ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

I wanted to love the Babyface/Toni album but I really hate the production on that album. The sound of the record gives them none of the nuance the deserve.

one flight later and catching up in a different city

azealia banks - my last vote; if i was making my ballot today theo parrish would kick her out. i appreciated that, after all the antics and such, she made an album that was so idiosyncratically her, and also a better version of her than anything she'd previously done. there's a nonchalance to this album that by rights shouldn't exist - grabbing all these fun housey/garagey beats and doing her thing pretty casually over them. oddly for someone with so much, er, personality online, she takes back seat to a lot of the beats, though her voice as pure instrument is pretty cool. "desperado" and "heavy metal and reflective" and "miss amor" are highlights

toni braxton & babyface - YASSSSSS one of my favourite albums of the year. "i wish" as previously mentioned is a real highlight, "roller coaster" has such a gorgeous melody, "heart attack" really works as the token disco track...production and vocals so rich and generous, i feel like the wizened middle-aged divorce album is a very under-represented thing

andy stott - i was besotted with his last album but this never made it beyond pleasant background music for me

the soft pink truth - i do not know this album

ariel pink - fuck are you thinking of voting for this cunt? i find nothing to praise about his contrarianism, i couldn't give a shit how playful or wacky you think he's boring and his music is so terrible

jessie ware - of the two "sophomore slump albums by fêted female singers to emerge from the british dance scene" i found this really was a disappointment, compared to katy b's which was merely a botch job of the sequencing etc. "tough love", "kind of..." and "champagne kisses" are the keepers, peak jessie ware, but the rest of it sags in between those highs - little outright terrible (except "say you love me" obv, what a hideous song) but a lot that's just adequate. playing it back to back with devotion does it no favours at all

I think I like Tough Love more than Devotion, honestly.

I wanted to love the Babyface/Toni album but I really hate the production on that album. The sound of the record gives them none of the nuance the deserve.

― The Reverend, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 1:43 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

feeling this after about three tracks, excellent tunes but it's a drag sonically

I think I might too sometimes. xp

feeling this after about three tracks, excellent tunes but it's a drag sonically

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 10:45 AM Bookmark

I feel like "Where Did We Go Wrong?" is the one track they manage to get this right.

i'd be genuinely interested in your thoughts on the soft pink truth album, lex.

this Dean Blunt guy spends a lot of time on his song titles huh?

Yeah, I think the SPT album is something lex might not ultimately like, but will give a lot to chew on.

http://i.imgur.com/yUIO31S.jpg

29 POPCAAN Where We Come From [435 points, 14 votes, 2 first place votes]

i like this guy ^

'The System' was my #2 track of the whole year, but nothing else from the album really grabbed and shook me like that one.

everything is mice

loved the singles from this, need to dig in to the rest

dog latin, did you try "Evil"?

i will now

I feel like "Where Did We Go Wrong?" is the one track they manage to get this right.

― The Reverend, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 1:48 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

personally i like that the album is almost more pillowy and upscale than old school Babyface, to like a Bacharach degree. but yeah this song definitely cuts through the album and does more with less.

Popcaan! My #1 vote... <3 ILM so much right now.

Stumbled across Everything is Nice on the tracks poll and thought it was pretty amazing. Glad of the reminder to revisit now!

I have really no idea what rev dislikes about the toni/babyface production - it's one of the greatest appeals about it to me. Just really creamy and lush. I don't hear how it's any different to prime toni/babyface material either.

Ughhhhh future islands.

Popcaan album was alright but smh at an album entirely devoid of bangers being the crossover; I didn't go back to it much bc I preferredto be ddancing to j capri or vybz kartel or tifa, dancehall-wise

Jessie Ware album is gorgeous. "Say You Love Me" is the best song on it. Anyone who says otherwise is condemned to eternal wrongness.

