2013 FBG Album Poll - Results Thread (1 Viewer)

[Time Kibitzer]

Personally surprised Cults' Static didn't make the list, especially since they did quite well on here for their last album. Plus given how many points I gave it, I guess I was the only one who voted for it since it didn't make the list despite getting 25 points from me. It's a great psychedelic pop/rock album imo.

 

[Disco Stu]

Black Sabbath - 13 - 1 - 13

I see what you did there.

 

[Eephus]

120 - Kanye West - Yeezus - 1 - 12

Uh huh, honey

 

[TheAristocrat]

Great stuff as always NV. Thanks a lot for doing this. And thanks to those who voted.

Seconded. Very well done, NV.

 

[Northern Voice]

Bill Callahan, Darkside,Cut Copy, FIDLAR, Futurebirds and Phoenix make up the group that got 3 votes and still couldn't crack the top 50, with our heavy emphasis on first place/30 point allotments.

 

[Eephus]

One vote for MBV and one (me) for Bowie

 

[Disco Stu]

187 - City and Colour - The Hurry and the Harm - 1 - 2
188 - Blitzen Trapper - VII - 1 - 1
189 - The Stone Foxes - Small Fires - 1 - 1
190 - Warm Soda - Someone for You - 1 - 1
191 - Dr. Dog - B-Room - 1 - 1
192 - Dan Croll - From Nowhere - 1 - 1
193 - The Thermals - Desperate Ground - 1 - 1
194 - Anna Meredith - Black Prince Fury - 1 - 1

My ballot was heavily represented at the very bottom of the poll.

 

[Bonzai]

Thought zilla would help me get Kvelertak on the list. Also surprised Bill Callahan didn't show up.

Thanks for doing this again NV. I have some albums to catch up on.

 

[The Dreaded Marco]

Great job again, NV. Thanks.

 

[JZilla]

ASG - I'm surprised more people didn't get into this. If you liked Baroness's Yellow & Green last year, this should be right up your alley

Savages - I'm standing by this as the best all girl rock album I've ever heard.* And I'm still not sure I even buy them as true rockers, especially after hearing the dreck their cohorts/tour openers put out. Lightning in a bottle.

Jake Bugg - Totally forgot his debut was 2013 too.. I still like Shangri La slightly better I think.

Surprised by no Ty Segall or Fuzz.. seemed like everybody liked Fuzz but I guess none of us liked it THAT much. Similarly surprised at no FIDLAR. Some people loved that..

And I'm the only one who voted for CLUTCH.. their best album since PRF!

*not saying much

 

[Steve Tasker]

FWIW, here was my list, as I never posted it in the other thread.

I'm very surprised that I was lone vote for Volcano Choir. I thought the FFA loved Justin Vernon?

Also surprised to be only vote for MS MR, and 1 of only 2 votes for Deerhunter.

Spoiler

1 (tie). Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City - 30 points

1 (tie). Charli XCX - True Romance - 30 points

3. Chvrches - The Bones of What You Believe - 25 points

4. Caroline Smith - Half About Being a Woman - 20 points

5. Haim - Days Are Gone - 20 points

6. Sombear - Love You in the Dark - 10 points

7. Volcano Choir - Repave - 10 points

8. Joey Bad### - Summer Knights - 10 points

9. Savages - Silence Yourself - 10 points

10. Arcade Fire - Reflektor - 7 points

11. Eleanor Friedberger - Personal Record - 4 points

12. A$AP Rocky - Long. Live. ASAP. - 4 points

13. Los Campesinos! - No Blues - 4 points

14. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories - 3 points

15. Cut Copy - Free Your Mind - 3 points

16. Polica - Shulamith - 2 points

17. Braids - Flourish // Perish - 2 points

18. MS MR - Secondhand Rapture - 2 points

19. Deerhunter - Monomania - 2 points

20. Atlas Genius - When It Was Now - 2 points

 

[JZilla]

Thought zilla would help me get Kvelertak on the list.

Just off the bubble along with Red Fang

 

[Disco Stu]

I'm very surprised that I was lone vote for Volcano Choir. I thought the FFA loved Justin Vernon?

I listened to this a few times when it was streaming on NPR and then forgot to add it to my massive 2013 spotify playlist. So I never heard it again.

I thought the Neko Case album was well-received here, but it didn't even come close to the top 50.

