ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

Fennesz was the last thing I cut from my ballot. Didn't like Black Sea that much but for some reason this one clicked with me a lot. It's one of my favourite album covers of the year too.

I voted Sun Kil Moon my #2 pick. I was floored by the excruciating confessionals and found quite affecting (and at times disturbing, e.g. his handwaving of parental beatings in "I love my dad") and its one of the most gut-wrenching depictions of working class American childhood/adolescence. I think people are writing this album off due to Kozelek's (admittedly assholish) public persona.

i found the asshole public persona stuff hilarious

xp no, I genuinely hated it with a passion just from listening to whatever came up on shuffle, and have not been following the media circus

xp yeah for this reason I've avoided any news stories about kozelek this year. Doubt I'll check anything else out by him but I like Benji as a single thing.

I voted Sun Kil Moon my #2 pick. I was floored by the excruciating confessionals and found quite affecting (and at times disturbing, e.g. his handwaving of parental beatings in "I love my dad") and its one of the most gut-wrenching depictions of working class American childhood/adolescence. I think people are writing this album off due to Kozelek's (admittedly assholish) public persona.

^^^^ This is the first thing I've read that has made me interested in hearing Sun Kil Moon

Love Atomos. First of mine to place but I forgot to vote for Steve Gunn & Real Estate.

it's fine if ppl don't want to hear a middle-aged dude work through his shit but lol @ everyone being like "my ears! my ears!" it was a unique, affecting record for me and i'm glad to see it place.

the song about thinking about his mom dying really got me, it was so painful and raw and the feelings weren't masked with any kind of poetry, just thinking about my own mom what i would do if she died

yeah "I Can't Live Without My Mother's Love" is the clear standout to me

Yeah but lol scrabble tho right?

http://i.imgur.com/Q4cK8hC.jpg

50 ALVVAYS Alvvays [314 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]

I'm thinking the new Marilyn Manson is not the correct lead-in to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate Sun Kil Moon based on the agonizing minute of "Carissa" I just sat through

I think it's likely there is something worth exploring here but oh man, not now

Feel bad for dismissing it so violently and denying the agency of its voters :/ it is just the sort of art that gets me riled purely by existing. 'Not for me' doesn't quite cover it when it (easily) wins Drowned In Sound's year-end equivalent poll (lol I know, I haven't been there much of late, worry not) - feels like the UK indie consensus is heading down some paths I absolutely cannot follow. But fuck the consensus, really :P

...I mean,

(also i shouldn't say no poetry but very plainspokens style. also i find his fingerstyle playing though simple very hypnotic at times)

what's wrong w/scrabble?

alvvays! great album.

huh Alvvays a) sounds nothing like what I imagined them to be; and b) sounds really fun on first blush

Xpost Imago, Benji's not really million miles away from Nothing Important of you squint. Not exactly as arcane or experimental, very straight-up and confessional instead but I don't see the ire unless one happens to have a problem with Kozelek as a personality, or just acoustic guitar music of this sort in general

Probably the only indie-pop record I needed this year, filler-free

More like Nevver, right guys?

Probably the only indie-pop record I needed this year, filler-free

― Simon H.

Agree with this. Lovely album.

sh@akedown if you like his playing but not the singing style, maybe check out Admiral Fell Promises - all nylong-string guitar, no stream-of-consciousness aspect to the vocals (iirc)

Will definitely check that one out. Hadn't heard of them until they popped up on the tracks poll.

Still haven't heard alvvays because their name screams 'you will not like this at all' to me

I love that just for a split second when I'm playing "Party Police" it sounds like it's going to be "One of Us" by Joan Osborne.

Thee Ahs was the indiepop record of the year for me by a mile.

i was down with the Literature LP too as far as indie but I don't think I voted for it, it was a few steps below this.

