ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

(for yr microwave post, not that new one)

I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind I+II >> R.A.P. Music >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Run The Jewels

I like El-P as a producer a lot, but I wish he was more like Flava Flav to Killer Mike's Chuck D instead of them getting equal time.

Hated the first RTJ record, but am tentatively warming up to this one. For the most part, though, these records, along with R.A.P. Music and the record that El-P released around that same time, prove for me that Mike's place is in front of the mic and El-P's is behind the mixing board.

Whatever El-P's vocal deficiencies, he writes great lyrics imo

if there's any str8-up misogyny on this album I will be deflated - let this be your challenge

whatever you think of him as a rapper, I feel like el-p has at least become indisputably better at it since teaming up with Killer Mike.

rtj is awful and if u like it ur a bad person

elp has maybe the least sense of rhythm of anyone in the world

less than a mormon dad dancing at a wedding

Never heard Grouper before, thought I might quite like it but found bit mundane/flat, wasn't very drawn in off the one track i played anyway.

Never heard run the jewels before either, I dont get this, its leaden and tiring

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

12 CHARLI XCX Sucker [688 points, 21 votes, 3 first place votes]

his lyrics are so cringely begging for someone anyone (louis) to think hes smart

lol Mr Twin Sister is sitting in that pocket of "pretty unchallenging music" that I've been bitching about for the past 3-4 years but manages to evoke enough sophistipop echoes of Swing Out Sister for me to work (with emphasis on "echoes"; this is no direct Twilight World pastiche)

what a sad end for killer mike

my fave rtj hot-take was from a non-ilx friend "man its ok but i can only listen to 40 year old men screaming about fuckboys for so long"

― gr8080, Friday, January 23, 2015 12:01 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

xp yeah being more successful than ever commercially and critically seems super shitty for michael render

Was hoping this would scrape the top 10. It was my number two. If' I'd had longer with it I would have probably put it at number one. Such a fantastic album all the way through. Loved True Romance but thought this was a big step up.

sucker is great, was my #5 or #6

Was hoping this would scrape the top 10

might have had more chance if it had been released in the UK yet

RTJ2 works better as a whole piece than the first one, but first record def is more pure fun shit-talking rap

― indie fuxxor albums i have secretly spotified (slothroprhymes), Thursday, 29 January 2015 17:14 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah my priorities exposed here

― young thug squarepants (imago), Thursday, January 29, 2015 12:15 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the oddest sentiment abt this album, like from whineys piece

If there were a Grammy for Most Creative Ways to Say "We're the Best" ("We might be giants standing on little dandy shoulders/You punks is pussy, proverbial pansy panty-holders") these guys would win it, or take it by gunpoint.

this is not fun or confident or burning or shit talky, this is some try hard bs

I don't know about the lyrics of Run the Jewels, but Killer Mike's debut has one of the best pro-women rap tunes by a male rapper that I've heard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6kbXLuzOuw

(Not that he'd be the first rapper to have made both anti-sexist and blatantly sexist songs, see 2Pac for example.)

The opener of Sucker is a blast but despite the undeniably catchy hooks I still feel like charli's not quite there, a lot of these songs rely on a rush of energy but end up being kinda lumpen? I was expecting it to grow on me but it failed both the Drunk On The Night Bus pop test and the workout test. Feel like she has greatness in her but it's like her major pop star ambitions work in the opposite way. I do not understand stanning for her

if there's any str8-up misogyny on this album I will be deflated - let this be your challenge
― young thug squarepants

Proper pop.
Just realised war on drugs may not place after all

Might get off my chair.

War on Drugs is absolutely going to place.

The notion of nitpicking RTJ2 for sexism/misogyny is ridic in light of other stuff that's placed.

Nah, WoD is in. But only one of Perfume Genius, Sharon von Etten, or The Juan McLean made it. We've snubbed Perfume Genius in tracks.

xp Agreed. People's expectations for Charli XCX must be really low if they think Sucker delivers.

