ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

The highs on JPN are higher imo, not sure which I prefer overall though.

The Outloud room has been brilliant for discovering stuff this year. That is all.

Perfume sounds like a twee-90s indie band.

There was a mid90s band from Leicester called Perfume, more like a romantic-Bunnymen than twee. I very much doubt their album has ever placed in any list of albums ever.

I'm going to take some credit for forcefeeding this to unsuspecting Outlouders.

http://youtu.be/yL4aYES4WTQ

lol just stumbled across this

can anyone who voted for that james ferraro album explain why they love it so much?

listening to wolves in the throne room....first song

this sounds like Dead Can Dance so far

YES! Wasn't sure Perfume would place but it did get its own thread on Sandbox with lots of new fans so I was hopeful.

Nakata (producer) is on a scary roll here, every moment filled with melody and crackling sounds you just want to eat up.

Great videos as well
Nee: http://youtu.be/W63nzvIoFJU
VOICE: http://youtu.be/18grnTXq7mc

I didn't vote for Ferraro but enjoyed it the couple of times I played it. I found some beautiful moments in amongst the kitchiness of it, baffles me why it evokes such negative feelings.

please post links to beautiful moments, cuz all i've got are negative feelings

I don't think i voted for Perfume in the end. It's a solid 7/10 album with some very lovely moments but it just seems like a bit of a throwback to a 90s J-Pop sound that's a little dated for me.

QUIT SCREECHING AT ME MONSTER MAN! YOU ARE A MEANIE!

(that was to wolves in the throne room, not sharivari)

Perfume sounds more like the future than a throwback, to me.

metal is more just Angry Goth nowadaze huh?

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

58. Grouper — Alien Observer/Dream Loss (304 points, 11 votes, one first place vote)

P4K: DNP
P&J: DNP

didn't vote for it, but I thought the James Ferraro album was interesting. It was much more varied and enjoyable to listen to than one track would suggest, and it doesn't really sound like anything I have ever heard before

that james ferraro album felt kind of thin and cheap to me

did not know there was a grouper record this year

oh i didn't know there was a new grouper album. had a lot of time for that "dragging a bloodied stag up an icy hill" record or whatever it's called.

Haven't heard this, great cover though.

sold these records for 50 bux a pop back when everyone was like OMG LTD PRESSING

don't get perfume, either. sounds utterly generic, but it's not really my genre, so what do i know. ILX taste is increasingly mysterious to me.

i totally didn't realise grouper had a new album out, i would've probably listened to it. i only have one of hers (i think because it placed in an ilm poll!) - i can't say i'm captivated by it or anything, and it pretty much all sounds the same, but it's really nice music for a certain kind of mood. is this more of the same? i imagine she's an artist who specialises in more-of-the-same (in a good way)

definitely more of the same

More of the same, but really beautiful.

wow completely forgot that big boi album won last year, such a very sadly ILX choice

First listen, but something about the busy metropolitan feel of the Ferraro record reminds me a bit of Different Trains. Maybe it's placement of the voices too. I quite like it I think, but I can quite understand the hate too.

I don't think Perfume's appeal is one that strikes immediately - on first listen it's just a cute electropop group, on 10th listen it's still a cute electropop group but whoa I've just listened to this 10 times in a row what's going on? It's obviously in-genre but the production in particular has a staying power that others can probably deconstruct better than I.

http://i.imgur.com/FJ6YW.jpg

57. The War on Drugs — Slave Ambient (322 points, nine votes, one first place vote)

P4K: 39
P&J: 49

Spotify

had trouble getting excited about this when the Kurt Vile album sounded so similar (and was much better).

wow completely forgot that big boi album won last year, such a very sadly ILX choice

lol, yeah...Big Boi didn't scrape the top of every other music poll on the whole internet. Just ILX.

Don't think I know who this is.

too low!!!

Listened to those Grouper albums A LOT this year, but I think she overstretched herself a bit. Nice, but not essential.

the album cover alone should give it a spot in the top 20

Sadly this record starts great and goes downhill from there.

what is the war on drugs

I have that Kurt Vile album, the only thing I do have by him, and other than Society Is My Friend, I don't think I understand the appeal. He ranked pretty high on Pazz & Jop, but it's a fairly standard rock LP from what I can hear.

Cool to see Perfume and The War On Drugs make it. Good job people!

i am beginning to think that a lot of my more obscure votes (angel haze, nikkiya, sunny sweeney) won't make it :(

american folk rock meets shoegaze/kosmiche xxp lex

Philly band doing a modern take on Tom Petty, kinda. I voted for it, but only on the strength of about half the songs if I'm being honest. xps to lex

War On Drugs >>>>> Kurt Vile, it's all the droney spacey stuff that pushed the War On Drugs above it for me. Had expected that album to be higher actually, it was top 10 for me.

Oh man, love love love The War On Drugs record. I was actually disappointed in the Kurt Vile album this year because it was too acoustic meandering for me. It was good, but not what I'd hoped. I found more of what I was looking for with War On Drugs.

i second the TOO LOW.

Also, Matt DC otm.

Okay War on Drugs, listening to the track 'Black Water Falls' on utube. Like it a lot.

Sounds Dylan-y to me.

tried to listen to war on drugs, seemed like something i might like but was pretty bored by it

that james ferraro album felt kind of thin and cheap to me

this is the whole point iirc