ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

i know i could listen to it (or look it up) but i don't always have access to speakers at the time i'm reading the thread -- it's just a small helpful thing that could be done to make the poll user friendly for people who aren't sitting at a computer all day. no biggie.

it was really helpful on the metal thread!!

yeah if no one's gonna suggest tracks or say a little something about an album they rep for i'm less likely to bother checking it out

both days have ended with a British guitar act that I loathe with an incredibly violent passion, lol kiu ILM :D

from now on i'm gonna refuse to differentiate between those bands and just call them both the fuck monkeys for convenience sake

Yeah, I concur that it would be an extra bonus. Obviously the poll runners are taking time out for no recompense to do this for us all, so not going to moan about it not happening, but for future reference I am pro the idea.

Uh, xpost!

I just hit "Prince's Prize" on the Fuck Buttons album, which is a syncopated chime arpeggio workout with a bunch of eerie sound-effects ping-ponging off of this plaintive slow background melody, and it's basically the greatest new-to-me thing I've heard on the countdown yet

i wouldn't ask the poll runners to do it! just whoever voted for or just likes the album in question and wants to proselytise about it

xp

and a pain in the arse to do
xps

so far I owe this list a big thank you for:

Melt-Banana
Factory Floor
K. Michelle
Quadron
Fuck Buttons

just listen to the first track on the fuck buttons record, you'll figure out very quickly what they're about

very cool record btw, think i had it in my top 10

dan when you get a chance check out "surf solar" by fb which is still one of my favorite songs ever--piercing noise bomb that is also completely gorgeous

I definitely will!

BTW "Stalker" is incredible, this whole album is incredible, I want them to collaborate with John Grant

yeah DJP their previous album is equally great but its more expansive & triumphant and less of the ominous claustrophobic tone on this one

i ignored them for a year or 2 due to their name, which i still think is terrible, but that was a big mistake

am currently being blown away by the John Grant album - probably owe Fuck Buttons another chance (well I owe them quite a bit, it seems)

FUCK YEAAAAH MATMOS!

Tarot sport's my fave of fuck buttons' catalogue
Features my three fave of their tracks, Surf Solar, The Lisbon Maru & Olympians

yeah I have been ignoring them due to the name as well, because I'll be damned if I'm walking into my local record store and asking the woman behind the counter "do you have FUCK BUTTONS?"

im sure you've asked worse

for some reason i always just assumed they were like the new ratatat or something

not sure what to think of all these albums, a lot of them seem to be ok but there is nothing really outstanding, i find. it's all so average, so not taking any risks, so not new. i say that after very cursory listens of a couple of songs but i am not thrilled. maybe the matmos could be worthwhile to invest some time into.

xp That was Shit Disco ha

this FB album is their least appealing imo, i couldn't get into it at all but enjoyed the prevs

why would anyone want to ask for a shit disco album

the Young Galaxy album has been a nice discovery for me. i would have definitely voted for it had i heard it before.

morelike alex in moanhatin'

xpost surprises me that no one ever talks about "Fall For You" on that album, it's easily my favourite.

I can't be around for roll-out and I had 20 thoughts to post so instead I'm gonna cheat

