ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

x-post: OTM! Fell in love with Airplane, then was completely blown away by the album. Every song - except for Goodbye Summer, imo - is incredible.

That entire Ciara album is so solid!! I'm surprised it's this low!

Also Factory Floor at first seemed like one of those collections of songs that didn't function all that engagingly as a singular album but then a few months later I listened to it a lot more and it grew on me. But it's still not in the same league as the Daniel Avery or Jon Hopkins albums.

I think I have 5 definites still to come but I'm kinda unsure about another 5. 4 I hoped might wont now I think.
If any of those 5 "maybes" do place it will be tomorrow but I'd be surprised if it was more than 2. Looking forward to the rundown. I always enjoy the lower part of the poll more than the upper. Wish it was a top 100.

Can't believe that there's a band called Freakazoid

Thrilled to see f(x) place

FYI while f(x) has the attention of ILM this is the song that got me into f(x) and made them stand out from the rest of the k-pop sphere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ZrPFMr_nY

It sounds maybe a bit dated but it is also a 100% certified and approved (*dusts off an appropriate ILM buzzword of yesteryear*) banger

Whoops sorry for the embed

nice, I like it more than the one Lamp linked

here's our rundown, plz note my wife is generally not a poptimist:

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe - ooh pretty soundtrack music, reminds me of Grouper??
76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll - emo sure has gotten fancy, not a bad thing imo. nice high notes on the vocals!
75 MELT-BANANA Fetch - love this but wish they would change it up a bit more radically, bands like this fall into the always-making-the-same-album trap sometimes, it helps that this band is really good
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River - i'll check the youtube… 6 1/2 mins?!? OK, it sounds good. I can appreciate this guy and I like this a lot more than previous stuff. my wife informs me that she likes his voice. my issue w/ him is that he seems like a version of Nick Cave who is too cool and/or pensive to ever get really angry,
73 LORDE Pure Heroine - stripped down production makes this works, dig the hit, couldn't make it through Buzz Season
72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin - Lamp mostly OTM, see also "making the same album" issue, which I don't have an issue with aesthetically but it can induce listener fatigue/apathy if its a genre you aren't really invested in
71 FÖLLAKZOID II - I already have a bunch of Neu and F/i and Wooden Shjips albums but this is good, would buy used
70 GORGUTS Colored Sands - not a metal fan, gave up about 90 seconds in
(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me - two songs in & this is boring.
(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind - 30 seconds in - "hey this is awesome", 45 seconds in "OMG his voice, yuck". L: "his torpy (sic) voice has got to go:"
67 f(x) Pink Tape - 10 seconds in L is shaking her head and moaning, but I can see it at a party for sure. 2 mins in and she refuses to listen to any more
66 DANNY BROWN Old - we both preferred this to f(x), nice car jams
65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor - 2 minutes in, l: "so far so good, as long as they don't start singing". wow "Two Different Ways" REALLY sounds like Chris & Cosey
64 CIARA Ciara - no thanks, Laurie says it reminds her of D'Angelo, lol wife tom
63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold - the shorter songs are butter but this isn't even close to best rec of the year and I am tired of defending it, it is almost a guilty pleasure in a 90's revivalism kinda way, hate to say.
62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul - L: "she's got some style, now this one I like" - I dig the piano parts
61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM (311 points, 11 votes) - this dude reminds me of some classic rock singer. L: "there's some weird under-tune going on, but he's trying to tell to much of astray". skipping ahead, this is OK but I can;t see coming back to it. I bet this guy has a Bolan poster on his wall.

Callahan's sensibility is much closer to Cohen (as discussed above) than Cave. Anger's def not his thing, but neither is aimless pensiveness.

whoops that should be "lol wife otm"

Nothing Ciara has done sounds remotely like D'Angelo

yeah not even close

wife not so tom after all

Follakzoid is so much better than fuckin Wooden Shjips tho

Ok, everyone else is doing it so I guess I should also share my first impressions even though noone should care about them.

