Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

Indie guitar music has always been the style it's safe to hate on ILM.

Is that indie guitar music or "indie" "guitar" "music" that we're slagging here

every year i'm always so fuckin blown away by how much interesting-looking stuff i've been unaware of, 99.99% of which is not the national. i'm glad we do this for the information in the process + don't care very much at all about the results when it comes down to it.

Oh, I do love the results. It sucks knowing that most of my favorite stuff doesn't resonate with many other people, but I love being able to peep in to sectors of ilm I normally don't follow and find out what they've liked the most.

so did anyone notice the fuckup with nosnitsky's blurb in the wire rewind issue? Either they've accidentally reprinted his 2012 writeup or he's due one hell of a latepass.

I didn't see that but the blurb for the Laurel Halo record (#2 in their overall list) made it sound like they hadn't listened to that album or the one before it either (which was #1 in last year's poll). don't have the quote to hand but i think it said something about the "auto-tuned" vocals on Quarantine being one of the component parts of Chance of Rain. nuh uh, wrong on both counts

In 2012 rap music was more fragmented than ever, with splinters both brilliant and dull. Last year’s lively experimental underground fizzled almost completely as its harbingers like Odd Future and Lil B retreated into their niches, and later interlopers like ASAP Rocky and Trinidad James grafted their swag onto more hollow and glossier forms. Instead some of the genre’s strangest mutations took place inside the major label system – Future found legitimate beauty in Auto-Tuned spitup on Pluto and Kendrick Lamar turned his average life into an slithery and spacey opera with “Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City”. Even Nicki Minaj took time out of her pop radio dominance to sprinkle her Roman Reloaded with a handful of eye, ear and skull popping performances. A nihilistic but vital new breed of youth oriented street rap blossomed via YouTube, with teens like Chicago’s Chief Keef and Washington DC’s Shy Glizzy realising that a HD camera makes for a cheaper (and wiser) investment than a brick of cocaine. Waka Flocka, an apparent influence on Keef, lost the script on his own sophomore album but his old Brick Squad mentor Gucci Mane caught a welcome second wind with a trio of mixtapes. Californian kids, on the other hand, seemed wholly unconcerned with the trappings of the trap, as producers like DJ Mustard and Iamsu pushed their high energy, clap heavy strain of Ratchet party rap instead. The rap game may be in a complete state of chaos, but at least that leaves a lot of options.

Indie guitar music has always been the style it's safe to hate on ILM.

just for the record i'll probably have at least 3 or 4 straight-up indie rock records on my ilx ballot (savages, esben & the witch, implodes) and there's a bunch of other stuff i liked (deerhunter, iceage, polvo) so i was being somewhat tongue in cheek there.

xp wuh!?

Yep that's in the print and digital editions. Oops!

maybe it's metacommentary idk

it is the Rewind issue after all

yeah, i saw that and didn't know if it was a goof or an amazing prank or what

wtf that really sucks.

tbf that is more recognisable as 2013 than the one that claims abrasive conceptual techno is the only dance music these days

Nice to see Pitchfork mention the Classixx album. Probably the most underrated album of the year for me.

http://www.cvltnation.com/cvlt-nations-top-6-doom-records-2013/

6. GRAVECODE NEBULA: Sempiternal Void
5. USNEA: Self Titled Album
4. LYCUS: Tempest
3. Primitive Man: Scorn LP
2. SUBROSA: More Constant Than The Gods
1. WINDHAND: SOMA

My usual year-end summary and lists:
http://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-13/

there were vocals on Chance of Rain, at least on a couple of tracks, but they were cut up and buried deep in the mix

What's the Tears for Fears sample on the Classixx album? Or are they somehow confusing them with Baltimora?

