Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

Delighted to see Sleaford Mods getting some Norman love.

i think people would like the new bardo pond if they bothered to listen to it

i wanna hear both of those!

'Jobseeker' will be making an appearance in my tracks list, but I haven't heard the album all the way through (xpost re: Sleaford Mods).

Hookworms haven't really had much ilx love, which is a shame. They're not doing anything completely crazy, but certainly one of the best live bands I've seen. Also nice to see the J-Grü album in the Norman list, but that is not an ilxy record.

Is Dustin Wong making any lists? His album is really interesting and good and not tooooooo weird. What about Earthless?

Was gonna say Bardo Pond

The Earthless record rules.

I'd say more people should hear the Frankie Rose and Wax Idols albums but, based on the reaction to Savages, the number of people who really dig post-punk/gothy female musicians in 2013 is pretty low.

(reaction HERE, I should clarify)

I like what I've heard from that Hookworms album a lot. Like you say, it's nothing too different, psychedelic rock for the most part but it's done particularly well.

I prefer the Veronica Falls album to the Joanna Gruesome, even if it is a bit shinier. Have VF appeared anywhere yet?

just couldn't love that Savages album, couldn't work out what was supposed to be good about it and its influences were just a little too obviously marked out.

You can hear the Sleaford Mods album here: http://sleafordmods.bandcamp.com/album/austerity-dogs

Half the tracks were first released on 2011's Wank, but tracks 1-5 & 7 are new this year.

Bardo Pond, Autechre, Rashad Becker, Grumbling Fur, Carcass, Matmos, Joanna Gruesome, Haxan Cloak

Filed Hookworms under "decent" iirc but haven't returned to it.

Norman Records list is obv refreshing but it's still pretty homogeneous and comfortable in its indie/drone furrow. The great thing about the ILM poll is how it's truly all over the shop and you're likely to come out having discovered a new genre you never knew about before.

that's all true, but even ilm has its own brand element of homogeneity.

Really? What is it?

Sure, there are definitely things that ILM likes/dislikes more than the rest of the world does, but the top 77 albums and singles lists still cover an awful lot of ground.

I prefer the Veronica Falls album to the Joanna Gruesome, even if it is a bit shinier. Have VF appeared anywhere yet?

― famous for hits! (seandalai), Monday, November 25, 2013 2:43 PM (5 minutes ago)

Not as far as I'm aware. They don't sound anything like Joanna Gruesome, though!

Half the tracks were first released on 2011's Wank, but tracks 1-5 & 7 are new this year.

― mike t-diva, Monday, November 25, 2013 2:44 PM (4 minutes ago)

Ah, okay, so I probably have heard most of it. How come they're selling it as a new album if it's mostly old stuff, then?

I thought people would be more into Windhand too, speaking of dark/heavy female vocals.

Off that Norman list...

Underrated: Rashad Becker, M. Geddes Gengras, Vision Fortune
Overrated: Tropic of Cancer, Forest Swords, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Not as far as I'm aware. They don't sound anything like Joanna Gruesome, though!

They do a bit imo! Ok, a cross between VF and 90s altrock or something.

I think the main motivation behind the Sleaford Mods LP from this year was to have some of their stuff put on vinyl

that parquet courts... was that this year? was Lescop this year? I would consider voting / nomming these but i'm unsure as to whether they really are 2013 albums.

Joanna Gruesome is the worst band name since the Dandy Warhols, good album or not.

Like to bring your attention to "Salvia Plath" upthread

I thought people would be more into Windhand too, speaking of dark/heavy female vocals.

― sweat pea (La Lechera)

I like the debut more. They tried to stretch out a bit on Soma and it didn't work for me at all.

Speaking of female vocals and an odd heaviness, the new SubRosa is a stunner. More people should check them out.

xpost Kurt Vile... oh wait, that's actually his name I think?

I'd say more people should hear the Frankie Rose and Wax Idols albums but, based on the reaction to Savages, the number of people who really dig post-punk/gothy female musicians in 2013 is pretty low.

I saw Frankie Rose live once at a Chickfactor zine event and at least then, she sounded more twee pop than post-punk or gothy. Not that she wowed me enough anyway to wanna check out her latest album. Savages seemed to quickly draw an audience of US supporters here but also, as implied, drew a sizeable amount of folks not interested in their postpunk 2013 sound

A bunch of us here think very highly of Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, though I have to admit I don't love it as much as I had hoped, based on their debut. It is, frankly, a prog rock concept album; and I wish it were less of one. But there's a lot of great music packed into it. And it tends toward prog metal.

But as far as outliers, at least on ILM's list, I think it could take people by surprise.

I like the YT//ST more than their debut, but it's got a bit too much filler. The high points though? Wow.

