ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

lol

Think what threw you off was that I mentioned the Sade comparison that gets thrown around and obviously everything that isn't Sade starts sounding a little bland as soon as you mention Sade

Already found some good stuff in the 77 that I missed completely (DJ Q, Winged Victory for the Sullen, Ex Hex). Thanks to the pollrunners!

i feel like every year ilms eoy list becomes more itself

it's craftsmaship when you want to like it and not innovative when you don't

As this applies to words that I said, this is kinda bullshit as I for the most part tend to veer away from touting 'craftsmanship', although since I put words in the mouth of the ppl who were frustrated at TWOD placing, I can't really get mad at you doing the same to me

There's a couple more things which I don't have time to say right now. One is how in the 80s when indie first came out of college rock and hardcore genres is that it stood in opposition for stuff like Building the Perfect Beast and now has come full circle. Say what you will about rap which has existed for abt the same time; it never quite transformed into 'not-rap'

― proggy went a-courtin' (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, January 29, 2015 10:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did not intend to put words in your mouth that was just my reaction to the post...

i get what you're saying about indie/college rock being in opposition to building the perfect beast...but in the long perspective of music, it gets more apparent that the differences between, for example, one of the "pro" X major label records and Boys of Summer had a lot more to do w/how the audiences viewed themselves than X really breaking from classic rock forms in any meaningful way...or like I dunno, the difference between REM and Tom Petty, they both are now actually considered classic rock, as is U2, once a "post-punk" band so for a band that comes later like War on Drugs, I don't think it's unnatural to throw in psych/post-punk/kraut/dire straits/FM rock/neil young/whatever into a blender

also i heard an interview with the War on Drugs dude on the local radio station when they came through town and he talked about like driving around listening to Bob Dylan on cassettes in a Volvo station wagon after soccer too, so I'm not sure how "indie" the dude ever was....he might have always just a rock dude

rock and roll genius ride the middle of the road
milk that sound, blow your load
soon it's bigger than you ever said it'd go
four stars in a Rolling Stone

if we recognise that we like competence in one area and dislike it in another out of pure inconsistency, then we have to concede that this distinction is entirely arbitrary

True up to a point -- if all you say is, "Ugh, competent rock/trap/techno/country" or "Yay, competent rock/trap/techno/country." But it's possible and not rhetorically contradictory to find some competence charming or comforting, and some competence stultifying. So it's a matter of clarity and specificity, not being lazy in thinking or writing.

Yeah, I agree that talking about TWOD in terms of "indie" values, for good or ill, is a red herring. The fact that it's placed so high in the ILX poll when records with equivalent RS/Q love (Beck, Sharon Van Etten, Sun Kil Moon, Jack White) proves that it's not representative on indie in 2014. That's why everyone tasked with defining its significance in EOTY write-ups has struggled. There's nothing to sign up to here. It's just an unassuming yet distinctive, very pleasurable (or not) vibe record that's thinkpiece-repellent. It's not just competent though. There are hundreds of merely competent rock records every year that get faint praise and disappear.

Otm

i think ppl should be using 'atmospheric' to describe that war on drugs records. doing a kinda scott seward disoriented grandpa thing here but i dont really have a sense of what ppl are talking about when the say 'indie' rn. i did really like the war on drugs records, listened to it a fair bit but i feel like it kinda falls into that matt p thread about 'inconsquential music' i was reading like its not really situated w/in the current aesthetic or social context for 2014 indie? its just sorta... its own thing but not in a tastemaking way. idk

truth bomb from the tracks poll:

ILM is one of the few remaining safe spaces online where indie rock is rightfully hounded & mocked ceaselessly.

― ||||||||, Friday, January 23, 2015 6:05 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tim explained this to contenderizer but everyone complaining about indie getting mocked for things that rap, country, metal, pop, dance don't is missing the point. they don't start on the same level. you've had half a century and ongoing of rock/indie's values being centred and dominant. pushing back against that is an integral part of this board's dna and you will simply DEAL when people continue that proud history.

its not really situated w/in the current aesthetic or social context for 2014 indie? its just sorta... its own thing but not in a tastemaking way. idk

― wizaerd (Lamp), Friday, January 30, 2015 10:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

theyll be on the bonaroo/jam circuit w/3 years, ive see it happen before, bet

indiesplaining

lex thats nonsense

its not really situated w/in the current aesthetic or social context for 2014 indie? its just sorta... its own thing but not in a tastemaking way. idk

― wizaerd (Lamp), Friday, January 30, 2015 10:53 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

theyll be on the bonaroo/jam circuit w/3 years, ive see it happen before, bet

― lag∞n, Friday, January 30, 2015 9:56 AM (31 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah any band that comes close enough to that scene generally makes that move eventually and i don't blame them, way more loyal fanbase & big summer circuits to hit

Pretty sure this board used to be a Belle & Sebastian fan forum.

yeah any band that comes close enough to that scene generally makes that move eventually and i don't blame them, way more loyal fanbase & big summer circuits to hit

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, January 30, 2015 10:58 AM (19 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah its way better, the fans actually love music too

Wonder if PJ Harvey will drop a new LP two weeks before Xmas so we can really test this.