 

[ericttspikes]

60 - Dexateens - Sunsphere - 2 - 25

Nice!

 

[Steve Tasker]

My most anticipated result was to see where Yeezus finished. Who voted for it?

 

[Northern Voice]

My most anticipated result was to see where Yeezus finished. Who voted for it?

Abraham was the only one.

 

[Disco Stu]

I made a last minute change before submitting my list, swapping Jake Bugg and Phoenix at the 7/8 spot (which is a 5 point difference the way I did it).

That tweak pushed Jake Bugg into the top 10 and cost Phoenix a top 50 spot.

10 - Jake Bugg - Jake Bugg - 6 - 104

11 - Savages - Silence Yourself - 7 - 100

50 - Disclosure - Settle - 3 - 29

58 - Phoenix - Bankrupt! - 3 - 25

 

[Ilov80s]

#22



Deafheaven - Sunbather

yay.

Such s bad ### album.

 

[wazoo11]

#19

Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt

63 Points, 4 votes, 2 top 5 votes

Ranked Highest By: wazoo11, kupcho1

Album Review: Katie Crutchfield’s young but she’s no rookie – for years she played with her twin sister Allison (who now fronts Swearin’) in a brilliantly named band called P.S. Eliot and Cerulean Salt is her second record under the name she took from a lake near her family’s Alabama home, Waxahatchee. Her first solo album,American Weekend, was decidedly more folk-tinged; on Salt, Crutchfield turns up both the feelings and the guitar volume (and distortion) to great effect – she might have released one of the breakout records of the year.


Crutchfield’s a talented, versatile songwriter – on tracks like “Lips and Limbs,” lilting guitar that sounds like the soundtrack to old, sun-flaring home movies takes the lead; on “Coast to Coast” she goes for pop-punk distortion; on “Dixie Cups and Jars” she chooses hollow-sounding, bluesy strums to anchor distant, tinny riffs. Her lyrics, though, usually delivered in a soft, soothing, almost secretive drawl, as though she were whispering in your ear, have a focus in common, as she wrestles with vivid memories of unhealthy relationships in excruciating, gorgeous detail. Musically and lyrically, each track on Salt is a short-but-sweet time capsule that summons a particular memory of a particular lost time about which Crutchfield sounds half nostalgic and half pleased to be done with. On “Lips and Limbs” she sings “You’re deaf and dumb and I am numb and we’re alone and eighteen,” and that guitar line is aural nostalgia but her words are undercut by a sense of irony; you get the feeling she would change that memory if she could. Same with her words in “Blue Pt. II:” “If you think that I’ll wait forever you were right and I’d give you everything you wanted if I can” – she sounds so hollow and lost that it feels like a fact, but it’s not one that makes her proud.

Then there’s album highlight “Dixie Cups and Jars,” where Crutchfield sings about the grotesque nightmare and existential disappointment of an old friend’s wedding (“makeup sits on your face like tar”). Her minimalist, repetitive guitar gives her voice plenty of room to seethe; every verse seems to end with a line about her need to run away; in the end all she can do is find escape “in aerator bliss,” filling her mason jar to the brim as everyone around her drinks from champagne flutes. She’s disappointed in her newly married friend and in the lost lovers of the record’s other songs, but you get the sense that most profoundly she’s disappointed in herself – “this place is vile and I am vile too,” she belts over simple acoustic strumming on “You’re Damaged.” “My words are ugly and you can’t discern me.” In the end, Crutchfield’s music is hauntingly personal not because it gives you uncomfortably wide a window into her own life but because it provides you with a mirror. Words like “identifiable” get thrown around a lot with reference to a myriad of artists, and Crutchfield isn’t necessarily aiming to delineate any universal truths about love or loss, but what makes Cerulean Salt so enjoyable and so endlessly relistenable is that some of her snapshots likely resemble ones from your own lost photo albums.
--Pretty Much Amazing

I had the chance to see her live this year.

Great show. Her sister's band Swearin' is good, too.

 

[wazoo11]

ASG - I'm surprised more people didn't get into this. If you liked Baroness's Yellow & Green last year, this should be right up your alley

I forgot they put out a new album. Need to check this out.

 

[Ilov80s]

I guess I am one of the only people that listens to rap in these things?

 

[Fly]

My biggest surprise as I was compiling was Phosphorescent, had no idea that album was so popular here.

