ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

I found even the last Andy Stott album, which seemingly everyone liked, to be dreary as hell, so no way am I going near this one.

http://i.imgur.com/mOLc0q5.jpg

33 THE SOFT PINK TRUTH Why Do the Heathen Rage? [426 points, 16 votes]

Oh thank god, finally something I voted for! Great, great record.

Ah excellent!

yesss

pro-tip: this album is rly fun sex music

:D

am i hearing the opening lyrics of this album correctly?

"ISIS, the rainbow of saphire mysteries, you are the calling I hear from the wind in my bones"

Thank fuck for this, my #7, completely amazing work, an important album even

Fuck yeah! Loved that SPT album.

This has so many good moments. And yeah I know I said upthread the whole appropriation of black metal has been done a lot, but this gets it right. It treats the source material with respect while shining a light on all its nooks and crannies, not afraid to make fun of it either.
I'm not that familiar with the original tracks - most of them are obscure even for BM - but it did make me go back and check them out. The difference in interpretations is significantly marked.
anyway so many great moments: Let There Be Ebola Frost turned into a thunderous italo house tune being one of my faves.

ok lol just realized it is probably referring to Isis, not ISIS.

lmfao

lay down that pipe son

Love the Snap! sample on "Satanic Black Devotion".

there's a sentence that piques my interest.

I enjoyed that Andy Stott album more than anything I've heard of his in the past. It seemed somehow less dysphoric and more beautiful

I'm rapidly losing coherence, coming of a straight 24 hour stretch of work...

*off

Really liked this album, especially "Let There Be Ebola Frost."

http://i.imgur.com/h2nE71J.jpg

32 ARIEL PINK Pom Pom [430 points, 15 votes, 1 first place vote]

"put your number in my phone" is great - i was sure it was going to place on the singles poll

Do the familiar song titles on SPT mean that it's an album of covers?

megalol @ that SPT album cover

possibly the most metal album of the year, almost certainly the most fun of the year imo

xfuckingposts

Dan, yes, it's an album of black metal covers.

if you turn the ariel pink record the right way up, it's actually called 'wool wool'

take that sheeple

Also time to rep for the SPT statement of intent, which I think is pitched perfectly (unlike the shitty shitty politics of AP).

Disclaimer: Aesthetics and Politics are neither equivalent nor separable. Black metal fandom all too often entails a tacit endorsement or strategic looking-the-other-way with regards to the racist, anti-Semitic, sexist and homophobic bullshit politics that (still) pervade the scene, on behalf of either escapist fantasy talk, shaky invocations of art as a crypto-religious path to transcendence, or--the oldest cop out in the book--the quietist declaration that “I just like how it sounds.” Just as blasphemy both affirms and assaults the sacred powers it invokes and inverts, so too this record celebrates black metal and offers queer critique / mockery / profanation of its ideological morass in equal measure. Mixed emotions about a murky, diverse and self-differential scene are all very well, but, as Barack Obama is so fond of saying at press conferences just before legitimizing drone warfare, let’s be clear: No apologies, no excuses, and no escape clauses are hereby offered. Murderers are murderers. No safe space for fascist garbage. The Soft Pink Truth hereby abjures black metal homophobes, racists, and Nazis categorically and absolutely: MAY THIS CURSE BIND! Remember Magne Andreassen!

oh, thanks Emil.y, I'll have to check SPT out too

xps

Thank god Ariel Pink is out of the way.

I actually really liked about half of the Ariel Pink record, a first for me

ariel pink truth

good album imo

Great manifesto from Drew. What are Ariel Pink's shifty politics? My gf absolutely loves the album...

I loved the Ariel Pink album on first listen, but when I tried to listen to it a second time it didn't seem as good. "Put Your Number In My Phone" is a great single though!

lol, shitty, even

in interviews ariel pink comes across as a drugged out insane challoping "aren't i so un-PC" moron

^^^

imago: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/15/ariel-pink-pom-pom-4ad

I just got so sick of Ariel Pink being a garbage human being I couldn't be bothered to listen to him any more. Apparently it's a good record. I dunno, I like plenty of art made by assholes/evil people, but most of them aren't currently giving douchey interviews all the time.

xp imago, he's a misogynist twat, amongst other things. There's a strain of defence that says it's all 'arch' but ffs we don't need people spouting that crap whether they truly believe it or not.

Same.

Different.

the thing i'm most excited to hear from this late turn is the toni braxton babyface album

Are we not doing P&J/P4K placements?

They weren't supplied to me for albums, and also I didn't care enough to ask.

They'll be in the the stats wrap-up though.

JF otm

Listened to the Ariel Pink maybe 3/4 times. Way too Zappa. Lots of great ideas presented increasingly obnoxiously.

Im on a train with no headphones, im enjoying the convivial nature of the conversations in the row adjacent, a man is laughing on the phone, he has the laughter of just being happy rather than anything in particular being funny, its nice to listen to, a lifting of the spirt

I cant really imagine playing any of todays choices, the names seem like shops and carpet warehouses on the main road into the city, I see them all the time from the window, they've been there ever since I can remember, but the signs are still well looked after. I cant remember if ive ever been in or not, I must have done at some point, I think I know exactly what they are like, but actually I have no idea

I dunno, I feel like as it's more difficult to listen to the albums being listed than single tracks, it's more important for this poll to have the extra bits of info. On the other hand, it's a lot of work just doing it at all, so poll-runner's prerogative wins over my desire to have more stuff.

xp

http://i.imgur.com/9W9yayz.jpg

31 JESSIE WARE Tough Love [431 points, 17 votes, 1 first place vote]