ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

http://i.imgur.com/xC27b0b.jpg

69 OUGHT More Than Any Other Day [262 points, 7 votes]

ok i've never even heard of this one

Yay! First one voted for. This Heat-ish post-punk dream poetry Americana.

now THIS is some "indie" I can get behind, have not ever heard of it before but I'm liking this first track, getting vague Thinking Fellers/Polvo vibes?

(from Canada, apparently...)

o yeah I can hear This Heat a bit as well, no wonder I like this

Yes! Ought are pretty much one of the only straight up rock bands I give a shit about this year and the album is outstanding. Perfect cross between Television, early Radiohead and maybe some early 90s rock thing. it would all be 'been there, done that' were it not for their urgency and the sincerity of the lyrics. Best song is Habit followed by the title track. Was really high on my ballot And one of my big regrets of 2014 was not seeing them live when they played London.

Ought also reminds me a little of Talking Heads, something to do with his voice and phrasing.

xp

I discovered them literally two nights after their London gig this year - definitely a disappointment to be rectified in 2015. Concur with those two best tracks, plus Around Again.

It's definitely a combobulation of lots of postpunk bands - the greyscale mood included, but if Ought had come out with this record in '79 it'd be up there with many of my favourites easily

ought album is gr8! not hearing so much direct television or radiohead influence, but yeah, maybe as the more traditional pop/rock element being squozen out through thinking fellers & this heat type art weirdo filters. pere ubu! or a more long-term interesting version of tyvek. not so fond of "habit" cuz i like the herk & jerkier punk stuff best.

It's hard to do austere rock without being boring. Ought manage it very well I think.

hadn't heard this, but this is super cool - hearing a little karate in this too maybe?

Thinking fellers wAs my abiding thought too after listening to this . Didn't really do all that much for me tbh but i'll give it another shot I guess

That line about 'stick your head underwater and breathe in deep' will never leave my psyche. What a disturbing thought.

On the other thread, someone asked about what records sound like Ninos du Brasil, and I was gonna mention the Sultan project by Burhan Öçal & Pete Namlook. Obviously the origin of their sound is completely different (Turkey instead of Brazil), but they have a similar combination of dense polyrhythmic percussion riffs and heavy synths (heavier than on Namlook's ambient albums), so NdB fans might enjoy that shit too.

Sturgill Simpson's record is very solid--I voted for it--but I preferred his last album. This one is a bit more ambitious (especially lyrically) but the last one was rawer and had a couple tracks that I think are better than anything here.

Regardless, do check him out. For how much this board was willing to cross over for Pistol Annies, Brandy Clark, and Kacey Musgraves, one would think Sturgill would be popular here; he pushes many of the same buttons, putting a modern spin on traditional sounds.

Suspect Ninos du Brasil would have placed a good bit higher if the album vote had happened after the track rollout.

Re: Sturgill Simpson

I hate the implication that I should somehow be ashamed for liking a crossover/token country album, sorry I don't have the time to do a deep dive into the genre of every kind of music that catches my attention

(But of course, I felt the same way country listeners did in 2012 as an R&B listener, when Channel Orange and Kaleidoscope Dream were the token R&B albums so who am I to whine)

Anyway, there's so many things about Sturgill Simpson's album that should turn me off - the aforementioned title, the "authenticity"-laden marketing, the drugs-as-salvation-but-really-love themes - but it's all executed so well to me that it's all moot

ninos du brasil just released a 12" on DFA last week fwiw

from what i heard it wasn't as compelling as the album but maybe check it out if you're a fan

xp Tuomas:

Good call. A similar project from this year (which I doubt will make the cut) was Clap! Clap! - Tayi Bebba, which is light, African, sampled, and footwork rather than the dark, Brazilian, live, and house of the Ninos du Brasil.

Ought record is sweet, really happy to see it here & look forward to spending much more time with it. Up there with Total Control in the year's best post-punk.

http://i.imgur.com/wKm9XqL.jpg

68 WARPAINT Warpaint [262 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]

when this came out it felt like it was going to be finishing much higher in the poll

hadn't heard this, but this is super cool - hearing a little karate in this too maybe?

