ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

so contemptuous of drake and anyone who thinks that album is either emotionally moving or beautiful-sounding

lol it has sure emotionally moved a lot of yall to FURIOUS ANGER

lol pwn

77. When Saints Go Machine — Konkylie

What an awful name for a band. Would never consider listening to them if not for their placement in the poll. Turns out I've listened to a few of this songs throughout the year without knowing who they were. It's ok for hipster party music. Sounds to me like the Delays and I'd much rather listen to them.

76. Robag Wruhme — Thora Vukk

I nommed and voted for this. Ot’s always a treat to hear a producer who is proficient and well known around the techno community turning away from the dancefloor to release music that borders outside of their usual field of expertise. Thora Vukk is Wruhme’s exploration of his music’s more melancholic, contemplative side, while keeping the sense of tension and attention to detail that he has perfected as a techno producer. The result is warm, gorgeous album that is fascinating, at least on an aesthetic level. Nothing new but very pleasant to the ears.

75. Liturgy — Aesthethica

I'm sorry... I tried but Metal music wears me off after a couple of tracks. Didn't care enough to listen through half of it. Either way I'll admit that if I listened to metal the sort of structures I heard in some of the songs would probably be my kind of thing so not completely hating on this one.

74. The Joy Formidable — The Big Roar

So I've heard the songs and watched the videos and they definitely nail the alt.rock look. Somehow though I find it perhaps too carefully constructed and planned and lacking in attitude as if in reality they'd rather be a folk band or something. I also have trouble remembering the songs after a while.

73. Jay-Z & Kanye West — Watch the Throne

Was expecting this to place much higher. It's not a bad album but I'm not particulary excited about it either. I was probably too burnt out on both of them and their personas this year. I don't really have anything to say on this one.

72. Barbara Panther — Barbara Panther

This sounds so much better on paper: Rwandan refugee doing electro produced by Matthew Herbert. Turns out it's a bit boring safe for a couple of songs.

71. Toro y Moi - Underneath the Pine

I could love this but it feels like that sort of seasonal music that only gets to you on a certain mood and weather and then you never listen to it after two years when you once again think it's the best thing ever before shelving it back. I actually think the artwork is the best one in the countdown so far, next to Thora Vukk.

69. Wild Flag — Wild Flag

I kind of like what I heard on first listen but I should probably give it more time. Awful artwork.

69. Low — C'Mon

Had no idea Low had released something this year. Same thing as Toro y Moi. I know I could appreciate this in the right setting but not really feeling it atm.

68. ILX Presents Lulu

I would have actually cashed money if the real album was half as good as this one.

67. Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls

This is cool. Never heard of them before but I'm loving this. Simple and to the point. There's some interesting twists in short spans, apt for ADD people.

Ok I'm off to sleep. I'll keep listening to the rest tomorrow.

continuing on the Toro Y Moi cover, it's initially repulsive duh but it's a pretty bold interpretation of sexual fears, especially for a guy who was linked to a genre that never even gently rocked any boats. 2011 saw thousands of tasteful and "pretty" covers, then bam! glistening tentacle pube mouth right in your face. love love love it.

i forgot the young galaxy album existed. ugh that's still to come i guess :(

Veronica Falls appear, on the basis of the first few songs, to inhabit a world in which there are two rhythms - blankly strummed eighth notes, and the opening to 'Be My Baby'. So generic, so boring.

OTM BOMB

i like veronica falls
on record, as well as live.
maybe they need more laser noises

Veronica Falls appear, on the basis of the first few songs, to inhabit a world in which there are two rhythms - blankly strummed eighth notes, and the opening to 'Be My Baby'. So generic, so boring.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 08:49 (42 minutes ago) Permalink

Funny, I was listening to a bit of this this morning and remarking on how interesting their approach to rhythm was (at least in the song I heard). Something about the way the snare and guitar work together... Adding these guys to the list of Yuck-style Alt-'90s revival bands. I wouldn't blink if someone were to tell me Veronica Falls are from a long-lost Volume compilation from early-94. It happens I nearly joined a band who now sound very similar to these guys. Gonna have to investigate further.

I'd say that Veronica Falls are more 80s than 90s, that sound harks back to the days when Bobby Gillespie still played the drums.

As for Yuck and the Joy Formidtable and their critical success - UK indie landfill finally cracks the US??

