(TOP 5 TODAY, MOFOS!) 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 Albums Poll Results)

I can see that if you're talking about Mariah's album, but ER definitely do a lot of different things with their vocals, plus there are 4 of them, 2 of whom have pretty distinctive voices.

Actually i didn't vote for the Broadcast album which I haven't even heard, that was an oversight. And DJ Sprinkles as I've already said I didn't vote for this year.

Easier to mention the things I would have voted for that haven't placed (yet) - Electrik Red, Marcus Nasty, The-Dream, The Very Best, Silkie, The XX, maybe Paramore? Can't remember now. Maybe I didn't vote for Omar-S and Maxwell? I remember having a list of 30 that was very different to narrow down to 20. I really should email musically in order to grab my ballot.

I hadn't bought the Mariah album at the time of voting. I have now and like it but need to absorb it more.

I always seem to end up checking out Mariah albums about six months after they emerge. With super big artists like that I feel fairly placid about listening to their releases cos they're always gonna be (cf. Electrik Red where I've never even seen the album in the shops).

At any rate that would give me an 80%-85% result. Which is more curious to me rather than something to be proud of - like, do I expend so much energy on this stuff only to discover I'm crushingly typical.

If it makes you feel better I'm pretty sure that Marcus Nasty and Silkie will not place in the top five.

Oh absolutely not. That and The Very Best are my 15% guaranteed not placing.

yah tim im pretty fair that wrt dj sprinkles and mungolian jet set at least, ur influence is a big reason y they placed maybe so

^^ for real. pretty hard to ignore dj sprinkles when it had that thread title

I voted for Silkie!

xp to rev on ER/the-dream

I'm not denying that, I meant more that I really dig the producerly tricks nash pulls w/ his own voice, and he seems to do that more/better w/ his own voice than when he's producing others.

I actually think it's The Dream's treacly vocal production and awful on-record persona that put me off him so much. There are bits on Love vs Money that actively make me cringe, whereas I love the Electrik Red album almost without reserve.

the persona is what makes the record work lyrically, pushing a certain mindset, a certain desire and ambition for success and fancy lifestyle, to the limit. the stuff he does with his vocals on take you home 2 my mama is so special, that is a seriously good brand of treacle if that's what it is.

Yeah with me there's also an element of "why should I be interested in these lyrical themes? Why should I care or identify?" Electrik Red feel a bit more universal.

I guess dude makes me care by making it sound awesome.

the converse is that the-dream's own album is a lot more personal

Yeah exactly, I don't want to hear a personal album from someone whose persona I find both self-involved and irritating. I'm not even really making a value judgement on the music as such - a lot of it is great - I just find him kind of slimy.

I did at first, but he's really a lot more complex than that.

Maybe it helped that I went through my "ewww, slimy" phase two years ago? By the time LVM came out, I'd already figured out that he was a big ol' softee under the sleazy exterior.

Which is more curious to me rather than something to be proud of - like, do I expend so much energy on this stuff only to discover I'm crushingly typical.

idk but you are easily the person with broadest...taste/love for stuff that i know on ILM. part of that is because of actually writing so much about a lot of different stuff (being influential in the process but that depends on style to an extent), being an actual critic, er...having had a lot of time to listen maybe... so having one of the highest ratios of likes/voted fors in the list does not surprise me. solidarity for those of us who like AC roughly as much as The-Dream!

9 -- Taylor Swift - Fearless (292 points, 19 votes, 2 #1 vote/s) (dnp in p4k, 186 in p&j)
7 -- Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (348 points, 27 votes, 1 #1 vote/s) (1 in p4k, 1 in p&j)

I can't believe neither of these is #1, ha

"why should I be interested in these lyrical themes? Why should I care or identify?" Electrik Red feel a bit more universal

i can't see what would make the ER themes have signicantly more widespread appeal than The-Dream's. Only real reason I like HTBAL more is that I think Terius production on it is generally more fun and exciting to me than on Love vs Money (even with Fancy which wowed me more than any ER track).

i think i feel pretty much the opposite of matt...i can't really get any feel for distinctive personalities on the er album where lvm feels like it has this highly individual kind of weird perspective that's always working on it.

also i guess i understand why his persona could be a turnoff but it ALWAYS felt like acting/frontin/playin of some kind to me.

btw steve you're underselling Los/tricky, who afaik do most of the producing heavy-lifting

btw i find myself playing the ER album more than the-dream recently, maybe in time i'll say i like it more who knows

duly noted xp

this sunn o))) record is kinda boring. I think I was good with one long, slow, ambient joint, but I didn't realize the whole album would be like that

oh btw, loving the nomo album, if I didn't already mention

There are bits on Love vs Money that actively make me cringe, whereas I love the Electrik Red album almost without reserve.

