ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2013

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

other people can listen to some new records without all the world-historic histrionics, you should give that a try

lj c'mon

As I said above I'm not accusing you of a lack of sincerity (quite the opposite in fact) but the very fact that your preconceptions have shattered so many times on this thread shows quite how many preconceptions you allow yourself to build up in the first place. Like it's great that you're finding a way into all this stuff but maybe don't automatically dismiss it next time round?

Ah, so you're saying that before this exercise I espoused the attitude of wanting to like 'clever' music and this has somewhat attacked that notion? I guess I've always liked *some* pop, but you make a point I suppose. ILX has always opened my mind, and will hopefully continue to do so. It's why I do things like this rundown.

― Battles, "Atlas" 29 Carly Rae Jepsen, "Call Me Maybe" 14 (imago),

lol I've definitely heard both of those songs before

I'm still a little aggrieved. I know where I'm most likely to find music I like, so I normally look for it along avant-garde or alternative channels, but this doesn't mean I shut myself off from looking for it in more unexpectedly 'pop' places now and then. It's not a case of wanting to hear music that is 'more clever', it's a case of liking a lot of music from more ostensibly complex and/or difficult milieux and allotting my listening-hours accordingly. This poll might shift that allotment slightly in the favour of pop, now that I know there's quite a bit of great stuff out there - it's a response to changing circumstances, not a calculation aforethought.

Don't we already have two threads going of "imago has aggrieved OPINIONS ON MUSIC 4 UUUUU" concurrently right now? Did we really need a third?

it's not really a comment on your music listening habits so much as yr posting style, bud

and I say that as a fan of your posting style

imago i have been trying to keep it posi because i wish i had the time and inclination to write lengthier responses to the records as you've done, but damned if your entire performance throughout this countdown hasn't felt like an exercise in vanity enabled by this website and i hope if we're all doing this again next year we can find ways to, like, be a little more chill abt it.

otm

i mean, how a thread with thousands of posts of half the board talking about the music they've enjoyed the most for the past year has managed to so frequently revolve around one particular person is really kind of an accomplishment in and of itself, i will say that.

Btw between the new board description and the lauded pun I'm thinking my double act with Alex could have legs

(Trust me I'm not accusing you of being calculating in this, I think your impulses are a bit more emotional than that, and there's nothing wrong with defaulting towards certain kinds of music, everyone does, but maybe think next time before you default to false binaries like "weird music" and "dance-pop").

this thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryjpbd4D4bg

lol

honestly, if anything deeply irritates me about ilm, this is it. i like talking about music and i even like talking about why people like it, but i don't like talking about lj's opinion (or anyone's opinion, including my own) for more than a nanosecond. then i'm no longer talking about music, i'm talking about a person. i like people and i like y'all well enough but not enough to dissect your opinion.

i see that you have all already (and mercifully, i might add) come to the same conclusion -- i only wanted to add my 2 cents because i feel like conversations about music are fun and i would't be here if not for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BaXPg_2FJ4

SKY FERREIRA - whatever
BEYONCE - huzzah
MBV - great
DAFT PUNK - dancing
HAIM - tv serial music

bye

haven't heard

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

*Ted Maul 'Cowsick' sketch*

lol balls

oh this is rich

I associate the Haim / Paramore / Sky Ferreira / 1975 albums together in my head, though they clearly come from very different angles and cater for different audiences (like, if you're basically into the idea of populist rock music you might like one or probably even two, but only my forever bros ITT like all four).

Something about their alchemical relationship to the past - in each case it's clear they're reviving things but it's never obvious exactly what - and their (differing versions of a) production aesthetic that leans towards overproduction, their capacity to irritate large swathes of people and the fact that I find each of them immensely cathartic.

Oh yeah also I saw Haim live yesterday and they were amazing.

Someone in the crowd had made Este a tank-top with her gaping maw on the front and "BASSFACE" on the front and she happily put it on.

I got tickets for their April show and can't wait.

March 4 for me. I'm not fully sold on the full album, but fully expecting live amazingness.

