Top Artists:

1. The Go-Betweens [1,008]
2.  Vampire Weekend [408]
3.  You Am I [407]
4.  The National [397]
5.  Arcade Fire [388]
6.  Robyn Hitchcock [299]
7.  Kraftwerk [283]
8.  Dirty Projectors [278]
9.  Ben Salter [262]
10.  The Drones [247]

Arcade Fire: The more I listen, the less I like. So I think I'm gonna leave it here. They're doing a sideshow here next year, but it's on a weeknight, at the damned Convention Centre, and I have no friends, so blah. It'll probably be full of the kind of people I don't like.

St Vincent: New song is surprisingly fun. I didn't care much for the previous album and I was set on not caring about this, but now I'm going to be cautiously interested. Has it stopped being shocking for female singers to talk about masturbating?

Jenny Hval: Innocence Is Kinky came out ages ago, but I'm revisiting it because one of the songs came up in shuffle and I distinctly heard the lyrics, "Do you remember, in Brisbane in December? It was raining..."

RCO: Saw them at the Opera House at the beginning of the month. Mariss Jansons had to pull out halfway through, which made for some awkwardness at the end when the audience threw streamers at the orchestra. Especially since they'd advertised it as his last concert with them. But I still enjoyed it, I guess.

Television: Went to the concert ages ago, but I somehow neglected to mention it here! They were impressively tight, and one of the few bands where I wasn't even slightly annoyed when they jammed and drew out songs. Ed Kuepper of The Saints was the support act. I really like Sleepyhead, and now it's on my high rotation playlist.

ARIA Awards: I wasn't really paying attention. Tame Impala won a bunch of things and I'm pretty OK with that. I'm not even sure Nick Cave should count as Australian anymore. The Flume guy seemed annoying. Resolution has to be the meh-est song to get Song Of The Year ever, I'm glad Matt Corby just said, "I don't have much to say" and walked off the stage.

Youtube: Keeps recommending me terrible Youtube singers because I keep clicking on things that people post on my Glee Club's Facebook group. They can sing well and all, but oh the overproduction! Oversinging! The worst thing is amateurs imitate and add stupid affectations to their singing when they haven't even got the basic "singing in tune" thing right.

Tumblr: I'm gradually unfollowing all of the music writers, because I just don't care anymore. They're all clambering over each other to say stuff like, "I liked Taylor Swift back when everyone else hated her!" and it's just stupid and annoying.

Lana Del Rey: Tropico is... something. I still listen to Driving In Cars With Boys a lot. Looking forward to her new material.

The Whitlams: Yeah, people say they're terrible. But I just rediscovered You Gotta Love This City, and I'd never noticed the disparaging lyrics before: "You've gotta love this city for it's body, not it's brain. My city's a whore..." Absolutely perfect. I'd kill to hear Tim Rogers sing it.

Darren Hanlon: Manilla NSW is one of my favourite discoveries of this year. I've been looking for Sydney/NSW kind of songs because The Go-Betweens' perfection was making me want to move back to QLD. Alas, this guy is from Gympie!

Haim: Collapse Board review. Not the best review, but I agree with the sentiment. I like this paragraph because it's what I think about a lot of people I know:

"But if you’re a young person out there, like 15 or under, I’m willing to cut you a little slack. Look, I don’t deny the pleasure you get from this music, but your ability to be moved by it says more about the depth/breadth of your emotions, the thrill of being alive, than it does about Haim."

I also agree with this comment thread from the AV Club review. "generic kinda chart-pop with an indie blog backup plan" seems to be the new big thing, e.g. Lana Del Rey, Lorde.

Arcade Fire: New album is way too long. I'm sure I'll never truly love it because it's longer than my commute! I don't even want to listen to it at home. Reviewers seem to like it though.

Dismemberment Plan: Ouch. Gonna pretend they never released that.

Anna Calvi: A bit sad that I only realized that she released a new album because it was reviewed in MX. Enjoying it so far.

Melt-Banana: Hey, it's something that sounds a bit like Vocaloid songs I used to like, but critic-sanctioned!

Spotify: Recommended a song called "I Often Dream Of Trains" to me. I love it.

Triple J: Took over Dig Music. Gotta go dig up those articles about the jjj monopoly again!

ARIA Awards: I'll be missing them this year because I'm going to see the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. It's probably better for my blood pressure that way, because ugh those nominees. The only band I care about is The Drones, and they won't win anything.

X Factor: Hooray for Dami Im, doing us Asians proud, I guess. Not surprising, since the audience for this kind of thing is little girls (who vote for little boys) and Asians of all ages. I hoping she wouldn't win though, since winning seems to be a career killer.

Lorde - Pure Heroine: A bit annoyed that the album stream is only available to the US. Found a way to listen to it anyway. I like the sound, but everything else is meh..  Cringey lyrics at times, but I guess she's just a kid. It's like pop music for people who think they're too good for it.  Highlight for me is "Ribs" for its interesting pace and "Lover's Spit" shout-out.

Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady: I always skip those skits tbh. I don't care. I still need to give the rest of it a few more listens.

Arcade Fire - Reflektor: Why does this song need to be so long? Everyone seems to like it. I thought it was fine until I read the lyrics. Doesn't sound much more mature than the 16 year-old mentioned above.

Spotify: Everybody is suddenly getting into Allo Darlin's "Tallulah". Yes, it's a song about leaving Brisbane. Wish fulfillment, I guess. Also, I made a friend who likes some similar stuff as me! An Asian too! She is a breath of fresh air on my Spotify Social feed.

Silverchair: Just made the front page of Reddit. I had no idea people outside Australia cared about them. "Nirvana in Pajamas". Excellent.

This is what I get for choosing advanced-level subjects as electives.

You Am I: Saw them at the Enmore in August. That was cool. Surprised that they did Berlin Chair, since they didn't in Brisbane, and I'd assumed it was like their "Creep". Tim Rogers did make a bit of a joke about "Berlin Chair Heights".

John Adams: Conducted the Sydney Symphony last Friday. Comments from the crowd indicated that they were not entirely sold on him being a conductor. I enjoyed it well enough, though I couldn't really get used to the idea of a saxophone concerto. It doesn't sound right!

Julia Holter: New album, BNM'd. I listened to it twice. It's pretty and makes for nice background music, but I'm yet to find any standout track. That comes with time, I guess.

King Krule: First thought was "British Gareth Liddiard." Then I looked him up and found that he's a weedy redhead kid five days younger than me. Shit, I've accomplished nothing with my life. (If only the album didn't sound so... overproduced?)

Rainbow Chan: "Skinny Dipping" is damn catchy. Also, omg an Asian-Australian musician.

Speedy Ortiz: Vocalist described on Triple J as sounding a bit like Fiona Apple, which was odd since the station pretty much never plays her. My first thought was Liz Phair. Seems like the kind of thing that will be forgotten before the year is finished.

The Dismemberment Plan: Two new songs! Not particularly enamoured by either though. I will still be cautiously excited about their album.

Temi Dollface: "Pata Pata" was featured on The Singles Jukebox with some Janelle Monae comparisons. I really like the video.

The National: Concert apparently sold out while I was having a breakdown on the train about forgetting my wallet. Oh well, the new album hadn't grown on me, and I'm content to wait for them to play some hipstery highbrow seated show in a concert hall.