ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

i liked those write-ups dan! did you ever hear fantasia's last album? you MUST hear "man of the house"

It's weird, Alison G has a beautiful voice and several good-to-great songs and obvious star quality and stage presence and has played a theremin onstage with her crotch and yet there's still something kinda boring about Goldfrapp the band.

(fyi the song Fantasia sang that I was not feeling at all was "Something to Talk About")

jjj = ILX poster/moderator jjjusten, aka one of my best friends from high school; he's currently talking a lot of nonsense giving crucial industry insights about a guitar trade show on the I Make Music subboard

from day one goldfrapp have always worked better on paper than they do in reality for me. so frequently totally my kind of thing and i've got tons of friends that adore them but every time i listen, no matter what mode they're in, i end up thinking the execution falls short, that they only get about 80% of where they need to go, and i end up being unable to overlook the deficit.

http://i.imgur.com/Iy3Yl1s.jpg

38 PET SHOP BOYS Electric (440 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

I'm so out of touch I didn't even know Goldfrapp *had* an album out this year, but the one clip that loaded has persuaded me to give the band another chance after the, erm, opera thing.

Thanks, lex. I haven't heard Fantasia's previous one yet, mostly due to laziness. Another one that is on the list to get through.

PSB TOO LOW obv

what I said about Electric:

I wrote the Pet Shop Boys off after Elysium. In retrospect the album wasn't quite AS bad as I thought it was but it was firmly ensconced in the "we are in our fifties and mostly concerned with making adult contemporary music" side of their persona, which is great when it works (see "Home and Dry") but is rarely, if ever, what I want to listen to over a full album. I'd read rumors that they had saved all of their dancefloor burners for a follow up album but wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat in anticipation. Or at least, I wasn't on the edge of my seat in anticipation until "Axis" came out.

The intro alone elevates the song over the sleepy mood that has been pervasive over many of their recent albums (aside from Fundamental, the best of their 00s output and required listening if you haven't heard it yet). I'm a big sucker for pitch bending and the way the synth counterpoint builds up to that ritard and chord, hits it, and then slooooowly slides down in pitch may be Tension-Building 101 but it's a trick that works; the beat hits all the harder given the setup. The song is very light on lyrics and message, concerning itself more with structure and inviting you to dance your face off.

Electric as an album is as close to a perfect statement on middle-aged dance pop as you are going to find. The moods swing all over the place while never leaving the dance floor; the filter-heavy, largely instrumental "Axis" leads into the bright-but-ominous "Bolshy", complete with rollicking bass line and chime-driven descants. "Love Is A Bourgeois Construct" takes the disco filter of Madonna's "Hung Up" and drowns it in sardonic wit. "Fluorescent" (my personal standout) drenches deep house in moody mentasm-filtered synths. The Boys even offer up an aggro-for-fiftysomething slogan track in "Shouting in the Evening".

There are two other songs I want to specifically mention; "The Last To Die" and "Vocal". The former is the latest in a storied line of surprising, inspired covers, this one being a 2007 Bruce Springsteen anti-war song that manages the tricky feat of transforming into a dance anthem in the vein of "Always on My Mind" while retaining the energy and feel of the original. The latter foregrounds the album's thesis statement in its opening lyrics:

I like the people, I like the song
This is my kind of music
They play it all night long

It's a fantastic way to close out the album and a reminder to me that I usually get obsessed with bands because, ultimately, they know how to push my buttons. PSB had spent so long meandering in toothless tastefulness that I had begun to think that it was time to part ways with them. I'm glad Electric showed me I was wrong.

feel much the same as what Matt and balls just said, like a few other sort of meta-pop artists Goldfrapp rarely seem to fully transcend their ideas for me

Okay this is the part of the list I can get behind. I had this in my top five and I'm delighted to see it place.

I know return to form albums can be so annoying but honestly I haven't loved an album of theirs this much since Very. Excellent album with no weak songs. Not even a cameo from Example can spoil this album

more r&b?

― Mordy , Wednesday, January 29, 2014 10:37 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

u got a problem?

I'm not crazy about "Vocal" and mayyybe "Fluorescent" but I love this album.

"The Last to Die" showed they hadn't lost their talent for queering the unlikeliest of sources.

