Making a list and checking it twice: Tim's 2011 Pop Revue

:)

:D

Looking forward to more of this, but I do feel for Tim having to live up to the standards he sets himself.

Is more of this happening? I'm curious to see how it ends!

The list is done and several of the pieces are half-written, but I keep on having to put it aside for actual deadline work (of a music writing and non music writing variety).

could you post the rest of the list tim?

go on

heh i think maybe in the future tim should think about STARTING with #1 and then seeing how far he can work his way down the list from there

otm

I would still prefer to do the write-ups as that was the point of it more than the list itself. OTOH it seems the choices generate some reaction whereas what is said about them generates little if any (not a complaint: it seems typical of ILX really), so maybe I'm just being precious.

I don't think i will do the list next year though, time to let the concept retire.

no.

kickstarter

print & bind them & ship them by march 2013 along w/ an accompanying youtube playlist or w/e and i'm in for... $20? $30?

hand made wooden box

srsly, i enjoy reading tim at least as much as listening to any boring ol records, and no more year-end lists is a dismal prospect given the ailing blog. if there was a coffee table book that you could plug an audio cable into, the world would maybe be ready for this - actually, come to think of it the technology is already more or less there:

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/103040000/103043574.jpg

It doesn't have to be a top 101 though, why not slim it down?

presumably slimming it down would take a lot of decision time that could just as well be spent writing (or doing other, non end-of-year-best-of, things, if such things even exist).

Well, in the future, I mean. iirc weren't older versions less a countdown and more of a collection of genres and styles?

i think obviously people would like the write-ups above all but since it had been understandably assumed that there wasnt to be any more of anything at this point closure was sought in the form of just the list.

however i am glad to see you arent making any complaints regarding reactions as any expectancies however latent would plainly have been misguided.

personally speaking as someone generally harbouring opinions4u and being unlikely to find something i hadn't already heard before it's difficult to really add anything further constructive to the blurbs given you tend to be almost monotonously spot-on and encapsulate a given track's merits beautifully. and obviously in doing so this rather elides the usual eoy chart kerfuffle of arguing the toss about what places where and what deserves more or deserves less.

fwiw in particular i was genuinely delighted to see 'dip it low' called meaningless and be exalted for it; cosign in blood straight from the heart as the saying goes.

however i am glad to see you arent making any complaints regarding reactions as any expectancies however latent would plainly have been misguided.

haha. I do increasingly try not to have expectations about reactions (let alone endorsements) because I see how petulant it looks when others demand it.

If there has been a broader point behind doing this each year, it's been motivated by finding the aesthetics of ILXOR posters in aggregate (yes, what they like, but more specifically what they like about what they like) really fascinating, so doing my own self-involved thread is kind of a reverse tribute to that. But more than doing this thread I wish there were more threads like the J0rdan Listening Club, which is actually less interesting for its stated purpose ("lets foist X on j0rdan and see what he thinks) than for people really thinking about another poster's taste in a manner that isn't just for servicing zings or their own narc of sd.

Would start such threads myself except that if the thread fails then it's not only embarrassing but also creepy and obsessive-looking.

I didn't notice it before, so glad to see your thread alive again! I was afraid it was lost to sandbox forever

I don't think i will do the list next year though, time to let the concept retire.

― Tim F, Tuesday, May 1, 2012 6:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no.

― ♆ (gr8080), Tuesday, May 1, 2012 10:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the people have their hand out and refuse to retract it.

if tim threatens that he's going to stop doing it for free enough, some editor will comission him do the 2012 one for their pub/site, i'm sure

tim you should totally try and get paid for this, i've always been amazed that you put so much effort in for free.

that, or just recast it as a rolling thread - people can be a bit burnt out on talking when EOY stuff comes around. for almost all of these i've either agreed with you throughout the year and you've crystallised it best, or i've disagreed with you throughout the year and dredging up an argument we've done isn't a ideal

lol rtc

Who had the 10 millionth post on ILX?

utterly delicious

does the suicide bomber still blow up the store if he gets the millionth customer award? tune in next week folks

