ILM'S TOP 77 TRACKS of 2010

oh and it's about sex! sex sexy sex. weird tho how these depictions of sex rely on such rote bump'n'grind beats, and such identikit vocals. it's like there's no other way of depicting it. it's like this is the only way of portraying eroticism. touchdown! coz yeah it's all abt scoring. fucksake this is foul. argh. dnw. no.

this seems like a p legit and honorable objection to ciara's thing, imo. i don't agree, but i can see why a reasonable person with tastes different from mine would feel that way. it's kinda crass and obvious, and those are qualities that people often object to in popular art.

In the spirit of KIP, however, here's a list of stuff I hadn't heard and really liked from the main 77. Anything particularly mindblowingly amazing is in bold.

69. YUNG HUMMA ft. FLYNT FLO$$Y "Lemme Smang It"
63. JAVIERA MENA "Hasta La Verdad"
58. GIL SCOTT-HERON "Me and the Devil"
56. NICKI MINAJ ft. EMINEM "Roman's Revenge"
46. JANELLE MONÁE "Cold War"
45. NICOLAS JAAR "WOUH"
39. LIL B "The Age of Information"
38. KATY B "Katy on a Mission"
34. M.I.A. "Born Free"
31. EARL SWEATSHIRT "Earl"
24. KANYE WEST ft. DWELE "Power" IN THIS FORM
20. E-40 ft. CLYDE CARSON & HUSALAH "Lightweight Jammin'"
18. ERYKAH BADU "Window Seat"
17. SCISSOR SISTERS "Invisible Light"
15. WILLOW SMITH "Whip My Hair"
4. THE-DREAM "Yamaha"

lindstrom/xtabel - lovesick: hello, 2004 called, it wants scissor sisters back!

and hey what we rly needed in 2010 was the militarization of love. GUNS ARE SEXY

these are the jagz that made the eyes roll out of my head. with love, lj.

xxxxxp @ deej I know technically I'm from not-America, but I can't imagine that Canadian club scenes are *substantially* different from US ones/more similar to the UK, and while you're not going to hear Night Slugs/Wut/etc. in big mainstream clubs, there are a number of weekly and monthly club nights that rotate around the bass/dubstep/post-dubstep/WUTever we're calling this stuff nowadays, and they don't strike me as particularly male-dominated. Perhaps in terms of the DJs - fewer female DJs in this scene at the moment here, but the crowd tends to be a good mix of straight/queer girls/dudes...Kingdom was in town last weekend and it was a pretty big cross-section of people - I missed it, but my all friends went.

So, basically, I mean. I'm not entirely sure what yr assertion is about the make-up of the audience for this stuff in North America, but while it's certainly not (and will never be) 'mainstream', this isn't exclusively bedroom music for Pitchfork readers who can't and don't dance. It remains club music first and foremost. Incidentally, and interestingly, my friends who don't really go out dancing got really into James Blake - love CMYK and the LP, etc. - but 'don't get' the appeal of Kingdom, Girl Unit, etc.

sade - soldier of love: lets be frank, we'd have all preferred it if morcheeba had come back instead.

haha i always forget ur the only other dude on this board that loves morcheeba

kinda surprised u dont vibe sade tho its technical in a way i think ud like

fwiw the two places that in toronto that ive heard night slugs shit the crowd is majority female and most of the dudes are gay.

Well there are two Canadians who've released stuff on Night Slugs in Egyptrixx and Jacques Greene, so they've got that over America

while it's certainly not (and will never be) 'mainstream', this isn't exclusively bedroom music for Pitchfork readers who can't and don't dance. It remains club music first and foremost.

taking yr word on the tastes of clubbing vs. non-clubbing canadians, but i'm still waiting for someone to explain what might be wrong with music that superficially resembles dance music but appeals largely (let's not say "exclusively") to non-dancing, blog reading types. i get the "different tribes" thing, but not the implication that one type of appreciation is more honorable than the other.

where is the cosmopolitan urban gay dude coming across night slugs? is it an internet thing? what kind of numbers are we talking about?

i should probably get around to going to a 'ghetto division' party in chi at some pt

(not night slugs esque btw but i imagine its what keeps night slugs from happening here, they already cover the young-hip-ppl-into-juke thing)

i'm still waiting for someone to explain what might be wrong with music that superficially resembles dance music but appeals largely (let's not say "exclusively") to non-dancing, blog reading types.

i guess you might have to wait for james blake's album to place next year! (god, hope it doesn't tho.)

