You could have it so much better.....with the ILM albums of 2005

It's my fave album too and I didn't vote for albums either. I wonder what difference would a couple of extra no. 1 votes have made.

:(

I like the smog record!

seriously, from the Pascal Gabriel/Paul Statham (B-Movie!)/Hannah Robinson Rachel contributions (not forgetting Rob Davis (Mud!) + Jewels & Stone and Shelly Poole/Damian Legassick), feel like these are who I should be watching (+ bassline garage?). we know yer names, we know your old bands, we er... like you lots, watch out!

was also my fave album of 2004, but haven't gone back to it much and mostly think of those 4 main songs... so I'd prob put Junior Boys or somat else over it now (but then there is "Heartbeat"...).

I considered this but figured there were other likelier candidates.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/unterwasser/aerial.jpg

Comment:

Still warming up to this one, though considering the absolute disaster it could have been (hello, Red Shoes) this placement may end up being too low upon reflection. The finest compliment I can give Kate's latest one is that it was an immediate reminder of both the elements that attracted me to her records back in my teen years and the reason why I still love them today. There's a sense of risk here, she's not willing to allow safety or embarrassment pull her away from her instincts. Conceptually many of the songs seem quite silly, and reading the lyric sheet certainly reinforces that perception. But songs are made for listening and that's where this album soars. Sure there are some clinkers here, but even the ones that don't quite climb the mountain have an unabashed joy of creativity that make them special. I'll take the 2nd disc over the first, with the unifying "Nocturn" currently my favorite.
Keith Sawyer

other ilxors said:

On first listen, Aerial sounds like a good substitute for sleeping pills. I'm going to give it a second and third chance, 'cause, you know, respect to Kate and all, but this veers dangerously close to Windham Hill territory in places.
-- John Hunter (john_hunter3865...) (webmail), November 1st, 2005 10:21 PM.
So it's basically just another one of those Robert Wyatt-meets-James Joyce-meets Janet Jackson-meets-Joni Mitchell-meets-Fleetwood Mac-meets-The The-meets-Roxy Music sort of records?
Josh in Chicago November 3rd, 2005 4:01 AM.

Aerial b**ches!! Are you hearing this shiznit? King of the Mountain is the jump off, Pi is the f*cking joint, the rest of this sh*t is off the f*cking chain!!

I rather like it.
Dr J Bowman November 7th, 2005 1:50 PM.

Aerial's a Romantic album definitely - landscape imagery, the quest for the Sublime, love and sex - but it seems tempered with a concern for self-sufficiency of musical form that's Classicist. Maybe that's why there's no big Choons: the music's carefully evoking a specific range of emotions. There is lots of passion, ("Mrs Bartolozzi" is positively dirty, excuse the pun) but it's often reflective or remembered: absent lover in "Mrs B", absent mother in "A Coral Room", absent parents in "A Sky of Honey" (?) But they're absences like a Taoist would understand them - necessary centres around which stuff like love happens.
I'm thinking out loud now. I think this is a lot of Aerial's current appeal to me, the formal marshalling of the kitchen sink. Maybe it's also a sort of answer to bugged out earlier. It's not bland, it's self-disciplined.
The Marquis of Cauliflower November 9th, 2005 8:36 PM.

username - ilxalbums
password - ilxor

I voted for "Anniemal" a year ago.

ah sorry i see it was in the top 3 last year!
-- piscesboy (j...), January 18th, 2006 4:43 PM. (later)

Read, then post.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/ilxalbums/broadcast.jpg

Comment:

Broadcast continue to work out their United States of America fetish for our enjoyment. Each album seems to develop more consistency with fewer throwaway tracks. This one has a buzzier lo-fi feel with a tone that I found irresistible though others may feel is a bit harsh. More pop than drone, with "Goodbye Girls" and "Michael A Grammar" as evidence.
Keith Sawyer

other ilxors said:

I keep going on about how much Easier and maybe Better it is than Haha Sound, which is unfair, I have had a lot more time for that record since I heard this one. Maybe because this = their current StateOfMind and is more in keeping with what I always wanted them to be like (clean lines, room to breathe, bouncy-ish), whereas Haha Sound was less so, and sounded vaguely like potential squandered when I first heard it. But now it slots happily into the Broadcast Storybook. A big whirly diversion. So I will probably end up liking it best, eventually.
But this one is bracing fizz and I continue to be delighted by it. "Corporeal" especially (Trish duets with a collapsing building to luscious effect)
Alex in Sheffield August 1st, 2005 3:15 PM.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/ilxalbums/isolee.jpg

Comment:

other ilxors said

every track has so many ideas, it's like they begin and you think "well this is a nice groove", and then more parts keep coming in, like even in the last 30 seconds of some of the tracks something totally new and different will come in, it's so unpredictable and it gives it this massive depth.
So good to have a record you can really dive into!
Ronan May 3rd, 2005 11:45 AM.

