ILM Top 100 2005-2009: ALBUMS

wtf "Street Lights" and "Paranoid" do not suck at all

"Bad News" isn't great but it isn't terrible

lex continuing to be otm

yeah, 808s haters throwing out some major challops

Yay for H&LA! Some great tracks on there - Time Will, Hercules Theme, This is my Love - as well as Blind obv.

808s is his best album imo

in 808s' defence i still really like "welcome to heartbreak", "love lockdown" and "say you will", and jeezy is good on "amazing"

All of HL&A is good, except maybe True/False Fake/Real. Can't stand Antony's solo work but for whatever reason his voice is so effective here.

"Iris" on H&LA is top notch

I can understand ppl not digging tracks like "Heartless" and "Amazing" (the latter took like 20 listens before the beat clicked) but "Paranoid"? that has the best chorus on the album!

loved at least half of the trax list finalists, but very few of the finishers here. tunes unite, albums divide.

yeah, paranoid's great. no argument.

"Paranoid" is Kanye's best song, not just on this album; & my #3 in tracks voting.

wrote this on the jukebox when "paranoid" was a single -

The song sits uneasily between its ambition towards jaunty disco bounce and its need to cohere with the rest of 808s & Heartbreak; the flat Autotuned vocals and rudimentary production which serve the album so well in its better moments are simply inadequate for any track with dance aspirations.
[4]

loved at least half of the trax list finalists, but very few of the finishers here. tunes unite, albums divide.

I was just thinking the opposite! Even the albums I don't rate, I see why people like them. Much of the track poll just baffled me.

Fuckin' STOKED Chemistry made it.

51. PANTHA DU PRINCE This Bliss (2007) [280 points, 13 votes]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Thisbliss1.jpg

yay pantha du p, another of my votes - so relaxing and inviting, have gone to sleep with this on many a time.

this should've made the trax list imo, such a beautiful track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYY4AGPJJBo

I think I tried once to listen to this, but then got distracted by clipping my fingernails.

Probably should have voted for this one

The song sits uneasily between its ambition towards jaunty disco bounce and its need to cohere with the rest of 808s & Heartbreak; the flat Autotuned vocals and rudimentary production which serve the album so well in its better moments are simply inadequate for any track with dance aspirations.
[4]

Okay Lex, but the problem with that statement is that it's completely, totally wrong. The flat-affect autotuned vocals throw more of a sociopath vibe on the lyrics and the contrast against the jauntiness of the beat seems to be an entirely conscious artistic choice to amplify that vibe.

It really seems more like your issue boils down more to "Kanye is good on this album when his vocals are animated and he is bad when they are not" as, aside from "Bad News" (which I think is underdone but okay enough that I don't mind its existence on the album), that is how your likes and dislikes break down.

when i've complained about the field receiving undue critical love in the past, it's albums like this bliss and orchestra of bubbles that i'm negatively comparing it to

xp i haven't really listened to "paranoid" since but i think it just has a neither-fish-nor-fowl awkwardness to it which, fair enough if he meant that, but it doesn't make it any more listenable to me

This year's Pantha du Prince was the first I'd ever heard, perhaps I need to go back and give that one a chance.

Is it wrong that I've reached an age where I feel like it's impossible for me to take a band named "Fuck Buttons" seriously?

My insurmountable Animal-Collective-Grizzly Bear-Deerhoof-Xiu-Xiu probem.

let's all just lol at this for a second

when i've complained about the field receiving undue critical love in the past, it's albums like this bliss and orchestra of bubbles that i'm negatively comparing it top

i thought this year's pantha du p album was a bit of a letdown, haven't got into it at all (or at least, i think it comes off as unnecessary compared to this bliss)

okay everyone ready?

50. THE FIELD From Here We Go Sublime (2007) [280 votes, 14 points]

http://lineout.thestranger.com/files/2007/04/B000NQDDO6.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V43710541_.jpg

hahhahahahahaha

I'm late to this party, but am pleased with the placement of Year of the Gentleman, Ne-Yo's only great long player from start to finish (well, no, the last song gets unpleasantly mushy and creepy). I'm one of the bigger Ne-Yo stans on the board yet can't love In My Own Words beyond the three singles and "Mirror." The second one is awful.

lol

50. THE FIELD From Here We Go Sublime (2007) [280 votes, 14 points]

whoops!

i seriously had done that like 40 times while typing this out and then corrected it

lol and still the boring, one-dimensional field places above ellen allien and pantha du prince :(

booka shade had better place higher, i don't want the field to be the top techno album :(

to be fair they actually got the same number of points

For all the incessant blah-blahing about The Field making minimal indie-friendly via P4k etc... it's still a really great album. And I loved them live last year.

and maybe ellen's thrills?

can prob give up on scsi-9 tho :(

i'm sad deerhoof gets lumped in with that stuff, they have been grinding forever and in my mind do an amazing job of creating a unique and really odd musical identity within the confines of a rock band lineup. amazing live as well. they are a zillion times better than animal collective

(well, no, the last song gets unpleasantly mushy and creepy)

????

what's mushy or creepy about "what's the matter?"

the album coming up concludes a mini run on dance music (if pantha/field could be considered such)

(well, no, the last song gets unpleasantly mushy and creepy)

????

what's mushy or creepy about "what's the matter?"

The last song on YOTG is "Stop This World."

49. THE JUAN MACLEAN The Future Will Come (2009) [280.5 points, 12 votes]

http://electropopy.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/the-juan-maclean.jpg

YESSSSSSS

A+ job everyone

The last song on YOTG is "Stop This World."

i didn't realise until now that "what's the matter?" is an international bonus track! it's really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voiA-7D11T8

like i said upthread, that field album was a really strange pick for crossover success since it's mostly a one-trick album, that trick being the skipping-record sampling. for a genre which i've seen a lot of friends take a pass on getting into due to perceived 'repetetiveness' of the music, it's odd that one of its most monotonous albums gets the crossover appeal.

it is pleasant though and i like the first track but i rarely want to listen to the whole thing

omigod that MacLean album sucks. I was so excited after "Happy House" too.

The second half of Future Will Come is awesome. Another album I voted for, this is a lot better than the track poll.

One trick pony... perhaps, From Here We Go Sublime seems to remain the only good album The Field will release (good single releases before that, though) and I can't say I look forward to more from him anymore. But yes, he's infinitely better than the one dimensional muzak meister Pantha du Prince. Pure cheese, that.

and maybe ellen's thrills?

i placed it higher than OEB on my ballot, but seeing as how OEB already made it (and it being more of a crossover album), i don't see it happening

i'm sad deerhoof gets lumped in with that stuff, they have been grinding forever and in my mind do an amazing job of creating a unique and really odd musical identity within the confines of a rock band lineup. amazing live as well. they are a zillion times better than animal collective

― peel ya frap back (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, July 9, 2010 12:22 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, along with oneida, a brilliant and genuinely distinctive contemporary indie rock band that doesn't get half enough credit. and don't get me started on anco.