ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

melt-banana have never been my thing and i don't see this swaying me

fair points, definitely not for everybody

http://i.imgur.com/Uu4VbfP.jpg?1
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River (273 points, 9 votes)

no spotify on that one

i do not know when in my life i would have cause to play this.

yknow just hangin out in the living room, in for the evening

Yayyy I voted for this ambrosia'd joyride, h8az I condemn thee to be plugged into Agata's fx board for eternityyyyy

xposts to M-B obvs, J bein' understandably quickfire w/ somethin' so noisy and punkish

Haven't kept track of Bill Callahan in a decade - would be keen to hear a selected song off this one.

had Dream River top 5, this feels like a poor showing for it actually. unreal good record

Never made my P&J ballot but I played it consistently through the fall. "Summer Painter" is a new high imo.

Oof now THAT'S too low, amazing album.

"The only words I've said today are 'Beer' and 'Thank you'"

Still haven't heard the Bill Callahan album, but I'm sure I'd like it very much.

here's a song, hope these dont embed still

http://youtu.be/jXae9Am_bJM

I'm still not sure who Matt Kinsey is or where he came from but he's the MVP of "Dream River," such great lead guitar work across the entire album.

i love bill but i could never find my time with this one—not prickly enough for me right now

I didn't hear, as the kids say, any of these so far. Except maybe bill callahan, I either heard this one or the one before. He has a pleasant voice but I got bored iirc

Have no strong interest in hearing Dream River, but I'm pretty interested in the just released dub version, Having Fun with God.

I'll give this a try at some point but I saw Smog around ten years ago and it is definitely not for me. I prefer texture to songcraft in general.

The dub version is pretty ok but I don't know how much sense it'll make if you haven't heard the album. It's more a curiosity than a necessity.

Julianna Barwick album is basically a wash of pretty that is making almost zero impact on me at the moment; I don't mind when people use guitars and keyboards to do this type of thing but the voice is a very versatile instrument my initial impression is that it's kind of a wasted opportunity going on here and I'd really rather listen to Medulla or the Pentatonix album or even tUnE-yArDs (which I didn't really like all that much to begin with)

As noted, the earlier Julianna Barwick albums are vocals-only so you might want to go back and check those out.

judging from the track cider posted, this is very textural indeed. Quite amazing.

xxxpost

Julianna Barwick was my number 1, found it way more consistent than her previous. And beautiful throughout. I spent a lot of time with it in 2013. Didn't catch her live though.

Ooh, two of my votes placed already. Glad to see MB there, especially as they were the only people I vote my 'hearing it in 2014 is too late to vote for it' rule for. I think.

http://i.imgur.com/Vm3dWWF.jpg?1

73 LORDE Pure Heroine (276 points, 11 votes)

Spotify

why is that album cover so boring

you guys are killing me

the cover does evoke the experience of listening to the album

oh lord lorde please talk to em

still maintain that "Buzzcut Season" is a great song

most of the rest of the album is very of-a specific-moment/style and I really don't fault people for disliking it

Yeah emil.y, MB was a last-second addition for me, think I first heard it within 1 day of the deadline!

re: Fall Out Boy, they are still Fall Out Boy; good at what they do, only sporadically does that line up with something I really want to hear

re: Melt-Banana, one song in and this rules

still picking through the barwick album--this actually really appeals to the part of me that still likes sigur ros

part of me is going "oh here's where I should be looking to get my Battles itch scratched now that Battles themselves has become boring"

the Lorde album is a weird one for me. I voted for it, but would maybe reconsider if I could vote again. I like all the songs individually when I hear them, but I'm never particularly compelled to listen to this outside the context of my big new music playlist.

I like the Melt-Banana record, but after seeing them live I haven't been able to play it. They killed with both the new and old material, and the record only makes me want to hear the better live versions.

I really only ever listen to "Ribs"->"Buzzcut Season"->"Team" but I still voted for it

also the most surprising thing for me re: Melt-Banana is how delightful I'm finding the vocals

kind of wish Lorde sang like this, tbh

"Ribs" tempted me to give the thing another listen; that one really sounds like the apex of sad-teen alienation

the bill callahan song impressed me but left me cold if that makes sense? which is what smog did when i tried something by them over a decade ago, too. i like the gravitas. not in a place to appreciate the songcraft atm. have the leonard cohen comparisons proliferated throughout his career?

tried "buzzcut season" and i just find lorde's voice total wallpaper

still picking through the barwick album--this actually really appeals to the part of me that still likes sigur ros

ha, it was actually the lurch towards sigur-rosation that stopped me from fully embracing it tbh.

lorde album seemed ok to me. i get why people like it. that's about it.

"Ribs" tempted me to give the thing another listen; that one really sounds like the apex of sad-teen alienation

lorde always seems a bit too comfortable to me, i don't even get blankness/detachment from her voice let alone sadness

Melt-Banana have been doing their thing for a long time so if you're discovering them now you've got a good back catalog to explore (though Spotify has their albums split under Melt-Banana and Melt Banana FYI).

melt banana spilts?

played pure heroine non-stop for about a week and a half when it came out but hardly ever since

voted for it

"Buzzcut Season" specifically is about the arrangement for me, not how Lorde sounds singing it; all of those echoes/responses all over the place is just the apex of how the album's musical arrangements work.

Melt-Banana have been doing their thing for a long time so if you're discovering them now you've got a good back catalog to explore (though Spotify has their albums split under Melt-Banana and Melt Banana FYI).

They are definitely a band I know solely by name and not by output; at the time period when I would have been most likely to check them out, I was still listening to something like 90% dance music and just never made time/space to investigate

EZ, M-B are the best live band I've ever seen - it's kinda unfair on their studio material!

I like the Melt-Banana record, but after seeing them live I haven't been able to play it. They killed with both the new and old material, and the record only makes me want to hear the better live versions.

― EZ Snappin, Monday, January 27, 2014 12:42 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This has been my Melt Banana experience.

They need to step up their studio game.