ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

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

Never listened to Boygenius because of that dumb Pitchfork headline.

i haven't heard the dacus record i should def check it out

Dacus record is great and I feel bad that I didn't vote for it

Great EP.

boygenius discussion here:
Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle, my god

(Paul Ponzi's post still makes me laugh, sorry.)

oh yeah this is already def my thing 30 seconds into the first track why didn't i listen to this before / vote for this?

this is already feeling like getting to the bridgers album a year late

congrats mordy, historian is amazing

i didn't vote for it either but like... my top 25 is stacked imo, it was hard

i listened to "night shift" the other day and was just extremely knocked out over what a great piece of songwriting it is

https://i.imgur.com/8B6pmLe.jpg
#50: Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood - 260 points – 10 votes - 1 first place vote

Nina Posner: ""What works reliably is to know the raw silk, hold the uncut wood," says Ursula Le Guin in her translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Inspired by this sentiment, as well as Halo's time scoring a film for the Dutch art collective Metahaven, the more abstract aspects of Raw Silk Uncut Wood allow her to establish moods that are at once non-prescriptive and immediately visceral."

Jordan Bassett: "There’s no vocal on the record: having defined her trademark sound on ‘Dust’, Halo has set out to confound one more – perhaps indicating that her music’s as playful as her persona after all."

great record

Really surprised to see Noname this low. Such a great album. My third vote to place.

Haven't checked out the Domenique Dumont album yet. Le Soleil Dans Le Monde was one of the standouts on the Spotify playlist. Agree with the people about how great the EP was from a couple of years ago.

I couldn't really get into Boygenius as much as I wanted to. That goes for the solo work of Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers too (beyond a couple of tracks). I really came round to the Lucy Dacus album in December. Wonder if she has a chance of making it? I thought Night Shift would be on the tracks list for sure.

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 11:47 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yes seeing this line quoted again and again like it was genius may have turned me on the album, which I wanted to like after Telefone

I can't imagine Dacus outranking the Boygenius EP :(

Lots of albums today I vaguely remember being released that I didn't hear much about and consequently slept on.

I can't imagine Dacus outranking the Boygenius EP :(

― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 10:06 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can, if only bc it appeared on 100000 year-end lists

Didn't vote for Noname in the end - it felt very slight and I didn't revisit enough. It's probably me.

The Boygenius record is fantastic; the first of mine to place.

Would I like Lucy Dacus if I like Pheobe Bridgers and one of the songs off the Boygenius ep that I heard in my dads car on 6music that one time?

Phoebe Bridgers solo album is in hindsight my favorite album of 2017. Instead I got a 2018 listening to that for the first time AND the Boygenius work.

Boygenius EP very much feels like an EP, it lacks heft and mass, but it's great, sometimes amazing. They fit together but obviously work very differently with sounds and lyrics, Bridgers blunt specificity, Baker's epic gloom, it's a potent mix and I think they can do even greater things together later on.

haha same here re hearing it a year late. I blame mordy.

wish i enjoyed that laurel halo more but it didn't really stick for me at all

why do you blame me? i'm on the same schedule as all ya'all. blame brad.

ok lj "apperception" -> "parody warning" -> "fortune's daughter" is a hell of a run

wish there was a little more space in the opening three tracks and maybe generally

i talk about all of these records in the years they come out, pay attention

https://i.imgur.com/YIk5rrs.jpg
#49: The Breeders - All Nerve - 267 points – 10 votes

Thomas Britt: "All Nerve possesses all of the mysterious tones of Title TK, and the execution is by the same group of musicians that enjoyed mainstream success with the multiple single-spawning Last Splash. One could call it the best of both worlds, but under Kim Deal's guiding vision, it's all one world. This album is another confident step into that world."

Ed Jump: "Sure, it may have been ten years, but it’s another success. It’s a reminder of why The Breeders are so highly rated, and holds its own against their previous albums and EPs. It’s an album you want to play again before it’s even finished, before revisiting their other albums."

toooooo looooooow

my #5

my favorite breeders album

so fuckin' good, I played two tracks from this on the radio yesterday

excellent!

GOOD MORNING

It's definitely an improvement over Title TK and Mountain Battles. I got a bit burned out on it when it came out after hearing it at work so many times. Probably time to revisit.

I loved the Foxing album despite the emo-y vox

"Slapstick" is a great tune

voted for this one, too low

This is my favorite Laurel Halo album by a quite a bit. I love the jazzy moods she explores. Reminds me a bit of Miles Davis stuff like "He Loved Him Madly"

ooh interest piqued

Does she sing on this one?

no

Then I'll have to check it out. I very much enjoyed Chance of Rain.

Yeah, her singing was kind of a dealbreaker for me in the past.

https://i.imgur.com/mv6YOe0.jpg
#48: Sleep - The Sciences - 270 points – 8 votes

Trystan MacDonald: "To the sober ear, the drawn-out chugging riffs, which are the foundation of the band's sound, come off as stretched and border dangerously on the verge of repetition. But stoned, those riffs are ploughing the fields of your mind, pulling you into a deep hypnotic state washing everything away with rich distortion."

Grayson Haver Currin: "The essential trick of The Sciences—and the reason it feels like more than an overdue cash-in—is these 40something dudes have managed to grow up without growing old. Their minds are still focused on weed and the escape that it offers, but that’s just the gag; these riffs, rhythms, and the mantra-like singing of Al Cisneros are a drug unto themselves, evidence of a band that’s improved upon their animating idea."