ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014

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?"

why does he call it milk of amnesia instead of its actual name, is that intentional or

excellent lyric-posting work dog latin anyhow

― my shoes are deception (imago), Thursday, January 22, 2015 7:49 AM (1 minute ago)

yeah, the lyrics are amazing. just wish they came taped the back of the instrumental or something.

thought he was really incredible live -singing right from the soles of his boots- but i haven't ever really found the proper occasion to sit down and listen to this record with any sort of attention

why does he call it milk of amnesia instead of its actual name, is that intentional or

― dyl, Thursday, January 22, 2015 3:51 PM (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe he forgot what it's called

Better Dawson than Kozelek, I guess

why does he call it milk of amnesia instead of its actual name, is that intentional or

― dyl, Thursday, January 22, 2015

The vocals are really bad. Why cant guitar acts have good male singers?

so i am assuming that it's a classical allusion

nb i still have not heard the song yet, gotta run out the door

"milk of amnesia" is pretty established slang isn't it? i've heard it before anyway

Better Dawson than Kozelek, I guess

otm

i'm officially 100% ok with the rest of the poll now obv, go wild

i actually still have the melody of "the vile stuff" in my head and it's a good one. shame about the vox, really, could've been into it without the honking

yeah, the lyrics are amazing. just wish they came taped the back of the instrumental or something.

I kind of agree with this, hadn't seen them typed out before and they work a lot better for me this way.

i might prefer just reading the lyrics to hearing him sing them lol

but still glad to have heard this song

lj you're making me look bad with your decorum here mate

intro sounds like gaster del sol

i love his playing
his singing is more in the robbie basho zone for me like i came to accept it because i like his playing so much

xpost - lagoon - there's a fair amount of crossover of weirdo 90s avant/post rock stuff and the general ilx brigade scene, like glenn jones was in cul de sac, others like wm. tyler & danny paul grody have backgrounds in that

these lyrics are um very literary

His vocals on this are perfect in context.

Grante, I'd probably be similarly displeased if I could understand Qawwali lyrics.

getting the lex to say nice things about my favourite artist of the year is a triumph for all ilm rly. now will i reciprocate

i like his singing. like his guitar playing, it creates the illusion that he's ad-libbing. and the way he stomps and sort-of hits himself to get the words out when he plays live - it's rawly-felt and unpolished, which is increasingly the way i like things these days.

http://i.imgur.com/0MS2I8i.jpg

13 FUTURE "Move That Dope" Ft.ft. Pharrell Williams, Pusha T [470 points, 18 votes]
http://youtu.be/wHguy4xHGSg

what a juxtaposition

xpost - lagoon - there's a fair amount of crossover of weirdo 90s avant/post rock stuff and the general ilx brigade scene, like glenn jones was in cul de sac, others like wm. tyler & danny paul grody have backgrounds in that

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, January 22, 2015 10:59 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i saw cul de sac open for the boredoms once and bought a hand numbered 7" from them which i sold to ian a few years ago

now we're cooking with gas

pretty good song but overrated, don't understand what the fuss is about the beat, pusha t's part is horrible

This list seems more an aggregate of everyone's two or three favorite songs rather than an actual list of the best songs of the year. That said, I'm trying to imagine a fake British music mag that would actually publish a list like this--what are its aesthetics? its preoccupations? its various perspectives and whims?--and I find the exercise v gratifying...

reet tune is this!

this song is honestly great but i don't think i listened to it after march!

pharrell's verse is still great though

i'm really surprised "move that dope" placed so high, especially beating "hot n*gga" which felt like the way bigger rap anthem. amazing beat though, pretty good song, pharrell weirdly has the best verse

'Blood, Sweat, Tears' the Future song that meant the most to me this year, but this is cool too. Even Pusha's terrible jokes.

i almost roll my eyes out of their sockets when he's like "get it?? i nose better!"

the album sucked though

it is very weird but nice that pharrell has the best verse

there is def something grubbsian about dawson's sparse guitar playing but that's become a standard style for a lot of underground stuff, his singing is obviously the overwhelming heart of this, whatever you make of it

xpost - lagoon - there's a fair amount of crossover of weirdo 90s avant/post rock stuff and the general ilx brigade scene, like glenn jones was in cul de sac, others like wm. tyler & danny paul grody have backgrounds in that

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, January 22, 2015 10:59 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i saw cul de sac open for the boredoms once and bought a hand numbered 7" from them which i sold to ian a few years ago

― lag∞n, Thursday, January 22, 2015 10:02 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha that sounds like something ian would buy!

glenn jones' solo albums are legit beautiful, but so different than cul de sac

Just tuned in to find joy of actual joys at number 14! I can't even believe this happened!