ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2015

The Marriages record is my favorite Tori Amos record since From the Choirgirl Hotel.

Well done, everyone!

EZ, you're snarkier than usual this year.

That's not meant to be snarky! That's a huge compliment. Love 90s Tori and this record reminded me of what she was doing then without sounding like her.

:)

U.S. Girls is the second recent artist (Zambri is another) that reminds me of how unappreciated Danielle Dax was in her day.

there are certain artist/band names that preclude me from checking out the music unless I put in a lot of effort and both "U.S girls" and "marriages"
are in that category

How have I never played To Pimp a Butterfly through headphones until now? It's like a brand new album.

yeah vv essential

"For Sale?" through headphones = omg

This Floating Points album sounds superb too.

Thanks gr8080, JF, ulysses, seandelai and anyone else involved. Great work as ever.

Also if you have a worthy system then you have to listen to Safe Sex Pay Checks really loud. That sub-bass wobble during the pre chorus is so fun

I propose this poll be retabulated to include voted of people who said they forgot to vote for Sons Of Kemet.

― The Reverend, Thursday, January 28, 2016 9:24 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if i'd heard it before EOY season i prob would've made room for it

there are certain artist/band names that preclude me from checking out the music unless I put in a lot of effort and both "U.S girls" and "marriages"
are in that category

― marcos, Thursday, January 28, 2016 11:16 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this was basically where i stood but

The Marriages record is my favorite Tori Amos record since From the Choirgirl Hotel.

― EZ Snappin, Thursday, January 28, 2016 10:55 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this has me extremely intrigued!

Emma Ruth Rundle's phrasing occasionally is Tori-esque, but there is something about their approach to song structure that hits me as even more like Amos's work. Also, Marriages have a very, very good drummer.

But it's definitely a rock record, with lots of 80s Cure and 90s Lush and other stuff in there, too.

also i'm prob one of the ilm pop fans most suspicious of scandopop over the years and susanne sundfør just...isn't remotely like any of that. i mean, the tracks that placed were the most pop-leaning moments but i don't even know if i'd foremost class the album (much less her career) as pop - to me she has the same relationship to it as dawn richard does to r&b right now, and a top 3 of dawn/angel haze/susanne made a lot of sense in terms of my own personal aesthetic

no ballots thread this year?

Waiting on seandalai.

marriages was a little bit of a disappointment for me after the fantastic emma ruth rundle solo album from 2014, which was more of a straight-up singer-songwriter deal but one i found really affecting

Waiting on seandalai.

he's doublechecking the gaz coombes stats iirc, think there might be a shock in the pipeline

I'm back! Give me a few minutes.

Having crusaded for N Jaar's Nymphs (despite the four EPs/singles not being released in conventional album format), feel a bit guilty about bumping the cycle down to #16 on my weighted ballot.

that thing is goddamn amazing, one of my favorite late-year discoveries

ILM 2015 Albums Poll: Thread of Stats, Ballots and the Gaz Coombes Nation

Just catching up now...

Ten Love Songs is going to have like 12 first place votes, there were a few people here who considered it one of their favourite albums of all time, let alone of the year.

― Matt DC, Thursday, January 28, 2016 8:08 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

!!!!!!

Why do so many of them have no enthusiasm rating? Is it uncalculated for things with fewer than three voters?

― emil.y, Thursday, January 28, 2016 9:44 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's right - below that it's barely an average and you'd end up with the single-#1-vote albums getting maximal enthusiasm.

Anyway: one of my two favourite kinds of ILM threads are the ones where someone posts about a hitherto low-profile artist and slowly other posters catch on and every month or so someone new bumps the thread to say OMG THIS IS THE BEST MUSIC EVER THANK YOU. Usually I don't notice until the artist in question hits the EOY poll but this year with Ten Love Songs I was there at the beginning and it's been a beautiful ride.

you'd end up with the single-#1-vote albums getting maximal enthusiasm

B-b-but they *do* have maximal enthusiasm. Sure, only one person knows or cares the record exists, but that one person loves it dearly.

Also, Marriages have a very, very good drummer.

― EZ Snappin, Thursday, January 28, 2016 6:37 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah he's a beast. i cast my marriages vote but late 90s epic guitar rock isn't coming back anytime soon i don't think.

weird. My #1 doesn't even show up on the results spreadsheet. Guess my ballot wasn't counted for some reason.

This is like Ohio 2004

Wow, this Jlin is great. I downloaded that one immediately.

weird. My #1 doesn't even show up on the results spreadsheet. Guess my ballot wasn't counted for some reason.

― Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Thursday, January 28, 2016 9:18 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is like Ohio 2004

― Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Thursday, January 28, 2016 9:33 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hmm, that is odd. I don't know what all seandalai does on the back end exactly, but if you saw the "thank you for voting" screen after submitting your ballot it means the data went through.

Glad for the people being put onto Jlin and Algiers.

I voted for Marriages too, albeit in the lower reaches. The Emma Ruth Rundle album from the year before is divine.

President Keyes, I don't see any ballot from you in the system :( As JF said, if you got to the "Thank you for voting" screen it really should be there.

Day off work today (office more or less non-operational due to some big system upgrade going on) means I can spend some quality time with the spotify playlist.
JLin album definitely my fave discovery so far.

art angels is really as uhhh, duhhhh an album title as artpop isn't it. IT'S ART ART ART DO U SEE

Dawn Richard is brill + addictive, just in terms of backing tracks + sound. Not paying attention to the words as yet.

So what's the deal with Herndon? On a couple of tracks this is possibly more abstract than Autechre (whom I don't care for, so good) but not as much as all of those computer series etc etc. people you'd see in these compilations from whatever I was looking at about ten years ago. A political angle was talked about - does that manifest itself anywhere or is it just saved for interviews or the live shows?

tbh i never got round to reading any interviews with herndon - i'm sure they're interesting, just didn't have time - so i have only the vaguest idea of what her political points are (surveillance, internet blah blah blah). the live show didn't bring them any further into focus and i pretty much enjoy the album without thinking about them.

sort of similar to fatima yamaha's migration-themed album, aside from the song with actual lyrics, there's nothing in the music to suggest its political nature beyond the titles. instrumental electronic music's politics reside in the act and experience of clubbing/dancing imo.

i missed the miguel/role-playing debate upthread, i agree that the first three songs are all about role-playing and would argue that the entire journey of the album is from role-playing to ~being your true self. (not entirely sequenced like this with "coffee" and "waves" in the first half and "hollywood dreams" in the back half but w/v.) idk why you'd expect or want "deal" and "the valley" to be as straightforwardly beautiful as "coffee" or "face the sun" when they're all about archetypes of sexuality - power/politics, porn - and the tension between turn-on/sleazy turn-off.

I don't care for Autechre either, but Herndon (on this album) is clearly more poppy and warm than them.

And I didn't notice the political angle either before it was mentioned here, but since I mostly listen to instrumental music, I don't really pay attention to lyrics (except in rap). To me Platform was just a nice marriage of glitchy experimentalism with poppy sensibilities.

I don't care for Autechre either, but Herndon (on this album) is clearly more poppy and warm than them.

― Tuomas, Friday, 29 January 2016 10:41 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh now you've done it...

Done what? I don't think even Autechre's fans would deny that they have a cold sound, or at least colder than Herndon's.

More into the politics of sitting in a corner with loud speakers blaring noise @ me.

I don't like Autechre because it isn't as abstract as it thinks it is. I started listening to them and then the academic stuff was so much better I left others to deal with them as I was bored. Herndon reminds me of a couple of amazing obscure academic composers -- whose names I forget -- that were really packing layer upon layer of sound and noise in.

I don't want Herndon to copy those people, looks like she is working an intersection: making those noise more poppy? But I think its closer to glitch circa 2005. Just need to listen in some more.

I don't like Autechre because it isn't as abstract as it thinks it is.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, January 29, 2016 10:53 AM

this is a really stupid post generally but autechre do not purport to be abstract or to appeal to the set of sensibilities you purport to favour

you're probably talking about people like curtis roads

I don't think Autechre think they are making statements about abstraction as much as many of their worst champions do

whoops, sorry for repeated sentiment

Holly H wrote 'FUCK THERESA MAY' up on a big projector screen during her London gig. That went down well.

idk why you'd expect or want "deal" and "the valley" to be as straightforwardly beautiful as "coffee" or "face the sun" when they're all about archetypes of sexuality - power/politics, porn - and the tension between turn-on/sleazy turn-off.

It's not about being "straightforwardly beautiful" it's about not wanting them to sound like shit. 'A Beautiful Exit' and 'Deal' in particular are good songs produced and arranged badly - the whole sound of Deal is so thin and flimsy, and that lumpy guitar drags the opening song down completely.

I don't like Autechre because it isn't as abstract as it thinks it is.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, January 29, 2016 10:53 AM

this is a really stupid post

You like 'em then.

herndon was at mills i think? she clearly has had more direct inculcation in abstract electronic music and its theory than autechre do, while tuomas is also correct to note that in some sense her music is warm and in some sense her music is pop music

her album is really excellent and better than her previous recordings