . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead . . . song is like their name: They need the get rid of the pointless and deeply, eye-rollingly pretentious ". . ." at both ends, but that middle third is impressive and histrionic. I've always though this band was too densely produced. I like bands that have a more open and dry sound. The singer's a low point for them too. Totally prog.

Does Andrew Bird ever rock? Somebody slap that guy. Ditto the Iron & Wine. It should be "Iron & Whine." This stuff makes me feel like John Belushi in Animal House when he spastically smashes the singer's guitar and then meekly shrugs "sorry."

I have no idea what people see in Wilco. What an epic redneck snore. And the Bonnie "Prince" Billy track. Are you a country-fried hillbilly moonshiner or what?

Holopaw has a ridiculous singer. That falsetto vibratto thing he's doing is horrifying. Mixed with the flat sounding trumpet? This is the worst track on the disc.

Not terribly moved by these Old Canes, Spoon and Cosmos tracks either way. They sound ok for what they do, but what they do is not involving for me. A total flat line.

I'd make one of these comps, but I didn't buy enough music in 2009, it would only have a halfdozen songs! Maybe we should do them for the decade . . . Limit it to 10-15 songs, make 'em count.

Thanks for playing.

[Audioman00]

thanks for the music! very cool thing to do \m/
awesome! happy listening.