ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

I think the US Girls album will be in there, probably Christine & The Queens as well. Has the Rolling Blackouts album placed yet?

it hasn't and I could see it making it in soon. I don't think US Girls are gonna make it :/

Chris will definitely make it and i would really hope US Girls are too

oh i would have that MAH wudda made the tracks

no one else has said much in its favour but I love how elegantly understated devotion is. at times it feels very interior, conversations being rehearsed and thought over rather than reported. it's quite oblique in how its presented, with flat affect giving way to vulnerability and then dreaming off again. it's not really like anything else I've heard and it's easily my fav thing mica levi has been involved in, such a good pairing

for anyone who needed a recap

77: Amen Dunes – Freedom - 189 points – 7 votes
76: Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel - 190 points – 7 votes – 1 first place vote
75: Charlie Puth – Voicenotes - 192 points – 6 votes – 1 first place vote
74: Jean Grae & Quelle Chris – Everything’s Fine - 202 points – 11 votes
73: Senyawa – Sujud - 204 points – 6 votes
72: Wednesday Campanella – Galapagos - 206 points – 7 votes
71: Kero Kero Bonito – Time ‘n’ Place - 208 points – 8 votes
70: Kadhja Bonet – Childqueen - 208 points – 9 votes
69: Ghost – Prequelle - 214 points – 6 votes
68: YOB – Our Raw Heart – 214 points – 8 votes – 1 first place vote
67: Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth - 216 points – 10 votes
66: Hailu Mergia – Lala Belu - 221 points – 10 votes
65: Skee Mask – Compro - 225 points – 9 votes
64: Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – Dirt - 227 points – 8 votes
63: Mariah Carey – Caution - 228 points – 11 votes
62: Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy - 230 points – 10 votes
61: Andrew WK – You’re Not Alone - 233 points – 8 votes – 1 first place vote
60: Mount Eerie – Now Only - 234 points – 8 votes
59: Burna Boy – Outside - 240 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote
58: Jon Hopkins – Singularity - 240 points – 10 votes
57: Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs - 243 points – 8 votes
56: Foxing - Nearer My God - 247 points – 9 votes
55: The Armed - Only Love - 251 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote
54: Domenique Dumont - Miniatures De Auto Rhythm - 253 points – 10 votes
53: Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love - 254 points – 7 votes
52: Noname - Room 25 - 257 points – 11 votes
51: Boygenius - Boygenius EP - 260 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote
50: Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood - 260 points – 10 votes - 1 first place vote
49: The Breeders - All Nerve - 267 points – 10 votes
48: Sleep - The Sciences - 270 points – 8 votes
47: Neneh Cherry - Broken Politics - 275 points – 9 votes
46: Saba - Care for Me - 276 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote
45: Helena Hauff - Qualm - 280 points – 9 votes
44: Eiko Ishibashi - The Dream My Bones Dream - 282 points – 10 votes
43: Black Dresses - Wasteisolation - 285 points – 7 votes - 1 first place vote
42: Gang Gang Dance - Kazuashita - 300 points – 13 votes
41: Ashley Monroe - Sparrow - 304 points – 12 votes
40: Natalie Prass - The Future & The Past - 306 points – 11 votes
39: Snail Mail - Lush - 308 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote
38: Parquet Courts - Wide Awake - 323 points – 10 vote
37: Mewithoutyou - untitled - 328 points – 9 votes - 3 first place votes
36: Meshell Ndegeocello - Ventriloquism - 329 points – 13 votes
35: DJ Koze - Knock Knock- 330 points – 13 votes
34: Tirzah - Devotion - 334 points – 10 votes

Ones I thought had a chance but not sure they'll place now:

Tess Roby
Spiritualized
Gwenno

I'm still holding out for Daphne and Celeste, but I'm not entirely sure if that will happen.

if Spiritualized place it'll be entirely on reputation imo, that album is a pale, pale shadow

shhhhh MarkoP, let it be a surprise

I could honestly imagine the Grande getting 78'd though

Aw yeah Gwenno, think her beautiful record is not even close to placing tbf, but would love to be proven otherwise

Also apologies if Let's Eat Grandma narrowly misses out as it was one of my favourites from the year but I completely forgot to vote for it.

no chance in hell

hands up if you actually voted for the album and not one of the singles

three albums I voted for have placed so far. i don't think that's ever happened before!