53. Nick Hannam - Love You Girl

Hannam's rumbling bass-driven house remix of Thicke's "Wanna Love You Girl" is so congenial, so easy to introduce into any context and claim it has been there all along, I'm surprised it hasn't generated more momentum. On the other hand, maybe its congeniality works against it: Hannam's greatness is the kind you take for granted, he makes everything sound so easy, thoughtless even. Indeed, the specific genius of "Love You Girl" is realising that, while Thicke's vocals capture perfectly that vibe of murmuring romantic bs on the edge of sleep or waking up, the Neptunes' chilled production was still not chilled enough. So while "Love You Girl" is a bit faster than the original, it appropriately manages to feel more lethargic, more sluggish and enervated. Hannam has one great trick - or two, perhaps, but we'll come to the second in a bit - being the way his quiet bass riffs always seem to suggest something more exciting around the corner that never quite arrives, but instead hangs over the tune like portentous thunder clouds. That's the difference between lethargic and lazy: "Love You Girl" is a lion on a hill, considering whether to pounce. UPDATE: Hannam's 2012 "hit" "You Want Me" is just as good if not better, and listening to it together with "Love You Girl" confirms that Hannam's second trick is his great appreciation for vocals declaring depthless obsession while sounding like they're lying on hotel beds by themselves watching adult movies.

52. Denyque - When We Touch

Given the ubiquity of Dawn Penn's "No No No", it's surprising that you don't see more lugubrious female reggae-pop rising to the top (or at least middle) of the charts; who could deny those luxurious vybez? "When We Touch" is a bit smoother and shinier than that, more depressive than mournful, but its neatly packaged heart rests in the same place, its lilt and soft bounce speaking of desire and disenchantment and the desire that survives beyond disenchantment, worming its way through yr heart long after its final destination has skipped town. I like how sculpted "When We Touch" is (so sculpted in fact that it's hard to believe the arrangement supports a host of dancehall performances - I have banished all memory of alternate versions from my mind in some meaningless pledge of fidelity to Denyque), its urgency and bite deriving less from Denyque's restrained emoting than the calm, studied pirouettes of her auto-harmonised choruses, Denyque a ghostly everywoman simultaneously speaking from and to every listener. "I know that it's wrong to love you / so why can't I just let go of you": pop is rarely so eloquent as when it captures the longing that the singer cannot understand, the touch that you shrink away from but still slide towards again and again.

51. Mano Le Tough - Let's Not Talk About Love

So much Le Tough to love in 2011, but "Let's Not Talk About Love" towered above nearly every other contender (by Le Tough or by anyone else) by virtue if its sheer nonchalant perfection. And perhaps by virtue of this thing that Le Tough does that I think deserves special mention: at 1:25 of this already supremely sexy house tune there arrives a kind of metallic synth riff echoing and scraping in time and in tune with the bassline in a manner that somehow becomes the unlikeliest of oversexed seduction routines in a year with a fair number of them. Less than a minute later Le Tough grows bored of this (never mind that it's one of my favourite "sounds" of 2011) and opts for twinkling steel drums instead. Whatever particular foliage it pushes to the front, "Let's Not Talk About Love" simply takes for granted that you've already swooned, already succumbed to its charms such that it no longer has to work for your attention. I'm tempted to use the word "swagger", but even that suggests a certain energetic effort that is out of step with the unconcerned glide Le Tough adopts so naturally and so effectively here. Even the title's polite demurral carries a coy double meaning: this music hardly needs to talk about love when it wins it so easily. My only regret is not having heard the tune played out, as that metallic scrape-riff would be perfect for shape throwing.

50. Todd Terje - Snooze 4 Love

"Snooze 4 Love" slides forward without friction, even its ear-tickling delays and hesitations only reinforcing the sense of the ground flowing inexorably beneath and behind you, the tonal colour of trees and stop signs and houses and people whipping past the car window, their immediate obsolescence even as they first come into view simply underscoring the importance of the journey itself, on which there are no breaks or detours or diversions. Given the majesty of Gottsching's "E2-E4", you'd think there'd be heaps of miniature tributes along these lines (at or about the original's becalmed tempo, at any rate), except that "Snooze 4 Love" actually reminds me that Underworld (used to) do this quite often, by virtue of sounding something like a missing link between those two points, all surround-sound panoramic vision and house-as-trance-as-inevitability, dance music's logic of build-ups and breakdowns submerged within an endlessly unfurling vista, a descent into a sun-filled valley in the middle of winter (has this tune been optioned for a car advertisement yet?). The only real problem with "Snooze 4 Love" is that it reminds me of my latent desire for oxycontin, which re-emerges any time I lie on my bed, dead tired, and listen to tunes like this. Luckily then this is filled with moments - like when a resonant horn line is dispelled like mist by the reemergence of the throbbing bassline - that provide their own sense of chemical immersion.