I was surprised Portugal. the Man ended up as high as it did.

Always a fun read. Thanks again for doing this. I've got a lot of music I need to get caught up on.

 

[Nick Vermeil]

Thanks NV. There are a few in there that escaped me so I have some listening to do.

 

[Brony]

Thanks NV. Awesome job. I liked every album in the top 20 that I've lstened to. Just a few I need to go check out

 

[Northern Voice]

Is that Pearl Jam album any good? I figure if JZilla didn't even vote for it, I can likely pass on it?

 

[mphtrilogy]

Awesome job, thanks!

 

[JZilla]

Is that Pearl Jam album any good? I figure if JZilla didn't even vote for it, I can likely pass on it?

It's fine.. I liked their last two better.. didn't have much staying power with me

Like Reflektor I wouldn't call it a disappointment but I heard plenty of better music from other artists this year.

 

[El Floppo]

56 - The Eels - Wonderful, Glorios - 2 - 28
57 - Sigur Ros - Kveikur - 2 - 28
69 - Palma Violets - 180 - 2 - 23
72 - Foals - Holy Fire - 2 - 21

Thought these would all place in the top 50.

 

[El Floppo]

I have a bunch of picks where I was the only one,which didn't surprise me... but thought somebody else would like Iceage.

 

[kupcho1]

My biggest surprise as I was compiling was Phosphorescent, had no idea that album was so popular here.

# 2 overall for me (to Waxahatchee). Great set of mp3s

 

[Abraham]

120 - Kanye West - Yeezus - 1 - 12

Uh huh, honey

That was me. Pretty surprised no one else gave it any points. It's pretty good. I was also the lone vote for The 1975 and Paul McCartney. I'm going to give a listen to the top50 albums I haven't heard (and there are a lot of them). I'm sure I won't like them all, but I'm looking forward to hearing some great music I missed out on.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Good job NV...Saved this thread for last after my 12 hr shift and thoroughly enjoyed readin thru most of it

There's also plenty to respond too tomorrow

 

[Abraham]

I listened to Phosphorescent and Portugal. The Man this morning. Not my thing. Maybe I'll try again later.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

Only one person voted for Nick Cave? FOR SHAME

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

Good stuff. Thanks NV. Everyone listen to Liquor Store and revote.

 

[Disco Stu]

We should make a spotify playlist out of this. Say each album's top two rankers each pick a song?

 

[D_House]

I've gone legit and pay for my music now, 99% of which is bought through emusic. Needless to say there is a lot here that I haven't heard, so a playlist sounds great.

Spotify - Do I need a program for this? Or is it browser-based?

 

[Abraham]

We should make a spotify playlist out of this. Say each album's top two rankers each pick a song?

this is a good idea. I've listened to each of the albums in the top-10 that I hadn't ever heard before and found them all kind of meh. That's probably because I was listening while working and only had one ear paying attention. Would be nice to have a 50-80 song playlist representing everything.

 

[El Floppo]

I've gone legit and pay for my music now, 99% of which is bought through emusic. Needless to say there is a lot here that I haven't heard, so a playlist sounds great.

Spotify - Do I need a program for this? Or is it browser-based?

It's legit and free (with commercials, or pay for no commercials and mobile device usable). You download their app, and use it like selective radio/play-lists. It has been a major game-changer for me- love it.

 

[El Floppo]

We should make a spotify playlist out of this. Say each album's top two rankers each pick a song?

this is a good idea. I've listened to each of the albums in the top-10 that I hadn't ever heard before and found them all kind of meh. That's probably because I was listening while working and only had one ear paying attention. Would be nice to have a 50-80 song playlist representing everything.

Wouldn't be too hard for all of us to pick a song from each of our picks and make a playlist... right? Could those playlists then be combined into one big playlist?

 

[Disco Stu]

We should make a spotify playlist out of this. Say each album's top two rankers each pick a song?

this is a good idea. I've listened to each of the albums in the top-10 that I hadn't ever heard before and found them all kind of meh. That's probably because I was listening while working and only had one ear paying attention. Would be nice to have a 50-80 song playlist representing everything.

Wouldn't be too hard for all of us to pick a song from each of our picks and make a playlist... right? Could those playlists then be combined into one big playlist?

Someone could do that. He would just have to remove the duplicates.

 

[dal_boys_phan]

Thanks again for putting this together NV.

