ILM Top 100 2000-2004: ALBUMS

(no its not on the album i think it came out the year before)

Points: 321
No. of votes: 15
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LIFE WITHOUT BUILDINGS
Title: ANY OTHER CITY
Label: Tugboat
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/anyothercity.jpg

Comments: Any Other City has made a deep impression on me, deeper than anything since I was a teenager. I almost wish I was seriously depressed again, so that I could use this record to pull me out of it. Mitch Granat

Recommended tracks: Let's Get Out, The Leanover, Sorrow

Points: 326
No. of votes: 21
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LADYTRON
Title: LIGHT AND MAGIC
Label: Telstar
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/lightandmagic.jpg

Comments: It's sharper and perhaps more varied and even experimental than 604, but not entirely at the expense of the pop hooks. Naturally some tracks are stronger than others but the most impressive is perhaps the tactics and techniques the gang employ throughout, several tracks featuring what's becoming a trademark penetrating blast of synth noise, blinded by the lights indeed (Seventeen, Nuhorizons, The Reason Why and so on...). On both the vocal and lyrical side Helen and Mira seem to improve and gain confidence too.

Recommended tracks: Flicking Your Switch, Seventeen, Blue Jeans

I'm in Ghana, doofusWho said it was a good thing?

Points: 327
No. of votes: 17
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: LUOMO
Title: VOCALCITY
Label: Forced Tracks
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/vocalcity.jpg

Comments: the vocal science (not the 2step kind) is astounding. on Vocalcity he takes what sound like normal-enough house a cappella soundbites and flits and filters them through the mix so they impact the way you hear them on a club system; it's the closest I've ever heard a record come to the effect of hearing that kind of live DJ set. and the words are contrary: they double back on themselves, there's an uncertainty at the heart of them and the music both that seems to question the physical pleasure that the music'n'textures provide. that sense of doubt is subtle but all-pervasive--it's a lot of why I keep comparing it to Metal Box and There's a Riot Goin' On and Maxinquaye. M Matos

Recommended tracks: Synkro, Right Wing, Tessio

Points: 335
No. of votes: 20
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: BUBBA SPARXXX
Title: DELIVERANCE
Label: Interscope
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/deliverance.jpg

Comments: In which the best known of Timbaland's roster of underrated proteges hits back against the haters, the shamers and those who'd rather forget he ever existed. The essence of the album is Bubba's on-record character, more roundly developed and emotionally invested in than the previous record, with music and beats to match from Tim (with a little bit of Organized Noize to garnish). Importantly, Bubba's way with a rhyme and a microphone carry equal weight with Tim's suprising yet totally sensible bluegrass funk, country crunk, chase scene torch songs and ever excellent ass-shakers (Tim's diminished presence on the second half prevents this from being 2003's
perfect hip hop album, but when on point, he's ever the hard act to follow - how the hell is 'Warrant' so confidently funky, mysterious and addictive when it's got barely no beats to speak of?). He's got a convincingly guilty conscience on 'She Tried', acts the good time party boy fool on 'Hootenanny' and the ultra-catchy top 10 single that never was, 'Comin' Round' (fiddles! synths! squealing tyres!), and he is straight up convincing about the New South signifier. I believe in Bubba when he's evoking a hard past that may or may not have been on 'Nowhere', because he's mastered the art of convincing soul-bearing on record. And when 'Nowhere', with it's last line of 'If I'm nowhere/let that nowhere/be nowhere near a worry' and the equally underrated Kiley Dean leading a lovely chorus of 'Cry Me A River' (what's done is done, eh, Bubba?), concludes its 5 mins plus of pure symphonic hip hop beauty, Bubba tells us there's nothing he can't Overcome and I hope he's right. Sooner or later, he deserves to have his Deliverance. Barima

Recommended tracks: Comin' Round, Nowhere, Warrant

Points: 337
No. of votes: 19
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: RICHARD X
Title: ...PRESENTS HIS X-FACTOR VOLUME 1
Label: EMI
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/xfactor1.jpg

Oh Richard, you came and you gave without taking, and I did not send you away. Well alright you did take - a hell of a lot of hits from the 80s. He loves them as if that was not painfully obvious. And anyone who thinks it's done with a cynical sneer just has wrong ears. Richard clearly enjoys his puppeteer and curatorial role here, not that Liberty X needed his help in turning their fortunes around. Nor Javine. The Sugababes? Maybe, yet they all shine brighter here than on their own records, and that's the power of X. The great moments are here in abundance. First he somehow manages to make the idea of covering 'Being Nobody' STILL interesting (and these title jokes just never get tired), then there's the fabulous curtain drop for Spandau Ballet's 'Chant No. 1' on 'Rock Jacket', Kelis (well she's been everywhere else, the bankable whore), a good solid reworking of 'You Used To Hold Me', Deborah Strickland-Evans, 'Drums!', Jarvis AND Hope, and an exit theme to rival anything off 'Music Has The Right To Children' for sheer melancholic beauty, all suggesting the man always had a plan that extended beyond the irresistable mash-ups of 'I Wanna Dance With Numbers' and 'Being Scrubbed'. It's an album that fits perfectly with the times as people revive ideas from 20 years ago across the board, having perhaps not quite been explored and developed enough the first time - but at the top of the agenda remains the directive to keep it poptastic right through to the end.

