ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp2Xj8lvSTc

http://i.imgur.com/rfyv7k5.jpg

32 ARIANA GRANDE Yours Truly (467 points, 18 votes)

Spotify

wish more writers looked past Miley herself and the narrative blah blah and reviewed the album but I understand why it didn't happen

it seemed to me like her cultural omnipresence created the conditions for ppl to enjoy the album 'on its own merits' (as if you could ever separate the text from paratext)

it's like no one remembered britney or xtina only a decade ago. miley's music was infinitely more interesting

did a double take here

Ariana beating Miley = JUSTICE

This looks like slow jams. Is it slow jams?

TOO LOW

it's mostly pretty uptempo!

ARIANA! LIL BABY MARIAH! <333333 TOO LOW TOO LOW i genuinely thought this was a lock for the top 20

front-to-back effortlessly charming pop, i have danced to this multiple times on public transport because i couldn't help myself

Fast jams. Cool!

Ariana Grande is obviously talented but I end up bored whenever I try to listen to her

Irrationally annoyed that the Darkside album is in the middle of those two. Love the Ariana Grande album anyway, would have voted for it, virtually every song is pop brilliance until the wheels fall off right at the end.

Doglatin - no it's mostly pretty peppy and bouncy. Search for 'Baby I' and 'My Piano'.

these were neck & neck for me... more personality in miley's album pushed it over the top i think but the songwriting and singing on the grande album is amazing with the twist of being pretty singular in itself despite being purposefully throwbacky

haha i was sort of down on this record when it came out but i love it through and through now. mika still ruins it

"tattooed heart" really ended up being my favorite on this record, if there's a moment where she's really going for mariah it's there. loved how it ended up being a live staple as well

The hooks and melodies are quite throwbacky but you'd never have heard beats like than in actual 90s R&B.

This looks like slow jams. Is it slow jams?

― doglato dozzy (dog latin), Wednesday, January 29, 2014 12:46 PM (2 minutes ago)

have you ever had sex?

favorite moment in music 2013 is probably when the screwed vocals enter near the end of "honeymoon avenue"

i am totally fine with ariana beating miley tbh, ariana's album is way more solid throughout (except maybe the last couple tracks)

favorite moment in music 2013 is probably when the screwed vocals enter near the end of "honeymoon avenue"

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, January 29, 2014 12:49 PM (46 seconds ago)

this is my least favorite part of the album!!! :(

the one thing about the grande album is that it's only 12 songs (good!) but the tracks with mika and the wanted are so much worse than the rest of the album that you only end up with 10 tracks you wanna listen to.

but again 10 very good to AMAZING tracks is a treat. but it gets dinged a bit imo.

Nice album this. Honeymoon Avenue is was the highlight for me, one of the best opening tracks of the year.

when she goes doubletime on "baby i" it's just such a fucking headrush

"piano" is such an amazing pop manifesto

I could write a song with my new piano
I could sing about how love is a losing battle
Not hard (it's not hard)
It's not hard (it's not hard)
It's not hard (it's not hard)
It's not hard (It's not hard)

And I could sing about Cupid and his shooting arrow
In the end, you'll find out that my heart was battered
Real hard (real hard)
So hard (so hard)
Real hard (real hard)
It's that hard (it's that hard)

But I'd rather make a song they can play on the radio
That makes you wanna dance
Don't it make you wanna dance?
But I'd rather make a song they can play on the radio
That makes you wanna grab your lover's hand

<3333

this is my least favorite part of the album!!! :(

boooooo also the rhythmic changeup is so thrilling

somehow she ends up surviving guest spots by MAC MILLER and BIG SEAN, to her immense credit

disappointed to find out that Mika's still getting work in 2013

bring the "still not a player" sample back to the radio w/o it feeling cheap at all was a huge fucking accomplishment too

Ten tracks is fine, who needs more than ten tracks on a pop album anyway?

Albums should have a mandatory ten-track limit really.

last two trax got deleted and they don't impinge on the album for me

"honeymoon avenue" is a really bold opener - nearly 6 minutes long and full of subtle stylistic shifts

k3v otm re: "tattooed heart". "i wanna say we're going steady - like it's 1954" is such a charming line

1955!

there's nothing charming about 50s nostalgia

i'm sure it's 1954!!!

No one went steady in 1954, come on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCkAr0LPJaQ

disappointed to find out that Mika's still getting work in 2013

Yeah, I would have thought that Nate Reuss would have taken all his work now.

the duet with the Wanted guy is fine imo. the Mika one less so, but it doesn't torpedo the album for me like a lot of other unwelcome features i can think of on various major label albums.

when the second verse opens up with "you don't need to worry abouuuuuuut" is the best moment on the album

TOO LOW

― k3vin k., Wednesday, January 29, 2014 10:47 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Going thru today's albums is gonna be like Branwell's "22 listens" project in one night innit ;) *a million safetywinks*

btw i recommend Ariana's Christmas EP, there's a new Babyface-penned song and a good Wham cover

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

31 DEAFHEAVEN Sunbather (512 points, 18 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

booooo

just post the next one now J0rdan

oh noes a METAL album!

the song in the trax poll was hilarious

loadsa hipsters on ILM

i thought people liked deafheaven

the little bit of Deafheaven I listened to seemed okay, I didn't really get the visceral reactions one way or the other

relistening to the ariana album now and no other 2013 album made me feel so uncomplicatedly joyous. so many amazing touches, little fluttery backing vox and surprising trap snares and melodies for dayyyyyys

i enjoyed the deafheaven, nice summer album