This is entirely backwards for me. I love The-Dream's album start to finish (excepting that awful bonus track), whereas Electrik Red I've come around to going nuts over about half the tracks, but there's still several that leave me cold and a couple that make me cringe.

I don't want to hear a personal album from someone whose persona I find both self-involved and irritating.

I don't mind. Which I guess is why 808s and Heartbreak was one of my absolute favorites of 2008, and would place highly in my decade end list (we're talking top ten or so) if I happened to make one.

I think I was good with one long, slow, ambient joint, but I didn't realize the whole album would be like that

What, you were expecting "SinceU))) Been Gone"?

tbh a) 'Alice' is the best track and b) I'd imagine Sunn O))) is kinda ten billion miles outside yr usual zone so the fact you've listened to a whole album's worth is great - may others follow suit

actually, now that I'm hearing the 3rd track, I like this one more than the first two. in fact, having heard "Alice" already, I think I like each successive track more than the last

^^^I agree with this post, actually, although I do <3 the whole album...it certainly does get better as it goes on. Even 'Alice' itself starts well and ends monumentally

808s and Heartbreak

now THERE'S an album against which that criticm makes sense (and I say this as a big Kanye fanboy)

xp I guess there's just a bit more going on in the latter two tracks, yeah?

I love the second track a lot but yeah it's quite centred around the drone + choir, whereas track 3 is a little more propulsive, spacious and crazed (keyboards halfway through are a definite O_O) and Alice is horn-driven ascent to heaven, harps all a-glissando, Last Post ablaze

yeah, I agree with that. don't really feel like "Aghartha" really does anything tho

really really really, blah

I haven't really gotten into the first track much yet, but it does give the vocalist a canvas upon which to sound REALLY menacing. It's the kind of thing which will end up totally growing on me, though; there's a lot of background detail in the sound, especially in the second half, which will seep into my brain and reel me down, down to where heat reigns...

It's certainly the most abstract, avant-garde, flat-out uncompromising statement of ugliness on the record.

Haha, listening to it now on headphones, that second half is pretty wondrous! You just have to get there first! Also I'm completely not sure it's your thing, even if I am enjoying it. Sounds like a ship breaking apart as the crew's screams are muffled below deck...

I listened to the album low on speakers (sleeping housemates) so I may be losing some detail, power, etc.

http://i46.tinypic.com/52kftv.gif
and reel me down, down to where heat reigns...

Oh man, headphones!!! HEADPHONES!!! Especially for the first and last tracks.

http://th238.photobucket.com/albums/ff143/Heart_Candy/lol%20cats/funny-pictures-cat-headphones-god.jpg

all i have are shitty earbuds. much better sound from my stereo.

listening to aghartha in an open space (i.e. not on headfones) might be essential for that track. when the vocals finally descend, they sound HUGE. and frightening. like some larger than life embodiment of evil who will them go on to destroy the fabric of space and time later in the song

Well, I'd give it another go at a louder volume at some stage, is all I'll say. Maybe by then I'll have gotten the DJ Sprinkles album...

Yeah, strongly suspect I'll go batshit for Aghartha at some point

I listened to the album low on speakers (sleeping housemates) so I may be losing some detail, power, etc.

It has to be played VERY LOUD.

the second half of agartha sounds like the song itself is falling apart under its own weight.

don't find attila menacing during that. he's more... elemental. he speaks as if he's been one with a cliff face for the last billion years.

'alice' and 'big church' are easy highlights for me though.

don't find attila menacing during that. he's more... elemental. he speaks as if he's been one with a cliff face for the last billion years.

YES, it's not that he's the bearer of menace per se, more the conduit

xp: it's no coincidence that those are the kang-heavy tracks...

Great great great album, though I think it's odd how much people act like it's this realy distinct thing (okay the rants are, but leaving the rants aside) - the music is very much along the lines of what a lot of people on a kind of deep house/downtempo/broken beat/post-acid jazz axis were doing at the end of the 90s and beginning of the 00s

this is a great post bc it tells me some more stuff to check out, but i mean the angry queer rants are kindof defining on this album, and kindof set the stage for why i like it so much i mean it actively sets a context for the sounds