ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

I don't think Perfume's appeal is one that strikes immediately - on first listen it's just a cute electropop group, on 10th listen it's still a cute electropop group but whoa I've just listened to this 10 times in a row what's going on? It's obviously in-genre but the production in particular has a staying power that others can probably deconstruct better than I.

http://i.imgur.com/FJ6YW.jpg

57. The War on Drugs — Slave Ambient (322 points, nine votes, one first place vote)

P4K: 39
P&J: 49

Spotify

had trouble getting excited about this when the Kurt Vile album sounded so similar (and was much better).

wow completely forgot that big boi album won last year, such a very sadly ILX choice

lol, yeah...Big Boi didn't scrape the top of every other music poll on the whole internet. Just ILX.

Don't think I know who this is.

too low!!!

Listened to those Grouper albums A LOT this year, but I think she overstretched herself a bit. Nice, but not essential.

the album cover alone should give it a spot in the top 20

Sadly this record starts great and goes downhill from there.

what is the war on drugs

I have that Kurt Vile album, the only thing I do have by him, and other than Society Is My Friend, I don't think I understand the appeal. He ranked pretty high on Pazz & Jop, but it's a fairly standard rock LP from what I can hear.

Cool to see Perfume and The War On Drugs make it. Good job people!

i am beginning to think that a lot of my more obscure votes (angel haze, nikkiya, sunny sweeney) won't make it :(

american folk rock meets shoegaze/kosmiche xxp lex

Philly band doing a modern take on Tom Petty, kinda. I voted for it, but only on the strength of about half the songs if I'm being honest. xps to lex

War On Drugs >>>>> Kurt Vile, it's all the droney spacey stuff that pushed the War On Drugs above it for me. Had expected that album to be higher actually, it was top 10 for me.

Oh man, love love love The War On Drugs record. I was actually disappointed in the Kurt Vile album this year because it was too acoustic meandering for me. It was good, but not what I'd hoped. I found more of what I was looking for with War On Drugs.

i second the TOO LOW.

Also, Matt DC otm.

Okay War on Drugs, listening to the track 'Black Water Falls' on utube. Like it a lot.

Sounds Dylan-y to me.

tried to listen to war on drugs, seemed like something i might like but was pretty bored by it

that james ferraro album felt kind of thin and cheap to me

this is the whole point iirc

Thought I'd like the War On Drugs based on the reviews I saw, but it was a bit meat-and-potatoes and could have done with rocking-the-fuck-out a bit more. Should have learnt my lesson from buying Wilco records when I was told they'd gone "weird".

now i'm beginning to think that had i nominated some albums (lapalux, jonwayne, ELOS, balam acab, shlohmo), they might have actually had a shot.

i'm assuming rustie was nominated?

Yes, Rustie was.

Yes, my prediction #23.

This thread has officially declared war onme. BRING IT ON!

Srsly WoD reminded me of weaksauce Verve; what are the cool droney/spacey tracks?

hurrah for Grouper

this is the essential war on drugs song imo hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMToQg0vSds

Srsly WoD reminded me of weaksauce Verve; what are the cool droney/spacey tracks?

most of the droney spacey stuff happens in between the tracks, 'the animator' is a good transition track, but really works best in the context of the album flow

every WoD track reminds me of another band (and i don't mean that as a knock against them). that one is their Arcade Fire track.

(i meant the youtube link)

Ooh, whee, I missed this kicking off again. Voted for Ferraro and Perfume. Totally don't get the Ferraro hate - it's an interesting bit of textural electronica with good noises. Was completely o_O when it won the Wire poll, mind you. It's good, but it's not that good.

http://i.imgur.com/3u1tq.jpg

55. Mastodon — [/i]The Hunter[/i] (328 points, 10 votes)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 47

Spotify

also war on drugs was probably my favorite live band to see this year (2x!! shoudlve seen them that third time)
seeing 1/3 of the crowd leave during the amazing 10 minute harmonica/feedback/sax drone jam was pretty funny

Mastodon drums are huge, guitars are thin.

Nice to see the Mastodon place! Such a great album and a really wise move for them to slide away from the epic prog thing for awhile.

(thx dd85 btw)

far side virtual is a v gaudy outlier, an extreme mutation of certain threads in modern music mb, & of ferraro's archaeology of information age detritus. occupies a ridiculous position in the musical landscape of 2011, which makes it fun to back in the name of tastelessness & irony (rock out w/ "celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay"). i really love listening to it tho; despite employing all these trashy cheap sounds it's a p massive record & insanely rich considering how well it sticks together. it's not chip tunes; this stuff unfolds in a p epic even glorious fashion in this uncanny environment which is less familiar than it pretends to be. ive never known a record evoke so many peculiar & barely remembered things - everyone comes up w/ different references ive never heard of, which is significant - but those similarities are a pose & it doesn't actually function like Microsoft Musical Instruments demo songs, but instead pulls this weird set of things together in a way that seems so intuitive it feels like it was always grouped that way, but really this is some super sly taxonomy&world-building, built around garish, often v slight sounds. it has a clownish, circuslike quality to it & is wicked psychedelic imo

I thought Mastodon might place. Good album, I realised many years ago they weren't going to make another Remission. They for me fill the heavy rock void left by Qotsa while Josh took a break.

the war on drugs are really, really awesome. very unique sound... i generally prefer stuff that is more song oriented but that album is just really cool.

Nice write-up Ogmor! I agree with you on the psychedelic aspect of it. For all the cheap and nasty sounds, they're layered in a curious and sometimes surprisingly lush and lovely way.

I had a harder time connecting with the new Mastodon than with their previous albums. Definitely agree that the guitars were too thin or maybe just too low in the mix.

Still voted for it though...

Do metalheads have a word for people who don't listen to any metal except Mastodon? If so, I'm one of those people - my Soundgarden/QOTSA loving younger self would have approved.

i think i liked the idea of the mastodon album (return to shorter, unconnected songs) than the concept - maybe it was too long? there's some good stuff on there though.

First listen, but something about the busy metropolitan feel of the Ferraro record reminds me a bit of Different Trains. Maybe it's placement of the voices too. I quite like it I think, but I can quite understand the hate too.

― Derartu Cthulhu (NickB), Tuesday, January 31, 2012 9:21 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, but different trains is not interesting in the long run because it has a "busy metropolitan feel" (something you could say about thousands of albums/pieces of music). it's interesting because it's complex, rigorous, challenging, distinctive and hypnotically beautiful - in the minds of many listeners. don't see any equivalent value in the ferraro album.

the band i discovered on the metal poll that sounded like QOTSA (at least to me) were Red Fang. Loved that record.

On previous albums, it seemed like every song was one awesome riff after another. This one didn't quite do that for me.

whoops, i skipped 56 like an idiot, sorry