ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014

my #3

not going to say anything

i am in fact going to sit back and watch this all unfold

REALLY? I didn't even vote for this (because: album) and it still placed!

Nice one ILM

lol my god what is this shit

not going to say anything

lol

sweet
this ep is tremendous

I like how Grady prefaced this with that old grime post as well.

Hahaha!

glad the subtitles are here

3 eeeeempty caaaaans of
caaaaaaaastlemaine XXXX

it's not an EP!!

I love this actually but then I am British.

i have no idea what this is, excited to listen later when i can

i kinda vibe this song/video tbh

Sweet!

My #1 !!!;

nah i will say one thing

it's on an album with brief instrumental intro + outro and one other also sixteen minute track, which is even better, so you damascene converts had best go get checkin'

i will say one more thing: this is some of the best music i think i have ever heard. no hype. lol.

lol

This is an amazing song. Incredible, idiosyncratic guitar playing and arrangement. The lyrics that flit from the mundane to the ethereal (that line about the Newcastle poster on his wall). I discovered Dawson right at the end of the year and his album went right to the upper echelons of my list almost immediately. He comes across as a super nice, and funny guy live and in interviews as well.

Very excited for the eventual Ben Wheatley hook up.

didn't actually vote for this but nice work ilm

listening to this for the first time. only 2 minutes in, really liking it so far

is this the guy from aphex twins

ILM, all is forgiven.

It was a smart move to include the lyrics in the video.

the Hot Fruit voting bloc makes a solid gain this year

^^

i was going to contend that, but OTM, mostly.

this might not even be today's last surprise tbh

sort of appreciate this for how it's really uh disrupted the top 20 and how much it is itself but lol i'll never listen to that again

irrationally hoping for Grouper now

Really interesting track. I love his lyrical style.

I don't like this, but the fact that something like it can place after Shurmda and Skepta and before whatever's next is what makes this my favorite year-end poll.

oh i was expecting this to be far more ~difficult based on the above posts

quite like the woozy guitar strumming throughout, vocals too dumb and self-conscious to take seriously. doesn't really merit its length.

I love it. Very grungy. Probably the first thing on here I'll listen to again.

I listened to the title track off the album but couldnt get behind it at all. Maybe this is less arch...?

Not cared about guitar music in twenty years and this years poll has been great with its relative lack of guitar music now this shit has placed high spoiling it.

Richard Dawson – "The Vile Stuff" – Gorgeous, in splendid disarray. Fuck, why is this the first I'm hearing of it?

^ me before the stupid motherfucker started singing

xpost

It's tracks like Dawson's that justify the ILM poll all by themselves, to me. 11 people like this! 4 people thought it was the best song of the year! That's fantastic.

[I don't like the song at all, but that doesn't make it any less fantastic.]

xxp lol that's far more of an overreaction than anybody had to WOD, good job

also i appreciate the falling-down melody a lot. actually i'm still listening and would probably not mind this with different vocals, maybe pj harvey's, although pj harvey would know to get her point about drunken filthy england across in under four minutes

I don't normally go around posting lyrics, but I love the biography/surrealistic imagery here. Reminds me of my favourite author, Alasdair Gray somewhat, except soaked in a kind of modern Geordie folklore:

Year 7s on a school trip to Featherstone Castle
And some wee scallywag's brung
A Coca-Cola bottle containing a spirit
Poor Peter Hepplethwaite cracks open his head
On a shiny brass doorknob
And has to be rushed by helicopter amublance
To Haltwhistle Hospital

Si Shovell fills a Reebok pump
With the pulp from his belly
Then sets off a fire extinguisher
In the girl's dormitory
And finally clambers into bed with Miss Bartholomew
Much to the chagrin of the deputy headmaster
Whose scarlet skull is firmly wedged between her thighs

I only drank a few little droplets
I only took a tiny draught of the vile stuff

Downing Asda's own-brand stubbies in the lad's bogs
I listen to the dull reflection of a carillon in the toilet bowl
My A-levels drifting away from me
Matthew Mooney's hockle in my hair
Smells like menthol tabs

Outside the chip shop Thaddeus Wagstaff fractures my cheekbone;
3 empty cans of Castlemaine XXXX
Go rolling down my trouser leg
Blood, snot and curry coalesce in the corners of my nails
My friends drifting away from me

I only drank a few little droplets
I only took a tiny draught of the vile stuff

Attempting to penetrate a coconut husk with a Philips-head screwdriver
I pierce a hole straight through my hand into the laminate worktop
It's a major operation to repair a damaged tendon;
I come around with the tube still down my throat
The milk of amnesia fills my cup and back into the hole I go

Snoring like a pan of broth, I arouse the ire
Of my fellow patients
Wagging their ladles in the dark

My neighbour Andrew lost two fingers to a Staffie-cross
Whilst jogging over Cow Hill with a Pepperami in his bum-bag
He's a junior partner at James & James no-win-no-fee solicitor
Thinking of relocating to a Buddhist monastery in Halifax

He reckons I should try meditation
He reckons it could benefit my peace of mind

My bedroom walls are papered with the stripes of Newcastle United
Between which I perceive the presence of a horse-headed figure
Holding aloft a flaming quiver of bramble silhouettes
He is the King of Children
Singing like a boiler: 'Tomorrow is on its way'

I haven't had a wink of sleep and now the sun is in my porridge
I'm starting a BTEC in Engineering at Tynemouth College
My thermos flask leaks parsnip soup on the metro
Clogging up the keys of my MacBook

Carrot pennies steam amidst a pyre of pencils
Ruck-sack dripping up the steps of WH Smith's
To buy a fresh pad of paper

I only drank a few little droplets
I only took a tiny draught of the vile stuff

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/southpark/images/e/e9/ScottTenormanMustDie30.gif/revision/latest?cb=20100318024246

The intro and outro are important here, the outro especially. I can't think of a track that made me feel more alive last year. The vid just enhances the vividness.

I saw him live briefly a couple of months before this came out but this was unexpected. So much beyond his already high standards. Incredible guy.

this isn't bad at all but i like it much better when he's not singing

i'm interested enough to listen again but it might not be for me

yes the outro is really good

i read an interview where he said he bases a lot of his singing styles on 'world' singers, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. There's a noticeable folk influence too. He's got quite a voice and a surprising range too.

aw lex yer being far too reasonable here :D

he's absolutely amazing live (played the vile stuff solo, just him and his little guitar, stellar) and ridiculously friendly too. chatted to him about the hunterian museum (preserved body parts) and his snickers bar!

lyrics to Nothing Important (the song) even better but you'll have to hit up the ricky d thread for those. excellent lyric-posting work dog latin anyhow

After all that buildup this turned out to be pretty uncontroversial.

I like his use of detail, would read a short story by this guy.

i just put a lot of effort into isolating that last frame that flashes on screen for a tiny fraction of a second

"what is man?"