ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

this year's roll out will be in the format of what i like to call a "visual album." basically what i've done is recorded a full length video for each of the 77 album winners in order to create a more immersive experience for ILX. i didn't want to release this poll the way i've done it before. i am bored with that. i feel like i am able to speak directly to ILX. there's so much that gets between the results and the posters. i felt like i didn't want anybody to get in the way of the results of this year's poll. i just want this to come out when it's ready, and from me to ILX.

I am waiting for this. I use this as my buying guide. Don't let me down, ILX.

that may or may not be true

lol

i hope the opening post is FORESHADOWING

Indeed, it sets up our #77 quite nicely

All the polls I do is boring/All these message borads are boring

Haha great start

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

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe (270 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

BEYYYYYYYRRILLAZZZZZ

niiice

incredible album

Cool album, Pyrrhic is a good track for the curious.

aaaand a nice start :)

this soundtracka hell of a lot of my winter mornings late last year, perfect ease-into-the-world calm listening. didn't vote for it and don't think she did anything substantially different from her last album (that i discovered when it placed in an ilm poll!) but that thing is very beautiful

bookmarked

Seandalai and I went to see her play over the summer. It was such an amazing experience but for some reason I felt totally Barwicked out afterwards and just haven't had the compulsion to give this new one a proper listen.

Personally feeling some diminishing returns with each new JB album but glad it's on here.

lol if after the foreshadowing OP and the predictions that something else other than Bey gets #1

would fucking love to see julianna barwick live, esp in the right venue

i saw her a month ago in a church, it was amazing

Are you following the same schedule as last week, J0rdan?

Yeah, she did change things up a bit on this one (e.g.: words!) but at this point I'm not sure I really need her to produce any more albums. Will always enjoy her work though and she was great live.

this stuff is nice, i don't really find many occasions to listen to it but i'm glad it's around

never heard of this but am already down w/ it.

does she get talked about on ILM anywhere?

Julianna Barwick I guess

Spotify Playlist for ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013 -> http://tinyurl.com/k4bxplr

Are you following the same schedule as last week, J0rdan?

― Murgatroid, Monday, January 27, 2014 11:31 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

yep

how many did we do the first day, i forget

Listened to this while checking out stuff on the nominations and various year end lists, ended up really liking it and voted for. I also listened to this so that I would stop confusing her with Julia Holter and Laura Marling.

17

17 on Monday, 20 the next three days

Beautiful record but somehow it didn't quite hit me as hard as the previous one. Felt like the production took away some of the magic and the freshness but I need to listen to it again really.

I liked that comment about her being a soundtrack to Care Bears fucking.

Julianna Barwick seems like someone I would like, but she hasn't clicked with me yet. May have to check out again.

I like her music for a certain mood but I did not vote for this album. Glad it placed though.

What I've heard I've liked. There's a Cocteau Twins-y shoegazery thing which sets her apart from the likes of Josephine Foster or Joanna Newsom. I havent heard a full album by here yet though.

i think with acts like Barwick sometimes I kind of would just be happy with her doing the vocal thing only for a whole album. Same goes with people like Colin Stetson, Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Soon as they start adding extra shit, it feels like something's being taken away.

http://i.imgur.com/kWpd2hX.jpg?1

76 Fall Out Boy Save Rock and Roll (270 points, 11 votes)

Spotify

oops that should be

76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll (270 points, 11 votes)

happy i made it one post before screwing up

is goon rock still a thing? srs question.

i think with acts like Barwick sometimes I kind of would just be happy with her doing the vocal thing only for a whole album. Same goes with people like Colin Stetson, Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Soon as they start adding extra shit, it feels like something's being taken away.

― he said, smarmily (dog latin), Monday, January 27, 2014 4:43 PM (42 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

First two JB albums are just her iirc

I also listened to this so that I would stop confusing her with Julia Holter

i did find it quite funny that julianna barwick, julia holter and julia kent all made albums that i loved to listen to in a certain mood last year. expect holter to place, kent wasn't even nominated though

great cover. if it wasn't for ilm i'd have been led to believe these guys split up ages ago. what's their steez now, they still playing emo rock?

i probably should have thought about "phoenix" as a top 50 track this year, it holds up pretty well

One of the albums I listened to most this year, but didn't love it enough to vote for it (as someone mentioned on the other thread, much of my attention got diverted to revisiting the last few albums). Glad to see it place though. It's a pretty successful attempt to update their songwriting to fit in with the contemporary radio climate.

revisiting discovering

There's a Cocteau Twins-y shoegazery thing which sets her apart from the likes of Josephine Foster or Joanna Newsom

There's a lot setting her apart from those two artists -- their music sounds nothing alike imo. I can see getting confused with Julia Holter though. Idk who Julia Kent is.

i love this album. it's a clear step down from their previous two and has too many clunkers for a relatively good album but the good stuff (alone together, where did the party go, save rock and roll) are as good as anything they've done.

too many clunkers for a relatively short album**

i mean, how a thread with thousands of posts of half the board talking about the music they've enjoyed the most for the past year has managed to so frequently revolve around one particular person is really kind of an accomplishment in and of itself, i will say that.

