ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

this year's roll out will be in the format of what i like to call a "visual album." basically what i've done is recorded a full length video for each of the 77 album winners in order to create a more immersive experience for ILX. i didn't want to release this poll the way i've done it before. i am bored with that. i feel like i am able to speak directly to ILX. there's so much that gets between the results and the posters. i felt like i didn't want anybody to get in the way of the results of this year's poll. i just want this to come out when it's ready, and from me to ILX.

I am waiting for this. I use this as my buying guide. Don't let me down, ILX.

that may or may not be true

lol

i hope the opening post is FORESHADOWING

Indeed, it sets up our #77 quite nicely

All the polls I do is boring/All these message borads are boring

Haha great start

http://i.imgur.com/QlXbCtc.jpg

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe (270 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

BEYYYYYYYRRILLAZZZZZ

niiice

incredible album

Cool album, Pyrrhic is a good track for the curious.

aaaand a nice start :)

this soundtracka hell of a lot of my winter mornings late last year, perfect ease-into-the-world calm listening. didn't vote for it and don't think she did anything substantially different from her last album (that i discovered when it placed in an ilm poll!) but that thing is very beautiful

bookmarked

Seandalai and I went to see her play over the summer. It was such an amazing experience but for some reason I felt totally Barwicked out afterwards and just haven't had the compulsion to give this new one a proper listen.

Personally feeling some diminishing returns with each new JB album but glad it's on here.

lol if after the foreshadowing OP and the predictions that something else other than Bey gets #1

would fucking love to see julianna barwick live, esp in the right venue

i saw her a month ago in a church, it was amazing

Are you following the same schedule as last week, J0rdan?

Yeah, she did change things up a bit on this one (e.g.: words!) but at this point I'm not sure I really need her to produce any more albums. Will always enjoy her work though and she was great live.

this stuff is nice, i don't really find many occasions to listen to it but i'm glad it's around

never heard of this but am already down w/ it.

does she get talked about on ILM anywhere?

Julianna Barwick I guess

Spotify Playlist for ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013 -> http://tinyurl.com/k4bxplr

Are you following the same schedule as last week, J0rdan?

― Murgatroid, Monday, January 27, 2014 11:31 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

yep

how many did we do the first day, i forget

Listened to this while checking out stuff on the nominations and various year end lists, ended up really liking it and voted for. I also listened to this so that I would stop confusing her with Julia Holter and Laura Marling.

17

17 on Monday, 20 the next three days

Beautiful record but somehow it didn't quite hit me as hard as the previous one. Felt like the production took away some of the magic and the freshness but I need to listen to it again really.

I liked that comment about her being a soundtrack to Care Bears fucking.

Julianna Barwick seems like someone I would like, but she hasn't clicked with me yet. May have to check out again.

I like her music for a certain mood but I did not vote for this album. Glad it placed though.

What I've heard I've liked. There's a Cocteau Twins-y shoegazery thing which sets her apart from the likes of Josephine Foster or Joanna Newsom. I havent heard a full album by here yet though.

i think with acts like Barwick sometimes I kind of would just be happy with her doing the vocal thing only for a whole album. Same goes with people like Colin Stetson, Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Soon as they start adding extra shit, it feels like something's being taken away.

http://i.imgur.com/kWpd2hX.jpg?1

76 Fall Out Boy Save Rock and Roll (270 points, 11 votes)

Spotify

oops that should be

76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll (270 points, 11 votes)

happy i made it one post before screwing up

is goon rock still a thing? srs question.

i think with acts like Barwick sometimes I kind of would just be happy with her doing the vocal thing only for a whole album. Same goes with people like Colin Stetson, Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Soon as they start adding extra shit, it feels like something's being taken away.

― he said, smarmily (dog latin), Monday, January 27, 2014 4:43 PM (42 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

First two JB albums are just her iirc

I also listened to this so that I would stop confusing her with Julia Holter

i did find it quite funny that julianna barwick, julia holter and julia kent all made albums that i loved to listen to in a certain mood last year. expect holter to place, kent wasn't even nominated though

great cover. if it wasn't for ilm i'd have been led to believe these guys split up ages ago. what's their steez now, they still playing emo rock?

i probably should have thought about "phoenix" as a top 50 track this year, it holds up pretty well

One of the albums I listened to most this year, but didn't love it enough to vote for it (as someone mentioned on the other thread, much of my attention got diverted to revisiting the last few albums). Glad to see it place though. It's a pretty successful attempt to update their songwriting to fit in with the contemporary radio climate.

revisiting discovering

There's a Cocteau Twins-y shoegazery thing which sets her apart from the likes of Josephine Foster or Joanna Newsom

There's a lot setting her apart from those two artists -- their music sounds nothing alike imo. I can see getting confused with Julia Holter though. Idk who Julia Kent is.

i love this album. it's a clear step down from their previous two and has too many clunkers for a relatively good album but the good stuff (alone together, where did the party go, save rock and roll) are as good as anything they've done.

too many clunkers for a relatively short album**

Barwick was #125 on Acclaimed, #38 NME, #3 Drowned in Sound.

Fall Out Boy was #483 on Acclaimed, #12 Onion A.V. club, #18 Kerrang.

Jordan and others are welcome to the Acclaimed poll roundup here (Excel format) if they can't be arsed to check those other polls.

i did not know there was a fallout boy album this year

I liked the FOB album but not enough to put it on my ballot (although I've started to regret leaving it off my year-end top 50 entirely). Considering their past stunt casting, it's amazing how perfect the Elton John and Courtney Love cameos are.

i did find it quite funny that julianna barwick, julia holter and julia kent all made albums that i loved to listen to in a certain mood last year. expect holter to place, kent wasn't even nominated though

Did you hear the Colleen album from this year Lex? That has similarities with all those three, though it is a bit wispier and delicate than any of them.

http://i.imgur.com/RhMIpEa.jpg?1

75 MELT-BANANA Fetch (272 points, 10 votes)

Spotify

no - i've heard (and liked) colleen in the past though. sort of assumed i didn't need another colleen album AND those three...

xp

#7 Decibel, its only placing elsewhere.

Too low!

ugh

what i've heard from Melt Banana's latest album is a lot more poppy than their earlier stuff.

#7 Decibel, its only placing elsewhere.

― disposable soma (Sanpaku), Monday, January 27, 2014 5:03 PM (31 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not true! It was #8 in the ILM Metal Poll.

Oh yeah this was pretty good.

"The Hive" was excellent

feel free to post (not embed) youtubes of select cuts, fans. no idea where to start with melt-banana here or in general

All these things are getting loads of votes already

here, lex: http://youtu.be/BcqC8LSoBws

Record number of voters this year xp

Another "didn't vote for it, glad to see it on here anyways" album. It was on my long list but got pushed off my ballot.

Melt-Banana record is great, I voted for it. I do miss the live drumming a bit compared to previous records.

hmm it's just noise to me. guess i can admire the...energy? i do not know when in my life i would have cause to play this.

Energy is usually the first and only thing I respond to in most genres.

melt-banana have never been my thing and i don't see this swaying me

fair points, definitely not for everybody

http://i.imgur.com/Uu4VbfP.jpg?1
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River (273 points, 9 votes)

no spotify on that one

i do not know when in my life i would have cause to play this.

yknow just hangin out in the living room, in for the evening

Yayyy I voted for this ambrosia'd joyride, h8az I condemn thee to be plugged into Agata's fx board for eternityyyyy

xposts to M-B obvs, J bein' understandably quickfire w/ somethin' so noisy and punkish

Haven't kept track of Bill Callahan in a decade - would be keen to hear a selected song off this one.

had Dream River top 5, this feels like a poor showing for it actually. unreal good record

Never made my P&J ballot but I played it consistently through the fall. "Summer Painter" is a new high imo.

Oof now THAT'S too low, amazing album.

"The only words I've said today are 'Beer' and 'Thank you'"

Still haven't heard the Bill Callahan album, but I'm sure I'd like it very much.

here's a song, hope these dont embed still

http://youtu.be/jXae9Am_bJM

I'm still not sure who Matt Kinsey is or where he came from but he's the MVP of "Dream River," such great lead guitar work across the entire album.

i love bill but i could never find my time with this one—not prickly enough for me right now

I didn't hear, as the kids say, any of these so far. Except maybe bill callahan, I either heard this one or the one before. He has a pleasant voice but I got bored iirc

Have no strong interest in hearing Dream River, but I'm pretty interested in the just released dub version, Having Fun with God.

I'll give this a try at some point but I saw Smog around ten years ago and it is definitely not for me. I prefer texture to songcraft in general.

The dub version is pretty ok but I don't know how much sense it'll make if you haven't heard the album. It's more a curiosity than a necessity.

Julianna Barwick album is basically a wash of pretty that is making almost zero impact on me at the moment; I don't mind when people use guitars and keyboards to do this type of thing but the voice is a very versatile instrument my initial impression is that it's kind of a wasted opportunity going on here and I'd really rather listen to Medulla or the Pentatonix album or even tUnE-yArDs (which I didn't really like all that much to begin with)

As noted, the earlier Julianna Barwick albums are vocals-only so you might want to go back and check those out.

judging from the track cider posted, this is very textural indeed. Quite amazing.

xxxpost

Julianna Barwick was my number 1, found it way more consistent than her previous. And beautiful throughout. I spent a lot of time with it in 2013. Didn't catch her live though.

Ooh, two of my votes placed already. Glad to see MB there, especially as they were the only people I vote my 'hearing it in 2014 is too late to vote for it' rule for. I think.

http://i.imgur.com/Vm3dWWF.jpg?1

73 LORDE Pure Heroine (276 points, 11 votes)

Spotify

why is that album cover so boring

you guys are killing me

the cover does evoke the experience of listening to the album

oh lord lorde please talk to em

still maintain that "Buzzcut Season" is a great song

most of the rest of the album is very of-a specific-moment/style and I really don't fault people for disliking it

Yeah emil.y, MB was a last-second addition for me, think I first heard it within 1 day of the deadline!

re: Fall Out Boy, they are still Fall Out Boy; good at what they do, only sporadically does that line up with something I really want to hear

re: Melt-Banana, one song in and this rules

still picking through the barwick album--this actually really appeals to the part of me that still likes sigur ros

part of me is going "oh here's where I should be looking to get my Battles itch scratched now that Battles themselves has become boring"

the Lorde album is a weird one for me. I voted for it, but would maybe reconsider if I could vote again. I like all the songs individually when I hear them, but I'm never particularly compelled to listen to this outside the context of my big new music playlist.

