ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

Even if oneohtrix point never is idiotic?

FTR never doubted his taste in music but come on that record is dumb

I haven't heard the new OPN. I don't like the two OPN records I've heard! I'm gonna listen though. I feel like I should love his music. I read the "here's how we made the record, track-by-track" for the last one and thought it was super interesting.

OPN is great

I think I'm misunderstanding his shit on a fundamental level tbh. Like it should be my favourite thing but the only thing I loved by him were the first Games EPS and then everything else has sounded like a really lazy artless take on art music. I don't get it at all. Is it supposed to be conceptual? Millennial? It's not pleasant to listen to. It's not particularly new or groundbreaking... why?

He's supposed to be the new aphex. The dorky mad genius with a PhD in post post modernism and a savage YouTube serrated twinkle in his giffy eye. So why does it sound like someone sampled an old magic carpet CD-ROM from 95 and started playing around on a midi keyboard with a few effects over the top? I hate to be the guy who says 'anyone could do it', but it's true. And James Ferraro did it a zillion times better a couple of years ago.

don't think you need theory to dig 0PN, he's not my favourite but the appeal is quite immediate ime

And James Ferraro did it a zillion times better a couple of years ago.

lol, no

Lol, no, indeed

I just. No it's not hard to listen to really... but what makes it special? Why was it ranked so high? It really sounds tossed off and inadequate to me. And I really liked Far Side Virtual which seemed to do this kind of thing a lot better and smarter than this.

it's like ascension

The first track is a bit like ascension haha. I liked the video I must say. And the album cover is a tribute to the frankenstein film (great film btw) but I still don't get this album or how it's meant to work. I feel like I need context or something.

O god I just reread that and the Charli XCX blurb is some str8 bad writing

Well, only two extraneous words but they kill it. Lemme re-up:

CHARLI XCX True Romance - There's a massive disconnect between how much the instrumental is annoying me (not at all - it's quite edgy and gripping) and how much the vocal is (a lot). Some of the most irritating possibly vocal affectations ever devised in this opening track. Pattern implausibly continuing into the second track! I love the sampled vocal hook but her lead vox are just not rubbing me up the right way. Track 3, the music is really quite catchy indeed - those frantic tickytocky synths, that rolling low-end - and fortunately Charli herself is a bit more tolerable now. Was this the song on the traxpoll? If it was, I'm enjoying it much more now. Can imagine a stellar dream-disco remix. Track 4 even better - this album is getting more and more acceptable the longer I hear it for! Gorgeous chord-change into the chorus here. Track 5 is also really nicely-produced. However - I get the feeling that there's something just slightly...perfunctory about the production before - something stale. A bit of Googling tells me that this is a Rechtshaid production, which perhaps confirms the sentiment, seeing as he seems to have a finger in every other pie. The other relevant comparison - Marina and the Diamonds - makes perfect sense insofar as they're friends and both writing similar electropop, but I would STRONGLY argue that the first M&TD album has stronger songs and more distinctive sounds than this. And now, I tire of this music, after 7 songs...I really don't want to force myself through this any more. It turns to gloop; there's not enough variation. But a couple of the songs are kinda lovely.

Also, my top 10 discoveries from the 77 so far:

1) DJ Rashad. Surely one of the most important artists working today, and I've heard one of his albums once (and then the song I Don't Give A Fuck on numerous repeats)
2) Amel Larrieux. Ditto and ditto.
3) Yamantaka//Sonic Titan. Indieprog just got brung like 'twere ne'er brung afore
4) Oneohtrix Point Never. Modernist poetry/music interface
5) Danny Brown. Fucking absolutely kills the mainstream/experimental rap crossover market, and knows it, which is how he can create such an opus as 'Old'
6) Burial. Always dismissed Burial before this - not any fucking longer, that was stunning.
7) Janelle Monae. Never listened to one of her albums all the way through before. Not making that mistake again.
8) Fuck Buttons. They play a mean guitar.
9) Dawn Richard. An artist of immense promise and ambition.
10) John Grant. A songwriter of subtlety and a sense of real theatre.

AND ONE FOR LUCK

11) f(x). *dances*

And now, I tire of this music, after 7 songs...I really don't want to force myself through this any more. It turns to gloop; there's not enough variation. But a couple of the songs are kinda lovely.

fwiw the final track on the album is my favorite ("Lock You Up").

Oh this is nice, you otm

*recalls mind-troops from the quantum borderlands of Shambhala*

Peace in our time.

