ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

it's just so aimless

so wrong.

My number 1. Based solely on the fact that it was by far the most-listened to album of 2011 for me. First few times it felt like 'nice vibes' and great for driving on late summer days etc....but somewhere around the fifth or sixth time "Municpality" and the final track started clicking and I began to like every individual track. I think it's too straightforward to be considered some sort of paragon of P4k indie. Tellingly my mother asked if it was "easy listening". Lovely stuff.

Jesus you guys, how do you like your milquetoast in the morning?

Guilty as charged, though for me it's more of an evening background music album. If I focus on it too much, it can become slightly annoying.

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

42. Radiohead — King of Limbs (362 points, 13 votes)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 33

Spotify

sadly, my #1 being a less hyped indie record than Days means it's probably out of the running

a fucked up album cannot be good, it can only be fucked up. which it is by the way. q.e.d.

rmde

oh right there was a radiohead record this year

found King of Limbs dull. then again it took two years for me to come around to In Rainbows so...ya never know.

very sad that new Radiohead/Yorke albums are no longer exciting.

i listened to the second half of this way more than the first half

Shit of Limbs more like.

especially "Codex" which was really pretty

i loved that real estate record but i dont think i voted for it

same for war on drugs-- honestly assumed most ILM ppl would hate it!

Hey do you guys like the band Radiohead?

42 counts as low enough to count as a victory right?

i didn't know there was an actual radiohead album out, they always seem to be in the background getting in the music press for marketing their music in some unexpectedly quirky guerrilla fashion and i always try to pay as little attention as i can

I quite liked Little By Little and Give Up The Ghost, but they're more like quite decent b-sides than anything else.

Save us Johnny Fever!

#42 is accurate. It was good enough to place.

last one for the day real quick

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

41. Andy Stott — Passed Me By/We Stay Together (363 points, 13 votes)

P4K: DNP
P&J: 157

Fuck yeah

my relation to radiohead is strange. when i heard "creep" it made an impression. everything else until amnesiac totally passed me by. amnesiac ruled my world in 2001. the next one, name forgotten, was still good though a little on the too mcuh on the stadium rock side of things. everything after i didn't care anymore. i have the feeling their big time is over. and i don't regret it.

I've enjoyed TKoL whenever I've played it, and I put it on the lower half of my ballot after one such listening session...but tbh the only song I remember anything about now is Little by Little.

i tried to get into andy stott last year but couldn't, neither made much of an impression, rather like actress previously. i don't think i "get" music this abstract

TOO LOOOOOW

sorry about my terrible english...

and what does rmde mean, jon?

I can get behind the Andy Stott, even if its a just an album length exploration of sidechain compression.

this one is such a grower, took me about 3 months of listening to it a couple times a week and then it just completely flipped my wig

White Denim's album is worth checking out if you kind of want Radiohead to get off their electronic horse and get onto something else.

can someone post a list of all the albums so far thx

Andy Stott's pretty good, yep.

The best Radiohead song from this year was "The Daily Mail", imho.

I only got the Andy Stott very recently.. A good companion to this is Perc's 'Wicker & Steel' album, which didn't get nominated but has more of a pummelling techno style.

42 counts as low enough to count as a victory right?

i didn't know there was an actual radiohead album out, they always seem to be in the background getting in the music press for marketing their music in some unexpectedly quirky guerrilla fashion and i always try to pay as little attention as i can

― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend)

Sometimes it seems like you're happier when artists you hate place low than when artists you actually do like place high or at all. Also if you do try to pay little attention why do you bother to posting when Radiohead do appear in these lists? I think everyone on here knows just how much how you hate them by now. I'm not a fan of this album by the way, just wondered why you have to comment everytime they appear?

xp to Radiohead: The moment in "Codex" where the horns come in is really startling and happy-making. There's something very "movie score" about this song and it's working for me.

"Little by Little" -- love this opening, the notes are very carefully strewn around in a late-Pavement kind of way (but it may just be the guitar tone that's making me think of Pavement here.) Love the way the drums are insistent but very quiet.

I'm also a guy who never listens to Radiohead, but this may just be a stupid mistake on my part.

never heard of andy stott before but this track "dark details" sounds interesting (except the technically slowed down vocals)

http://youtu.be/bHweamNAkjY

never really heard about sidechain compression before, looking it up...

so is that how stott creates that vacuum on the bass drum hit that makes my entire room throb?

my problem with real estate (since i'm contractually obligated to have a problem with 6 out of every 7 albums listed) is that "fake blues" is so incredibly fucking great. maybe it's unfair to damn a band for being overshadowed by a single favorite song, but so be it. "fake blues" got me interested in real estate and matt mondanile/ducktails a couple years back, but it also hung heavy over their debut album, calling attention to the fact that, absent a few more tunes of that caliber, the pleasant vibes just aren't enough. days doesn't even have one song that hits me as hard.

this threads going to be all about how you all hate Radiohead until J0rdan posts the next album tomorrow isn't it?

certain albums are going to receive 15 "fuck this shit" posts immediately after they show up because that's what people here do. usually these are the ones i like, which is frustrating.

billstevejim sums up my I Love Music experience succinctly.

defend the albums if you like them! i wouldn't mind if my favourites got "fuck this shit" reactions, it'd just make me ride harder for them

..and that cycle rarely ends well ime
i have vowed to truly stfu until i have something that is worth saying

it can be enlightening to find out what people w/different listening experiences to me dislike in things i find flawless, anyway

never really heard about sidechain compression before, looking it up...

so is that how stott creates that vacuum on the bass drum hit that makes my entire room throb?

yes

thread has maybe felt tetchier than usual? i guess the albums poll brings in a wider constituency than the tracks one

I think I'm enjoying "Dark Details' (A. Stott) but it's actually sort of hard to concentrate on it -- is that normal? Also kinda hate the cover.

less tetchier than previous years (so far anyway)

I really liked the Moon Duo tracks from last year I heard on Spotify - like with Veronica Falls they wouldn't have sounded out of place at the first ATP and would have been considered somewhat old-hat then, but Moon Duo are really good at what they do. They know their way around a good noisy spacerock riff - bet they're amazing live, will check out the album.

I wish I liked the Azari & III album more than I do, Reckless is amazing (like top five single of the last few years for me) but not much else of the album is in the same league. They have these two amazing diva frontmen who aren't given enough room to shine.

I'm glad The Weeknd album is getting the level of debate here it deserves (ie none). King of Limbs certainly has its moments but there are too many songs that sound simultaneously overworked AND half-finished (Little By Little ffs).

The Fucked Up album is amazing and fun in short blasts but exhausting in its entirety, I think. And the story is impossible to follow.

diamonddave: sidechain compression (aka ducking) has been used for decades (probably back to the early 70s) to keep kick drums clear in mixes. French house exaggerates it as an aesthetic element in its own right, and there's a lot of dubstep that plays with the sound (my favorite example being Blue Daisy's Space Ex). Andy Stott is the minimal version, where there's so little else going on the entire focus is the ducking sound.

Andy Stott sounds pretty dark and creepy.