That is a terrific write up DJP.

just find it mostly un-engaging xxxp

Anyone else hoping the Suede album pops up next?

every old gay man i know was raving about that pet shop boys last year, reminiscent of when confessions on a dance floor came out or the week all their nieces told them about solange, i guess i'll finally check it out.

Wow @ three number ones for Goldfrapp. I've always written them off as a rather 'tasteful' and toothless version of stuff I love, but I don't hate them, just can't muster up excitement about them.

just find it mostly un-engaging xxxp

― Mordy , Wednesday, January 29, 2014 11:11 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is it supposed to reflect poorly on the entire genre of R&B that you don't find it "engaging"?

Also - DJPs fb posts are excellent.

enjoyable album, couple of real highlights in LIABC and Fluorescent

I think every old gay man in Boston was at the PSB show; I had never before seen so much greying chest hair

also made me feel really guilty about never going to the gym

just find it mostly un-engaging xxxp

― Mordy , Wednesday, January 29, 2014 11:11 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is it supposed to reflect poorly on the entire genre of R&B that you don't find it "engaging"?

― some dude, Wednesday, January 29, 2014 4:14 PM (13 seconds ago)

I suspect it's probably that he was asking if it was worth his time to check it out, or if it's another thing in a genre he doesn't care for, in which case he'll skip it. Probably.

every old gay man i know was raving about that pet shop boys last year, reminiscent of when confessions on a dance floor came out

ha i felt it was kinda a failed attempt at doing confessions. their lyrical touch has long disappeared, i find them really clunky and heavy-handed now, and without that i find them slightly embarrassing tbh

every old gay man i know was raving about that pet shop boys last year, reminiscent of when confessions on a dance floor came out or the week all their nieces told them about solange

ugh my niece raved about "Let It Go."

First listen to the Goldfrapp record and boy it sounds so similar to the Phaedra album that Lex repped for last year (not a complaint!)

Confessions is mostly pretty ropey if you listen to it again.

emil.y otm. some dude, u sound a little sensitive about the topic. did you feel like i was dissing you personally?

Previously unheard albums which I've now played all the way through to the end on Spotify, so that's a good thing, right: Lorde, Thee Oh Sees, Föllakzoid.

(I also got halfway through Gorguts, which I'm counting as a major achievement for someone so habitually metal-averse.)

Previously unheard album which only lasted two tracks on Spotify before being booted off: Melt-Banana.

I've now got as far as K.Michelle, which sounds like the best discovery so far - absolutely my kind of R&B vocal, wow.

Although I've never really given up on the PSBs, I couldn't get behind this one at all.

(the ship has long-sailed but I could post what I wrote about John Grant and Savages if people are interested)

the week all their nieces told them about solange

rofl

What I wrote at the time, and like DJP I disliked the last two albums. Well, no, I hated the last album.

emil.y otm. some dude, u sound a little sensitive about the topic. did you feel like i was dissing you personally?

― Mordy , Wednesday, January 29, 2014 11:17 AM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah, 14 other people voted for the album. but emil.y's right that i didn't understand that you were asking what the genre was before listening to the album.

Confessions is mostly pretty ropey if you listen to it again.

― Matt DC

Never got the love for this. It just sounded like a generic dance album to me. The big difference with this Pet Shop Boys album is it's full of their character and could only be the Pet Shop Boys. Confessions to me, could have had anyone singing on it.

aaagh Goldfrapp TOO LOW. But pleased to see it place obv. The first thing I voted for that has placed so far.

This was my number one. It's a really stunning album, maybe the best one they've done.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Ditto and ditto

love that review, alfred

anybody else singing 'i love new york' would sound like a dork imo

What I wrote at the time, and like DJP I disliked the last two albums. Well, no, I hated the last album.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Good review and some great comments too.. useful.

(the ship has long-sailed but I could post what I wrote about John Grant and Savages if people are interested)

― SHAUN (DJP

post 'em for posterity.

I had Goldfrapp on my ballot - never been a huge fan (liked the odd single) but they really nailed a particular sound on this one.