*really* nice actually, best track on the album. Also most Marina-esque :P

Imago did you read my interview with a Rashad btw?

link

lol I only listened to half of the John Grant album, but it totally makes sense that it's an Alfred record

also lj is doing great

wait is lj into jaga jazzist if not why not

'what we must' was a staple listen of mine back in '05 m8

ha just went back & read the jaga jazzist thread and yes i see that now

iirc the band we both love is The Chap, also since '05 in my case. wonder what their next move is

yes! you know who's also a big u.s. fan of the chap is NA (a/k/a n/a)

ya i do recall. imo their most recent album was a lovely str8-pop record, not enuff love here

10-6

KANYE WEST Yeezus - Intriguing sonics in the first two tracks, although I can't entirely connect with this - as I've already said, Danny Brown does the experimental/mainstream hip-hop crossover more intriguingly, and there's something lacking behind the flashy surface - this music is predominantly front. I Am A God is much, much better. Playing with his own delusions (?) of grandeur until forced to confront his own deity/mortality (which is more scary?) and screaming in fear. Dig it as a nice li'l theatrical trick. New Slaves is probably the best track so far - it's much more fully-realised than the songs before it, has a great beat, some sweet sonic tricks, a genuinely arresting progression, some problematic lyrics (think the aim is to get people's attention, and he's succeeded - a professional troll, if y'will), and now two tracks later this is starting to annoy me. Strange Fruit sample entirely fitting with 'professional troll' status, shacking up with KKardashian ditto - the whole thing's a fucken act, and you know it, and I know it, and he knows it, and we all know it*. Next.

*Did I just delegitimate Kanye? P sure that makes me the Oppressor. HE WINS AGAIN

*3-minute autotune solo*

KACEY MUSGRAVES Same Trailer Different Park - Oh! Some fine pedal steel already, gonna say that that's a fairly quick way to endear y'self to me. Already liking this much, much more than Brandy Clark, and I think that's because I find the music to have more depth, both in terms of instrumentation and songwriting. Much more spacious, rangy. And - I think - more charm, more life. I could go on. *a few tracks pass and I kinda sink into it* This is actually....GREAT. I don't know how this happened? Blowin' Smoke was epic and then I Miss You and Step Off maybe even better? Let me find the words to articulate why this is so damn listenable...having now finished the album and gone back to I Miss You. (That last track WAS devastating! Whole second half probably superior.) Um...I guess it's just much more spry, much more alive? More unpredictable? I think the interplay between the instruments is really poised - it's full ensemble playing of a high standard, confidently rendered - musically reminiscent of the McGarrigles, with admittedly more poppy production and shall we say directly-aimed lyrics (country for the Facebook era ahaha, a very present ego but we shan't hold it against her; it's not Kanye-level lol). Yeah I really fucken enjoyed this, and it flew by. Great songs. Fairly classic record. If this is nu-country-pop then I'm in. If anyone can explain why I had such a superior reaction to this as Clark though, I'd appreciate it, because as you can see, I'm flailing!

PARAMORE Paramore - I've already listened str8 thru to this once and heard most of the other tracks since. I have about 9 hours' worth of Knife and Daft Punk to get through. Should I? Well, I doubt I'd have a *remarkably* different impression, although I will say that Part II and Still Into You banged from (more or less) the outset, and the opening track is kinda weirdly kickass too (those noises! "WE ARE TURNING THINGS A LITTLE BIZARRE") - all relevant comments of 'it feels like I just ate an entire bucketsworth of candy' are otm - it's a huge event album with tons of scope and ambition, but it's all within an emo-pop bracket that will always ultimately choose the path of least resistance. I have no problem with it, or with it being this high, but I can never love it and I hope you understand.

THE KNIFE Shaking the Habitual - This is surely gonna be enormous. I might as well say "brilliant album" and not listen to it, right? Ah, but that'd be a terrible cop-out! A Tooth For An Eye is kinda magnificent; I might even prefer it to Full Of Fire (spoken far too soon, of course) (yes) (hahaha duhh this song is brilliant, a total technostomp mindfuck to the skull of a CLUB NEAR YOU). O wow, A Cherry On Top is kinda...awesome, this vast, confrontational sound-world, getting into the guts of the album...jeez, this album's long, but I actually kinda like it that way - the longer this is, the longer before I have to listen to Vampire Weekend. Oh my GOSH Wrap Your Arms Around Me is STUNNING dark-electro...balladry? No idea. It's brilliant, whatever it is. AND NOW I veg out. Not a bad dark-ambient soundscape I guess. I liked it when the percussion came in. Oh - and this final ascent into the heavens is BEAUTIFUL! A payoff that almost made the other 18 minutes worthwhile ;) OK, right. Raging Lung was brilliant when I heard it in the traxpoll and hopefully brilliant again now. Yep! Although - I think that so far this album still works better as individual tracks than as a piece - it doesn't concentrate its intensity quite as I'd hope - it's huge and forbidding and doesn't really hold together - deliberately so, I'd wager - the forbiddingness is part of its identity. I think the reason I loved Tomorrow, In A Year so much is that it worked as two extended pieces - the first side especially, which I still regard as the Knife's pinnacle. That said, I'm not taking anything away from the individual songs here, which are great What concentration of intensity there is perhaps best demonstrated by Wrap Your Arms Around Me, which works through its ideas in under 5 minutes, but this is not to denigrate the longer songs, which work through their ideas splendidly and often thrillingly. OH! Networking is amazing, a frantic, delusory fever-dream, trying to escape itself in some monotonous labyrinth only to find its own tail at every turned corner, a game of Snake that's perpetually on the verge of exhausting itself...really quite psychologically disconcerting music. Right, though, Stay Out Here is just pushing this album, and I KNOW it's a deliberate move, into 'far too fucking long' territory, nor is it as interesting as the other songs. Fracking Fluid Injection is a great improvement (lol really) and an interesting exercise in sonic abrasion, I can dig it. Should have come earlier in the album, really. It's not like they've set up a cohesive soundworld for us to get lost in, it's a lot of very long tracks thrown together. OH YOU KNIFE BOZOS! This doesn't work like an album should, according to, idk, my EXPECTATIONS. But I know, Knife. They're outmoded. I'll have to just...deal...

