ILM Top 100 - Results - 10-6

let me respond by saying four words.

neutral. fucking. milk. hotel.

likely the biggest surprise on the whole chart...or is it?

Who are Neutral Milk Hotel? Never heard of them in my life.

Who the fuck are Neutral Milk Hotel? Please clue me in. Well, I guess I technically KNOW who they are since I had to buy their records into the shop I once worked at. One copy of that record gathered dust in the bin for nine months and I returned it to the distributor. And this particular shop sold a great deal of tier three indie bands.

What's number one, Sentridoh? Sean Lennon? I'm cleary missing something here. Either I really missed the boat on New Model Hotel or there's a C-O-N-spiracy.

It's a shock, but it's a great record.

I'll say the top 5, in no order, are: Loveless. Revolver. Substance. Beg, Scream, Shout. Exile on Main Street.

my wild card: too young to die.

Erm, for what it's worth, it's actually "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea".

"...Baby One More Time", Loveless, Stankonia, that folk music anthology thing that all the hipsters like, some boring classic-rock choice like Revolver or Exile (probably Revolver)

No, wait, did 69 Love Songs show up yet?

The Queen Is Dead is sure to be somewhere in there (hey, have there been any Smiths record on the list yet ?)

Yeah, Patrick, you've got to be right. Completely forgot about that one.

_hatful of hollow_ at #34. one of my 8 picks that made it so far. woo hoo! and both joy division albums *as well* as the box set. woo hoo! pity about _daydream nation_ being the youth album that made it but what can you do?

(look. it's usually hard for me to get online during the wk, ok).

Hatful of Hollow already showed up on the list, and it's a much stronger collection of songs. I think the Smiths fans voted for that one instead. Hope so.

Yeah, Andy, you missed the boat.

That the album is that high is surprising but I expected it to be on the list. I did vote for it after all. ;)

Hey Sterling! VU may have trouble competing with Miles due to their small catalog, but they can always get all their albums in twice. I should've voted for the second quintet boxed set.

in the aeroplane over the sea is a wonderful record! but the velvet underground? jesus christ, a less inspiring choice could not be made.

where is 'a child's guide to good and evil'?

69 love songs ...number 2, surely... Neutral milk hotel is a time decision , five years and nobody vote for them. But, it's a nice band (we all think we could SING heard 'em ). Maybe sonic Youth have a chance, but the chance was the 10-6 list ... the queen is dead: position 3, and numer one : i hope loveless will not there!

# 10 : So people are even crazy about the Velvet Underground's *demos* ??? Damn.

My predictions: 5. Velvet Underground - White Light / White Heat
4. Smiths - The Queen is Dead
3. Public Image Ltd. - Second Edition / Metal Box
2. Beatles - Revolver
1. Ned's Bloody Valentine - Loveless

This means that my Tom Waits pick (Bone Machine) is probably a write- off altogether, as are Replacements and Husker Du (shut up you two). But I realize that the tastes of ILM's readers are so broad and KOOKY that anything can happen. If Destiny's Child is one of those five, however, I will probably spontaneously combust from...something.

wot? no beast of burden?

I am willing to be surprised.

Dyadream Nation still hasn't cropped up.

Don't know about the NMH album not being loved in five years. True, Mangum's lack of output in the time since it's release has forced his admirers to rally around the one record, but it's seemed to pick up critical support over the past three years -- if anything it suffers the Elephant 6 backlash, even though it has none of the pastiche and necrophilia of most of those bands. (It's a lot like "Pinkerton" in that sense -- a much bigger shock, I'd say; the list was hijacked by Americans, eh? ;). It will interesting to see if Weezer backers/lovers/apologists continue to rally around the band now that it has crept back into public view -- and with such a disappointing r

OK, that last bit -- the really garbled sentence -- should end with, "record.

Actually Daydream Nation has been listed already, but because this thing has been INSANELY SPLIT UP INTO SEVENTEEN THOUSAND SEPARATE THREADS, I'm not going to go look up what number it came in at.

When this is over, I'm going to waste my one thread of the day on reposting the list in one neat thread just to piss off Fred and Tom. Then I'm going to go shoe shopping.

