ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

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

x-post

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.

That's an impressive lineage to claim for Monae. Interesting. I can't say more than interesting at the moment, but I think this comment is something that will come back to me on future listens to JM.

i'm in the you (ha x 3) camp of it being the weakest song on the album
that said, i still quite like it

I suspect the Warwick-Flack school of R&B singing is under represented because we're not seeing enough professional songwriting for those pipes. Perhaps Monae and Charli...?

Based on SuperLove I'm really excited to hear where she goes next. I have a really good feeling about her next album.

Love that write-up, DJP.

this

Woah I didn't know we'd started.

I do not get Kurt Vile at all.

― Matt DC, Thursday, January 30, 2014 3:22 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Me neither.

sorry dog latin i meant to leave you a voicemail

The Warwick-Flack school of R&B singing is under-represented because everyone now thinks that "black vocalist" = "gospel holler 24/7" or "tiny-voiced sex kitten" with no actual space in between.

Only liked The Mother We Share off Chvrches, the rest was pretty mediocre post-Knife by numbers music. Kind of pissed off it placed so high actually, and I haven't been actively pissed off about a placing so far this year. If this places and not TNP (or Floorplan for that matter) I'm going to be very disappointed.

In truth my mind is still so utterly blown by DJ Rashad that I will find it hard to view much else with feelings beyond pleasant disappointment

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

16 DISCLOSURE Settle (691 points, 27 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

The Warwick-Flack school of R&B singing is under-represented because everyone now thinks that "black vocalist" = "gospel holler 24/7" or "tiny-voiced sex kitten" with no actual space in between.

― SHAUN (DJP),

that's true and one of the reasons I miss Aaliyah

This means the Rudimental album will chart higher then?? Yesssss

pfffft

yawwwn

Brad!!

That better not be directed at me!!

all of my boredom directed at disclosure

I pretty much only liked the tracks that placed on the other poll from the Disclosure, otherwise I pretty much don't get them. They feel so ersatz to me.

oh, this

surprisingly (in a good way) low i guess. i don't really hate this album but i didn't come back to it after the week it came out at all. apart from "white noise" obv.

doubt the rudimental album will place, higher highs but still hella patchy.

I didn't try to listen to many albums at all this year but I tried to get into this one & it was just so hollow

The Warwick-Flack school of R&B singing is under-represented because everyone now thinks that "black vocalist" = "gospel holler 24/7" or "tiny-voiced sex kitten" with no actual space in between.

― SHAUN (DJP),

that's true and one of the reasons I miss Aaliyah

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 30, 2014 8:28 AM Bookmark

Kinda feel like Bey is leaning more strongly in this direction? Contrast with the hollerfest that was B'Day.

ersatz is right but it turned out their tunes didn't even stick enough to justify the ersatzness

love this album but i get why it leaves people feeling cold

I didn't vote for them, but I'd totally be happy if Rudimental beat Disclosure.

I loved a bunch of tracks from Settle but still didn't vote for the album, which has too many moments that bug me. And I know this is lame, but they are good enough that DJ Q includes them in his sets a lot. (Not that I don't sometimes hate individual tracks he works with.)

I appreciate all of these albums I don't care about getting out of the way at the bottom of the top 20

i really have none of the a priori/visceral objections to disclosure and their fauxness/realness that so many do, but i didn't find the album up to much on even a surface level and i'm mystified at what anyone finds to really really love in it

Kinda feel like Bey is leaning more strongly in this direction? Contrast with the hollerfest that was B'Day.

This is the main reason I started really falling in love with Beyonce; it's the first time since Dreamgirls that I've felt like she hasn't sounded like she's trying (and failing) to outsing Jennifer Hudson.

I appreciated all the parody pictures this album cover generated in my Tumblr feed tho

I don't absolutely hate them and have no objection to a good DJ working their tracks into a set (nb most DJs aren't DJ Q and use them in bog-standard house sets), but I definitely don't feel some type of way about them either.

what anyone finds to really really love in it

― lex pretend, Thursday, January 30, 2014 11:35 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

easy album to get lost in. it's actually barely a dance album imo, functionally.

This is the main reason I started really falling in love with Beyonce; it's the first time since Dreamgirls that I've felt like she hasn't sounded like she's trying (and failing) to outsing Jennifer Hudson.

― SHAUN (DJP), Thursday, January 30, 2014 8:35 AM Bookmark

Did you not like 4? o_O

Also B'Day is awesome precisely because she commits so fully to the soul shouter thing. I was just using it for a point of stylistic comparison, not to slate the older album in any way.

most DJs aren't DJ Q

That's for sure.

"I Miss You" is in the Warwick-Knight vein def

http://i.imgur.com/B1EAHXv.jpg

15 THESE NEW PURITANS Field of Reeds (701 points, 24 votes, 1 first place vote)

Spotify

after playing the front half of Settle into oblivion, I eventually found myself growing a small obsession with "Grab Her!"

voted this just under Depeche Mode's Delta Machin, which was really good and no one actually cared about

Did you not like 4? o_O

I loved 4! She does holler on it like 94/7 tho

Oh, imago will be happy. Phew.

r.i.p. My Dick

here it comes