ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

after further household discussion of Ciara's "Body Party" from the previous results, I learned that L was referring to D'angelo from The Wire, as in that track being music that would soundtrack his life. she was not referring to the male recording artist, who I clearly know nothing about. apologies to Rev & Spottie.

ha, this makes way more sense

― raggett neds of your summer dress (The Reverend), Thursday, January 30, 2014 12:29 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha still mildly confused but nbd

i think that makes less sense actually

that janelle was a huge leap forward for her imo. she's nowhere near masterpiece territory yet but she's no longer 'a for effort' at least.

after "q.u.e.e.n." came out i was looking forward to clicking with janelle more generally but i still couldn't really sit through her album despite wanting to give it the thumbs up politically etc. at this point it's not her, it's me. i'm just allergic to musicals, that hyper manic broadway shuffling etc etc. she's a good thing for pop culture in 2014 unquestionably though

D'Angelo would have been into the Ka album surely?

I find her entire conceit enormously irritating, it's too self-consciously *performative* in a kind of undergrad drama student way.

that janelle was a huge leap forward for her imo. she's nowhere near masterpiece territory yet but she's no longer 'a for effort' at least.

― balls, Thursday, January 30, 2014 10:59 AM (20 seconds ago) Bookmark

totally agree with this. this starts to get fat right after "ghetto woman" but overall by far her best album, easy top ~15 of the year for me and def excited instead of mildly annoyed by her future prospects.

"what an experience" is still the jam too

Glad this is so high as it didn't seem to get anyway near the hype the first album did. Think it's a better record overall (if you just ignore the skits) Primetime is still my favourite on here but there's a bunch of highlights.

chvrches album enjoyable but waaaay too high. so uneven

really came around to the janelle album over the past few months. j0rdan otm

i'm just allergic to musicals, that hyper manic broadway shuffling etc etc

I don't actually like musicals but I love that tendency in pop, whether it's Janelle or Nellie McKay. Though I think that aspect is overstated in discussion of Janelle and not relevant on a song like Primetime or What an Experience.

I thought the JM album was super patchy but maybe I should give it another go.

still think there isn't a song as good as "many moons" on either of her proper lps

yeah i voted for both 20 and 19!

kv album took a long time to sink in but it's up there with his best stuff. he's getting even better with these subtle little turns in the lyrics and music that make the songs special.

chvrches was just really hard to argue with for me, they had a thing they wanted to do and they nailed it and i think the album stays pretty strong throughout. i like a lot of their synth sounds--they're sparkly and hard-edged and really vivid imo.

Though I think that aspect is overstated in discussion of Janelle and not relevant on a song like Primetime or What an Experience.

it's more the cumulative effect on the album - i liked "primetime" as a single (though didn't return to it a quarter as much as "#beautiful") but in the album it got lost in all the overstuffed theatricality

idk, i liked nellie mckay a lot but i haven't listened to that album in basically a decade so...

I kind of feel like it was a bit frontloaded and the first half represented a distinct new direction that worked very well while the back half felt a bit redundant to The Archandroid, but the opening run was sooooooooooo gooooooooooooooood it didn't matter. And it was fun working through all the hidden messages (it's code, indeed).

I had an argument with a friend about CHVRCHES vs. Purity Ring, and I was arguing for CHVRCHES because they're harder-edged and crisper, not as gauzy, and she said that that's exactly why she preferred Purity Ring.

this makes zero sense to me, given that the biggest thing I like about Purity Ring is the hard popcorn reverb on the drums; CHVRCHES by contrast uses more diffuse reverb that flattens the drum hits out and makes them less punchy to me

also Janelle too low and everyone complaining about "theatricality" might as well be robot aliens to me

Never got why people here overrated "Many Moons", that's prob not even top 20 Janelle to me.

http://i.imgur.com/7XqRKdm.jpg

17 CHARLI XCX True Romance (680 points, 23 votes, 2 first place votes)

Spotify

wahoo my number #1
every track a corker

the hard-edged vs. gauzy thing makes sense to me but more with the non-drum sounds and rhythmic choices.

idk rev i love that song in a way her subsequent work has failed to inspire but i feel why other ppl would have the opposite experience

i still can't sit through the archandroid

Gonna enjoy ploughing thru the Monae album later. Losing hope for TNP :(

ok REALLY losing hope for TNP

Liked the Janelle album. Had it towards the lower end of my ballot.

Has Charli XCX really made it this high?

gah true romance is so great

i wish i had gotten to spend more time with charli, i listened a couple times and really dug it but basically as background music

i didn't like 'true romance' at all... "superlove" is miles better than anything she's ever done imo

the triple load near the end of 'what i like' / 'black roses' / 'you're the one' is a personal highlight

what I said about The Electric Lady on Facebook:

The most frustrating thing about Beyonce's ability to seemingly generate an amazing album out of thin air is how much space it takes away from other, equally amazing albums by black women (hopefully, in a year that had zero black solo artists at the top of the Billboard singles chart for the first time since its inception, I don't have to explain the concept of "there's only space for one"). I've already spent some time talking about Fantasia; today I want to spend some time with my favorite tiny weirdo, Janelle Monae.