Anyhow, you're all totally wrong in your predictions because no one mentioned The Holy Bible and I know of at least one other person who gave it a high score and another person who claimed they were going to, so I'm totally self-assured that my Manics bloc will win over all of you. Bwahaha. My evil plan has worked. I'm pretty sure at least. It'll probably be goddamned Destiny's Child, but I like my illusions.

I'm beginning to think that I shouldn't have voted for Survivor (the album) as a great deal of the crowd wouldn't have been familiar with it yet. Say My Name may have been a better choice. Meanwhile -- Pet Sounds? WTF? Given the nature of this list (singles too) I'd have hoped that Good Vibrations would have made it, or better yet the all- over-the-map Good Vibrations variations on the box set. My picks are doing very very poorly, as I attempted, for the most part, to go with stuff that usually doesn't make it onto such lists. For example, I can't imagine that Live At Leeds will make it at this point. (Everyone went for the safe choice with Who's Next). But, the 'Mats M. U. S. T. must. And that Big Star thing is still irking me too.

One thing I'd be interested to see after all of this is done is the final rankings of everything submitted, just so we can all see:
- where our lost faves eventually wound up
- how vote-splitting between albums deep-sixed the chances of an artist to appear at all
- how vote-splitting between the full album and a single affect the chances of both

Still not clear on who NMH are.

Me too, who the fuck are Neutral Milk Hotel?!? Otherwise it looks all very safe from here...at least another hip-hop album makes it.

Ah well predictions:

1. Loveless 2. Revolver 3. The Queen is Shite 4. some boring guitar shite 5 Baby, One More Time.

Surely Abba Gold will get in the top 5? Can't see how The Queen is Dead can make it. Top 3 will be :

1. 69 Love Songs 2. Loveless 3. Revolver.

Outsider : Section 25 - Looking from a Hilltop. (Only kidding! ;))

Sterling - I voted for Live at Leeds (narrowly over Who Sell Out).

If there are no Beatles in the top ten, then this will be the best list ever, no matter what.

Well, Sterling, the Antediluvian Chronicle's top 89 albums of all time managed to avoid the Beatles altogether. At first I thought that only indie-rock records were allowed but then I spotted the VU & Nico at No.28. A charmingly blinkered list. Maybe.

VU and Nico = antediluvian ESSENCE of uber-indie, surely [scampers out of reach as quickly as can...]

Oh yeah, in one sense that's completely true. That it was the only pre-80s record to appear in the list reinforces that and that's why it's funny. Although I think they could have spared a thought for Moby Grape.

Funny..I was thinking yesterday about posting a thread (after the top 100) asking what your favourite records left off are.. and I was thinking that the Neutral Milk Hotel record might be my choice. I certainly didn't expect this. I love 'em , but they really aren't very Freaky Trigger.

One day Jeff Magnum, the man behind Neutral Milk Hotel, will die and every facet of music media will mourn the loss of an "under- appreciated genius." Retrospectives will be released, tribute albums will be recorded, and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea will stop collecting dust in CD bins as panels of critics who create comprehensive lists of music in the 90s will laud this album as the seminal independent release of the decade. It will be number one on 3/4 of every "100 Best Albums You Never Heard Of" list. He will replace Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake as the "unbalanced song-writing genius who never got the recognition he deserved" du jour.

Poetic lyrical brilliance, layered instrumentation, decent production (for those who shun independent records for their often less than polished production values), a unique and strangely beautiful voice, songs that are full of emotion, varied in tempo and style, yet still come together cohesively as a singular work. If you haven't heard them, I suggest checking them out.

So...uhm...any chance of seeing the top-5 before 18:00, I have to go to a footie game you see and I really must know if Nevermind made nr.1 after all (mmm, maybe better to never return to ILM and pretend it was 'Foxbase Alpha' ;)

I have a copy of Unknown Pleasures. I like a few of the songs, but I don't get how it's become a massive classic? can anyone explain? also, since many people are predicting a top 5 entry for the smiths, did you have to be a depressed indie kid at the time to get them, or do they still work as well now?

Bill

I actually didn't even vote for Unknown Pleasures, I think I just voted for the Heart & Soul box set...However, I think it became a classic on the basis of the fact that it is a good album - it just sounds fantastic. However, that's not really why it's a classic. It's a classic because the man responsible killed himself. I hate saying it about an album I really love but it's kind of true. Oh well.