Oh, and for the first time, a Spotify playlist in addition to my mix:
http://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/5eUKwdDfwsCQDko9fENfNV

man huge ditto to that classix being underrated

Textura's Year End Lists
http://www.textura.org/reviews/2013top10s.htm

TOP 20 ALBUMS (and 20 HONOURABLE MENTIONS)

01. Special Request: Soul Music (Houndstooth)
02. Causa Sui: Euporie Tide (El Paraiso Records)
03. Chantal Acda: Let Your Hands Be My Guide (Gizeh)
04. Caleb Burhans: Evensong (Cantaloupe)
05. Bruno Heinen Sextet: Tierkreis (Babel)
06. The Knife: Shaking the Habitual (Mute)
07. Liam Singer: Arc Iris (Hidden Shoal)
08. 17 Pygmies: Isabel (17 Pygmies)
09. The Knells: The Knells (New Amsterdam)
10. Arborea: Fortess of the Sun (EPSK)
11. Julia Kent: Character (Leaf)
12. Lubomyr Melnyk: Corollaries (Erased Tapes)
13. Wadada Leo Smith & Tumo: Occupy the World (TUM)
14. Eluvium: Nightmare Ending (Temporary Residence)
15. Mary Halvorson Septet: Illusionary Sea (Firehouse 12 Records)
16. Nuage: Music of Branches (Absys)
17. Graveyard Tapes: Our Sound is Our Wound (Lost Tribe Sound)
18. bvdub: Born in Tokyo (n5MD)
19. James McVinnie: Cycles (Bedroom Community)
20. A Little Orchestra: Clocks (A Little Orchestra)
21. Nadia Sirota: Baroque (Bedroom Community)
22. DjRUM: Seven Lies (Echo Empire)
23. Cakewalk: Transfixed (Hubro)
24. Orange Yellow Red: A Rose Made of Galaxies (Saint Marie Records)
25. Black Jazz Consortium: Codes and Metaphors (Soul People Music)
26. Oddisee: The Beauty in All (Mello Music Group)
27. Recondite: Hinterland (Ghostly)
28. Day: Land of 1000 Chances (PL70)
29. Talvihorros: Eaten Alive (Facture)
30. Dadub: You Are Eternity (Stroboscopic Artefacts)
31. The Foreign Exchange: Love in Flying Colours (+FE Music)
32. Floorplan: Paradise (M-Plant)
33. Daniel Bortz: Patchwork Memories (Suol)
34. Jessy Lanza: Pull My Hair (Hyperdub)
35. Om Unit: Threads (Civil Music)
36. Ben Lukas Boysen: Gravity (Ad Noiseam)
37. Seba: Identity (Secret Operations)
38. Pillo-Oh: Vanishing Mirror (Kitchen.)
39. Daniel Wohl: Corps Exquis (New Amsterdam)
40. Big Deal: June Gloom (Mute)

10 COMPILATIONS AND MIXES

01. VA: dBridge Presents Mosaic Vol. 2 (Exit Records)
02. VA: Livity Sound (Livity Sound)
03. Foreign Exchange: The Reworks (+Fe Music)
04. Calibre: Fabric 68 (Fabric)
05. VA: Future Disco Vol. 6 Night Moves (Needwant)
06. VA: Scope (Samurai Horo)
07. VA: Your Victorian Breasts (Three:Four)
08. VA: Joy (Schole)
09. Cassy: Fabric 71 (Fabric)
10. John Morales: Presents the M&M Mixes Volume 3 by John Morales (BBE)

10 EPS / SINGLES / 12-INCH DISCS / MINI-ALBUMS

01. David Åhlén: Selah (Mishkan)
02. Kate Simko: Lost in London (Get Physical)
03. Elektroguzzi: Cashmere (Macro)
04. Lullatone: Summer Songs / Falling For Atumn (Lullatone)
05. dBridge: Move Way (R&S Records)
06. Anile: All This Time / That Night (CIA Deepkut)
07. Gerwin & Nuage ft. 2shy: Lying Portraits (Zero T Reprint) / Soul Truth (Bungle Remix) (IM:LTD)
08. Pennygiles & Phil Tangent: Stories Untold / We Don't Talk Anymore (IM:LTD)
09. Seba: 20 Shades Of Me & You / Never Let You Go (Blu Mar Ten Remix) (Warm Communications)
10. Coal: Ontology (Gravite)

Nice to finally find a list that has more than two titles that overlap with my own. But I really need to hear that Cakewalk record (among others, obv.)

