ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (3044 of them)

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

26 SWANS To Be Kind [481 points, 16 votes]

Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:50 (nine years ago) link

I liked bits of the Gazelle Twin record but it's industrial-lite pop didn't really stick with me beyond a couple of songs. It slips into trip-hoppiness on occasion in a way that just didn't really grab me. Would like to how they work live, I can imagine that might get rid of my reservations about the limpness.

Listening to this and Pharmakon a lot around the same time probably entrenched those feelings tbh, the latter being way more satisfying (not that they're necessarily trying to do the same thing).

All The Craigers Gonna Craig Craig Craig Craig Craig (Craigo Boingo), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:51 (nine years ago) link

Overall vibe of Unflesh to me is like a version of Fever Ray more indebted to 80s industrial dance music

"Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:51 (nine years ago) link

liked this album. didn't vote for it.

gr8080, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:52 (nine years ago) link

huh was expecting this to be higher based on the last couple ones placing top 10 or w/e. still haven't heard it though

ciderpress, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:52 (nine years ago) link

it's not as good imo

WRINKLEPAWSOME (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:53 (nine years ago) link

Quik was my third vote to place (and likely the last) after Azaelia and Lana

RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:53 (nine years ago) link

Swans I bought but was bored by

RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:53 (nine years ago) link

adam summed it up well, I think:

swans tonight an endless dull churn, felt kinda bad for gira et al as they seemed to be working really hard to achieve very little. tho honestly that's basically how i feel about post-reformation swans on record too.

― adam, Friday, December 12, 2014 8:49 PM

WRINKLEPAWSOME (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:54 (nine years ago) link

a bit more purposeful than the nearly-as-good Young MArco album IMO

― Ratt in Mi Kitchen (Neil S), Wednesday, January 28, 2015 9:52 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree that it does a lot of what the young marco album did but with more purpose

― lex pretend, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 9:57 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i actually disagree with this, i don't think the mark barrott and young marco albums are all that comparable. mark barrott is very balearic in that it is quilted from several balearic touchstones, but only in a few of it's best moments becomes more than pastiche. i love it and voted for it, but besides "deep water" i don't think it becomes all that much more than the sum of it's really awesome parts. the young marco is less immediate, but despite being a humble little album, it is really not quite like much else i've heard. marco carved out his own sound using a relatively simple palette of synth and drum machines and gets tagged balearic because of the feeling he inhabits rather than the usual earmarks that code as balearic. young marco is more larry heard's 'sceneries not songs' whereas mark barrott is more wally badarou's 'echoes.' i also find the construction of marco's tracks, with elements shifting and gradually piling on, is itself more 'purposeful' than the lazily (pleasurably) drifting mark barrott, but i'm not sure if that's what lex and neil s. meant by purposeful.

karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:55 (nine years ago) link

i think one new swans was fine, three is turning out to be way too many

call all destroyer, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:55 (nine years ago) link

"to be kind" was kind of my 2014 object lesson for "try before you buy"

RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:55 (nine years ago) link

[zappa-talent]+[ween-cargo shorts]+[tenacious D X cassette tapes]=ariel pink

kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:57 (nine years ago) link

Overall vibe of Unflesh to me is like a version of Fever Ray more indebted to 80s industrial dance music

she's a big fan of stuff like john foxx too, i wouldn't say that 'industrial pop' is too far wide of the mark

why you gotta be so rmde (NickB), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:57 (nine years ago) link

So, given Gira was praising The Necks in many interviews leading up to To Be Kind, what the most The Necks like entry here?

(mind, I haven't followed Swans much this century - the 82-96 era churned my emotions up enough, I think)

The inscrutable savantism of (Sanpaku), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:57 (nine years ago) link

i liked this swans album, it was actually more entertaining than the previous two imo - both funnier and more unnerving

why you gotta be so rmde (NickB), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:58 (nine years ago) link

I voted for Swans just so I could say something I voted for has placed.

Dinsdale, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:59 (nine years ago) link

I liked the slight change in direction on this Swans album, but it does go on too long. I still voted for it though.

silverfish, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 19:59 (nine years ago) link

strychnine you're a fucking moron, many xps

Ban Kil Moon (imago), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:03 (nine years ago) link

J0rdan too

Ban Kil Moon (imago), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:03 (nine years ago) link

imago I'm fairly certain at least 23 other posters have held that dn of yours before you did

, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link

still getting my head round gazelle twin, but it's good stuff.

swans album is fantastic, surprisingly funky for them, but it was never going to be able to beat The Seer for me. not that i'm complaining.