Just wanted to say thanks to ILM for a great list, enjoyable read and in particular for turning me on to some bits that had just zipped past me unawares this last year - I cruise ILM from time to time to read about music (especially house/techno/electronic/whatever... Some beardo too maybe) and post very occasionally (bobbins from time to time if I feel like sharing) but I do love to check out the eoy threads and see what folks are repping for ... Some thoughts on the list ?!?

Juliana Barwick - simply beautiful LP ... Best thing yet from JB for me ... Adored it ... Played it in the kitchen a lot
Follakzoid - thanks for this one voters !!! Never heard before ... Will def listen again ... Killed an afternoon at work on Thursday after a stressful am with multiple listens of this LP and it was a righteous tonic
Factory Floor ... Preferred the 12"s - feel obliged to spend more time with it than i have which is ridiculous isn't it ?!?
Laurel Halo - couldn't get with this when first released ... Posts and placing here intrigued me ... It's benefitted from careful closer listening ... Will come back to this one on headphones
Laura Marling - I'd always given a wide berth ... Assumed it was all Mumford and sons / radio one live lounge / John lewis advert screwing my nose up - listened - was totally totally wrong ... This is much more interesting ... Very surprised at how much I liked her voice and vibe
Koze / Rashad ... Great fun
Burial - have played come down to us about 50 times ... Wouldn't recognise the other two ... Will prob rectify
Holden - fuck yes ... Listened to this endlessly cycling to and from meetings late summer/autumn ... Cooled on it since then but relistened this week and fell into its spell again ... Wish I had a big bag of mushrooms some hash 2litres of lemonade no responsibilities and a month off to live with this LP
1975: was intrigued (love Tinseltown in the rain / stay and scritti and not at all averse to big pop rock) but Nah ! This did nothing for me ... Might listen again
Boards of Canada : fell asleep to this 3 nights in a row youth hosteling in Cumbria this summer ... Perfect ! Can't be bothered with it since then at all ... Right time right place etc
Kurt vile ... Liked smoke ring not too fussed by this one felt a little empty to me
These new puritans : yes ! Thanks voters had overlooked this despite liking both previous LP's - this is superb thank you
Fantasia ! ! Amel Larrieux !! Yeah great stuff really enjoying these two ... No way I would have stumbled across these with my buying/reading/browsing/digging habits so thanks v much to those repping for these ladies
Oneohtrix ... Really into this when I remember to listen to it but haven't played as much as returnable or replica
Yeezus - too low ... His best LP for me - I'm in it and I can't get out
Beyonce ... Love it but came out too late in the year for me ... Only really digging into it now

What's missing that I really liked and would like to have seen placed ?

Vakula
Date palms
Unknown mortal orchestra II
Colleen - weighing of the heart
William Tyler
Jessy Lanza
That Jaisu beat tape
Chris Forsyth - solar motel
Special request - soul music
Patrick Cowley

I don't get what just happened itt with regards to imago but I was enjoying his write-ups, think "you only like not-pop because it makes you look clever" is the perennial poptimist spectre of persecution, my god, I listened to Aaliyah in music school and flipped off my square teachers about it but I was like 18

Unknown mortal orchestra II

i forget about this one a lot but it's always enjoyable to hear when it turns up in shuffle

xp flam tie, you know those improv gigs where there is a large ensemble playing and one of the musicians plays way more and way louder than everyone else when it's supposed to be "about group interaction" and ignores everyone else's polite attempts at an ending? This is kinda like that.

i think lj preemptively instigated his own persecution tbf

read that and, for a second, thought you meant lebron james.

yes, i know; different lj's.

oh! ok. I can see that. xp when I see lj I think "Cool Cool LJ"

It's not really imago's taste in music that is deliberately "clever", it's his elaborate schematics for the terms on which he 'a prepared to like things. Like if "type of way" must be judged in terms of its literate was on the scale of one to def jux maybe we should pass over in silence instead.

Or "he's prepared" even.

it has to fit his "art-school aesthetic"

Stupid phone - that was supposed to be "literateness" btw