I like the Melt-Banana record, but after seeing them live I haven't been able to play it. They killed with both the new and old material, and the record only makes me want to hear the better live versions.

I really only ever listen to "Ribs"->"Buzzcut Season"->"Team" but I still voted for it

also the most surprising thing for me re: Melt-Banana is how delightful I'm finding the vocals

kind of wish Lorde sang like this, tbh

"Ribs" tempted me to give the thing another listen; that one really sounds like the apex of sad-teen alienation

the bill callahan song impressed me but left me cold if that makes sense? which is what smog did when i tried something by them over a decade ago, too. i like the gravitas. not in a place to appreciate the songcraft atm. have the leonard cohen comparisons proliferated throughout his career?

tried "buzzcut season" and i just find lorde's voice total wallpaper

still picking through the barwick album--this actually really appeals to the part of me that still likes sigur ros

ha, it was actually the lurch towards sigur-rosation that stopped me from fully embracing it tbh.

lorde album seemed ok to me. i get why people like it. that's about it.

"Ribs" tempted me to give the thing another listen; that one really sounds like the apex of sad-teen alienation

lorde always seems a bit too comfortable to me, i don't even get blankness/detachment from her voice let alone sadness

Melt-Banana have been doing their thing for a long time so if you're discovering them now you've got a good back catalog to explore (though Spotify has their albums split under Melt-Banana and Melt Banana FYI).

melt banana spilts?

played pure heroine non-stop for about a week and a half when it came out but hardly ever since

voted for it

"Buzzcut Season" specifically is about the arrangement for me, not how Lorde sounds singing it; all of those echoes/responses all over the place is just the apex of how the album's musical arrangements work.

Melt-Banana have been doing their thing for a long time so if you're discovering them now you've got a good back catalog to explore (though Spotify has their albums split under Melt-Banana and Melt Banana FYI).

They are definitely a band I know solely by name and not by output; at the time period when I would have been most likely to check them out, I was still listening to something like 90% dance music and just never made time/space to investigate

EZ, M-B are the best live band I've ever seen - it's kinda unfair on their studio material!

I like the Melt-Banana record, but after seeing them live I haven't been able to play it. They killed with both the new and old material, and the record only makes me want to hear the better live versions.

― EZ Snappin, Monday, January 27, 2014 12:42 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This has been my Melt Banana experience.

They need to step up their studio game.

a friend recommended the bill callahan very highly and said it was a career high so far so i've got it on my itunes and am relistening now and it sounds pretty good (agree the guitar is gorgeous) but his voice is unexciting to me and the lyrics don't have the same effect on me as they seem to on others

there's maybe half a good album on pure heroine. In general tho i am pro-lorde and interested to see what she is doing in 4-5 years.

Those who saw Lorde perform on the Grammys last night -- why does she look like she's 35?

bill callahan record is v pleasant but i have felt less and less drawn to it as time has passed, which was the opposite of what happened with me and apocalypse

xxxxp lex, strangely i can't recall many leonard cohen comparisons, but i've never been partial to cohen so i might have tuned any out that were made. but i also can't think of callahan being lauded for that kind of poetic songwriterliness either—more like he bores down into the quotidian in his language, and in his subjects, and brings out poetry in what seems like it doesn't have any in it. i dunno, maybe cohen's got that going on too, not knowing much about his work i kind of perceive it as more… studied, formally, in the way it sets up personas, addresses people, does things w/ tropes and observational details. (talking out of my ass here admittedly, maybe someday i will give up and just listen to cohen.)

callahan did cover 'so long, marianne' round the time of this album. of course he has always been a student of his art, so i kind of expect him to give everything he can its due, folky singer-songwriter-tradition-wise. would not be surprised if he learned a lot about how to draw in interest w/ his voice, tho.

EZ, this album IS them stepping up their studio game, hence the love

xp to fastnbulbous: it's the industry maaaaaaaaan

more like he bores down into the quotidian in his language, and in his subjects, and brings out poetry in what seems like it doesn't have any in it.

otm

I havent listened to (or thought about) Melt Banana in years. Spazz-rock has its place but its just not my bag anymore. The Bill Callaghan album was mediocre when I listened to it and Im a fan. Im not sure about this alt-country period of his. Ive only listened to it once tbf tho. I still havent listened to the Lorde album. Is there anything better than "royals" on it.

ok i'm on "spring" now and i think i'm starting to get it

checking out some of melt banana for the first time. I like what I hear, though it may be too harsh for me to listen to often, they're really going for it though. Reminds me a bit of Marnie Stern.

this is the first time i've heard melt banana since hearing them all the time on John Peel's radio show. Loving it. Seems they've toned down the grind and brought up the pop.

ppl who liked melt-banana should check out guerilla toss https://soundcloud.com/nnatapes/nna069-a1 not usually into spaz stuff but they make it really fun, esp on the funkier tracks

props to edward iii

http://i.imgur.com/EkHcpyh.png

72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin (282 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

that album cover is ridiculously good

Think I have to admit that while this Melt Banana album is great and fun, I feel like I burnt out on Boredoms/Deerhoof/Battles type music a few years ago. This might be some sort of zenith for that style but at the same time it's not doing much that hasn't been done before. It just does it all a bit better.

love love love that thee ohsees album

gets a little inessential in the middle but the first 2 songs + the last 2 songs would make the best EP ever

I really need to check out that new Thee Oh Sees album, to me they have been a band that always sounds better on paper than in practice.

ty flopson for recs

that album cover is ridiculously good

it is?!

it is!

it is?

it's cool in a creepy way. Haven't really listened to them before, checking out a couple tunes, liking them well enough. Decent garage rock with some moments of excitement.

i love it

Thee Oh Sees is good fun, made my top 50. A bit higher on my list and along similar lines are Fuzz and Hidden Masters, which probably didn't make this rollout but are highly recommended.

i <3 Segall big time - but could just not get into the Fuzz

I found Floating Coffin ridiculously exciting for the first few tracks but I'm not sure it really sustained that momentum.

Of the ones I've not heard here I'm most interested in Melt Banana. Smog never did it for me (#teamoldham) so I'll probably give the Callaghan record a miss.

i haven't heard the album but i love that cover! it's so gross!

Three Oh Sees: this is also great

kind of hate the album cover though because it is making me think of Animal Collective

The OC's is a terrible name for a band, well done to these guys for making it terribler

these guys are excellent at a type of music i don't really care for

Thee Oh Sees are so great, this is probably their last album :(

this is another one I haven't heard! I saw them live tho I think, they were ok not my thing

there was a really pretty song near the end of that purple album from a year or so ago (Carrion Crawler EP?) that I liked, and it seemed like a new direction. I assume Coachwhips guy will keep rocking even if the band breaks up.

Thee Oh Sees are so great, this is probably their last album :(

They sort of walked back the "indefinite hiatus" announcement already.

There's certainly no shortage of Thee Oh Sees albums to check out.

http://i.imgur.com/vQYlu5q.jpg?1

71 FÖLLAKZOID II (284 points, 9 votes)

Spotify

Great album, first of my votes to appear. Check out Pulsar if instrumental space rock sounds like it might be your thing.

ahh nice. i like this one. didn't vote for it, but it's got some great tracks. "9" is sick.

never heard of it. sounds cool, will check it out.

I dug Follakzoid when I tried it on Spotify, but ended up voting for things I was more familiar with, will probably come back to this though

so good

Now, that's a good cover

another new one to check out, initially read their name as Folkazoid

that cover looks like something you might buy in Borderline records in Brighton

yaaaay! i voted for this. perfect music to listen to while you're trying to perform a mentally challenging task.

thee oh sees - this kind of garage rock sounds like this kind of garage rock and always will i guess, i don't find it exciting

föllakzoid - never even heard the name before, four mins into "pulsar" and getting quite into it - something very beardo disco about it except with a motorik beat and those space whooshes are a nice touch that make it cosmic despite the earthbound guitars? and there are enough melodic switch-ups and chord changes that are maintaining interest rather than just being nice vibing out music and justifying its length. am thinking zombie zombie which is a +ve thought. seven minutes in and i think i'm gonna check out the whole album now. nice horse too. good discovery!

perfect music to listen to while you're trying to perform a mentally challenging task.

can definitely imagine this. rhythm to keep you going, gradual build to accelerate you, spacey whooshes and melodies to get your brain in gear

:D will also check out later, didn't give it enuff time on metal countdown

Loved the "Carrion Crawler EP" but haven't been able to get into the new one. Probably should give it another try.

yay love that melt banana album

ah yeah i listened to that follakzoid album when it came out and forgot about it! Great memories this is real good

seems like pretty groovy trance rock, could definitely vibe out to it

Loving lex's comparison of follakzoid to beardo disco and zombie zombie :-D totally the rock analogue to that kind of music.

^^ yes

http://i.imgur.com/NUeWQod.jpg?1

70 GORGUTS Colored Sands (286 points, 8 votes)

Spotify

sorry that just makes me think of the cranberries

Listened to the Follakzoid album over the weekend and liked it. Great cover too, yeah - I like most of the Sacred Bones artwork, I wish I liked more of their acts really.

Yesssssssssssssssssss Oh Sees, my #2 album, those guys are so ridiculously consistent.
Haven't even heard of Follakzoid!

honestly i've never known what beardo disco really is, so if it's like groovy trance rock, maybe i would like it?

NA we could make a local follakzoid -- those beats are easy!

ooooooh I just know that something good is gonna happpeeeeeeen!

(fyi: something good hasn't happened yet)

Nice! I didn't say anything before because I figured the Follakzoid was coming due to its high placing in the metal poll. Glad to see interest in this Chilean psych band, which probably would have gone unnoticed if it weren't for Sacred Bones releasing it. Other motorik/kosmische oriented stuff I discovered belatedly from 2013 are Death Hawks - s/t, Eat Lights Become Lights - Modular Living, Papir - Papir III and Space Debris - She's A Temple.

Gorguts was #4 on the Metal Poll btw.

Yeah there was a bunch of stuff that sounds vaguely similar to Follakzoid last year (also Holydrug Couple, Barn Owl...) but I think they pulled it off most successfully.

