ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

I spent a week with the Foxing album in the car and realized it wasn't my thing.

Oooh I had no idea Wye Oak put out an album this year. Didn't catch that on other lists. Love that artwork.

Nearer My God title track is good. Reminds me a bit of early Band of Horses in its soaring vocals and anthemic drumming. Need to spend more time with that album.

Huh, I didn't even know this existed (and I too loved the last EP).

The 'Heavily Lined' video is pretty great, though on first listen I can't hear what in particular raises these guys above similar noisy rock stuff - I definitely like it enough to sample more, though.

Wye Oak my #2, I think. Looks like all 8 people who rated it on their thread voted for it.

I can't hear what in particular raises these guys above similar noisy rock stuff

play my final card: they have a full-time analogue synth player in the band :D

Wow! Love this album so much. I think it's a step forward from the first one, which was pretty great itself. This has been in my heavy rotation since it came out.

oh cool i had totally forgot about this dominique dumont album...

like this one a lot esp 'sans cesse...'

that's 3 of my votes in this stretch after none yesterday maybe i haven't gotten as desynced from the board as i thought

https://i.imgur.com/vthRgkK.jpg
#53: Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love - 254 points – 7 votes

TJ Kliebhan: "Ordinary Corrupt Human Love has moving, emotional pieces and sharp performances bolstered by a band clearly stretching out of its comfort zone successfully. The album is a refreshing new shade of their sound without abandoning the band’s core mechanics."

Rob Hakimian: "They’ve experimented with vocals, concentrated their musical chemistry, further polished their production, and tweaked their songwriting so that the transitions between movements in their songs are less sheer cliff-faces of fury and more lithe passages. All this, combined with some of the best songs they’ve ever written, makes Ordinary Corrupt Human Love the band’s most irrefutable credential as a leader in modern Rock."

xps I loved Comme Ca but totally missed that they had a new one. Will have a listen.

deafheaven album ruined for me when i realized the drummer plays the same fill one thousand times in each song

this finishing above the armed has gotten y'all the imago frown

it's a good fill brad

it is still their most interesting record so far, maybe the next one will be great xp

liked this album a lot but didn't quite make my ballot

I agree that the fill is good

Decent album, predictably diminishing returns.

can't get past the corny melodies but ach if it's a gateway drug i'll take it

Was disappointed in the Deafheaven after their last album and single but perhaps didn't give it enough of a fair chance.

the corny melodies are the reason i like it! i hope they get cornier!

I adored the Domenique Dumont first album. This one I haven't really given enough of a chance but on a surface skim sounds a little more grounded? Maybe a little less unique and more tying into other music that exists along side it?

Anyway, if anything it led to me making a mix and starting a night based on 16bit beachside vibes https://soundcloud.com/clubstoic/club-stoic

I think I’ve been mixing up Deafheaven and Wolves in the Throne Room this whole time and I only remember again when listening.

lol

I couldn't even be bothered to hate-listen to this one

So happy The Armed got in - my number ten! Their music sounds like a DIY punk comic festival

Loving the Wye Oak! They always have such nice balance of textures, blending organic rock and electronic instruments more fluidly than most - piano and synth interplay on It Was Not Natural is a good example.

Feels like a band that's outlived its moment among critics. Looked again and only found it at the bottom of Mojo's list.

wait, is Domenique Dumont a band then?

Deafheaven reached peak melodic corniness with that one (admittedly great) song with the chord progression that sounded like 'Lavender' by Marillion.

the armed record is good but like... i sure do know why i didn't vote for it

https://i.imgur.com/zG8Rttz.jpg
#52: Noname - Room 25 - 257 points – 11 votes

Briana Younger: "The Chicago rapper’s second album is a transcendent coming-of-age tale built around cosmic jazz and neo-soul, delivered by a woman deeply invested in her interiority and that of the world around her."

Ural Garrett: "Noname overwhelmingly succeeds in telling her coming-of-age story where she removes all emotional layers to explore everything from comical socio-political ideology to sexuality minus self-serving preachiness."

the armed record is good but like... i sure do know why i didn't vote for it

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 9:41 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is indeed way better than the deafheaven though

wait, is Domenique Dumont a band then?

― frame casual (dog latin)

Apparently they're a duo... with a third unnamed collaborator?

mysterious tropical chillwave group Domenique Dumont — now revealed to be Latvian duo Arturs Liepins + Anete Stuce, with the help of “an enigmatic French artist whose existence cannot be confirmed nor denied

I regretted not voting for this so I'm v glad it placed!

Perhaps it's deliberate on their part, but 'Domenique' is faux-French.

Didn't have room for Noname but I think I can safely say it'll be the best 'name your price' album in the countdown.

voted for Noname, but if i see another fucking review mention the "my pussy wrote a thesis on colonialism" line, im gonna flip the shit

Pretty OT, but I'm listening to the albums list and just realized Andrew W.K. is basically a 'roided out Neil Diamond.

there are lots and lots of good lines on the album

xp to me

i didn't like this noname as much as the last one but it's good

The Noname album is another good record I need to spend more time with.

telefone is better, but it's better than most things

https://i.imgur.com/MiKTyxW.jpg
#51: Boygenius - Boygenius EP - 260 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote

Natalia Barr: "Within such a short span of time, boygenius manages to cover universal experiences of insecurity and perpetual, sometimes funny sadness, along with more individual situations like the instability of touring, all with the same specificity, cleverness, and dreamlike melodies that could not have come from anyone else, nor could it have come from these musicians individually."

Tony Inglis: "The EP from the supergroup made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus widens the horizons of each artist while simultaneously nailing down what makes each one of them unique."

I kept trying to get into the Noname album, but it just felt kinda slight and sketch-like.

good album but not as essential as either phoebe bridgers or julien baker's solo stuff imo

disagree, it's absolutely on par

significantly better than the second JB album! I saved my vote for "Bite the Hand"

also, best live show I saw last year

voted for Noname, but if i see another fucking review mention the "my pussy wrote a thesis on colonialism" line, im gonna flip the shit

― simmy simmy ya, simmy yam simmy yay (voodoo chili), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 1

boygenius ep maybe slightly less good than the lucy dacus record that came out this year but overall an embarrassment of riches for an ep