This board started out thinking Loveless and Kid A were the best albums ever iirc

haha even the early board's official indie hate mascot ethan was a belle & sebastian fan

who isnt?

that said a song like 'Seasons' winning the tracks poll would've felt like much more of a break from tradition

I wouldn't equate "rock values" with "indie values" nor say that either set of values has remained consistent over a half-century

i'm american btw

theyll be on the bonaroo/jam circuit w/3 years, ive see it happen before, bet

TWOD is on the Bonnaroo roster for this year. I haven't been too into I've heard by them, but I might check them out there -- hazy guitar jams can be fun.

And yes, it's not hard to imagine them going over well with the My Morning Jacket fanbase, e.g.

xp If ILM's mission is to correct historical rockcrit injustices and oppose Pitchfork and all it stands for, then maybe there should be a sign on the door.

lol @ lex's timsplaining

the discussion at this point has zero to do with whether or not it's okay to mock indie. of course it is, you big dummy. if fgti had come in yesterday with "lol, more landfill indie crap", then i'd have filed the post with strychnine's and quickly moved on. however, the fgti post that triggered all this was a good deal more subtle and interesting than that, so i treated it in kind. mockery is fine for what it is, but when your ability to deal with a genre is wholly defined by childish "my team rulez, your team droolz" bullshit, then you've become irrelevant to more nuanced discussions.

our job is to fight the indiearchy

i do agree that yesterdays rock/today's indie are the voice, in a way, of a dominant culture. that's probably worth discussing, and it's where i'd left things at the end of my last (long) post. i didn't push it any further, cuz this is the point at which fucks cluster.

srsly you do not want to go down that road
way too much time has already been devoted to the war on drugs as it is

the war on drugs will never end tbh

Was secretly hoping that Aphex Twin's placing would cause a reevaluation of his catalog, a process called The War On Drukqs

who isnt?

― wizaerd (Lamp), Friday, January 30, 2015 11:04 AM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me, lots of people here

I wouldn't equate "rock values" with "indie values" nor say that either set of values has remained consistent over a half-century

― example (crüt), Friday, January 30, 2015 10:07 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no crut, you know ROCK VALUES...the ones shared by Motley Crue, Grateful Dead, The Clean, and Jesus Lizard

I find Lex's genre-battle approach both exhilirating to read and completely alien to how I think about music.

Enjoyed all your posts contenderizer

i think ppl should be using 'atmospheric' to describe that war on drugs records. doing a kinda scott seward disoriented grandpa thing here but i dont really have a sense of what ppl are talking about when the say 'indie' rn. i did really like the war on drugs records, listened to it a fair bit but i feel like it kinda falls into that matt p thread about 'inconsquential music' i was reading like its not really situated w/in the current aesthetic or social context for 2014 indie? its just sorta... its own thing but not in a tastemaking way. idk

― wizaerd (Lamp), Friday, January 30, 2015 7:53 AM (25 minutes ago)

oh, do disoriented grandpa! i love that.

good post, kidding aside. agree that "atmospheric" is a good description of the vibe-based pleasures offered by lost in the dream. that's what i was getting at in describing it as functionally ambient: songwriting aside, it creates & maintains a distinct sonic environment, one that many find enjoyable for obvious reasons. i'm not eager to distance it from "indie", though. indie's a big tent, and the war on drugs don't seem so terribly out of place slotted alongside acts like kurt vile (obviously), the hold steady and even fleet foxes.

also, good call on the thread connection with matt's "inconsequential music". i'd wanted to rope that in yesterday, re: indie generalism's magpie mentality, but i could make it fit and had gone on forever already.

Contendo making cool and interesting posts. Lex otm as always

Just to be clear, my usage of the word "competent" was not meant to be demeaning in any way or suggest that somehow functional music is less-than uhhhh "art music" or what you will. I am a card-carrying AC Newman fan. "Generic indie" bands make up 90% of my client base. But yeah, sound of the monoculture. When the comfort of a steak and a bougie ragout is available to me then I can enjoy this music recreationally. The only time I work up a sweat about "too music indie rock" is when I see festival line-ups and there are no girls or queers

"Generic indie" bands make up 90% of my client base

indie rock well
much clientele
anything u need
he probably sell

also the way these "serious debates" play out is a good reminder that i'm still basically lobbing jokes from the ILX kid's table

Would like to say that the AWVFTS record was a major code-crack for me. I feel like a lot of people on Erased Tapes have been on the comfortable side of the field, closer to the "not-as-good-as-actual-chamber-music" of fifteen-years-ago post-rock than something that is new and profound. But yeah they cracked the code, ATOMOS is an enormous watershed moment to my ears. All the discipline of Feldman but with a lovely elegance. Really melted my heart and I've spent my whole life smiling politely at that style of disguised easy listening music whither it's Sigur Ros or Tim Hecker

Ive been wanting ti check out Winged Victory since 2011. Maybe it's time I finally did so

ILM indie mockery is fine but it teeters on close-mindedness and hi-fiving each other's narrow tastes a lot of the time

does it, though

yep

*hi-5*

there's a lot of indie love on this forum, it just tends to not manifest on the poll rollout threads as strongly as pop / dance / r&b etc love. probably because 'indie' is so fractured and ill-defined that it doesn't really have the same type of rallying points

imo its because indies know they are shameful

i certainly do