Year-End Critics' Polls 2013

any good non-shiny stuff this year?

Nng, ignore errors in that post please. xp

Tim Hecker ftw

among the unHaimlich crew anyhow

Norman Records (Leeds): http://www.normanrecords.com/top-fifty-2013.php

1. Austerity Dogs - Sleaford Mods
2. Pearl Mystic - Hookworms
3. The Inheritors - Holden
4. Light Up Gold - Parquet Courts
5. Field of Reeds - These New Puritans
6. Floating Coffin - Thee Oh Sees
7. Excavation - The Haxan Cloak
8. Engravings - Forest Swords
9. Restless Idylls - Tropic of Cancer
10. Still Smiling - Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld
11. Fuzz - Fuzz
12. Tomorrow's Harvest - Boards Of Canada
13. Weird Sister - Joanna Gruesome
14. Slow Focus - Fuck Buttons
15. Factory Floor - Factory Floor
16. m b v - My Bloody Valentine
17. UHF - Hacker Farm
18. Chance Of Rain - Laurel Halo
19. The Man Who Died In His Boat - Grouper
20. Push The Sky Away - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
21. Wakin On A Pretty Daze - Kurt Vile
22. R Plus Seven - Oneohtrix Point Never
23. Shaking The Habitual - The Knife
24. Berberian Sound Studio - Broadcast
25. Anthroprophh - Anthroprophh
26. Exai - Autechre
27. II - Unknown Mortal Orchestra
28. Rock 'N' Roll Rorschach - Lantern
29. Mas Fiestas con el Grupo Vision Fortune - Vision Fortune
30. Vapor City - Machinedrum
31. Seasons of Your Day - Mazzy Star
32. With Love - Zomby
33. New History Warfare Vol. 3 : To See More Light - Colin Stetson
34. Nepenthe - Julianna Barwick
35. Music For Smalls Lighthouse - Plinth
36. Drifters / Love Is The Devil - Dirty Beaches
37. Fugitive - Sommet
38. Life Cycle Of A Massive Star - Roly Porter
39. Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. I - Rashad Becker
40. Cold Spring Fault Less Youth - Mount Kimbie
41. Slow Summits - The Pastels
42. Remember Your Black Day - Vatican Shadow
43. From Tomorrow - The Oscillation
44. Phases & Repetition - LA Machine
45. Incubation - Function
46. Collected Works Vol. 1, The Moog Years - M. Geddes Gengras
47. Shadows - Maston
48. Films & Windows - Lawrence
49. The House at Sea - Amor De Dias
50. Popular People Do Popular People - The Prophet Hens

oh there are some great records in there

Yeah, I think there are quite a few consensus outlier picks in there. Depends on how outliery people are talking about here. I mean, once something gets a consensus it stops being an outlier. Although there's no 'The Seer' or 'Bish Bosch' this year. TNP and the Knife maybe the closest to that sort of thing. Great to see that Hacker Farm album making a few lists. Will def be in my list.

Delighted to see Sleaford Mods getting some Norman love.

i think people would like the new bardo pond if they bothered to listen to it

i wanna hear both of those!

'Jobseeker' will be making an appearance in my tracks list, but I haven't heard the album all the way through (xpost re: Sleaford Mods).

Hookworms haven't really had much ilx love, which is a shame. They're not doing anything completely crazy, but certainly one of the best live bands I've seen. Also nice to see the J-Grü album in the Norman list, but that is not an ilxy record.

Is Dustin Wong making any lists? His album is really interesting and good and not tooooooo weird. What about Earthless?

Was gonna say Bardo Pond

The Earthless record rules.

I'd say more people should hear the Frankie Rose and Wax Idols albums but, based on the reaction to Savages, the number of people who really dig post-punk/gothy female musicians in 2013 is pretty low.

(reaction HERE, I should clarify)

I like what I've heard from that Hookworms album a lot. Like you say, it's nothing too different, psychedelic rock for the most part but it's done particularly well.

I prefer the Veronica Falls album to the Joanna Gruesome, even if it is a bit shinier. Have VF appeared anywhere yet?

just couldn't love that Savages album, couldn't work out what was supposed to be good about it and its influences were just a little too obviously marked out.

You can hear the Sleaford Mods album here: http://sleafordmods.bandcamp.com/album/austerity-dogs

Half the tracks were first released on 2011's Wank, but tracks 1-5 & 7 are new this year.

Bardo Pond, Autechre, Rashad Becker, Grumbling Fur, Carcass, Matmos, Joanna Gruesome, Haxan Cloak

Filed Hookworms under "decent" iirc but haven't returned to it.

Norman Records list is obv refreshing but it's still pretty homogeneous and comfortable in its indie/drone furrow. The great thing about the ILM poll is how it's truly all over the shop and you're likely to come out having discovered a new genre you never knew about before.

that's all true, but even ilm has its own brand element of homogeneity.

