ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

you know what was a fantastic 2011 album? quilt s/t mexican summer

I've still never heard a note of Destroyer, maybe it's finally time for me to give him a listen.

I love the fact that "Ravedeath, 1972" has done well in so many year-end polls. I didn't expect it to finish so high on ILM though ... how did that happen? I started a Tim Hecker thread seven years ago and it still only has about 100 posts on it. There were a lot more avant garde/experimental albums on the poll than in past years, so I guess that (partly) explains it.

Eleanoora Rosenholm was on my ballot, thanks solely to hearing her several times in outloud. Wish she would've cracked the top 77, but oh wells.

For what it's worth, Eleanoora Rosenholm is the name of the band, not the lead singer. IIRC "Eleanoora Rosenholm" is a fictional 1920 mass murderer who appears in their lyrics, or something like that.

I am kind of suspicious of these poll results

I like how "shook" is being illustrated with a picture of a dorky guy drinking beer alone is his bedroom. Very apt.

finally caught up with this thread. so glad Destroyer won, as I haven't loved and played a new album so much for years.

whereas I've listened to the PJ album one and a half times.

I should point out that Sound of Silver won the ILM poll in 2007 and that's clearly a rock record.

incompetence as a springboard to glory

STUPIDITY THAT NEEDS TO STFU

Anyway, back to the most important thing. A ROCK ALBUM FINALLY WON OUR POLL! lol it rocks about as hard as a single gym sock in a dryer full of towels. But, technically, it's the work of a WHITE MALE WHO PLAYS MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS PROFICIENTLY AND HAS A BEARD.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, February 2, 2012 9:59 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I should point out that Sound of Silver won the ILM poll in 2007 and that's clearly a rock record.

― Matt DC, Friday, February 3, 2012 9:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Rock music - the work of a WHITE MALE WHO PLAYS MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS PROFICIENTLY AND HAS A BEARD?

Anyway the rest of the top 10 is pretty great - I should probably give Uncle Acid another go. So stoked that Katy B finished so high.

I suppose the one advantage of Destroyer winning is that both the 'ARGH YOU CLOTH-EARED CUNTS' crew and the the 'waaah why aren't more people respecting this widely-acclaimed indie dude?' crew get the opportunity to be simultaneously butthurt.

The top six range from 'okayish' to 'pretty good' for me - I think I had GGD and Kate Bush low down in my ballot because both had some really great moments. I feel I should revisit 4, I remember liking bits of it on first listen but it didn't leave much of an impression. Also Destroyer's Rubies>>>Kaputt.

Own on CD: Robag Wruhme, Laura Marling, Tom Waits, Azari & III, Radiohead, Cut Copy (bit of a dud purchase though), Panda Bear, Oneohtrix Point Never, Nicolas Jaar, tune-yards, Katy B, PJ Harvey.

Heard in full, like: When Saints Go Machine, War On Drugs, Nguzungzu, Lady Gaga (well, bits of it at least), Rustie, Beyonce, Destroyer.

Heard in full, neutral: Lykke Li, The Weeknd, Ford & Lopatin, Bon Iver, M83.

Heard in full, dislike: Low, Frank Ocean.

Heard in part, like: ILX presents Lulu, Drake, Junior Boys.

Heard in part, neutral: Barbara Panther, Toro y Moi, Austra, James Ferraro, John Maus, Britney Spears, St Vincent.

Heard in part, dislike: Liturgy, Joy Formidable, Jay-Z/Kanye, Kurt Vile, EMA, Tim Hecker, Gang Gang Dance.

Never heard: 33.

I get pissed at the reductiveness of "indie" here, I'd like to see the term entirely discarded, "DIY pop" / "DIY rock" so much better sums up what indiepop and indie rock are/shd be about, and makes mislabelling look stoopid.

People interpreting 'visible straining' as some kind of authenticity? That's bullshit! This is amateur pop music, if anything that should be interpreted as 'you can do this too, and you should'. It's a political aesthetic, and it's liberating.

Eleanoora Rosenholm = a great record, I only heard it after Christmas when emil.y got it on teh vinyls, if I'd heard it before I think it'd have been in my 25.

I'd like to see the term entirely discarded, "DIY pop" / "DIY rock" so much better sums up what indiepop and indie rock are/shd be about

yeah, it's certainly not like ppl get defensive about what does or doesn't qualify as 'DIY' so it should be plain sailing

Notforprofitpop

Putting up shelves is marginally more exciting than most of the music so I feel DIY is being done a disservice.

I think when you've released as many records as someone like Destroyer has you can't sensibly be called an amateur any more, even if you still sound amateurish. At some point it stops being democratic and just starts being plain lacking in talent.

