ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

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https://i.imgur.com/HYbVoxi.jpg
#60: Mount Eerie – Now Only - 234 points – 8 votes

Sam Cleeve: "Like its predecessor, Now Only lays profoundly bare Elverum’s grief. But although it is often an excruciating listen, it also finds room to step, however briefly, outside of the agony that marked its predecessor, if just for long enough to suggest that Elverum is, somehow, beginning to find some relief in the unbearable."

Alexis Petridis: "Now Only is an album it’s hard to imagine anyone listening to for pleasure: it’s incredibly brave and hugely--understandably--self-indulgent. What it does, unequivocally, is tell the truth, albeit a profoundly uncomfortable one."

I found this less painful to listen to than the previous, maybe because it shows him moving on to a slightly less raw stage of grieving, and finds room for a little more humor/lightness. I'm very glad these albums exist.

This feels like a good placement for it

Listening to the previous one felt a little too intrusive for comfort. I haven't checked out his other albums.

the sort of music that is obviously good but quite difficult to listen to more than once

he seems more chipper these days at least, so good for him

I found this less painful to listen to than the previous, maybe because it shows him moving on to a slightly less raw stage of grieving, and finds room for a little more humor/lightness.

Yeah I only made it through A Crow Looked at Me once but found this much easier to connect with. Great record.

also, these albums vs recent Kozelek are a great a case study in how basically the same approach (confessional, diary-like lyrics over ambling instrumentals) can be great or unlistenable depending on execution

this might be my favourite album by phil now

massively underrated compared to a crow looked at me and so much more expansive. aclam was so stark i can barely listen to it as music, just appreciate it vaguely from a distance. now only still has death and grief at its centre but with the passing of time it has much more swirling around the outside too. the music is also great and mostly takes the form of meditative epics but it's the simple things like when that first finger picking pattern comes in on tintin in Tibet that i love the most

aclam

a silly acronym for a very very serious album

he cited benji as a major lyrical influence on these last two albums and massively improved on it

https://i.imgur.com/BxG8o49.jpg
#59: Burna Boy – Outside - 240 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote

Burna Boy – OUTSIDE (2018)

Claire Lobenfeld: "Where WizKid softens some of the edges of Afrobeats, making the genre more familiar to newcomers, Burna’s output is more kaleidoscopic. It makes Outside a fine lesson in mixing genres without making mud."

a pretty cool album that i didn't vote for. "Calm Down" was the highlight for me and cements jae5 as one of the best producers around these days

ufo otm about now only, which is really too tender and personal a record for this bantersome thread but!: seeing the sparse devastation of a crow looked at me thaw into this, which eases in some elements of older mount eerie/microphones but still has the clear-eyed directness of the last album, and seeing the care with which he has held himself throughout, has filled me with a humbled gratitude and a deep, real hope. "two paintings by nikolai astrup" is the standout.

ooo this is great. fantastic list so far this year kudos ilm. i was loving kero kero last night.

None of my favourites have made it so far but it's all been quite good overall, barring a record or two.

burna! first of my votes to place. record ruled my life in december

iirc I was the #1 for this, so obligatory TOO LOW but also yay!

Hailu Mergia is sounding pretty great.

https://i.imgur.com/ZI49J6h.jpg
#58: Jon Hopkins – Singularity - 240 points – 10 votes

Landon Macdonald: "Singularity is the follow up every fan would hope for. It's larger; it's denser; it's quicker. It’s a 63-minute microhouse masterpiece. It rebroadcasts Hopkins’ sound as a more atmospheric, clearer vision. Whether its an improvement upon Immunity isn’t important — it’s a definite refinement."

Ben Hogwood: "Building on the innovations of previous album Immunity, it invests more emotionally and retains the primal physical stimulus behind Hopkins’ best music. He remains a wholly individual voice in a congested field, a single phrase played from his piano speaking volumes. And Singularity is his best album yet."

Yeah, at least it placed!

xp
I wonder if the exact same nine people voted in the Outside poll thread

Burna that is

that emerald pulse song was good enough but i dunno if i could take a whole album of that stuff

i think the hailu is my only vote that placed. (i say think bc i didn't save my ballot and now i don't really remember what i voted for)

[so far]

jon hopkins places: I sleep

like jon hopkins though this record doesn't really do anything that the previous one didn't do and this one doesn't have 'sun harmonics' on it so it's the lesser

burna boy is sounding spirited rn

Yeah, I thought the extremely low placing of “Ye” especially meant that all these people had put Outside extra high on their album ballot, so this placing is quite disappointing —- but yay, at least it did place (I think I had it as my #2).

(xps to rob)

Charlie Puth.

How credible.

Curious about the Jon Hopkins. I loved the track that placed in the Tracks 77.

Enjoying Outside after two or three listens although 'Ye' is still very much the highlight for me.

didn't really discover Outside until around the time of the voting thread, would've voted for it if I had started listening earlier

I thought the Jon Hopkins album as good as it was didn’t reach the heights of the Skee Mask

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Yeah I thought Outside had escaped the rolling thread bubble, but it's ok. Maybe there's no connection between them, but I wonder if this means Popcaan won't be appearing at all, or Simmy?

https://i.imgur.com/YjjDZ9k.jpg
#57: Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs - 243 points – 8 votes

Wye Oak

Evan Lilly: "It’s hard not to fully engulf yourself in what they’re producing at this point. Far too many bands have been faced with panic in the face of progression, and under the pressure hurry themselves into something forgettable. Not Wye Oak: they gracefully ride the crest of change, and the confidence it affords them is apparent – they execute a particular mood that evokes and generates presence."

A.V. Club: "This is Wye Oak drawing as much from the looping, hypnotic compositions of Terry Riley as it is Beach House and Björk, and while some of the headier experiments fail to rise above their inherent monotony, the results are usually singularly beautiful and beautifully dense."

I really need to give this album a proper listen, enjoyed the previous two a lot

Seeing Wye Oak on here makes me hopeful a related album shows up too.

the last 3 songs are my favorite part of this one