John Grant:

My good friend Ned told me multiple times that I was going to lose my mind over Pale Green Ghosts by John Grant but, for whatever reason, I remained skeptical. I didn't feel that I was really in the headspace to pay attention to or enjoy a singer/songwriter type when the album started making the rounds and really wasn't motivated to check out the album despite multiple exhortations. I finally got around to listening to it sometime after it appeared on Spotify, which I believe was several months after it had been released.

There are multiple ways in which this is an astonishing piece of work. First off, it's produced by Biggi Viera of GusGus, who worked with Grant to create a soundscape that transitions seamlessly from Grant's indie rock background into Viera's electronic roots. Lyrically, Grant is pulling from some really dark places; the songs for the album were written and recorded in the wake of a bad breakup and learning that a passing sexual encounter had infected him with HIV and the words paint pictures of anger, hopelessness, disgust, self-loathing and misery, making the album a pretty heavy listen. Grant sings these words in a pure, smooth baritone that is one of the best voices I encountered in 2013.

Several songs on the album feature Sinead O'Connor on backing vocals; the most striking of these is "Why Don't You Love Me Anymore?" where Grant's flat-affect delivery is offset by O'Connor's fragile, bordering-on-unhinged harmonizing. Another standout is "GMF", named for an acronym of a key phrase in the chorus that will probably make you cheer once you listen to the song. Album opener "Pale Green Ghosts" shows the strongest connection to Viera's GusGus lineage, with its burbling bass line and synth stabs, while "I Hate This Town" puts me in mind of an alternate universe Billy Joel more enamored of stream-of-consciousness lyrics and hard-earned vitriol.

You can read an excellent interview with Grant conducted by Dorian Lynskey here.

Savages:

One thing I respond very positively towards in music is fury. It's an emotion I invariably find thrilling and intoxicating; the energy expressed, whether it's a fury born of rage and anger or of exultation and delight, rushes straight through my entire body akin to a full-on adrenaline rush that makes me want to leap out of my chair and dance until I collapse from exhaustion. It's the thing that initially attracted me to dance music and tends to inform the rock music I listen to.

Another component I really dig is craftmanship. A band that works together like a well-oiled machine will almost always score bonus points with me, partially because of the respect I have for the time and effort required to create that type of seamless-seeming performance synergy.

When I first encountered Savages, it was via an appearance on "Later with Jools Holland" where they performed the song "Husbands". I won't lie; the band had about a 70% chance of winning me over before they ever played a note. Four women, mostly in black, standing on stage as feedback came up around them... this wasn't going to be a snuggly, comforting performance. Then, the drums started up, followed by that rolling bass, and I was completely, totally entranced. I felt like I had been transported back to 1980 and was watching a band that one day would be mentioned alongside The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees as a mainstream-yet-subculture juggernaut that would rip your face off in the most professional way possible. This was exactly my type of fury; harsh, discordant, yelpy, elegant, musical, precise, wonderful. The album expands upon all of those, ranging from all-out squall ("Hit Me", "No Face") to gentler, more reflective songs that still contain steel ("Waiting For A Sign", "Marshal Dear"). I've read a lot of people poo-poohing the album as Yet Another Post-Punk retread with lots of comparisons to Joy Division and Interpol, which frankly is bananas; there's more punk in here than that, and more precision as well (and, quite frankly, if an Interpol album exists that has even half the energy of this one, someone point me towards it immediately because everything I've heard by them has been soooooooooo enervating and boring). If I was going to point to a forebear, it would be Bauhaus. However, I'd much rather press play and pogo to the break at the beginning of the chorus to "She Will".

that goldfrapp album is gorgeous

Good review and some great comments too.. useful.

― Kitchen Person,

lol

Savages = Bauhaus = I L U Dan

ok i fiiiiiinally get john grant now! thank you. sounds harrowing but also intriguing.

cheers dan! have found myself weirdly gravitating hard to all the stuff you seem to really like in this poll - savages are the main exception, but as i've said elsewhere on ilx i feel they're the sort of band who may in future make something amazing

interesting 3 albums today but as this poll is proving I should be prepared to be excited about anything as I have no idea which albums I'll love in advence

um, advance

http://i.imgur.com/U57Cmoy.jpg

37. LAURA MARLING Once I Was an Eagle (440 points, 13 votes, 1 first place vote)

SPotify

i voted for this ^^

(it's awesome.)