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

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

I didn't know who Jimmy Buffet was until I went to Chicago a couple of years ago. Me and my friend wanted to go get margaritas one night so we went here.

http://www.margaritaville.com/restaurants.html

Great drinks but they have a massive screen at the bar that plays nothing but his music videos. He is one properly creepy guy.

fun lovin' criminals do not have a chain of restaurants iirc

lol xp

you got bush in return

xxpost was it a buffet-restaurant?

the only use I have for Buffett was his acting role in repo man.

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".

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, January 15, 2014 11:52 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

looool

the new vw album has great lyrics. that was a large part of what made me come around to them this year; previously i was seriously put off by the preppy/clever schtick and would never have been able to love them on the strength of catchy tunes alone. i haven't spent a lot of time with the haim record but they seem way more retro and pop than vw (all of which is fine of course) and i don't really get the comparison.

they're retro but hm what kind of retro exactly

fun lovin' criminals do not have a chain of restaurants iirc

http://therumkitchen.com

BEATS ARE SUPPLIED BY ‘DJ FAST’ FROM THE FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS

Also

http://www.spottedbylocals.com/dublin/di-fontaines/

and

http://dublintown.ie/bar/dice-bar/

okay lol

lol

tbf I think Huey has sold most of his interests in Dublin now. FLC were absurdly popular here for a long time though (could still be for all I know)

hey poll manager ppl:

Luminerians-The high frontier

this should be Lumerians not Luminerians

thx

My white lesbian friend and black trans dude roommate who are not music critics or ilxors were both obsessed with Haim even before the album and were mad when they couldn't get tickets for their sold out show at a fairly large venue around the time the album dropped. Afaict, in both cases, their other favorite album this year is Beyoncé. #irlHaimFansReport

ftr, I did not put either of them up on the band.

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.

― o. nate, Wednesday, January 15, 2014 10:49 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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.

― balls, Wednesday, January 15, 2014 10:50 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

weird, i would have thought they're way more successful commercially than critically (modulo ilx) but i see they did pretty well on pazz & jop too. heard "the wire" on the radio all summer

haim has had far more chart success than m.i.a. had had at that time + i wouldn't say their critical success has scaled accordingly to match what m.i.a. was getting back then

Currently watching the artist behind one of the albums I voted for goofily dance around a club.

that's our bill callahan

Wasn't gonna vote but probably will now to bump up VW just to piss off Lex (tho genuinely my favourite album of the year).

i am going to vote in this thing for the first time ever and i am actually attempting to listen to as many of the tracks nominated as i can.

this is when I knew Haim had made it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vScm9fYbdec

http://blogtalkfusion.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Mercedes_2DaysLeft.jpg

seandalai remember to pimp yr poll on metal poll results thread

I swear I will put together a ballot for this thing at some point. I've had the spotify list on as background music for the last few days and I just have to say: serious irl lols at this david bowie track "heat"! I hope someone played it to scott walker so scott could piss himself laughing XD

this should be Lumerians not Luminerians

lol