(kingdom is american and has released stuff on night slugs)

i know that kingdom is kindof an artphag ref cliche already

oh, I mean, I don't actually think that there's something wrong with either kind! I just meant that this seems to be the distinction that deej is basing his argument on and as Lex stated, it's observably untrue in the UK and deej's response was 'in my world of american young ppl', so i was suggesting that the make-up of WUT-esque club nights in NYC being tarred (and that was the tone of the description) as overwhelmingly male, etc. is observably wrong in Montreal, and apparently also Toronto.

And yeah, of course the fact that Jacques Greene and Lunice (and Egyptrixx?) operate out of Montreal means that there's maybe more of a base for this stuff in town, but for the sake of argumentative clarity, there's a real world market for the stuff.

and clearly the 'cosmopolitan urban gay dude' or whatever is not the same segment of the population usually out in the village at top 40 nights or whatever. this stuff is still niche in the grand scope of things, just that it's a sizeable niche and a diverse one.

im willing to believe theres some urban cosmopolitan cachet to the nightslugs stuff that codes gay trendsetter hipster-y, im kind of curious as to why that would be though! theoriez??

99 Deerhunter Desire Lines

Guys, I know we are all "death to indie" this year, but this is a great great song and deserved to place higher.

i just googled ghetto division and kingdom's already played a GD night

im willing to believe theres some urban cosmopolitan cachet to the nightslugs stuff that codes gay trendsetter hipster-y, im kind of curious as to why that would be though! theoriez??

¯\(°_°)/¯

i'm still waiting for someone to explain what might be wrong with music that superficially resembles dance music but appeals largely (let's not say "exclusively") to non-dancing, blog reading types.

i guess you might have to wait for james blake's album to place next year! (god, hope it doesn't tho.)

see? I don't dislike the James Blake album because it's not danceable - I'm iffy on it because it abandons some of the things he did really well on his earlier stuff in favour of....stuff that's just sonically and musically less interesting to me? also, the singing is NAGL.

im willing to believe theres some urban cosmopolitan cachet to the nightslugs stuff that codes gay trendsetter hipster-y, im kind of curious as to why that would be though! theoriez??

it's good music?

Top 20 thoughtz:

