ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

Tedder is one of the chief architects of the very blocky strict measure for measure pop that dominates both top 40 and country radio that sounds like they just dragged and dropped songs into being using Logic. I won't get into it all here—in fact I may never get into it because it seems to go nowhere anytime I do—but it's a formula I don't like at all.

It sounds like you're saying "he writes pop songs using the rules for constructing a pop song", which I don't believe is what you're trying to say.

Well hey, "Chances Are" is some good old slow country too. I'm guess Lee Ann isn't beholden to the big pop country sound? Please don't betray me, album. I want to like you.

It sounds like you're saying "he writes pop songs using the rules for constructing a pop song", which I don't believe is what you're trying to say.

No, you're right. I may elaborate someday, but not now.

this song:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5_xgDDrvzo

No, you're right. I may elaborate someday, but not now.

I hope you do, and that when you do this baffled expression leaves my face

sometimes i want to like this kind of thing. maybe when i'm 55 and living in grand junction with a dog and gin.

1D are pretty approachable

lee ann womack record most devastating record of the year

excellent journalism from our j0rdan on that front:

http://rankings.gawker.com/the-dumb-faces-of-one-directions-four-ranked-1661231846

lmao love it

xps
It suits me as 41 yr old with a dog and a carton of Tesco wine, that song sounded really lovely and I need to dig more country really.

btw Noura Mint Seymali is ungodly good wow

i worked a concert recently and got to hear lee ann womack sing an emmylou harris song, she sounded gorgeous. haven't heard any of her singles in a while so i had kinda forgotten about her.

oh i dialed the album up on spotify, couldn't get past the jesus song tbr but the rest sounded aight. her voice is great.

Her 2008 album had a couple of bangers. Try "Solitary Thinkin'."

Really glad this list broke out of its ambient/Balearic/dreamy indie pattern in such style.

I reckon Q would be quite happy at beating Katy B and One Direction fwiw.

oh i dialed the album up on spotify, couldn't get past the jesus song tbr but the rest sounded aight. her voice is great.

jesus can you save me
from going crazy

http://i.imgur.com/OmwYt29.jpg

41 EX HEX Rips [380 points, 15 votes]

I love this record and this band. Shame it wasn't released until the fall as this is amazing summer driving music.

I still haven't gotten around to that one. Which is good because I CAN just wait until summer.

oh shit this rules

Yay! Does nothing particularly novel and has none of Mary Timony's standard magical fairy-dust but still manages to be a terrific record.

This had never clicked for me, but this afternoon it sounds WHOA MY GOODNESS.

yes to this

So far...

77 BABYMETAL Babymetal [236 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
76 CHER LLOYD Sorry I'm Late [239 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
75 MICA LEVI Under the Skin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [242 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
74 NOURA MINT SEYMALI Tzenni [243 points, 8 votes]
73 REAL ESTATE Atlas [254 points, 9 votes]
72 CALL SUPER Suzi Ecto [255 points, 11 votes]
71 STURGILL SIMPSON Metamodern Sounds in Country Music [256 points, 10 votes]
70 NINOS DU BRASIL Novos Mistérios [258 points, 9 votes]
69 OUGHT More Than Any Other Day [262 points, 7 votes]
68 WARPAINT Warpaint [262 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]
67 FUTURE Honest [262 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
66 KHUN NARIN Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band [263 points, 10 votes]
65 THEO PARRISH American Intelligence [267 points, 10 votes]
64 THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Brill Bruisers [269 points, 10 votes, 2 first place votes]
63 LEON VYNEHALL Music for the Uninvited [271 points, 13 votes]
62 DEAN BLUNT Black Metal [272 points, 9 votes]
61 FREDDIE GIBBS & MADLIB Piñata [275 points, 9 votes]

