Rewind (The Wire)

Rewind is the annual year-in-review issue of The Wire, a British music magazine founded in 1982. The year-end issues have been published every January since 1986, adopting the current "Rewind" title in 1997. Each year-end issue has included an annual critics' poll, collating critics' ballots into a list of the year's best releases. The polls survey writers affiliated with the magazine.

A magazine cover with simple rectangular shapes in grey, black, orange and blue. The words "Wire Rewind 2005" are prominent in all-caps, along with a smaller list of musicians covered in this issue.
The Wire no. 263: the "2005 Rewind" issue

Across its history, critics' polls in The Wire have tended to reflect the magazine's eclectic, avant-garde sensibility and coverage of experimental music across a broad variety of genres. The magazine's first few polls were limited to selecting the best jazz LP of the year, in accordance with its original focus on jazz music. As the magazine's coverage expanded, it began incorporating other lists of the best albums in selected non-jazz genres, but kept the jazz poll at the centre. In 1990 the magazine had its first all-genre poll, and the following year the main poll opened to include albums from any musical genre. Beginning in 2011, the main poll expanded to encompass not only albums, but any musical release of any length in any conceivable format. Nevertheless, the poll has typically continued to emphasise releases from the album format above all others.

History
The American avant-garde jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman topped The Wire's poll in two consecutive years.

1985–1991: jazz era
American jazz pianist Cecil Taylor (pictured at right) placed first in the 1988 poll and, in 1990, received a "special accolade" for a box set that would have otherwise topped the poll.

The early polls were limited to jazz albums, mirroring the magazine's focus at that time, but the purview gradually expanded; by 1990, the main jazz list was published alongside lists for blues, Latin music, "composition" (i.e., classical music) and "suspect rock" (i.e., experimental rock).[1] The magazine published an all-genre poll for the first time in 1991, a so-called "open vote 'beyond' category" that was still subordinate to the "main" list of jazz and improvised releases.[2] The Mix, a remix album by German electronic group Kraftwerk, was the first release to top an all-genre poll.[2]

1992–2010: Record of the Year
American hip-hop group Arrested Development topped the critics' poll in 1992, the first year that the magazine placed an all-genre list ahead of its jazz list.
With three albums named Record of the Year, English musician Robert Wyatt has topped The Wire's poll more than any other artist.
Two-time poll-topper Björk (pictured), an Icelandic musician, is one of only four artists from outside the Anglosphere to place first in the poll.
American rock band Sonic Youth topped the magazine's poll twice.

In 1992, The Wire stopped privileging its jazz poll and instead began to designate its all-genre poll as its primary year-end list. The blurb accompanying that year's poll announced that the "main chart takes the form of an all-inclusive, open-ended category—contributors were asked to vote for their favourite records across all genres, from jazz to Techno, opera to Africa, metal to Minimalism."[3] The magazine continued to publish genre-specific lists, including for jazz. In 1993, The Wire started calling its all-genre poll the "Record of the Year".[4]

2011–present: Release of the Year
American musician James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual was the first winner of the expanded "Release of the Year" poll.

In 2011, The Wire switched the name of its annual critics' poll from Records of the Year to Releases of the Year. The change meant that critics could cast votes for "any self-contained audio entity, be it a vinyl LP, 12" EP, cassette, CD, download, mixtape, etc."[5] Editor-in-chief Tony Herrington explained the reasoning and observed how it had changed critics' submissions:

We made the change in a spirit of 'all formats acknowledged' democracy, but while a few up-to-speed contributors took us at our word and ran with it, submitting Web 2.0-driven charts containing YouTube uploads and tracks given away via Twitter, the bulk of the electorate continued to cast their votes for old fashioned albums, records or otherwise."[5]

The cover design for the 2017 Rewind—published January 2018, issue number 407—was a work of interactive audiovisual art.[6] Using a custom augmented reality app, a smart device's camera would show the abstract magazine cover as a three-dimensional, with accompanying audio. The project was cited in the 2019 book The Fundamentals of Graphic Design as "an immersive and dynamic experience perfectly reflecting the publication's long-running championing of experimental approaches to making and performing music."[7]

