ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

Thee Oh Sees are so great, this is probably their last album :(

They sort of walked back the "indefinite hiatus" announcement already.

There's certainly no shortage of Thee Oh Sees albums to check out.

http://i.imgur.com/vQYlu5q.jpg?1

71 FÖLLAKZOID II (284 points, 9 votes)

Spotify

Great album, first of my votes to appear. Check out Pulsar if instrumental space rock sounds like it might be your thing.

ahh nice. i like this one. didn't vote for it, but it's got some great tracks. "9" is sick.

never heard of it. sounds cool, will check it out.

I dug Follakzoid when I tried it on Spotify, but ended up voting for things I was more familiar with, will probably come back to this though

so good

Now, that's a good cover

another new one to check out, initially read their name as Folkazoid

that cover looks like something you might buy in Borderline records in Brighton

yaaaay! i voted for this. perfect music to listen to while you're trying to perform a mentally challenging task.

thee oh sees - this kind of garage rock sounds like this kind of garage rock and always will i guess, i don't find it exciting

föllakzoid - never even heard the name before, four mins into "pulsar" and getting quite into it - something very beardo disco about it except with a motorik beat and those space whooshes are a nice touch that make it cosmic despite the earthbound guitars? and there are enough melodic switch-ups and chord changes that are maintaining interest rather than just being nice vibing out music and justifying its length. am thinking zombie zombie which is a +ve thought. seven minutes in and i think i'm gonna check out the whole album now. nice horse too. good discovery!

perfect music to listen to while you're trying to perform a mentally challenging task.

can definitely imagine this. rhythm to keep you going, gradual build to accelerate you, spacey whooshes and melodies to get your brain in gear

:D will also check out later, didn't give it enuff time on metal countdown

Loved the "Carrion Crawler EP" but haven't been able to get into the new one. Probably should give it another try.

yay love that melt banana album

ah yeah i listened to that follakzoid album when it came out and forgot about it! Great memories this is real good

seems like pretty groovy trance rock, could definitely vibe out to it

Loving lex's comparison of follakzoid to beardo disco and zombie zombie :-D totally the rock analogue to that kind of music.

^^ yes

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

70 GORGUTS Colored Sands (286 points, 8 votes)

Spotify

sorry that just makes me think of the cranberries

Listened to the Follakzoid album over the weekend and liked it. Great cover too, yeah - I like most of the Sacred Bones artwork, I wish I liked more of their acts really.

Yesssssssssssssssssss Oh Sees, my #2 album, those guys are so ridiculously consistent.
Haven't even heard of Follakzoid!

honestly i've never known what beardo disco really is, so if it's like groovy trance rock, maybe i would like it?

NA we could make a local follakzoid -- those beats are easy!

ooooooh I just know that something good is gonna happpeeeeeeen!

(fyi: something good hasn't happened yet)

Nice! I didn't say anything before because I figured the Follakzoid was coming due to its high placing in the metal poll. Glad to see interest in this Chilean psych band, which probably would have gone unnoticed if it weren't for Sacred Bones releasing it. Other motorik/kosmische oriented stuff I discovered belatedly from 2013 are Death Hawks - s/t, Eat Lights Become Lights - Modular Living, Papir - Papir III and Space Debris - She's A Temple.

Gorguts was #4 on the Metal Poll btw.

Yeah there was a bunch of stuff that sounds vaguely similar to Follakzoid last year (also Holydrug Couple, Barn Owl...) but I think they pulled it off most successfully.

Yesssss INCREDIBLE FUCKING ALBUM, my number 5, listened just before deadline and had no option. It is a genuinely awesome compositional achievement. Open minds, please!

we got a tie coming up btw

Features some of the best and most interesting songwriting of the year xp to self. aw J give it another minute lol

hmmm. Is it real metal? I just wanna know before I listen to it. That deafheaven track was pretty chill, is it like that?

Awesome record. I feel like it'll be years before I've mentally mapped it out.

And no wins, this is not a Deafheaven situation.

I like how the riffs cascade into one another, but I'm gonna be one of those people and say I'd like it more with more melodic vocals.

seems very trve kvlt based on the track I listened to

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

(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me (295 points, 10 votes)

Spotify

xp ok I will listen to it another night

Hmm, have heard one of Gorguts' albums (Erosion of Sanity) before, it wasn't really for me. Is this one any different?

Follakzoid sounded nice!

honestly i've never known what beardo disco really is, so if it's like groovy trance rock, maybe i would like it?

i should think so! studio's "out there" is about as good as beardo disco gets really (nb: 15 mins long but all awesome)

Ooh, I probably got this on the list. Suck it, haters :D

v good

"a lie" is the prettiest, saddest song

wow, surprised in a good way to see kelela so low

there are bangers on cut 4 me (floor show) but as a whole album i didn't fall in love with

there are good beats and good singing in places but it's a bit scattered

i feel like she could do some good things tho we'll see

Unfortunately for me, Kelela is kind of this year's Cooly G. In other words, great production watered down to make space for mediocre vocals.

I think I'm still a tad bitter at her for stopping the Night Slugs/Fade to Mind showcase at last year's SXSW dead in its tracks, taking it off track from a really fun dance party to a dull concert with a lot of gawking and zero dancing.

Didn't vote for Kelela but thought it was interesting the couple of times I listened to it, should probably check it out again.
Listening to the Follakzoid, it's fine but it seems like there's so much of this stuff every year and it's all pretty indistinguishable for me.