I caught some of the Bardo Pond Pharoah Sanders cover and I need to check that album out some evening.

curmudgeon, this is where the new Frankie Rose album kicks into high gear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iztk0ajEq00

This weekend I picked up Musgrave, Paramore, and Carcass albums. My listening is getting very ILMy.

i like the new frankie rose but liked interstellar quite a bit more tbh

ha I'm the exact opposite; I appreciated Interstellar but never really got into whereas the new one was almost an instant "OKAY YES MORE MORE MORE MORE THX"

DJP otm, that was my same experience

Bassekou Kouyaté isn't getting any love yet. He did the best song this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qs7L0VF7KY

I caught some of the Bardo Pond Pharoah Sanders cover and I need to check that album out some evening.

― _Rudipherous_, Monday, November 25, 2013 3:44 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah man - i'd only heard them on some ancient matador comp before but that track is all kinds

Joanna Gruesome is the worst band name since the Dandy Warhols, good album or not.

― a beef supreme (dog latin), Monday, November 25, 2013 3:12 PM (2 hours ago)

Ha, yeah, punning band names are often rubbish. I've got to the stage with these guys that I've almost forgotten it's a reference, though. The album is really good, but it's totally a proper indie record, so why bother trying to rep for something that ilx has its ears completely closed to?

I like the YT//ST more than their debut, but it's got a bit too much filler. The high points though? Wow.

― EZ Snappin, Monday, November 25, 2013 3:43 PM (2 hours ago)

This actually has a chance at being my #1, even though I'm not a massive fan of the slow songs. They work in context, though, and I like its prog conceptness (of course I do). And yeah, the high points are amaaaaazing.

that parquet courts... was that this year?

the full-length was last year. they also put out an EP this year.

and i'm not feeling the new yt // st as much as the last one, but it's still in my personal top 40 of the year.

Parquet Courts' UK release was this year. Hence UK polls featuring it.

x-post- re : Bassekou Kouyaté isn't getting any love yet.

Some of us here on the "world" music thread like him; the afropop worldwide website folks like him, and Pareles and Ratliff at the NY Times seem to like him. But on the other hand, Rokia Traore seemed to be the only African choice so far from some others; and afrobeatz and Singles Jukebox folks prefer African music with programmed beats.

Oh yeah, I know that he's liked on the world thread. I just meant that Jama Ko's been absent so far on published EOY lists. Christgau loves it too.

the full-length was last year. they also put out an EP this year.

The full-length was also reissued on What's Your Rupture in 2013. (It was originally on the lead singer's own label.)

MOJO’s Top 50 Albums Of 2013
http://www.mojo4music.com/9206/mojo-top-50-albums-2013/

1. Bill Callahan – Dream River
2. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
3. David Bowie – The Next Day
4. Arctic Monkeys – AM
5. John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts
6. Deerhunter - Monomania
7. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
8. Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle - Perils From The Sea
9. Nick Cave & The Badd Seeds - Push The Sky Away
10. John Murry - The Graceless Age

OH WOW, fantastic to see this in there:

34. Karen Gwyer - Needs Continuum

Amazing amazing album, like some sort of post-techno version of the drifting fogscapes of Motion Sickness of Time Travel or Grouper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O-8FVm6EvA

^ so good

11. Phosphorescent - Muchacho
12. Prefab Sprout - Crimson/Red
13. My Bloody Valentine - m b v
14. Holden - The Inheritors
15. Queens Of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
16. Factory Floor - Factory Floor
17. Charles Bradley - Victim Of Love
18. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
19. Laura Mvula - Sing To The Moon
20. Pet Shop Boys - Electric
21. Mavis Staples - One True Vine
22. Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle
23. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris
24. Eleanor Friedberger - Personal Record
25. James Blake - Overgrown
26. Villagers - AwayLand
27. Disclosure - Settle
28. Manic Street Preachers - Rewind The Film
29. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
30. Primal Scream - More Light
31. Elvis Costello And The Roots - Wise Up Ghost And Other Songs
32. Glenn Jones - My Garden State
33. Billy Bragg - Tooth & Nail
34. Karen Gwyer - Needs Continuum
35. Midlake - Antiphon
36. Low - The Invisible Way
37. Cate Le Bon - Mug Museum
38. Kanye West - Yeezus
39. Roy Harper - Man & Myth
40. Black Sabbath - 13
41. Goldfrapp - Tales Of Us
42. Paul McCartney - New
43. Haim - Days Are Gone
44. Johnny Marr - The Messenger
45. These New Puritans - Fields Of Reeds
46. Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic
47. Julia Holter - Loud City Song
48. The Flaming Lips - The Terror
49. Tim Hecker - Virgins
50. Time Is A Mountain - Time Is A Mountain