Btw between the new board description and the lauded pun I'm thinking my double act with Alex could have legs

(Trust me I'm not accusing you of being calculating in this, I think your impulses are a bit more emotional than that, and there's nothing wrong with defaulting towards certain kinds of music, everyone does, but maybe think next time before you default to false binaries like "weird music" and "dance-pop").

this thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryjpbd4D4bg

lol

honestly, if anything deeply irritates me about ilm, this is it. i like talking about music and i even like talking about why people like it, but i don't like talking about lj's opinion (or anyone's opinion, including my own) for more than a nanosecond. then i'm no longer talking about music, i'm talking about a person. i like people and i like y'all well enough but not enough to dissect your opinion.

i see that you have all already (and mercifully, i might add) come to the same conclusion -- i only wanted to add my 2 cents because i feel like conversations about music are fun and i would't be here if not for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BaXPg_2FJ4

SKY FERREIRA - whatever
BEYONCE - huzzah
MBV - great
DAFT PUNK - dancing
HAIM - tv serial music

bye

haven't heard

*Did I just delegitimate imago? P sure that makes me the Oppressor. HE WINS AGAIN

*Ted Maul 'Cowsick' sketch*

lol balls

oh this is rich

I associate the Haim / Paramore / Sky Ferreira / 1975 albums together in my head, though they clearly come from very different angles and cater for different audiences (like, if you're basically into the idea of populist rock music you might like one or probably even two, but only my forever bros ITT like all four).

Something about their alchemical relationship to the past - in each case it's clear they're reviving things but it's never obvious exactly what - and their (differing versions of a) production aesthetic that leans towards overproduction, their capacity to irritate large swathes of people and the fact that I find each of them immensely cathartic.

Oh yeah also I saw Haim live yesterday and they were amazing.

Someone in the crowd had made Este a tank-top with her gaping maw on the front and "BASSFACE" on the front and she happily put it on.

I got tickets for their April show and can't wait.

March 4 for me. I'm not fully sold on the full album, but fully expecting live amazingness.

Just wanted to say thanks to ILM for a great list, enjoyable read and in particular for turning me on to some bits that had just zipped past me unawares this last year - I cruise ILM from time to time to read about music (especially house/techno/electronic/whatever... Some beardo too maybe) and post very occasionally (bobbins from time to time if I feel like sharing) but I do love to check out the eoy threads and see what folks are repping for ... Some thoughts on the list ?!?

Juliana Barwick - simply beautiful LP ... Best thing yet from JB for me ... Adored it ... Played it in the kitchen a lot
Follakzoid - thanks for this one voters !!! Never heard before ... Will def listen again ... Killed an afternoon at work on Thursday after a stressful am with multiple listens of this LP and it was a righteous tonic
Factory Floor ... Preferred the 12"s - feel obliged to spend more time with it than i have which is ridiculous isn't it ?!?
Laurel Halo - couldn't get with this when first released ... Posts and placing here intrigued me ... It's benefitted from careful closer listening ... Will come back to this one on headphones
Laura Marling - I'd always given a wide berth ... Assumed it was all Mumford and sons / radio one live lounge / John lewis advert screwing my nose up - listened - was totally totally wrong ... This is much more interesting ... Very surprised at how much I liked her voice and vibe
Koze / Rashad ... Great fun
Burial - have played come down to us about 50 times ... Wouldn't recognise the other two ... Will prob rectify
Holden - fuck yes ... Listened to this endlessly cycling to and from meetings late summer/autumn ... Cooled on it since then but relistened this week and fell into its spell again ... Wish I had a big bag of mushrooms some hash 2litres of lemonade no responsibilities and a month off to live with this LP
1975: was intrigued (love Tinseltown in the rain / stay and scritti and not at all averse to big pop rock) but Nah ! This did nothing for me ... Might listen again
Boards of Canada : fell asleep to this 3 nights in a row youth hosteling in Cumbria this summer ... Perfect ! Can't be bothered with it since then at all ... Right time right place etc
Kurt vile ... Liked smoke ring not too fussed by this one felt a little empty to me
These new puritans : yes ! Thanks voters had overlooked this despite liking both previous LP's - this is superb thank you
Fantasia ! ! Amel Larrieux !! Yeah great stuff really enjoying these two ... No way I would have stumbled across these with my buying/reading/browsing/digging habits so thanks v much to those repping for these ladies
Oneohtrix ... Really into this when I remember to listen to it but haven't played as much as returnable or replica
Yeezus - too low ... His best LP for me - I'm in it and I can't get out
Beyonce ... Love it but came out too late in the year for me ... Only really digging into it now