The notion of nitpicking RTJ2 for sexism/misogyny is ridic in light of other stuff that's placed.

Remember, it's being done in order to make fun of LJ

It's fun but I kept thinking of the Sky Ferreira album - they have some of the same collaborators - and Sucker doesn't touch it.

I would pull some examples of lyrics from YOB, Electric Wizard, Mastodon, Wo Fat, Truckfighters, etc., but lyrics sites are notoriously riddled with malware and mostly blocked at work.

i kind of think of RTJ as the ZOMBIES BACON of rap. lines like "we tell monsters to suck our dicks" and the "run naked backwards through a field of dicks" would have blown my mind and cracked me the f up circa age 13. i don't hate the album though, i love the "dick in the mouth all day" song. and while some of the beats knock ridically i find the sorta edm style just makes me imagine a horizon of tan white college bros in tank tops at some festival

mr twin sister is my album of the year that's actually an album. gr80 its insane that u haven't heard it you would love it. the whole thing's great but it's all about the centerpieces 'in the house of yes' and 'out of the dark.' kind of rare to hear an indie-ish album made by studio-level skilled musicians and they really take to the next level. i think the criticism u could level at it is that its so easily decomposable into its influences. max said sade sugarcubes which is kinda ridiculously on point. but it's a novel influence mix imo, and they just utterly nail it. best album i wouldn't have bothered checking out if it weren't for the ilm thread

those words are problematic sure but that is goofy spitballing compared to the other shit we've seen

charli xcx has her moments I guess /Marina grumble

war on drugs
get off my chair
war on drugs
get off my chair

To be honest, I was smitten with "Nuclear Seasons" and to a lesser extent "Stay Away", and the move from gothpop to more mainstream teen fare hasn't caught me in its wake.

'sucker' was disappointing to me, her placing ahead of so many other much worthier contenders is weird. feel like she lost something in her rush to be a megastar and collab w/iggy or whatever.

sanpaku otm

There is no such thing as lyric-driven metal. (xps)

2nd half of Mr Twin Sister is WAAAAAY more engaging than 1st half, huh

There is no such thing as lyric-driven metal. (xps)

Um, Iron Maiden?

Is that what people are principally listening for?

Xp yeah I get why people like Sucker, it's likeable and it does its job, but in terms of creating a captivating pop persona a la Sky, Charli's still kind of...jobbing industry songwriter who'll try on whatever role in a businesslike way, but what's at stake in her aesthetic decisions? It's like jessie j but with much cooler style. Idk I think I'm nitpicking cuz I expect more, if this was by some rando debutante I'd probably be pleased enough with it.

i guess i will finally remember to listen to sucker

Nah, WoD is in. But only one of Perfume Genius, Sharon von Etten, or The Juan McLean made it. We've snubbed Perfume Genius in tracks.

― The inscrutable savantism of (Sanpaku)

Juan Maclean will definitely make it. Almost all of the album was nominated and voted for in the tracks list. People didn't have a lot to say about the album but people still loved it.

Good news, DJP, the first half of Mr. Twin Sister was older, pre-crash & MS diagnosis material. The material being hewn into album #3 promises to be more uptempo.

Also yeah True Romance felt much closer to greatness than Sucker albeit not quite there either

I never paid attention to the Rtj2 lyrics but these quoted are all hilariously terrible

Charli's still kind of...jobbing industry songwriter who'll try on whatever role in a businesslike way, but what's at stake in her aesthetic decisions? I

weird to read you getting into biographical crit. If the songs themselves are wobbly and indeterminate that's legitimate criticism, but the songs create the persona imo. It makes sense to me that on a second album she would sound like the people for whom she's writing.

2nd half of Mr Twin Sister is WAAAAAY more engaging than 1st half, huh

― "Go pet your dog" is the name of my dog (DJP), Thursday, January 29, 2015 12:44 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not at all surprised that you prefer the second half!

the point of RTJ2's lyrics is definitely for them to be read on a computer screen