ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014

don't do that

murder them and throw them into a bog

there's no way they would survive that journey, wtf is wrong with you xp

guys let's not piss off the sun

pfft whats the sun ever done for us

true, bogs seem pretty chill though

ive also enjoyed iggy azalea's recent turn as a media critic

was hoping 1d voters would congregate around "fireproof" but oh well

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, January 24, 2015 12:37 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that really might be my least favorite track on the entire album, not sure why it's a standout to anyone. still have high hopes that we can get it into the albums 77 though.

that is SO WEIRD

THE HARMONIES ARE BEAUTIFUL DUDE

iggy almost makes me want macklemore back

there shd be a song where macklemore teaches iggy abt white priv

one great thing about 2014 is how little i had to think about macklemore

I think the most news Macklemore made in 2014 is when he dressed up like a Jewish stereotype and then tried to deny it. lol @ that douche

okay so it turns out the piano in "Rather Be" is actually really wonderful

that is SO WEIRD

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, January 24, 2015 1:44 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

THE HARMONIES ARE BEAUTIFUL DUDE

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, January 24, 2015 1:44 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

with most boy bands/vocal groups the harmonies are very important to me but not so much with 1D, i just think there are so many more indelible hooks on the album

Can't stop laughing at the Future Islands singer live. The crab dancing, the hitting on the chest, the sudden death metal growls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Uhf3gM1m0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ee4bfu_t3c

Dude looks like a less charismatic Marlon Brando too.

OK, thats the first time Ive actually seen that. Hilarious and amazing. He reminds me a bit of The Shat too.

I can see Samuel T. Herring appealing to a certain regretful about past choices/greying demographic among tastemakers.

Oh god, that name.

What's often forgotten in these roll outs is that the people voting for these tracks have had time to let them grow on them.

There are enough people who say "I discovered this song during nominations and voted it high on my ballot" that I think this is a fundamental misreading of what this poll has become, which is less a snapshot of what music ILX posters liked over the past year and more an attempt to curate our special snowflake status by committee.

― Let me help you out Charlie XCX fan (DJP), Friday, January 23, 2015 3:12 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

finally someone who gets it

I can see Samuel T. Herring appealing to a certain regretful about past choices/greying demographic among tastemakers.
Oh god, that name.
― excreting zeitgeist (Sanpaku), Saturday, January 24, 2015 6:25 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

People are such assholes about the dude because he's balding and not skinny

Like it's funny there's this undercurrent of how dare he be flamboyant as a performer because of how he looks

But I wouldn't worry Sanpaku you'll be the one who gets through without regretting past choices I'm sure

Hahaha I'm not laughing about his look, I'm laughing about the cookie monster screams and the crab dance. He could be the most gorgeous singer and it would still be funny.

Not directed at you

i'm goin' bald atm so his confidence & swag in that performance is actually inspiring to me

What's often forgotten in these roll outs is that the people voting for these tracks have had time to let them grow on them.

There are enough people who say "I discovered this song during nominations and voted it high on my ballot" that I think this is a fundamental misreading of what this poll has become, which is less a snapshot of what music ILX posters liked over the past year and more an attempt to curate our special snowflake status by committee.

― Let me help you out Charlie XCX fan (DJP), Friday, January 23, 2015 3:12 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

finally someone who gets it

― flopson, Sunday, January 25, 2015 1:18 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I mean if you were committed to this bullshit idea you wouldn't vote for songs that came out in december either, me personally I can forgive people "discovering" and "liking" and "voting for" songs, it's as true a snapshot as anything imo

I mean "I discovered this during nominations & voted it high on my ballot" = black messiah

There's a distinct, non-negligible difference between "I heard this song late in the year and loved it" and "I'm waiting for people who actually listen to afropop to tell me what the hot songs were to make sure I vote for the right ones"

Basically, if you're waiting for other people to nominate songs you can vote for, I don't think you should vote. In fact, I think the entire nomination process is idiotic and a gigantic waste of time; this isn't the fucking Grammys, it's a message board poll.

excellently put. if a song comes out in december and you like it and see it in the noms: vote for it. issue is not that a couple last min d'angelo or beyonce songs placed, it's more the "attempt to curate our special snowflake status by committee" aspect. like it's not some homework assignment u have to do last minute research on before submitting

noms are silly yes although they probably make tabulating easier

do you think people don't genuinely love the songs they voted for, or is it just that there's an incorrect way to discover a song late in the year and love it?

Xxxpost: oh sorry! Thought it was directed at me for laughing. I think it's funny but cool.

i'm goin' bald atm so his confidence & swag in that performance is actually inspiring to me
― flopson, Saturday, January 24, 2015 7:37 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was my intended meaning, not a sneer at Mr. Herring. I have a patch of gray that I've much more ire for.

That said, I didn't see much grassroots support for this among younger listeners until the EOY roundups were published.

xp wins- you're missing the point. dan's afropop example is good. if you didn't care enough to read the afropop thread three days before voting, why start now just because you have a ballot to fill? it's not about loving a song or not, hearing a song late in the year or not. it's the idea of setting out to find songs to vote for in the poll, and how that changes the interpretation & results of the poll itself. i didn't vote for anything discovered during noms (and i discovered a lot of great stuff) and i still struggled to cut my trax ballot down to size. i imagine that would be true of anyone who posts here. why set out to find more stuff to include?

Yeah I do get that, I just think that to the extent that this happens at all it's forgivable and its influence on the poll results is minimal

who cares ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

true lol

like I'm fairly confident that "a snapshot of what records ilx liked over the past year" is exactly what we got despite some people possibly changing a couple of places on their ballots

xp that too

jeez don't take away my special snowflake feeling it's one of the last things i am clinging to

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

^ this guy gets it

I discovered ILX through a past EOY poll in '06 or so, when a couple of downlist albums were ones I thought were unfairly ignored elsewhere.

User polls don't create a critical canon, they just provide a demographic portrait of a community at an instant. So I make no attempt to curate my year or much effort to expand my horizons, I just try to narrow down to from hundreds of tracks and 50 odd albums I've heard to the ones I think I'll want to hear again in a decade. Its the only fair way of representing myself in this demographic portrait.

Perhaps in a few years someone will Google and discover this is the community that loved Ninos du Brazil or Holly Herndon and join.

also "seasons" was huge all year, yes the letterman performance (first week of March) was a big part of it, but ppl forget that it was the first time anyone (indie fans or not, FI fans or people who'd never heard of them before) had ever heard the song (aside from maybe a handful of live performances at smallish venues in the preceding months). the single came out a week or two later and imo stands on its own merit

if you didn't care enough to read the afropop thread three days before voting, why start now just because you have a ballot to fill?

Why not? It's as good a motivating factor as any other to check out things that you might have missed out on otherwise. It's a lot of work to follow rolling threads on every genre that interests me (and even when I try to, e.g. with the metal and classical threads, I still miss out on things that I catch up on with EOY lists and poll nomination lists). These are a good way to look into some highlights and could inspire one to follow things more closely afterwards). It's not as if I didn't actually love the Noura Mint Seymali album just because I was introduced to it via the nominations playlist and not by following a rolling thread on every piece of music that wasn't sung in English all year.

2xpost

If people hear something through the noms or the actual poll roll-out and think "this is better than half my actual/existing ballot" why wouldn't they vote for it or wish they had?

It'd be nice to be on top of everything all year all the time but the truth is everyone relies on gatekeepers and the ILM poll process is no worse than many gatekeepers available.

noms are important to help u remember what songs u like

Tim F otm

Buncha special snowflakes, each and every one of you (DJP & Flopson excepted).