ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

and it's worth stating that, theory aside, it's a really fun ravey house music record!

Covering/reappropriating classic BM songs into hard queer techno as a challenge to homophobia in BM and also because it's fun as fuck

Works incredibly well. You might even like it in a brutal sort of way. It's very metal in its outlook but also incredibly celebratory and uplifting imo

Great piece on The Formant about it - an interview with a BM vocalist explaining why he likes it & where it fits into the metal narrative

lol so yeah Neil otm

The Soft Pink album isn't brutal, sonically, in the slightest. It is very funny though.

No, it's in no way a metal album, other than these are reimaginings of black metal songs as house tracks. The lyrics are the same, maybe some melody lines have been re-used etc.. One of the best concept albums to come out of 2014.

It is quite jarring, in a really good and funny way! You know how Lex is with sudden loud noises ;)

I don't mean that it is a metal album, I mean that it is metal as hell \m/

Sometimes it comes across a bit like 90s industrial techno - I'm especially reminded of campy hard-techno concept albums like Ultraviolence's 'Psycho Drama'... Not sure if that was the intention though.

I agree with DL; I tried to listen to these tracks, but they brought back too many bad memories of 90s metal/industrial techno and hardcore... I'd much rather listen to proper house music by this act.

actually, I'm just listening to the Gazelle Twin album for the first time, and would say that it is comparable to the SPT album in production style, sound palette etc.

they both share a certain brittleness it's true

I made a compilation this year called Body/Sound with stuff including the Holly Herndon's 'Body Sound', Gazelle Twin and Pharmakon among others. Strange that this anatomical/body horror/organic noisetronica thing seems to be a thing this year.

Holy shit, I was looking at the full track poll results, and I just realized that up until now I've conflated Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus in my head! I remember finding it weird that no one in the tracks poll thread brought up the whole "twerk scandal" when Swift's tracks showed up, but I just thought ILM loves its teenpop so much it's willing to forgive anything.

:D

miley cyrus, yeah i remember her!

Toni Braxton & Babyface – Love, Marriage & Divorce – Recused. No comment.

who recused you?

Miley did actually place in the both the albums and tracks polls last year fwiw.

http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/67/tumblr_lbg76hKWjQ1qzz7nr.gif

77 BABYMETAL Babymetal [236 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]
76 CHER LLOYD Sorry I'm Late [239 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
75 MICA LEVI Under the Skin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [242 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
74 NOURA MINT SEYMALI Tzenni [243 points, 8 votes]
73 REAL ESTATE Atlas [254 points, 9 votes]
72 CALL SUPER Suzi Ecto [255 points, 11 votes]
71 STURGILL SIMPSON Metamodern Sounds in Country Music [256 points, 10 votes]
70 NINOS DU BRASIL Novos Mistérios [258 points, 9 votes]
69 OUGHT More Than Any Other Day [262 points, 7 votes]
68 WARPAINT Warpaint [262 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]
67 FUTURE Honest [262 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
66 KHUN NARIN Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band [263 points, 10 votes]
65 THEO PARRISH American Intelligence [267 points, 10 votes]
64 THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Brill Bruisers [269 points, 10 votes, 2 first place votes]
63 LEON VYNEHALL Music for the Uninvited [271 points, 13 votes]
62 DEAN BLUNT Black Metal [272 points, 9 votes]
61 FREDDIE GIBBS & MADLIB Piñata [275 points, 9 votes]

60 TUNE-YARDS Nikki Nack [278 points, 11 votes]
59 KELIS Food [281 points, 13 votes]
58 KASSEM MOSSE Workshop 19 [282 points, 13 votes]
57 BOTANIST VI: Flora [285 points, 10 votes]
56 STEVE GUNN Way Out Weather [286 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]
55 RONIKA Selectadisc [288 points, 10 votes]
54 MOODYMANN Moodymann [291 points, 12 votes]
53 SUN KIL MOON Benji [292 points, 9 votes]
52 FENNESZ Bécs [306 points, 12 votes]
51 A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN Atomos [309 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]
50 ALVVAYS Alvvays [314 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote]
49 GIGI MASIN Talk to the Sea [323 points, 9 votes, 2 first place votes]
48 WILD BEASTS Present Tense [326 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote]
47 KATY B Little Red [342 points, 16 votes]
46 YOUNG MARCO Biology [355 points, 15 votes]
45 LEWIS L'Amour [367 points, 11 votes]
44 ONE DIRECTION Four [372 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote]
43 DJ Q Ineffable [374 points, 17 votes]
42 LEE ANN WOMACK The Way I'm Livin' [380 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]
41 EX HEX Rips [380 points, 15 votes]