― the portentous pepper (govern yourself accordingly), Monday, January 26, 2015 1:24 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i haven't formed an opinion on ought yet but karate was a great band

ought album is gr8! not hearing so much direct television or radiohead influence, but yeah, maybe as the more traditional pop/rock element being squozen out through thinking fellers & this heat type art weirdo filters. pere ubu! or a more long-term interesting version of tyvek. not so fond of "habit" cuz i like the herk & jerkier punk stuff best.

― A Severus of Snapes (contenderizer), Monday, January 26, 2015 1:21 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hmm this sounds nothing like tyvek or pere ubu and exactly like television + radiohead (+ talking heads) i think u need to update your rock vector space basis

great album tho. tim's vocals make it imo. it's like, with this post punk stuff there's the whole mythology of ian curtis *actually* having an epileptic fit or a seizure or whatever on stage, omg so punk right? but, like, the truth is no one actually wants to hear someone spazz out. it's uncomfortable and bad. but the flip of that is no one wants to hear someone sing sound like they're holding anything back or shy. and i think the vox on this album are really the perfect point between these two extremes

my #1, wooo

the Warpaint album owns super hard

IMO it's best digested as a whole but "Love Is To Die", "Biggy" and "Drive" all are immaculate songs in isolation

Remembered who this ought album really reminds me of: horny genius!

Speaking of the year's best post-punk...I didn't vote for Warpaint as I thought it was an album of highlights (pretty much the songs DJP lists! DRIVE omg), but I think it's still a very good record with some cracking ideas and performances!

hmm this sounds nothing like tyvek or pere ubu and exactly like television + radiohead (+ talking heads) i think u need to update your rock vector space basis

― flopson, Monday, 26 January 2015 18:33 (28 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can totally hear Pere Ubu in there!

I was initially lukewarm about the Warpaint album, but ended up listening to it a lot this year, it's great driving-at-night music

Warpaint expands on all of their strengths: dreamy flow, dubby undertow, and proggy but non-masturbatory excursions, but the album as a whole became wearying after repeated listens. I still return to highlights ("Love is to Die", "Disco//Very").

xps- yeah ok the least yelpy stuff though. tyvek is a major reach tho. whatstheirname, ummm parquet courts that one sounds like tyvek

Didn't vote for this, but definitely memorable from this year. El-p remix of Keep It Healthy is well worth checking out too.

One thing about the Warpaint album that puzzled me was picking "Disco/Very" as the single. I mean, it's catchy and pleasant but it seems like "Love Is To Die" is such a no-brainer introduction into what the album is all about and "Disco/Very" would work better/have more impact as a follow-on to it.

xp with Sanpaku, ha

Strongly recommend Drive for passing samplers btw

warpaint record came out early in the year but i never stopped listening to it at any point really. was in my top 5 iirc

It's a short album, I recommend just listening to it. The highlights work outside of context but within context they work with the albums sequence and achieve super-saiyen status.

Yeah it does work as a whole too

i think u need to update your rock vector space basis

― flopson, Monday, January 26, 2015 10:33 AM (8 minutes ago)

mebby so? but i hear what i hear. admit it's been a long (long) time since i last heard any early radiohead.

i listened to "gimme chocolate" and omg babymetal are quite something. i think i might actually like the instrumentation more than the vox. not sure i want to delve into a whole album, which might make me tire of them a bit quickly, but i'll be happy with this treasure of a single for a bit

spent a couple months with the warpaint album in heavy rotation, so much so that i eventually became a bit tired of it. haven't been tempted back, though i still dig certain tracks, esp "biggie" and "disco/very"

like the instrumentation more than the vox

May be an issue with Warpaint. These women (particularly the rhythm section) are super skilled, but perhaps too much character has been ironed out of the vocals.

Babymetal basically ended up as #26 on my ballot ;_;

should i be surprised that the metal fans itt seem to be pro-babymetal?

i'm watching their live dance routines for "gimme chocolate" now <3333

http://i.imgur.com/bSBV9mm.jpg

67 FUTURE Honest [262 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

i'm surprised because i'm a fan of NEITHER metal nor j-pop yet it turns out what i needed in each was...the other