Yesssss INCREDIBLE FUCKING ALBUM, my number 5, listened just before deadline and had no option. It is a genuinely awesome compositional achievement. Open minds, please!

we got a tie coming up btw

Features some of the best and most interesting songwriting of the year xp to self. aw J give it another minute lol

hmmm. Is it real metal? I just wanna know before I listen to it. That deafheaven track was pretty chill, is it like that?

Awesome record. I feel like it'll be years before I've mentally mapped it out.

And no wins, this is not a Deafheaven situation.

I like how the riffs cascade into one another, but I'm gonna be one of those people and say I'd like it more with more melodic vocals.

seems very trve kvlt based on the track I listened to

http://i.imgur.com/OFyYBXj.jpg?1

(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me (295 points, 10 votes)

Spotify

xp ok I will listen to it another night

Hmm, have heard one of Gorguts' albums (Erosion of Sanity) before, it wasn't really for me. Is this one any different?

Follakzoid sounded nice!

honestly i've never known what beardo disco really is, so if it's like groovy trance rock, maybe i would like it?

i should think so! studio's "out there" is about as good as beardo disco gets really (nb: 15 mins long but all awesome)

Ooh, I probably got this on the list. Suck it, haters :D

v good

"a lie" is the prettiest, saddest song

wow, surprised in a good way to see kelela so low

there are bangers on cut 4 me (floor show) but as a whole album i didn't fall in love with

there are good beats and good singing in places but it's a bit scattered

i feel like she could do some good things tho we'll see

Unfortunately for me, Kelela is kind of this year's Cooly G. In other words, great production watered down to make space for mediocre vocals.

I think I'm still a tad bitter at her for stopping the Night Slugs/Fade to Mind showcase at last year's SXSW dead in its tracks, taking it off track from a really fun dance party to a dull concert with a lot of gawking and zero dancing.

Didn't vote for Kelela but thought it was interesting the couple of times I listened to it, should probably check it out again.
Listening to the Follakzoid, it's fine but it seems like there's so much of this stuff every year and it's all pretty indistinguishable for me.

It's a good album, but I think this is about the right place for it.

Happy to compare this to Cooly G's album, enjoyed that one too.

follakzoid is great, nice find from this poll

Will also say re: Gorguts, if you want a way in, the song The Battle Of Chamdo (sp?) is a pure (and brilliant) string-quartet piece, no guitars or growling at all

"floor show" is def about as good as cut 4 me got, i'm close to j0rdan in that i think the album contains scattered interesting sounds and she's got a nice voice but the beats are largely hugely awkward and it rarely coheres song-wise - all in all just a bit dissatisfying. i'm less excited about her future b/c i'm basically off the night slugs/fade to mind bus at this point. not what they were. the rhetoric and disproportionate attention afforded this album because of ~positioning was obviously aggravating

I like cooly g, I didn't hear this yet. I'm 0/0 in this poll for just having heard the albums in the 1st place let alone voting. Lots to catch up on.

ok some excellent stuff from the metal poll has made it when I didn't think it would. Well done everyone. Also yay bill callahan.

i should think so! studio's "out there" is about as good as beardo disco gets really (nb: 15 mins long but all awesome)
thx! it's like the "mother sky" of beardo disco, then? ;)
15 min long sounds just fine to me tbh

15 mins sounds too short!

i voted for gorguts, they pretty much tower over their little corner of metal

ll "Out There" is seriously one of the most amazing things released in the last decade imo

yeah "floor show" is amazing. the beat ^_^

I could see Can and Faust fans digging "Out There". it's not krautrock, but it is pretty cosmic

I don't like death metal much but love the new Gorguts. They've moved outside the genre once again to stake a claim as their own thing.

re: cut4me, I thought the combination of the beats with kelela's voice was mostly very beautiful. the production on this is just amazing....the louder I turn it up the better it sounds

http://i.imgur.com/rBbGti9.jpg?1

(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind (295 points, 10 votes)

Spotify

lol for a second I thought I was reading why do i hate that artist thing that people keep posting on my facebook so much? why am i such a jerk?

Uhh…a Cut Copy album came out last year?

Oh look it's a fourth Cut Copy album.

ha, I was gonna be like "they still exist?"

gonna listen to "free your mind" by en vogue instead b/c who can even muster up an iota of shit to give about cut copy again

i didn't know they had an album either. terrible cover!

laziest cover of the thread so far obv, which might be the most interesting thing they've ever done

poor Cut Copy :(

studio is not beardo

I'm happy to defend this album. It's way better than the artwork would suggest. They'll never top In Ghost Colours but this is probably their second best album now.

IsaacHale
Jun 16, 2012
10
This is an incredible album from Hot Chip, rivaling their defining album "Made in the Dark." It's smooth, dancey, and utterly heartfelt. I can… Expand

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WeAreTheFilter
Jul 1, 2012
9
Hot Chip

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Manik_Music
Jun 18, 2012
9
Electro-brit poppers Hot Chip have produced a expertly crafted fifth album. If the group wasn

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RomanRaifeld
Sep 18, 2012
8
Probably not their best album but melodic and tuneful one and well-produced. The tracks of new release are not huge hits but a small one I would even say chamber and even intimate.

Poll is already better than last year's. Voted for Melt Banana and Follakzoid but glad to see Oh Sees, Gorguts (which I need to listen to soon) make the cut

if there was a hot chip record last year, that's like 100% to place even though no one posting in the thread voted for it, right?

KBP to thread

the Cut Copy album is a full-on homage to the Primal Scream/Happy Mondays axis of musical nostalgia and surprisingly great, esp. after their previous one which made me want to hunt the band down and slay them

it fell off the bottom of my ballot at the last minute but I really enjoyed it

next: Holy Ghost!

Am abandoning hope for my #2 and my #7 tho xxxxp

http://i.imgur.com/2zJ9e8F.jpg?1

67 f(x) Pink Tape (300 points, 8 votes)

i'm highly intrigued by this thanks to the packaging can someone post some good youtubes from this record

this one is not on spotify

what the heck is this? clue me in, voters

Name reminds me of F-i; I am also intrigued

full album

http://youtu.be/zPsmoYIpDI0

i think?

Finally some joy for the K-Pop massive. Even though the album is pretty short it didn't really keep my atention for the duration; almost voted for Airplane in trax, I think most people went for the sadly non-Christmas-themed Rum Pum Pum Pum.

Don't think anything here can match Electric Shock from last year.

omg f(x), yes. K-pop squad came through for this, after failing to place anything in the tracks poll.

xp prefer Airplane too, but Rum Pum Pum Pum is excellent as well.

sickest album cover

i've never really been able to take too much k or j-pop in at once, i prefer it in bitesize form to a whole album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6S9WNunDi8

this is the best track from f(x) imo

This is great. Totally off my radar but a nice discovery.

√romance √cult

"Airplane" is a really good track off this album.

Pink Tape is killer! Loads of goodness on there, 'Step' and the lush 'Shadow' (whose writers include Cathy Dennis and Sophie Ellis-Bextor) highlights as well as the aforementioned.

every year this thread brings k-pop into my line of vision and every year i think "wow k-pop artists are killing it the most in terms of fashion and video"

come with me. airplane! love!
this is cute and reminds me of a YA romance novel

Yay! On 'pink tape' for the first time f(x) come close to achieving the same kind of success in album format as on their super consistent singles run. For the posters who don't know them they're perhaps less in your face than the more widely known 2NE1, but equally true to their own sound and style, a kind of stuttery, playground rhyme pop with pockets of soaring beauty http://youtu.be/kKS12iGFyEA

I am on board with 2NE1 so I will definitely Youtube this when at home

one of my coworkers is really into k-pop and, frequently stuck working late on a particularly demanding project, would put 'pink tape' on and we would have an impromptu dance party. so i have a lot of affection for that album, even if i didnt vote for it

http://i.imgur.com/5yWZn5W.jpg?1

66 DANNY BROWN Old (300 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

For some reason I was expecting f(x) to be a noise-rock band. I like that they have a token butch member.

yessss

For some reason I never really got into that album even though I enjoyed it whenever I put it on and I played the hell out of XXX? I think I might have just worn out on him a bit.

old is an obviously great album that i didn't listen to that much

dude is an incredible rapper tho

I enjoyed Danny Brown's album a lot; it also just missed my ballot

"Lonely" my most played album track of the year

Rev and J0 otm. Couldn't ever find the time or care to really get into this like I did w XXX.

Only played this once but enjoyed it a lot more than XXX. I was really surprised Pitchfork had this in their top five.

Jayson Greene's review sold me.

i know it's a little bit of work, but can someone provide a small descriptive snippet (or even a phrase) for each album? for posterity? like a post or a review or sthg?

I like that they have a token butch member.

― raggett neds of your summer dress (The Reverend)

Actually Taiwanese American, spoke Korean poorly at first. One of the most popular members now among the largely female fanbase.

First half is great but not that keen on anything past Dope Song, nowhere near as good as XXX.

One of the most popular members now among the largely female fanbase.

― abcfsk, Monday, January 27, 2014 12:10 PM Bookmark

go figure

http://i.imgur.com/oDe8ai4.jpg?1

65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor (301 points, 11 votes)

Spotify

Based on the track from the other thread, this is boring Portland-style "hipster house"?

nah industrial-tinged acid techno I would say

and really good, 2nd of mine to place

Yeah, it's more industrial + early acid house. Not that I know what Portland-style hipster house. Apart from Fall Back and Two Different Ways I found it pretty cold and uninvolving. They're better live apparently.

danny brown - i had my "admirable album from talented and distinct artist that doesn't hit my personal spots or that i will ever listen to" moment with xxx and nothing i read about old suggested this would change - indeed i see more people say similar things this time round - so i never bothered to listen. if anyone has any trax they feel like changing my mind with, feel free

factory floor - as i said in the trax thread i'm pro this kind of music but don't strictly need any more of it in my life, i have quite a lot already

yay the first off my ballot to place

nah industrial-tinged acid techno I would say

― Kim Wrong-un (Neil S), Monday, January 27, 2014 8:20 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh so this one DOES sound like Orbital then

xxxp Stuff like in this thread (a lot of which draws on early acid house and maybe to a lesser extent industrial) teengirl fantasy, miracles club, mi ami, 100% silk and the rise of HIPSTER HOUSE: S/D

xp err no not really, or only in the sense that they both work in roughly the same genre

didn't vote for the factory floor album but i did vote for this song in the tracks poll cos it is a monster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wy6p3eiA28

factory floor - how you say

i wasn't really feeling the new danny brown either but he's so good that i figure i'll come back to it and it will unfold for me.

