ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

did tay tay fan vote in the albums poll? lol

this was my no. 1 for so long, until another album got released last month.

"Two Weeks" is amazing but I didn't find myself revisiting the album very often.

i think more ILMers *love* d'angelo than really like taylor swift. could be wrong.

good for fucka twigs.

fka twigs just barely made my ballot but it's rare that these sorts of records appeal to me at all so i consider it one of the year's big pleasant surprises.

The tentpole tracks on LP1 are perfectly spaced out to keep the lesser ones from becoming a real drag on its greatness imo.

okay where do i sign up for team d'angelo?

love that cover so much, almost made me buy a physical album for the first time in 5 years

i have no dog in the top 3 race - all are albums i love, but with reservations, and not as much as their biggest fans love them

xp haha my order's already out of the window. good album! her middle eights and her icicle beats really elevate it. "two weeks" perhaps unfairly overshadows the rest of it; i found myself wanting more vocal chorales and less trembling sensuousness, but it could be pretty good to luxuriate in anyway. think it just fell off the edge of my ballot tho

can't see Tay beating D'Angelo but I am almost always wrong about everything so

I waited so long before checking out what the hype was all about. I don't have anything clever to say about it yet but one of my favorites.

The T-Swift record is so strong though, I hadn't listened to a full record of hers before and I still can't stop blasting it daily

If Taylor wins idek

I'm surprised Taylor's going to finish so high with my fourth-favorite Taylor Swift album. But I guess the crossover worked. No complaints, I like the record. Probably would have been in the low end of the top 10 for me.

Does not in any way deserve to beat D'Angelo tho.

I don't usually feel "Fuck out of here you all have atrocious taste" about artists I don't like but...

i have no feelings toward the top three finishers ilx u hav forsaken me gon go meet me old cunt down the pub

im rooting for beck

the FKA twigs album is great but "two weeks" does tower over the rest of it for sure

im rooting for dire straits feat young thug

If other people dare like something I don't like, why, I'll just have to deal with it like an adult.

Yeah, I'm kidding myself. That doesn't happen here.

i don't like this record at all beyond the singles and i've listened to it so much

oh well

If other people dare like something I don't like, why, I'll just have to deal with it like an adult.

Yeah, I'm kidding myself. That doesn't happen here.

― EZ Snappin, Thursday, January 29, 2015 1:11 PM Bookmark

Rae Sremmub

I don't remember the last time I had such a violent, abrupt 180 on an artist like I had with FKA twigs. When "Water Me" placed last year, I basically rolled my eyes and went "eh whatever" and when people were going gaga over the "Two Weeks" video my initial thoughts were "wait, isn't this the really boring static whisper girl that three ppl were into last year" up until I played it, at which point my eyes got wider and wider until they took up about 80% of my face and I kept muttering "holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, WHAT IS THIS OH MY GOD"

The album is the best use of space in musical arrangement that I've heard since the first XX album and is a master class in crescendo. Once you get past "Two Weeks" and "Pendulum", spend some time really studying "Give Up", "Lights On", "Closer" and "Video Girl". Putting this at #1 on my ballot was the easiest decision I've ever made in an ILX poll.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Bono_U2_360_Tour_2011.jpg

"DID YOU PEOPLE NOT READ THE ROLLING STONE LIST???"

The battle for the top spot was hard-fought, and amazingly ended in a tie...

http://i.imgur.com/STg5Qq2.jpg?1

TIE-1 CANNONBALL ADDERLEY The Black Messiah [7,498 points, 142 votes, 141 first place votes]
TIE-1 VARIOUS ARTISTS Billboard Top Hits 1989 [7,498 points, 142 votes, 141 first place votes]

black messiah #1

DJP I still haven't gotten past "Pendulum" :)

lol, fka twigs.

Rev - I didn't say I wasn't part of the problem.

I've never gotten the whole fascination with "Two Weeks" above and beyond the rest of LP1. It's just another track on the album to me, the whole thing is so of a piece I'd have a hard time declaring highlights.

ha ok xp

hmm. these numbers don't look right.

And I've got a whole year to work on my hand-wringing when it comes to the Ear Bummers.

xpost

I've never gotten the whole fascination with "Two Weeks" above and beyond the rest of LP1. It's just another track on the album to me, the whole thing is so of a piece I'd have a hard time declaring highlights.

― The Reverend, Thursday, January 29, 2015 4:14 PM (13 seconds ago)

just on a basic level it's the easiest to get into, if you come at the album from an r&b-fan perspective, as i do, you're going to be drawn to the one that sounds like a ciara song. not to say there aren't some great other songs

Honestly, I don't even play "Pendulum" that much. I spend a lot of time jumping between "Video Girl" and "Give Up", the latter slowly becoming my secret favorite when I'm not humming "Pull out the incisor/Give me two weeks/You won't recognize her" to myself

That's one of the few albums I've heard that makes floaty vaguely psychedelic sad submarine Ecco the Dolphin R&B actually seem like a good idea.

― Matt DC, Thursday, January 29, 2015 3:28 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is very true but also she can really sing ... she has really strong vocal moments ("bated breath") but they don't break the glass so to speak, it's kind of a tricky thing they pull off

the bridge on "two weeks" is just unfairly sublime

Yeah, I've never gotten why it's a stronger song or more r&b than anything else on there. xxxp

was waiting for the u2 zing :-)

DJP otm. To me LP1 evokes much the same emotional state as the Marina Topley Bird tracks on Maxinequaye, only with present UK bass sonics and more coherence as an album, and that's no small feat. I also think, song for song, EP2 is stronger.

Or maybe the real touchstone is, what if Nearly God wasn't made by a lazy stoner.

I went back to EP2 thinking "omg I WAS WRONG" after loving LP1 so much and... well, I liked it more than I did initially, which is to say I didn't think it was monochromatic boring nonsense this time, but rather a dry run for the album that didn't work for me.

Prob my favorite Twigs song is still "Papi Pacify" tbh

this is very true but also she can really sing ... she has really strong vocal moments ("bated breath") but they don't break the glass so to speak, it's kind of a tricky thing they pull off

Wish she had more of these tbh, I love her lower register and she doesn't use it that much. I also prefer the more conventional second half to the floatier first half.

ha i went back to EP2 as well and still thought it was boring wispiness

Haven't heard any taylor swift since the first track to place on an EOY poll. People seem super into her though. Good luck to 'em.

YES to praising tinashe's lower register