What's missing that I really liked and would like to have seen placed ?

Vakula
Date palms
Unknown mortal orchestra II
Colleen - weighing of the heart
William Tyler
Jessy Lanza
That Jaisu beat tape
Chris Forsyth - solar motel
Special request - soul music
Patrick Cowley

I don't get what just happened itt with regards to imago but I was enjoying his write-ups, think "you only like not-pop because it makes you look clever" is the perennial poptimist spectre of persecution, my god, I listened to Aaliyah in music school and flipped off my square teachers about it but I was like 18

Unknown mortal orchestra II

i forget about this one a lot but it's always enjoyable to hear when it turns up in shuffle

xp flam tie, you know those improv gigs where there is a large ensemble playing and one of the musicians plays way more and way louder than everyone else when it's supposed to be "about group interaction" and ignores everyone else's polite attempts at an ending? This is kinda like that.

i think lj preemptively instigated his own persecution tbf

read that and, for a second, thought you meant lebron james.

yes, i know; different lj's.

oh! ok. I can see that. xp when I see lj I think "Cool Cool LJ"

It's not really imago's taste in music that is deliberately "clever", it's his elaborate schematics for the terms on which he 'a prepared to like things. Like if "type of way" must be judged in terms of its literate was on the scale of one to def jux maybe we should pass over in silence instead.

Or "he's prepared" even.

it has to fit his "art-school aesthetic"

Stupid phone - that was supposed to be "literateness" btw

Hmmm. I think LJ is a long way away from playing at "legitimizing the Beatles because they use flat-VI and flat-III chords". But whatever. If anybody wants to have a discussion about why I attribute the enormous success of the second Katy Perry record to "its excellent counterpoint choices" I'll be over here.

kinda want his long form post on ram tbh

I like Kacey more than Brandy as well and it's partly because Kacey brings an absolute boatload of personality to the table, you can just tell she's a WKIW kind of pop star. It's about performance as much as songwriting. The Brandy album is okay but kind of slips past me, it's almost *too* songwriterly, even if I'd like the same songs with a different performer.

would totally agree that kacey has more charisma than brandy but the thing is i can't imagine how else i'd want brandy's songs performed - she delivers each one pretty much as it should be

I associate the Haim / Paramore / Sky Ferreira / 1975 albums together in my head, though they clearly come from very different angles and cater for different audiences (like, if you're basically into the idea of populist rock music you might like one or probably even two, but only my forever bros ITT like all four).

tbqh tim i can't believe after all these years you're suddenly like "rock music is better than beyoncé". judas.

judas.

hahahaha

poptimists rise up; silence the heretic.

beyonce would possibly be my number one if I was revoting, but anyone who thinks Paramore and The 1975 is rockist presumably spent a lot of time not actually reading ILM all those years.

they're both practically death-metal acts!

Something about their alchemical relationship to the past - in each case it's clear they're reviving things but it's never obvious exactly what

This applies to some of these bands some of the time, but I'm not so sure it's generally true. I am just now listening to the Sky Ferreira album all the way through and I think that if you could somehow travel back in time and slip some of these songs onto college radio in the 80s, my 80s listening self would not bat and eyelid.

I also wonder if you are saying that you can't independently identify the various strands that are being revived by these bands. In other words, is it hard to pin down what is being revived because it's various things all at once (a little freestyle rhythm, a little 70s style songwriting, etc.), or is it something more mysterious than that?

I think Japanese bands might be ahead of the curve on this sort of thing (retro but what is it retro-ing?), but that's probably just my biases talking. Tokyo Jihen - Metro (That's quite pop incidentally.)

guys i've got a clever way of demonstrating why imago's patronising cleverness is beneath me, anyone interested in hearing my insights?

yes.

Would you like him in a box? Would you like him with a fox?