Gonna say again that nothing on the FF album stuck with me half as much as Beachcombing.

yeah that track is sick

Surprised that Factory Floor record is so low actually, I thought it had a bigger following here. It reminds me a bit of 2006-era Carl Craig with added industrial/EBM elements but I don't really get the frothing-at-the-mouth excitement that you see from some quarters.

Old is pretty damned great. I come back to it a lot more than I did XXX.

i just wanna hear nasty nihilistic rapps :/

OTM re: mid-00s Carl Craig

http://i.imgur.com/kI8wvy5.png?1

64 CIARA Ciara (308 points, 13 votes)

Spotify

I only liked a few songs on that album. :/

Other than "Body Party", "Super Turnt Up" and "Keep on Lookin'" were the keepers, iirc?

not sure if i voted for this but it's a really solid album with some true standouts and no duds

just a very listenable yet unspectacular album

i loved "livin it up" and "overdose" too

Livin It Up is a lot of fun.

did ciara just say she's "driving under the influence of your love" on a song called DUI? foh

― some dude, Tuesday, July 9, 2013 12:30 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no wait, 2 songs after that, she 'overdoses on your love' on a song called "Overdose." i give up.

― some dude, Tuesday, July 9, 2013 12:41 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

hahaha

thematically it's not... the tightest. the songwriting is really strong though across the album.

"Body Party" and "Overdose" are the only songs I remember from it. Did she make a video for "Overdose"?

Livin it Up is cool. Overdose was cool til some dude ruined it. lol was just gonna post those some dude posts.

I'd say it was the songwriting that left me the most underwhelmed, really.

another good song is read my lips...my favourite from the album...impo a lot of the songs on this sound like straight the-dream ripoffs, but maybe that's just me.

CICI <33333

first of my votes. ciara pretty much always hits my spots and i always, always return to her albums over and over again. i didn't think this was quite as front-to-back WHOA as basic instinct or even the highest points of the evolution and fantasy ride but solid cici is still right in my wheelhouse - it's just top 15 for the year rather than top 5.

essential ciara deep cuts from this era:

"super turnt up" - the world was just not ready for ciara featuring ciara
"read my lips" - single entendres about cunnilingus performed ridiculously sweetly and innocently
"livin' it up" - even a ciara campaign that went smoothly for once isn't without its great lost pop single. nice sisterly rap from nicki
"sophomore" - the deep slow jam i like better than "body party"

also, [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-TTNdyIMAE]"i'm out"[url] didn't make the trax list but it's one of my favourite videos of the year. ciara and nicki were such a great partnership and are so watchable. i love cici's dress in the first verse!

oh i seem to have posted half the album well i guess that's why i voted for it

I love Nicki's parts of "I'm Out" but CiCi's kill all the momentum.

also, she looks so happy on the grammy red carpet! when a favourite pop star announces their pregnancy my inner pop stan always has to do battle with my inner...normal person. but despite wanting to stamp my foot about not getting a tour, a "super turnt up" video etc etc i am happy for her

http://cdn02.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2014/01/pregnant-ciara-grammys-2014-red-carpet.jpg

I stopped playing this in the autumn; it's def not FR or The Evolution which imo did both boast good album tracks.

the experience of listening to a Ciara album hits me the same way as looking at the color beige

I love Nicki's parts of "I'm Out" but CiCi's kill all the momentum.

― raggett neds of your summer dress (The Reverend), Monday, January 27, 2014 3:44 PM (51 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that song is crying out for a Nicki-only edit

as sweet and nice as ciara seems to be, based on the lyrics on this album I suspect she is as dumb as a brick.

Damn, I'm listening to "Super Turnt Up" and "Keep on Lookin'" and even they feel like they would be middle-of-the-pack on any of her other albums.

idk man "super turnt up" is amazing, the rap on that is great

it's def not FR or The Evolution which imo did both boast good album tracks.

also, the positive, if there was one, for such tortuous gestation periods for those albums was that even if they weren't promoted, i got as attached to various leaks/album tracks as if they were ubiquitous singles, and they were in listening circulation for ages. with this album going so smoothly, it was like...the album came out, "body party" was so successful that they didn't bother with any other single than "i'm out", then it all sort of fizzled out then she got pregnant, fin.

I do love "Overdose" though.

playing the Factory Floor album now; I think I would have gone apeshit over this in high school but right now it seems.... thin? I can't immediately identify what is unsatisfying about this (it could be as simple as "one shouldn't try to listen to this album after commuting to Floorplan")

there is something very New-Beat-throwbackish about it though, I will probably end up digging this a lot

takes a while to sink in IMO, not nearly immediate as that (incredible) Floorplan record

that's a point, will floorplan show up here? I voted for "never grow old" in trax but is there enough support for the album?

"Overdose" was a single too? Or at least I heard it on the radio a bit.

The advance singles that didn't make the album were way better than most of the album tracks. I'd definitely take "Sorry Part 2", "Got Me Good", "Sweat", and "Wake Up, No Make Up" over most of this mess.

huh, a lot of stuff I like so far. gorguts, melt-banana, and f(x) all got a lot of play for me this year. <3 "step"!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJOZnGZ9NU

http://i.imgur.com/d3SqnOG.jpg?1

63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold (308 points, 13 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

my biggest regret re: my ballot is not putting Floorplan higher on it so I really hope they show

The advance singles that didn't make the album were way better than most of the album tracks. I'd definitely take "Sorry Part 2", "Got Me Good", "Sweat", and "Wake Up, No Make Up" over most of this mess.

yeah i wish these had all been bonus tracks - "wake up, no make-up" is flat-out incredible in particular, just exactly what i wanted mike will + ciara to sound like

"Overdose" was a single too? Or at least I heard it on the radio a bit.

scheduled to be a single iirc but never even got a video ;_;

Yeah that Parquet Courts album is decent. What I like with them is their economy of music. The songs are short and they get to the point. They all have a hook or a lyric to rope you in but they rarely outstay their welcome.

sounds great : /

I liked the floorplan lp but I'm much more into the moodier nighttime world stuff he does

Regardless of your feelings on "Overdose" as a song, the cover is, in the words of another thread, undeniable:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0f/Ciara-overdose-cover-art.jpg

Oh yeah, these guys. Anything here for someone who wasn't particularly into the track that placed last week?

i liked floorplan quite well but didn't vote for it, i was more into some other dance records so it felt dishonest

If you didn't like that track I wouldn't bother, it's all basically the same. Had I heard it in 2002 I'd have been bored to tears but that whole sound is actually kind of refreshing now. Not to the extent I'd have voted for it, but still...

As noted on the tracks thread, "Stoned and Starving" is by far the longest song on the album so the rest of the album is a lot more concise, but if you didn't like S&S at all then you probably shouldn't bother with the rest of it - they've got a sound and they stick with it.

ha okay Factory Floor album is slowly morphing into something incredible

Matt DC OTM about Parquet Courts.
Put me in the camp that found Old quite instantly appealing whereas I had trouble getting into XXX

man okay I would have DEFINITELY voted for "Fall Back" had I heard this album in 2013

sorry, shutting up about Factory Floor now

Just FYI to the person who's doing the Spotify playlist (forksclovetofu?) you put the combined Parquet Courts album+EP on the playlist instead of just the album, don't know if you care.

Yeah I think i'm finally going to give Parquet Courts a chance, they seem to be right up my alley.

http://i.imgur.com/m70nivo.jpg?1

62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul

Spotify

62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul (310 points, 9 votes)

playlist is collaborative, anyone can add to it AFAIK

i was shocked that "VSOP" didn't place in tracks so i'm doubly surprised that the album made it this high

FUCK YEAH K. MICHELLE!!!!!!!

i was just getting nervous for this!!! SO GLAD IT PLACED.

The K Michelle isn't all great and the opera skit is the worst thing I've ever heard but its high points are basically astonishing.

Just FYI to the person who's doing the Spotify playlist (forksclovetofu?) you put the combined Parquet Courts album+EP on the playlist instead of just the album, don't know if you care.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, January 27, 2014 4:02 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it was me, i only added the album tracks

but thank u for fixing

This is a wonderful album.

Quite liked this but it was totally overshadowed by the Amel and Fantasia albums for me.

right, now's the time i actually sit down and listen to this factory floor album

the end of today's results are really going to be a roller coaster of emotions for lex

(we have one more coming up before we end today)

is v.s.o.p. the consensus best song off this? it's pretty good.

"Pay My Bills" is pretty dope

very weird that vsop didn't place in the trax, thought it was a top 20 lock tbf

if vampire weekend places low he will be happy
xps

digging K. Michelle so far

"all my life i've been struggling and stressing / that's why i come up in this bitch with aggression" is a line on the first song that really lays out k michelle's deal. a more hot-headed mary j blige taking out her earrings and throwing elbows and cursing everything in sight and singing AS LOUD AS SHE CAN because in half the scenarios she's by herself, either waiting for her lover or pondering life after he's left. it's real and raw

"sometimes" - the SINGING. the way she frames it as a prayer for absolution that she'll never grant herself. "a man who don't give a fuck about me"
in the video for "the right one" she ends up toasting marshmallows on a bonfire of her ex's stuff. "you want ratchet, well i'mma be that"
"pay my bills" - this song made my jaw drop on first listen and tbh still does. pure aggressive carnal desperation. it's all about her pleasure and satisfaction and nothing else is in the picture

I never did get around to checking out this album :/

is v.s.o.p. the consensus best song off this? it's pretty good.

it's a great single and i love it but i wouldn't say it overshadows the rest of the album - mostly because the album lives up to it rather than any slight on it obv

"I Don't Like Me" is confessional w/out being sickly, and that's a testament to how committed she sounds.

Great first paragraph there lex

I heard pay my bills for the first time on the nominations playlist, it's awesome

Sometimes is the really amazing one.

http://i.imgur.com/e1n2UOk.jpg?1

61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM (311 points, 11 votes)

Spotify

lolol

lol

XD

Good album. I'm surprised it's the album that's reignited their popularity: they just scored their first #1 on the modern rock chart (whatever that means) and their show here this week is sold out.

i am never going to listen to this album

let's carry on talking about k michelle everyone!

happy arctic monkeys placed so low, could've done without them beating k michelle -_- one of the worst bands to ever exist imo

lol cad

"Fireside" is my jam on this one.

