ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014

i also hear her "i said i've been there too a few times" not as a comment on how often she's had her heart broken, as seems to be the consensus, but how she plays the same game as he does.

This is one of my favourite moments on the album and one that bears a certain amount of close reading. It's ambiguous because it's not clear whether the meet-up is during a period where they're officially on or off, i.e. when the dude is "out and about with some other girl" is that a problem in itself or only because he's here, now, with the lights off and taking off his clothes?

So it's either the case that your take is spot on lex or alternatively you can read it as her copping to having been fixated on an ex while dating someone new (this situation crops up again later on the album but I can't remember where offhand).

People who think this song has bad lyrics aren't paying attention: I think this is in fact one of her best written songs as well as one of her best sounding.

tinashe - the way get ratchet go dumb then go mo dumb then we can keep it lit let's roll rolled off her tongue was maybe the finest enunciation in pop last year, and the moment when i first heard it last january and the sean paul interpolation dropped felt so triumphant - such utter confidence to use it at that exact moment. its placing at #1 feels very "summation of 2014" in that i'm unsurprised it got only one #1 vote: at no point in the year did it ever announce itself as The Song, but it encapsulated so many great things very neatly and honestly i can't think of anything better that deserved to be there. (so it makes sense that the dj q remix voters pushed it over the top.) i threw my vote to her album, though.

Cosign this in its entirety, and that line really pushed "2 On" over the top for me.

Water Me placed last year

I agree that Tinashe works as a "what if Ciara hadn't become boring and terrible after '1 2 Step'" thought experiment

Lee Ann Womack - Send It On Down

great song

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, January 22, 2015 3:34 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My #1. Apparently I was the only one to vote for her :\ Hoping she has more success on the Albums list.

Great job to those who did all the tabulation, pictures, etc!

Biggest ah-ha's were Vermillion, Hideaway, German Whip, Babylon System, and U-Huh.

Biggest WTFs were that God awful Richard Dawson track, the proliferation of Young Thug, and 2 On being the clear consensus (I like this song, but was surprised at the gap between it and #2).

Biggest stiff was Vince Staples, but glad "Hands Up" was the consensus among those who voted for him.

hoped nigeria & ghana would've placed more tracks.

hoped Jamaica would place a single track in the last three years

yeah after a few embarrassing years in a row this is a really solid top 3

This is one of my favourite moments on the album and one that bears a certain amount of close reading. It's ambiguous because it's not clear whether the meet-up is during a period where they're officially on or off, i.e. when the dude is "out and about with some other girl" is that a problem in itself or only because he's here, now, with the lights off and taking off his clothes?

So it's either the case that your take is spot on lex or alternatively you can read it as her copping to having been fixated on an ex while dating someone new (this situation crops up again later on the album but I can't remember where offhand).

i don't think i hear it as a problem in any context. the initial accusation - "i heard that you've been out and about with some other girl" - that's pure hurt accusation, she's wounded there. and then the next line when she captures exactly the kind of excuse he'd use and its very effective charm - "what you've heard is true but i...can't stop thinking 'bout you & i" - and how he uses tone and timing and words to manipulate her into falling for him (again) despite her hurt. and so "i've been there too a few times" could be that she's also been out and about with some other boys, but mostly because that's her territory. game recognise game.

Really thought Kitty - BRB would make it

hoped Jamaica would place a single track in the last three years
― rob, Thursday, January 22, 2015 10:03 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bou yah (vampire teeth) is an egregious omission.

also yeesh, looking at the full list, despite the #1, the r&b vote really died. i don't really count fka twigs as r&b and that pretty much leaves tinashe, king, usher, jessie ware and d'angelo (the last two are sort of outliers anyway). it's not like there weren't great r&b singles in 2014...

kelis not placing is a surprise

to me

yeah they got cut off my ballot bc they weren't as good as all the young thug features

i don't think i hear it as a problem in any context.

oh I agree - I just meant that it's an exchange that is both ambiguous and yet feels emotionally true regardless of how you interpret it.

The Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart? singles will probably be old and uncool by this time next year, so I was really disappointed Love 'Em All made such a poor showing.

hoped Jamaica would place a single track in the last three years
― rob, Thursday, January 22, 2015 10:03 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Popcaan suffered from vote splitting it seems

xp
not really complaining. there's been no crossover tracks or even consensus among the board's tiny number of dancehall partisans for years. Spice not appearing is disappointing as I would think a wider range of posters would like her

popcaan should show up in the albums poll next week, which is cool and an unexpected turn for the genre

Thanks, Gr80! My favourite discovery of the day, btw, turns out to be Bobby Shmurda! Such roiling menace!

well i guess this should be the last EOY ilm poll ever, it was a good run

Terrible verses on "2 On" aside, I thought Schoolboy would at least place a track. "Man of the Year" was in my top ten (and "Collard Greens" the only other bearable track on that record).

pumped for the 2010-2014 poll this summer

well i guess this should be the last EOY ilm poll ever, it was a good run

― J0rdan S., Thursday, January 22, 2015 5:17 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't get this

Bobby Shmurda! Such roiling menace!
― my shoes are deception (imago)

Alfred completely wrong re: Schoolboy Q, that album was great

Thank you gr80 (and anyone else involved in this joyous occasion) for a gripping first poll experience! Sad to have been work-bound for 90% of the roll-out, but next time I'm booking it off!

Whaaaa

Xxp

forks you should throw your computer in a river for posting a story from hoodstarmagazine.com that "cites" an obvious photoshop of a fox news broadcast

So this is what FKA Twigs sounds like. I actually enjoy this.

I'm confused. As a newb, is Shmurda really in critical condition or no? Care for the kid now since this poll :-/

https://hoodstarmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/bobby-shmurda-fighting-for-his-life-after-prison-fight.jpg?w=840

forks, answer for this

http://www.vibe.com/article/bobby-shmurda-brooklyn-gun-case-dropped

Jesus, Forks, you have me a right scare there

mea culpa on a bad referral there; no corroboration and a less than sparkling URL; I am stocking spotify lists
still a deeply fucked up story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/19/hip-hops-bobby-shmurda-charged-in-murder-drug-trafficking-sting/

i assume the jury will accept wapo or must all links pass the stringent gawker sniff test

forks i'm sorry that you thought a story from hoodstarmagazine.com was real but you have no one to blame but yourself

i'm sorry this is a priority offense for you! clearly too much time spent in the sewers of the internet dredging for dropped wedding rings and dickpics

https://hoodstarmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/bobby-shmurda-fighting-for-his-life-after-prison-fight.jpg?w=840

this is bobby shmurda's face after being put in intensive care and also my face after reading your posts about bobby shmurda being put into intensive care

i think you have definitely moved into "u mad" territory

sry i did not vote for stiches (or at all) after u bugged me on chat

― lag∞n, Thursday, January 22, 2015 3:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This one should have placed at least
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni2OfQHfqDw

YES STATS ZONE: ILM 2014 Tracks Poll Thread of Ballots, Statistics and Meditation is good folks. You can see your top neighbours and the full results and other awesome stats

Brilliant run out, great list! Thanks hugely!

That Edward album is fantastic, been listening to that as much as anything since the noms thread.

wow #pray4shmurda illuminati finally got him

Top 2 tracks basically the only ones not mired in controversy in this thread.

lol i just noticed that iggy azalea came...

=194th.

i have mired them in controversy for not featuring young thug, huge oversight, unacceptable

i also like that the system rewards enthusiasm rather than bottom-of-ballot consensus (contra what some seem to think). nicki minaj was #77 with 5 votes, presumably all high; whereas 6 votes, presumably all low, only got route 94 to #264.