Yo P&J, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but ILX had the greatest 2009 poll of all time! All time! (2009 ILX Trax Poll Results: TOP TEN TODAY)

I love the line "caught in the switch of the flow," on that FotL song. So great, especially with that full-throttle delivery. The climax of that song has so much more drama, for want of a better word, than it has any right to. Shit just sounds huge and important. Fucking brilliant.

COME ON RICK

EVERYBODY

Haha at Empire State of Mind (my #1 in case you didn't guess). I was expecting a pasting for it too, thanks for holding back.

cool song

nice!!!

FOTL is smashing - yeah McClusky!!!!

i coulda sworn that was 2008 tho too

They're Mclusky 2.0 (can't remember how many members made the move).

If I recall, the guitarist/vocalist and the drummer made the move; the bassist split off into another band.

yah shooting at unarmed men

I was expecting a pasting for it too, thanks for holding back.

it sort of arrived pre-pasted.

and as someone who kinda dug mcclusky and then forgot about them, i'm now intrigued by fotl. that song rocks pretty well.

by the way The Dynasty album is the second best Jay album, so you list makers are tripping.

Awesome! (xpost)

yay fotl! i'm glad everyone else is happy about this

this should've been the blurb beneath the youtube btw

DEEP IN THE HEART OF THE BATTLE

― k3vin k., Friday, November 6, 2009 11:05 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

CAUGHT IN THE SWITCH OF THE FLOOOOO-OOW

― k3vin k., Friday, November 6, 2009 11:06 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

FREE! DOM! FROM NOTES! SHE! SELLS! FREE! DOM! FROM! SOOOOOOOONGGGGGGGS!

― The looming shadow of the big baller/shot caller (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, November 6, 2009 2:19 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that's an agreeable spot for 'empire state of mind' -- 'american gangster' is NOT GOOD AT ALL - can't believe actual critics fell for that junk - it's pretty good sonically but jay never stopped falling off as a rapper after 'kingdom come'

So is the rest of this FotL album as good as this?

not as immediate/anthemic as that but it's a fantastic record

18 -- The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero (14 votes, 147.5 points) (6 in P&J, 6 in p4k)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmGNo8RL5kM

would have been my #1 if i did trax voting

wonder if "heads will roll" is gonna show up - don't dislike "zero" at all but compared to HWR it's kinda negligible to me

i like "heads will roll" a lot better, but i can't really quibble with that

i agree w/ that last sentiment

yeah, i love 'zero' but am hoping that ILX bucks the trend and shows HWR as the superior single. no way it didn't place if 'hysteric' made it.

dogpile can start here: damned if i can figure out why yyy are so damn popular amongst the crit/indie set

POP

1. Karen O is unconventionally cute
2. her vocal delivery is Indiecrit Catnip 101
3. the whole artskool punks develop into pop band aesthetic is Indiecrt Catnip 102

i liked abt half of fever to tell but then

like rich and pin are good songs

1. maybe? i don't see it so much?
2. definitely, but it's just caterwauling to me
3. this sounds like sub-pop aesthetic to me; nothing here really gets me in the coccyx

but yeah, i'm fronting with the "HOW can ANYONE love this" attitude; I guess I know very well why this is so well received. It just doesn't resonate for me.

karen o is about the only woman around who's picked up and run with the baton of the toris, polly jeans and courtneys of my teenage years - i find her kind of awe-inspiring

i'm also super-impressed at the evolution of the band - i loved their early material but no way did i think they'd be around even a couple of years later - the melancholy country-tinged stuff on their second album was a real revelation, and it's not too great a step from there to what they're doing on it's blitz, which isn't really so much notable for its use of synths or pop hooks (they always had pop hooks!) but its confidently epic scope - everything on the album just makes me think of wide open spaces and freedom.

"date with the night" and "bang" are still amazing rock songs

i h8 everything but "maps" w/ a passion but i definitely understand (or at least am not surprised or flummoxed) by their popularity

liked a few of their earlier stuff, didn't see what the fuss was about (this was in the midst of indie rock NME revolution nonsense) and left it. really quite taken with It's Blitz, which is the first YYYs album I've heard all the way through. don't see any real comparison with the other GADP stuff, although I don't think Phoenix sits well in that category either. It's pretty basic pop/rock, just done really well as far as i can tell.

I am going to avoid having yet another "ppl are mental, the middle of It's Blitz! is absolutely the best part" conversation with Lex by ducking out and running to the Apple store to window shop. ^_^

i'm also far from an expert on this but i love how each member of the band is so distinct - the guitars and drums have just as much personality as the voice, which is REALLY rare among indie bands as far as i can tell

they transitioned from early internet/brooklyn buzz band to well-respected mainstream pop-rock act almost seamlessly--one of the more interesting music stories of the 2000s imo

i love tori and pj (and conditionally, hole) plenty; but yyy just sound flat and unimaginative here. i'd prefer paramore 9Xoutta10.

is zero in a national ad yet? I feel like it could easily replace the "SAVED BY ZERO" commercials

i love how each member of the band is so distinct

yeah i'm not a huge fan, but they're sort of objectively good -- they can really play, which i don't mean in some rockist way, just that they have real crackle. i've never seen them live but i bet they're fun to watch.

yeah the drummer is good and it seems like the guitarist has some ideas -- really it's mainly the screeching olive oyl in the bowl cut that puts me off them

wonder if "heads will roll" is gonna show up

Top 10 prediction, you heard it here first. :)

youd swear GAPDY was like "the irascibles" the way ppl have started referring to it

my only problem with this track (and with the album as a whole) is that there's something about the production that homogenizes all the sounds into a kind of sheen. it's offputting for me

yeah I think HWR is better and will be top 10

I don't get the love for "Heads Will Roll". I love the buildup of "Zero", whereas HWR just kind of is what it is from the beginning, and what it is is rather dull. But I loathe this band, "Zero" excepted.

au contraire, i think HWR has a great build aspect. gets fiercer as it goes on.

HWR is great but Zero is a total monster. The bit where the the beat drops back in for the second verse was probably my favourite musical moment of 2009. Utterly transporting live, as well. My favourite single of 2005 was Destroy Everything You Touch and Zero has some of the same huge, ecstatic menace.

I like the sequencer in this track. A lot. I Dunno how I missed out the YYYs last year, but I'm making up for it now. Show Yr Bones was kind of a snooze, I thought, so I didn't rush out to get this one, which was obviously a mistake. I would also like to own a sculpture of Karen O as she appears in that video.

17 -- The xx - Crystalised (11 votes, 157.5 points) (33 in P&J, 16 in p4k)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pib8eYDSFEI

imo YYYs best single is still "turn into". love it's blitz! but don't see any reason to have three of its singles represented here, but oh well

xp