Still haven't heard alvvays because their name screams 'you will not like this at all' to me

― UK Horseshit Cru (dog latin), Tuesday, January 27, 2015 1:32 PM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Exactly! The slightly misspelled band name thing (Wavves, Chvrches, etc.) is so over

sh@akedown if you like his playing but not the singing style, maybe check out Admiral Fell Promises - all nylong-string guitar, no stream-of-consciousness aspect to the vocals (iirc)

― Simon H., Tuesday, January 27, 2015 12:31 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cool thank you will check it out. i go back & forth w/his vocal approach on benji it works about half the time IMO. sometimes it's very affecting other times it just feels like he's reading a short story or something. but overall i like his playing, very pared down - l like the tone too which i bet is because it's nylon string, different from most players i listen to

or in other words i look forward i look forward to listening to another completely bankrupt piece of shit that i won't be able to even defend to forward thinking music philosphers like imago :)

*makes noose and stands on chair waiting for war on drugs to place*

I didn't bother because people kept comparing them to Best Coast and that Boyfriend song is the worst I've heard this decade.

*makes noose and stands on chair waiting for war on drugs to place*

― strychnine, Tuesday, January 27, 2015 1:35 PM (55 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't see the ire unless one happens to have a problem with Kozelek as a personality, or just acoustic guitar music of this sort in general

it's terrible in comparison to his earlier records is the problem for me

maybe check out Admiral Fell Promises - all nylong-string guitar, no stream-of-consciousness aspect to the vocals

lots of folks didn't like it, but that's a pretty record imo

what is a winged victory for the sullen, please?

It's like the brown M&Ms thing. it might be the best music in the world but if you're going to call yourselves alvvays then who knows what else you're stumbling around making a rash bollock of?

Alvvays >>>>> Best Coast by so much

lex, ambient music

what is a winged victory for the sullen, please?

nu-classical/ambient biz with a Stars of the Lid member

Nothing Important is confessional solo-guitar music maybe, but the comparison ends there. Dawson is maximalist literature, complexity, philosophy, poetry. SKM...diary notes by a confirmed narcissist imo

idk who stars of the lid are but this sounds like something i'll investigate

Alvvays >>>>> Best Coast by so much

This is true. Still not something I'd reach for all the time, but I don't want to turn it off while it's playing either.

First Best Coast album was great the second one was one of the most boring records I've heard in recent years.

Diary notes though? Weird diary.

Every time the name Alvvays comes up, Bon Jovi's "Always" pops into my head but with him singing "alvays" instead of "always"

Also, that Bon Jovi song >>>>>> Alvvays

Nothing Important is confessional solo-guitar music maybe, but the comparison ends there. Dawson is maximalist literature, complexity, philosophy, poetry. SKM...diary notes by a confirmed narcissist imo

― Ban Kil Moon (imago), Tuesday, January 27, 2015 12:39 PM (9 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

chug my entire nutsack you dilettante

I like Benji

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, January 27, 2015 1:00 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Kinda funny how hateful everyone is. I feel like it's at least 75% motivated by his dickish behavior unrelated to the record itself. Some other percent motivated by the hype disproportionate to it's quality against the rest of his catalog, fueled by a glowing review from everyone's fav ian cohen...

Many of the songs he's written over the years are the most gorgeous I've ever heard yet because of the effect I've outlined above people will just go on writing him off as the guy who bullies other bands and sings about his teenage sexual conquests. Almost guarantee many people would love an album here or a handful of songs there by him if that context was never part of the picture.

Stars of the Lid are great

maybe check out Admiral Fell Promises - all nylong-string guitar, no stream-of-consciousness aspect to the vocals

lots of folks didn't like it, but that's a pretty record imo

― why you gotta be so rmde (NickB), Tuesday, January 27, 2015 1:37 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That is my favorite record ever (currently)

i think his war on war on drugs was an amazing labeouf-esque meltdown and sort of pathetic but i'm interested to hear the album now. he's done so much good work.

It's not as good as Stars of the Lid but it's perfect for staring blankly on winter morning commutes.