ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

YAYYYYY

another great album

I didn't write about this one tho, ppl were noticing that I was blurbing my favorite albums instead of doing my day job (oops)

Love this

(this also fell off the end of my ballot and it absolutely killed me because I do love it)

Was firmly in the sceptical camp on Goldfrapp but this album is front-to-back gorgeous, so thank you ILM poll.

the horns on "Magical Boy" were the tipping point

hmm never got the crossover adulation for the koze album but it was nice enough, three stars, enjoyed, kinda forgot

Goldfrapp album is "I should put this on at work when I need to concentrate" music so far

very beautiful, very unassuming, very I-will-probably-never-listen-to-this-at-home

i think with acts like Barwick sometimes I kind of would just be happy with her doing the vocal thing only for a whole album. Same goes with people like Colin Stetson, Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Soon as they start adding extra shit, it feels like something's being taken away.

― he said, smarmily (dog latin), Monday, January 27, 2014

by contrast, i think adding vocals, and tightening up their songs into conventional singles (with clear hooks, etc), would be a terrific move for rodrigo y gabriela.

i have the weirdest love w/ reservations for that album. according to last.fm it was easily the album i listened to most last year and i've put it on every year end thing i've voted in but at the same time part of me is still disappointed by it. impossible expectations i'm sure. have a hunch the same thing might happen w/ terje this year.

So many earworms. It's not as good as reincarnations tho

I was in the "only okay" camp with the Koze album until the sun came out and I went for a walk in the park while listening to it and suddenly it sounded incredible. Since then I've been sold.

have a hunch the same thing might happen w/ terje this year.

my expectations for the terje album are pretty rock bottom tbh, i hope to be pleasantly surprised

walk in the park is the Ibiza beachfront of our austere times

this kind of stuff isn't really my thing but i really liked how goofy this album was. and had some real nice textures... the bass on "magical boy" is so good.

btw re: Goldfrapp, I might put "Alvar" on some playlists

For some reason I thought the Koze album came out last year. I couldn't understand it. It sounded like an album full of sketches and fillery material, but it won a lot of plaudits. I just didn't understand it.

i like that kings of convenience remix he did - the whole album is pretty great but i've been dying for new koc so that was sweet

dear todd terje: whatever slack you get from me will be quickly exhausted by a matthew dear appearance

dear matthew dear: i love you but you work best away from sunlight

I like the Koze album, it's weird.

seriously everytime matthew dear pipes up on this thing it's like orin from parks and rec has shown up at the party

ack yeah i'd forgotten how straight-up terrible matthew dear's contributions to this are

the rest is as prettily inconsequential as i remember

A Matthew Dear-less version of Magical Boy actually exists in the world. I think it's on Spotify.

yeah so I don't know what happened but all of a sudden the Goldfrapp album turned amazing, "Alvar" and "Thea" rule

Love the slightly discordant strumming throughout Alvar.

http://i.imgur.com/CT1yQl3.jpg

35 DJ RASHAD Double Cup (463 points, 17 votes)

Spotify

re: Koze, the song I ended up endlessly playing was "Nices Woelkchen"

DJ Rashad's cover three times the size of everyone else's!

I like what I've heard of this, but I didn't hear much.

Have you not listened to Goldfrapp before DJP? If you like this one you'll like their debut album, Felt Mountain.

ahhh finally - the top 35, now for the bigger pictures!

lol the one image i forgot to resize is prob the most boring album cover on this entire list

Have you not listened to Goldfrapp before DJP? If you like this one you'll like their debut album, Felt Mountain.

I posted about them above; they're a "looks great on paper" band that I've never taken the time to really pay any attention to

On the plus side, I see my house.

I listened to the first half of that and didn't really click with it, was expecting it to be more rhythmically complex than it turned out being. Like I get the feeling there's better/ruffer footwork out there?

I like this in bits and pieces but I've never been able to stick with a footwork/post-footwork album for the whole duration.

i quite like the cover
geography nod with a circuitboardesque feel to the city lights

i didn't get round to this until this month. i don't know why i loved footwork so much for about three months and since then it's left me completely cold. maybe it was just dj nate himself. footwork needs more danity kane samples. i feel guilty whenever i see the footwork thread that i started years ago pop back up on new answers when it's been an aeon since i last opened it let alone posted in it.

DJ Nate was probably my favourite of the albums I tried to get into.

http://i.imgur.com/63rDsdq.jpg

34 MILEY CYRUS Bangerz (465 points, 16 votes)

Spotify

So far of the things I've voted for, MATMOS and DJ Rashad have placed.

I listened to the first half of that and didn't really click with it, was expecting it to be more rhythmically complex than it turned out being

It's definitely a journey kind of album where energy levels go up over the course of it, starts out pretty slow, gets a whole lot more banging towards the end.

Laura Marling is very well done stuff but it feels like an album made up of Ruby/Poe interlude tracks

FUCKING BANGERZ <3333333

bangerz was top 3 for me all year

good album
voted wrecking ball in the singles
really enjoyed love money party and 4x4 too

I like the DJ Rashad album a lot, but I think the RP Boo album was wilder sounding and ultimately more satisfying

Bangerz is the only album listed so far where I was physically recoiling by the time I got to the third song.

ok, just getting caught up.

Happy to see Laura Marling, that was my #1! I really love this album and came back to it over and over again this past year. It's on the long side, but all of the songs open up so nicely across repeated listens.

The DJ Rashad album is amazing, he took Footwork to the next stage in its evolution with this one.

Had no idea Miley Cyrus released anything in 2013.

... whut