Really? What is it?

Sure, there are definitely things that ILM likes/dislikes more than the rest of the world does, but the top 77 albums and singles lists still cover an awful lot of ground.

I prefer the Veronica Falls album to the Joanna Gruesome, even if it is a bit shinier. Have VF appeared anywhere yet?

― famous for hits! (seandalai), Monday, November 25, 2013 2:43 PM (5 minutes ago)

Not as far as I'm aware. They don't sound anything like Joanna Gruesome, though!

Half the tracks were first released on 2011's Wank, but tracks 1-5 & 7 are new this year.

― mike t-diva, Monday, November 25, 2013 2:44 PM (4 minutes ago)

Ah, okay, so I probably have heard most of it. How come they're selling it as a new album if it's mostly old stuff, then?

I thought people would be more into Windhand too, speaking of dark/heavy female vocals.

Off that Norman list...

Underrated: Rashad Becker, M. Geddes Gengras, Vision Fortune
Overrated: Tropic of Cancer, Forest Swords, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Not as far as I'm aware. They don't sound anything like Joanna Gruesome, though!

They do a bit imo! Ok, a cross between VF and 90s altrock or something.

I think the main motivation behind the Sleaford Mods LP from this year was to have some of their stuff put on vinyl

that parquet courts... was that this year? was Lescop this year? I would consider voting / nomming these but i'm unsure as to whether they really are 2013 albums.

Joanna Gruesome is the worst band name since the Dandy Warhols, good album or not.

Like to bring your attention to "Salvia Plath" upthread

I thought people would be more into Windhand too, speaking of dark/heavy female vocals.

― sweat pea (La Lechera)

I like the debut more. They tried to stretch out a bit on Soma and it didn't work for me at all.

Speaking of female vocals and an odd heaviness, the new SubRosa is a stunner. More people should check them out.

xpost Kurt Vile... oh wait, that's actually his name I think?

I'd say more people should hear the Frankie Rose and Wax Idols albums but, based on the reaction to Savages, the number of people who really dig post-punk/gothy female musicians in 2013 is pretty low.

I saw Frankie Rose live once at a Chickfactor zine event and at least then, she sounded more twee pop than post-punk or gothy. Not that she wowed me enough anyway to wanna check out her latest album. Savages seemed to quickly draw an audience of US supporters here but also, as implied, drew a sizeable amount of folks not interested in their postpunk 2013 sound

A bunch of us here think very highly of Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, though I have to admit I don't love it as much as I had hoped, based on their debut. It is, frankly, a prog rock concept album; and I wish it were less of one. But there's a lot of great music packed into it. And it tends toward prog metal.

But as far as outliers, at least on ILM's list, I think it could take people by surprise.

I like the YT//ST more than their debut, but it's got a bit too much filler. The high points though? Wow.

I caught some of the Bardo Pond Pharoah Sanders cover and I need to check that album out some evening.

curmudgeon, this is where the new Frankie Rose album kicks into high gear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iztk0ajEq00

This weekend I picked up Musgrave, Paramore, and Carcass albums. My listening is getting very ILMy.

i like the new frankie rose but liked interstellar quite a bit more tbh

ha I'm the exact opposite; I appreciated Interstellar but never really got into whereas the new one was almost an instant "OKAY YES MORE MORE MORE MORE THX"

DJP otm, that was my same experience

Bassekou Kouyaté isn't getting any love yet. He did the best song this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qs7L0VF7KY

I caught some of the Bardo Pond Pharoah Sanders cover and I need to check that album out some evening.

― _Rudipherous_, Monday, November 25, 2013 3:44 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah man - i'd only heard them on some ancient matador comp before but that track is all kinds

Joanna Gruesome is the worst band name since the Dandy Warhols, good album or not.

― a beef supreme (dog latin), Monday, November 25, 2013 3:12 PM (2 hours ago)

Ha, yeah, punning band names are often rubbish. I've got to the stage with these guys that I've almost forgotten it's a reference, though. The album is really good, but it's totally a proper indie record, so why bother trying to rep for something that ilx has its ears completely closed to?

I like the YT//ST more than their debut, but it's got a bit too much filler. The high points though? Wow.

― EZ Snappin, Monday, November 25, 2013 3:43 PM (2 hours ago)

This actually has a chance at being my #1, even though I'm not a massive fan of the slow songs. They work in context, though, and I like its prog conceptness (of course I do). And yeah, the high points are amaaaaazing.

that parquet courts... was that this year?

the full-length was last year. they also put out an EP this year.

and i'm not feeling the new yt // st as much as the last one, but it's still in my personal top 40 of the year.

Parquet Courts' UK release was this year. Hence UK polls featuring it.