ILM'S TOP 77 TRACKS of 2011 (Los resultados!)

If anything is the definition of pastiche in this thread, it's this.

Bejar's ultra-nasal voice can be as much of a distancing effect as hardcore shouting. Maybe it's an acquired taste. I do think that on this album he's figured out the best way to use his voice though.

"slimy" is a good descriptor

Kaputt is like a lovingly curated museum exhibition of every single oily 80s sophisti-pop record that ever made my skin crawl. Yacht rock PSB? If only.

Much prefer "Savage Night at the Opera", but I do like this. There is something fascinatingly repellent about the '80s cocktail bar feel of the whole thing... but somehow I'm not put off.

every single oily 80s sophisti-pop record that ever made my skin crawl

I'm a big fan of the sound, so it may be why I'm giving him more of a pass than I ordinarily would.

why would you pick up a saxophone in 2011 and make it do this?

I used yacht rock PSB as a shorthand for what I hear him aiming for. After one listen of one song I can't judge how the album, or even this song, achieves that goal.

saxophones were trendy this year actually!

kinda hated every other destroyer record maybe b/c of bejar's voice but this one uses it perfectly imo.

lady gaga and katy perry made better use of saxophone in 2011 i think

xp Totally. A friend is hugely into Scritti, Prefab Sprout and the Blue Nile so he's all over Kaputt like a rash. What you think of those bands practically dictates your reaction to this album.

i like all of those bands and thought 'kaputt' was pretty dull

Nah, the problem is that the gulf between aspiration and achievement is huge, it's a really difficult aesthetic to pull off but lots of Balearic dudes have managed it. Neither he nor his producer or arranger is talented enough to manage any of it.

Not feeling the hate, nor the love. Not much original yacht rock (or for that matter 80s sophistipop) actually sounded like this. For one, the studio hands tended to be exceptional if understated.

This is yacht rock after a two hour massage. The muscles are limp, hair is matted and oily, and none of the players is really into another take.

http://i.imgur.com/pyGqx.jpg

28 - PJ HARVEY "The Words That Maketh Murder" (296 Points, 11 Votes)
P&J - 34
Pitchfork - 58

http://youtu.be/Va0w5pxFkAM

i'm pro the yacht rock sound but what's key about it to me is an expansiveness to the sound, and that's exactly what i don't get from destroyer, it's all so pinched and weak

My highest placed Peej track, iirc.

xp Totally. A friend is hugely into Scritti, Prefab Sprout and the Blue Nile so he's all over Kaputt like a rash. What you think of those bands practically dictates your reaction to this album.

Okay, I dislike all of these bands (every so often I try again with Scritti, because, you know, they have a song called Jacques Derrida, but it never works).

i much prefer prefab sprout and the blue nile tbqf, b/c they seem to be coming from a place of more sincerity because the sound itself wasn't all referentially i guess but that sound is catnip to me.

Once '80s sophisti-pop is filtered through Bejar's aesthetic and that of his band (esp. the trumpet player, who is excellent) it comes out a different thing.

Yay, first thing today I've voted for.

<33333333

oh hello polly, great song! not my favourite on the GREAT GREAT album - i voted for that, not any tracks - and i'm not sure why it specifically has placed. but very welcome to see nonetheless

I thought that PJ Harvey would be a lock for top ten! Another one I almost voted for but didn't. Now I think I should have done, my tracks ballot wasn't full.

PJ obv great, but only voted for the album, which may have been my #1

multi xp I love Prefab Sprout, Blue Nile and Scritti but the Destroyer album is strictly second division.

xps I love love love Scritti's pop period (and maybe "Avalon" is also relevant here), so maybe I'm a priori well-disposed to "Kaputt", which I ended up like like liking well enough but not loving. Only Destroyer I've heard btw.

keep meaning to do a let england shake poll actually, because i never really sensed there was a consensus favourite.

i like the way "the words..." basically sounds like a pub drinking song, the looseness of the guitars and drums is really evocative of pub chatter and pint glasses on tables to me. and then you've got polly singing about blown-out limbs over it all obv.

'On Battleship Hill' is my favourite on LES. After caning the album for an initial 3 weeks haven't ended up going back to it.

the jaunty backing vox add to that too

Thank you to whomever it was that found and added 2NE1 to the Spotify list.

the bird, the bird, the bird is the word.

sounds smash hits melody maker nme all sounds like a dream to me

I always think the backing vocals on this are done by a trio of cowboys for some reason.

Best autoharp of 2011. Winfred Owen was better at this.

Wow how did I possibly miss this Seany Mac record though? It's Sweet Like Chocolate with added house piano aka best thing ever.

Obviously the PJH is magnificent and I wonder if Written on the Forehead is still to come.

I too only voted for the Peej LP, not any tracks. That said, the other track nominees apart from this one were (to my ears) the least interesting ones from the album.

(I meant to nominate "Written on the Forehead" but forgot - pretty sure it wasn't nominated)

Nah, the problem is that the gulf between aspiration and achievement is huge, it's a really difficult aesthetic to pull off but lots of Balearic dudes have managed it. Neither he nor his producer or arranger is talented enough to manage any of it.

Sort of agree with this although there are two or three tracks on the album where I think it really works ('Chinatown', definitely). Most of it is kind of forgettable. I like Scritti, Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout far more!

i think my favourite on LES might be the title track - that or "the last living rose" or "all and everyone"

OMG, the Seany Mac track, ADORE. Reminds me of that H2O ft Platnum hit.

"One Sunday Morning" is the first Wilco track I've ever loved.

Yeah the album is all of a piece for me, it didn't occur to me to vote for any one song.

while kaputt was one of my top albums of the year, i only voted for 'bay of pigs' in the trax poll because imo it's the only one that stands well on its own: 13 minutes of ambient disco synth jamminess with weird lyrics and about 5 different hooks

I've never heard this song; I've been deliberately holding off on Let England Shake because a) I've never got into her before, and I wanted to go back to some of the earlier albums and get a sense of the way she grew & developed, and b) the album was overly acclaimed, I was afraid if I heard I'd put it on my albums ballot, and I p much already loved everything on there

But yeah this was v good; probaby one of the best I've heard all day

xp Yeah, Written on the Forehead wasn't nominated, otherwise it would have been my top choice. The Niney sample kills me. That and Words are the songs that make most sense detached from the album.

http://i.imgur.com/BbCoV.jpg

27 - ROBYN "Call Your Girlfriend" (298 Points, 11 Votes)
P&J - 20
Pitchfork - DNP

http://vimeo.com/27428495

xp to D.A.M.
I got a total PJ skeptic into this album, much to her surprise. I think starting here and working your way back might actually be kind of interesting.

lex blows up in 5...4...3...

2...

I've really grown into the pj Harvey album in recent weeks after much idgi. Fave tune is still the opening track, and the one that references Summertime Blues