ILM 2013 | End of Year Albums & Tracks Poll | VOTING THREAD (Voting closes MIDNIGHT EST on Friday, January 17th, 2014)

emil.y there were alot of high profile verklempt rockcrit pieces reacting to haim and the hype and the 'coopting of indie', some of which had a pronounced misogynist undertone. lana del rey was invoked alot.

i mean grantland had a piece about how the haim record represented literally the death of indie rock, comparable to how sugar ray et al killed the altrock dream in 1997, tears tears.

didn't the Haim and VW albums have the same producer, and probably more in common aesthetically than not when you get down to it?

imagine having to tie in any subjective musical opinion with some bullshit rockcrit narrative, imagine being that jaded

yeah when i found that out it clarified what i like about the haim record - everything i like about vampire weekend minus actual vampire weekend

imagine parroting that bullshit rockcrit narrative reflexively, imagine being that lazy

loool imagine actually reading criticism of a band you don't like & only listened to because they had 500 new answers p much constantly on ilm for half a year

will you two get a fucking room

imagine all the people living life in peace

LJ i voted for the cardiacs

jk i voted for Haim

didn't the Haim and VW albums have the same producer, and probably more in common aesthetically than not when you get down to it?

― some dude, Wednesday, January 15, 2014 3:27 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah when i found that out it clarified what i like about the haim record - everything i like about vampire weekend minus actual vampire weekend

― balls, Wednesday, January 15, 2014 3:30 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OHHHHH this probably explains why i never got into haim then! that fussiness in the production, yup

i never saw any really dumb pro-haim writing, that's what usually sets the rage triggers off for me (vampire weekend!). the weird thing is i have no conception of what their real life fanbase is, i don't know anyone who's into them (apart from critics) and they're really easy to ignore for a band with such success

This poll IS going to have a furia breakdown too, right?

i don't know anyone who's into them (apart from critics)

yup

Here's a great piece on said producer: http://grantland.com/features/ariel-rechtshaid-producer-vampire-weekend-haim-sky-ferreira-snoop-lion-justin-bieber/

i like haim and i am not a music critic, AMA

"regular poster on ilm" = "may as well be a music critic" to me

did haim actually finish that high in any critics poll?

#7 in P&J

also i realised recently that i don't care about haim b/c i really never grew up listening to the stuff they draw on, and have never heard that much of it - so while i've been a sucker for last year's uk house revival b/c it sounds so much like the '90s commercial dance i did grow up loving (w/o being just a throwback) i don't get that flash of recognition with haim

I would say in terms of the ratio of real-world-success (ie. sales) to critical-acclaim, HAIM are at about the same place as MIA was pre-"Paper Planes", perhaps even slightly ahead.

their success seems so hypothetical to me still. i've seen them pop up on tv several times now and each time i'm surprised. the other day there was high school girl at the park listening to them on blast at the dog park and it befuddled me nearly as much as the realization that wearing big ass headphones in public or two strapping it are totally normal things now as well. i can totally get the 'dull' charge, during last year's poll i was consistently not getting the love over the singles, but i was pleasantly surprised at how thoroughly solid the album is, more and more so as i played it ie i liked it more the third time thru than the first time. not exceptional and god knows nothing new but it hits its mark repeatedly. cf tony gwynn, christine mcvie, the strokes, ncis. i'm a sucker for that fussy production though.

haim are good and have catchy tunes

yeah djp i knew they were in the top tens, just saying for a band that's getting all the 'WHY DO CRITICS LOVE THIS BAND' ire they draw they're not actually winning any of these things.

two strapping it?

someone should make a thread for haim

haim are good and have catchy tunes

you see, pretty much all the praise of haim amounts to this, which is...fine! i guess they do have catchy tunes. whereas with vampire weekend you can't move for people blathering about how smart they are and how they're attuned to the human condition or how interesting a narrator he is and it's like fuck off fuck off i now want to stab this band a great deal

can't we hate them all

emil.y there were alot of high profile verklempt rockcrit pieces reacting to haim and the hype and the 'coopting of indie', some of which had a pronounced misogynist undertone. lana del rey was invoked alot.

