excellent Pfork review, Brad
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:50 (five years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/KOH8KcC.jpg#36: Meshell Ndegeocello - Ventriloquism - 329 points – 13 votes
Meshell Ndegeocello Ventriloquism Originals Poll
Will Layman: "Ventriloquism is a thrill and a surprise, a set of 11 hits from the ‘80s and ‘90s that have been reimagined and turned inside out without losing the joy of the originals."
Josh Hurst: "Wide Awake! is a letter-perfect musical contemplation of modern times, where social uprisings are actually affecting positive change. It's urgent and potent music that's thought-provoking and danceable, and whose rage is measured by a pointed optimism."
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:51 (five years ago) link
lower than I expected!
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:51 (five years ago) link
i wrote an excellent pitchfork review of this one too
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:53 (five years ago) link
I'll look it up!
― i stan corrected (morrisp), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:54 (five years ago) link
(btw thank you morrisp)
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:55 (five years ago) link
here we go: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/meshell-ndegeocello-ventriloquism/
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:56 (five years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/sr5alpo.jpg#35: DJ Koze - Knock Knock- 330 points – 13 votes
Ben Murphy: "Knock, Knock is without doubt DJ Koze’s most accessible record, with a sheen that will certainly appeal to listeners outside the dance sphere. It’s also a definitive statement, combining his many influences into something that’s hugely enjoyable and emotionally resonant. Most important of all, it’s still very weird."
Matt Unicomb: "The genius of Stefan Kozalla is that he can sound euphoric one minute and heartbroken the next. Moods across Knock Knock shift quickly, from melancholy to blissful and back again, sometimes within the same track. The emotional range is remarkable, but that's nothing new for the German artist."
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:58 (five years ago) link
there was a lot to love on this but i usually was a little tired of its approach by the end of its rather long running time
― ufo, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:00 (five years ago) link
Koze's stuff is nice but becomes a bit snoozy over the course of his long-ass albums imho
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:01 (five years ago) link
(xp!)
Great roll-out so far. I would have liked Ashley to place higher b/c it was one of my favourite albums of the year even though before this week I would have just said I'd Love It If She Made It. Gang Gang Dance, Burna Boy, Meshell (great review Brad as per), Wye Oak, Mariah and Wednesday Campanella all made my ballot, but I was sad not to be able to vote for mewithoutYou, Natalie Prass and Foxing too.
Saba I couldn't get into for some reason, and I'm resigning myself to the fact that it seems like everyone chose to vibe with that album rather than with Roy Kinsey.
DJ Koze I should have loved but I agree with the previous comments - it sort of slides out of your attention by the end of the album.
I guess the Gurrumul album is highly unlikely to show up at this point :-( (maybe only Nourry and I listened to it???)
― Tim F, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:04 (five years ago) link
oh yeah and I like the eiko ishibashi album too!
― Tim F, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:05 (five years ago) link
i loved the gurrumul album but i didn't vote
― The Elvis of Nationalism and Amoral Patriotism (rushomancy), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:06 (five years ago) link
Roy Kinsey just missed my ballot and i enjoyed his album a fair bit more than Saba and Noname. Noname's was solid but i missed the sort of clean focus of Telefone that Room 25 abandoned for its jazzier and more complex live band-oriented production
― ufo, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:08 (five years ago) link
It wasn't as striking as Amygdala for me but he still is one of my favorite producers this decade... I think he needs stronger songwriting skills as evidenced by several cuts on this one but I he is on another level, I can't think of any electronic producers doing what he does.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:11 (five years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/W4PksYz.jpg#34: Tirzah - Devotion - 334 points – 10 votes
Tirzah
Kevin Lozano: "Tirzah Mastin’s debut album Devotion is a compelling vision of what imperfect pop music can be—joyful in both sound and feeling precisely because both seem so out-of-step and asymmetrical."
Owen Torrey: "In the sparseness of its haze, Devotion feels ephemeral, like a photo taken at golden hour that's just starting to fade."
I confess I didn't get this one at all
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:12 (five years ago) link
Same here. I thought I would love it based on everything I'd read beforehand.
― kitchen person, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:13 (five years ago) link
Last one for the day I think? I thought this was my numero uno vote... seems like it wasn't... not sure what my first place vote is then.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:13 (five years ago) link
wanted to like this but couldn't find a way in at all and it just ended up feeling fairly clunky
― ufo, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:14 (five years ago) link
I think I voted for Ventriloquism? It was definitely a better covers album than the Nina Simone one, where Ndegeocello's limited vocal range made her versions often pale in comparison to the originals. Here, I think both the fact that she was mostly covering less singular singers and that the arrangements were more varied and innovative made it something a good cover album should be, in that it made me appreciate both the original songwriting as well as her approach to interpreting it.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:14 (five years ago) link
Btw, the image for Ventriloquism seems to be broken?
