ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

Keep pretending like you've actually listened to it!

On the positive side, Holden is today's "I hadn't even heard of this and it's pretty cool" album.

"I think everything on that 1975 album pales in comparison to music"

Correct.

i really liked the guitars on sex off the 1975 record, you could have those on the cheesiest song ever and it would still sound beautiful to me

they have a song called 'sex'

sorry spottie but between that and the 'IMPOSSIBLY NOW' adverts all over the london underground i'm gonna find it incredibly difficult to hear these guys with a fresh conscience

v interested to see if you can pull it off tbf

fully expecting a quality slagging tho

found a real dealbreaker in trying to put people onto the 1975 is the dude's voice so sorry guys

I can't possibly imagine being of the mindset that is put off an act because they have a song called "Sex"

yes the dude's voice is THE WORST

I did write ‘Blackpool Late Eighties’ in a hotel. I was flying back from the States and it snowed here so we got re-routed to Amsterdam and I was gutted because I don’t really like being away and I was really homesick. I went into Amsterdam and bought a big bag of weed, downloaded some free soft synths and made that track in the hotel room, off my tits.

best layover ever

i like his voice but i understand

I can't possibly imagine being of the mindset that is put off an act because they have a song called "Sex"

― raggett neds of your summer dress (The Reverend), Wednesday, January 29, 2014 9:10 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

comes off like a cynical marketing move rather than a coherent artistic decision. but WE SHALL SEE, maybe they rock it

I officially like this Holden album but I'm not exactly hearing the "krautrock" -- Blackpool Late Eighties would be fun to dance to!! I also love the aforementioned caterpillar song.

Ezra Koenig's voice doesn't bother me yet 1975 dude's does.

The singing's definitely part of it but the whole package is just so cheesy and not in a good, fun way, just in a very annoying way. It sounds very "modern rock radio."

Brad otm

the voice also makes me really dislike the 1975's lyrics. i've no idea whether i'd find them good sung by someone else but those words out of that mouth just repels me, makes them seem creepy or gross rather than real or resonant. i mean historically i have had nothing to say about emo, just shudder and move on, but a lot of people who share my taste were bizarrely into this last year so it was harder to do that

the single has been doing better on pop radio than rock radio in the US, which makes sense, i guess. that "GUNS HIDDEN UNDER OUR PEH-YCOATS" refrain is pretty off-putting thoguh.

my #3 in the end - bumped it ahead of kacey at the last min. just absolutely incredible songwriting from start to finish, including a few that could reduce me to a total wreck. had been worried b/c ilm seemed not to pick up on this as much as kacey...i get why kacey is the more charismatic performer, the more commercial persona, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with brandy's journalistic insistence that none of what she documents is about her, she's telling other people's stories.

Brandy is a fantastic songwriter but really it's gonna be on the songwriting level that you're gonna click with her, her voice is so self-assured that I think you need to be paying close attention to get the same emotional kick-to-the-guts that Kacey (or Ashley, when she's in serious mode) can deliver quite easily (there is a certain irony at work here of course - I suspect Brandy's easy confidence as a singer might make her harder to fall in love with, a bit). The arrangements are fine but their relative conservatism contributes to this dynamic.

wait the 1975 is emo? nae gonnae bother

"Sex" is the only title that song could have, really. One of the best "relationship" psychodramas I can think of.

dude from The 1975 has like the most innocuous 2010s rock voice you can possibly have

I feel like people coming to The 1975 through the album and/or the singles only are gonna get a really partial and skewed notion of them (this is not listeners' fault - can't expect people to listen to everything).

You could make a playlist of EP material especially that felt like the work of an entirely different band, and singer even - esp. stuff like "Haunt / Bed" or "Mine" or "Fallingforyou".

listen i am oriented toward all things emo but i also like things that sound as if they were produced by immaculate machines so when i first heard "sex" i was like IT'S AS IF SOMEONE MADE THIS FOR ME, all this distinctly teenage drama emanating from a bed of smoke. the remainder of their eps are slow uncoiling electronic pieces which didn't make a lot of sense to me until months later when i thought "oh, of course, the blue nile, and maybe to a degree tweet's 'drunk'" less maybe their intended references than what i hear them inadvertently unearthing. proper album betrays real intensely embodied r&b and new wave influence, on "settle down" those 808 hits paired with keyboards revolving through crystalline forms is straight out of the jam/lewis playbook, very resonant of scritti politti to in the collagist subrhythms of "talk!" and etc. etc. etc. THEREFORE, i am in love and i am elevated by this love into an ignorance of other people; sorry again

Brandy is a fantastic songwriter but really it's gonna be on the songwriting level that you're gonna click with her, her voice is so self-assured that I think you need to be paying close attention to get the same emotional kick-to-the-guts that Kacey (or Ashley, when she's in serious mode) can deliver quite easily

yeah, i understand this but the irony is that the biggest emotional kick-to-the-guts any of them gave me last year was...brandy clark, on "just like him". i don't think you need to be paying close attention for a lyric like "they say love's like coming home / and i came from a broken one" to send you reeling

NB. any references to "R&B" w/r/t The 1975 need to be understood as rather more organic - e.g. really mid-80s Scritti Politti etc. - than the typical 2009-2013 "we love R&B" press release posturing.

the first 16 seconds i heard of the 1975 ("chocolate") sounds like the music they play when they remind you to turn off your phone at the movies
totally cannot stand this guy's voice -- it's like UK third eye blind or something?