I've been a big fan of Monae's android-themed theatricality since the original Metropolis EP. It's been interesting and fun seeing someone else pick up the sci-fi nerd mantle that seems to be an undercurrent of a specific Atlanta scene (see: ATLiens, Goodie Mob/Cee-Lo) and just run to ridiculous extremes with it. I also like how she positions herself in the midst of her high concept endeavor as the android girl whose message of love will save us all, not least because that position works well with her extremely clean, clear-voiced singing style. Monae is never going to be a belter in the vein of Mary J Blige and wisely stays away from trying to present herself as one. Instead, she plants herself firmly into the Roberta Flack/Dionne Warwick/Gladys Knight camp, a group so woefully underrepresented in the current musical landscape that I feel like some people don't know how to engage with her musicality, causing them to unfairly dismiss her as emotionless or overly mannered.

Monae channels her smooth-edged musicality into a series of stunning songs on Electric Lady. The rolling sensuality of "Givin' 'Em What They Love", a duet with Prince, is the first of many outstanding duets on the album, showing that Monae has a knack for attracting talent into her orbit that helps magnify her own abilities. "Q.U.E.E.N." with Erykah Badu marries a hot groove to some of my favorite lyrics of the year. ("Is it peculiar that she twerk in the mirror?" has been echoing around my head for months.)

Even moments where the album dips into what could most charitably called "cheesiness" are drastically elevated by Monae's charisma and her ability to set a live stage on fire. I was VERY concerned about this album the first time I heard "Dance Apocalyptic" on Spotify, which seemed to be the type of facile, hard-to-connect-to jazz-hand workout song that I've seen people hold up as typical of her output. However, that same song performed on David Letterman's show turned into a tour de force steamroller dripping with joyous energy and immediacy. I haven't been able to see the song as distant or off-putting since.

Given the larger android love narrative and the multiple radio call-in interludes, it's hard to convince people already allergic to concept albums that The Electric Lady is worth their time. To these doubters, I recommend listening to "Ghetto Woman". If you aren't down with that groove then Janelle Monae is not for you, which I think is a damned shame because she should be for everyone.

Didn't get into this album properly until I was about to vote and then ended up putting it in my top five. Fantastic album.

"black roses" such a warm and smoky deep cut

and i hardly saw any review coverage mentioning 'grins' - it was the slow jam that immediately appealed to me

Charli XCX floated around the bottom of my ballot but I eventually removed it because I realized that, instead of playing the album, I just kept playing "You (Ha Ha Ha)" on repeat

Edit: lol, phone boarding and I don't get to see what posts are made before it is displayed. OF COURSE charli's album comes up while I scroll through / write a post.

I know people were already talking about the highlights from this album on the tracks list but I didn't see anyone mention So Far Away which is easily my favourite song.

charli xcx album was a very promising debut that i didn't feel quite nailed what she was going for - i think she's really talented but it felt a little overproduced in places (in a very major label sort of way), a little underwritten in others (in a young still-developing songwriter kind of way). having said that when it hit, it hit hard

"you're the one" was a highlight for me - those punishing bass hits + her gothic drama = the direction that suits her best imo
loved "set me free" as well

Yes! Charli XCX was my #5, iirc.

Saw her play to a crowd of about 50 a few months ago. Usually I prefer small/intimate shows, but this time I really wanted to be in huge crowd singing along.

"Primetime" snuck up on me.

Charli XCX floated around the bottom of my ballot but I eventually removed it because I realized that, instead of playing the album, I just kept playing "You (Ha Ha Ha)" on repeat

― SHAUN (DJP), Thursday, January 30, 2014 4:15 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was the first thing I heard by her and thought I would LOVE the album based on it. I didn't.

I liked every Charli single more than its predecessor but the album itself was...exhausting? I dunno.

The Charli XCX album is one that may have made it on my ballot if I'd had a bit more time to spend with it before voting.

I like 'You (Ha Ha Ha)' but I only ever really want to listen to the Gold Panda track it's based on, which has all the good bits without Charli getting in the way.

You (ha ha ha) is either my least or second least fav on true romance

Beautiful record, woulda been my #1 but Beyoncé pulled the rug out from under her feet.

I just wanna listen to the Ultravox album Ha! Ha! Ha! now

"superlove" is probably a "better" "pop" "song" than anything on her album but it's the sort of thing she should be giving to other artists imo. too catchy not to enjoy on some level but it's not the best fit for her voice. the gothier and darker the better for her.

Charli XCX floated around the bottom of my ballot but I eventually removed it because I realized that, instead of playing the album, I just kept playing "You (Ha Ha Ha)" on repeat

ha, "you (ha ha ha)" is her worst song imo. cannot take the underwritten chorus, those "ha"s just thudding into space emptily

that is seriously crazy

Instead, she plants herself firmly into the Roberta Flack/Dionne Warwick/Gladys Knight camp, a group so woefully underrepresented in the current musical landscape that I feel like some people don't know how to engage with her musicality, causing them to unfairly dismiss her as emotionless or overly mannered.

This is so otm.

this was my #13. this album was one of my summer driving jams.

would have like to have seen the charli xcx / paramore tour