Alex Turner's ridiculous hair is at a new peak too.

hey lex, come over my listening thread later, we shd hang out & have an AM listening sesh/h8-off. bet I can h8 it more than u (this is obv a priori; who knows, it cd be a masterpiece)

they just scored their first #1 on the modern rock chart (whatever that means) and their show here this week is sold out.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 27, 2014 4:14 PM (41 seconds ago) Bookmark

this is because of a car commercial tbf

I wonder if blunt force would get the arctic monkeys to shut the fuck up

James Blunt tried and couldn't.

Really enjoyed not listening to this.

i love the first AM record, stopped caring at all after the second one

but i voted for this album. sorta smooth & vibey... different look for a british rock band but they def pull it off. just a nice, easy listen which def has its value

this was the first AM album I ever listened to. idk they sound like a snappier version of QOTSA?

Voted for both Arctic Monkeys and K Michelle <3

cad otm

i know a lot of people, who I generally consider to have good taste, that previously disliked this band yet love this album.

i also enjoyed what shipz wrote about k michelle on his EOY list:

19. K. Michelle - Rebellious Soul
If Keyshia Cole amped up the Mary J. Blige formula with more working class grit and indulgent vocal gymnastics, K. Michelle throws the whole thing off its axis by going to further extremes on both counts. The result is borderline camp, to the point that song titles like "Pay My Bills" and "Hate On Her" and "Coochie Symphony (Interlude)" helped make K. Michelle as much a Black Twitter meme as she is a popular R&B artist. But the vocals, production and songwriting on Rebellious Soul were all high quality enough to make the album function on its own terms as an album worth repeat plays, K. Michelle establishing herself as a female protege of R. Kelly that can actually keep up with him in terms of outrageousness and personality.

Jordan otm

I wish the Arctic Monkeys album wasn't so dull, their music really benefits from a bit more excitement than what they've been able to muster on recent releases.

prefer Favorite Worst Nightmare to the first, whose mix bothered the fuck out of me. The third album is a legit nightmare, the fourth okay.

shipz otm too

one big difference I hear between Keyshia Cole and K. Michelle is that half of Keyshia's recordings are out of tune

we shd hang out & have an AM listening sesh/h8-off. bet I can h8 it more than u (this is obv a priori; who knows, it cd be a masterpiece)

i think everyone gets to reserve a few artists that they point blank refuse to allow near their ears and arctic monkeys are one of mine. nope nope nope nope nope they utterly repel me on every level

also "I Don't Like Me" is incredible

to repel you even more, I could post a photo of what Alex Turner's hair looks like from behind.

is this list normally this guitar oriented?

i previously disliked arctic monkeys and i don't completely love this record but i do like it esp the first track (which i think is currently the single?)

i think everyone gets to reserve a few artists that they point blank refuse to allow near their ears and arctic monkeys are one of mine. nope nope nope nope nope they utterly repel me on every level

― lex pretend, Monday, January 27, 2014 4:18 PM (45 seconds ago) Bookmark

but lex it was billed as their R&B record, you should really listen to it! it will be hilarious

"Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High" has a nice cadence.

also: happy DJP's liking K Michelle!

K. Michelle album so far is evoking Elle Varner for me more than anyone else

this is obv a good thing

also "I Don't Like Me" is incredible

one of those songs which really stopped me in my tracks - she lays it all out in the most baldly uncompromising terms, from the statement of fact in the title to her enunciation. i say k michelle is confrontational and that seems to apply to her relationship with herself as well as, it seems, everyone else in the world

I liked "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" but have never otherwise cared about them.

Everything I've read about this album suggests it's basically the Arctic Monkeys doing QOTSA and I have minimal interest in that because they're clearly not going to be doing the good QOTSA with heavy riffs and screaming.

more sticky, less sweet than Varner. but i can see that

already liking this a lot more than the tracks list

i think everyone gets to reserve a few artists that they point blank refuse to allow near their ears and arctic monkeys are one of mine. nope nope nope nope nope they utterly repel me on every level

― lex pretend, Monday, January 27, 2014 4:18 PM (45 seconds ago) Bookmark

but lex it was billed as their R&B record, you should really listen to it! it will be hilarious

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, January 27, 2014 9:20 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

j0rdan is the idea of these fuckheads doing r&b meant to do anything other than make me run away screaming EVEN FASTER?

screaming for someone to help me bring them down obv. maybe k michelle can help

i can see the appeal of k michelle...i think a whole album of hers would be maybe a little more emoting than i'm ready for.

lex gonna tell AM to fuck off like you're gonna pay bills

BTW - as I've been idly posting on my vanity thread, I'm listening to the Fall Out Boy album - just finishing it now, in fact - and guess what - it's really fucking good. Surprised myself, really. So yeah, well done everyone involved

it's weird to me that people keep bringing QOTSA up but i thought this was the album where they kinda went away from that. i mean, the third album was literally produced by josh homme! or at least partly.

the r&b thing is why i didn't listen to this for like 6 months but nah it's a good record. that whole aspect of it was so oversold (i even remember reading aaliyah's name) and really it just rips all the masculine QOTSA stuff that they had been doing out and emphasizes that they can have a nice, light touch when they want (their ballads are frequently good regardless of the album)

at least that's how i see it but maybe i haven't been paying enough attention to them

j0rdan is the idea of these fuckheads doing r&b meant to do anything other than make me run away screaming EVEN FASTER?

well i mean i was just trying to goad you into listening to it for my own entertainment

imago liking FOB and Paramore in the same week, life is good.

yeah the third album went out of its way to be dark and riff-heavy and ended up gnarled, tuneless, and shameful

i can see the appeal of k michelle...i think a whole album of hers would be maybe a little more emoting than i'm ready for.

there are many more shades of emotion on the album than "V.S.O.P." or the current discourse would lead you to believe; it's definitely not full-on 1000% bombast 24/7

did you ever listen to k michelle, j0rdan?

Yeah I Dont Like Me is a counterpoint to the bombast, although still emo
http://youtu.be/8nBfw0avW6E

(it's kind of funny that I wrote that last post and then got to "Pay My Bills")

and Sometimes is still a monster vocal performance but the production is more rooted in classic soul
http://youtu.be/FqI9COH-AYo

first time I listened to Pay My Bills I just kinda sat there like O__0 for a few minutes

yeah that's basically what's happening over here

well, she just goes for it on that one, doesn't she?

you haven't reached the coochie symphony yet have you

(and DJP definitely correct to pull back on the cartoonish aspects of k michelle)

coochie symphony

there's an album concept right there

I have not gotten to the coochie symphony, no

I was half-considering skipping ahead to Arctic Monkeys and then coming back but now there's no way that's happening

did you ever listen to k michelle, j0rdan?

― lex pretend, Monday, January 27, 2014 4:25 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

of course. it's a good album.

O_O

lol
Xpost

fyi k michelle's 2010 mixtape what's the 901? is where i discovered her and it's very well worth hearing - "where they do that at" is such a perfectly-formed artistic statement that i can't believe it'll never get an official push now, and "hit 'em in the mouth" is the kind of fighting track (in response to domestic abuse) that she largely eschews on this album. "i'm no jazmine sullivan, bustin all your windows out / i'm from memphis, tennessee: i'mma bust you in your mouth"

first song to put a big dumb smile on my face today

O_O

― SHAUN (DJP), Monday, January 27, 2014 9:33 PM (54 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you got to the coochie symphony then

I mean

I wish she (and ESPECIALLY THE DUDE) would commit more to the vocal technique but aside from that: O_O O_O ^_^

God this Factory Floor album sounds like it's being played through a mobile phone in a pint glass. I see how some people might like this kind of thing but it's missing those frequencies I need most from music like this.

I owe my discovering K Michelle to lex

basically what I am saying is "take me on tour K. Michelle, I could totally tear up your coochie (symphony)"

(I had massive reservations about that joke given recent conversations on this board but I ultimately felt I had to lead with my strengths)

fun fact: k michelle has in fact topped an ilx poll previously, as the uncredited sampled voice on "wut"

haha that was actually the only part of "Wut" that I liked

woah!

fun fact!

okay what the fuck, this first Arctic Monkeys song is kind of cool

I thought I hated these guys

I heard whatever the first single was from the AM album a bunch of times when I cursed to listening to satellite indie radio this summer. I never liked it, but I did catch myself humming it from time to time.

okay what the fuck, this first Arctic Monkeys song is kind of cool

I thought I hated these guys

oh wait, I've heard "R U Mine?" before as well, it's one of the tracks on Rocksmith 2013 and it's also great

huh

Follakzoid album is nice 'not really concentrating on what's going on' music. I mean that in the nicest way. Lex is right, perfect if you want to focus your mind on something other than music, but don't like eerie silences very much. I can imagine it being pretty neat live and loud!

the only albums I outright disliked today are Ciara and Parquet Courts; haven't heard the two non-Spotify entries

i think 'arabella' is actually my favorite AM track just because of how ridiculous it is

The last track -- a cover, I think -- sports stupid lyrics but is their prettiest song, and I didn't think I'd ever care for "pretty" AM.

it's the harmonies; they're using'em a lot on this album

im surprised at the arctic monkeys album placing. i dont like the singles ive heard from it. is this an album that just sounds better as a whole? "cornerstone" is the only song of theirs i really love.

The musical arrangements are great, too; not overly fussy, not stupidly simple, but sitting in this magical pocket of filling enough enough space to define the song without over or under doing it.

I am not really enamored of the falsetto singing on "One For The Road" tho

yeah i checked i dont like me, pay my bills, and sometimes too and they all had merits but after those four i was just a lil exhausted

Sorry, I've been out and I'm hours behind but can I just say a big FUCK YOU to everyone who decided that "spazz" was going to be the term du jour for Melt-Banana type things? Because... FUCK YOU.

oh yeah shit people WERE doing that weren't they

guys.

it's fucking psychedelic noise-punk-pop from Japan and u gotta cruise that ride

Sorry Engalond

are we talking about a term that means different things in the US vs. the UK?

... it does?