― balls, Wednesday, January 15, 2014 3:24 PM (14 minutes ago)

Oh, eurgh. I get annoyed by misclassification because I have that sort of (irritating) brain, but the accusation of 'co-opting' here is stupid, and yes, quite probably spurred by 'ew girls' wankery (I only have past history of rockcrit to go on for that assumption, but it's a pretty long history of that sort of shit). Reminds me of stumbling onto Amanda Palmer online hatefests, where the criticism is *very clearly* run by misogyny, almost enough to make me want to defend her.

i guess they do have catchy tunes

See, I can't even remember any of their tunes. I don't think they are very catchy. Not as catchy as that Trollz song, which I would almost like as bubblegum pop if it wasn't so horribly misogynist in itself. Woo hair and shopping yay!

DeRo:

Haim, Days Are Gone (Polydor)

Has indie-rock seriously gotten so twee and “poptimistic” that it can hail as a buzz band a California trio aiming at a modern update of Fleetwood Mac but barely achieving a less polished version of Wilson Phillips? Really?

hey seandalai if possible can you send my ballot back to me via ilxmail? If it's cool I wanted to change up something on my ballot.

ballot ballot

i don't know anyone who's into them (apart from critics)

Several of my squarer friends are (the people who think The Lumineers are cool and can't understand why their mere existence sets me off), so they've crossed over to the "I listen to so little new music these days" crowd.

god just because there's a guitar in it doesn't make it indie.

you see, pretty much all the praise of haim amounts to this, which is...fine! i guess they do have catchy tunes. whereas with vampire weekend you can't move for people blathering about how smart they are and how they're attuned to the human condition or how interesting a narrator he is and it's like fuck off fuck off i now want to stab this band a great deal

i think i like Haim and the VW albums for quite similar reasons really. I find both albums have a good 5-6 songs that are very catchy and enjoyable but not in an intolerable way. That's first and foremost why I like them. Not sure I understand what is meant by 'fussy' production but each to their own.
Haim do admittedly remind me of a lot of music I heard round the house when I was growing up and then maybe completely forgot about once I hit puberty, but I also don't think they're a total rip-off or tribute, it's just elements of things like 'Bad', 'Get Close', 'Tango In The Night' and all sorts of things off this one circa-86 pop compilation of my parents I used to play before I had the wherewithal to purchase my own music.
VW always ran hot and cold with me until now so I understand why people wouldn't like them. I think this is the first time I got attuned to how good they are at writing deceptively simple songs, so I think this is the first album where I even considered giving it a second listen. They've done a clever thing (IMO) of disregarding the critics who write them off as poshboy preps by turning the other cheek and sort of making it their whole schtick. Again that's going to rub a few backs up the wrong way but I think it's admirable that they aren't acting under the pretenses a lot of indie rock bands work under. As for lyrics, yeah they're fairly clever but I'm not a big lyric sheet reader.

that said i don't think there's anything wrong with people enjoying a band if they think the lyrics are smart. what is the issue with that?

That's how you wind up with legions of Jimmy Buffett fans.

thanks seand. I sent it back let me know if you got it.

xpost i don't know who that is

xp got it!

you see, pretty much all the praise of haim amounts to this, which is...fine! i guess they do have catchy tunes. whereas with vampire weekend you can't move for people blathering about how smart they are and how they're attuned to the human condition or how interesting a narrator he is and it's like fuck off fuck off i now want to stab this band a great deal

― lex pretend

But that's exactly why I like Vampire Weekend. They just have catchy tunes. I'm not into them for their lyrics and I have no idea how smart they're supposed to be. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way too. What's the point dismissing all their fans and making up reasons for people liking them. If you don't like the music that's fine but this is a bullshit point your making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5tK-_yxLms

nooooooooo

haha

jimmy buffett is as unheard of here as dave matthews band or hootie & the blowfish.

Never ever heard of him til i read ilm

Every time I read things like this, I get visions of the musical paradise that must be living in the UK, and then I remember when someone (Matt DC?) linked that Seahorses Glastonbury performance

only people i know who've been travelling in australia have heard of DMB. The only time I heard of Hootie outside of the internet was some song by a Sepultura spinoff band I once heard.

I had a roommate in college who listened to buffett's greatest hits cd on repeat. You haven't been high until you been high while listening to "pencil thin mustache".

DJP, yes we have plenty of our own rubbish to deal with this end so don't worry.

djp fun loving criminals had hits here in the 90s