Landfill was the big post-Libertines Top 40 stuff like the Kooks, View, Fratellis, etc - stuff the US never warmed to. But Yuck & Joy Formidable fit right in to P4k world.

As for Yuck and the Joy Formidtable and their critical success - UK indie landfill finally cracks the US??

If anything these bands are taking 90% of their cues from US alt-rock and have nothing to do with indie landfill stuff xpost

Doglatin I think you're kinda overblowing the significance of these 90s revivalist bands, I doubt Yuck exactly have a stellar career ahead of them.

Where did I say they did?

I dunno, it's all very Evening Sessions-esque, it's like landfill with the britpop influenced bits taken out. I like 'A Heavy Abacus' off that JF album, it's got a nice yearning quality to it, but the prospect of listening to the whole thing is about as enticing as digging through the crates of marked-down CDs in a provincial HMV circa 2003.

Really, I'm quite on the fence about Yuck - "Get Away"'s a good single, and the album's okayish. W/R/T popularity, they were positioned at about 6:45pm on a medium-sized stage at Primavera festival earlier this year - a very very early start for that festival - but when I got there to check em out it was so packed I could barely see the stage and had to climb up a hillside just to get a peak. Seems the organisers had underestimated how popular they would get between booking and album release. I wouldn't underestimate the power of nostalgia to sell units.

I took "indie landfill" to mean the same as DL said upthread - all those mid-2000s Brit-garage bands in pointy shoes and tight trousers who (to these ears) sounded exactly the same as each other. But I guess this is getting semantic. Yuck/Joy Formidable are like the NWOAlt-Rock or something. I can't tell if it's positive or negative or just inbetween. Probably just in between - if it's not hurting anyone and people like it, fair enough. Just not up for hundreds of Dinosaur Jr-ripoff bands suddenly blowing up off the back of a fad.

how come it's always the placement of indie rock bands in an ILM poll that causes the most handwringing?

I was thinking earlier that the difference in overall attitude/approach on this poll compared to the tracks poll is pretty big - almost like two different boards.

It is every year, though, from what I can remember. And bear in mind we're in the lower reaches still - a lot of the big hitters in tracks who have released album will appear later.

*albumS. I need to proof-read my posts more.

was there a nyan cat album?

Oh I was referring more to the overall mood of the thread. Everyone seemed more energised and enthusiastic on tracks, but people seem more considerate and open minded over here. Maybe that'll all change as we reach the upper regions of the countdown.

Is it alright to speculate over the chances of Diamond Mine placing? I know KC has a small but strong contingent lurking around ILX, but will it be enough to push him into the 77?

Well I voted for Veronica Falls, Drake, and Joy F. The K.R.I.T album just missed my ballot. So out of the stuff I hadn't heard found the When Saints... hella boring. Lykke and Low were okay. Really dug Psychic Paramount though.

was there a nyan cat album?

― Derartu Cthulhu (NickB), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 11:32 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Am now imagining a "riddim" style compilation made up of different people toasting over Nyan Cat.

Album lists attract a slightly different crowd - there are people posting prolifically here who didn't post on the tracks thread at all, and I'm willing to guess there are people who only voted in the albums list (and to a lesser extent vice-versa). Also you see different types of music appearing - this list so far is a lot indier, with more consensus picks appearing.

true, true

What's (kind of) interesting is that it's more or less the same group of voters in albums and tracks. I don't have exact numbers but I'd say well over 100 people voted in both.

My tracks ballot was mostly odd dance and some poppier stuff and my album picks are mostly weird noise. Neither of which will have much of an impact on these polls. But I do still read lots of album review, and that's my main way of finding new things, whereas with the tracks its mostly stuff that has been filtered through ILX or blogs or whatever.

Voted for 25 in the other and 4 in this - no overlap, doubt most of the ones in the track ballot will ever release an album

I can't remember the exact figures but I think the albums poll had about a dozen more voters.

One contributing factor to why the albums poll varies from the tracks poll is because a good number of people feel that they should avoid voting for tracks off of albums they think have multiple standouts. How many times did something either place low in the tracks poll or come up in conversation as a missing entry where several people said "oh I voted for that album instead"?

And thank god for that. One of the reasons why, say, the Pitchfork tracks list is so boring is that it's largely people just voting for their favourite tracks off their favourite albums, and that crowds out so much great music that appears on patchy albums, or never appears on an album at all.