49. Fatima Al-Qadiri - D-Medley

"Vatican Vibes" may be the most startling, fascinating Fatima tune, and the one that caught my ear first and hardest, but "D-Medley" has been the tune that I've continually returned to. In part, for how in its twinkling, chiming simplicity, it imagines so many alternate universes simultaneously: LTJ Bukem making gothic ambient, perhaps, or Bel Canto discovering the Caribbean some seven years before they actually did (seriously, this could be the great lost instrumental from White-Out Conditions). In a crowded field of post-grime-whatever practitioners Fatima is distinguished by her lack of fear of big, solemn gestures, and "D-Medley" is Fatima at her most solemn, the rippling steel drum melody and choral harmonies and ominous bass thrums evoking a sense of the world's hugeness and terrifying indifference to your fate with a precision that never feels like precision (after all, in its indifference the world cares not whether and how you perceive it). It's the kind of music that demands fruity critical overreach: imagine being trapped in a snow-storm on a glacier, or lost in an endless underground cavern surrounded by glowing stalactites. The very fact that "D-Medley" demands this kind of reaction perhaps rightly prompts a certain skepticism, a desire to resist the premeditated strategy behind its charms. But I've never claimed to be a strong person.

:-)

Just love love love reading these.

tim you should totally try and get paid for this, i've always been amazed that you put so much effort in for free.

Surely there is a kickstarter project in this?

The wait has been so epic this round, but still worth it!

thx tim!

echoing the love

Also this:

The only real problem with "Snooze 4 Love" is that it reminds me of my latent desire for oxycontin, which re-emerges any time I lie on my bed, dead tired, and listen to tunes like this. Luckily then this is filled with moments - like when a resonant horn line is dispelled like mist by the reemergence of the throbbing bassline - that provide their own sense of chemical immersion.

I haven't wanted any oxycontin since I threw away the last of my post-surgery ones two years ago, but this almost makes them tempting again.

48. Nadia Oh - Taking Over The Dancefloor (Kate Middleton)

Probably my most hated act of the 00s was Vandalism, a local post-electro-house duo who took the affected disaffection of Who Said Funk's already-dispiriting "Shiny Disco Balls" to a grim and gruesome nadir with the bored, nasal recitations of their irritating debut "I Might Like You Better (If We Slept Together)", the painful intensification of the blueprint on follow-up "Smash Disco" and the apocalyptically awful zenith of "Creeps (Get On The Dancefloor)", the capacity of which to harangue the listener while still sounding utterly disinterested in itself making it a deserving nominee for the decade's worst tune, worse still because, by mutilating the barely-dead corpse of Steve Bug's remix of Freaks' "The Creeps", Vandalism managed to compress an entire depressing three-book tale of electro-house's decline and fall into four grisly minutes. Here we must distinguish between affected disaffection - the limited creative potential of which the past decade has thoroughly depleted - and the disaffection of the singer who doesn't realise they're meant to sound like they care. This too must be distinguished from the further avenue of affectlessness - the sheer absence of emotion one hears in some (though only some) post-autotune pop, which can seem to move beyond questions of caring or a lack thereof - leaving us with a surprisingly thin strip of pop where the singer actually sounds like they'd rather be sleeping off their comedown (even Paris Hilton mined this territory only occasionally). What makes Nadia Oh appealing to me is how effectively her nonchalance walks the tightrope between disaffection and affectlessness, her robo-frankenstein's bride chants of "we gon' take your money", "throw your wallets in the sky" and "SWAG!" suggesting she's "just like that", the kind of person who says everything in a voice implying sarcastic deadpan even when she's being totally sincere. In fact Nadia still might not be that appealing except that her persona offers the perfect foil for the euro-moombahton backing track, its efficient compression-packed travel bag of whistles and sirens and handclaps and rave synths and most of all its monolithic yet slothful beat suggesting a dance that goes through the motions in a manner that ought not be satisfying but absolutely is. And even leaving aside all of the above, "Taking Over The Dancefloor" would deserve this position due to the marvelous yet too-brief new keyboard melody that lays siege to the outro.