VAMPIRE WEEKEND Modern Vampires of the City - ...with these fuckheads. Opening track not so bad if I tune out the vocals, really! Nice production, some pianos. Kinda boring but I'm not paying attention THIS IS THE ONLY WAY IT'S GONNA WORK FOLKS. Track 2 has some nice organ work, actually! I like that organ. Not much else at all, but hey, not subsumed in loathing just yet! Step has presentable harpsichord, but also has the first really disgusting tune/vocal combination. Getting edgy. And bored. Oh someone shut him uppppp, one of his many devoted fans go and sit on his face or something. I don't get why so many of you loved this so much, and I'm now 7 tracks in. Nothing's happened yet except my burgeoning annoyance! The bits I like most of this album are the kinda plinkyplonky harpsichord/piano riffs, apart from that I am finding nothing of interest. I know this isn't an original insight but what is WITH these chipmunk vox in Ya Hey? I mean, it's a brilliant conceptual decision! It uh brings out the...absurdity of writing an indiepop song to God! Yeah! Ten critic points to meeeeeeeeee

We now encounter a problem, as the Sky record is not on UK Spotify, Beyonce not on any Spotify, MBV I've already heard and the two other albums I'm slightly petrified of. Help!

*goes to sleep, hopes answer appears in a dream, hopes answer is not 'buy both sky f and beyonce albums u skinflint'*

buy beyoncé

you know brandy clark co-wrote a bunch of songs on the kacey album?

Loving how imago's entries skew more and more poptimist as they go along

it's a huge event album with tons of scope and ambition, but it's all within an emo-pop bracket that will always ultimately choose the path of least resistance. I have no problem with it, or with it being this high, but I can never love it and I hope you understand.

This perfectly encapsulates my "poptimism". Congratulations on creating such moveable product, guys!

"always ultimately choose the path of least resistance" sounds pretty condescending though

Clark's lyrics appear to be slice-of-life social commentary - I listened to 3 of the songs, fairly carefully - I just can't get with the mode of delivery. I know that my perspective is very different to yours, and possibly I've projected onto Clark a sociocultural imperative she doesn't really profess to have, but the majority of that post is subjective and thus hardly 'wrong' - perhaps the impression I get would be modified by further listening/study? I don't like this complacent derision that doesn't feel the need to explain itself. I can take criticism so long as it's explained - do so, please.

― 141 Jute Gyte - Discontinuities 142 drake - nothing was the same (imago), Thursday, January 30, 2014 6:33 PM (2 days ago)

What do you want, a cover of the Internationale? I hadn't heard Brandy Clark before, but now that I have, I am happy I did -- she has a great voice, and I like the lyrics and the arrangements. Yay ILX!

Imago's entries are getting poppier as they go along because whether he actually finds things enjoyable is generally less important to him than whether he feels clever for liking them. "Path of least resistance" encapsulates that perfectly.

Not doubting the sincerity wrt the stuff he *does* like but there's a huge amount he doesn't bother listening to in the first place through basic snobbery.

I am still sincerely laughing at his love for "Jack and Diane"

I like Kacey more than Brandy as well and it's partly because Kacey brings an absolute boatload of personality to the table, you can just tell she's a WKIW kind of pop star. It's about performance as much as songwriting. The Brandy album is okay but kind of slips past me, it's almost *too* songwriterly, even if I'd like the same songs with a different performer.

Sounds basically correct. I do like the Brandy though.

whether he actually finds things enjoyable is generally less important to him than whether he feels clever for liking them.

^^^ New Board Description, IMO.

which board?

There's a better new board description from this thread.

OMG OMG OMG

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11eleven

Best board description ever.

Imago's entries are getting poppier as they go along because whether he actually finds things enjoyable is generally less important to him than whether he feels clever for liking them.

How many times am I going to have to ask you to go fuck yourself?

Come on dude that attitude oozes out of virtually everything you ever post.

You're projecting monstrously. How can any of this be anything other than a sincere appraisal, forced by close contact to music I wouldn't necessarily choose to hear? I don't see what's calculating about any of it - I've had my preconceptions shattered on numerous occasions while doing this. I didn't think "I've disliked one country singer already, so I'd better damn like the other one to retain my ILX cachet" - it just happened, because the latter was (imo) a much stronger performer with a better backing band. As I say, the projection is yours.

Also, come on Hull