ILM Top 100 2000-2004: ALBUMS

Points: 191
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: STEPHEN MALKMUS
Title: STEPHEN MALKMUS
Label: City Slang
Year: 2003

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/stephenmalkmus.jpg

A brief "Song by Song" explanation by Stephen Malkmus (as found on the Amazon.co.uk listing!)

1. heavy blindness
2. perky whimsy
3. gawky fun
4. emotional gravestone
5. exile on indie street
6. thin lizzy meets wire
7. spazz out and run
8. protest song against colonialism
9. sad condom ad
10. russian reggae
11. tom petty is always in
12. i said this was supposed to sound like"heroes" when we mixed it

Recommended tracks: Jo Jo's Jacket, Jenny And The S Dog

Points: 191
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Title: RATED R
Label: Polydor
Year: 2000

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/ratedr.jpg

The brash guitars and driving drums are present and correct, but where you'd expect snarling venom, you get tuneful howling - Josh Homme a more despondent yet philosophical wolf rather than a raging one. Strangely it kinda works, QOTSA's knack for a catchy retro-metal hook (stuttering is always good) combining with some grim wit, devilish flair and energetic sass for a relatively refreshing debut avoiding most of the cliches atypical of the genre (why...why was I programmed to write PR blab).

Recommended tracks: Feelgood Hit Of The Summer, The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret

Points: 202
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
Title: PIG LIB
Label: Domino
Year: 2003

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/piglib.jpg

The naysayers were wrong - Stephen Malkmus just bounces back brighter each and every time. This album was streamlined to the point of perfection, despite being at the very heart of things, a prog album. The subtleties and intricacies of Pig Lib only reveal themselves upon extended listenings, but boy are they worth it. His most solid work since Wowee Zowee and up there in the best releases of his career. dog latin

Recommended tracks: Animal Midnight

carry on

WASHING A-MASCIS FUCK

PS: I think Cadillac on 22s is so overrated. There are such better songs on that album. like a PYAAAAAMP

The music he composes is like the moon - lifeless, pale and when you get up close it's basically a load of rock.

I'm not being defensive, because you have your right to like and dislike whatever you want, but I'm interested in knowing: have you even heard the record? What do you mean by "lifeless" and "pale" (refer to certain pieces or methods of his)? Do you mean "rock" figuratively? I hope so, because the record is "basically a load of modern classical." There are NO traces of "rock music" in Bodysong.

Actually, the critiques of Kiid A and Amnesiac suffered from the same problem of musical ignorance (not to sound arrogant, but if you're going to whine about something formally, at least do your homework / research). People whined about Radiohead "ripping off Aphex Twin, the whole Nothing catalogue" when it BARELY sounded like them, and actually literally STOLE bits from modern classical and jazz. And, to my ears, it worked wonders. And people should get over it. Nothing is completely authentic.

I am glad that Jonny G takes his place among the electroacoustic greats!

Points: 204
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: XIU XIU
Title: KNIFE PLAY
Label: Rue Christine
Year: 2002

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/knifeplay.jpg

Comments: ...it is the perfect mix of electronics and acoustic instruments. it has some surprising and perfect breaks (like the ripped up piano falling down the stairs riff and the 'breaking into children's hospitals' dialogue.) it is ambiently put together - to vaguely define what i mean by 'ambiently' is that each song has a feel in the way it was recorded and its instrumentation (see: beat happening's yellow record or go go go airheart 'love my life hate my friends'). this ambientness appeals to the diy asthetic of 'personal' music which is utterly appropriate with the strong emotional aspect of most songs. and finally, the songwriting is good. despite and complex field of sounds and a seemingly random performance, each piece is essentially in pop form and contains at least one really good line/catchy part. plus this record also has amazing packaging (again appeals to diy in all of us)... (here)

Recommended tracks: I Broke Up (SJ)

Points: 206
No. of votes: 8
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: ATMOSPHERE
Title: LUCY FORD
Label: Roule/EMI
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/lucyford.jpg

Comments: '...easily the best undie record of the past five years or thereabouts; really consistent lyrically, excellent beats too' M Matos

Recommended tracks: Nothing But Sunshine

Points: 207
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: NEW ORDER
Title: GET READY
Label: London
Year: 2001

ihttp://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/getready.jpg

Seriously, why doesn't everyone adore _Get Ready_?

Recommended tracks: Crystal (album version with gorgeous intro), Close Range

Points: 207
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: NEW ORDER
Title: GET READY
Label: London
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/getready.jpg

Seriously, why doesn't everyone adore _Get Ready_?