No, we're talking about a term that's just offensive. Full stop. Unless you want to provide me with a detailed etymology of where the US word comes from, because I'm pretty sure all uses have the same root here.

can i use the term "annoying" for melt banana without pissing you delicate souls off?

no it means the same and is offensive in both countries

i also want to fuck melt banana

CAD, you are welcome to use the term "annoying", hell you can use the term "shit" if you want.

C'mon you guys. Remember Tiger Woods putting like a spaz and all the trouble that caused?

xp - it's more "archaic" here -- we progressed to using the term "retarded" -- if that's what we're talking about?

wut

In the U.S., it wasn't used as a derogatory term. A person dancing jerkily is spazzing out, but I've never heard of a cerebral palsy patient spazzing out.

"A BBC survey in 2003, which found that "spastic" was the second most offensive term in the UK relating to disability (retard was deemed most offensive)."

we have a new slur so the old slur is okay to use!

(Don't) Putting Spaz

GREAT derail

it's amazing that language changes, and is different in other countries!

Ugh, okay, I've registered the fact that it is quite upsetting to hear a band you like being called (especially in praise) a derogatory term. I would hope people would take note of this and not act like children about their precious word being taken away from them.

In music news, for those who are getting into Follakzoid I would recommend the first record - I didn't vote for this one as it just didn't grab me as much, but they're pretty similar.

I don't like that term being used to describe music I like (it came up in the tracks poll thread iirc), I'd be thrilled if people here stopped using it.

whenever i think of that word i think of this thread: the snorg girl looks crazy

Actually, in America, Follakzoid....

pumped to see follakzoid here

I can see where emil.y is coming from. I once heard a band's sound described as "spastic funk", and even I winced.

Huh, there's a whole Wikipedia page documenting how the term "spaz" is considered much more offensive in UK than in US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic

Follakzoid album is nice 'not really concentrating on what's going on' music. I mean that in the nicest way. Lex is right, perfect if you want to focus your mind on something other than music, but don't like eerie silences very much.
he was agreeing with me! good old invisible me.

anyway, super weird that people are all into arctic monkeys?!

Just catching up on the list.

Ciara - This for me is like most of her other albums, good but not great. Think I could make a brilliant 20 track playlist of hers and be happy with that. Livin' It Up is up there with C.R.U.S.H and Echo as one of my favourite songs she's done.

K. Michelle - I only played this once when going through a bunch of the nominated albums last month. I liked it but really couldn't get past how amazing V.S.O.P. was. Need to go back to it and check out the songs mentioned on this thread.

Arctic Monkeys - I like a decent amount of British indie but this band make me feel like Lex feels about all male indie bands. I've never understood the appeal of them in the slightest. I heard them describing it as a hip hop record before it came out then I heard the singles which were the same old thing just slowed down a little. Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High sounds like a poor attempt at a Pet Shop Boys song title.

anyway, super weird that people are all into arctic monkeys?!

fwiw that only really lasted 5 songs for me but I'd still go back to the first two on the album

oh dear, these Lorde bonus tracks are... something else

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe (270 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote)
76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll (270 points, 11 votes)
75 MELT-BANANA Fetch (272 points, 10 votes)
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River (273 points, 9 votes)
73 LORDE Pure Heroine (276 points, 11 votes)
72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin (282 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
71 FÖLLAKZOID II (284 points, 9 votes)
70 GORGUTS Colored Sands (286 points, 8 votes)
(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me (295 points, 10 votes)
(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind (295 points, 10 votes)
67 f(x) Pink Tape (300 points, 8 votes)
66 DANNY BROWN Old (300 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote)
65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor (301 points, 11 votes)
64 CIARA Ciara (308 points, 13 votes)
63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold (308 points, 13 votes, 1 first place vote)
62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul
61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM (311 points, 11 votes)

I would have voted for the Parquet Courts album but isnt it a 2012 release?

discoveries
- the föllakzoid album, which really makes me think of neu!
- the title track of the cut copy album which makes me think of the good old baggy madchester days

i didnt really discover anything new in this batch but it did get me to listen to julianna barwick again which is nice

lol "pay my bills" is something else

okay I was starting to feel a full-on groundswell of hatred for Lorde thanks to the extended version but "Biting Down" is actually really, really cool and makes up for a lot of the nonsense that preceded it

Voted for: Föllakzoid, that's it I think
Happy to see: Julianna Barwick, f(x), Kelela
Haven't heard but will investigate further: Bill Callahan, K Michelle

Parquet Courts was released in 2012 but on a very small label and was reissued in 2013 which is when most people heard it.

Hot dang! (XP, also first-listening to 'Pay My Bills')

I kind of get the hip-hop feel from some of the songs on the Arctic Monkeys album. Songs like "One for the Road" and "Arabella" do remind me of "2001"-era Dr Dre at points.

i also want to fuck melt banana

― just (Matt P), Monday, January 27, 2014 10:14 PM

If I'd made this statement, I'd have been torn to pieces. Just sayin' like.

omg coochie symphony is totally millie jacksonesque

Fall Out Boy/Arctic Monkeys: Hey this sucks

nah branners u wdnt have. & having seen them live i have felt the incontrovertible feeling that the lead singer is extremely attractive (as well as awesomely talented)

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls9wmut7xy1r3pkjeo1_500.gif

they just scored their first #1 on the modern rock chart (whatever that means) and their show here this week is sold out.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 27, 2014 4:14 PM (41 seconds ago) Bookmark

this is because of a car commercial tbf

― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, January 27, 2014 4:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is not really true, btw, US radio loves the shit out of that song.

happy to see the K. Michelle place, thx for the props on my blurb y'all

xp -- is that the cuet vampire weekend guy, Alfie?

is that a gene vincent costume?

http://media.giphy.com/media/CfzbVsMs4EuBi/giphy.gif

i also want to fuck melt banana
― just (Matt P), Monday, January 27, 2014 10:14 PM

If I'd made this statement, I'd have been torn to pieces. Just sayin' like.

― these birches is awful (Branwell Bell), Monday, January 27, 2014 10:49 PM (4 minutes ago)

I assumed it was "I want to fuck the music" rather than the people, but I will go with "oh fuck off you terrible cunt" if it is in fact the latter. Also there was a pretty gross Lorde looks post upthread too. As I said, I'm a little behind on this thread.

I am completely mystified by Alfred's taste in men.

read the last posted gif caption

he looks like the actors from 80s teen movies I swooned over when I was in junior high/high school.

it was a joke about the word "annoying"

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe (270 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote) - nothing can top the episode of 'my so-called life' where she plays a homeless teen angel but im sure this is good
76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll (270 points, 11 votes) - havent heard
75 MELT-BANANA Fetch (272 points, 10 votes) - matt groening rocks out
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River (273 points, 9 votes) - i didnt like this that much, probably because its really mediocre
73 LORDE Pure Heroine (276 points, 11 votes) - have never heard lordes music, cool that she gave ppl a reason to blog tho
72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin (282 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote) - great live band, always have a blast at their shows, would never listen to them outside that context though
71 FÖLLAKZOID II (284 points, 9 votes) - i bought this one day on impulse and its still sitting in the shrinkwrap on my floor
70 GORGUTS Colored Sands (286 points, 8 votes) - havent no idea what this is
(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me (295 points, 10 votes) - cancerous
(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind (295 points, 10 votes) - its weird when bands keep existing
67 f(x) Pink Tape (300 points, 8 votes) - best record so far, lots of fun
66 DANNY BROWN Old (300 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote) - whoever said this was a really good record that he had no interest in listening to, well i feel that
65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor (301 points, 11 votes) - havent heard
64 CIARA Ciara (308 points, 13 votes) - havent heard
63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold (308 points, 13 votes, 1 first place vote) - not a 2013 record
62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul - havent heard would like to though
61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM (311 points, 11 votes) - lol of course

i'd do a run down but so far the list's been made up of things i've had a cursory listen to over the year but figured i'd come back. i think parquet courts were the only things i voted for so far. f(x) is sounding good. surprised i haven't heard gorguts' album but i tried one out years and years ago and found the guy's voice just a little too hoarse and hollow. maybe that will change. i still don't get factory floor although i have a sneaking suspicion they could one day become my favourite band for some reason. the danny brown album is great. follakzoid is very pleasant.

nothing can top the episode of 'my so-called life' where she plays a homeless teen angel but im sure this is good

lol

parquet courts was 2012...i totally would've voted for it this yr. it got big-ish and got a re-press this...spring? anywho.

bill callahan -- way too low. album sounds gorgeous & the lyrics have really snuck up on me lately. "ride my arrow" and "small plane" are stuck in my mind right now, but i really don't think there's a weak link in the record. and yes, that includes all the lilting flute sounds.

Oh, yeah! f(x)!!! So happy, and surprised. Such an incredible album,

forgot about that follakzoid, but it is great. worthy of listening for anyone who voted in the NEU! poll. just remembered i need to snag a copy of it still. couldn't get into thee oh sees record this year, and have been utterly bored with any/all arctic monkeys i've heard. also thought that cut copy record, while enjoyable, was probably their weakest effort. the less words wasted on FOB, the better. i forgot melt banana existed -- hoping a used copy comes through the store so i can snag a listen/dismay and/or wig-out some chilled-out record shoppers.

Oh, yeah! f(x)!!! So happy, and surprised. Such an incredible album,

― Frederik B, Monday, January 27, 2014 11:28 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

am discovering this right now. it's fucking amazing. if all pop was this good I swear ILX wouldn't have heard a peep of dissent from me about pop music ever :D

wtf at all the arctic monkeys hate upthread.

then again, I don't really like this album much anymore, mostly because I absolutely burned myself out on the record when it came out.

x-post: OTM! Fell in love with Airplane, then was completely blown away by the album. Every song - except for Goodbye Summer, imo - is incredible.

That entire Ciara album is so solid!! I'm surprised it's this low!

Also Factory Floor at first seemed like one of those collections of songs that didn't function all that engagingly as a singular album but then a few months later I listened to it a lot more and it grew on me. But it's still not in the same league as the Daniel Avery or Jon Hopkins albums.

I think I have 5 definites still to come but I'm kinda unsure about another 5. 4 I hoped might wont now I think.
If any of those 5 "maybes" do place it will be tomorrow but I'd be surprised if it was more than 2. Looking forward to the rundown. I always enjoy the lower part of the poll more than the upper. Wish it was a top 100.