Hmm looking at it I voted 6 albums where I also voted for a track off said album. Not that bad out of 25 I guess.

I don't know if it's because I know their history before having heard the album, but Liturgy don't so much sound like a black metal band as what Oneida or Liars would sound like if they were spoofing it. The intro to True Will sounds like an Animal Collective b-side, the production is also very indie - it doesn't have that galloping "sheets of glass being dropped in a church" effect, sounds more like it was recorded in a loft. And the guy's voice is just lost - BM singing tends to be more structured whereas this just sounds like someone whooping in some vague unison with the backing. It's not that I don't like it, but this has much more in common with the NY noise/hardcore continuum than it's being given credit for.

The tracks that most miss out for me are those on albums which are mostly not-great but have a few standouts (ie you can't pick just one to vote for but the album's not good enough to vote for either). MJB springs to mind for last year

Yeah but if any of those MJB tracks had been out-and-out amazing you'd have voted for them anyway?

Okay, so it seems Liturgy are Black Metal to Fucked Up's hardcore punk - in this case it isn't BM at all, it's math rock/post rock with screechy vocals whereas Fucked Up do pop-rock with punk vocals.

Xp not nec! There were at least 100 out-and-out amazing tracks I didn't have room to vote for

fwiw i really like the drum sound on the liturgy record, and the WITTR record makes me think "why do drums usually sound so terrible on metal records?"

so in a roundabout way dog latin is saying Liturgy is hipster metal made by indie kids and not proper metal at all?

I wonder if Mastodon will place if we're talking about awesome drummers.

I guess this is all a symptom of the net and the way it's bolstered listeners into having "eclectic" tastes. The more websites like Pitchfork are expected to diversify from their original indie-rock template, the more a market opens up for music from disparate styles that somehow fits into this template.

I feel kind of precious for listening to Liturgy and saying "but that's not Black Metal!", but I'd say I'm justified in the same way the Lex will complain about The Weeknd and Frank Ocean - by fitting into this eclectic schema, these acts lose a lot of their edge. Liturgy's all very well, but why listen to these guys when there's probably a grillion more worthy metal albums out there not getting the same kind of attention? Well that's obvious - Liturgy are approachable, they speak frankly and openly in interviews, they're not from inaccessible Scandinavian outback, they don't wear fright make-up and chainmail and they don't go around burning churches and eating each other's brains - all factors which make the genre inaccessible to the casual fan. But if you take these away, what are you left with? A BBFC-approved version of the original style with all the cigarettes airbrushed out. No offence to people who come to metal via Liturgy, however I can imagine the majority of newcomers approach Liturgy as exactly that - a "safe" gateway into a style that bypasses all those difficult hurdles that people have trouble with when listening to albums like Filosofem or Battles In The North. But by avoiding these obstacles, you're not so much jumping in the deep end as wading around in the surf, which isn't really any fun at all.

i like to imagine he looks like HEALTH's drummer

I don't have much of a problem with anything that dog latin has to say (though I can certainly see arguments against it) except for the assertion that wading around in the surf is no fun. Wading around in surf is totally fun. Seriously. Get to a beach, try it, then tell me you had no fun. You'd be lying.

Save us, Johnny Fever!

Landfill was the big post-Libertines Top 40 stuff like the Kooks, View, Fratellis, etc

This is largely true. However, I will note that the Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger" is the theme song for the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team. Like, whenever they score a goal, the stadium blares the song and everyone sings along. Kind of funny b/c most people here don't even know who the band is.

ah, emil.y I guess that's where the rule is dis-proven because I'm completely guilty of "paddling" when it comes to genres like r'n'b, which unlike metal I didn't really have a lot of exposure to in my former years. As a dilettante who's nevertheless willing to hear more, I'm still naturally drawn to the more Pitchfork-y end of the genre (Badu, Monae, Ocean et al). I still find some of the more outré r'n'b tropes hard to grasp onto, maybe even off-putting. And while I'm aware that many will dismiss the above artists as perhaps lacking in something or other, I still find them a useful access point.

Yeah, its so weird that that song is pretty much universally known around Chicago as "that Blackhawks song", sort of like Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2" has basically been "the Bulls intro song" since the Jordan era.

(xpost re jaymc's post)

I was actually being an annoying literalist, tbh.