ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

good dogs

I mean, if you're into neo-trad country and people like Justin Townes Earle and Ryan Bingham let you down every time by missing the mark, then this is a must-hear album.

xps to dog latin there are multiple bands named strychnine after a cursory google search - sadly, none of them seem to be thrash metal

the last real estate album is one of my fav indie rock records ever but i couldn't get into this one at all

― J0rdan S., Monday, January 26, 2015 11:59 AM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this was the first one of theirs to really leave me cold--it's nice enough but i think the formula just sort of played out for me

I liked the Call Super album a lot (the woodwinds are such a nice touch), but when I listened to it at my parents' house on their system that has a sub woofer, it sounded amazing

i listened to the real estate record a lot earlier in the year and then i made the mistake of listening to it at the dentist while i was getting a cavity filled and now i can't disentangle those 2 experiences in my mind so i don't listen to it anymore

I enjoyed "Atlas" but yeah it's not half as good as the one before

xp hipster dentist or bring your own music

both, but the latter in this case

http://i.imgur.com/ZUDV3aG.jpg

70 NINOS DU BRASIL Novos Mistérios [258 points, 9 votes]

I like the Sturgill Simpson album. I think it's getting a little overpraised because he hits a lot of critics' sweet spots -- he's the anti-brocountry guy who writes about metaphysics, etc. He interviews well. But there are several good tracks and I like his voice despite the mumbles. Good job reinventing "The Promise," too.

!!!

xp

xp

(The album Sturgill's reminds me most of, both in terms of its execution and its place in the critical firmament, is the Mavericks' What a Crying Shame.)

lol nino du brazil album has a track called "sepultura"

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sss

Sepultura would be a good name for a militantly popist ilm poster

expected Ninos to be higher but whatever. great album

so babymetal is like this year's farrah abraham except it didn't place as well.

mice

Can confirm that anyone tempted by the Ninos du Brasil track that placed won't be disappointed by the album.

strychnine is this thread's saer, I hope

So happy I could share the "Carnivale under the influence of ayahuasca" sound with ILX.

i don't get the connection between babymetal and farrah at all

fell hard in love w ninoS du braSil after "sombra da lua" showed on the tracks rollout. whole album is hypnotically immersive, i get all sucked in & spaced out every time i put it on, no matter what else i'm doing (or trying to).

xp

one's babymetal and the other's a babymama

Vg

Dancing!

whole album is hypnotically immersive

This is very succinct and very true.

http://i.imgur.com/xC27b0b.jpg

69 OUGHT More Than Any Other Day [262 points, 7 votes]

ok i've never even heard of this one

Yay! First one voted for. This Heat-ish post-punk dream poetry Americana.

now THIS is some "indie" I can get behind, have not ever heard of it before but I'm liking this first track, getting vague Thinking Fellers/Polvo vibes?

(from Canada, apparently...)

o yeah I can hear This Heat a bit as well, no wonder I like this

Yes! Ought are pretty much one of the only straight up rock bands I give a shit about this year and the album is outstanding. Perfect cross between Television, early Radiohead and maybe some early 90s rock thing. it would all be 'been there, done that' were it not for their urgency and the sincerity of the lyrics. Best song is Habit followed by the title track. Was really high on my ballot And one of my big regrets of 2014 was not seeing them live when they played London.

Ought also reminds me a little of Talking Heads, something to do with his voice and phrasing.

xp

I discovered them literally two nights after their London gig this year - definitely a disappointment to be rectified in 2015. Concur with those two best tracks, plus Around Again.

It's definitely a combobulation of lots of postpunk bands - the greyscale mood included, but if Ought had come out with this record in '79 it'd be up there with many of my favourites easily

ought album is gr8! not hearing so much direct television or radiohead influence, but yeah, maybe as the more traditional pop/rock element being squozen out through thinking fellers & this heat type art weirdo filters. pere ubu! or a more long-term interesting version of tyvek. not so fond of "habit" cuz i like the herk & jerkier punk stuff best.

It's hard to do austere rock without being boring. Ought manage it very well I think.

hadn't heard this, but this is super cool - hearing a little karate in this too maybe?

Thinking fellers wAs my abiding thought too after listening to this . Didn't really do all that much for me tbh but i'll give it another shot I guess

That line about 'stick your head underwater and breathe in deep' will never leave my psyche. What a disturbing thought.

On the other thread, someone asked about what records sound like Ninos du Brasil, and I was gonna mention the Sultan project by Burhan Öçal & Pete Namlook. Obviously the origin of their sound is completely different (Turkey instead of Brazil), but they have a similar combination of dense polyrhythmic percussion riffs and heavy synths (heavier than on Namlook's ambient albums), so NdB fans might enjoy that shit too.

Sturgill Simpson's record is very solid--I voted for it--but I preferred his last album. This one is a bit more ambitious (especially lyrically) but the last one was rawer and had a couple tracks that I think are better than anything here.

Regardless, do check him out. For how much this board was willing to cross over for Pistol Annies, Brandy Clark, and Kacey Musgraves, one would think Sturgill would be popular here; he pushes many of the same buttons, putting a modern spin on traditional sounds.

Suspect Ninos du Brasil would have placed a good bit higher if the album vote had happened after the track rollout.

Re: Sturgill Simpson

I hate the implication that I should somehow be ashamed for liking a crossover/token country album, sorry I don't have the time to do a deep dive into the genre of every kind of music that catches my attention

(But of course, I felt the same way country listeners did in 2012 as an R&B listener, when Channel Orange and Kaleidoscope Dream were the token R&B albums so who am I to whine)

Anyway, there's so many things about Sturgill Simpson's album that should turn me off - the aforementioned title, the "authenticity"-laden marketing, the drugs-as-salvation-but-really-love themes - but it's all executed so well to me that it's all moot

ninos du brasil just released a 12" on DFA last week fwiw