ILM Top 100 2000-2004: ALBUMS

Points: 144
No. of votes: 7
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: MAX TUNDRA
Title: MASTERED BY GUY AT THE EXCHANGE
Label: DOMINO
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/masteredguyexchange.jpg

Warped but placid electronica from Ben Jacobs. Often abstract, often pop, usually both...

Comments:
Max Tundra is my Velvet Underground - his music just makes me want to go out and start a band. Or I guess, get a laptop and some software. Dozens of experimental ideas explode from every track, each given something like three seconds before the next one comes along, and yet, the songs are unbelievably catchy. A complete marvel.
Vinnie

Points: 153
No. of votes: 8
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: BOB DYLAN
Title: LOVE AND THEFT
Label: COLUMBIA
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/loveandtheft.jpg

Legendary troubadour drops first album in aeons to mass acclaim - even topping the Pazz & Jop poll two years back.

Comments:
I know "Love and Theft" isn't going to get a lot of votes in this poll, but fuck it. It's one of the best albums of Dylan's career, and let's see what Mike Skinner and Dylan Mills are doing when they're sixty.
Not That Chuck

Recommended tracks: Sugar Baby

Points: 155
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: WILEY
Title: TREDDIN' ON THIN ICE
Label: XL RECORDINGS
Year: 2004

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/treddinonthinice.jpg

The Eskiboy himself rises from the depths of London's grimey underground with a raw, confident debut rich with urban commentary, audacious humour and relentless yet inventive beats.

Comments:
On a couple of the songs Wiley reminds me of Mike Skinner in terms of both delivery and lyrics - the ones where he's larking around, where he probably sounds most British ("Goin' Mad" and "Pies"). His voice is really compelling over a whole album - it's kind of underwhelming at first esp. compared to MCs with really distinctive flows like Dizzee and Lady Fury, but there's this kind of laconic, understated refusal to be all hysterical which I like. (read more)
The Lex

Recommended tracks: Pies, I'm Goin' Mad

Points: 156
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: RYAN ADAMS
Title: HEARTBREAKER
Label: COOKING VINYL
Year: 2000

ihttp://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/heartbreaker.jpg

Petulant icon for both the contemporary and alternative sides of country/folk rock in the US backs up his running mouth with a widely adored collection of heartfelt songs considered by many to be his finest work by some distance.

Comments:
Every tragic figure needs a peak to fall from.
BNW

Recommended tracks: Come Pick Me Up

Points: 157
No. of votes: 6
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: EMMA BUNTON
Title: FREE ME
Label: POLYDOR
Year: 2004

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/freeme.jpg

Barnet's finest poplet shakes off the Spice shackles forever with a lively second solo effort plastered with retro charm, consistent songwriting and jaunty hooks.

Comments: How did THAT get in there? (part 1)
sblueski

Recommended tracks: Maybe, Crickets Sing For Anamaria

Points: 160
No. of votes: 7
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: DAVID BANNER
Title: MISSISSIPPI - THE ALBUM
Label: Universal
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/mississippi.jpg

Dirty South by name and nature - newcomer Banner crunks it up in style.

Comments: n/a

Recommended tracks: Cadillac On 22s

Points: 160
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: GOLDFRAPP
Title: FELT MOUNTAIN
Label: Mute
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/feltmountain.jpg

Comments: Walk through the woods, back and forth through time, in and out of loneliness - a poignant, haunting ramble you may never return from. Alright it's just an album...but what a voice, blending remarkably with the enveloping strings and gentle keys ranging between the sinister and soothing in tone. Accusations of being humourless and pretentious seem irrelevant when the scenery is this gorgeous. blueski

Recommended tracks: Human, Deer Stop

Points: 162
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE DELGADOS
Title: HATE
Label: Mantra
Year: 2002

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/hate.jpg

Comments: The Delgados do something to me. There's bands I like. Bands I love. But somehow, the Delgados... the Delgados feel like they're my team, y'know? There's something kind of heroic about them. And I've not even listened to their first two albums that much. But there's something deeply human about it all. I think it might be I listened to Hate after the Polyphonic Spree's album, where almost every line felt contrived in its "won-derrr" effect, and The Delgados got the wonder without even trying. Magical realism - the whole lushness of the Flaming Lips, for instance, or maybe Mercury Rev, but not in the 'art' sense. Music being played by human beings, being made by human beings, who don't necessarily want to create art, but something they care about. (read more) William Swygart

Recommended tracks: The Drowning Years, All You Need Is Hate

Points: 163
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: LOW
Title: TRUST
Label: Rough Trade
Year: 2002

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/trust.jpg

Comments: "La la la Song" is possibly the sweetest thing they've ever done, and "Tonight" is dreamy and magical enough to be on Loveless. They even manage to raise the pace on "Canada". Who could ask for more? (read more) Kilian Murphy

Recommended tracks: Canada

(I'm loving that you're still up doing this, stevem)

"(That's how you sing) amazing grace" would be my recommendation from that album and maybe from Low's entire catalogue.

