ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

in terms of pompousness of drumming, Deafheaven ain't got nothing on AF

dollar bin fodder

when i talked about pompous drumming it was precisely arcade fire i was thinking of as the ne plus ultra of pompous drumming

so much unwarranted hollow bluster about this band

I like pomposity in music. I don't like Arcade Fire.

Can't believe how poor this band have become. I loved Funeral when it came out but they've gotten so much worse with each album.

Arctic Monkeys!? Arcade Fire!?

*Fonzie-jumping-over-shark.gif*

― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican)

I'm seeing The National popping up next.

arcade fire bringing ilm together <3

Of the new albums I purchased this year, the only three to place so far in this poll are three I didn't vote for-- Neko, Savages and Arcade Fire. Lonely, indeed.

well i guess we can move on

I liked their first album, kinda liked the second. but my favorite AF song (wake up) is also the 21st century version of hey jude and i'm starting to get sick of it in the same way just thinking abt it.

I'm pleased to see Young Galaxy placed, though... even though I didn't vote for it, I enjoyed that album a hell of a lot.

so who voted for it?

I liked their first album at the time too but that might've been just because I was in my mid-teens. I haven't listened to it in years and if I did now I'd probably view it disdainfully.

got some ilx on ilx crime coming up here

James Murphy's involvement in this makes me sad. The dude's killer taste was always an eye opener for me, got me into disco and funk and such. The fact that he teamed up with such serious bores is just ugh.

lol no one is gonna pop their heads up for this one

The other memory I have attached to Reflektor is that bizarre zoladz review on pitchfork where she talked about "closing all extraneous tabs and just listening" or whatever as though hearing music without doing something else at the same time was a revolutionary act.

Funeral was great but everything else shite

http://i.imgur.com/gNQUQ9M.jpg

44 MATMOS The Marriage of True Minds (386 points, 13 votes)

Spotify

ohh nice!

YESSSSSSSSSSSS

Neon Bible > Funeral >>>>> Suburbs >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Reflektor

James Murphy's involvement in this makes me sad. The dude's killer taste was always an eye opener for me, got me into disco and funk and such. The fact that he teamed up with such serious bores is just ugh. feel more righteous about disliking this record. Also the large outdoor posters for it were annoying in terms of text placement.

Absolutely goddamned incredible record, my number 6 I think. Just such an endlessly-mutating, consistently surprising thrillride with an amazing creative conceit and lithe-minded execution, stunning stuff

I didn't hear this in time to vote but it's excellent

imago, you voted for Arcade Fire, after all?

lol

Waiting for Drew's acceptance speech.

Neon Bible > Funeral >>>>> Suburbs >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Reflektor

Yeah this looks about right. lol that their most humble/least obnoxiously grandstanding album is the one with the full-size church organ on it.

almost voted for matmos- great album

Sweet. This was a late addition to my ballot but tbf I would have voted for it based on the concept alone.

<3 Matmos <3

Should be higher, that's a killer album. (Obviously everything I voted for 'should be higher', but still...)

...which is?

xp

so glad I voted for Matmos

http://www.thrilljockey.com/thrill/Matmos/The-Marriage-of-True-Minds

For the past four years the band have been conducting parapsychological experiments based upon the classic Ganzfeld (“total field”) experiment, but with a twist: instead of sending and receiving simple graphic patterns, test subjects were put into a state of sensory deprivation by covering their eyes and listening to white noise on headphones, and then Matmos member Drew Daniel attempted to transmit “the concept of the new Matmos record” directly into their minds. During videotaped psychic experiments conducted at home in Baltimore and at Oxford University, test subjects were asked to describe out loud anything they saw or heard within their minds as Drew attempted transmission. The resulting transcripts became poetic and conceptual scores used by Matmos to generate the nine songs on this album. If a subject hummed something, that became a melody; passing visual images suggested arrangement ideas, instruments, or raw materials for a collage; if a subject described an action, then the band members had to act out that out and make music out of the noises generated in the process of the re-enactment. “The Marriage of True Minds” boasts a promiscuous cast of guest musicians, an array of sonic tactics, and a broad swathe of musical styles, but this diversity is joined together with a common purpose: the translation of this archive of psychic experiments into a delirious hybrid of conceptual noise and electronic pop.

Songs were themed around dream-visions which Drew and MC psychically transmitted into the VERY BRAINS of willing test-subjects o ok fine haha STILL POSTING IT

Oh, it was just Drew

liked a lot of Matmos from the last decade, so feel like a slacker for not knowing this one.

liked this far more than all other Narnia I've heard. Autocorrection stands. Love you, phone.

My drummer doesn't stop playing the fucking Arcade Fire record. Pompous sod. I put it down to age. He'll learn ;-) Count me in the 'Funeral was good' camp, but yeah I don't have time for this. It's dreadfully produced and the whole thing hangs like a jumper that got damaged in the wash. That said, I distinctly remember Ilxors slating Funeral at the time, so maybe people will come back to this one? It does admittedly have its share of catchy moments but the fact Arcade Fire are slowly becoming the U2 of their day makes them very easy to hate right now.

LOVE the Matmos album. It's a hoot. Totally voted for it.

What was the 'concept' Matmos were trying to transmit to their subjects?

http://i.imgur.com/ewpBHY8.jpg

43 JON HOPKINS Immunity (407 points, 14 votes)

Spotify

need to listen to that matmos album more
quadron album was great and another one i voted for. i got to meet coco this past year and she was a total sweetie. glad i got a pic with her, think they're gonna be huge in a year or two.

http://www.thrilljockey.com/thrill/Matmos/The-Marriage-of-True-Minds

― a man with legs made of sausages - that's not real! (seandalai), Tuesday, January 28, 2014 1:07 PM (57 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ty, this is awesome

It does admittedly have its share of catchy moments but the fact Arcade Fire are slowly becoming the U2 of their day makes them very easy to hate right now.

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin)

But when U2 started trying different things they made their two best albums (Achtung Baby and Zooropa) Arcade Fire tried taking similar risks but it just does not work. It's just a really empty sounding record and easily their worst one yet (and I hated The Suburbs)

Nope, didn't get this one. I really like Jon Hopkins, he's a fantastic producer and his album with King Creosote is one of my all time favourites. But... it REALLY DOES sound like Kompakt/Border Community stuff from 2005 and I can't really see the point in this record at all. Also the levels are SO HIGH - like, I want to know if there's something wrong with my copy because tracks like Open Eye Signal are compressed until they're almost noise. Something about this doesn't work for me in the same way Tim Hecker doesn't work for me - there's no dynamic range, it's just sounds piled up on top of each other and no headroom or breathing space.

it REALLY DOES sound like Kompakt/Border Community stuff from 2005 and I can't really see the point in this record at all.

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin), Tuesday, January 28, 2014 8:19 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this gets said so much about jon hopkins because it's true. very boring, albeit inoffensive, record. i trust holden will be placing much higher

love this album. open eye signal and its accompanying video are pretty hypnotic.

I think I actually really liked one Arcade Fire song from The Suburbs? For shame, me, for shame.

That Jon Hopkins album is SO FUCKING GOOD