ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

damning with faint praise

i really think there's a young marble giants influence
even if the two genres are radically different

yikes

(I voted for this, though...so I'm not damning anything!)

this woman is a horrible singer btw

this damu remix is great actually http://soundcloud.com/peakinglights/amazing-wonderful-damu-remix

damu's own best moment that i perhaps should have repped for harder http://soundcloud.com/freekschroder/damu-ridin

obviously the reverb and haze is what lends the album its awesome psychedelic pop-art mystique.

generic chillwave stuff

smooth rong imo

more than anything I get a 'early 90s dubby Too Pure Records band' vibe from it - Laika, Moonshake and what have you

http://i.imgur.com/M3l4V.jpg

18. Nicolas Jaar — Space is Only Noise (517 points, 19 votes, one first place vote)

P4K: 20
P&J: 66

Spotify

so help me god i'm never going to listen to another band described as lo-fi again

Seconded!

they don't sound like em exactly but if they'd been around 18, 20 years ago they'd get talked about in the same breath xp to self

all my top picks are showing up in this recent clump now

Ah cool, glad this made it in. Although would've been weird if it hadn't.

early 90s dubby Too Pure Records band' vibe from it - Laika, Moonshake and what have you

^ yeah, this

totally

I only voted Space Is Only Noise at number 16, even though Jaar seemed like he was going to take over the world at the beginning of the year. This is an interesting record in that it's a house album that's about as far removed from house as it gets - it's more of a jazz record really...

Elements of kosmische and dub, Peaking Lights is a very nice album. I just wish the recording quality was as good as most of those 70s German space rock albums. I guess they had access to some sweet studios back then.

Bon Iver is pleasant, though I'm mystified by claims of greatness.

Struggled to get a hold on that Jaar LP to be honest. I listened to it the other day and some of it sounded great though. Feels like too much hard work to me though.

"too much hard work" is a good description of both of the last two albums.

i love peaking lights in the same way i love forest swords.

(also i only realized they lived two blocks away from me when they moved away)

i think nicolas jaar is a genius and i am in awe of the self-contained worlds he creates and i love a few tracks on his album but tbh if i was doing a nico jaar POX i would only include maybe one track off it - i think he's done way better stuff that's not on it

indeed here it is

jaar pox

wouh
a time for us
love you gotta lose again
marks
the bees - winter rose (nicolas jaar remix)
ellen allien - flashy flashy (nicolas jaar remix)
russian dolls
el bandido
space is only noise if you can see
no regular play - owe me (nicolas jaar remix)

― irina-camelia begu (lex pretend), Wednesday, January 11, 2012 11:48 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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

17. M83 — Hurry Up We’re Dreaming (519 points, 21 votes, one first place vote)

P4K: 3
P&J: 19

Spotify

(i did not vote for it - i wouldn't say it was a disappointment as such, it does what it does very well, but i don't think its slightness is the best representation of his talents - far too many stretches where not enough happens on the album)

oh it's fucking better than m83 though

I liked this, but it did not need to be a double album.

at least m83 didn't place top ten like a few were predicting. i've tried and have little time for this stuff. it's like looking at one of those horrible posterised prints you see in printshops and Arena-type shops.

Voted for Jaar and Bon Iver. I've come to relish how unfashionable liking Bon Iver is on ILX.

To paraphrase Fastnbulbous, Peaking Lights is pleasant, though I'm mystified by claims of greatness.

M83 is as absurdly overweight as any double album in recent years.

i couldn't really get a hold on that jaar

amazed peaking lights placed this high - i liked the album (didn't vote for it here) but wasn't aware it got that much critical attention?

Loved 'Midnight City', but a little goes a long way with this mob.

i just dont get nicholas jaar

Thank's for the Jaar primer lex. I've been meaning to dig deeper. I've heard some pretty knowledgeable people utter big statements about the kid.