20. E-40 ft. CLYDE CARSON & HUSALAH "Lightweight Jammin'" [432 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote] Awesome to see this so high, although it wasn't necessarily my favorite track on the album. Also, I was the only one who voted for J Stalin wtf!
19. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM "Dance Yrself Clean" [434 points, 13 votes] - shit yeah, this was my #4, how can the haters deny that FAT synth sound, this song is a factory that manufactures awesomeness.
18. ERYKAH BADU "Window Seat" [436 points, 15 votes] - Great song, I nommed and voted for "Umm Hmm" instead and was sure I'd be the only one, but props to 3 other ppl!
17. SCISSOR SISTERS "Invisible Light" [438 points, 12 votes, 2 first place votes] First time hearing this, it's pretty cool? Reminds me of Pink Floyd circa 1980 + disco. Video is by the same dude who did El Guincho's, aesthetically great, very Buñuel but this one makes me think that dude really is a misogynist. Bombay is a far superior song and video.
16. KATY PERRY "Teenage Dream" [438 points, 15 votes] Really? I guess could be decent if someone else sang it and it was arranged/produced completely differently. BTW if you type just the letter k into Youtube, the first THREE results are Katy Perry. Armageddon coming, etc.
15. WILLOW SMITH "Whip My Hair" [456 points, 17 votes, 1 first place vote] Haha, basically just a milli beat with Will Smith's daughter. Fun I guess, kinda bugs me when lil kids try to have "attitude"
14. SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS "I L U" [466 points, 14 votes] IDGI
13. SLEIGH BELLS "Rill Rill" [532 points, 19 votes, 1 first place vote] Cool loop, but duh, it's funkadelic. Singing blows and goes nowhere.
12. CRYSTAL CASTLES ft. ROBERT SMITH "Not in Love" [546 points, 18 votes] Fuck yes, my #3. MAKE MORE SONGS LIKE THIS, BOB!
11. CEE-LO GREEN "Fuck You" [586 points, 19 votes, 2 first place votes] Corny.
10. KANYE WEST ft. RICK ROSS, JAY-Z, NICKI MINAJ & BON IVER "Monster" [596 points, 20 votes] Great. Love Rawse's short intro, even yeezy's verse is pretty good. Jay-z the only weak link and he's not that bad save "loooooooove" which still makes me laugh. Even like the outro. IMO this and Devil in a new dress are the only tracks on this album that don't need to be drastically shortened.
9. RIHANNA "Rude Boy" [628 points, 23 votes, 2 first place votes] Good, but not that good.
8. JANELLE MONÁE ft. BIG BOI "Tightrope" [642 points, 24 votes, 1 first place vote] Voted for it but kinda like it less and less tbh. Various posters OTM on her lingering theater-kid annoyingness.
7. BIG BOI ft. CUTTY "Shutterbugg" [672 points, 26 votes] Fuckin jam! My #6
6. ROBYN "Dancing on My Own" [674 points, 22 votes, 5 first place votes] Jam. Prob my favorite of the Robyn I've heard.
5. ARCADE FIRE "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" [694 points, 22 votes, 2 first place votes] Voted it. That edit that was posted upthread knocks!
4. THE-DREAM "Yamaha" [764 points, 26 votes] Yes yes yes! My #2, and since my #1 was the Knife's weirdo opera thing, I would say this is the best pop song of the year!
3. ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI "Round and Round" [794 points, 25 votes, 2 first place votes] Love it, voted Can't feel my eyes instead tho.
2. WAKA FLOCKA FLAME "Hard in Da Paint" [902 points, 30 votes, 2 first place votes] POW POW POW POW BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK SKWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! My #5 ilx hivemind oh noes!
1. GIRL UNIT "Wut" [996 points, 31 votes, 3 first place votes] Pretty great. Weird #1. I feel like the following will clarify arguments going on here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oY_nQuMWus&NR=1

Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill -- music came on and i was like oh hell yeah and then the singing came on and i was like oh hell no

Probably should buy Maggot Brain then, if you don't already have it.

― Moodles, Friday, January 28, 2011 11:29 AM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ha! yeah p-funk is one of my blind spots for some reason. ok then this band totally blows

im willing to believe theres some urban cosmopolitan cachet to the nightslugs stuff that codes gay trendsetter hipster-y, im kind of curious as to why that would be though! theoriez??

expect a hail of bricks, but doesn't most smart/tasteful/low profile UK & euro dance stuff code this way? maybe not in the clubs, but to the US in general?

sorry if that question was condescendingly anthropological or something, i just dont like it much & because it doesnt really map into american musical history that well (i dont buy the 'its like rap' thing really) it sorta like, hmmmm i wonder why ppl are into it?

there's always been a long established homo nuum in the uk. steve girly's recordings as rouge unit have been particularly seminal.

to coin a phrase

xposts And the fucking rave horns! I guess the closest thing "Wut" comes to is a chopped'n'screwed version of early 90s ardkore.

― Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Friday, January 28, 2011 11:22 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

im willing to believe theres some urban cosmopolitan cachet to the nightslugs stuff that codes gay trendsetter hipster-y, im kind of curious as to why that would be though! theoriez??

is the answer to this 'drugs'?

i just dont like it much & because it doesnt really map into american musical history that well

strikes me as odd, but maybe i misunderstand. my enjoyment of music has less to do with its obvious relationship to american musical history than its secret relationship to my own personal musical history. this is shaped by my (american) context, sure, but isn't a direct 1:1 reflection of it.

u missed the ampersand

i did

im willing to believe theres some urban cosmopolitan cachet to the nightslugs stuff that codes gay trendsetter hipster-y, im kind of curious as to why that would be though! theoriez??

