ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014

but 'Quarterback' doesn't sound like "Bottoms Up" or "Drunk on a Plane." This implies that there's one Nashville Sound.

131 tracks ballots. 147 ballots cast in total. Some both, some only tracks, some only albums.

The weirdest part is that stuff which actually SOUNDS LIKE country music, at least in part (but some cases in whole), has been ghettoized into a sort of dissmissive "alt country" label.

which acts? A lot of this alt country stuff was boring as hell in the early nineties too. For me country like pop needs a little schlock: that tightrope walk where the performance and song could collapse into kitsch at any moment.

tbh i will laugh really hard if nothing by ariana grande places

"boom clap" is what passes for catchy nowadays, pretty sad

- dad

but 'Quarterback' doesn't sound like "Bottoms Up" or "Drunk on a Plane." This implies that there's one Nashville Sound.

That's another thing. The girls all sound one way and the guys all sound another. It's gross.

anyway today was really great! looking forward to the rest plus all yr hot takes

I really love Boom Clap but there's at least five songs on the album I love more including my number one. Don't see it placing at this point.

very taken aback by the comments suggesting "quarterback" is sonically indivisible from the rest of pop country bc imo it sounds really, really individual, but i guess that's bc i listen to a lot of it

For me country like pop needs a little schlock: that tightrope walk where the performance and song could collapse into kitsch at any moment.

otm

Miranda Lambert and Kira Isabella's rockier moments on her album are in the Eric Church/Brad Paisley, er, wheelhouse.

Country still gets these IS IT REAL MAAAAN dismissals, as if music -- any music -- wasn't about funny hats and role playing and growling and riffs.

alfred it's okay for people to hate shit music

modern country production is so unobjectionable to me, it's just not the point and in the country i love it does a great job of not being the point. cannot even tell what's meant to be offensive about something that's hardly front and centre

btw "Quarterback" made my P&J list, although initially I had problems with Isabella's vocal inadequacies. Then I let them help the song: it made what she described more poignant because it could happen to any girl of modest talents.

monotony: What is "Emotions"? Also I expect a couple songs I voted for not on your list.

communicating harrowing and resonant things through gloss= subtlety and artistry imo

xp it's the katy b song everyone was stanning for when her album came out. maybe i'm overestimating its popularity but ppl seemed to be way more into it than "crying for no reason" which placed

I'd add Rather Be to the last of predictions Monotony. Think it's going to be very high.

communicating harrowing and resonant things through gloss= subtlety and artistry imo

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson)

the Scritti Politti Dictum

Move That Dope

listening to this in 2015 kinda revealing that it is actually the longest song ever made

it's always surprising to me when people still think saying one song in particular out of a genre they pay no attention to sounds just like the rest of the genre they pay no attention to is a worthwhile opinion to state out loud (re: reactions to quarterback.)

great run today

Move That Dope

listening to this in 2015 kinda revealing that it is actually the longest song ever made

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, January 21, 2015 5:25 PM (42 seconds ago) Bookmark

that "move that dope" made publication year end lists shows how out of ideas most people are

listening to this in 2015 kinda revealing that it is actually the longest song ever made

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, January 21, 2015 5:25 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wld be so much cooler w/o all the guest verses too

there's a cottage industry in declaring Nashville has gone off the rails at least since Willie moved back to Texas, if not before.

i def don't think that vic mensa single will place, saw v little ilx enthusiasm for it and it wasn't that big a hit to pick up that many casual votes

doubt a katy b album track will place - i don't recall that track being especially popular, either

vaguely wondering about "german whip" and "that's not me"

also, HIDEAWAY

i'm SURE "smoke, drink, break up" was more popular than just a personal favourite this year but iirc i was the sole p&j voter

as a frequenter of techno/house threads watching saer become a breakout hit here is totally fascinating, never knew the guy had so many opinions outside of extremely tasteful deep tech house

naw, "Move That Dope" is great. Amazing beat, fun verses, even Pusha's T's stupid terrible puns. If you don't want to SPEND THAT MONEY WITH CAAAASIIIIINO you can get out imo.

Like R&B, Country is mostly a demographic signifier after 1990, as the music gets farther away from what made it tick way back when.

