ILM Top 100 2005-2009: TRACKS

of montreal have proved themselves to be my surprise possible favourite albums band of the last five years. sure "grotesque" is a relentless monster of a track but it's important not to overlook the rest of hissing fauna, as well as skeletal lamping.

i think even tuomas and lex could find something to enjoy in this, my favourite tune on hissing fauna:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBfgQvM7wtE

"Rollin'" is still zzzz to me, just makes me think about how much i'd rather hear Three 6 do the same kinda sound

well if that opinion's not completely ignorant, it's just plain stupid. Sure Avey Tare's got his idiosyncrasies, but between him and Noah Lennox they have more control over their voices and what they're doing than pretty much anyone working in leftfield music today. Over the years AC have done everything from the softest, prettiest of folk balladry to harsh, almost industrial-style grind; and they adapt their voices to match.

― village idiot (dog latin), Thursday, July 1, 2010 2:34 PM (54 seconds ago)

would agree that the "can't sing" accusations are challopsy if not stupid, but "of limited ability" seems defensible - whether or not you like the band.

xxp ha i was VERY kind to hissing fauna in my albums ballot but over time that's become my least favorite track on it - def think lex & tuomas could get with "grotesque" much esaier

ok time to actually go through and listen to all of these

"just some faggy girl" is the only part of Hissing Fauna that grates on me now. It didn't used to for some reason.

to bait for even more arrows up my arse, am i the only one who felt "rollin" just sounds like every other track of that style?

oh xposts

what other bleary, ecstasied-out gulf-coast comedown rap do you think it sounds like? honest question

contenderizer, what i am saying is that they do have an incredible range and a great deal of ability. admittedly i reckon with recent work they've kind of been burying their vocals with too much processing, and i can see how the last two albums might grate a little on people's ears due to the trebliness of the production. i'd recommend people at least give "sung tongs", "prospect hummer" or even panda bear's "young prayer" album at least a cursory listen before dishing out the "lol, indie hipster singing" disses.

(fireworks fills me with joy. there, i said it).

dude don't tell me they're actually singing well and i'm hearing it wrong

i could really give a fuck how much "range" they have

the singing is like the 18th-most offensive thing about animal collective

also that

i dont really like fireworks, but dog latin otm on earlier AC showing plenty of skill and competence - like dan mentioned upthread, pretty much everyone who sings is really doing a character, and thinking that FOTL dude or AC peeps are just doing it that way because thats all they can do is being willfully obnoxious imo

i don't think it's "all they can do"; it's just awful

i mean i hope that if i was running around here saying "geez Joy Orbison is a terrible keyboard player" i hope youd be telling me im full of shit

contenderizer, what i am saying is that they do have an incredible range and a great deal of ability. admittedly i reckon with recent work they've kind of been burying their vocals with too much processing, and i can see how the last two albums might grate a little on people's ears due to the trebliness of the production.

― village idiot (dog latin), Thursday, July 1, 2010 2:53 PM (23 seconds ago)

but everything i've heard since has progressively subverted that. more and more i DO think that their vocal work on that record was an accident that they can't replicate, cuz though i've dug tracks and moments since (esp. on feels and person pitch), they just aren't hitting those highs anymore. and if i only had the last couple anco records to go by, i'd probably be in the "can't sing" camp myself.

last two posts squarely on the money. i wish sung tongs had got the recognition MPP got, then people could shut up about this band being terrible.

yes. Sung Tongs was the last one I really enjoyed.

xxxxpost yeah see thinking its awful is aok w/me! thats a valid response imo, i was mostly reacting to the tuomas/etc. approach of "gosh why did they let this guy sing when he cant? are they picking on him?" school of criticism which is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

i wish sung tongs had got the recognition MPP got, then people could shut up about this band being terrible.

Sung Tongs got plenty of recognition in its day, but I still don't like it. In fact, I'd bet there are a lot of people like me who couldn't really find a good entry way into the band until Panda Bear released Person Pitch, and then dominated much of Merriweather Post Pavilion. I get that stuff.

Wow, four of my votes have featured already!! Try and guess which ones they are!! (Clue: not hard)

xpost to jjjusten -

yes me too - i'm not asking people to love all ac unconditionally. in fact that would suck. they've been an important band to me since sung tongs simply because they could do this "idiot savant" thing contenderizer mentioned, and have done it in enigmatic fits and starts, which kind of suits me fine. but when people slag off a band because they're not singing like mariah or celine or sam cooke or something, well that's total batshit.

i just realised why i don't like person pitch very much, and that's because there isn't much singing on it, or at least it's kind of shoved right in the background.

person pitch is the worst music i have ever heard

person pitch kills any AC solo work imo

even the stuff on MPP like "brothersport" that was an obv outgrowth of what noah did on PP

"bros" is like... 77 theme song

i hope it does well in this poll -- i had it in my top 20, didn't vote for PP tho mostly cuz i've never been able to get into "good girl/ carrots" which is like 1/3 of the album

"bros" is like... 77 theme song

― hell hath no furry (J0rdan S.), Thursday, July 1, 2010 3:16 PM Bookmark

if that's the case then please uninvite me from 77

done and done

no not really

Nice to see Maneater has aged well - too many memories of bad student parties for me to vote for it, but it still sounds fresh and sexy.

sorry to still be talking about Rollin but as much as I love that song (it def would have been on my ballot if i voted) Wood Grain is to me the definitive Huntsville rap song of 05-09

if such a thing exists, that scene has been so good

Who comprises the Huntsville scene? I was born in and grew up there, but I've been gone for a decade and a half and the only thing I remember at that time are some jam bands nobody liked (before that, however, it was the home of Sex Clark Five and Skeletal Earth). In addition to the rap coming out of Huntsville, there's also Thomas Function and Pine Hill Haints on the indie rawrk side of things.

(I realize that's OT, but it's not like I get to talk about my hometown with any amount of pride that often.)

well since mentioned it i'll post the youtube to Wood Grain. the song is by PRGz, short for a paper route gangstaz, a group of rappers off the paper route records/z label. if you want to go further G-Side's Huntsville International mixtape is pretty incredible and the blog southern hospitality is always posting new stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZs8OZpmJq8

There's also this : http://thehuntsvillian.com/ : which is run by the nice people at Vertical House records (a great shop in Lowe Mill).

I posted this link upthread, but there's some discussion of various huntsville rap here (as well as on rolling rap threads): rollin rollin rollin we aint slept in weeks

thx

totally essential is Jackie's own "Diamonds and Cadillacs"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0cDokG3URM

Damn, that's great!

not surprised Ilxor's First Ghostface he rates on par with supreme clientele

yeah, a while back matos and i were talking about back to black and he was like "the thing about it that no one ever says is that it's one of the best singer-songwriter albums EVER", which i am inclined to agree with

― The Reverend, Thursday, July 1, 2010 2:57 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this was really critically underrated, its a great album -- in my world of young ppl it was mostly really, really popular w/ girls (ero underrated by dudes for some reason -- not 'authentic' enough??) plus she kinda had style icon status going til she burned out ... basically

that record is also 100x better than anything jamie lidell ever did

totally essential is Jackie's own "Diamonds and Cadillacs"

― The Reverend, Thursday, July 1, 2010 7:20 PM (1 hour ago)

inexplicably, this was left off of the nominations list - voted for it anyway. just a perfect rap song, and i prefer it to "rollin", which i also love

deej did you seriously just call the Winehouse album 'critically underrated'? i've barely even SEEN a negative review of that record wtf.

yeah it pwnd pazz & jop too