Every facet of music media indeed. I can't wait for The Source's tribute to Neutral Milk Hotel.

Of course! It's a little known fact that Jeff Magnum co-wrote the "dumps like a truck" part of the Thong Song with Sisquo. heh. ahem.

OK, I Jenny beat me to it, but here is a little more of the who?, what?, when? (although I suppose how? and why? are the questions most people are asking.)

NMH is one of the three "founding" member of the Elephant 6 collective (along with the Apples in Stereo and Olivia Tremor Control.) Not a 1960s throwback like the others, NMH is, hmm, sort of a blend of neo-psychedelic and folk music (which admittedly sounds like it would be ’60s pastiche). Essentially it’s Jeff Mangum, but on the offending record above he is joined by Athens, GA multi-instrumentalist types Julian Kostner (of Music Tapes infamy, the much-maligned record that sounds like it was recorded by Rod and Todd Flanders – provided they worshiped a television set rather than Jesus) and Scott Spillane (who has had his hands in records by Elf Power, Of Montreal and others) and some drummer, whose name I can’t recall.

"In the Aeoroplane" is the band’s second album (and probably final new record under the NMH moniker) and a big leap forward from its first, "On Avery Island." It’s almost a song cycle – complete with reprises of some songs and a repitition of themes, phrasesm and words, although there is no definitive concept. It moves between a few solo acoustic tracks and ones fleshed out by saw, trombone, euphonium, flugelhorn, trumpet, accordian and other such instruments.

Lyrically, it’s very stream-of-consciousness, very oblique, arguably poetic -- loads of indie types like to claim Mangum as a New Dylan. There is the typical (your depressed teenagers) and the atypical (Anne Frank, a "Two-Headed Boy") but rather than wallow, the song’s characters – and Mangum himself -- maintain a strange sincerity and a spirited search for belief, approval, love, hope that results, at times, in sexual awakening, religious epiphany, and, ultimately, a skewed, tragic beauty.

Admittedly, that sounds awful: "Solo acoustic," "sexual awakening," "flugelhorn," "New Dylan" aren't exactly phrases that would make me care to check out a record, but it's much more than the sum of it's parts. Interested parties should download the title track, "Holland, 1945" and the "King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1-3."

You forgot to say "marching band on acid". Very important.

I enjoy On Avery Island nearly as much as I do Aeroplane. There are certain songs and parts that just work so well that I find myself restarting the track so I can hear the play on words or even the way he pauses. Josh pointed out a good example of this on his blog with Song Against Sex.

on acid

Yeah, that has to be the quintessential "use other words, please"!

(sorry for going on so long before)

Well, I have to admit to giving Neutral Milk Hotel 20 points, but I only voted for 18 records, so I think that was probably factorised to 4...and other people must have voted for it. Anyway, I love it!

When Jeff Mangum dies, I'll be proud to go on record to say, "I saw his band live once, and it was all right. That's it, that's all, NOTHING ELSE."

Actually, I'll be proud to go on record about that right now.

Hmmm anyway...Here's to a long and happy life for Jeff Magnum!

bill: oh god. i'd point you to my jd review but it hasn't been archived yet. i'll just say that maybe _unknown pleasures_ is a classic because it's a masterpiece, just maybe? maybe because stephen morris and peter hook formed rock's greatest rhythm section ever, able to define a song with startlingly fresh repeated lines that bled out of the most basic elements breathtaking possibilities? because crushing parallel-universe-metal riffs could be stripped, crystallized, and frozen to drip like icicles above? maybe because riffs could become drones and vice versa? maybe because of the sparsest, least pop tracks ("candidate," "i remember nothing") where a bare beat and atmospheric samples could house ian curtis's sighs and cries? because that band could bludgeon ("day of the lords"), rage ("shadowplay"), and caress ("insight")? just maybe ian curtis sang like no one else could, using a uniquely non-singerly voice to move from a purr to a sneer to a bellow?

see the jd: classic or dud? thread for more.

re antediluvian chronicle list: i'm not sure that even i could justify including nine sonic youth albums on a greatest-albums-ever list.

gah. what an inappropriate cliche "breathtaking possibilities" was. apologies.

Sundar - If I didn't already own and like Unknown Pleasures, I'd want to get it now !