Recommended tracks: Being Nobody, Lemon Lime, You'd Better Let Me Love You

Sarcasm?

Oh, and please take my surname off my comments.

Anyway, 2 of my top 5 records come in together - thought they'd be higher, but this makes it all more interesting for a while. The comments about Lib X and Javine were in reference to the relative lack of commercial clout they have now, tho' I hear Javine's big in Japan.

And Lemon/Lime is as nothing next to Finest Dreams, surely...

Points: 337
No. of votes: 19
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR
Title: LIFT YOUR SKINNY FISTS LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN
Label: Kranky
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/liftyourskinnyfists.jpg

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Sleep

Points: 352
No. of votes: 18
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LOW
Title: THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
Label: Tugboat
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/thingswelostinthefire.jpg

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Sunflower, July, In Metal

Points: 322
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 4

Artist: THE CLIENTELE
Title: SUBURBAN LIGHT
Label: Pointy
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/suburbanlight.jpg

Comments: I love the Clientele's songs because they're like
looking at faded photos or grainy film stock, emerging
into the daylight following a matinee, trying to peer
through the fog or the rain, or walking into dusk
after a day inside artificial light. I love the
Clientele's songs because they're evocative and
drenched in reverb, they mark slight shifts in mood,
in time, in atmosphere, capturing moments of
transition or hope, lamenting loss, longing for that
which is just out of grasp, and cherishing flutters of
the heart. I love the Clientele's songs because they
ignore life's grand gestures; instead, they collect
ephemera and extract something unique, nourishing, and
lovely out of the everyday. Most importantly to me, I
love the Clientele's songs because they soundtracked
my falling in love. As I sat atop a Chicago roof
watching night get the better of day they coaxed me
into getting the nerve to phone long distance to a
woman I'd met only once, they held my hand on the
airplane when she wasn't there to do it, they were
among my first gifts to her, and they've made us both
smile, weep, and sigh ever since. Scott Pl

Recommended: Saturday, We Could Walk Together, Rain

Points: 364
No. of votes: 16
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: CANNIBAL OX
Title: THE COLD VEIN
Label: Def Jux
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/thecoldvein.jpg

Comments: Back in the summer of 2002 when I was temporarily insane (and imbibing a large quantity of gin every day), I disparaged Can Ox by asking why I needed this stuff when I already owned Organized Konfusion albums. This was pretty churlish of me (I ended up voting The Cold Vein number four here, chart watchers), but not entirely off the mark. Like OK, Can Ox fall between the twin towers of CIA encrypted Afro-mystical hoo hah and THAT REAL-ASS GRIMY-ASS STREET-ASS SHIT, which never really results in ducats and generally means you're too "underground" (in the Fat Beats sense) for the Juicy J fans and too "street" for the Edan novelty-hop guys. The only other
rap album to place in my top 10 was The Blueprint (I'm as surprised as you are...but I'm also working with a list of nominees that doesn't always reflect my personal top ten); my pal Nick once said that it's hard not to see The Cold Vein as the flipside of the Blueprint but actually they're complimentary opposites: Cold Vein is grainy and mottled with system dirt while the Blueprint is sleek, burnished poise, but both are triumphs of carefully constructed production. I've warmed to El-P's work for Company Flow over the years, but much of it still sounds thin and ugly and grating for no real reason other than being thin and ugly and grating. On The Cold Vein he wasn't any prettier but he fattened things up, riddled it with a thousand niggling details, unveiled a flair for melody. It sounds like he's using very expensive equipment (though in reality probably a fairly limited kit) to make something crude and lumbering and cold. (Though no matter how steely things get, most of it is positively WARM compared to the stuff on the radio these days.) (And I still chuckle at the "Mexican Radio" reference.) The reason Vast Aire outshines Vordul is not because he's "more mainstream" but because he's more DIRECT. He'll go off on flights of comic book geekery, but when he wants to hit home he's not afraid to use the blunt tools (or just be blunt: "my mother said 'you sucked my pussy when you came out'", wtf??), and like Jigga he shares a fondness for ripe Del Monte corn and mawkish sentiment that'd have even Bill Mauldin blushing. Still, as anyone who heard Vast's solo album knows, removed from the crucible of Can Ox (and El-P's production), he's not produced anything with half the power of the Cold Vein. Jess/Strongo

Recommended tracks: Iron Galaxy, Pidgeon, Ridiculoid

Can't help noticing that though The Clientele got a modest 13 votes, it got the greatest number (four) of #1 votes so far. Cheers to you other three.

It's weird how the Bubba has passed without comment thus far. My thoughts on it mirror a lot of Jess' too, which gives me cause to either smile or worry...

haha, yeah my anniversary is tomorrow, so I was all sentimental.