08. 17 Pygmies: Isabel (17 Pygmies)

whoah! another thing to track down, it's on Spotify

this thread is wonderul, so many things that I missed, inevitably
no time to catch up in full, of course, but this thread is giving me so many ideas
thanks to all

The Obelisk Presents: The Top 20 of 2013
http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2013/12/16/the-obelisk-presents-the-top-20-of-2013/

Louder Than War's Albums Of the Year
https://louderthanwar.com/louder-than-wars-albums-of-the-year-2013-100-51/

Metal Hammer’s Top 50 Albums Of 2013 (up to 11)
http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/features/metal-hammers-top-50-albums-of-2013-15-11/

Rest of Louder That War:
https://louderthanwar.com/louder-than-wars-albums-of-the-year-2013-100-51/
http://louderthanwar.com/louder-than-wars-albums-of-the-year-2013-50-1/

12 Deveykus, Pillar Without Mercy - omgz whiney love u forever

my crew at the Baltimore City Paper did a top 10 albums list and a top 10 local albums list and lots and lots of other top 10s by genre: http://citypaper.com/news/issue-51-2013-top-ten-1.1602562

mordy, you deserve props for that one. I saw your recommendation on ILX, went back into my emails, downloaded the promo and loved it

What everyone's been waiting for: http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/9293-the-top-50-albums-of-2013/

Some of it is puzzling - Old at #5? Did people (and by that, I mean Pitchfork writers obv) like that album that much? Majical Cloudz in the top 10?

Putting Yeezus at #2 behind VW is kinda unexpected, I guess.

I mean, I listened to bits of that Majical Cloudz album when it was being streamed and… it did not strike me as an EOY-list-making album, I'll leave it at that.

Those individual ballots are much more interesting than the actual Top 50. Quite a few Beyonce votes, despite not showing up in either of the final lists.

And just by reading those you can tell things like who is the resident metal fan, and who frequents ILM.

Old at #5? Did people (and by that, I mean Pitchfork writers obv) like that album that much?

I guess Pitchfork writers did, but it's probably in my top 5 as well. At least the top 10.

Majical Cloudz album is great - that and VW are the only two of list that overlap with my own. I think Impersonator can feel simple or samey on first listen but I found it stark, compelling, and magnetic by third time around.

Fill yr boots with hum:

A Closer Listen 2013: Top Ten Drone
http://acloserlisten.com/2013/12/18/acl-2013-top-ten-drone/

Aquarelle ~ August Undone (Students of Decay)
Daniel Menche ~ Marriage of Metals (Editions MEGO)
Ennio Mazzon ~ Xuan (Nephogram)
EUS ~ Sol Levit (Contradicta)
Main ~ Ablation (Editions MEGO)
Pausal ~ Sky Margin (Own Records)
Petrels ~ Onkalo (Denovali)
Secret Pyramid ~ Movements of Night (Students of Decay)
Shoganai ~ ショウガナイ (Self-released)
Svarte Greiner ~ Black Tie (Miasmah)

Quietus - Best Metal of 2013
http://thequietus.com/articles/14102-the-quietus-end-of-year-metal-chart-2013

I'm pretty sure I prefer Old to XXX

I spent some time with Old this year, but it isn't one of my favorite records this year. Think in the end I like watching interviews with Danny Brown more than listening to his music, seems like he'd be fun to hang out with.

Although his music is pretty fun as well of course! I've got tickets to see him early next year.

the pitchfork albums list was weird this year.

Somehow I can't imagine anything called 'Magikal Cloudz' ever being good, except maybe an NES platform game, and if that was the aesthetic they were going for then God help us if there's a war.

Majical Cloudz, plz

I like Random Access Memories a little less every day, but DL makes a hell of a case for it right here:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/dec/18/best-albums-2013-daft-punk-random-access-memories

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yeesh, pitchfork top 10 is....not good.

enjoying how every time I click on a different story on the Guardian music section today that popup appears. that's sure to prove a hit with the readership

I hadn't read that comment by S/FJ before on Daft Punk - "The duo has become so good at making records that I replay parts of Random Access Memories repeatedly while simultaneously thinking it is some of the worst music I've ever heard … This record raises a radical question: does good music need to be good?" lol

sasha go hard