ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014

nxd: yah, just asking if i'm missing those tracks somehow or if they're available in any other neckuvdawoodz

APHEX TWIN - I have spent my entire life Not Listening to Aphex Twin; I'm sure I wouldn't hate it but I just cannot be remotely arsed to start scaling such an immense discography, of an artist I associate with two decades ago, and I doubt that this new album is the ideal place to start. If I ever listen to him it'll be chronologically from the beginning. Right now I'm listening on crappy portable speakers and it is definitely not the place for my first Aphex Twin experience

TODD TERJE - bouncy, kind of parodically Terje. Realised of late that the Terje album is roughly equivalent to Lindstrøm's Smalhans - very immediate in its unashamed corniness but really rapid diminishing returns. He's been coasting on name alone for a couple of years now.

KATY B - I was underwhelmed when I first heard it but it really sunk its claws into me over the year - both album and this single. I don't think it's as MOR/Radio 2 as some claim, I feel like she stamps herself on it as distinctly and subtly as ever, and most crucially she nails the emotion. It really builds to a great climax. If she's always had a Sugababes-ness about her I think this is her "Too Lost In You" - winter ballad to hug you close when you're walking home alone. btw, I discovered after the album had been out for a while that Katy had been through some shit before its release and I suspect the album campaign sputtering out might have been to do with that. I cosign the Shorterz remix but it was the original I ended up connecting to more; having said all this, I think I tossed my vote to the album but voted in trax for her incredible live cover of "Vulnerable/Drunk In Love", which is revelatory about both songs and her.

SHAMIR - absolutely dire, like an amateur Youtube fan cover of "212". Reminds me of terrible mid-00s parties where Uffie would get played. I had no idea this had any sort of ILM fanbase

JAVIERA MENA - heartening to see the annual Javiera Mena track here, predictably I like it like I like her every year. I never did play last year's Javiera track post-poll though.

EMO RAP STUFF - so, first, I am not against displays of sadness in rap, and am a fan of Z-Ro and many other emotional rap songs over the years. I don't get on with post-Drake feelings because it seems so performative in its approach to male sensitivity; very little I've heard along those lines gets really deep or dark (like Z-Ro and Scarface did!) or risks the narrator's reputation. Sort of separate and sort of connected, I just dislike singsong autotune warbles and tinny production, like it's a really viscerally unpleasant sound to me, and it's not a blanket thing by any means but a song's going to need something extra to overcome it. Also autotune-as-melancholy-signifier is really boring to me, even if the lyrics aren't actually sad it's like they're still intent on making it a downer to listen to. When I listen to Rich Gang or Makonnen do their warbly thing I feel like I'm listening to mopey boy indie, all this sensitivity being sloshed around by people with horrible singing voices. I really don't care about male feelings in art tbh.

johnny fever calling migos "The Haim of trap." was todays hilight imo

Katy B- was pretty good too

also lmao i just noticed the juxtaposition of qt and kt perry images

also, trax with single-figure votes are still placing, whoa

it's a non-consensus year? or the top thirty are overwhelming consensus? What's in that top thirty?

i feel like all about that base sneaks in.

there hasn't been any country yet, has there?

nope

i would guess country will be more of an albums thing this year except, i really hope and sort of expect, one particular song

i'm honestly hard pressed to think of single across-the-board tracks that all of ilx was down with this year.

top 40 comprised completely of the 2014 annual "NOW that's what i call pc music" compilation

and hey qt ft drake

the top 40 is just the sound of autotuned crying

according to my calculations

mods plz confirm

These are just guesses as I haven't seen any tracks results during the poll-running process:

At least one Panda Bear track, maybe 3 Taylor Swifts, 1 (2?) K. Michelle tracks, 2 Charli XCX tracks, 1 Kiesza track, 2-4 bobbins things I haven't ever heard and will like unless I don't, 2 "country" tracks, and then whatever else.

the top 40 is just the sound of autotuned crying

stealing this

haha

If Juno Jam places I will well up.

Quarterback is still to come. Is there a Miranda Lambert / Sturgill Simpson rallying cry that I should be watching out for?

(A&E Interventions)Best Cry Ever Auto Tune Remix

lol @ "tuesday" being "sad"

Szkira, butterflies and Nuits Sonores the other bobbins I'm behind.

