ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

That it for you LJ? I have one more coming

top tenned the last two. My Young Thug-Migos-Rich Gang go-to thing remains The lag∞n Mixtape

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 29, 2015 10:18 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

being ilxes #1 young thug scholar is a lot of responsibility but also an honor thank you

I have 1 more - a very high vote from me too. Clue: he's an ILX poster, lol

worst development of this poll is imago letting us know every time he finds the lyrics of a rap song problematic

― flopson, Thursday, January 29, 2015 3:21 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree with this though, add in his commentary about country and it's just like...does he even realise the stereotypical ignorance rap and country fans have heard a million times before

oh no, I have 2 more. the other one is not an ILX poster but it is 2 rappers rollin' 2003 or w/e the h8rs call it

what is my commentary on country in this poll?

don't believe I've said anything except to praise LAW a bit and point out the similarities in album covers

Metal lyrics are just as bad as rap

and look at the lazy stereotyping metal gets too

also ty to 'some dude' for nominating (among certain other things) the Chumped album, because that's emerging as another great pop-punk/emo record from 2014, with another strong pan-album lyrical conceit

speaking of i thought the hotelier might place. lol guess not

metal lyrics are extremely good and cool

i agree with this though, add in his commentary about country and it's just like...does he even realise the stereotypical ignorance rap and country fans have heard a million times before
― lex pretend, Thursday, 29 January 2015 15:26 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And indie and metal but w/e

Oh too late

Metal lyrics are just as bad as rap
― sock (strychnine), Thursday, 29 January 2015 15:29 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Have you ever heard any metal or even taken notice of the lyrics? Or is this just an assumption?

anyway ftr i enjoy lex's contributions to these threads, his consistency of taste & his enthusiasm (not dissimilar to my own) so idk peace, you take your miranda lambert and i'll take my menace ruine

ignore strychnine

but maybe strychnine thinks rap lyrics are great

fuck/marry/kill

sun/kill/moon

also ftr i voted for 3 hip-hop trax and 3 hip-hop albums & would never generalise about it

can we talk abt against me! pls

(not dissimilar to my own)

-------------___________________________-------------

I genuinely thought Miranda was a lock for the top 10 given that both Kacey Musgraves and Pistol Annies placed there.

:)

Hey Imago I can save you ten minutes of scouring Rapgenius for things to be appalled by advising you just skip the YG album when it appears.

Musgraves rode non-country support, I think, and Pistol Annies I don't know.

PLATINUM was my #1 just ahead of Gazelle Twin. totally incredible record with only one moderately "eh" track (and yet it was the first single and the track a lot of year end voters rallied around.) her singing on this album is masterclass.

And I was the one who thought it was like 'beyonce'. ;)

Two coffins for sleep.
One for you, one for me.
We'll get there eventually.

In the dark of our graves our bodies will decay.
I wish you'd never change.

How lucky I ever was to see
the way that you smiled at me.
Your little moon face shining bright at me.
One day soon there'll be nothing left of you and me.

Two coffins for sleep.

Two coffins for sleep.

All the things I have yet to lose will someday be gone too.
Back into annihilation.
All things will fade, maybe it's better off that way.
I wish you'd stay with me.

How lucky I ever was to see
the way that you smiled at me.
Your little moon face shining bright at me.
One day soon there'll be nothing left of you and me.

Two coffins for sleep.

Two coffins for sleep.

feel like two or three folks who'd have put Platinum at #1 didn't vote maybe? alfred?

never listen to lex's opinions on rap music

― flopson, Thursday, January 29, 2015 3:21 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like most of the same rap music as you, dickhead

― lex pretend, Thursday, January 29, 2015 10:25 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya but we differ on crucial pts at which ppl should defer to me

lambert is surprisingly low yeah, though it was also surprisingly high on pazz & jop. despite being the progenitor, i found her a much more difficult sell to people who were converted by k musgraves and b clark - she's a much brasher, glitzier, camper proposition

i also though angaleena presley would be a lock for at least the lower reaches of the 77 so absolutely no pistol annies effect there :( such a great album though.

never listen to lex's opinions on rap music

― flopson, Thursday, January 29, 2015 3:21 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like most of the same rap music as you, dickhead

― lex pretend, Thursday, January 29, 2015 10:25 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya but we differ on crucial pts at which ppl should defer to me

― flopson, Thursday, January 29, 2015 3:42 PM (30 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

SOMEONE has to provide some anti-rich gang balance given praise gets lavished on them from all other quarters

Does someone?

maybe its just good tho think abt it

Rich Gang top ten for me, super-enjoyable throughout its approx 180 minute runtime.

