ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

Less John, more Nancy - the solution was there all along.

i wasn't crazy about this album but it's still good & got a place on my ballot

love the twinkly 'i can't go for that' keyboards on 'running back to you'

i like nancy whang but we tend to overrate her tbh

Tried to get into this record--love its sound--but the songs never seemed to stick. I was at the mall a while back and heard Nancy Whang's voice and thought, "Ooooh, have to remember what Juan Maclean song this is." Shazaamed it to find out it was from that Classixx record last year.

Do we tho? xp

think it was rev who called "running back to you" nu-jones girls, which is very otm

i should listen to the jones girls in that case

weird to read you getting into biographical crit. If the songs themselves are wobbly and indeterminate that's legitimate criticism, but the songs create the persona imo. It makes sense to me that on a second album she would sound like the people for whom she's writing.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 29, 2015 5:49 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess what i'm saying is that charli xcx's songs all create the outline of a persona - in a very route-one way - but they don't fill it in to make it captivating, whether with bio or with non-bio.

yay juan maclean. "a simple design" is my second favourite after "a place called space"; i have v little to say about it apart from it's thoroughly enjoyable start to finish and has a perfect sense of timing

xp i think so. she's a good fit for the dfa sound/aesthetic but has pretty glaring weaknesses as a vocalist

NickB are you saying it's common for indie albums to be played by studio-level skilled musicians?

i don't think it's a particularly rare occurrence - i mean, there's still the owen pallett and st vincent albums to come in this poll for instance

i agree she is pretty and glares a lot

i should listen to the jones girls in that case

OTM!! start here imo

Favored genre, band longevity, and a lack of outright duds outweighs the paucity of hooks. Own and like In a Dream, but its a lesser album than The Future Will Come or Less than Human.

i like a lot of juan m music but not this album

This was my #1. Just great all the way through. I'd say it's their best. Both other albums I tend to skip around a lot, but there really are no weak points on this one.

Agreed.

Yeah I think it's their best too. Higher highs on The Future Will Come but overall found this a much more satisfying listen.

Who on earth are the Juan Mclean? I've never heard of them before.

You've been on ILM for how long and you've never seen anyone talk about The Juan Maclean?

i've long wondered whether dog latin's regular protestations of ignorance on these threads are trolling and finally now i know

What DL? I remember you from countless EOY polls, you must have heard them!

never underestimate dog latin

http://i.imgur.com/4jj0H8r.jpg

10 TODD TERJE It's Album Time [812 points, 30 votes, 1 first place vote]

it's album time, guys

Too low!

Nope never heard of them. Not once. are they like the Dandy Warhols?

oof it is NOT RIGHT that terje beat maclean!

doing your thing entirely as expected to the point of self-parody vs doing your thing entirely as expected to become your most essential

more like Get Back To Remixing time imo

oh shit i had a feeling it was album time

Surprised It's Album Time placed so high. It wasn't quite the record I was hoping for. the best moments had already been heard before, the Bryan Ferry song sounded uncannily like a Future Islands song but with all the urgency removed, and much of the rest was pastichey loungey music that grated on multiple listenings.

doing your thing entirely as expected to the point of self-parody vs doing your thing entirely as expected to become your most essential

sounds like you're describing 2 kinds of ilm eoy voters

I was excited about this around the time I first heard it, but I can't remember the last time I wanted to hear it since then. My life has no space for a Terje album...just singles/eps.

In all seriousness, the Juan Mclean pop up so regularly on EOY that I'm amazed I've never really bothered to check them out. I think it's the ubiquity of their albums, or maybe I heard one song years ago that did nothing for me.

dog latin:

Happy House - the Juan Maclean

listen, learn, love

Would have made a fine EP. Shaking my head that someone ranked it #1.

Surprised It's Album Time placed so high. It wasn't quite the record I was hoping for. the best moments had already been heard before, the Bryan Ferry song sounded uncannily like a Future Islands song but with all the urgency removed, and much of the rest was pastichey loungey music that grated on multiple listenings.

― pig∞n (dog latin), Thursday, January 29, 2015 1:16 PM (40 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

When I'm not in the right mood I agree, yet when I am I love this record.

Love this album, it was my summer soundtrack.

The worst bits of It's Album Time remind me of comedy big beat stuff like Bentley Rhythm Ace or Mr Scruff or something.

Sorry Sanpaku, this was my number one. I can see why some people were disappointed but it was everything I wanted it to be. Apart from Inspector Norse I don't think we'd already heard all the best songs.

The Terje was great fun, slipped off the end of my final ballot but it made me smile a lot last year.

ugh mr scruff

what is the 70s library tune that he liberally borrowed from for "Preben Goes to Acapulco"? b/c someone pointed that out to me once and I can't find the song anymore and "Preben Goes to Acapulco" is my jam

The (several) highs on the Terje album blow anything on the Juan Maclean album away but it's such a cut-and-shunt job taken as a whole, and I'm really not keen on the corny first third or so. The Juan Maclean is just consistently pretty good without getting anywhere near their peak

i thought 'preben' sounded a bit like 'solstice' by brian bennett

that's it! thank you

http://media.giphy.com/media/iGGHjzCxell2o/giphy.gif

I love the second half of Sucker. I often just start the album from 'Body of My Own'. Not so keen on 'Break The Rules' or 'Boom Clap' in the first half- feel like they ruin the flow a bit.

http://i.imgur.com/P9J8t64.jpg

9 ST. VINCENT St. Vincent [822 points, 28 votes, 1 first place vote]

"body of my own" is def as close as sucker gets to greatness