Here was my ballot - I'm responsible for most of the country album vote getters. I have also put a link to a Spotify playlist of my nominees (and others that I considered).

Also willing to throw together a Spotify list of all of the vote getters if there is any interest.

Spotify Playlist of My Ballot

My 2013 Album of the Year
30 pts. - The Mavericks - In Time
I listened to this album solely because of the 2013 album thread and I
am so glad that I did. A perfect combination of snappy songs (Back In
Your Arms Again, Lies, Dance In The Moonlight) to slower tunes
(Amsterdam Moon, In Another's Arms, Fall Apart) led by vocals from the
remarkable Raul Malo, this album shows what we were missing during
their eight year hiatus. A great album whether you listen to it
straight through or on shuffle - let's hope that we don't have to wait
eight years for the next one.

My Other Finalists
27 pts. - Jason Isbell - Southeastern
25 pts. - Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
22 pts. - Mayer Hawthorne - Where Does This Door Go

My Other Nominees
18 pts. - Fall Out Boy - Save Rock And Roll
15 pts. - Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer Different Park
15 pts. - Eric Church - Caught In The Act (Live)
15 pts. - Ashley Monroe - Like A Rose
13 pts. - The Airborne Toxic Event - Such Hot Blood
10 pts. - Brandy Clark - 12 Stories
5 pts. - Luke Bryan - Crash My Party
5 pts. - Keith Urban - Fuse

 

[dal_boys_phan]

We should make a spotify playlist out of this. Say each album's top two rankers each pick a song?

this is a good idea. I've listened to each of the albums in the top-10 that I hadn't ever heard before and found them all kind of meh. That's probably because I was listening while working and only had one ear paying attention. Would be nice to have a 50-80 song playlist representing everything.

Wouldn't be too hard for all of us to pick a song from each of our picks and make a playlist... right? Could those playlists then be combined into one big playlist?

Very easy to do if the links are shared. I'm willing to put together a massive playlist of all vote getting albums AND the pick two from each album, but won't get to tackle it until this weekend.

 

[Ilov80s]

I have s 2013 playlist where I put 2 songs for each album I like, there's 130 albums on it. Most of them are represented on the top 50 of this countdown... I am pretty sure I have linked to it in a few spots on the board. I can repost if people want.

 

[El Floppo]

(linked my spotify playlist, but it has my name on it... no good- how do I seperate my info from the playlist?)

My ballot:

1. Amason: EP (Dammit- it's an EP, but it's the only thing this year that I can't shake)

2. Parquet Courts: LIght up Gold

3. Savages:Silence Yourself (love)

4. Foxygen: We are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic

5. Kurt Vile: Walkin' on a Pretty Daze

6. Portugal the Man: Evil Friends

7. The Eels: Wonderful, Glorious

8. Ice Age: You're Nothing

9. Foals: Holy Fire

10. Sigur Ros: Kveikur

11. Yo La Tengo: Fade

12. Chelsea Light Moving: Chelsea Light Moving

13. Deafheaven: Sunbather

14. Palma Violets: 180

15. Girls Names: The New Life

16. James Blake: Overgrown

17. Cayucas: Bigfoot (Vampire Weekend wannabees, but ok at it)

18. The Men: New Moon

19. The Julie Ruin: Run Fast (Le Tigre reincarnated)

20. Anna Meredith: Black Prince Fury/Jet Black Raider

 

[Fly]

In the interest of full disclosure (although, I'm not sure how many people care):

30: Deafheaven - "Sunbather"

25: Vampire Weekend - "Modern Vampyres of the City"

22: Portugal. the Man - "Evil Friends"

22: Arctic Monkeys - "AM"

20: Arcade Fire - "Reflektor"

17: Phosphorescent - "Muchacho"

15: CHVRCHES - "The Bones of What You Believe"

10: Foals - "Holy Fire"

10: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "II"

8: Junip - "Junip"

5: The National - "Trouble Will Find Me"

5: Mutual Benefit - "Love's Crushing Diamond"

5: Darkside - "Psychic"

3: Typhoon - "White Lighter"

3: Waxahatchee - "Cerulean Salt"

 

[cstu]

#35

Drenge - Drenge

35 Points, 2 Votes, 2 Top 5 Votes

Ranked Highest By: JZilla & Eephus

Album Review: When preparing to listen to a band with a name like Drenge, you’re not exactly going to be expecting a relaxing aural massage to provide some low-key R+R for your lobes and drums from the get go. It’s onomatopoeia in a sense: ‘drenge’ could easily be a verb, and if you were to define it, it would certainly involve bringing down a crescendo of energy-efficient, dirty aggression onto an unsuspecting bystander. In reality, the word is actually the Danish for ‘boys’, but that isn’t to say you won’t feel like you’ve been on the receiving end of an intense ‘drenging’ after wrapping your ears around this superb debut record.