Recommended tracks: Crystal (album version with gorgeous intro), Close Range

Points: 209
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: D'ANGELO
Title: VOODOO
Label: Cooltempo
Year: 1999/2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/voodoo.jpg

Comments: Very few men in the R&B game can do, or have done, the kind of sexy that D'Angelo pulls off on Voodoo. I can't think of any other way to say it: it's *feminine*. Each song pulses, builds, relaxes, coils, pushes, pulls, writhes, bucks, but in a template of its own. D's cannot be gratified with verse-verse (foreplay-foreplay), chorus (do it), verse (token fondling), chorus-chorus-chorus (do it do it do it do it), fade out (sound familiar?) He plays with expectations so well - a song you're positive is about to reach its resolution, like Spanish Joint, finds enough in the tank to kick back into another long jam (much like Stevie Wonder's "Runnin"). Another song may, at the height of its ecstasy, simply break off hard, no explanation, a total withdrawal of pleasure. When a classic masculine voice breaks in, like Meth and Redman on "Left and Right" the textural offset sounds great, but their boasting ("drop that ass when i'm finished /and watch it smoke") reminds you of how subtle D plays it. Then again none of this amounts to a hill of beans if you're not down w/the sound but I find the songs just fabulously well-produced, very impressively orchestrated, and if only D'Angelo would stop mumbling you might even be able to sing along. But after a) writing the songs b) singing all the parts c) producing everything I'm willing to cut him some slack and say that it just goes with the indeterminate sexiness that typifies the whole joint. Basta! Tracer Hand

Recommended tracks: Spanish Joint, Left And Right, Untitled (How Does It Feel)

pick up the pace? pleeeeeaase?

Points: 209
No. of votes: 21
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: JUNIOR SENIOR
Title: D-D-DON'T STOP THE BEAT
Label: Mercury
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/dddontstopthebeat.jpg

Junior Senior are garage rock for a world where disco happened, i.e.
our one. On stage Junior is a superstar and Senior is a menace;
offstage Junior is shyly charming and Senior confusedly aloof. But I
love Senior particularly after studying the credits and discovering
that he does ALMOST NOTHING on this record except be his own bad bear
self.

If you really want a reason why this album is (might be) important
('important') then consider that it reclaims the canon for us
frivolous modern pop fans. Bob Dylan made TOTALLY GREAT records but
his imitators simply didn't until JS came and gummified him - bubbling up the Band was probably beyond them so they just sampled "Chest Fever" instead. Elsewhere we're served plastic dayglo Jaggers and inflatable bouncy Ramones and the MC5 run through a Spectrum sprite editor. More importantly though this stuff cheers you up and makes the sun shine.

Recommended tracks: Move Your Feet, Boy Meets Girl, Just Shake It Brother

Points: 210
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE WRENS
Title: THE MEADOWLANDS
Label: Absolutely Kosher
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/themeadowlands.jpg

Comments: Because it's intensely passionate indie rock that makes a strong case for why Pitchfork is still worth reading after all.

Because as soon as I heard "Happy" the first time I made ten comp cdrs for my friends specifically so they could hear it, too.

Because after a week of non-stop listening, "Hopeless" suddenly clicked and may have become my favorite track of the year. I particularly love the piano climax at the end.

Because the synth strings on "Thirteen Grand" remind of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me-era Cure without making the song sound kitsch at all. turkey

Recommended tracks: Happy, Hopeless, Thirteen Grand

Points: 214
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: MICHAEL MAYER PRESENTS...
Title: IMMER
Label: Kompakt
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/immer.jpg

It's not an album as such but it's a mix compilation that introduces you to a range of artists and tracks you won't have encountered before unless you've been keeping score on the post-millennial contemplative form of dance music dubbed 'microhouse' for it's minimal yet intricate production ethos - squaring tech-house's pulsating parameters (with Terry Francis 'Architectures' as a reference point), stripping the original, deeper American sound of it's more obtuse personalised characteristics (the older vocal-led tracks from Deep Dish and Mood II Swing e.g. 'Stay Gold', 'I See You Dancing') and moving the filter-obsessions of Glasgow's DJ Q and the French crew off centre-stage, replacing them with shuffling beats and tiny clicks, sometimes escaping 4/4 formulas altogether, and wandering into extra spaces not quite explored or dwelled on.

Recommended tracks: Thomas Fehlmann 'Gratis', Akufen 'Psychometry (vol 3)', Frank Martiniq 'Adriano (Michael Mayer mix)'