Yearly PoOP Analyses

Main Poop Analysis 2023

January 2024 Dear POOPsters: The 37 th Annual POOPlist now lights up your screens. Despite the tenuous state of the world (and this country’s inglorious contribution to it), we musical know-it-alls meet in the shadows once again to share our POmpous and OPinionated thoughts and ramblings. If nothing else compiling lists of the records that brought us joy and solace sure beats assembling lists of, I dunno, the most horrible climate disasters or the vilest actions on the world stage. The (only) 16 of us who contributed this year have decided that wildfires, droughts, floods, global hostilities and human atrocities…


Main Poop Analysis 2022

Dear POOPsters: Time to POOP. For the 36th consecutive year, we POmpous and OPinionated rut-stuck regulars have re-convened to share the fruits of our music habits. In all 21 have weighed in and tilted at internet windmills this year. Even a few prodigal POOPsters have returned to the fold. That’s pretty encouraging given all that’s happened in America this past year; at least our Right To Choose music remains intact even if little else does. After fifteen separate ballots in the House of POOPresentatives, we have finally reached a consensus. I’ve once again employed the time-honored tabulation system, utilizing the…


Main Poop Analysis 2021

Having resisted the urge to name POOP after a Greek letter, I present to you the 35 th Anniversary Edition of POOP. This year actually turned out to provide some relative relief and respite from the whirlpool of forces and events that made 2020 a year for history’s shitpile. Since then, we have vaccines that mostly keep us out of the hospital, testing kits that work if you use them at the right time and a new ineffectual leader who is at least not the last guy. Welcome to a world where someone named Cheney is the voice of reason. Huzzah. This year 21 of us have stormed the POOPitol. to a world where someone named Cheney is the voice of reason. Huzzah. This year 21 of us have stormed the POOPitol.


Main Poop Analysis 2020

Behold the 34th Annual POOPlist . . . or How I Spent My Pandemic. This year’s POOP documents what might be called the very best records of the very worst year. But for a year steeped in such sheer and utter shititude, there somehow managed to be a surprisingly ample amount of inspired music (as noted by a few people). So, if you would, allow POOP34 to provide a tincture of balm during this long slog toward whatever the next normal turns out to look like. At least there is comfort to be found that Trump is mostly gone and vaccines are mostly here, so there are those flags to mostly rally around. In the words of Nostratownshend, let us hope that ’21 is gonna be a good year. This year 19 POOPsters decided that making lists was as a good a way to kill quarantine time as anything else.


Main Poop Analysis 2019

Dear POOPster: Here we go again. As the nation flounders and is perhaps on the verge of altogether going down, we POmpous and OPinionated blowhards carry on like the band on the Titanic deck did. And we know how that ended. Now more than ever we need whatever distractions we can muster that might refocus our attention and restore the Old Normal to our lives, which brings us to the 33rd Annual POOPlist. This year only 19 blathering bloviants shot their confetti cannons into the cybersphere. Maybe it was the decision to not post the lists as they were submitted…


Main Poop Analysis 2018

January 2018 Dear POOPster: Yes, POOP has undergone its own partial shutdown this year. I’m referring to the fact that hard-copy analog POOP has gone the way of the typewriter, the rotary phone and voting rights in Georgia. Fortunately the 32nd Annual POmpous and OPinionated List continues on its long trajectory using the modern space-age digital format, with Mark Zip at mission control. We are in good hands. This year, 24 people have joined the caravan, a slight droop in the POOP. Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to figure out how POOP’s tabulations are computed. From what…


Main Poop Analysis 2017

January 2018
Dear POOPster:
It’s the end of the world as we know it . . . please help me I’m falling . . . don’t they know, it’s the end of the world . . .
nuclear error but I have no fear. . . just a few lines from songs that have assumed the stature of existential dread in the past year. Lately I feel that the whole country is drowning and I / live by the river. So, do we need POOP right about now or what? So with that as impetus, I present the 31st annual musings of the POmpous and OPinionated. Remember when WE were the self-important bloviating blowhards? Ah, nostalgia. To the 25 pompoids who have contributed this year, it’s time to break out the tiki torches and behold the collective pith amid the pandemonium. And if I’ve offended anyone with my political vitriol, to you I say, “Go deep. I’ve got some paper towels for you.”


Main Poop Analysis 2016

Dear POOPster:
So . . . there seems to be some agreement that 2016 could have been a tad better. If I may speak for many of you here, fuck you 2016, fuck you for so many reasons. As we approach the end of the world as we know it, we will have to find strength in the little things, as trivial as they might seem right now. And what could be more trivial than the 30th Annual(!) POOPlist.


Main Poop Analysis 2015

2015 just might become known as the year to beat when it comes to unbridled stupidity in America. But more alarming than that, I fear that with good ol’ American gumption, the coming election year will no doubt leave it behind in the dust. Recently I learned that the oft paraphrased H.L. Mencken quote, the one about how no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people, actually had an even more apropos follow-up sentence: “Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” But while the American political system as we know it is currently circling the drain, we the POmpous and OPinionated have responded in the best manner we know. While some of those who would be President prattle on in their assholier-than-thou vitriol, 25 POOPsters have found 10 or 25 or so causes for which to campaign, with civil discourse and free of all squirmishes (thanks, Sarah P!). Feel the POOP.


Main PoOP Analysis 2014

2014 was a pretty rough year for the world. While good music might ordinarily offer a diversion from the bad and the ugly, occasionally a year comes dangerously close to getting its ass kicked. Seasoned as we are after 28 years of committing POOP to paper and post, we persevere and continue (in the face of beheadings, ebola, Boehner’s new band of blowhards, “I can’t breathe,” and climate calamity) to cling to both bad alliterations and silly year-end lists. Or do we? This year only 26 self-important pontificators got their cool cards punched (2 fewer than last year).