I'm sure there will be a few more rap tracks, but let's be honest...I don't know how many or by who because the shit I like in that genre really doesn't get much traction here.

Most of the track polls I've seen have had either Two Weeks or Seasons at the top so they'll feature highly. We haven't had ANY taylor swift yet which is surprising

There'll be another Javiera Mena, probably a few pitchforky things like Can't Do Without You, SKM, Red Eyes, etc. Rae Sremmurd should feature at least once, hopefully twice.

I dunno if everyone forgot about M.O., but I'm holding out hope for them to crack the top 40!

Wondering if anything other than 2 On will place for Tinashe.

lol @ "tuesday" being "sad"

― qualx, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 3:54 PM Bookmark

Even bigger lol at "Lifestyle" being sad!

Two Weeks

totally missed this follow-up by the b-naked ladies

We had it 6 years ago from ed droste

gonna be livid if sun kil moon places

guy fuckin warbles about senseless death and bar decorations, ppl go nuts

ILX #1s by year

2013 - Get Lucky - Daft Punk
2012 - Inspector Norse - Todd Terje (Gangnam Style, Adorn and Call Me Maybe in the respective 4/3/2 slots)
2011 - 212 - Azealia / Video Games - Lana Del Rey (4 points between first and second so basically tied for first imo)
2010 - Wut - Girl Unit (Hard in da Paint at #2)
2009 - You Belong With Me - Taylor
2008 - Blind - Hercules and Love Affair
2007 - Umbrella - Rihanna
2006 - Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
2005 - 1 Thing - Amerie
2004 - Toxic - Britney
2003 - ?
2002 - Work It - Missy

what else is there to warble about -- bird food?

t-swift's 2014 output can be pretty easily divided into "songs that will place extremely highly" and "songs that will not place at all". the rallying points were more obvious, i think, and the minor album tracks less likely to get support.

tons of rap singles to come i'd imagine.

hoping but increasingly unsure about the big deep tech and grime singles...

2011 - 212 - Azealia / Video Games - Lana Del Rey (4 points between first and second so basically tied for first imo)

this was definitely not a tie

Best ILM EOY roll out ever imho. Obv more than half of this is shite, but it's intersting shite nonetheless. This thread wins.

Stoked for the six Taylor Swift songs in the top ten

i know "tuesday" and "lifestyle" are not SAD songs but the autotune warble codes as ~underlying melancholy~ to me. maybe faux-sensitivity is a better fit. idk it's just bad singing ultimately

i love the song "brockwell park", adore ghosts and april, and i can even get down with the pretty arrangements mixed w/ impenetrable stern-ness of stuff like admiral fell promises from a few years ago, but this whole jokey "i'm a turd" cartoonish guitar rap thing he's done for the past few years is so, so not my thing, he might as well be grouped with milky chance now imo

i think if tswift had released "style" as her first single it would have probably been our #1

instead we got fucking "shake of off" which will probably still reach the top 10 in a year with no real consensus

2011 - 212 - Azealia / Video Games - Lana Del Rey (4 points between first and second so basically tied for first imo)
this was definitely not a tie
― lex pretend, Wednesday, January 21, 2015

There's a bittersweetness to both songs, but it's hardly either's dominant feature. xxxp

shake it off is the consensus #1 song of all time, people just haven't realized it yet

I quit earth if Taylor wins again.

i think if tswift had released "style" as her first single it would have probably been our #1

instead we got fucking "shake of off" which will probably still reach the top 10 in a year with no real consensus

― prolego, Wednesday, January 21, 2015 1:08 AM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is otm. 'Shake it off' doesn't belong anywhere near a top ten place thh.

I would think Blank Space and Style will place from the Swift album, maaaaaaaybe Shake It Off just b/c of ubiquity although I recall the reaction here being either ambivalence or disgust. If New Romantics or You Are In Love hadn't been bonus tracks they'd've had a better chance I think.

Careful Rev, wouldn't put my fate in ILM's hands like that... :-/

Xp

just want to say in advance of the upcoming results you guys listen to taylor swift huh whatre you little girls (apologies to any ilm posters who are little girls)

Voting for Shake It Off never even once crossed my mind. Instead, I voted for one of the outliers.

I felt a sense of relief when "Shake It Off" didn't top the P&J poll, forgetting for a moment that we still had ILM ahead.