Drenge have come along firmly within a honeypot of drums/guitar duos that can boast varying degrees of acclaim (and blues) from the past 12 months. It would be premature to draw comparisons that are too intrinsic to the pioneers of the motif, but there is a definite witchcraft in the superbly-surnamed Loveless brothers that divulges a feral, completely uncultivated rockslide with a sensationally intelligent membrane that plays peek-a-boo within the swathes of untamed recoil. These two come from a sleepy village in the Peak District, and it’s definitely safe to say that their music will be the filthiest thing to have ever found itself in their postcode.

The record itself is ultimately a plethora of influences alchemized into an advancing hazard that blitzes everything in its path. It’s frantically fast and races from track to track, with lyrics that do not beat anywhere remotely close to the perimeters of a bush. Opening track People In Love Make Me Feel Yuck amalgamates a blues-laden riff (that Josh Homme would positively salivate over), with a frenzy of crashing cymbals, all whilst Eoin Loveless groans simplistic gear-grinders with obscene grit. Dogmeat is in the same bracket, and you would be hard pushed to find out whether the first two tracks of Drenge, or Eiffel 65’s debut single, had more blues. Each track gives way to its successor around the 2-minute mark, making the onslaughts bitesize and wondrously easy to digest.

Drenge is littered with sardonically charged bursts on what’s wrong with the world, but it’s not a case of the duo taking themselves too seriously, or punctuating their streams with the overbearing self-loathing of your grunge imitators. Rory and Eoin Loveless have smashed the nail’s head into smithereens on this front, almost taking the proverbial piss out of such trivial quantities. The noteworthy tracks that continue to arrive at a furious rate of knots give a crude insight further and further into their repertoire. I Want To Break You In Half and Bloodsports are equipped with DIY-fitted chugs that are mainlined into your bloodstream, maintaining the ceaseless acceleration that will “make you run to the hills / make you piss your pants.” Remember that bush we mentioned?

This debut LP is 100% raw, but it’s that sardonic, exquisite wit which works in a thoroughly inconspicuous manner that makes the urgency dynamic. The riffs remain untamed and bestial, no more so than in Face Like A Skull, which channels everything from a Bleach-era Cobain-esque cocktail of riffs to a stream of lyrics that display supremely the brilliant cynical satire of two ethereal minds. Drenge does not stop accelerating, increasing the strength of its dose all the while, until it’s closing track. Contextually appropriately titled ####about displays a delightful chord progression strummed at an alarmingly slow pace. The title of the track says it all, but whether inadvertently or not, it shows another, tranquillizing string to the duo’s bow, but nevertheless increases the sardonic intensity right until the very end.

Drenge’s debut is excellent, and it will no doubt have you appropriately ‘drenged’. The tracks, bar an 8-minute thrash and a frightful, ironic change of tact in the closing stages, are confined to 2-minute onslaughts that don’t offer a break to catch your breath. Its brash, brutish façade accelerates in a way that keeps the commendable aphorism hidden at a glance, but its intensity is an infectious science, alchemizing its influences into a championing 37-minute mass movement. They even made an appearance in a Labour MP’s open resignation letter following a scintillating set in a tiny tent at Glastonbury. They couldn’t have cared less…
-- No Ripcord

 

[Eephus]

#35

Drenge - Drenge

35 Points, 2 Votes, 2 Top 5 Votes

Ranked Highest By: JZilla & Eephus

Mrs eephus & I are going to see Drenge on Friday

 

[Jefferson the Caregiver]

Surprised by no Ty Segall or Fuzz.. seemed like everybody liked Fuzz but I guess none of us liked it THAT much. Similarly surprised at no FIDLAR. Some people loved that..

Checked this thread to see if Fuzz got mentioned. I guess this is better than nothing. It holds up really well for me, would have been one of my tops from last year.