Can't believe that there's a band called Freakazoid

Thrilled to see f(x) place

FYI while f(x) has the attention of ILM this is the song that got me into f(x) and made them stand out from the rest of the k-pop sphere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ZrPFMr_nY

It sounds maybe a bit dated but it is also a 100% certified and approved (*dusts off an appropriate ILM buzzword of yesteryear*) banger

Whoops sorry for the embed

nice, I like it more than the one Lamp linked

here's our rundown, plz note my wife is generally not a poptimist:

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe - ooh pretty soundtrack music, reminds me of Grouper??
76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll - emo sure has gotten fancy, not a bad thing imo. nice high notes on the vocals!
75 MELT-BANANA Fetch - love this but wish they would change it up a bit more radically, bands like this fall into the always-making-the-same-album trap sometimes, it helps that this band is really good
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River - i'll check the youtube… 6 1/2 mins?!? OK, it sounds good. I can appreciate this guy and I like this a lot more than previous stuff. my wife informs me that she likes his voice. my issue w/ him is that he seems like a version of Nick Cave who is too cool and/or pensive to ever get really angry,
73 LORDE Pure Heroine - stripped down production makes this works, dig the hit, couldn't make it through Buzz Season
72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin - Lamp mostly OTM, see also "making the same album" issue, which I don't have an issue with aesthetically but it can induce listener fatigue/apathy if its a genre you aren't really invested in
71 FÖLLAKZOID II - I already have a bunch of Neu and F/i and Wooden Shjips albums but this is good, would buy used
70 GORGUTS Colored Sands - not a metal fan, gave up about 90 seconds in
(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me - two songs in & this is boring.
(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind - 30 seconds in - "hey this is awesome", 45 seconds in "OMG his voice, yuck". L: "his torpy (sic) voice has got to go:"
67 f(x) Pink Tape - 10 seconds in L is shaking her head and moaning, but I can see it at a party for sure. 2 mins in and she refuses to listen to any more
66 DANNY BROWN Old - we both preferred this to f(x), nice car jams
65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor - 2 minutes in, l: "so far so good, as long as they don't start singing". wow "Two Different Ways" REALLY sounds like Chris & Cosey
64 CIARA Ciara - no thanks, Laurie says it reminds her of D'Angelo, lol wife tom
63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold - the shorter songs are butter but this isn't even close to best rec of the year and I am tired of defending it, it is almost a guilty pleasure in a 90's revivalism kinda way, hate to say.
62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul - L: "she's got some style, now this one I like" - I dig the piano parts
61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM (311 points, 11 votes) - this dude reminds me of some classic rock singer. L: "there's some weird under-tune going on, but he's trying to tell to much of astray". skipping ahead, this is OK but I can;t see coming back to it. I bet this guy has a Bolan poster on his wall.

Callahan's sensibility is much closer to Cohen (as discussed above) than Cave. Anger's def not his thing, but neither is aimless pensiveness.

whoops that should be "lol wife otm"

Nothing Ciara has done sounds remotely like D'Angelo

yeah not even close

wife not so tom after all

Follakzoid is so much better than fuckin Wooden Shjips tho

Ok, everyone else is doing it so I guess I should also share my first impressions even though noone should care about them.

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe - I know Wire loves her but I've never been able to listen to any of her records, at first listen this sounds really good but I prefer Grouper myself. I'm glad it's on the list.
76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll - it's so weird to see them over here, I had no idea ILM cared about them. Turns out the only song I knew from the album is Light Em Up by hearing it on the radio and I swear I thought it was sung by either One Direction or Big Time Rush. At any rate I'm pretty sure they share the same listener demographic.
75 MELT-BANANA Fetch - I have to be in a very particular mood to tolerate this kind of music but I deeply regret not giving them any vote in here or the tracks poll.
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River - This is the sort of album that I think I'm still too young to appreciate. Love the production but as I've said not really my cup of tea.
73 LORDE Pure Heroine - Didn't vote for it but I might be one of the few people in here who likes her.
72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin - I will always love whatever they release even if it starts to sound homogenic by this point.
71 FÖLLAKZOID II - I think this might be the only record I voted for from this first batch.
70 GORGUTS Colored Sands - not much of a death metal fan. Sorry.
(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me - the production sounds nice in several of these but I can't find anything good to say about the vocals and the way the mixed them in.
(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind - I had no idea they released anything this year. I loved what they were doing 14 years ago. Not really feeling this.
67 f(x) Pink Tape - This makes me feel disoriented.
66 DANNY BROWN Old - This is good, you could remove the filler songs for a better album.
65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor -Not really in the mood to listen to this right now but it sounds like something I love, Saving it for later.
64 CIARA Ciara - Not really following her story but I like her unreleased demos like Promise (was it properly released somewhere?) much better than this.
63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold - This is for me the exact opposite of Bill Callahan; I'm too old for this shit. I feel like I might have loved it 3 or 5 years ago or so, nowadays not so much.
62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul - L: lol at that cover. Not really my style but it sounds interesting.
61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM (311 points, 11 votes) - I don't mind them but I had no idea ILM cared at all about them.

just found the internet again, rad list so far
v. happy to see f(x), k michelle, factory floor & parquet courts from last night
still need to listen to the ciara album

Missed the start of the roll-out y'day.

Nice to see a load of albums unfamiliar to me.

Checked out
Thee Oh Sees - Started v well, meandered to no purpose then ended with 'Minotaur' which I liked a lot.

K Michelle - tried, but I think I'm condemned to only enjoy the 'wrong' kind of r'n'b. Too much singing for my tastes.

Melt Banana - fun enough while I was listening but doubt I'll ever listen again.

Nice to see Danny Brown here, although I much prefer 'XXX'.

Also yay for f(x)!!

Too much singing for my tastes.

!!!

or -_-

Too many notes

i assume you mean too much melisma? not heard the record tbh

too much ability, too much technique, too much power

Too much drumming

Yeah, that's a fair enough reaction Lex. Although I'm quite enjoying 'VSOP' as I type this. I think generally I'm more receptive to singers who don't sing quite so well? That probably makes no sense. I assume K Michelle is considered to have a good voice?

too much ability, too much technique, too much power

― lex pretend, Tuesday, January 28, 2014 12:27 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is actually true!!

why are those things turn-offs?!

i don't want to be all "technique is everything" b/c i've always repped for tons of "weak-voiced" singers from janet to cassie, not just the powerhouse vocalists but as you're probably aware there's been a huge shift in critical attitudes to r&b to rewarding the weaker-voiced, pliable types, with artists who can really SANG getting more marginalised. it seems perverse, especially in the r&b context.

it's popification i guess, and probably ties in with a shift in critical focus towards producers/writers

I've listened to Arctic Monkeys and K Michelle this morning. I'd never listened to Arctic Monkeys before, just stayed away because of their rep. I agree with DJP in that I could kinda get into it for a few minutes, but then it sorta meandered into medicore.

The K Michelle is great. Modern R&B is one of those genres I have always had a hard time getting into, but you can tell she's awesome at her deal. I can see coming back to this a couple times.

because white hipster boys are afraid of strong women

― lex pretend

We all gave lex some shit for this strawman in the Tracks thread but man it looks like the strawman just got real

How does a technically capable voice = a strong woman?

Please, elucidate for me.

Strong diaphragm!

oh fuck off dayo, i'm not interested in interacting with someone constantly intent on zinging me

How does a technically capable voice = a strong woman?

Please, elucidate for me.

not going to get into this either really. it doesn't, does that make you happy? but the context is a discourse where powerhouse virtuosos are marginalised in favour of those whose voices are more suited to being pliable tools for electronic producers to manipulate.

Lex, you make fair points. I'm not disagreeing with you. I can't really defend my position. I'm just not sure I can unpick a personal preference. I mean I just enjoy hearing, say Future, singing more than I do Mariah Carey or Sean Ryder more than R Kelly. I can't justify it, it just is. Their voices are more pleasing to me.

xp

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/IoY0Qa0zU0A/hqdefault.jpg

Lex, wasn't really directed at you but rather dayo's comment. Though yeah, it was kind of what I was getting at on the other thread, perhaps less relevant now.

And I just realised I picked 2 dudes as my vocal preferences examples. Whoops. Okay female vocals I especially enjoy - Kim Deal, Courtney Love, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey (except her vocals on the last album) Lana Del Rey. Are any of them technically good?

I guess the question is do you enjoy anyone who is?

emil.y that was just the version of lex's post that everybody was quoting on the Tracks thread

I realize that he later amended it to say strong voices instead

Appreciate you coming around on the Sky Ferreira / Suicide angle btw

(they're all good at what they do)

xpost

xposts

i don't want to be all "technique is everything" b/c i've always repped for tons of "weak-voiced" singers from janet to cassie, not just the powerhouse vocalists but as you're probably aware there's been a huge shift in critical attitudes to r&b to rewarding the weaker-voiced, pliable types, with artists who can really SANG getting more marginalised. it seems perverse, especially in the r&b context.

it's just the angle you approach it from i guess. modern rock, especially indie, has a tradition of championing the underdog. Think there's a sort of sociological fear of wielding one's abilities - it's considered almost a vulgar display of power if you emote too much, if you try too hard. So powerful singing voices are often considered to be too immodest, too bombastic, too overtly in-your-face to be deemed suitable or palatable for that kind of music. If your tastes are more skewed to alt/indie music, you'll be used to hearing amateurish vocalists and will be drawn-in by the charm inherent in a less-than-perfect vocal take. Someone like Stephen Malkmus could be considered the apotheosis of this, and you're either going to love his slacker drawl or hate it with a passion. R'n'B is possibly the opposite of this - the voice is everything, is the MVP in all its various components. Without a good, strong, vocal it would be dreadful, unparseable, to those who appreciate that style for its inherent traits.

has a tradition of championing the underdog.

It's not really this so much as so many bands have singers who don't have pipes yet find ways to emote anyway

Think there's a sort of sociological fear of wielding one's abilities - it's considered almost a vulgar display of power if you emote too much, if you try too hard.

dog latin is right in that it's widely considered a death trap in indie if you sing like Phil Anselmo

dog latin - yeah i'm aware of that approach; i'm actually talking about which r&b singers in 2013 were critically favoured, not about indie fans' reservations. there might be a touch of what you describe going on but i suspect it's a lot more to do with r&b's increased standing among electronic producers, who see the voice as subsidiary to the production. and the combination of r&b with dance pushes a lot of people's "r&b has to be futurist to be good" buttons...which ends up sidelining the powerhouses who have traditionally been the backbone of the genre

alfred otm

And I just realised I picked 2 dudes as my vocal preferences examples. Whoops. Okay female vocals I especially enjoy - Kim Deal, Courtney Love, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey (except her vocals on the last album) Lana Del Rey. Are any of them technically good?