― The Reverend

we agree on one point, the most important one.

what i love abt tough love is how she's just so confident on this vocally. she doesn't make a single wrong move imo.

i just bought tickets to her show in L.A. too. 8)

i want to listen to the babyface/braxton album based on the cover alone

ariel pink - fuck are you thinking of voting for this cunt?

generally if I find music at all interesting I'm willing to ignore dumb or ignorant shit the artist says outside their music. (see also: AZB, who I voted for, unlike AP.) this is partially based on the fact that if I were intereviewed on a quasi-regular basis or had a popular twitter acct I would probably eventually say something dumb because I'm an idiot. things they've done - when that arises - a trickier matter.

Love, Marriage & Divorce has possibly my favorite cover art of the year, definitely top 3

I will never ever understand or support the UK notion that it's OK to use "c-nt" as an insult

it's really not.

lol tell that to Azealia

I'm a bad bitch, I'm a cunt

Time to get on another plane!

I will never ever understand or support the UK notion that it's OK to use "c-nt" as an insult

Geography, it's a killer. It wasn't too long ago we learned that "spaz" is a terrible word over there.

sp-z, Johnny Fever. Be sensitive.

xp "One More Time" is Ariel Pink's best song and possibly was also his first song. Guess it was all downhill from age 12. I wonder if he still hated women back in 1987.

http://i.imgur.com/pBwrQ6L.jpg

28 DJ QUIK The Midnight Life [455 points, 18 votes]

woah did not expect to see this

I have really no idea what rev dislikes about the toni/babyface production - it's one of the greatest appeals about it to me. Just really creamy and lush. I don't hear how it's any different to prime toni/babyface material either.

There's no depth to it, it's all surface. Everything is at 10 most of the record. It's so LOUD in a way that doesn't suit the material and is really wearying to me.

Including "I Wish"?

xxxps
disablist slurs should be beyond the pale everywhere imo, usual suspect wading in ...yawn

I feel like a lot of records by people I fundamentally like but couldn't find a way into that particular record are placing. Quik/Popcaan/Toni & Babyface...

The Midnight Life was not quite as good or as ILX-beloved as Quik's last two albums, but Blaqkout was #6 in the ILM poll and The Book of David was #7, so i'm glad we still got a good voter turnout for him.

Including "I Wish"?

― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Wednesday, January 28, 2015 11:13 AM Bookmark

Yup. It needs some headroom to it instead the cranked-up midrange it has.

Two minutes in and it's already palpable that DJ Quik is a legitimate monster.

Popcaan - at first I was mildly disappointed that it wasn't more packed with bangers but it wormed its way in incredibly quickly. On the other thread I called him the dancehall Future and I sort of stand by that, he's got the whole robo-emo space candyfloss thing going on but with an actual likable persona. 'The System' and 'Evil' are total bangers but it hit me emotionally in ways I didn't expect - I find something about the whole sound of songs like 'Number One Freak' and 'Ghetto (Tired of Crying)' just deeply moving, and the title track makes my heart soar every time I hear it. Kudos to whoever else voted it number one.

everything is mice

I was all set to make this joke and everything, dammit.

Ariel Pink is basically trolling the world at this point. I still like pom pom though.

This Future Islands album is really good. Even though not a single other song was nominated for the tracks list almost every song on there is great.
ha! couldn't disagree with this more. Singles vying with that terrible Grouper record for most annoying thing I listened to this year. Shame, as I think the singer's got a really interesting voice. He needs a decent band to front.

xposts - DJ Quik still in my 'to play' pile

"A banjo".

voted for Quik, Popcaan, Azealia; this is my day apparently.

DJ Quik still in my 'to play' pile

me too, looking forward to it

lol sorry Matt (I was the other #1 vote for Popcaan if that helps)

the title track makes my heart soar every time I hear it

yes! you need the whole album to establish context, but the title track is my favorite

Popcaan album was alright but smh at an album entirely devoid of bangers being the crossover

There was a time when you'd have blown a gasket with rage at anyone making this argument about an R&B album.

why did popcaan crossover to hipster audiences? is there an answer besides "new PR company"

quik album has like 5 or 6 incredible songs, but some of the other ones are outright bad instead of merely listenable

Quite a few asshole musicians in this run, it seems. What is Quik's monster deal?