Points: 167
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE MICROPHONES
Title: THE GLOW (PART 2)
Label: K
Year: 2001

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/glowpart2.jpg

Comments: This record is easy to like because it is a labour of love - it is a home made record for the sake of recording rather than making good music. Simultaneously, the home recording asthetic is appealing and works well to create a continuous disc of changing ambience (rather than a bunch of singles cut together). Despite this casualness, there is some wonderful musical moments as well: delicate vocals, close overdub vocals, an interesting mix of easy sounds (acoustic intruments), non repetitive form and seemless yet sudden changes in direction. a good study of home recording and beautiful music. (read more) D Barclay

Recommended tracks: The Glow (Part 2)

(Nice elephant tho)

But I expected more albums to be listed by this morning.

Points: 168
No. of votes: 6
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: JOHNNY GREENWOOD
Title: BODYSONG
Label: EMI
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/bodysong.jpg

Radiohead's maverick guitarist (amongst other things) takes time out to score Simon Pummell's lifecycle-themed film.

Comments: The album's opening track, "Moon Trills" seems portentous of some grand celestial event; its elongated Messiaen-inflected piano chords and Ondes-Martenot wails form and reform in a harmonic spectra that travels slowly toward a dark meridian. Later, the starlit melancholy of "Bode Radio / Glass Light / Broken Hearts" unfurls in vivid plumes of glass harmonica and strings, and is shot through with dissonant adornments not unlike those emblematic of Debussy. The drowsy fantasia of "Clockwork Tin Soldiers," reverberates like falling glass marbles aleatorically tinkling a ballet for mechanical dolls. "Convergence" begins with a clash and percolates into a percussive, clattering cacophony, fighting the hegemony of beauty and melody. The banjo-driven "24 Hour Charleston" echoes the adrenalin rush of a thief in the night, as dramatic electroacoustics envelop the discordant melody. And the monistic "Peartree" with its angular, Ligetian organ harmony resonates as though the music were dispersing in the higher vaults of a gothic cathedral. In "Milky Drops From Heaven," a hurried horn takes on an animal character, the music destructing and reconstructing itself from moment to moment, as if the jazz band were tumbling up and down invisible stairs, their tempo varying at the rate of their descent. On the closer, "Tehellet" (the Hebrew meaning of which roughly translates as "hope, expectation") a languid cello is made to sound like a choir of seraphim heralding an ascent.

Perhaps Jonny Greenwood is not one of the luminaries like Messiaen or Penderecki, but here, their light reflects upon him, like the sun upon the moon. Salvador Saca

Recommended tracks: Moon Trills

Well done, Steve. Loved the buildup inbetween, watching people be worng about Rooty vs Kish Kash and the excellent Avalanches stuff ('Etoh'/'Summer Crane' would definitely have replaced 'Frontier Psychiatrist' in my recommendations, and the early trifekta that ends with 'A Different Feeling' is almost as good as the 'Etoh'-onwards final stretch).

Ah, fun time.

Top five with maybe a one in three chance at #1, I'd say. I can't think of a more likely choice at this point.

Hoo-ray! I've already got my nominees...

ALBUM: Bjork, Homogenic
TRACK: Nuyorican Soul, "It's Alright, I Feel It!"

(no way am I risking obvious choices on the off-chance someone else will nominate them, only to see no one nominate them.)

Now I feel like a radical cleric.

Its been great fun to follow. Thanks for alll the hard work Stevem!