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe - I know Wire loves her but I've never been able to listen to any of her records, at first listen this sounds really good but I prefer Grouper myself. I'm glad it's on the list.
76 FALL OUT BOY Save Rock and Roll - it's so weird to see them over here, I had no idea ILM cared about them. Turns out the only song I knew from the album is Light Em Up by hearing it on the radio and I swear I thought it was sung by either One Direction or Big Time Rush. At any rate I'm pretty sure they share the same listener demographic.
75 MELT-BANANA Fetch - I have to be in a very particular mood to tolerate this kind of music but I deeply regret not giving them any vote in here or the tracks poll.
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River - This is the sort of album that I think I'm still too young to appreciate. Love the production but as I've said not really my cup of tea.
73 LORDE Pure Heroine - Didn't vote for it but I might be one of the few people in here who likes her.
72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin - I will always love whatever they release even if it starts to sound homogenic by this point.
71 FÖLLAKZOID II - I think this might be the only record I voted for from this first batch.
70 GORGUTS Colored Sands - not much of a death metal fan. Sorry.
(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me - the production sounds nice in several of these but I can't find anything good to say about the vocals and the way the mixed them in.
(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind - I had no idea they released anything this year. I loved what they were doing 14 years ago. Not really feeling this.
67 f(x) Pink Tape - This makes me feel disoriented.
66 DANNY BROWN Old - This is good, you could remove the filler songs for a better album.
65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor -Not really in the mood to listen to this right now but it sounds like something I love, Saving it for later.
64 CIARA Ciara - Not really following her story but I like her unreleased demos like Promise (was it properly released somewhere?) much better than this.
63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold - This is for me the exact opposite of Bill Callahan; I'm too old for this shit. I feel like I might have loved it 3 or 5 years ago or so, nowadays not so much.
62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul - L: lol at that cover. Not really my style but it sounds interesting.
61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM (311 points, 11 votes) - I don't mind them but I had no idea ILM cared at all about them.

just found the internet again, rad list so far
v. happy to see f(x), k michelle, factory floor & parquet courts from last night
still need to listen to the ciara album

Missed the start of the roll-out y'day.

Nice to see a load of albums unfamiliar to me.

Checked out
Thee Oh Sees - Started v well, meandered to no purpose then ended with 'Minotaur' which I liked a lot.

K Michelle - tried, but I think I'm condemned to only enjoy the 'wrong' kind of r'n'b. Too much singing for my tastes.

Melt Banana - fun enough while I was listening but doubt I'll ever listen again.

Nice to see Danny Brown here, although I much prefer 'XXX'.

Also yay for f(x)!!

Too much singing for my tastes.

!!!

or -_-

Too many notes

i assume you mean too much melisma? not heard the record tbh

too much ability, too much technique, too much power

Too much drumming

Yeah, that's a fair enough reaction Lex. Although I'm quite enjoying 'VSOP' as I type this. I think generally I'm more receptive to singers who don't sing quite so well? That probably makes no sense. I assume K Michelle is considered to have a good voice?

too much ability, too much technique, too much power

― lex pretend, Tuesday, January 28, 2014 12:27 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is actually true!!

why are those things turn-offs?!

i don't want to be all "technique is everything" b/c i've always repped for tons of "weak-voiced" singers from janet to cassie, not just the powerhouse vocalists but as you're probably aware there's been a huge shift in critical attitudes to r&b to rewarding the weaker-voiced, pliable types, with artists who can really SANG getting more marginalised. it seems perverse, especially in the r&b context.

it's popification i guess, and probably ties in with a shift in critical focus towards producers/writers

I've listened to Arctic Monkeys and K Michelle this morning. I'd never listened to Arctic Monkeys before, just stayed away because of their rep. I agree with DJP in that I could kinda get into it for a few minutes, but then it sorta meandered into medicore.

The K Michelle is great. Modern R&B is one of those genres I have always had a hard time getting into, but you can tell she's awesome at her deal. I can see coming back to this a couple times.

because white hipster boys are afraid of strong women

― lex pretend

We all gave lex some shit for this strawman in the Tracks thread but man it looks like the strawman just got real

How does a technically capable voice = a strong woman?

Please, elucidate for me.

Strong diaphragm!

oh fuck off dayo, i'm not interested in interacting with someone constantly intent on zinging me

How does a technically capable voice = a strong woman?