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:15 (five years ago) link
less singular singers
like prince
― simmy simmy ya, simmy yam simmy yay (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:17 (five years ago) link
but yeah ventriloquism was awesome and it voted it in my top 10
― simmy simmy ya, simmy yam simmy yay (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:18 (five years ago) link
― Tuomas
I can see it just fine, anyone else has this problem? here's the direct link https://imgur.com/zJ3dPCk
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:23 (five years ago) link
it's broken for me too, the direct link works though
― simmy simmy ya, simmy yam simmy yay (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:26 (five years ago) link
doesn't work on my phone!
― nxd, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:26 (five years ago) link
Ah yes I can see the problem now... I deleted it as there was an error in the scores and I can still see it because it's saved in my cache.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:28 (five years ago) link
updated the album playlist.https://open.spotify.com/user/forksclovetofu/playlist/4DzRiNP3gnIu4icC69zypd?si=x8wLH-X3TsqaZZANnIRuOQ
perhaps worth noting: this is the first year on ILX that all 77 tracks and (I think? Didn't check the top 33 yet so as to not spoil but it seems a safe bet) 77 albums are on spotify. world-eating company has eaten the world.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:36 (five years ago) link
(to get that album playlist in the proper descending order, click the calendar icon)
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:37 (five years ago) link
ty forks, was hoping for this update
― imago, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:37 (five years ago) link
oooh just seeing this all now! glad Sleep, Gang Gang, Noname and Mewithoutyou all got love on here.
Voted for tThe Armed too. Easily my favorite live show of the year. It's like a performance art hardcore show and it's so much damn fun. Definately go. However, i voted for Deafheaven ahead of the Armed, not as good of a live show but I loved that album so much too.
― gman59, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:38 (five years ago) link
seeing The Armed in 2 weeks, so hyped
― imago, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:38 (five years ago) link
Catching up:
Foxing = I could not get into this at all. 100% not my thing.
The Armed = So stoked this got in; I thought it had no chance after yesterday. My #2. This year's Fetch, except that I personally think it's way better than Fetch
The Breeders = my #24. I uh emphatically did not think this was a vast improvement on the previous two albums, and for a while couldn't really find my way in, apart from the great Side 2 run of "Summit"/"Archangels Thunderbird"/"Dawn" but songs kept opening up to me:. "Blues at the Acropolis", the title track, "Spacewoman". I still think "Wait in the Car" is ham-handed and would make the 11th best song off Pacer
Deafheaven, Sleep = I haven't listened to either one of these albums but there's plenty of discussion to be had over here:
The 2018 ILX Metal n' Heavy Rock Poll VOTING + CAMPAIGNING thread! Ballots due Saturday, Feb. 9th!
Gang Gang Dance = a late cut. "J-Tree" is meh, "Lotus" is better (real Japan vibes there), but it's the title track that sold me, fusing together the gnomic abstruse electronica of the first OOIOO album with the high cheese of the last Ozric Tentacles one
Meshell Ndegeocello = my #19. I really love Meshell's unique sense of musicality and it really makes this sound more personal than a covers album should, not so much songs performed as portraits painted of certain perhaps-crucial pop moments in her life
― slack thompson (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:39 (five years ago) link
i relistened to the snail mail record and there are a few diverting tracks in the second half
it is still largely an indistinguishable mass to me, i don't even like "heatwave"
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 20:39 (five years ago) link
I saw her live and really soured on the record after that
― ||||||||, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:05 (five years ago) link
Not that great live i have to admit
― . (Michael B), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:14 (five years ago) link
great list so far, some rad stuff i hadnt encountered before and that brad review is an awesome read as an example for something ive just discovered!
― nxd, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:17 (five years ago) link
xp Are you talking about Tirzah or Snail Mail (re: live performance)?
― octobeard, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:19 (five years ago) link
I usually like a small handful of techno* albums each year, but for whatever reason I failed to discover many this year so the Koze album ended up kind of standing in for that whole vibe.
― rob, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:20 (five years ago) link
assuming ilm is immune to the allure of the industrial-ebm-techno trend and the Ancient Methods album was somewhere in the 780s
― mh, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:23 (five years ago) link
I wanted to like the Koze album more than I did but it sort of felt like it had been left out in the sun too long. Terrible pacing and choice of vocalists as well.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:23 (five years ago) link
octo - snail mail
― ||||||||, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:24 (five years ago) link
re: the mewithoutyou record, this was my favorite lyric of last year:
While all hiding inside our painting-of-a-house-hung-up-inside-that same-painted-house-which-ever-implies-another-painted-house-inside lives
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:24 (five years ago) link
nadwuar's snail mail interview was good
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:25 (five years ago) link
tbh I was unaware of an industrial-ebm-techno trend but I'd be all over that if I was
― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:28 (five years ago) link
Ventriloquism is a great album and I really don't know what Tuomas is talking about re: "less singular singers" unless he thinks "singular" is synonymous with "rangy"
― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:29 (five years ago) link
i was really lucky and got two pieces of art last year that perfectly reflected the inside of my head, the mewithoutyou record and mandy. which is one of the reasons i'm not mad when someone dislikes or doesn't jibe with either of them
also it's been a bad time inside of my head obv
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:30 (five years ago) link
*forges axe, hammers distortion pedal*
― imago, Tuesday, 5 February 2019 21:31 (five years ago) link