I haven't listened to Platinum though I loved the first Pistol Annies album and have liked almost every solo single of hers. Same with LAW, except I only heard a couple recommendations scattrred throughout various threads. Sturgill missed my ballot by inches; dude had like three or four really great ideas but still tows the line a little too much for me and his druggie nihilism still feels a lot like status updates from an old high school friend who broke up from a LTR and began becoming obsessed with Hunter S Thompson and Bill Hicks and John Lennon. I'm holding out hope that a couple records down the road he might stumble into Up On the Sun territory from the opposite end if the country spectrum

The only other country album I was tempted to check out was from the other SS: Sunny Sweeney. The last album I heard from her wasn't necessarily front-to-back amazing but it had a couple songs--Staying's Worse than Leaving and From a Table Away--that I still am passionate about, esp the latter which is just super-smart in terms of songwriting...

...ummm I thought for some reason LJ was asking ME for my commentary on country music in this poll

I rank Kerosene third among her albums.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 29 January 2015 15:06 (26 minutes ago) Permalink

This is a tough one for me because I have played the first two albums countless times. It may take a few more years for Platinum to dethrone one of them. For me:

CEG = Kerosene > Platinum > Four the Record = Revolution

CEG is the better front-to-back album, but Kerosene has a couple of individual tracks that I think still stand as some of the best in her catalog. Four the Record and Revolution both have some tremendous material but needed to be edited down significantly; when I first saw the tracklist for Platinum, I thought "here we go again," but it somehow holds together, especially if you treat it as a double-record.

My #1 album of the year, marred by poor single choices.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 29, 2015 9:21 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If there's been a consistent injustice in Lambert's career, it's that some of her worst songs (relatively) have been some of her biggest hits. "Somethin' Bad" is borderline unlistenable--I skip it nearly every time. "Heart Like Mine", "Over You", "Automatic", and "We Were Us" were all top 5 country hits that are among my least favorite of her songs.

Very welcome it is, DAM!

man, I could use a coffin to sleep in right about now

my fave thing about the AM! record is the channeling of Ziggy Stardust that happens on "True Trans Soul Rebel", at least I hear glam-era Bowie in there

and the bridge of "Unconditional Love"

feel like two or three folks who'd have put Platinum at #1 didn't vote maybe? alfred?

― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little),

nope!

I haven't listened to Platinum though I loved the first Pistol Annies album and have liked almost every solo single of hers. Same with LAW, except I only heard a couple recommendations scattrred throughout various threads.

The only other country album I was tempted to check out was from the other SS: Sunny Sweeney.

― proggy went a-courtin' (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, January 29, 2015 9:46 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

These are all fantastic. The new SS is better than her first album, imo.

"somethin' bad" >>> "automatic". I don't hate them or anything, they're just sort of by the numbers

i disagree but i only listened to it twice xpost

possible i just felt the newer sunny sweeney record could've been edited down significantly

Four the Record and Revolution both have some tremendous material but needed to be edited down significantly

i think it wasn't so much the lack of good material on these albums that weighed them down as the lack of a distinctive overall thrust; they're comparable to post-2005 mary j blige in that of course there are some good songs, she's a legend, but they seem almost accidental and overall the effect is of someone who has grown out of an artistic mode they excelled at and isn't quite sure where to go next

platinum by contrast is such a complete and confident statement of who miranda lambert is as an artist in 2014

If there's been a consistent injustice in Lambert's career, it's that some of her worst songs (relatively) have been some of her biggest hits. "Somethin' Bad" is borderline unlistenable--I skip it nearly every time. "Heart Like Mine", "Over You", "Automatic", and "We Were Us" were all top 5 country hits that are among my least favorite of her songs.

When you put it like this, yeah, these songs look like depressing cases of treading water or adapting her to A/C sounds. But then there's "Kerosene," "The House That Built Me" (the real country chart breakthrough)," "Famous in a Small Town," "Mama's Broken Heart," "Only Prettier." She's a got a decent singles comp waiting.

got yr rap opinions folks step right up hot fresh rap opinions straight off the press

Those two- and three-minute nuggets at the start of Revolution ("Only Prettier," "Me and Your Cigarettes," "Maintain the Pain") is her best sequence ever imo

Downloaded the Against Me album on the strength of the two singles that placed in the track poll and it's great, though the ones that aren't about the core subject don't connect quite as much.

i definitely voted for the against me album and i still don't really have any idea how to talk about it

good albums, good songs