PJ Harvey and Tori Amos, definitely

Are we not considering auto-tune "electronic manipulation"?

Auto tune only makes the problem worse; you can literally take any old person* and twist their vocals into whatever key you need them to be in, which greatly downgrades the importance of having someone who can sing the notes with any degree of accuracy.

* except Farrah Abraham

Thanks for weighing in DJP. It's an area I'm completely unqualified to determine and I bow down to your many years of choir experience.

My favourite singer of all time is Robert Smith and I know his voice isn't for everyone but I'm hesitantly sure that he can sing.

Farrah Abraham isn't old.

But with any vocal performance I'm obviously probably not getting the same thing out of it that someone like DJP does/can. Also a whole host of things that might really bother him will just fly over the top of my ears.

DJP has claimed iirc that Robert Smith is technically one of the greatest singers in rock history

really? robert smith is like my default singing voice really. kevin rowlands sounds technically better than smith.

kevin keegan sounds technically better than smith

Robert Smith is definitely a case of too much singing. Like thirty years too much imo.

does 2014 represent some sorta Cure nadir, see them dissed allova the place

Oh god I have such PINIONS here (not on Robert Smith, on "strong vocalists") but after 14 years, I know better than to air them on ILM.

Other than a handful of tracks I always found them tedious. Led to a big spat with my SO when I snuck away from a THREE HOUR live set at a festival to go and watch Mayhem on another stage.

oh that's a tough clash

not going to get into this either really. it doesn't, does that make you happy? but the context is a discourse where powerhouse virtuosos are marginalised in favour of those whose voices are more suited to being pliable tools for electronic producers to manipulate.

I would be surprised if your favourite powerhouse virtuosos are not supercharged by manipulation, wouldn't go so far as to attribute their powerhouse-status solely to their producers, but there's definitely a correlation

(Tori Amos + PJ Harvey OTM)

The acts I'm not familiar with, I have based my opinions on sampling a few tracks

JULIANA BARWICK - Boring. Sounds like that Beiber slowed down 800% thing but not as good.
FALL OUT BOY - Always had a soft spot but never been a full on fan. The singles are pretty good, will probably check out the whole thing at some point.
MELT-BANANA - Not the kind of thing I'd generally listen to, but I can definitely see what's good and interesting about this. Made more sense when I realised they are Japanese.
BILL CALAHAN - Not my kind of thing at all.
LORDE - Royals is certainly a pretty tune.
THE OH SEES - Never been a fan of the wimpy floaty vocals over hardish rock thing. There are some nice riffs in here though.
FOLLAKZOID - Don't often have the patience for this kind of slow-building shit. Sure it's good live/really stoned.
GORGUTS - nice to see here. Gives me hope that Carcass will place.
KELALA - Listened to this the other day and really enjoyed it. Solid vocals and songwriting, the real star is the production.
CUT COPY - Got no beef with the groovy acid house beats, but the singing is horrid.
f(X) - K pop huh? This first song is infectious and a bit mad, I like it.
DANNY BROWN - Seems like a laugh
FACTORY FLOOR - Feels like I'm sober, in a bad mood and have mistakenly wandered into a basement rave in Dalston.
CIARA - Liked a few of her early tunes, pretty indifferent now.
PARQUET COURTS - So out of my realm that I don't really feel qualified to comment.
K MICHELLE - Fine. Her vocals seem a bit lacking in subtlety.
ARTIC MONKEYS - I don't mind the Artic Monkeys.

So of the stuff I haven't heard before the East Asians are winning.

does 2014 represent some sorta Cure nadir, see them dissed allova the plac

people have been dissing Robert Smith's voice since forever

the trax thread featured a Wilco dis that was widely (and hilariously) misread as a Cure dis.

criticizing k michelle for lack of subtlety seems to be missing the point somewhat

Ha, probably. I only listened to two songs.

Föllakzoid sounded okay to me but modern reverent Krautrock homage is just a sound I'm bored of by this point, it's filed away under "this is good but there's no way I need another record that sounds like this".

yeah id agree with that. its good but not exactly essential.

FACTORY FLOOR - Feels like I'm sober, in a bad mood and have mistakenly wandered into a basement rave in Dalston.

A+++++++ :-D

i love the factory floor rekkid. so relentless and intense.

sleeve OTM re: Chris & Cosey namechecking

Nothing Ciara has done sounds remotely like D'Angelo

― raggett neds of your summer dress (The Reverend), Monday, January 27, 2014 9:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah not even close

― Spottie, Monday, January 27, 2014 9:35 PM (Yesterday)

you goofball pedants, this is like somebody telling me that Chris and Cosey sounds like TG (which I would, of course, vehemently refute). you're so close to your genre of choice that you can't see how people with no familiarity *at all* view it. I was impressed that my wife knew the name of any famous post-70's R&B singers at all, and slow jams are slow jams to the general public.

standby

http://i.imgur.com/wRhgSCv.jpg?1

60 DONATO DOZZY Plays Bee Mask (311 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

^^^ good album

i am intrigued

1st track is very pretty, I was surprised when the album got more intense later on

Wow, surprised to see this make it. This was a very late addition to my list. Beautiful album.

So it's a set of remixes of a 12" by Bee Mask from 2012 (iirc), turning gnarly electronica into blissed-out electronica (iirc). I voted for it but haven't listened in a while...gonna go do that now.

it's okay, nothing special. kind of got the follakzoid factor in that it's good but I can't get super excited by it. Think i prefer Beemask on his own really.

*15 minute break because i'm gonna go eat breakfast*

First/only thing I've heard from Dozzy, I know people liked that Voices From the Lake album but I never got round to checking it out.

The last remix track on here is stunningly gorgeous.

i have never heard of this. i like the cover tho.

loved VFTL and some donato dozzy singles from the heyday of mnml but saw mixed reviews of this and wasn't really enthused by the concept so never checked it out...expect i'll like it fine if i do but that individual youtubes might not be the point

I havent heard this. Is Dizzy involved with Voices From The Lake? That album never did much for me tbh.

I like it more than the Voices From the Lake album. It's way more accessible, probably down to it being half an hour shorter.

http://i.imgur.com/lVXHEMw.jpg?1

59 JOHN GRANT Pale Green Ghosts (315 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

WAY TOO FUCKING LOW

Loving this. Just busted out some Emeralds this morning. Seems like this would fit really well with that.

by which I mean the damn bee thing, not the beardo.

my fav d. dozzy in dancefloor mode was always "gol", from...wow, 2007 :/

whoa this is way lower than i expected for john grant!!

I know we've moved on, but since everyone loves/hates these rundowns:

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe - floaty, hazy, drifty. Nice, but not enough to hold my attention.
76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll - is this prog emo? I appreciate their verve, but I can't say that I wholeheartedly love this
75 MELT-BANANA Fetch - this is growing on me. it may still be too insane to be enjoyable, kind of like Deerhoof minus the song craft, but I'll keep checking it out.
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River - I really, really need to get this
73 LORDE Pure Heroine - I kind of regret voting for this because my interest in it has waned considerably
72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin - a nice twist on the garage formula, just original enough to keep me listening.
71 FÖLLAKZOID II - makes good background music, I like the wobbly sense of time
70 GORGUTS Colored Sands - need to give these guys a second listen, not sure if I can get past the vocals because I'm a metal wimp
(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me - eh, not enough there for me
(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind - haven't heard, probably will skip
67 f(x) Pink Tape - lots of nice production touches and interesting chord changes.
66 DANNY BROWN Old - haven't heard yet
65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor - this is my shit
64 CIARA Ciara - haven't heard
63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold - I had this on my playlist for a while and just couldn't get with it, the whole Pavement/slacker vibe is pretty far from where I'm at these days
62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul - I like the raunchy tracks, she knows how to get straight to the point!
61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM - always frustrated when bands downshift into midtempo groove mode

Pale Green Ghosts - I really need to take more time over it. Wasn't sure about the swipey r'n'b pastiches, but Glacier is a track of the year for me, and the recent video is really something.

some nice chocolate lime vibes going with that album cover

EVERYONE LISTEN TO THE JOHN GRANT ALBUM RIGHT NOW, IT'S FUCKING INCREDIBLE

SHAME ON ALL OF YOU

xp: "swipey r'n'b pastiches" <--- what the hell are you talking about here

I mean, are we actually now at a point where people hear a drum beat and go "oh, r'n'b" because that's the only way that comment makes any kind of sense to me

pale green ghosts is def the album of 2013 i feel like i didn't give enough of a chance. DL got me into queen of denmark from a previous poll (when it...didn't place iirc?) and it hit me really hard; i thought pale green ghosts was awkward and inconsistent in comparison (the electro touches...nahhhh). but i think my life was overly busy and hectic when it came out and i didn't even spend enough time with its high points. will rectify!

he still has an incredible voice tho

I like the Dozzy record just fine but there was a bunch of other electronic records this year that I ended up loving a lot more. Re-listening now though and it does sound great.

iirc queen of denmark did very well for guardian writers eoy lists
think that's where i first heard of him anyway

lex, were you pro-, anti-, or indifferent to Gus Gus? That's where the electro touches came from (and honestly I think they work very, very well)

(like, better than most of the recent Gus Gus albums, which are good but not as good as the John Grant album)

great album cover

xpost I havent heard this album but the last one was boring hoary old Mojo-reader bait imo. It's odd to see people like lex and dan boosting singer-songwritery stuff. I'll check it out.

Wow, the title track from Pale Green Ghosts is extraordinary. Will investigate further.

lex, were you pro-, anti-, or indifferent to Gus Gus? That's where the electro touches came from (and honestly I think they work very, very well)

i liked this is normal a lot back in the day but i don't think i've listened to it in a decade! and not even sure where my copy is any more

i don't have anything against the electro touches on PGG themselves - i just think they're an awkward fit for john grant's voice. but as i said, not enough time spent with it tbh

personal faves: title track, "GMF", "It Doesn't Matter To Him", "Why Don't You Love Me Anymore"