dude from The 1975 has like the most innocuous 2010s rock voice you can possibly have

so yelpy and whiny, like even more than the usual awful yelpy whining, it's like every single syllable has a yelp in it. and so nasal. oh god, these buzztooth guitars, really can't take this, can't care what the song's about when i can't take more than 30 secs of the sound

dude from The 1975 has like the most innocuous 2010s rock voice you can possibly have

not to UK ears i don't think

*reads LL's post*

okay it's not just us

"Chocolate" sounds a lot like Third Eye Blind but nothing else they've done does.

on the 1975 thread i argued that that kind of voice was ok in context or something but in the same few months i became aware of Bastille i realised i just don't want to listen to that kind of sound

the EP tunes I mentioned above are actually supa-smooth vocally.

that was the first song i could find on spotify, i don't think i'll go back for more but i did give it a try!

NB. any references to "R&B" w/r/t The 1975 need to be understood as rather more organic - e.g. really mid-80s Scritti Politti etc. - than the typical 2009-2013 "we love R&B" press release posturing.

precisely

basically I'm sitting here thinking "have none of you ever heard Train"

i mean i'm going to have to trust you there but i'm not at all reminded of train dude's voice in 1975 dude's

i find train's vocalist unlistenable as well, that's not a recommendation!

the EP tunes I mentioned above are actually supa-smooth vocally.

dunno what i tried first time round but this time it was "sex". didn't last a minute

any references to "R&B" w/r/t The 1975 need to be understood as rather more organic - e.g. really mid-80s Scritti Politti etc. - than the typical 2009-2013 "we love R&B" press release posturing.

i get this distinction but heard neither of these things in their music

40 FANTASIA Side Effects of You (421 points, 15 votes) - havent heard, probably will at some point
39 GOLDFRAPP Tales of Us (438 points, 13 votes, 3 first place votes) - havent heard
38 PET SHOP BOYS Electric (440 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote) - havent heard
37 LAURA MARLING Once I Was an Eagle (440 points, 13 votes, 1 first place vote) - havent heard, disliked the previous one that ilm recommended
36 DJ KOZE Amygdala (462 points, 18 votes) - w/e
35 DJ RASHAD Double Cup (463 points, 17 votes) - same
34 MILEY CYRUS Bangerz (465 points, 16 votes) - havent heard
33 DARKSIDE Pyschic (467 points, 16 votes) - i liked this but not enough
32 ARIANA GRANDE Yours Truly (467 points, 18 votes) - i dont think ive listened to this as an album, but i like the songs i have heard. mac miller at his most palatable?
31 DEAFHEAVEN Sunbather (512 points, 18 votes, 1 first place vote) - yeah
30 BURIAL Rival Dealer EP (526 points, 20 votes) - no one should care about this
29 HOLDEN The Inheritors (551 points, 20 votes) - ad agency twenty thirteen
28 TEGAN & SARA Heartthrob (559 points, 18 votes, 1 first place vote) - havent heard
27 AMEL LARRIEUX Ice Cream Everyday (563 points, 19 votes) - i was asked to help make a 'soundtrack' for a trendy new restaurant and put a couple of tracks from this on it
26 TIM HECKER Virgins (565 points, 20 votes) - voted for this one too
25 CLASSIXX Hanging Gardens (572 points, 19 votes, 1 first place vote) - like what ive heard, like that they are part of the grady brunch
23 JULIA HOLTER Loud City Song (615 points, 21 votes) - tiresome to even think about
22 BRANDY CLARK 12 Stories (617 points, 18 votes, 1 first place vote) - havent heard
21 THE 1975 The 1975 (623 points, 16 votes, 2 first place votes) - havent heard
24 BOARDS OF CANADA Tomorrow's Harvest (605 points, 19 votes) - havent heard

that was directed towards all of the people complaining that dude's voice is shrill and yelpy

it's like.... I don't think you've actually encountered shrill and yelpy before

i think the reason 1975dude's voice rubs me wrong is partly to do with overplaying an accent in the service of some kind of show of emotional authenticity, Arctic Monkeydude doing the same thing to me with a different accent

"fallingforyou" is the song that sort of consolidates the appeal of their ep tracks for me, it caused me to double back and listen to the stuff surrounding the singles http://youtu.be/W3JJxS0gNkE

"hey sex chocolate" would be way funnier than "hey soul sister" i'll give ya that
train is the worrrrrrst

Okay, all of the 1975 discussion is just... I never want to hear this band, ever.

as someone who enjoys both third eye blind and train i'm just sitting here nodding my head

I couldn't get into what I heard of the 1975 and suspect Tim F is not a good guide for me, when it comes to rock (but I have a very narrow taste in rock any more). Maybe it does say something that the young co-worker I know who likes this band is also really into Bastille and One Direction.

Really the album was almost a minor disappointment to me b/c it didn't have any floaty epics like "fallingforyou" on it. Was still my number 2 pic though.

hahaha I was going to also bring up One Direction but thought that would be trolling

the closest it got was "menswear" which is something else entirely and which i'm going to listen to right now

I can't possibly imagine being of the mindset that is put off an act because they have a song called "Sex"
― raggett neds of your summer dress (The Reverend), Wednesday, January 29, 2014 9:10 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dude - this is the message board where, on numerous threads, when i mention a band someone *always* feels the need to tell me they haven't listened or taken seriously because of the name (Jaguar Ma and Fuck Buttons most recently).