ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

Save us, uh...me!

http://i.imgur.com/9i61HLi.jpg

36 AZEALIA BANKS Broke With Expensive Taste [408 points, 16 votes, 1 first place vote]

I probably have the Spoon records in tiers. Transference and They Want My Soul are pretty top-heavy, but then Who Makes Your Money and Inside Out can do some heavy lifting.
Telephono is one of the worst albums I have ever heard.

Gimme Fiction/Girls Can Tell/Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Transference/They Want My Soul
Kill The Moonlight
A Series of Sneaks
Telephono

I love BWET. Most of the stuff between 212 and BWET was pretty patchy so it was a such nice surprise how good this was.

This was my biggest shock of the year. I really didn't expect it to be so great or to even sound like it does.

*stuff RELEASED between 212 and BWET

interesting how much lower Azealia placed here than P&J (where it was #14).

I gave this a curiosity listen and was shocked by how much I liked it, considering I've thought everything she's done up to this point (including "212") was at best competent.

This was my biggest shock of the year.

co-sign

...but it made perfect music for when i was fixing my bike.
― UK Horseshit Cru (dog latin)

What kind of bike? Spoon is a good soundtrack for fixing an inexpensive 10-speed road bike. Not hip enough for a fixie, and not heavy enough for a chopper!

interesting how much lower Azealia placed here than P&J (where it was #14)

It polled much better stateside across the pond.

the one named after a can song

Out of idle curiosity, artists named or potentially named after Can songs:

Deadlock, Paperhouse, Mother Sky, Mushroom, Oh Yeah, Halleluwah, Aumgn, Peking O, Pinch, Sing Swan Song, Vitamin C, Soup, Spoon, Future Days, Spray, Moonshake, Bel Air, Gomorrha, Musette, Blue Bag, Splash, Chain Reaction, Hunters And Collectors, Vernal Equinox, Unfinished, Smoke, Flow Motion, Call Me, Fly By Night, Serpentine, November, Safe, Sodom, Ping Pong, Butterfly, Pnoom, Thief

I wasn't shocked so much as relieved.

What kind of bike? Spoon is a good soundtrack for fixing an inexpensive 10-speed road bike. Not hip enough for a fixie, and not heavy enough for a chopper!

― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 4:17 PM (35 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just a regular £300 mountain bike. It's kind of fucked now and needs a new chain and sprocket set. i dream of selling it and getting a cyclocross like sick mouthy has.

too low

interesting how much lower Azealia placed here than P&J (where it was #14).

― some dude, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 10:13 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this is startling

No it's not, considering how thoroughly most of the posting community here had written her off.

Telephono is one of the worst albums I have ever heard.

o_O (this is the only Spoon album I actually listen to or give a damn about)

It's weird to me holding KTM as a benchmark when they're so maddeningly devoted to an aesthetic that won't allow any but minor deviations. The trick is to like the aesthetic.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, January 28, 2015 9:51 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fwiw, I don't see KTM as the "benchmark," it's just my favorite. "Inside Out" might be the best song they've ever done, and it sounds nothing like KTM.

Agreed that BWET was far better than I was expecting but I can't see listening to it 5 years from now.

What is A. Banks' music? Descriptive eulogies pls

I was really into Azealia's EP a while back, but listening to the whole thing for the first time during a road trip was a tough slog. It's kind of busy with vocals relatively buried, didn't mesh well with the ambient noise of a car on the highway. I'd probably like it better on headphones.

obv I remember her shouting 'imma ruin you cunt' over and over but all else escapes

No it's not, considering how thoroughly most of the posting community here had written her off.

― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Wednesday, January 28, 2015 11:25 AM (54 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno if her tweets and whatnot were significantly more divisive here than they were among the staffs of the various publications that ranked her album higher

i was NOT expecting this album to be so good either. xp imago idk like really interesting hip hop/dance/current trend stuff? riyl idk kid sister or mia or i mean dude haven't you heard "212" by now jesus

tbh this album is delightfully all over the place musically. If you don't like the song you're hearing, the next one will be along any moment and you'll probably like that one.

although i suppose there was always a faction who just loved her since "212" and was unbothered or unaware of a lot of what transpired outside her records since then xp

never listened to it before cos she seems like an incredibly annoying person, but this is okay. the tracks seem to go on forever though in a bit of a disjointed way

is there anything else on it as good as chasing time?

it's definitely (for me anyway) an album to experience as a whole - a good listen for walking or driving where you can just marinate in it

Even if I'd heard BWET before I made my ballot, it wouldn't have made it; the simple fact that I wasn't wholly revulsed and actually enjoyed most of it puts it way above the rest of her material but doesn't displace my actual favorites from the past year.

tbh this album is delightfully all over the place musically. If you don't like the song you're hearing, the next one will be along any moment and you'll probably like that one.

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 10:29 AM (53 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Delightfully all over the place" / "Totally disjointed". You say potato, I say potato. It's no White Album, but again, it's better than I expected. The Araabmuzik track is a lot of fun.

http://i.imgur.com/4qZGLuL.jpg

35 TONI BRAXTON & BABYFACE Love, Marriage & Divorce [414 points, 14 votes]

This album is FANTASTIC

YESSSSS

Need to listen to this again. I only heard it once at the beginning of the year and really liked it but for some reason never went back to it.

i should've voted for this, it's really good

WOW

I still jam to this a couple times a week.

not heard this before, but this looks like an r'n'b album i could get into.

I have played "I Wish" so much this year, it's kind of ridiculous

I gushed about this album to my wife and she listened to it once and got super worried. After a ridiculous "are you trying to tell me something?" conversation she never went back to it.

I never got around to listening to this until the noms process was underway, and by the time I'd already pretty much cemented my ballot, but if I'd had more time with it I'm sure I'd have voted for it. Wonderful record.

Looool

Xp to DJP

I still need to hear this, nb I know next to nothing about either of them aside from "Un-Breaky My Heart" and a hand of Boyz II Men singles

uh, Un-Break obv

it's so good that even the extra track "Let's Do It" sounds like the greatest Ne-Yo song ever.

I gushed about this album to my wife and she listened to it once and got super worried. After a ridiculous "are you trying to tell me something?" conversation she never went back to it.

― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Wednesday, January 28, 2015 11:43 AM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yeah it can be a little awkward to be happily married but totally appreciate when someone makes a great breakup album

You can't break my heart
My un-breaky heart

so if you really wanna fight we can take it to the bed tonight

album is the perfect length too

my #2 P&J album

there's really nothing to say about this album except that it sounds exactly like you would want it to