ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

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)

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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

really? robert smith is like my default singing voice really. kevin rowlands sounds technically better than smith.

kevin keegan sounds technically better than smith

Robert Smith is definitely a case of too much singing. Like thirty years too much imo.

does 2014 represent some sorta Cure nadir, see them dissed allova the place

Oh god I have such PINIONS here (not on Robert Smith, on "strong vocalists") but after 14 years, I know better than to air them on ILM.

Other than a handful of tracks I always found them tedious. Led to a big spat with my SO when I snuck away from a THREE HOUR live set at a festival to go and watch Mayhem on another stage.

oh that's a tough clash

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.

I would be surprised if your favourite powerhouse virtuosos are not supercharged by manipulation, wouldn't go so far as to attribute their powerhouse-status solely to their producers, but there's definitely a correlation

(Tori Amos + PJ Harvey OTM)

The acts I'm not familiar with, I have based my opinions on sampling a few tracks

JULIANA BARWICK - Boring. Sounds like that Beiber slowed down 800% thing but not as good.
FALL OUT BOY - Always had a soft spot but never been a full on fan. The singles are pretty good, will probably check out the whole thing at some point.
MELT-BANANA - Not the kind of thing I'd generally listen to, but I can definitely see what's good and interesting about this. Made more sense when I realised they are Japanese.
BILL CALAHAN - Not my kind of thing at all.
LORDE - Royals is certainly a pretty tune.
THE OH SEES - Never been a fan of the wimpy floaty vocals over hardish rock thing. There are some nice riffs in here though.
FOLLAKZOID - Don't often have the patience for this kind of slow-building shit. Sure it's good live/really stoned.
GORGUTS - nice to see here. Gives me hope that Carcass will place.
KELALA - Listened to this the other day and really enjoyed it. Solid vocals and songwriting, the real star is the production.
CUT COPY - Got no beef with the groovy acid house beats, but the singing is horrid.
f(X) - K pop huh? This first song is infectious and a bit mad, I like it.
DANNY BROWN - Seems like a laugh
FACTORY FLOOR - Feels like I'm sober, in a bad mood and have mistakenly wandered into a basement rave in Dalston.
CIARA - Liked a few of her early tunes, pretty indifferent now.
PARQUET COURTS - So out of my realm that I don't really feel qualified to comment.
K MICHELLE - Fine. Her vocals seem a bit lacking in subtlety.
ARTIC MONKEYS - I don't mind the Artic Monkeys.

So of the stuff I haven't heard before the East Asians are winning.

does 2014 represent some sorta Cure nadir, see them dissed allova the plac

people have been dissing Robert Smith's voice since forever

the trax thread featured a Wilco dis that was widely (and hilariously) misread as a Cure dis.

criticizing k michelle for lack of subtlety seems to be missing the point somewhat

Ha, probably. I only listened to two songs.

Föllakzoid sounded okay to me but modern reverent Krautrock homage is just a sound I'm bored of by this point, it's filed away under "this is good but there's no way I need another record that sounds like this".

yeah id agree with that. its good but not exactly essential.

FACTORY FLOOR - Feels like I'm sober, in a bad mood and have mistakenly wandered into a basement rave in Dalston.

A+++++++ :-D

i love the factory floor rekkid. so relentless and intense.

sleeve OTM re: Chris & Cosey namechecking

Nothing Ciara has done sounds remotely like D'Angelo

― raggett neds of your summer dress (The Reverend), Monday, January 27, 2014 9:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah not even close

― Spottie, Monday, January 27, 2014 9:35 PM (Yesterday)

you goofball pedants, this is like somebody telling me that Chris and Cosey sounds like TG (which I would, of course, vehemently refute). you're so close to your genre of choice that you can't see how people with no familiarity *at all* view it. I was impressed that my wife knew the name of any famous post-70's R&B singers at all, and slow jams are slow jams to the general public.

standby

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

60 DONATO DOZZY Plays Bee Mask (311 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

^^^ good album

i am intrigued

1st track is very pretty, I was surprised when the album got more intense later on

Wow, surprised to see this make it. This was a very late addition to my list. Beautiful album.

So it's a set of remixes of a 12" by Bee Mask from 2012 (iirc), turning gnarly electronica into blissed-out electronica (iirc). I voted for it but haven't listened in a while...gonna go do that now.

it's okay, nothing special. kind of got the follakzoid factor in that it's good but I can't get super excited by it. Think i prefer Beemask on his own really.

*15 minute break because i'm gonna go eat breakfast*

First/only thing I've heard from Dozzy, I know people liked that Voices From the Lake album but I never got round to checking it out.