OK, so I've been listening to this album a lot as something has been bothering me about it. I have to say that while Isolee is the absolute master of "texture", this album is lacking in direction. No matter how beautiful they sound, the tracks just don't go anywhere. They're almost like beautifully layered interstitial tracks - the problem is I keep waiting for it to really take off - even something as lovely as Schrapnell just seems like verse after verse. Rest was much more fully realized in this regard. As such Wearemonster is a somewhat frustrating experience for me.
Spencer Chow July 18th, 2005 7:17 PM.

I think this album deserves all the acclaim, and "Enrico" is maybe my favorite track -- it's the one I play first for friends who don't already know the album. I love how that track in particularly combines so many improbable things: a schaffel feel (in the breathy vocal stuff), straight techno rhythms, scratchy rhythm guitar, dub effects. And the punchy snare hit that comes around every once in a while is such a perfect sound, perfectly timed.
National Roffle Association December 22nd, 2005 7:09 PM.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/ilxalbums/illinoise.jpg

Comment:

This record may have been hyped a hell of lot, but, if I'm not mistaken, discussion was pretty much limited to Stevens "project" and his abilities as an arranger, with a rave about the subject matter from the natives here and there. What about the fact that Sufjan finally came into his falsetto (see "Concerning the UFO Sighting," "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," and "Zombies," for starters)? What about the fact that the man actually displays a sense of humor? The record is called "Sufjan Stevens invites you to Come On!! Feel the Illinoise!!!" for fuck's sake! Of course the thing is overlong, and yes, there are maybe more than a handful of throwaway songs. And yeah, there is more freakin' majesty leaking out this thing's butt-crack than you could find in the breakfast cereal of the Polyphonic Spree. I mean, Sufjan's doing good work, but that doesn't mean we can't crack a smile at some of his goofy-ass shit. But take it less than deadly serious and you've got yourself a pretty nice little record. That's right, I said "little." At its best, Illinois, is a record of little things. Ferris wheels and books of poetry. Look, a zombie! Hey, a bunch of confederate soldiers' bones just washed up on the bank of river! La dee da! I'm not saying the man is Richard Pryor or anything, just that he's not William Faulkner, and that's just fine.
David Maher

other ilxors said:

I agree Sufjan could definitely benefit from some self-editing, I'm sure that's part of the reason Seven Swans is my favorite of his, it just seems tighter and definitely more lyrically focused. Like Michigan, Illinois can be a little draining to listen to all the way through (which is I'm sure how he intended it to be digested), but there are lots of gems - "Casimir Pulaski Day" is indeed heartbreaking, my personal favorite is probably "Chicago," but "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades" also gets my goosebumps up.
Josh Love June 30th, 2005 2:15 AM.

like a lot of the instrumental tracks and/or interludes on Illinois more than the actual song songs. The Black Hawk War, In this Temple, Out of Egypt etc. they seem more felt and full than the rest of the album. the Pitchfork reviewer (9.2???!) tries to suggest that he doesn't really need to be intimate with his subject matter b/c its all about taking snapshots etc... but i think that is simple and grasping, i think he really did have a problem with proximity to subject matter on this album - you can feel it. ok the treatment is more theatrical/drama and less personal/sober, but still... is he comfortable with that and does it work? anyway, i'm feeling these nonverbal tracks more.
Susan Douglas July 6th, 2005 8:05 AM.

Yes, I sort of agree. Wearemonster just seems to slide past my ears when I put it on.

CREDIBILITY

XPOST

But I still think it's worth defending, it has TUNES!! I'm possibly misreading Spencer but I don't think it's as aimless as he makes it sound at all.

I really do think the album is quite an achievement.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/ilxalbums/blocparty.jpg

Comment:

I got a hold of the Bloc Party album at the end of 2004, and I couldn't stop listening to it for the next three months. Combined with their B-Sides, Bloc Party were immensely entertaining. They put on a great live show, and Matt Tong proved to be a juggernaut on the kit. Time has not been so kind to Kele Okereke's yelping vocals and a couple of the weaker songs, but Bloc Party hangs in at number ten for emerging so fully formed with a distinctive sound.
AS Van Dorston.

other ilxors said:

Bloc Party have got the romantic chord-change down pat. They make my eyes feel too big for my head. I fucking love this record. I'm getting Damon Albarn if he was actually from London and not a cunt. I'm getting Long Fin Killie gone razorsharp. I'm getting early Disco Inferno with less accent on the defeatism. I'm getting Wire. There's a real interest in how the record sounds too - it's beautiful. Tight as hell and rhythmically brilliant. I fucking love this record.
Sick Mouthy January 4th, 2005 10:01 AM.

She's Hearing Voices - This Modern Love - Pioneers - Price Of Gas - So Here We Are is a fantastic sequence of songs. Best on any straight ahead guitar record I've heard in a long time.
Can I be the first to mention late 90s R*d**h**d on this thread, if they were divested of much of the moping and kept the shimmering textures and guitars that don't sound like guitars and serrated Jonny Greenwood solos and good drums.
Matt DC January 4th, 2005 12:36 PM.