It's a crime that the final album from Jasper, TX (An Index of Failure) didn't make this list. Then again, only one of my nominations even made the Top 100 so.

(sorry -- excruciatingly long text-dump of basically all my >1-ns opinions ahead, plz skip if uninterested)

ok so i only voted for 3 albums on this poll (up from 1 last yr). basically i am still not a big albums listener and even the ones i enjoy generally end up in this territory where each listen is certainly rewarding in some way yet it's phenomenally difficult to force myself to proceed beyond the ~fifth full listen. the ones i voted for were the few that sort of broke free from that and got wholly under my skin. NONETHELESS i did hear a decent amount of the albums that made the list so here we go…

64 CIARA Ciara in the week leading up to this one's release -- with "body party" and a bass-heavy remix both burning up r&b airwaves, a fantastic performance on the bet awards, and the amazing "i'm out" video dropping -- there was pretty much nothing that could have excited me more than the thought of having this album. the full thing didn't quite live up to that excitement, but aside from the excellent singles, it also delivered plenty of nice jams like "super turnt up", "overdose" (or was that a single?) and "livin' it up". ciara feat ciara remains inspired.
51 ASHLEY MONROE Like a Rose this is an album i'd like to revisit soon now that i'm thinking about it. enjoyable for sure, but perhaps less accessible to newer country fans like me than the other albums along this vein from the year.
43 JON HOPKINS Immunity actually rather liked this one. wouldn't say it exactly encapsulates a 'story of a night out' like much of the press seemed to say, but it certainly has an appealing sonic arc to it. i found the ambient half more to my taste, with "abandon window" being my highlight and "collider" the closest thing to a stinker. "sun harmonics" which sort of combined the propulsion of the latter w/ the smoothened texture of the former was also v nice. album will prob be a minor incidental play fixture on reality shows or as tv spot background, which might make u laugh depending on whether you like or hate it.
34 MILEY CYRUS Bangerz haven't spent a whole lot of time with this but i have a feeling only about a half of it will connect in the end: the singles of course (just heard "adore you" on the radio the other night and it sounds great there) + other highlights like "drive". who knows tho! if not for a certain other album that came out last-minute last yr this would be one i'd point to as the 2013 pop-cultural artifact.
32 ARIANA GRANDE Yours Truly "the way" and "right there" were def some nice rhythmic radio jams. not everything has revealed itself to me -- could easily do w/o the last two tracks + maybe a couple of the more nauseatingly old-timey ones -- but lots of neat songs here. gotta love "piano". "baby i" is the best b/c she sounds completely gleeful, just letting herself go on the emotional ride even if it might pull her along too fast, her vocal appropriately both effortless and frenzied.
29 HOLDEN The Inheritors umm i guess this is for the dance/electronic music purists who are more 'connected to the tradition' or w/e and are aghast @ cute-n-cuddly stuff like jon hopkins getting mainstream crit love. i've only given this two full listens thus far but it seems like for each track that engages me there's another to match it that's just completely dull, plodding, meandering w/ all sorts of noodling that does nothing for me (except the saxophone in that one track which i like). thankfully many of the good tracks come consecutively so i might just delete the ones i don't like and pretend it's an ep or something.
28 TEGAN & SARA Heartthrob this is one of those weird albums for me where all the songs are good but none of them are great. still nice to hear "closer" or "i was a fool" come on shuffle or something tho.
26 TIM HECKER Virgins only recently heard this for the first time but have a feeling i'll really get into it!! only other one i'd heard from him before was mirages which was... nice, but in a completely forgettable way, so i was pretty surprised at how good this is. i never have anything resembling a clear idea what drone music is supposed to represent and my attempts to even describe why i do or don't like some of it thus feel like contrived crap, but i love what the sounds are doing here throughout: what sounds like footsteps creeping in some corner, the repeated piano line played with such intent but w/ tormented arrhythmic fumbles lurking in, the jarring compression-like start-stops. whatever it 'means' (it doesn't matter, b/c i don't know what my favorite ambient records mean), there's a lot there to thrill me and i'm excited to keep listening.
24 BOARDS OF CANADA Tomorrow's Harvest dull tbh, can't even really think of anything to say about it. only bought it b/c it was discounted one day and i had quite liked "reach for the dead" (and still do tbf).
22 BRANDY CLARK 12 Stories truly gorgeous at moments. i can't hop fully on board this one b/c there's something about her delivery that comes up ever so slightly short on some songs, however incisively they're all written, but when it all aligns, as on "what'll keep me out of heaven" and "just like him", it's magic. also i kind of don't like "take a little pill". like yes, the pill is a v powerful metaphor for the modern-day quick-fix that we are all-too-often eager to stack upon itself until the problems we're trying to remedy have ultimately transmuted to something unrecognizable and somewhat horrifying, but on the other hand... shit, people already face enough pressure not to treat or even acknowledge mental health issues. basically all press i've seen on that song favorably views it as being about addiction to prescription drugs, but every time i hear it it seems quite plainly to be about medication in general, so... no thanks, don't need that mess. still love ya tho brandy.
20 KURT VILE Walkin On a Pretty Daze i was super excited for this b/c smoke ring was probably my favorite album from its year, but i must say i was faintly disappointed w/ this. maybe it's b/c the sunny vibe of the first track didn't mesh totally (or at all) w/ how i was feeling, whereas smoke ring really tapped into what i was feeling @ the time -- but more likely it's that 2/3 of the tracks have an obvious analog from the previous album in sound and even occasionally lyrics (altho at least he didn't flat-out reuse lyrics like he used to do, or maybe he did and i didn't notice). i would have preferred something that felt like newer territory for him but it's still a good album.
17 CHARLI XCX True Romance it was hard for me to get too excited about this b/c so many of its tracks had dropped over the past couple of years (all of which were worse than "stay away" tbh) BUT this was still a worthwhile listen. i actually deleted a decent number of the tracks but there's plenty of good here too. i feel like "what i like" made me finally kind of understand the charli xcx aesthetic after all this time.
14 M.I.A. Matangi another recent listen for me. i was worried it'd be another mess like her 3rd album but it's good!! there are a few songs where i just totally tune out but then you've got "yala" and "sexodus" and the like so i'm pretty cool w/ it.
12 DAWN RICHARD Goldenheart i think i'm too stupid for this album? i bought it very excitedly but didn't end up listening to it much. "'86" was catnip for me last year prob partly b/c peter gabriel's so is one of my favorite albums -- and yet the "in your eyes" interpolation in the identically-titled next track sounded so labored. (i know people liked it! and the whole album! i just wasn't one of them? it was sad to admit.)
10 KANYE WEST Yeezus i know this has nothing to do w/ the album but parts of its promotion kinda bugged me, like the audience/press constantly had to be reminded that there were no radio singles and that there's no album cover (even tho oops, there were singles and that stupid omnipresent image of the blank cd in the jewel case with the red sticker IS effectively the album cover), like we were battered with the idea that 'this is reaching u authentically + ~organically~' forever before we even heard it all. BUT despite all that it was much better than mbdtf and i actually became somewhat interested in him again.
8 PARAMORE Paramore man this would be an amazing album if it were a bit shorter and scrubbed clean of "now" and the other forgettable ones. "ain't it fun" is a monster and it hit me really hard -- it's like a megadose of the feeling that pervades the rest of the album's runtime in digestible little pieces, growing up and feeling free but also/especially finally feeling the weight of having to find your own way.
7 THE KNIFE Shaking the Habitual i think i kinda said this in the tracks rollout but i got more enjoyment out of reading reviews that were basically apologies for not liking the album than i did out of listening to the album. "full of fire" is cool tho.