UK Horseshit Cru (dog latin), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:05 (nine years ago) link

Lol metal
No more please

sock (strychnine), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:05 (nine years ago) link

where's the metal

ciderpress, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:06 (nine years ago) link

fine

DJ Quit (imago), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:06 (nine years ago) link

xxxxps
Sanpaku, I would recommend The WHO Trio - The Who Zoo for someone who likes Necks type action. Although admittedly it is slightly more difficult listening, it has made up for the lack of a new Necks release for me. They are an awesome trio.

xelab, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:07 (nine years ago) link

Couldn't get into The Seer, but loved To Be Kind - have spent several Sunday afternoons getting properly stuck into it. That said, the last two tracks on CD2 are two tracks too many.

mike t-diva, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:09 (nine years ago) link

imago http://i.imgur.com/cPsCwxX.png

gr8080, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:10 (nine years ago) link

I liked the shambling one about a little bit of God on one's hands very much, not braved the entirety

DJ Quit (imago), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:10 (nine years ago) link

Oh, and add me to the "didn't rate Born To Die, pleasantly surprised by Ultraviolence" list.

mike t-diva, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:11 (nine years ago) link

xpost to mike t-diva, yea the album basically climaxes with "oxygen" and then sorta peters out, closing title track is particularly meandering and doesn't add much

indie fuxxor albums i have secretly spotified (slothroprhymes), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:12 (nine years ago) link

i still want someone to photoshop frank sobotka on this swans cover:

http://i.imgur.com/Ildk6Gg.png

gr8080, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:14 (nine years ago) link

Gazelle Twin is way too low

example (crüt), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:16 (nine years ago) link

All 19 of us who heard it voted.

The inscrutable savantism of (Sanpaku), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:20 (nine years ago) link

If only all 19 of you went on to start ILM threads too

, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:22 (nine years ago) link

http://i.imgur.com/1cqzge3.jpg

25 SCOTT WALKER & SUNN 0))) Soused [482 points, 18 votes, 1 first place vote]

Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:24 (nine years ago) link

ha, guess we're in the spooky old man music stretch here

gr8080, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:25 (nine years ago) link

someone asked me today what i'd think about a scott walker POTUS run and i was briefly very confused

Mordy, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:26 (nine years ago) link

:) liked what I have heard of this

DJ Quit (imago), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:26 (nine years ago) link

Probably my biggest disappointment of the year. I was hyped for it, but it just didn't click. I think the mix was off.

emil.y, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:26 (nine years ago) link

nice juxtaposition!

I have hated everything I've ever heard by Scott Walker, except for this album, which I like quite a lot

WRINKLEPAWSOME (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:27 (nine years ago) link

I preferred all the minor side projects from various Sunn members than this.

xelab, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:29 (nine years ago) link

This initially disappointed me. I've come to enjoy it quite a bit. Sure, it's a step down from Bish Bosch, but that is one of the best albums ever made.

silverfish, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:29 (nine years ago) link

I dig it.

Simon H., Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:30 (nine years ago) link

Kinda wish it and the Swans record coulda swapped lengths

Simon H., Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:30 (nine years ago) link

ha, guess we're in the spooky old man music stretch here

― gr8080, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 3:25 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this seems to happen around this time every year

call all destroyer, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:30 (nine years ago) link

haha totally OTM xp

WRINKLEPAWSOME (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:31 (nine years ago) link

leonard cohen must be coming up

LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:31 (nine years ago) link

My #23 and my first to poll. Pretty good, but expectations were pretty ridic. Surprised it's this high but I guess it was always gonna get widely checked out and there wasn't much wrong with it. Those opening riffs also start things w/ a good lol.

All The Craigers Gonna Craig Craig Craig Craig Craig (Craigo Boingo), Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:32 (nine years ago) link

lots of xps: the reason Nicki Minaj or Azealia Banks using "cunt" was such a big deal is because the word is so generally verboten in the US. It's just not something you hear often so it's kind of shocking when it is used. It's very different than Brits being all I met my old cunt down at the pub or whatever.

The Reverend, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 20:34 (nine years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.