Could never get into matey3, down with this sort of thing.

i had to listen to this m83 album a good 8-10 times before realizing i didn't like. i guess that means something

i talked to nico jaar yesterday, coincidentally, about some fairly exciting things that i should probably decide who to pitch to

he has covered leonard cohen's "avalanche" on his next release!!!

The M83 is spotty as hell, but some really great songs bring up the average.

also re: m83 i think its kinda artless to take a successful album (saturdays=youth) and simply turn it into a double album

A few of those tracks on m83 are good for ipod shuffle. Just don't listen to them that often.

I've been a fan of M83 but could not get into the album. Too much at once. What are yalls favorite tracks?

M83 is ok but I happened to randomly listen to 'Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts' the other day and it really was immense.

it took me a long time to get into Peaking Lights tbh; I was expecting something more along the lines of the last Pocahaunted album (which I also loved) but this sounds almost like what I would expect a Kranky album to sound like. When I started listening to Belong's Common Era (and got some decent headphones) is when it really started to click...

also lost a lot of respect for m83 after this interview http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8680-m83/

When I go out to see a show now, I want to be blown away, even if I don't like the music. If you watch a band like Depeche Mode, their connection with the audience is just magical. You're not going to see that if you go see Emeralds; I wish Emeralds could be as big as them, but it's a different league. And I don't like people spitting on bigger bands just because they have success or because it's not trendy to listen to the Killers. They have 15,000 people at their shows every night, and they're living the dream.

http://i.imgur.com/30Lj4.jpg

16. Boy Better Know — Tropical 2 (548 points, 15 votes, 4 first place votes)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 879

Spotify

What are yalls favorite tracks?

Midnight City
Claudia Lewis
OK Pal
Reunion
New Map

xp: okay lol, that quote makes me like dude more because no one is more overrated than Emeralds

The problem here is that R'n'B fans are most likely sick of hearing "Oh I like R'n'B too - do you know Frank Ocean?" because it displays a limited palette and only a meek step outside the listener's initial comfort zone. So what's wrong with that? What's wrong with dipping one's toe in the water to see if you like it? Well nothing really, but it's also a bit of a cop-out. If you're going to check out a new style of music it could be argued that you have to accept the style warts'n'all. I think what initially attracted me to a lot of music I like is the sheer shock-of-the-new, the uncertainty, the mental acrobatics I had to perform to fit this new aesthetic into my worldview. Like, I didn't really enjoy Pantera or Metallica's Black album when I was played those as a teenager, but when I first heard, I dunno, Bal Sagoth it was like "This is hilarious and crazy and weird, and WTF???!".

- dog latin

water under the bridge and all, but i just can't get on board w/ this. accepting an unfamiliar genre "warts'n'all" isn't morally or intellectually superior to just glomming onto things because they happen to impinge on your existing interests in ways you enjoy. i like the frank ocean album as pop music, in the same way that i like ghost and lady gaga, without making any accompanying claims about "getting into R&B" or w/e. it sounds good when it goes in my ears. and yeah, there's no big stretch required, no shock of the new. i don't have to adjust my aesthetic tolerances to get it, but so what? not everything has to cause some kind of transformational rupture.

I totally need to listen to this

such an incredible listening experience

was either my #1 or #2 i dont' recall

don't

i quite enjoy emeralds but thats not exactly what i find objectionable with the quote, mostly that he seems to equate the size of the crowd with the success of the art xxp

xposts for days
maybe Peaking Lights aren't "great" but sometimes it's nice to find an album that really nails a sound you like (dubby, echo heavy, tape-compressed, stoned jams). I always wanted to like chillwave (?) stuff like Sun Araw more than I did and PL worked for me by being more groove-based and grounded.

yay tropical 2, my third vote to show up

i don't wanna post any youtubes because the best track is royal-t's "cool down" but its huge glorious impact is how it just drops into the middle of the mix BLAM

i wish i'd gotten more time in the summer with this but the UK's indian summer helped a lot