ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

i was excited for the miley album but i thought it was p terrible (wrecking ball & we cant stop excepted)

It's pretty good but kinda also the most vacuous and insubstantial album on the list.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha, nice summer album. Yeah, the kind of summer music you drift off to sleep to during a beachfront nap, only to wake up shrieking from a horrible nightmare about having your guts hollowed out by a tentacled Cthulu-type alien monster. The music is nice shoegaze, and the shrieking is, well, what it is, horrible shrieking. I don't get how I'm supposed to want to hear that.

Deafheaven is definitely one of the better things these polls got me to listen to. I understand the "it's not real metal" argument, but most "real metal" doesn't really do it for me (although I do like the Carcass album, is that real metal?).

Oh come on, unintelligible screaming >>>> most other kinds of rock singing.

Actually the Gorguts record is much better sleep music imo. xps

And yeah Carcass is about as "real metal" as it gets.

Their sound is too 'washes of pastel noise' for me, not enough rhythmic variety. What do people like about the drumming?
It is sorta disappointing that this album probably crowded out other heavy stuff that deserves (and would have!) a bigger audience imo. Oh well.

their - deafheaven

the handwringing over the deafheaven record by people this past year has been embarrassingly hilarious

Deafheaven album is great I've decided.jeez ilm get over metal vocals already please. The music is much prettier and better made than a lot of post rock too.

It's a post-rock album with screaming really.

i kind of agree, except it's better than description makes it sound.

nah that's about right imo

http://i.imgur.com/f6UPSLn.jpg

30 BURIAL Rival Dealer EP (526 points, 20 votes)

Spotify

I'm pretty over metal vocals actually

It is sorta disappointing that this album probably crowded out other heavy stuff that deserves (and would have!) a bigger audience imo. Oh well.

We already more or less talked about this in the tracks poll. I'd prefer it if it wasn't for the Channel 4 youth drama samples.

I love Sunbather and I love Alcest and I LOVE Lantlos and I love Filosofem. It's all good. It's far better than it's peers in post-rock than in black metal, though.

I also love Rival Dealer.

love "Hiders," cool on the rest

I'd prefer it if it wasn't for the Channel 4 youth drama samples.

i feel this way about Channel 4

I'm p much the same xp

burial is terrible, that is my opinion

ha. didn't vote for this but like i said on the trax poll, the first burial music that i've properly loved or that has moved me at all. it's the moment when the cheesy xmas piano straight out of "stay another day" comes in that i realised it was going to be good. a heartwarming christmas coming out story! actual ideas and emotion from someone who could have made the same EP over and over again to be lapped up by his fanboys, instead he puts out something that seemed to cause real consternation among them. glad he finally justified himself.

We already more or less talked about this in the tracks poll. I'd prefer it if it wasn't for the Channel 4 youth drama samples.

dude these are integral to the narrative

perhaps could've done without the entire lana wachowski speech at the end i guess

Earlier this year I was trying to make some more inroads on black metal (via the rolling metal thread - thanks again guys!). One day I was walking around with some metal in my head and thinking to myself that maybe what black metal needed was some more upbeat, positive vibes and colorful album covers. Aaaaand I guess somebody beat me to it.

Great EP that I didn't vote for because I limited my list to LPs. Surprised that the title track was the one people voted for in the other pill when to me the second two are more exciting / interesting.

The other poll*, I should say.

I like all types of metal vocals in limited doses, cookie monster, growling, gargling nails and lighter fluid sludge, hardcore shouty, including the having-limbs-torn-from-body shrieking, but mainly with black metal that goes with it better, and in limited doses. I think in general screaming is more effective when it's reserved for select moments, not all the time. Just like if someone screamed at you all day, you would just want to tune them out. Or murder them. Certainly doesn't go well with shoegaze.

Love this Burial record, did not vote for it because it's not long enough, I prefer giving votes to full lengths for some reasons.

Also did it really cause consternation amongst burial fanboys? Seemed to be well received everywhere I was aware of.

