ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

ha, yeah, i guess by pop country i really just mean modern country (indicating my general ignorance).

brandy clark is trying to rouse empathy, not anger, because unlike you, she understands that a simple, elegant description of how things are that rings true can be more powerful than noisy rabble-rousing

― lex pretend, Friday, January 31, 2014 8:08 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fair - I accept that it is my failing that I cannot fully empathise with the message because of my aversion to the music - my personal preference is for a bit of high drama, shock & awe, grand sonic theatre - this sort of music is very understated and plays towards and within fairly rigid genre conventions. perhaps I shall keep trying - through careful listening and maturity I've overcome aversions to other sorts of music, once professed in ignorant childhood (punk, classical, rap, r&b), even if I tend to gravitate towards the more sonically and structurally ambitious examples of each of these

thanks for at least explaining it rather than getting all precious like yr yankee counterparts

I keep meaning to start a pop-country recommendations thread for people who are new to the genre to learn about what they have been missing all these years. Seems crazy in retrospect that Allison Moorer, Brad Paisley, etc were completely overlooked in the UK.

Suspect that it would devolve into me posting Judds YouTube clips and Seminole Wind pretty quickly, though, and putting people off forever.

Imago, did you get past the first few songs to Take A Little Pill, Hungover, etc?

don't you dare talk like that about Seminole Wind :)

Str8 classic, I know, but maybe not a big crossover winner.

Were you a strict metallist, imago?

I was a strict rock/indie/art-pop/bit of metal incoherent babble of fairly whitemale guitarry music tbh, and ILX has to take 98% of the blame for converting me away from that. Damn you, ILX!

Anyway, I'm tearing thru the list - when I get to Kacey, as I've said, I'll give the whole thing a proper front-to-back listen, promise

imago, despite your broadening horizons, do you think there's any music, or art in general, that you like for reasons that aren't quite fundamentally modernist in nature?

My Spotify account just had to run dry right now. There was a mixup because I had to change debit cards due to identity theft issues--part of the Target hacking in this case--the second time I've had to do that in a year. But that could have been corrected. The real problem is that I'm simply that broke.

Well I do have a credit card I could put it onto but I'd rather use a debit card for reasons I can't explain (or perhaps no reason).

I think there's some music I like and will like forever because it was played to me when I was a kid. This includes Duran Duran's album Rio, Joe Jackson's album I'm The Man, and a collection of 70s and 80s Americana which I yet adore, including Let It Roll Down The Highway, Hotel California, Drive (by The Cars), Jack & Diane, JJ Cale's Cocaine, Little Sister and othersuch

Art in general? I can appreciate anything with a bit of wit on the level of high art - saw some brilliant Buster Keaton recently, will stan for Wodehouse, Richmal Crompton and so forth as 'literature' (loaded & dangerous term I know) - this might be my way into country music tbh

Music and film collapse distinctions between high and low art; they're mass market media.

The Kacey Musgraves and Brandy Clark left me cold tbh, tho my number 1 track was Mount Moriah - 'I Built A Town' which is country I think.

Wow, 376 views on youtube apparently.

That's a looking-glass I'm yet to step through - perhaps one day I could look at Jute Gyte and Ryan Trecartin as 'mass market media' but not today. xxp

john grant album is such fun; like a filthy mouthed Glenn Campbell for our generation

man I am still kicking myself for ignoring Fuck Buttons

luckily you can listen to it now and for the rest of your life.

i don't think wodehouse is a very good way into American country music

without Edmund Wilson I don't know how the hell I would've understood Bruno Mars

"filthy mouthed Glenn Campbell" is an excellent description of John Grant that I suspect he'd find wonderful.

xp imago -- do you like stuff like Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger?

i'm relistening to some of random access memories and i'm actually kinda pissed at how high this ridiculously cheesy album placed.

like, do any of you guys actually sit down and listen to this? it's embarrassing in places.

not yet sarahell

then just stick with "jack and diane" -- i think it's hilarious you like that song

:D

got a full tracklist somewhere...

like, do any of you guys actually sit down and listen to this? it's embarrassing in places.

― call all destroyer, Friday, January 31, 2014 4:06 PM (3 minutes ago)

you're embarrassing.

imago I am gonna fucking kill you if Jack & Diane stays stuck in my head for more than an hour

Embarrassingly good!

I started to listen to RAM again and got so annoyed that I made the conscious decision to play Damita Jo instead

(fyi Damita Jo is still terrible but "All Nite (Don't Stop)" bangs)

Angel In The Centerfold was also in that compilation, if that helps, sleeve

i'm relistening to some of random access memories and i'm actually kinda pissed at how high this ridiculously cheesy album placed.

like, do any of you guys actually sit down and listen to this? it's embarrassing in places.
--call all destroyer

I haven't listened to any of these apart from Sprinkles...but I will eventually!

saw some brilliant Buster Keaton recently, will stan for Wodehouse, Richmal Crompton and so forth as 'literature' (loaded & dangerous term I know) - this might be my way into country music tbh

― 141 Jute Gyte - Discontinuities 142 drake - nothing was the same (imago)

thank you, this is amazing

yer being obtuse leong, if you read the sentence properly, it looks more like this:

I can appreciate anything with a bit of wit on the level of high art - [examples of witty art] - this might be my way into country music tbh

imago I particularly recommend Richmal Crompton's country music monograph, Just Hank Williams

http://i.imgur.com/E8NhEpC.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/KtTYaHg.jpg

Stiff Upper Lip, Hank

Uncle Brad Flits By

hmm owl salt n pepper shakers!

Birmingham is So Bracing

i'm intentionally obfuscating my own understanding and going with my interpretation

Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" is actually based on a Wodehouse short story

and Bertie Wooster actually did an early version of the "Boot Scootin' Boogie"

I started to listen to RAM again and got so annoyed that I made the conscious decision to play Damita Jo instead

(fyi Damita Jo is still terrible

but "All Nite (Don't Stop)" bangs)

you're embarrassing.

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Friday, January 31, 2014 5:11 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this possibility should not be counted out but still

am I the only one that sees the John Grant cover and thinks of this:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/legacy/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/johnbult.jpg

hah good call

love those salt n pepper shakers on the grant cover