ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

the real estate album, along with girls, is my favourite indie rock album of the year and some of my favourite indie rock in years. i really like how both are so clean, straightforward, have wonderful lead guitar parts and perfect production. i appreciate that the vocals aren't erratic or spazzy and that while it's not without depth it feels more like its higher purpose is pleasure in pure sound

xp
felt like a few things I was into last year were pretty Aphex-y. BNJMN was more SAWI than II, but I liked that too

I agree with you, Rob! BMJMN had strong, strong "classic IDM" vibes. Parts of the Kuedo record (which I love) remind me of old-school Autechre. I've been digging on a lot of Kassem Mosse's stuff, too. That classic IDM thing is in the air a little bit... Although I like the way the current crop of people taking from that sound seem to be skimming off the best parts and leaving some of the more irritating parts behind.

jesus clarke you could have done a lot better than that. C-

nobody nominated the perc record? a travesty!

alright guys

is lex around?

http://i.imgur.com/hKe4w.jpg

40. Dawn Richard — The Prelude to a Tell Tale Heart (372 points, 11 votes)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 902

If you post it, he will come.

I dunno, that Aphex track just sounds SO similar to some of the tracks on the two Stott EPs. It was an immediate "WHOA, where have I heard this kind of grinding, grit-in-the-rotors lurch of a beat before?" when I got them. I'm sure there are tons of tracks that someone a lot more steeped in the scene could point out as more obvious predecessors, but the similarities are pretty undeniable to me...

anything like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/13/LRRaven.jpg/220px-LRRaven.jpg?

I agree with you, Rob! BMJMN had strong, strong "classic IDM" vibes. Parts of the Kuedo record (which I love) remind me of old-school Autechre. I've been digging on a lot of Kassem Mosse's stuff, too. That classic IDM thing is in the air a little bit... Although I like the way the current crop of people taking from that sound seem to be skimming off the best parts and leaving some of the more irritating parts behind.

― Clarke B., Wednesday, 1 February 2012 17:22 (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ This, although I must say I've heard some cruddy stuff too. Hi Samiyam and Patten.

dawn :D

A lot of Prince in Dawn Richard's full album download.

(I was on the verge of posting Save us J0rdan S!)

Here's the ones that are on my overall list (three have made my ballot so far)

77 Liturgy - 285
71 Toro Y Moi - 318
69 Wilf Flag - 94
69 Low - 264
65 Psychic Paramount - 145
64 WITTR - 284
63 Austra - 97
62 Drake - 486
61 Lykke Li - 166
60 Ferraro - 91
58 Grouper - 143
57 War On Drugs - 168
56 Danny Brown - 495
55 Mastodon - 9
53 Marling - 81
51 Demdike Stare - 384
50 Hatchback - 349
49 Moon Duo - 53
48 Waits - 10
45 Weeknd - 69
44 Fucked Up - 45
43 Real Estate - 154
42 Radiohead - 18
41 Stott - 268

Another one to check out. The sleeve gives me no idea what the contents are like.

dawn richard!!!!! one of my higher votes. this is the free mixtape r&b that everyone should've been listening to in 2011 instead of the weeknd. proves diddy's assertion that dawn and kalenna were just as important to the dirty money project as he was, and just as talented in their own right.

highlights -

superman - opening banger, I'M ON MY SUPERMAN SHIT / WHIPPIN UP TOWN, BLOWIN UP SHIT - i play this as a pre-going out song all the time
vibrate - so voluptuous and generous, beats like luxury cushions, this is prob the album's most prince/terius-like moment
bulletproof - betas grinding like tectonic plates - if she opened the mixtape by saying she was a superman, she closes it by wearing her emotions like armour

yeah "vibrate" is crazy good

"runway" is also dope

http://i.imgur.com/IVm4W.jpg

39. Girls — Father, Son, Holy Ghost (374 points, 11 votes)

P4K: 5
P&J: 25

Spotify

listened to "bulletproof" so much last year

"runway" is also dope

THAT'S MY HAIR NO HORSES UP THERE

<3 <3

Girls are the band that got in last years poll and everyone was outraged , right?

loved that Girls record. My #5. 'Vomit' is great. Liked their first record a little but this is a big improvement imo

girls record is fantastic, was my #5 i think

i barely listened to it at all until the past month or 2 when it hit me pretty big

I think people went nuts over a Girls track showing up in the tracks poll rather than the album poll. Also, I still think this band is completely boring.

there are some really great tracks on that Girls album, as well as some cringeworthy moments. Their little Black Sabbath homage was embarrassing live.

I think their name is so lame that I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to them.

i just really like the sound, it's like something straight out of 1977

i would say 1986 judging by these 2 tracks ive heard on spotify just now

Seems like this Girls record got a fraction of the hype of the first one, and yet it did nearly as well on EOY polls.

some of the personality that came through on their last record seemed leeched out on this one to me

and i dont get why people would love it so, yet i dont get why people would hate so much either. Its inoffensive and polite. If theres a new Friends this decade i could imagine them doing the theme song.

This is not for me

save us j0rdan fever!

i would say 1986 judging by these 2 tracks ive heard on spotify just now

Listening to "Vomit" and it sounds just like Pink Floyd to me.

The guitars on that Girls album sound fantastic but good grief the vocals are dreadful and the songwriting is earnest to the point of being excruciating. They are the ultimate 'god help us if there's a war' band.

can never enjoy this band, h8 the singer

'hey' is my personal choice cut from dawn, the end of the bridge is one of my favorite music moments of the year: OOOOH HEY BABY OHHHH HEY!

Yeah, Girls was my #279. Which believe it or not means I liked it plenty. But god damn if there wasn't a ton of good music last year.

Hurls more like.

just gonna ignore that last one and carry on talking about dawn

hey is another favourite - so melodically generous

i love how the mixtape is as equally interested in sounds, emotions and SWAGGER. her debut album proper is easily one of my most anticipated for 2012

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

38. Junior Boys — It’s All True (375 points, 15 votes)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 631

Spotify

Also is there a version of that Dawn Richard album that doesn't sound like a third-generation cassette copy yet? The songs were fantastic (Runway especially) but I was finding it way too muffled to really get into. Well, except the one with the a cappella autotune, that was terrible.

is this that same girls band that did that laura song and he sings like a child? and he grew up in isolation from all music except 2 songs or something?

fastnbulbous you ranked 500 albums? 0_o

cuz i heard a bit of this new one and it sounded like a different band?

yeah same one

Yeah, Girls was my #279

Are you joking? I thought only freaks like Chuck Eddy were capable of ranking to this extreme.

Vomit and Honey Bunny are great tracks but the rest of that Girls album is quite plodding and boring, especially the track Magic which sounds like some britpop band like Dodgy or someone.

wikipedia says:

Dawn has announced that her major solo debut project will be a broken up trilogy of albums entitled "GoldenHeart, "BlackHeart", and "RedemptionHeart". "GoldenHeart", the first of the trilogy is expected to be released in 2012.

i really really hope that's true

nb kalenna, the other dirty money girl, has also kicked off her solo career, and this first track has got be HYPED for it - a few months earlier and maybe i'd have had time to rep it enough for it to place in the trax poll http://soundcloud.com/k-diddybop/kalenna-gotowork