60 TUNE-YARDS Nikki Nack [278 points, 11 votes]
59 KELIS Food [281 points, 13 votes]
58 KASSEM MOSSE Workshop 19 [282 points, 13 votes]
57 BOTANIST VI: Flora [285 points, 10 votes]
56 STEVE GUNN Way Out Weather [286 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]
55 RONIKA Selectadisc [288 points, 10 votes]
54 MOODYMANN Moodymann [291 points, 12 votes]
53 SUN KIL MOON Benji [292 points, 9 votes]
52 FENNESZ Bécs [306 points, 12 votes]
51 A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN Atomos [309 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]
50 ALVVAYS Alvvays [314 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
49 GIGI MASIN Talk to the Sea [323 points, 9 votes, 2 first place votes]
48 WILD BEASTS Present Tense [326 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote]
47 KATY B Little Red [342 points, 16 votes]
46 YOUNG MARCO Biology [355 points, 15 votes]
45 LEWIS L'Amour [367 points, 11 votes]
44 ONE DIRECTION Four [372 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote]
43 DJ Q Ineffable [374 points, 17 votes]
42 LEE ANN WOMACK The Way I'm Livin' [380 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]
41 EX HEX Rips [380 points, 15 votes]

Did I vote for Ex Hex? don't remember, it was in the mix but might have been bumped. Anyway this is the first album to place that I've heard in full.

i kept trying to like that Ex Hex album and it just wasn't coalescing.

totally missed A Winged Victory placing! love it.

I don't know that it's the best thing Timony's done, but in the right mood...

ex hex album is lots of fun, but i don't know you how you write a song like "beast" and not just start singing "radio on" at the end or something

ok i got bored of ex hex, dj q next, don't know why i skipped over this before, it's excellent. reminds me there's a todd edwards album due this year i think.

the ex hex album is just really well constructed pop rock, in some ways it's more like a Cars record than Helium

It's 1979 in 2014.

"how you got that girl" is certainly more cars than anything timony's done before

every song sounds like a blurry snapshot of something else tho

xxp
Do you reckon Chris Forsyth will gatecrash the top 40 UMS?

he better

boring results today imo. Yesterday was way better.

Ninos and Noura still my faves

ex hex album is good though, don't mean to take anything away from it. reminds me of the fastbacks more than anything else.

xxp
Do you reckon Chris Forsyth will gatecrash the top 40 UMS?

― xelab, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 4:05 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it really should in terms of guitar rock in 2014
feeling bad i didn't vote in this poll cuz it might have made more of a difference

yeah you and tyler at least should have voted

I'll remind u both next year :)

Today's votes:

Kelis - initial reaction to this was "oh god yet another dull thing from Ninja Tune", but seeing her in July completely reframed the album for me and it's been in constant rotation ever since
Alvvays - was reticent with this b/c of double vs instead of double ewe but their charming melodies were irresistible
Katy B - probably only "Aaliyah" and "Emotions" are on a par with album 1 but this was maddeningly consistent and I think would've been a lot more popular with a different singles configuration
Young Marco - don't have anything profound to say about this - my fave techno of the year tho, insanely groovy

one direction - i appreciate their existence as a cultural phenomenon but the music isn't my style of pop at all. not that i've heard anything off this album - have their voices improved, are they less clumsy/rambunctious? i can't work out exactly what it is that made everyone who'd ignored their first three albums suddenly get into their music. they've all lost their looks imo

dj q - great album albeit one i felt like i should have gone back to a lot more than i did? like, i enjoyed it in a low-key way but it never turned into an addiction. "notice me" and the epic "through the night" are highlights

lee ann womack - another of my votes, this album floored me the first time i heard it. title track is incredible and "chances are" (some live performance is all that's on youtube) is so bleak

Yeah, you should have voted.

But I don't get the Chris Forsyth thing.

xposts

do you mean "inconsistent"?

my hopes for francis harris, mirel wagner, meshell ndegéocello, angaleena presley receding swiftly; my hopes for gangsta boo/la chat and fatima have receded :(

Love the Young Marco a lot but partly with Lex in that the album ultimately didn't hit me as hard as prior one-shots like "Darwin in Bahia" or "Later Than U Think".

I think in my head I had imagined he was on this kind of trajectory towards Power Spot meets Achso percussive delirium, which daydream the album even had the graciousness to partly fulfill, but not to the level of excess I had fantasised about.

Throw Spanners in there as another fantasised-about reference point.

xxxxps to Chris Forsyth peeps
I was wondering around some lonesome Victorian gardens in my local park on xmas day and quite drunk after quadruple brandies and constantly playing Yellow Square on repeat, it was the most transcendent experience I had listening to guitar in a long time.

I have heard much worse nu-country than LAW. Much worse. Timid approval & ongoing play

that sounds nice

Yeah, you should have voted.

But I don't get the Chris Forsyth thing.

xposts

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 4:14 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

have you ever listened to Chris Forsyth.....on weeeed?