aaaaand the ones that were on my ballot (in 3-2-1 order)...

5 SKY FERREIRA Night Time, My Time
maybe it was inevitable that i was gonna like this? i've been a sky fan since "one" (it was my favorite track in 2010) and believed in her potential ever since, even if she dropped some occasionally patchy material. even so i never would have imagined that the album she'd ultimately release would be so well received, here or in the critical sphere. but despite everything that should have predisposed me to loving this on first listen, it was actually initially a fairly jarring experience -- i remember getting through the final crescendo leading up to that gasp that ends the album and feeling almost disoriented. yet i had to listen again.

so yeah, there are all those rough edges and that vaguely unfinished quality that ppl always mention, but they softened out within a few listens, and for me the thing that kept sticking out was how skeptical, distrustful, and self-deprecating she is on the record: even as "24 hours" sonically evokes the sheer overwhelming glory of young love ephemera, we've got her singing about how you could say she's a cynic; on the bizarrely infectious "kristine" (one of my favorite tracks), hanging out with her rich fashion buddies leaves her feeling like an empty fraud ("pretending i am, what's the point of saving? ... but i'm never working, i'm just spending"); on my other favorite, "i blame myself", she's placing herself at the center of all the transgressions she's endured as the room previously occupied by all the machinelike guitars gives way for the bubblegum synths and her own emotional space. it says a lot that all three of those, despite how different they sound, are just as catchy and compulsively replayable to me. she delivered.