Critics' polls
Year Artist Album Musical genre Nation Poll name Ref.
1985 Ronald Shannon Jackson Decode Yourself Avant-garde jazz United States
US 		"LP of the Year" [8]
1986 Pat Metheny and Ornette Coleman Song X Avant-garde jazz [9]
1987 Ornette Coleman In All Languages Avant-garde jazz "Top LP of the Year" [10]
1988 Cecil Taylor Unit Live in Bologna Avant-garde jazz [11]
1989 David Murray Ming's Samba Avant-garde jazz "Critics' Poll" [12]
1990 John Scofield Time on My Hands Avant-garde jazz "The Critics' Choice" [1]
Cecil Taylor Cecil Taylor in Berlin '88 Avant-garde jazz "Special Wire Accolade"[note 1]
1991 Sheila Jordan Lost and Found Avant-garde jazz "The Critics' Choice:
Jazz & Improvised" 		[2]
Kraftwerk The Mix Electronic Germany
DEU 		"The Critics' Choice:
'Beyond' Category"
1992 Arrested Development 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of... Alternative hip hop United States
US 		"The Critics' Choice" [3]
1993 Björk Debut Electronic pop Iceland
ISL 		"Record of the Year" [4]
1994 Portishead Dummy Trip hop United Kingdom
UK 		[13]
1995 Tricky Maxinquaye Trip hop [14]
1996 Tortoise Millions Now Living Will Never Die Post-rock United States
US 		[15]
1997 Robert Wyatt Shleep Art rock United Kingdom
UK 		[16]
1998 Sonic Youth A Thousand Leaves Experimental rock United States
US 		[17]
1999 Mouse on Mars Niun Niggung Electronic Germany
DEU 		[18]
2000 Antipop Consortium Tragic Epilogue Alternative hip hop United States
US 		[19]
2001 Björk Vespertine Electronic pop Iceland
ISL 		[20]
2002 Sonic Youth Murray Street Experimental rock United States
US 		[21]
2003 Robert Wyatt Cuckooland Art rock United Kingdom
UK 		[22]
2004 Albert Ayler Holy Ghost: Rare & Unissued Recordings (1962–70) Avant-garde jazz United States
US 		[23]
2005 The Books Lost and Safe Folktronica [24]
2006 Burial Burial Dubstep United Kingdom
UK 		[25]
2007 Robert Wyatt Comicopera Art rock [26]
2008 The Bug London Zoo Dubstep [27]
2009 Broadcast and The Focus Group ... Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age Psychedelic pop and sampledelia [28]
2010 Actress Splazsh Tech house United Kingdom
UK 		[29]
2011 James Ferraro Far Side Virtual Vaporwave United States
US 		"Release of the Year" [30]
2012 Laurel Halo Quarantine Avant-pop [31]
2013 Julia Holter Loud City Song Avant-pop [32]
2014 Aphex Twin Syro Electronic United Kingdom
UK 		[33]
2015 Jlin Dark Energy Footwork United States
US 		[34]
2016 David Bowie Blackstar (★) Art rock United Kingdom
UK 		[35]
2017 Chino Amobi Paradiso Sound collage United States
US 		[36]
2018 Sons of Kemet Your Queen Is a Reptile Avant-garde jazz United Kingdom
UK 		[37]
2019 75 Dollar Bill I Was Real Avant-garde jazz United States
US 		[38]
2020 Beatrice Dillon Workaround Electronic United Kingdom
UK 		[39]
2021 L'Rain Fatigue Avant-pop United States
US 		[40]
2022 Lucrecia Dalt ¡Ay! Avant-pop Colombia
Colombia 		[41]
  1. Several critics had voted for Cecil Taylor's 11-CD box set, In Berlin '88, as their number-one choice for the 1990 poll. However, it was kept off the main list altogether because, according to the introductory essay, "11 against one wasn't really fair odds for the rest". Instead, In Berlin '88 was separately "honoured ... with a special Wire accolade of the year's most impressive recording project."[1]

See also

Citations
  1. Wire staff 1991, pp. 28–29.
  2. Wire staff 1992, pp. 56–57.
  3. Wire staff 1993, p. 24.
  4. Wire staff 1994, p. 55.
  5. Herrington 2011.
  6. Ambrose, Harris & Ball 2019, pp. 31, 190.
  7. Ambrose, Harris & Ball 2019, p. 31.
  8. Wire staff 1986, p. 38.
  9. Wire staff 1987, p. 36.
  10. Wire staff 1988, p. 39.
  11. Wire staff 1989, p. 54.
  12. Wire staff 1990, p. 64.
  13. Wire staff 1995, p. 29.
  14. Wire staff 1996, p. 32.
  15. Wire staff 1997, p. 37.
  16. Wire staff 1998, p. 35.
  17. Wire staff 1999, p. 27.
  18. Wire staff 2000, p. 67.
  19. Wire staff 2001, p. 34.
  20. Wire staff 2002a, p. 40.
  21. Wire staff 2003, p. 45.
  22. Wire staff 2004, p. 38.
  23. Wire staff 2005, p. 39.
  24. Wire staff 2006, p. 41.
  25. Wire staff 2007, p. 35.
  26. Wire staff 2008, p. 36.
  27. Wire staff 2009, p. 26.
  28. Wire staff 2010, p. 39.
  29. Wire staff 2011, p. 36.
  30. Wire staff 2012, p. 30.
  31. Wire staff 2013, p. 32.
  32. Wire staff 2014, p. 32.
  33. Wire staff 2015, p. 32.
  34. Wire staff 2016, p. 32.
  35. Wire staff 2017, p. 30.
  36. Wire staff 2018, p. 32.
  37. Wire staff 2019, p. 32.
  38. Wire staff 2020, p. 29.
  39. Wire staff 2021, p. 34.
  40. Wire staff 2022, p. 30.
  41. Wire staff 2023, p. 32.

References
  • Charts at thewire.co.uk — includes every Rewind poll since 1994, including genre specialist charts
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