47. Vybz Kartel - Coloring Book

For the most part I was left a bit cold by Vybz's swing circa Pon Di Gaza towards downbeat but sweet autotuned balladry, not so much in and for itself but because over multiple tracks (and especially in the context of an entire album) I find the cumulative effect kind of oppressive (and certainly depressive), the moistly thick plod-throb of the riddims and Vybz's dreary half-sung melodies always putting me in mind of that suffocating, disoriented feeling I get after falling asleep in the afternoon. "Coloring Book" is in this vein yet not, its stuttering piano groove and eerie violin sweeps thoroughly lachrymose and yet utterly sharp and crystalline, the sadness now piercing and even chilling. It's matched well to Vybz's ambivalent ode to his tattoo obsession, which peddles a sad tale of addiction even as it implores listeners to get their own inks. "When the tattoo needle start fi bun / Mi kill off the pain with Street Vybz rum" he quasi-boasts in deadened fashion, but he also seems to need the pain: "Stylist push the needle through the epidermis / hotter than a macka hype bun you like a furnace / pretty when it finish but it hot when it a service / you only hear the needle go so "eeennn" and get nervous / from me start me cant stop, everyday me say dis a last two..." As much as anything, "Coloring Book" derives its power from Vybz's vocal range, veering from deep baritone to adenoidal tenor and back again as if to observe his fixation from every possible angle, from pride to anxiety to hardened bossman indifference. And if he wasn't truly scared of himself, why did he choose to tell this story over such a consummately melancholy riddim? Whatever his motivations, "Coloring Book" is one of very few tunes of last year that can leave me feeling sad some time after it finishes.

46. Groove Theory - Tell Me (George Fitzgerald Remix)

I always adored the louche grace of the original "Tell Me", which never fails to bring to mind Amel Larrieux in the video clip, bobbing her head and swinging her hands back and forth in almost absent-minded time with the beat. Aside from the fact that it's a great song, "Tell Me" doesn't necessary seem like the perfect fit for a post-dubstep syncopated house reworking (if you'd pitched it to me I would have been slightly scared), but from its first seconds - the insistent kicks, the gorgeously throbbing synth-chords, Amel's slightly pitched up vocal now signifiying impatient need as much as boundless generosity - Fitzgerald's effort is so thoroughly right-seeming that even the memory of doubts is banished alongside the doubts themselves: this was always meant to be, and always meant to be perfect. Much like the 2012 work of Disclosure, Fitzgerald's bubbly, hesitant remix offers yet another reimagination of the meaning of "garage", its trebly delicacy and pillowy atmospherics and sensuous, meticulously timed percussion (the hi-hats alone are unbelievably beautiful) simultaneously recalling Deep Dish's remix of De'Lacy's "Hideaway" and Dreem Teem's remix of Amira's "My Desire" in its evocation of an intoxicating vulnerability, a desire constantly falling forward yet deeper into itself, Amel's sighs laying her bare before you while the music promises understanding and empathy without limitation. There's nothing street about it: just desire as champagne bloodrush, ecstatic and overwhelmed and utterly impossible.

SWAG!

only 45 left to go!

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

the worst thing is that it's always tim's MOST FAVOURITE tracks that get shafted

heh i'm sure tim's wouldnt have been boring but generally this dreary awards season would most likely be much improved if everyone were forced to only discuss their top 20-50

probably true of every year really

Let's get 2011 out of the way. This is just what the balance of my 2011 list has been since the beginning of the year, haven't really thought about its currency now but it looks pretty sympathetic to Nov 2012 me:

1. Diddy-Dirty Money - Sade / No Ordinary Love
2. Beyonce - Schoolin Life / Countdown
3. Fuzzy Logick ft. Myshy - Playground
4. Toddla T - Take It Back (Dillon Francis Remix) / CSS - Hits Me Like A Rock (Dillon Francis Remix)
5. Nicki Minaj ft. Esther Dean - Super Bass
6. Gucci Mane - Brrr! (Supa Cold)
7. Funkystepz - Warrior + various remixes eulogising
8. Konshens - Nuh Pull It Up
9. Ill Blu - Monsta
10. Laza Morgan ft. Mavado - One By One
11. Royal-T - Cool Down
12. Desloc Piccalo ft. Adiah - Drums
13. Artful - Could Just Be The Bassline (ArtOfficial Club Mix)
14. Schoolboy Q ft. Jhene Aiko - Fantasy
15. Britney Spears ft. Nicki Minaj & Ke$ha - Till The World Ends (Remix)
16. Purpl Pop - The Way (The Living Graham Bond Dub)
17. S.E.C.T. ft. Ben Westbeech - In The Park
18. Kelly Rowland ft. Lil' Wayne - Motivation
19. Terror Danjah ft. Ruby Lee Ryder - Full Attention
20. Dead Rose Music Company - Never Gonna Stop
21. Don P The Panhandle King - Gone Do
22. Dawn Richard - Broken Record
23. Busy Signal - Pon Dem
24. Meek Mill ft. Rick Ross - Ima Boss
25. Invisible Conga People - In A Hole
26. Cherine Anderson - Make Up Sex
27. Champion ft. Ruby Lee Ryder - Sensitivity
28. Toi - You'll Be Mine
29. Alexis Jordan - Good Girl
30. Matthew Kyle - Off My Mind
31. DJ Q ft. Louise Williams - Over Me
32. Jordanne Patrice - Ready When Yuh Ready
33. Benoit & Sergio - Everybody
34. Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo, Nayer & Afrojack - Give Me Everything
35. Natalie May - Clothes Off
36. Tanya Stephens - Shame On You
37. Selena Gomez & The Scene - Love You Like A Love Song
38. Jesse Boykins III - I Can't Stay
39. Lloyd ft. Awesome Jones - Cupid
40. S-X - Wooo! Riddim (DJ Q Refix)
41. Aisha Davis - My Loving
42. JoJo - Marvin's Room (Can't Do Better)
43. Scottie B ft. Jae Elle - Feel Nice, Feel Right
44. The Wideboys - Shopaholic (Future Garage Remix)
45. Popcaan - Raving

I post this despite thinking that lists by themselves are kinda boring, so if anyone actually wants a spiel for any of these in particular let me know.

Nick Hannam & Tom Garenett ft Tom Zanetti - You Want Me
Terri Walker - He Loves Me (Artful Mix)
Pyper ft Kt Forrester - Dagger To The Heart
Vybz Kartel - Lip Gloss
Tanya Stephens - Take Good Care Of My Man

yeah can you do these please :]

Haha, there's a reason I'm getting 2011 out of the way.

lol knew you'd bottle it

http://videogum.com/img/thumbnails/photos/gossip_girl_3_5/dan.gif

that finneyana reign just wont let up

Ha. Selfishly wouldn't mind a gloss on the Dillon Francis, as I didn't see many others write about moombahton (didn't catch on around here, and I think uh trap has colonised any potentially sympathetic spaces). & "One By One" for general life-affirmation.

lol xp

Don P The Panhandle King - Gone Do

Wish I could find an MP3 of this. Great track.

shoutout to brainwasher for that 1

Yeah Deej hipped me to that, it was the last thing I heard to make my list I think.

So, 2012...

Coming.

looking forward to it!

you should try to get a publication to pick up on it tim - 1) it's good enough (obviously) 2) it feels weird and wrong expecting someone to be doing something this detailed unpaid 3) it would make you finish it

kickstarter

― frogbs in the trap (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, May 1, 2012 5:00 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

print & bind them & ship them by march 2013 along w/ an accompanying youtube playlist or w/e and i'm in for... $20? $30?

― frogbs in the trap (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, May 1, 2012 5:01 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ cosign.

Yeah, feels weird sort of harassing you for it, but it's clearly a highlight of the EOY... I would pay for the zine version.

I would pay $s for just an emailed version (with e.g. youtube links for listening). But yes, obviously this is a bit weird, apologies etc.

Basically my aversion to that kind of thing is the need to organise myself. The level of organisation required at work is already almost more than I can handle.

However I have been thinking of some sort of zine idea for a while, not for this EOY but for something next year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8VXQKFQQkE

man richelle are still something else... you hear album upon album less transportive than these here 5 minutes

Tim do you like 'Drink and Rave'?

Nice writeup of reggae crooner Tarrus Riley