The Lex took it well I see

had another listen to Destroyer and i dont get how its so loved but there's nothing to hate really. I assume the hate comes from the hype and its placings in other EOY polls?

i would like to publicly state, now that i am sober, that i rescind NOTHING of what i said re: destroyer. so many posters have disappointed me on this matter.

Something that struck me about the conversation upthread with Contenderizer is how indie is being framed in terms of frailty, self awareness, uncertainty etc... because other than a handful of key examples (The Smiths, Belle & Sebastian), these tropes seem to be peculiar to indie's post-1998 US strand, whereas it's not necessarily a default in the UK. In fact one of the traditional complaints about UK indie is how bolshy and self assured many of these bands are compared to the quality of their actual output. It makes sense that it's Belle & Sebastian who are the go-to British band to soundtrack US indie filmmakers' movies.

Just as well the SB option was removed in time for this poll otherwise it may have been carnage.

because other than a handful of key examples (The Smiths, Belle & Sebastian), these tropes seem to be peculiar to indie's post-1998 US strand, whereas it's not necessarily a default in the UK

It certainly was once upon a time in the C86 tweepop era.

that's a point - i'm not so familiar with 80s indie. once you get to the nineties, you can't really call the Mondays, Oasis, the Libertines or whoever "self-aware" or "frail".

I mean, sure there are probably dozens of examples of fey indie bands from the UK, but it's not the default aesthetic, whereas according to posts made upthread, it's come to define a certain stream of modern US thinking.

It certainly was once upon a time in the C86 tweepop era.

Yeah my impression of the '80s is that it was completely the other way around - the US indie scene of that era seemed to be a lot more noisy/rocking in comparison, more macho even.

A lot of what I'd been trying to say upthread about the indiefication of other genres and the dominance of these was expressed much better in Tim F's last few posts.

I'd say that's broadly true, Gavin, but I'm not trying to stan for the whole SST aesthetic either. I suppose, if anything, I'm valorizing a sort of pre-indie sensibility. As far as Craig's comments above re: DIY, I can again see how that's a liberating thing, how it operates politically, but the problem with politicizing art objects is that you're in danger of sacrificing your ability being able to approach them in a more unadornedly aesthetic light. DIY allows worthwhile voices to be heard that may not have reached an audience before, but when the feeble-ness and "hearing the stitching" (home sewing/etsy pun fully intended) aspect becomes fetishized, becomes the whole point, that's where I get lost. Again, going back to Tim's initial comment that sparked me thinking about this, we should be able to admit when we're "hearing with X ears" that are getting off on the politically liberating aspect of the music, and not stretch/distort it to say that "rehearsal makes for dead art" as that SR/Beat Happening quote seemed to. In fact, as much as I love SR's writing, my main criticism throughout all of his career is that I sometimes get the sense that he gets off more on the political thrust of music than on what he's actually hearing.

No problem with lo-fi or a lack of technical ability if it's justified. What I really don't like it's when it's being obviously affected. It's the musical equivalent of distressed interior design I guess.

Matt DC, C's point was that Destroyer wouldn't count under the DIY terminology. Obviously.

yeah, indie and rock audiences primarily like indie and rock music and tend to view other types of music through that lens. this is not a "problem". everybody's got a point of view, and everybody's point of view is limited in some way or another.

the tendency of indie & rock critics to dominate the discourse might be a problem, but it's better fought by presenting alternative voices than by sniping endlessly (tediously) at whatever indie & rock critics happen to enjoy.

― his hands are a dirty fountain through which lives spurt (contenderizer), Friday, February 3, 2012 2:01 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think this is pretty OTM, to be honest.

For what it's worth, Eleanoora Rosenholm is the name of the band, not the lead singer. IIRC "Eleanoora Rosenholm" is a fictional 1920 mass murderer who appears in their lyrics, or something like that.

― Tuomas, Friday, February 3, 2012 8:54 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is very much OTM. I just couldn't be arsed to explain it at the time, hehehe.

I'd say that's broadly true, Gavin, but I'm not trying to stan for the whole SST aesthetic either. I suppose, if anything, I'm valorizing a sort of pre-indie sensibility.

I definitely agree with you to an extent (I also think dog latin and Tim F are making good points about the indiefication of critical discourse) - I mean I like lots of ramshackle, amateurish indie music (GbV are one of my favourite bands) but as an aesthetic in 2012 I find it kind of limited. Whereas stuff like Beat Happening or Orange Juice or whoever actually sounds liberated/liberating - and exploratory in a fascinating way - most current indiepop just sounds like people sticking too closely to a fairly narrow formula. Not that sticking to a formula is inherently bad but there's not much that grabs me music in terms of sonics or tunes (for a genre with a 'pop' suffix, a lot of it seems pretty low on hooks) and I can't help but think that the low level of proficiency/skill involved is a large part of the problem for me. That whole 'Here's three chords, now form a band' thing, I never thought that meant everyone had to use the same three chords, or that they couldn't eventually learn a fourth.

