ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

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.

BEARDED MAN MAKES COCAINE-FLAVORED REAGAN SCHMINDIE would be another category that also includes LCD Soundsystem

lol

tbh, I really didn't have a point. I was just taking a shot at Kerr who seems upset a rock album has never topped an ILM end-of-year poll and I was taking a shot at Destroyer for not being very rock while still embracing all of its trappings.

I don't know if a rock album (by Kerr's definition) will EVER win one of our polls, but Destroyer, LCDSS and, arguably, Portishead are all considered to generally fall under the rock umbrella in the rest of the world.

there is really only one song on the Portishead album I would associate with rock tbh ("Small"); everything else is riding this weird edge of "trip-hop built off of bonkers source material"

lcd and portishead had some rock influences but imo theyre not rock bands. destroyer dont rock but i guess theyre a rock band even if that album isnt really rock , but it's certainly more than the other 2.

LCD IMO is way more of a rock band than Portishead

and ive never said ive wanted a rock band to win for the sake of it! i dont just listen to rock. I just meant that a certain type of ilm friendly album was always #1 and it was never a 'rock' album. I certainly never wanted Destroyer to win.

i did however have Portishead as my #1 the year it won

destroyer has made rock albums in the past, but Kaputt would not be considered a rock album by most people

pj was the last thing i cut off my ballot, but the points total in the end meant it made no difference.
I prefer White Chalk to it and the 1st 3 will always be my faves.

silverfish more like silversock

Silverfish otm. I think kaputt meets the ilm friendly aesthetic. Its a very 80s album with keyboards

destroyer has made rock albums in the past, but Kaputt would not be considered a rock album by most people

― silverfish, Friday, February 3, 2012 11:35 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh c'mon it would totally be considered a rock album by most people, just not most hair-splitting "tune yards is NOT underground" ILM types

Kaputt's a rock album but not a ROCK album.

if kaputt isn't a rock record then i'm not really sure what rock is anymore

what is rock?

kaputt is a rock album but it doesn't rock

no you didnt Kerr; you had Torche as your #1 that year (2008); you did however root for the winner... (multiple xposts)

It's a SUCK album ;-) xpost

it must have been my #2 then

george.xls btw

most rock doesn't rock anymore, especially on ILM lists. but i mean if something is closer to "rock" than "pop" or "dance" or whatever then c'mon most people would defer to that (unless they consider "indie" a wholly separate genre from "rock" or "indie rock," which again is some ILM hairsplitting ish)

if indie was different to rock(ie indie bands had synths instead of guitars) then ilm might like it a bit more

it's only rock if I get the urge to air guitar while listening to it

yeah I think it was your #2

indie bands had synths instead of guitars

http://data.whicdn.com/images/9495192/dare_to_dream__by_this_is_the_life2905-d3fn4ea_large.jpg?1304662856

plenty of ilxors dream of a new New Order

isn't chillwave just indie bands w/synths instead of guitars?

love this post

Also I was listening to the Ayshay music loud in the afternoon and my neighbor gave me the weirdest look when I bumped into her in the elevator. She must have thought I was into black magic and shit.

― Moka, Friday, February 3, 2012 6:28 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good natured irl lol
george.xls btw

― Armand Schaubroeck Ratfucker, Friday, February 3, 2012 10:45 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

isn't chillwave just indie bands w/synths instead of guitars?

Not to UKers for whom Oasis is an indie band.

Steps were also an indie band

Not to UKers for whom Oasis is an indie band.

― jaymc, Friday, February 3, 2012 9:15 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, this draws the line between UK and american "indie" very clearly. in all my talk about the genre's values and aesthetics upthread, i really should have mentioned radiohead. their OK computer through amnesiac arc had a huge impact on the development of american indie, imo.

what is rock?

If soul is the ring around your bathtub, rock is the skidmarks in your tighty-whities.

If I were to take my heavy rock list and remove the ones strongly associated with subgenres like stoner, doom, psych, occult, prog, hardcore, etc., I would end up with this:

Graveyard - Hisingen Blues
Cherry Choke – A Night In The Arms Of Venus...
Highway Child - Highway Child
Radio Moscow - The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz
Rival Sons - Pressure & Time
Melvins - Sugar Daddy Live
The Heavy Eyes
Lonely Kamel - Dust Devil
The Flying Eyes - Done So Wrong
Sandrider - Sandrider
Across Tundras - Sage
Jeff The Brotherhood - We Are The Champions
Shooting Guns - Born To Deal In Magic: 1952-1976
Suplecs - Mad Oak Redoux
Boris - Heavy Rocks
Gideon Smith & The Dixie Damned - 30 Weight
Borracho - Splitting Sky
Gordon Fights - Gordon Fights
The Grand Astoria - Omnipresence
Thalamus - Subterfuge
Red Fang - Murder The Mountains
Gentleman's Pistols – At Her Majesty's Pleasure
Dixie Witch - Let It Roll
Black Spiders - Sons Of The North
Totimoshi - Avenger
Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus - Bloom
The Quill - Full Circle
Motörhead - The Wörld Is Yours
The Company Corvette - End Of The Summers
Three Seasons - Life's Road
Grifter - Grifter
Kamchatka - Bury Your Roots
Firebird - Double Diamond

Possibly I'd add White Denim - D, as it pretty much transcends indie/psych/garage rock. ILM's failure to recognize its awesomeness is one of its many great failings lately.

I like that White Denim album fwiw.

the flying eyes, i know those guys! i didn't realize anyone outside baltimore was familiar with them.

yeah I shd probably check out White Denim

If some dude and fnb can agree on some band, I NEED to check them out. :D

but seriously it is silly as fuck when people say "oh that band isn't [large umbrella genre] because they're really [subgenre that is totally and unambiguously within that umbrella]"

Listening to Flying Eyes right now (on youtube sadly). Not too bad! Guy sings a little bit like Ian Astbury at his most druggy/American.

If some dude and fnb can agree on some band, I NEED to check them out. :D

OMG, this!

tbf the last time i saw flying eyes was like 4 years ago when they were either fresh out of high school or still in HS, but they were good then, have been meaning to check out their recent stuff

I love the cover of that Flying Eyes record.

Only their first album is on Spotify, but I'm kind of liking it.

but seriously it is silly as fuck when people say "oh that band isn't [large umbrella genre] because they're really [subgenre that is totally and unambiguously within that umbrella]"

I wouldn't do that. I have a heavy rock list that includes all those subgenres. It was just an interesting exercise to exclude the others to see what I ended up with. Flying Eyes flirt with garage rock and stoner, going between slowly lurching rhythms and guitar freakouts. They seem like they'd be a great live show.