When I bought the Deafheaven album this summer, the registerperson asked for a two-word description of it, and I said "dreamy deathmetal." "Shoegaze black metal" would've been more accurate, but that's three words.

Voted for both of these, really enjoyed Sunbather as a post-rock album and Rival Dealer is beautiful, my favourite thing he's done.

Just reread what I wrote and it makes no sense.

Screaming is great. I just wish The Body would've been the 'not metal' choice instead.

xp: loool

agree with monotony that the second/third tracks on the burial ep were most interesting

http://i.imgur.com/XOqwd4w.jpg

29 HOLDEN The Inheritors (551 points, 20 votes)

Spotify

same, as an avowed fan of her first three albums and being really interested in where she'd go next i was surprised that hardly anyone else thought this was a let-down. i guess the lyrics might be there but the arrangements and especially her delivery were just so monotonous throughout and it just all blurred into gigantically overlong boring strumming for me

― lex pretend, Wednesday, January 29, 2014 11:34 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry to come back to Marling but that was my very first impression of the album, my key to um, unlocking the 'entertainment value' was really paying full attention to the lyrics and how the words worked with the melodies and structures of the songs. Once I did that, it made much more sense, especially when it comes to her voice and I can appreciate as much (ore more!) than the last three (which I find fantastic as well). Not saying you didn't give it enough of a chance but I think there is reward if you are okay with softer voices.

Burial has released nearly a dozen EPs since their last full-length Untrue in 2007. I tried catching up, but haven't made it through all of them yet, too much at once. I like Street Halo (2011), Truant + Rough Sleeper (2012) and Rival Dealer though.

i really urge everyone to listen to the holden album on headphones. i liked it beforehand anyway but when i did that it completely blew me away, esp on the clattery, percussive tracks like "the caterpillar's intervention".

the melodies in "blackpool late eighties" and "renata" are some of the str8-up prettiest things he's done but this album contains a vast range of stuff - unlike certain copyists, ahem jon hopkins ahem, holden actually seemed interested in pushing outwards and onwards from where he was when he first made his name

It's a post-rock album with screaming really.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, January 29, 2014 1:05 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And better drumming.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, January 29, 2014 1:05 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

usually i supply my own screaming

― Squidward Ka-Spel (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, January 29, 2014 1:06 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol :)

Miley Cyrus on this list; on any list. Seriously?

So i loaded it up on Grooveshark to see what I was missing...... listening to it now...... Autotune/Protools to the nth power, token urbanisms, urgent poser pop...... does this bookend in with the Jersey Shore crowd?

puke.

Cleansing my palette with Run The Jewels, still, I think i just got too old for ILM.

Not saying you didn't give it enough of a chance but I think there is reward if you are okay with softer voices.

i probably didn't give it as much of a chance as i could have - pretty sure you're right but there was also a lack of really interesting melodies/arrangements to hook me in

Voted for a Holden track (Blackpool Late Eighties, absolutely stunning) - the album was forbiddingly long though and after an amazing start petered a little...needs more listening, probably

bodacious ignoramus, so it's not just a clever name then

Yay a few good albums in a row. Think I voted Rival Dealer. Holden was a late, but very fun, discovery for me

I didnt get the Holden album when I listened to it (yes on headphones). im not too familiar with the guy although i was expecting something dancefloor-friendly (like his remixes). so i was thrown by the oddness and disjointedness of the album

"Blackpool Late Eighties" is such obvious me-bait on every level

Pet Shop Boys album is way too low, the Deafheaven album is incredible (the transition from 'Dream House' to the beauty of the second track is just a wonderful moment).

Anyone else hoping the Suede album pops up next?

― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 16:13 (1 hour ago) Permalink

I'm hoping it pops up soon, because I voted for it, but I'm not holding my breath.

I take back my point about Deafhaven being the most vacuous and insubstantial album on the list.

holden is pretty interesting. electronics + acoustic instruments is a hard sell for me so i skipped of the songs with sax solos but had a couple interesting times listening to it. definitely think it's a masterpiece of promotion, just reading about how he made it made me so curious