40 LANA DEL REY Ultraviolence [390 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote]
TIE-38 ANGEL OLSEN Burn Your Fire for No Witness [390 points, 14 votes, 1 first place vote]
TIE-38 MARK BARROTT Sketches From an Island [390 points, 14 votes, 1 first place vote]
37 SPOON They Want My Soul [400 points, 11 votes]
36 AZEALIA BANKS Broke With Expensive Taste [408 points, 16 votes, 1 first place vote]
35 TONI BRAXTON & BABYFACE Love, Marriage & Divorce [414 points, 14 votes]
34 ANDY STOTT Faith in Strangers [424 points, 14 votes]
33 THE SOFT PINK TRUTH Why Do the Heathen Rage? [426 points, 16 votes]
32 ARIEL PINK Pom Pom [430 points, 15 votes, 1 first place vote]
31 JESSIE WARE Tough Love [431 points, 17 votes, 1 first place vote]
30 FUTURE ISLANDS Singles [432 points, 15 votes]
29 POPCAAN Where We Come From [435 points, 14 votes, 2 first place votes]
28 DJ QUIK The Midnight Life [455 points, 18 votes]
27 GAZELLE TWIN Unflesh [469 points, 19 votes, 2 first place votes]
26 SWANS To Be Kind [481 points, 16 votes]
25 SCOTT WALKER & SUNN 0))) Soused [482 points, 18 votes, 1 first place vote]
24 K. MICHELLE Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart? [486 points, 17 votes, 1 first place vote]
23 RICHARD DAWSON Nothing Important [497 points, 15 votes, 2 first place votes]
22 SHABAZZ PALACES Lese Majesty [536 points, 17 votes, 1 first place vote]
21 NENEH CHERRY Blank Project [545 points, 20 votes, 1 first place vote]

http://i.imgur.com/za90tul.jpg

20 JAVIERA MENA Otra Era [574 points, 18 votes, 3 first place votes]

Too low

I guess if I hear the two albums side by side Otra Era sounds as good as its predecessor but it didn't move me as much...? I don't know. I did LOVE "Sincronia, Pegaso," which is the Latin American disco jam I've been waiting to hear at a Miami club.

mice

sweet record, think it finished just outside my 25

is this the first javiera mena album to have placed after years of her tracks?

TBF this is the first album she's released since she rose to ILX prominence

nah previous record placed well too iirc

52nd

i am a bad ilxor because i don't think i've ever listened to one of her songs ever, or if i have, they have left no trace at all. will dutifully trundle off to spotify i guess

trundle to youtube, plenty of fun videos :)

the track that placed this year is really lovely, balearic pop - all ice creams and twinkling sand.

Also the video was awesome

Wonderful album. This is my favourite of hers so far. Not a bad song on there.

Ok the one w the awesome video made last year's countdown

http://i.imgur.com/R8cVhon.jpg

19 RICH GANG The Tour Part 1 [581 points, 18 votes, 3 first place votes]

ugh the hour i spent listening to this felt like about five. such an energy-suck, the beats all sound tinny and identical. don't think i enjoyed it at any point

lol I was gonna say, posting this during the UK shift won't work out so well

not a fan of much of this stuff. 'stoner' is fun. lyrics seem a combination of trite and problematic; will stand to be corrected though. fully aware that there's a large contingent who think these guys are saving rap or w/e

pretty cool starfish costume that one guy has

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/Patrick_Star.png

tempted to check this out on the back of Lifestyle (which I love). So is this no good then?

hahahaha xp

let's allow the trap gang their say, dear chap

the trap cadre

Love the Rich Gang, tho somehow left it off my ballot I think. Kinda have endless patience for rap in this wheelhouse.

also yeah ty

Voted for the DJ Quik from yesterday as well mainly on the strength of the 4 songs I really love on it. Problematic lyrics?? Yeah, don't care.

imo you should but w/e

He kept placing in the other pol rightl? Definitely had enough of him

amazing mixtape, London On Da Track made my favorite beat of the year ("About The Money") and then proved he had a whole bunch of other tricks in his bag over the course of the Rich Gang project. have no idea what Lex means about tinny and identical production, the beats are varied and huge-sounding.

The curious should try "Flava" imo

agree

19 RICH GANG The Tour Part 1 [581 points, 18 votes, 3 first place votes]

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, January 29, 2015 9:32 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://i.imgur.com/TRW9sSW.gif

#1 #1 #1

#1 19 RICH GANG The Tour Part 1 [581 points, 18 votes, 3 first place votes]