9 KACEY MUSGRAVES Same Trailer Different Park
real talk! i guess. i mean, sure, there's plenty of it, but what i really loved about this album wasn't so much that she's just 'telling it like it is,' but rather how powerfully she creates her world's overwhelming sense of inertia as she, yes, rather deftly picks apart its uncomfortable realities. after the semi-optimistic one-two punch of the first two tracks unexpectedly leads her right into the thick of it with "merry go 'round", she's lost: lost and wanting movement but feeling like it's all hopeless ("dandelion"), finding movement but scared not to know where it's all headed ("back on the map"), relieved to get somewhere nice and yet still feeling empty ("i miss you"). the killer for me is "keep it to yourself", her delicate delivery only just revealing the depth of her feeling for this man; she tells him off and feels his pain in the same cold breath. "follow your arrow" probably does more for the pr angle than it does for the actual album, and i rarely ever feel like listening to it on its own, but it's actually quite lovable tucked toward the end the way it is, the last positive note before we watch her languidly accept the way things are on the at-first charming but ultimately devastating "it is what it is". my emotional-car-listening album of the year.

4 BEYONCÉ Beyoncé
first of all, lol at me for even believing the people who said that this album coming out late would favor its chances for #1 on the poll. i mean yeah, the surprise wasn't nothing: i've never been one who would instantly buy a beyonce album with little second thought, but there was just something about the way it dropped, the whole package, the way it was presented, that convinced me it could be something special that i just had to listen to right away. there may or may not have been a moment during my first listen/viewing when i legitimately pondered whether this would be one of the best albums i've ever heard; every track seemed like it was giving unexpected, inspired touches that completely electrified me: the satisfied giggle punctuating her incredible and seemingly effortless "drunk in love" verse, "xo" pulling hard on both end of my heartstrings just as she rides the crest of the rollercoaster, her delivery of "i'm just jealous / i'm just human / don't judge me", the expertly deployed chimamanda adichie sample used to jaw-dropping effect at just the moment when i was expecting something else entirely.

i guess i became somewhat more level-headed about it later on after the excitement of the release itself had diminished, the radios stopped playing the album in its entirety and the individual songs started taking on lives of their own. but despite all that, it still completely thrills me with every listen, and it demanded that i listen repeatedly. the videos are no fluff: they tell a cohesive story of a black woman painfully navigating the rules largely set by white men while pretending it's all painless, all for success she finds increasingly hollow; how she later revels in the joy of using sexuality for her own benefit and asserts her own personal power; how she copes with loss and finds relief, hope, and satisfaction in motherhood and community. the videos tie together all the disparate electrifying moments that the album's songs deliver -- and they makes the whole story, purchased by over a million people before the year even finished, even more explicitly about race and gender.

2013 was the year in which i, after having spent ~8 years relentlessly pursuing grades, academic awards, money, and other qualifications that i gradually began to view as meaningless and arbitrary, began a huge struggle with depression and suddenly dropped out of graduate school, only to start bouncing around aimlessly and wondering if i had just wasted my entire young life or if i'm even fit to do anything else other than what i had groomed myself to do. on the night when bey's album dropped and i was lying on my bed watching "pretty hurts" for the first time and i saw her plunge into that pool of water, clutching her head in pain as the echoes of "what is your aspiration in life?" rang through her mind like a rude awakening -- that was the first moment of many that hit me really hard. i have a feeling i'm not completely alone there. people often cynically dismiss pop music as an exercise in trying to create something that as many people as possible will interpret as being "for" them so that they'll buy it, but bey reminded me that it can be quite an amazing thing.

… ok, done now. thanks for everyone who put everything together and who voted etc. for making this such an enjoyable time to reflect. maybe i'll listen to some of these other albums sometime, esp the ones w/ tracks i loved this yr on them. i may be an album person yet.

good post dyl, keep yr head up

yeah nice work man.

booming post, was very pleased when i saw that dyl was my top neighbor in the tracks spreadsheet

really enjoyed reading that dyl post

yeah that way of giving someone a window into how things impact you is really hard to do well but that was really interesting & thoughtful

thanks for the kind words, really appreciate it

and some dude i was pleased too :)

i knew this after voting closed unfortunately and before it placed in the poll, but jeez that ashley monroe album is incredible.

she's playing a small club in april in nyc that I'm working; looking forward to it.