TOP 10 NOW: \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\shawty got poll poll poll poll poll poll poll (part II: 2008 ALBUMS)/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

grouper needs more reverb ;)

this list seems to have very little middle ground, not in terms of consensus picks, but in terms of genre.

i have been meaning to check out both the-dream and ne-yo.

Do it tricky! I would think the-dream will appeal to anyone who really likes texturally sumptuous dance music.

Awww, I love Grouper! Dunno about the Mazzy Star or shoegaze references, seems to fit more into the lo-fi bedroom drone folk camp. All smeared, smudgy and half-asleep. Bummed-out duvet rock. Beautiful though. Maybe it's the scuffy and stoned younger sister of the far more glam School of Seven Bells record?

scruffy not scuffy (but that too)

grouper not on spotify :( that youtube sounded good enough for me to listen to the album in full but i guess that'll have to wait till some other time.

seems to fit more into the lo-fi bedroom drone folk camp

Hah!

Most of the album is just like that, but that one song ('Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping') is definitely the most fetching of the lot.

a hoy hoy check last fm inbox

I think I've listened to YOTG more than most other albums this year. I haven't wanted to listen
to Love/Hate as much, but it has qualities that make me admire it more. It has a production quality
that sounds more inventive, for one thing. I'm not a musician or a music writer,
so it's hard for me to pinpoint what it is. It has a lot of open space, for one thing. It also sounds
very dream-like...maybe it has something to do with the echoey quality of a lot of the tracks?
(like "Falsetto") And I like that The-Dream writes mostly sunny melodies based around a few adjacent
notes, with lots of repetition of word/phrases (ella, ella). Even the darker, more disturbing songs,
like "Nikki" and "Ditch That N*" have a lightness of touch that's very refreshing.

With Ne-Yo's album, the production has more of a 90's vibe. I LOVE his melodies, especially on "Mad",
"Closer", and even "Miss Independent" and several others, which is why I'm so addicted to the album.
But there is a generic R&B "middlebrow" quality to a lot of the lyrics and arrangements, and it alarms
me that I like it so much,like I'm going to go to hell if I listen to it too much or something. Also,
nobody's mentioned the last track on the album, I'm curious what people think.

"Stop The World"? It's a bit full-on. When it comes to overblown mush I much prefer the The-Dream's "Mama". I'm assuming that most people's versions of the Ne-Yo album don't have the (awesome) hectoring "What's The Matter".

My copy doesn't have "What's the Matter", unless it's another name for "So You Can Cry"?

Do it tricky! I would think the-dream will appeal to anyone who really likes texturally sumptuous dance music. pop music

this list is really WEIRD.

albums I want to see make it that probably won't:

Blood on the Wall
Harvey Milk
Black Mountain
A.B.N.
Killer Mike

no, no, maybe, no, no

we gotta hold out for jeezy still

yeah and Paper Trail definitely deserves to make it.

re "What's The Matter":

No, it's a histrionic morality tale about people who want to live exciting lives (by selling drugs etc.) and then get upset when it all goes wrong:

"She wanted the money, fame, brandnames, the fancy cars. She left a hardworking man behind for for a fella with a championship rank. But see here's the THANG about dating a superstar: she was one of like eight or nine, just another bar playa's playthang..."

It's a much better way to finish the album than "Stop The World".

i'm so happy my copy has 'what's the matter'

Harvey Milk wont make it. It was no2 behind Torche in the metal poll and Torche is in. Strangely 2 albums well below it made it here.

I'll have to track it down.

I'm rooting for Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Wonder if Marnie Stern will make it

musically http://images.buycostumes.com/mgen/merchandiser/18916.jpg

no, no, maybe no, no, no

Fixed!

i voted for danity kane too!!! sadly i have no faith that it will place :(

btw after some recalculations there were more ties than just the one I stated in the original post...in case anyone was planning on demanding an explanation for the inconsistencies.

23 - Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
130 points, 11 votes
45 in P&J

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7793/elbowtheseldomseenkidpasd6.jpg

Album streaming: http://www.last.fm/music/Elbow/The+Seldom+Seen+Kid

wheres that HMV guys quote...

their worst album

The first time I heard of Los Camp was an email from a friend where i misread the song title as "You! Me! Danzig!" and sadly they never lived up to that image.

hahahaha

ugh if I'd thought I might be quoted I'd have had something a little less goofy to say! It's deffo more than the sum of it's rather ordinary influences that one though. Great album... and no (for Matt DC) not talked about that much really, but there was a brief ILM thread. Probably bumped aside for the 15,000th waste of space Poll thread.

Balls to Elbow.

You could've got Grouper higher!

*cries*

5 extra points and it would've been higher than elbow

I could have voted but well, until about mid-December I had about as few albums I cared about as that one guy who always likes to make a point of telling you how he doesn't really like albums MAN and it's all about the tracks, and he doesn't watch TV either...

ILM hasn't really felt like a good place for catching off-the-radar releases at all for for most of last year anyway.. and the majority of the threads dominating the tone, themes, trends in action from the hivemind have seemed to be about stuff that I just don't get the big deal about AT ALL.

well this,trax and the metal poll thread are a great way to catch up

eh texturally sumptuous dance music is not too far from pop music. in many cases they both inform each other. (plus tim f knows my taste very well)

i would like a u.k./u.s. disaggregation of the votes. like, did any americans vote for elbow? (or any britishes for torche?)

(or, um, u.k./u.s./aussie/tuomas, i guess)

i voted for torche

and not elbow

and im scottish

LJ vote Torche

possibly dj mencap too?

22 - Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
133 points, 12 votes
101 in P&J, 15 in p4k

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9343/crystalcastleszp1.jpg

Album streaming: http://www.last.fm/music/Crystal+Castles/Crystal+Castles

Okay I fold, the album is really great. I'm trying to work out why something this cheap and shoddy and trashy is this affecting, and I can only put it down to that sense of sadness running through everything. It's like dying in Zelda over and over again.

― Matt DC

Ways in which popular E4 teen comedy-drama Skins has made music better - let us list them

wow

great album cover

it totally is. i havent heard the whole thing, but i didnt know it was so big on ILM