101. Villalobos - Alcahofa (143)
102. Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You (143)
103. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Tyranny Of Distance (142)
104. Camera Obscura - Underachievers Please Try Harder (139)
105. Stars Of The Lid - The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid (137)
106. Smog - Dongs Of Sevotion (137)
107. Rufus Wainwright - Want One (136)
108. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Cast Of - Once More With Feeling (OST) (133)
109. Bersuit Vergabarat - Hijos Del Culo (127)
110. Saturday Looks Good To Me - All Your Summer Songs (120)
111. The Walkmen - Everybody Who Pretended To Like Me Has Gone (119)
112. Lawrence - The Absence Of Blight (119)
113. Wire - Send (117)
114. Oneida - Each One Teach One (117)
115. Spoon - Girls Can Tell (116)
116. Ellen Allien - Weissmix (116)
117. Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World (114)
118. David Sylvain - Blemish (114)
119. Fog - Ether Teeth (113)
120. The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas (110)
121. DJ Rupture - Minesweeper Suite (109)
122. M83 - M83 (104)
123. Akufen - My Way (103)
124. Cassette Boy - The Parker Tapes (102)
125. British Sea Power - The Decline Of British Sea Power (93)
126. Nellie McKay - Get Away From Me (91)
127. TI - Trap Muzik (91)
128. Blonde Redhead - Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons (90)
129. Underworld - A Hundred Days Off (88)
130. PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her (88)
131. The Bees - Sunshine Hit Me (85)
132. Okkervil River - Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See (81)
133. Desaparecidos - Read Music/Speak Spanish (80)
134. Mission Of Burma - Onoffon (79)
135. Spray - Living In Neon (78)
136. Kaito - Special Love (74)
137. Blak Twang - Kik Off (70)
138. John Fahey - Red Cross (69)
139. Avey Tare & Panda Bear - Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished (69)
140. The Futureheads - The Futureheads (64)
141. The Liars - They Were Wrong, So We Drowned (63)
142. Cave In - Jupiter (61)
143. Various Artists - Lord Of The Decks: The Fellowship Of The Mic (61)
144. Converge - Jane Doe (58)
145. Saian Supa Crew - X-Raisons (57)
146. Soft Pink Truth - Do You Party? (55)
147. Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera (54)
148. Miss Kittin - I Com
149. Jandek - The Gone Wait (50)
150. Eve - Eve-O-Lution (47)
151. The Deadly Snakes - Ode To Joy (45)
152. Beaumont - This Is Beaumont (45)
153. The Montgolfier Brothers - The World Is Flat (45)
154. Killing Joke - Killing Joke (44)
155. Kristin Hersh - Sunny Border Blue (42)
156. Stephen Jones - Almost Cured Of Sadness (42)
157. Crydamoure presents - Waves (40)
158. My Favorite - The Happiest Days Of Our Lives (38)
159. Comets On Fire - Field Recordings From The Sun (36)
160. The Wrangler Brutes - The Wrangler Brutes (32)
161. The Cure - The Cure (31)
162. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope (26)
163. Xiu Xiu - A Promise (23)
164. Rancid - Rancid (20)
165. Fennesz - Live In Japan (16)
166. Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me (14)
167. Joy Zipper - American Whip (14)
168. The Mountain Goats - The Coroner's Gambit (13)
169. Bangkok Impact - Traveller (10)
170. Bark Psychosis - Codename: Dustsucker (9)
171. Amon Tobin - Out From Out Where (8)
172. Anti-Pop Consortium - Tragic Epilogue (7)
173. Raphael Saddiq - Instant Vintage (7)
174. Neurosis - A Sun That Never Sets (7)
175. DJ Krush - Zen (5)
176. Neurosis/Jarboe - Neurosis/Jarboe (3)
177. Girl Talk - Unstoppable (1)
178. Destroyer - Your Blues (-1)
179. Smashing Pumpkins - Machina: The Machines Of God (-11)
180. 50 Cent - Get Rich Or Die Tryin' (-16)

Unranked (albums which did not receive a single vote):

A Frames - A Frames
Absu - Tara
Cul De Sac - Death Of The Sun
Dean Roberts - Be Mine Tonight
Devin The Dude - Just Tryin' Ta Live
Gogogo Airheart - Exitheuxa
Juniper Moon - El Resto Di Mi VIda
The Loud Family - Attractive Nuisance
Mira - Apart
Trance To The Sun - Atrocious Virgin

Fanstastic, Stevem. Hero!

Sorry I never voted, I've only heard around 15 of the nominated albums and half of them I wasn't particularly fond of...

Hang on, amazingly low number of points for those two, or amazing that they got any points? (I honestly can't tell!) Several of the Anti-Pop points were from me, I think.

And yeah, very nice work Stevem!

Oh, thanks for running my Eninem comments - they were dashed off notes to you, rather than anything studied for reprinting here, but they read okay to me, so I'm happy.

Is anyone else surpised this didn't get a round 45 points?

also: I am shocked simply shocked that Hijos del Culo ended up at #109, I gave it 45 but that leaves 82 votes unaccounted for. Who else voted for this brilliant masterwork? I MUST KNOW SO I CAN SHOWER YOU WITH DIAMONDS AND PEARLS.

awesome

Worst of all, I'm starting to like Pavement.

Damn you hate votes. If this hadn't got 4 hate votes, it would have ended up somewhere in the 80's

I did think the hate votes counting as negative points was the worst idea about this poll, even before this outrage.

I thought the nominations process was a great idea, much more interesting than an open poll, and the whole thing has been highly entertaining. Much thanks to Stevem.

Yay!

i like an awful lot of the records on it, including the #1. i admire the incredible amount of work that went into it. i did not participate, not for any aesthetic or political reasons, but simply because i'm too lazy. and i quite enjoyed reading through it. so i don't mean this as criticism, just as observation and question:

it's just really, really white. and i'm wondering what makes it all that different from all the other lists (rolling stone, q, vill voice, etc) that we constantly carp about? what makes this one any less carpable?

I think it's still Emma Bunton.

count the number of non-white people in the top 100. see how many hands it takes.

count the number of acts in the top 100 whose fans aren't primarily white.

etc.

Does anybody spot something odd about this list?

It's a very very male-dominated list, especially near the top. Not as male-dominated as most 'canonical' lists but still, not a single girl in the top ten, wtf!

Heh heh. Dizzee is the real winner!

NO BOREDOMS AT NUMBER 1 = YOU ARE A BUNCH OF THOME YORK MOTHERFUCKER DOUCHEBAGS