Tirzah album does actually perk up a bit, beginning with 'Holding On' - I can start to see what ogmor is on about now. The first few tracks give it a really slow start but there's more happening now, weirdly

'Guilty' is like the 0PN album but better

No one cared about the last Oneohtrix, right?

no it was pretty bad, was the general consensus (and imo)

defenders, now is your hour!

save us from placement speculation, Moka! (the other chatter is helpful, good to hear people's takes on stuff)

_no chance in hell_

hands up if you actually voted for the album and not one of the singles

A few predictions that I don't think have been mentioned yet, I still have hope Kali Uchis is to come. I would have expected her to place but possibly a lot lower down. I could see Hatchie's EP making it too. The previous Gas album made the top 20 last year. Did this one get a similar buzz? Tierra Whack? Daphne and Celeste? Arctic Monkeys?

I'm certain US Girls are going to be higher up. I think they could even be top 10 contenders. Simmy seems very likely too, followed by a handful of us all saying we wish we'd heard the album earlier so we could have voted for it.

US Girls placing would surprise me. It felt like everyone really liked a handful of the tracks (but not the same handful) and was a bit wary of its cohesion as an album

Once again I may be conflating my own opinion with everyone else's though ;)

oneohtrix album was funny and interesting but also kind of extremely bad. guilty is perfect imo, i had it as my #1 track

:)

Say When is also turning out to be lovely

Hello there. Today I have a very busy day so this will be the shortest day in the rollout 33-21... so only 12 albums... if I have a chance I'll post maybe the first 3 of the top 20 but I'd rather do those tomorrow so you can keep speculating on what's on the top 20 hehehe.

xp enjoyed 'same' and 'toys 2' off the latest opn

Hi Moka! We're busy praising Tirzah. Your choice of break placement worked out lol

put us out of our speculative misery Moka

all good moka!

Hi Moka! We're busy praising Tirzah. Your choice of break placement worked out lol

― imago

Well in that case, rollout starts in 8 hours so you all give the album a few more spins.

Haha

https://i.imgur.com/P456zwG.jpg
#33: Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs - 340 points – 10 votes - 1 first place vote

Earl Sweatshirt

Ben Beaumont-Thomas: "Amid a rap culture of sprawling albums with cosmopolitan beats that hop between country and style, Earl Sweatshirt’s third album initially seems as modest as its title. Mostly self-produced and with few guests – two of whom are his own parents – its 15 tracks only break the two-minute mark twice. But it ends up being one of the best rap albums of the year, a smoky iceberg of great emotional depth"

Clayton Purdom: "The video-game melancholia and digital ephemera of I Don’t Like Shit showed how purposeful the blown-out sonics of the SoundCloud era can be when paired with a generational talent, but Some Rap Songs places Earl’s aesthetic within a longer timeline, reaching back to the atmospheric, bomb-shelter style of turn-of-the-millennium backpack rap, as well as the early-’90s golden age to which that nodded."

Well that told me.

I voted for OPN and Madeline Kenney. Would love to see them show up.

great lil album

I preferred his last album, but I do like this. Definitely need to spend more time with it.

if this means Pusha placed higher that's pretty sad

Didn't have enough time with the Earl album to vote for it, but liked it at first listen

On my top ten, especially for "December 24th."

Impressive amount of albums so far that are completely new to me, I have a lot of catching up to do

ahhhh, my #1, was worried for a bit. I love everything about it. I like the previous album, the standing on the corner record from 2017 is really cool and I really like all three of the MIKE releases from 2018 which all work in a similar area but this is a big leap above. laconic & lean, the way he approaches everything is so well considered and yet he's also extremely open and direct. idk, I am still listening to this a lot, it's a little jewel

https://i.imgur.com/7HRlLO0.jpg
#32: Makaya McCraven - Universal Beings - 350 points – 12 votes

Earl Sweatshirt

Thom Jurek: "Universal Beings is unique from any other jazz recording in 2018: It marries virtuoso musicianship, technological savvy, a keen editor's ear for creative inspiration, and a plethora of almighty grooves."

Nate Chinen: "The jazz drummer and producer’s hypnotic double album is culled from a year’s worth of gig tapes that he’s layered and spliced together into something wholly new and radically communal."

a smoky iceberg huh

what the

haha um I think those are the wrong blurbs?

We should get Makaya McCraven, Thundercat and Kamasi Washington to team up into a jazz-man-super-league.