However, with R&B we get more moves to reclaim a kind of core vitality (as opposed to moving on, which is fine in itself - lots of core vitality available by abandoning the models too!).

But judging from the country songs I hear in the local feedstore (yes there's a local feedstore, and I hear country music there), it all seems to be written by committee, a lot of vague nods to "America" and weird character studies that drop a certain number of "classic rock" references and a certain number of certified "country" references. The whole pop country genre has had a tedious identity crisis forever --- maybe it reflects a tedious identity crisis at large too.

This is not meant as a condemnation of anybody in particular, I believe in Miranda Lambert and everything.

I'm far far behind on this thread now but wanted to just otm this post

I might have skimmed past some angst, but feel like the anti-indie meltdown stuff is being exaggerated pretty hard this year. i mean there hasn't been much to react to, but i'm not seeing the wailing and gnashing of teeth people keep referring to

― rob, Wednesday, January 21, 2015 6:53 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I guess fans of shite indie are just really attached to their persecution complexes eh :-D

naw, "Move That Dope" is great. Amazing beat, fun verses, even Pusha's T's stupid terrible puns. If you don't want to SPEND THAT MONEY WITH CAAAASIIIIINO you can get out imo.

― The Reverend, Wednesday, January 21, 2015 5:29 PM (1 second ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

casino can stay but thats as much as ill allow

well sure but that's like drawing generalizations about R&B by hearing Chris Brown and Jason Derulo a lot.

xxpost

Does 'Vermillion' have a chance to make it to the Top 20? There's often been plenty of overlap between here and TSJ, but on the other hand it didn't really get a lot of exposure on here.

And what about something from St. Vincent?

modern country production is so unobjectionable to me, it's just not the point and in the country i love it does a great job of not being the point.

broadly agree with this, i couldnt really find a way in to the quarterback record but on the other hand i like the fact production can take a back seat, and it was such a relief to hear something that did that after all the horrible sounding productions in the other ones

Think St Vincent is a defo top 10 for albums, but tracks? Don't think so

naw, "Move That Dope" is great. Amazing beat, fun verses, even Pusha's T's stupid terrible puns. If you don't want to SPEND THAT MONEY WITH CAAAASIIIIINO you can get out imo.

― The Reverend, Wednesday, January 21, 2015 5:29 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

naw, "Move That Dope" is great. Amazing beat, fun verses, even Pusha's T's stupid terrible puns. If you don't want to SPEND THAT MONEY WITH CAAAASIIIIINO you can get out imo.

― The Reverend, Wednesday, January 21, 2015 5:29 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

― i'm tellin you it was kenard (slothroprhymes), Wednesday, January 21, 2015 4:34 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's pretty good but I never considered voting for it anywhere.

La Roux? German Whip?

drawing generalizations about a genre from a single track just seems a pointless thing to do, most of the records today have been horrible but that has no bearing on other records, even by the same artist, they might be good who knows!

so much good country music out there right now tbh. esp on the ladies' side. there are a few legends or soon-to-be-legends operating at peak power right now.

saer otm

"Move That Dope" also totally notable for being the first big rap song in a long time to use one of those huge, deep Masta Ace jeep beat basslines that are like my favorite thing ever. (Mike Will Made It also used this to great effect on "No Flex Zone" too.)

Tonight may be the night when I put together my long-put-off screed about why what Nashville calls country music now is terrible, and why it's not like arguments of the past, but I'm still at work right now.

Hasn't Nashville been pilfering rock styles of 20 years ago for ages?

I don't like Billy Sherrill productions at all, as a result I can only abstractly appreciate "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and some other obvious classics.

"move that dope" is great but i never considered voting for it, and would be surprised if it was to come - if any future gets in it'd be "i be u" surely? slightly surprised there wasn't goodwill residue for a past ilm fave

The influence of Fleetwood Mac on country radio after 1990 is sort of amazing....unless you take the demographic seriously, and songs like "She's Gone Country" that work like user's guides. Hey, alienated from today's weird rock scene? Go country! It sounds just like the stuff you liked in the 70s, well, at least the soft rock stuff!

i guess one surprising takeaway post-"quarterback" showing up is that while i knew some people paid less attention to lyrics than i do, i didn't know some people were averse to paying them any attention at all, even in a genre where songwriting and storytelling take precedence over production by a long way