ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

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#69: Ghost – Prequelle - 214 points – 6 votes

Ghost (or Ghost B.C. or w/e) -- Swedish Pop Metal in Satan's Service

Adrien Begrand: “Underneath the catchy melodies and snazzy artwork, Ghost have created one of the cleverest heavy metal records in recent memory.”

Dave Everley: “Satanic metal meets shameless pop on Swedish faux cultists’ crowning glory.”

Not quite as good as the last one but endearingly garish in its own way

xxp that's how i felt about Everything's Fine too, not for me at all

Bonet album is losing me a little after a decent start - kind of coasting by on atmosphere. Oh Ghost, I still need to hear this

Surprisingly low but the ilm rock/metal contingent has shrunk over the past few years

imago did you listen to any of the metal poll spotify playlist?

not yet

I have a friend who's been talking to me about Ghost for ages and ages, and I keep smiling to him and never heard a note of them. Melodic / hardcore swedish metal or whatever doesn't seem very appealing. That's a cool metal cover I must say.

Ghost is the furthest thing from hardcore.

It's Europop in metal's clothing tbh

as long as we're talking metal

I keep forgetting people take this band seriously.

This isn't sounding good tbh

Maybe they just like fun (I wouldn't know anything about that tbf).

xp

as long as we're talking metal

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, February 4, 2019 12:06 PM (forty-three seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

from maine to san diego
mattingly and canseco!

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#68: YOB – Our Raw Heart – 214 points – 8 votes – 1 first place vote

YOB

Jimmy Hubbard: “YOB’s music on Our Raw Heart doesn’t settle for truisms. The beauty is of a rough sort, shot through with the residue of suffering. It’s a record by a mature band, setting itself to a serious task.”

Thom Jurek: “These seven songs -- totaling some 73 minutes -- are some of the most trying and beautiful material to emerge from extreme music in some time. This is doom metal possessed of hope.”

Another vote of mine. I don't really like the album tho, just the marketing hook.

Biographical storytelling aside, they could use a new singer.

imago, there's some proggy instrumental stuff in there that might be up your alley. See "Miasma" and "Helvetesfonster".

Wednesday Campanella only one of mine so far. I meant to check out the Jean Grae & Quelle Chris record and go back to Senyawa (not sure I ever heard the whole thing but like the stuff I have heard), but didn't get round to them in time.

I guess the Ghost here is the Scando one? Album cover is fun.

Charlie Puth will always be that dickhead who did the terrible song with Meghan Trainor, I'm just going to remain perplexed and boggling at ilx for voting for him rather than dip a toe in this potentially lethal water.

way too low

Bold use of saxophone on the Ghost album

Puth-Trainor is a human rights violation but the album is solid pop, emil.y.

drugs a money doesn't seem to be here to promote his poll so here goes
The 2018 ILX Metal n' Heavy Rock Poll VOTING + CAMPAIGNING thread! Ballots due Saturday, Feb. 9th!

I like Yob

fake Ghost is possibly the worst rock band of the modern era

I had never heard Charlie Puth in my life (despite him having one 1B and one 2B views song) and it seems I had been lucky that way.
I'd like a Jean Grae album. A little more focused and a little less "abstract" than this one. Still the diversity here isn't a bad thing and it's well produced.

The notion that Yob need a new vocalist is insane to me

crazy talk indeed

I would actually entertain that argument for Ghost tho

oh man, I've been completely sleeping on Ghost, haven't I? Think I was put off by the thread title. Zeroed in on the satan part rather than the pop part.

yob should get ian gillan as a vocalist

and change their name to GOB

their album before this one and their first album are their best but this ones only a notch down from that. I think all their albums have made the 77 albums poll?

I wonder if Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats will place. They usually make the 77. 1st album was top 10 iirc

and change their name to GOB

― my name is leee john, for we are many (NickB), Monday, February 4, 2019 12:28 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i've made a huge mistake

Question for ulysses and seandalai what percentage of ballots are unweighted and each album gets equal points?

That was like 6 years ago, though. EOY voter pool is considerably different now. xps

xp seandalai can answer that; he's the stats guy

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#67: Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth - 216 points – 10 votes

Kamasi Washington - The Epic

Hank Shteamer: “A sprawling, eclectic set that ranges from the slightly tepid to the truly transcendent.”

Chris Ingalls: “It takes a musician, composer, and arranger of Washington's caliber to take these ideas and form them into a brilliant collection of performances.”

Very nearly voted for this, it's great and better than his previous stuff imo

remind me, how many albums are we rolling out per day?

I haven't spent as much time with this album as I should have but I'm glad to see it place. It had a much more 70s fusion vibe than the debut.

xp, 16 today and moka will find her own process

I wish Kamasi Washington didn't sound like such a throwback to me. I want to hear something new in jazz.

imago you prefer the fusion synthy whooshing of this album to The Epic?

haven't managed to listen to this whole thing yet, but fists of fury is the right kind of overwhelming

Oh, good. Thought this might get 78'd. In my top 10 for 2018. I connected with this a lot more than The Epic.

the fauxtary connection vibes drew me to the bonet but i never ended up spending a ton of time with it

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#66: Hailu Mergia – Lala Belu - 221points – 10 votes

Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2018 Thread Once Known as World Music

Jazz Monroe: “Seventy-one and flourishing, the keyboard maestro has radically updated an oeuvre that already sounded like the future, and in doing so, he makes it sound contemporary.”

Neil Spencer: “At one level it’s the record of a traditional jazz trio, with drummer Tony Buck and bassist Mike Majkowski backing Mergia’s keyboards, and at times Mergia’s swirling Hammond organ shows his debt to the jazz-funk of Jimmy Smith. Yet Mergia’s approach is often unorthodox.”

"fauxtary connection" is v good

Having just relistened to Childqueen, there's a dip in energy level early on that could be a turn-off. I can also def see it being too placid for people.

If all the jazz I voted for places in a row now that would be dope