Please, elucidate for me.

not going to get into this either really. it doesn't, does that make you happy? but the context is a discourse where powerhouse virtuosos are marginalised in favour of those whose voices are more suited to being pliable tools for electronic producers to manipulate.

Lex, you make fair points. I'm not disagreeing with you. I can't really defend my position. I'm just not sure I can unpick a personal preference. I mean I just enjoy hearing, say Future, singing more than I do Mariah Carey or Sean Ryder more than R Kelly. I can't justify it, it just is. Their voices are more pleasing to me.

xp

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/IoY0Qa0zU0A/hqdefault.jpg

Lex, wasn't really directed at you but rather dayo's comment. Though yeah, it was kind of what I was getting at on the other thread, perhaps less relevant now.

And I just realised I picked 2 dudes as my vocal preferences examples. Whoops. Okay female vocals I especially enjoy - Kim Deal, Courtney Love, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey (except her vocals on the last album) Lana Del Rey. Are any of them technically good?

I guess the question is do you enjoy anyone who is?

emil.y that was just the version of lex's post that everybody was quoting on the Tracks thread

I realize that he later amended it to say strong voices instead

Appreciate you coming around on the Sky Ferreira / Suicide angle btw

(they're all good at what they do)

xpost

xposts

i don't want to be all "technique is everything" b/c i've always repped for tons of "weak-voiced" singers from janet to cassie, not just the powerhouse vocalists but as you're probably aware there's been a huge shift in critical attitudes to r&b to rewarding the weaker-voiced, pliable types, with artists who can really SANG getting more marginalised. it seems perverse, especially in the r&b context.

it's just the angle you approach it from i guess. modern rock, especially indie, has a tradition of championing the underdog. Think there's a sort of sociological fear of wielding one's abilities - it's considered almost a vulgar display of power if you emote too much, if you try too hard. So powerful singing voices are often considered to be too immodest, too bombastic, too overtly in-your-face to be deemed suitable or palatable for that kind of music. If your tastes are more skewed to alt/indie music, you'll be used to hearing amateurish vocalists and will be drawn-in by the charm inherent in a less-than-perfect vocal take. Someone like Stephen Malkmus could be considered the apotheosis of this, and you're either going to love his slacker drawl or hate it with a passion. R'n'B is possibly the opposite of this - the voice is everything, is the MVP in all its various components. Without a good, strong, vocal it would be dreadful, unparseable, to those who appreciate that style for its inherent traits.

has a tradition of championing the underdog.

It's not really this so much as so many bands have singers who don't have pipes yet find ways to emote anyway

Think there's a sort of sociological fear of wielding one's abilities - it's considered almost a vulgar display of power if you emote too much, if you try too hard.

dog latin is right in that it's widely considered a death trap in indie if you sing like Phil Anselmo

dog latin - yeah i'm aware of that approach; i'm actually talking about which r&b singers in 2013 were critically favoured, not about indie fans' reservations. there might be a touch of what you describe going on but i suspect it's a lot more to do with r&b's increased standing among electronic producers, who see the voice as subsidiary to the production. and the combination of r&b with dance pushes a lot of people's "r&b has to be futurist to be good" buttons...which ends up sidelining the powerhouses who have traditionally been the backbone of the genre

alfred otm

And I just realised I picked 2 dudes as my vocal preferences examples. Whoops. Okay female vocals I especially enjoy - Kim Deal, Courtney Love, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey (except her vocals on the last album) Lana Del Rey. Are any of them technically good?

PJ Harvey and Tori Amos, definitely

Are we not considering auto-tune "electronic manipulation"?

Auto tune only makes the problem worse; you can literally take any old person* and twist their vocals into whatever key you need them to be in, which greatly downgrades the importance of having someone who can sing the notes with any degree of accuracy.

* except Farrah Abraham

Thanks for weighing in DJP. It's an area I'm completely unqualified to determine and I bow down to your many years of choir experience.

My favourite singer of all time is Robert Smith and I know his voice isn't for everyone but I'm hesitantly sure that he can sing.

Farrah Abraham isn't old.

But with any vocal performance I'm obviously probably not getting the same thing out of it that someone like DJP does/can. Also a whole host of things that might really bother him will just fly over the top of my ears.

DJP has claimed iirc that Robert Smith is technically one of the greatest singers in rock history