ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

"all end" and "smoko" so close together makes me smile

"Plaything" = best use of "fait accompli" in a pop song

I love the dedication to getting Roisin in these lists year after year. It's what she deserves!

Truly!

I’m crying a lot,tiredness.I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall.I make good and surprising records,I kill myself to make visual,in which I prove it’s about ideas and soul because god forbid anyone should give me a budget.But I get indifference in the industry.

— Roisin Murphy (@roisinmurphy) July 4, 2018

production on the roisin is wonderful - so much fun listening to the various synth lines and then those drums just swing like hell. and then roisin bossing it on top, it's just fucking majestic

Plaything always makes cute babes dance extra hard

I couldn't decide which Róisín track to vote for, so I voted for none lol

I like that she is online pals with Limmy

i had trouble deciding between róisín tracks too but imo this is the one xp

so not only could i not find an ilx thread to the #50 song or artist, I couldn't even find mention of the song anywhere! Somebody want to show me where the discussion is happening?

http://i.imgur.com/pBo9Aj1.jpg

50: Die Wilde Jagd – “2000 Elefanten” – 192 points – 8 votes – 1 first place vote
video

Voted for Plaything although it could easily have been something from her ten years ago really. The tracks with Koze were both his and her best work last year.

what the hell i come back from lunch and my fuckin number one placed in the 50s

geyser is indeed colossal i agree with me

also it isn't vote splitting if you vote for more thna one mitski song *guy tapping head dot jpg*

Haha yesssssss, this was almost in my top ten. Monstrous. Gets better every time I play it. Feels like a classic

poll is definitely a lot wilder today. this autechre means I might actually get some work done now too

(xp i admit, i assumed his HAD to be an LJ thing)

what is THIS

my first place!

i think

clearly this is lj's day

really can't remember whether i voted for this or not but i v much approve

oh I remember this record now. this stuff is cool

instant classic, a true testament to the 70s german scene

Didn't get much out of the album as a whole but this is def a highlight.

i hast not heard this

it's appealingly creepy tho

who'd have thought the band featuring Professor Snape and Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun would be creepy

I could take or leave the rest of the album but this song is alchemy

haha

xp

rare moment when my taste intersects with imago's. it works better in the context of the album imo but i voted for it

It was a triumph for the time travel thread I think? tt alerted me to its excellence

http://i.imgur.com/REKeY4q.jpg

49: Hop Along – “How Simple” – 195 points – 5 votes
video

hop along: bark your head off, dog

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=25047

I feel like it’s almost a music critic rite-of-passage to describe Frances Quinlan’s voice — usually something like “Janis Joplin and [other artist] thrown into a blender,” but she sounds like the choppy, whirring blender itself. At this point, much like Sam Herring around the time Future Islands broke through, she’s not only established her voice, she’s manipulated it to switch between different modes. Herring has the Tom Jones / Tom Waits dichotomy, but Frances goes between typical scratchiness and a beautiful, rarely-deployed falsetto in the chorus. She’s definitely a focal point of the song, but also farther back in the mix than expected; Mark Quinlan’s steady drums are in the front. It seems like a strange choice, but towards the end, when the band is chanting “We will both find out / just not together,” the focus on rhythm suddenly makes sense. By the time the acoustic guitar comes in during that extended outro, the song reveals itself as the three-and-a-half-minute pop song it’s been the whole time. They snuck a minor masterpiece right under our noses. – Joshua Copperman

A lot of slacker indie rock from the ’90s provides a sort of headspace that reminds me of the frustrations I have with all my aspirations being thwarted by my own laziness or lack of ability. It can leave me paralyzed, wavering between embittered anger and complete numbness. “How Simple” fills me with those exact feelings. Even worse, I find many of the song’s parts incongruous and think the whole thing is poorly structured. And yet, hearing Quinlan repeat that one line — “Don’t worry, we will both find out, just not together” — snaps everything into place. More accurately, it leaves everything as is and posits that I needn’t stress out so much. I don’t know if I can, but that line makes me believe it’s possible. – Joshua Minsoo Kim

i came across die wilde jagd thanks to the ralf beck/offen music label connection

is roisin only getting one placement? for some reason felt like 'all my dreams' would be the consensus choice

was worried hop along would be a victim of vote-splitting. love this song, love this album, voted for a different track.

don't worry, we will both find out, just not together

we will find out.
here i am again.
at the reserve to drink.

My #2, Hop Along were the only people to make both my tracks and albums ballot, there was no way I could leave this song off.

I would have voted for 2000 Elefanten. feel a bit like ILM played a small part in contributing to these guys' success. Their album is perfect and their live act formidable.

this was not my hop along vote but 'tis a fine thing

"all end" is reminding me of my brother's college radio show "Is That Music or the Vacuum Cleaner?"

I knew 2000 Elefanten from Andrew Weatherall playing it on his NTS show

http://i.imgur.com/0YMchAW.jpg

48: The 1975 – “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)” – 196 points – 6 votes
video

the 1975

I immediately burst into tears at the chorus. – BradNelson

That chorus is incredible. It's a kind of power ballad meets some Britpop album closer from the late 90s… I feel bad saying this, but I get Mansun vibes from his falsetto. – kitchen person

lol what's up!!!!

Ain't mad at this

I voted for this! glad it made it.

How Simple ended up as my number two. Incredible song by a band that just seems to be getting better and better.

Oh wow! I really didn't know which 1975 tracks would make it. This is definitely up there with the best. So glad they got the ending to the album right this time round.

I went from thinking this was ill-advised to brilliant over the course of just a few listens

strings are very nice, and i love the subtle minor-chord substitutions throughout. it's not living was my 75 jam of choice this year, but this one was close behind (along with inside your mind)

all end is fine in a monolithic way but as a lot of people said, absolutely not what I come to Autechre for.

Impressed that Smoko did so well. I kicked off the summer jams thread with it, expecting it to be ripped to shreds but instead it was roundly ignored (at least in terms of follow up posts). I like it enough but maybe wouldn't have voted for it. Novelty punk treads a fine line mind