77 JULIANNA BARWICK Nepenthe - beautiful, I love this album, a friend produced this and I am proud for him
76 FALL OUT BOY - this is technically very nice, not my kind of music
75 MELT-BANANA Fetch - one of my favourite bands historically but I haven't yet heard this
74 BILL CALLAHAN Dream River - Beer. Thank you. Flute. No thank you.
73 LORDE Pure Heroine - Have only heard "Buzzcut Season" and "Royals" (for the first time at the Grammies), like both tracks, love her
72 THEE OH SEES Floating Coffin - I am still three albums behind on Thee Oh Sees but this is a band I prefer to see live
71 FÖLLAKZOID II - new to me, looking forward to it
70 GORGUTS Colored Sands - I can't get away from all the love for this record and I will listen to it tonight
(tie) 68. KELELA Cut 4 Me - Best best best, love this record
(tie) 68 CUT COPY Free Your Mind - I have never heard this band or met anybody who likes them
67 f(x) Pink Tape - some days for simplicity I imagine that I like shiny pop music but today is not one of those days
66 DANNY BROWN Old - I am still actively listening to XXX and haven't heard this
65 FACTORY FLOOR Factory Floor - I wish I liked this more, this is one of my favourite bands but I think I like them for their potential energy (imagining their records-to-be) than anything else. I love Carter Tutti Void.
64 CIARA Ciara - I cook to this record, I love Ciara
63 PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold - have for the last couple years maintained irrational hatred for all things Brooklynite (mostly as an effort to get my friends out of that Rube Goldberg machine, and it's working), but this band doesn't even do New York slacker well, it's bad guitar solos, bad drumming. Would tomato.
62 K MICHELLE Rebellious Soul - I was ready to like K Michelle but "Coochie Symphony" is such a piece of shit that I deleted this record.
61 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM - I love Alex's songs and love this record
60 DONATO DOZZY Plays Bee Mask - oh hello I have not heard you or heard of you
59 JOHN GRANT Pale Green Ghosts - CAD otm about this guy and Xiu Xiu, but in a deeper, id way. This guy is totally great but not my jam.
58 RHYE Woman - I wrote an "every decade gets the Postal Service they deserve" thing on Facebook about this album but then realized that a friend was in this band and hastily deleted
57 YOUNG GALAXY Ultramarine - like Lex I've been cool on this band but this record is great
56 KA The Night's Gambit - I listened once but need to give this another shot
55 DJ SPRINKLES Queerifications and Ruins: Collected Remixes by DJ Sprinkles - <3 <3 <3
54 NEKO CASE The Worse Things Get - I'm a couple albums behind on Neko, I loved Fox Confessor to death, I love Neko's refusal to write hooks on that record, all mood and lyrics. Wasn't into "I'm A Man" at all.
53 CARCASS Surgical Steel - this is awesome, one of my favourites of the year, I put it on whenever bf goes out
52 SAVAGES Silence Yourself - I saw them live at NXNE and they blew me and the room away, best show of the year, I have been avoiding their album because people have such a problem with them and I would rather keep my positive experience with them intact
51 ASHLEY MONROE Like a Rose - I don't listen to this
50 WAXAHATCHEE Cerulean Salt - Stevie D has been telling me to listen to this so I want to listen to it properly and I haven't yet
49 WILLIAM ONYEABOR Who is William Onyeabor? - I am waiting for this album to surprise me
48 YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN UZU - this is everything I love and I listen to this album all the time
47 LAUREL HALO Chance of Rain - who is this?
46 QUADRON Avalanche - haven't heard but every Quadron post on ILM references Rhye so I'll pass
45 ARCADE FIRE Reflektor - I love "It's Never Over" from this album, but don't rate the rest. I rate "The Suburbs" highly.
44 MATMOS The Marriage of True Minds - a favourite, but I haven't heard this yet
43 JON HOPKINS Immunity - kryptonite. Hotel lobby music. This guy is a great musician though
42 MAYA JANE COLES Comfort - who is this.
42 FUCK BUTTONS Slow Focus - personally this isn't what I put on when I want to rock but these guys sell tickets and make noise so big respect

it's all so average, so not taking any risks, so not new.

this is bullshit fyi. not sure how you can say that about all THIRTY-SEVEN albums that have placed so far

Yeah it'll take more than "very cursory listens of a couple of songs" to get a sense of these albums.

ehh that's just his 'thing'

I feel like K. Michelle is on the verge of writing Chatterbox: The Opera

waxahatchee sounds a little like a toothless liz phair. i kind of like her songs but they seem pretty boring and previsible. i cannot imagine to listen to them more than twice.

xp it's a bold judgement, i know probably premature but it's how it is. i know i should try harder but there is still so much great stuff to discover why waste my time. like the amazing atmospheric slow motion music of bohren and the club of gore for example.

^he died listening to talk talk iirc, that's his ghost

cursory listens might not be enough to get a sense of these albums but they're damn well enough to know that "it's all so average, so not taking any risks, so not new" is nonsense

seriously, i'm shook

forgot to post this when Lorde placed
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/10433978/Lorde-interview-Dream-Teen.html

New Zealand teenager Lorde, who will perform live at the Grammys, has been hailed as the antidote to superficial lyrics and sexual provocation in pop

tempted to resurrect "even a cursory reading of Foucault should have told us that"

the antidote to superficial lyrics and sexual provocation in pop

FINALLY

you got it wrong matt p, talk talk saved my life!

i listened to a couple of cuts off the Gorguts album and that told me all i need to know about every one of these records

it's a little odd to see that onyeabor comp mixed in with all this new stuff.

Been meaning to check that out for a while. I'll do it now!

waxahatchee sounds a little like a toothless liz phair

I kinda agree with the Liz Phair part, not sure where the "toothless" is coming from though. I guess it depends on which parts of "Exile" you liked best. If you preferred the sarcastic smackdowns of hapless ex-es and wannabe scenesters, then I guess Waxahatchee might not be for you. But if you preferred the emotionally vulnerable dissections of failing relationships and breakups and such, you might like it.

Also, btw, I don't get all the people who say they would've voted for Parquet Courts but they considered it to be 2012. I could understand that if you voted for it in 2012, but I went back and checked the results spreadsheet and there was exactly one vote for "Light Up Gold" in 2012. One. So a lot of you are fronting, I think.

fronting? on ILM?

good thing we got o. nate to call it out

that most of those albums do not grab me has probably more to do with me than with the music. for quite a while i have had the feeling of being flooded with music. i am more into silence than music these days. just don't listen to my ramblings...

xp i preferred the sarcastic songs off exile, definitely.

Truly, truly, I tell you that one of you will betray Parquet Courts

loool

59 JOHN GRANT Pale Green Ghosts - CAD otm about this guy and Xiu Xiu, but in a deeper, id way. This guy is totally great but not my jam.

id is a v. good descriptor of what i mean here.

also bad drumming seems like an odd thing to call out re: parquet courts--drummer is v. snappy and economical imo!