its a p big project to evaluate why certain things end up coding as 'hip' bcuz i think theres a randomness & self-reinforcing logic to it that u cant really account for in any meaningful way. it is sorta lol to note that the night slugs website bitches abt how " Egyptrixx somehow couldn’t get a DJ gig in hometown Toronto" tho

u missed the ampersand

w that in mind, "i don't like it much" = the best possible answer, short of "i like it." but you do sometimes pad out your IDLIMs with negative insinuations about the kind of people who do presumably like it - as w the pitchfork following, non-dancing indie/IDM nerds here. that's where things get iffy.

imo 'i dont like it much' = worst possible answer, because then there's nothing to talk about

well, not "answer" then, but justification for an expression of taste. like, taste justifies itself, imo. this leaves lots of room for the discussion of other factors and of how one thinks one's taste works.

as w the pitchfork following, non-dancing indie/IDM nerds here. that's where things get iffy.

― normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Friday, January 28, 2011 1:07 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

its not abt them being non-dancing nerds, its about how they justify their tastes & why this music is privileged here

yeah, that makes sense. but we know why this music is being privileged - or at least i suspect we do. ILM is a pretty good petri dish for observing the intersection of "nerd" and "clubgoing" tastes/aesthetics.

the fact that the UK dance contingent backs it gives "wut" a leg up, and lots of other ILXor demographics fw electronic music and gauzy dance pop. it just hits a lot of obvious buttons. same's true of "hard in da paint". (that probably shoots down my previous claim that these songs aren't sufficiently "populist." they might not be in general, but they're catnip around here.)

i just don't see anyone stretching in weird directions to justify their affection of "wut".

wtf does maggott brain have to do with sleigh bells

yeah i havent noticed any partic obnoxious posts, its just that musically this 'juke/s&c/crunk filtered thru british sensibility' isnt the direction i like to hear the music going personally, and i think that the kind of person in the u.s. who this will ultimately appeal to is the kind of person who does have some weird issues w/ american pop music ...

i mean uk funky's 'hypersyncopated highly danceable tasteful-trashy tension w/ heavy R&B-pop influences' style is way more up my aesthetic alley

WUT is maximal witch house

it also always feels like something is missing from it -- rap beats w/out rapping, juke beats w/out footworking/juking, rave music w/out momentum of house/breakbeat grooves ... its like eternally half of the equation

wtf does maggott brain have to do with sleigh bells

― mean mug, headbang & make rapper hands (gr8080), Friday, January 28, 2011 2:55 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

the rill rill loop is from "can you get to that" fyi

ah ok

i mean uk funky's 'hypersyncopated highly danceable tasteful-trashy tension w/ heavy R&B-pop influences' style is way more up my aesthetic alley

completely false binary. night slugs have released uk funky singles ffs. it's possible to like both!

i havent heard the complete recorded works of night slugs its true
but 'wut' does fit into my 'false binary'

no it doesn't, because they're not in opposition to each other and in fact are intertwined with each other. this is starting to get tedious b/c you haven't heard half the music you're dismissing, have no idea about the scene it comes from and are projecting negative connotations on to it based on severely limited evidence

im basing it on the sound of the songs i have heard vs the sound of the funky mixes ive heard

pretty simple

the kind of person in the u.s. who this will ultimately appeal to is the kind of person who does have some weird issues w/ american pop music ...

see, and again with this. you dodge from a perfectly reasonable, "musically this 'juke/s&c/crunk filtered thru british sensibility' isnt the direction i like to hear the music going," to a weird insinuation about the weirdness of the people who do want the music to go that way. idgi, and it strikes me as unjustified. unpack?

u can link me to a mix to destroy my prejudices if u want tho

i've already pointed you towards a selection of tracks.

see, and again with this. you dodge from a perfectly reasonable, "musically this 'juke/s&c/crunk filtered thru british sensibility' isnt the direction i like to hear the music going," to a weird insinuation about the weirdness of the people who do want the music to go that way. idgi, and it strikes me as unjustified. unpack?

― normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Friday, January 28, 2011 2:15 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this accusation has a context -- years of ppl thinking their music is 'smarter' or better than music that fits outside of their values, ppl mistaking their values for universal 'smart' ones -- these ppl dont like rapping, highly value texture or intricacies or high-concept 'influences for influences sake'. not per se talking about night slugs uk fans, but of my anticipation of who this stuff will eventually crossover to