Lex please have a listen to the uncle acid album and let me know what you think. Even if you hate it, i'll take a moral victory if you say it's still better than Destroyer!

btw the uncle acid album is pure DIY. 1st album came out on a run of 20 cdrs. 2nd album was CDR of about a 100 then it got some internet message board buzz and blew up in the metal underground.

We're skirting narrowly close to the "what is indie" discussion again, but I do think it's interesting to think about it in terms of an overall set of values than tangible tickboxes like "white guys with guitars" or whatever.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/384786_10150478627933889_21461308888_8704352_52706294_n.jpg

top 20 rap albums for huge middlebrow lulz
1. Jay-Z and Kanye West, Watch the Throne
2. Drake, Take Care
3. The Roots, Undun
4. Danny Brown, XXX
5. Kendrick Lamar, Section.80
6. Das Racist, Relax
7. Clams Casino, Instrumental Mixtape
8. Big KRIT, Return of 4Eva
9. Beastie Boys, Hot Sauce Committee Part 2
10. DJ Quik, The Book of David
11. A$AP Rocky, LiveLoveA$AP
12. Tyler, the Creator, Goblin
13. Common, The Dreamer/The Believer
14. Saigon, The Greatest Story Never Told
15. Death Grips, Exmilitary
16. J. Cole, Cole World: The Sideline Story
17. Main Attrakionz, 808s & Dark Grapes II
18. E-40, Revenue Retrievin': Graveyard Shift/Overtime Shift
19. Lil B, I'm Gay (I'm Happy)
20. Action Bronson, Dr. Lecter

― somebody sh1pley the brinks truck (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, January 17, 2012 9:28 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

top 20 rap albums for moderate middlebrow lulz
1. DJ Quik — The Book of David
2. Shabazz Palaces — Black Up
3. E-40 — Revenue Retrievin: Overtime Shift/Graveyard Shift
4. Araabmuzik — Electronic Dream
5. Death Grips — Ex-Military
6. Clams Casino — Instrumentals
7. Kendrick Lamar — Section.80
8. Danny Brown — XXX
9. Drake – Take Care
10. Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4Eva
11. Jay-Z & Kanye West — Watch the Throne
12. Meek Mill - Dreamchasers
13. Schoolboy Q - Setbacks
14. French Montana - Coke Boys 2
15. Killer Mike - Pl3dge
16. Action Bronson - Dr. Lecter
17. Tyler, The Creator - Goblin
18. Waka Flocka Flame - DuFlocka Rant
19. Young Bleed - Preserved
20. Angel Haze - Altered Ego

(Shabazz was also 3rd highest rap album in Pazz & Jop but Whiney missed it in his post)

gotta say i'm proud of ILM for leaving Das Racist way out the 300s, though

yessss a minor victory for angel haze and young bleed

wish cousin fik would've got more support though erm it appears to have missed my own ballot so i can't talk

Anyway, back to the most important thing. A ROCK ALBUM FINALLY WON OUR POLL! lol it rocks about as hard as a single gym sock in a dryer full of towels. But, technically, it's the work of a WHITE MALE WHO PLAYS MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS PROFICIENTLY AND HAS A BEARD.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, February 2, 2012 9:59 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I should point out that Sound of Silver won the ILM poll in 2007 and that's clearly a rock record.

― Matt DC, Friday, February 3, 2012 9:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Rock music - the work of a WHITE MALE WHO PLAYS MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS PROFICIENTLY AND HAS A BEARD?

― Les Tressle (useless chamber), Friday, February 3, 2012 5:00 AM (4 hours ago)

If it wasn't obvious, I was completely sarcastic about this.

Also, thanks for the clarification on the Eleanoora Rosenholm Tuomas and emil.y—not a lot of background is generally provided with an mp3 download, lol.

WHITE MALE WHO PLAYS MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS PROFICIENTLY AND HAS A BEARD

what's the target of your pisstaking here JF? Kerr? Bejar? I dont quite get it...

Fleet Foxes

not sure if this when saints go machine album is truly great or if i'd just love anything featuring an arthur russell impersonator, but regardless, THANKS ILX.

adam levine

xp

i dont play any instruments nor do i have a beard fwiw

Kerr? Bejar?

Both, perhaps.

Yeah, When Saints Go Machine is better than any of the others I heard for the first time from higher in the list.

fyi the WSGM album IS truly great

ha, not my point; I meant the whole "rock #1" thing is your concern Kerr but you've never defined rock as BEARDED MAN MAKES COCAINE-FLAVORED REAGAN SCHMINDIE, and were p much rooting for PJ all along.