Main Poop Analysis 2013

Dear POOPster: I know you’ve been waiting with bad breath for the front-page POOP analysis and tabulation. So on this occasion, the 27th annual foray into the realm of the POmpous and the OPinionated, I present to you the combined musings of pretty much the same gaggle of blowhards, 28 of them to be exact. For reasons that both escape and annoy me, we are once again an almost entirely male sampling of swillmeisters; it’s getting right testosterony up in here. Talk about fitting the record geek profile. . . Anyway, to the Price-Waterhouse stuff. As usual, I’ve attempted to…


Main Poop Analysis 2012

With a quarter of a century behind us, we POmpous and OPinionated types have gone back to the well to haul up the usual buckets of blather and bile. While the world around us rages, we 26 would-be music critics prattle on, sharing our self-important musical observations with one another and exercising our Constitutional right to bear snark . After America got its ass kicked first by Sandy the Storm and then Sandy Hook the Elementary School, sometimes it’s the trivial stuff that keeps us keeping on. Sort of like a National Trifle Association. If you are among the already…


Main Poop Analysis 2011

Dear Poopster Shoot off the fireworks. Pop a bottle of your best champagne. Bang a gong. Get it on. It’s the silver anniversary of POOP: our 25th annual rite of self-important pontification. Perhaps a deluxe edition is called for, with bonus lists. After a year marked by the tsunami in Japan, tornadoes in Joplin, an economy in the crapper, and a Republican field that might as well be called the Committee To Re-Elect Barack Obama, it’s time to kick 2011 to the curb. And what better way to do that than to bloviate about our favorite music of an otherwise…


Main Poop Analysis 2010

January 2011 In a year marked by the earthquake in Haiti, Elvis-impersonating Chilean miners and the end of Lost, we are reminded that in the greater scheme of things, it’s only POOP. But while Tea Partyers, one JetBlue flight attendant and Cee Lo explored new ways to express their ire and frustrations, we 29 POmpous and OPinionated patrons of the musical arts embraced the new era of civility in our annual rite of peaceful pontification. No POOP libel here. If you’ve been here before, feel free to skip this paragraph. As usual, I’ve attempted to tabulate the entries and, as…


Main Poop Analysis 2009

February 2010 Dear POOPster: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. So said Darles Chickens . . . or something like that . . . as well as a few of this year’s contributors in their various musings. In our perennial January rite, 34 POmpous and OPinionated self-righteous musical hedonists have contributed their usual critical flatulence to this, the 23th Annual POOPlist. After all these years, I think it’s fair to say that our serious love/fascination/addiction for/with/to music of every variety might now qualify as “a pre-existing condition,” not that that will have any future…


Main Poop Analysis 2008

Dear POOPster: Yes we can . . . be POmpous and OPinionated. Come hell or high gas prices, a sputtering economy with the fuel light on, and corporate bailouts (where there should have been corporate-types out on bail), 34 POOPsters have still weighed in. Call this your musical stimulus package. For the last twenty-two years, these pages have recognized the creativity, imagination and originality expressed on turntables and in CD players. But it’s quite possible that what America did on November 4th trumped music in terms of creativity, imagination and originality. Life imitates POOP. It’s been a long time comin’…


Main Poop Analysis 2001

Dear POOPster: You’ve got POOP. The Fifteenth Annual POmpous and OPinionated List is now official and in your hands. As acknowledged in many of this year’s responses, this was not your average year and the pursuit of music has never seemed as trivial as it did during the second half of 2001. Perhaps our annual celebration of good music is a bit muted this year but it does get us one step closer to remembering what life was like on September 10th and that includes being cranky and clever. Enter POOP. As usual, I’ve attempted to tabulate the entries and,…


Main Poop Analysis 2002

February 2003 Dear POOPster: : You’ve got POOP. The Sixteenth Annual POmpous and OPinionated List is now official and in your sweaty hands. You may notice that it’s a bit lighter this year than last due to only 27 cranky-ass, self-righteous, self-important, musically correct, pontificating blowhards having submitted lists. But when it comes to swill it’s the quality, not the quantity, that counts. That we’ve got. As usual, I’ve attempted to tabulate the entries and, as is customary, I’ve employed the usual What-The-Hell’s-He-Talking-About-Anyway System. One more time, I’ve given 2 points to each pompoid’s Top 10 choices and 1 point…


Main Poop Analysis 2003

February 2004 Dear POOPster: No weapons of mass destruction here either but at least we’ve got POOP. The Seventeenth Annual POmpous and OPinionated List is here. This year 30 cranky-ass, self-righteous, musically correct blowhards have blessed us with the usual self-important pontificating. We even picked up some new meat to spice up the pot. So let’s hoist up the “Mission Accomplished” banner and get down to business. As usual, I’ve attempted to tabulate the entries and, as is customary, I’ve employed the now time-honored What-The-Hell’s-He-Talking-About-Anyway System. One more time, I’ve given 2 points to each pompoid’s Top 10 choices and…


Main Poop Analysis 2004

February 2005 Dear POOPster, POOP’s  here. The Eighteenth Annual POmpous and OPinionated List, that is. It’s time to try to make some sense out of this past year, a year in which three defining moments seemed to defy any and all semblance of logic. Bush was elected president. The Red Sox won the World Series. And Bush was elected president. It was a year that introduced new nouns to the lexicon, like iPod (appearing on three lists) and Jesusland (mentioned or implied all over the place). And Bush was elected president. Obviously, anything can happen and pretty much did. But…