ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

voted for this too. luscious airy album that covers a lot of ground, hits some sublime grooves, loads of great musicians, what's not to like?

what's a good representative part, or is this a 'play from the start and don't complain' job

enjoying Earl fwiw

[post redacted by mod]

Wow! I voted for this, my only vote based on promise and potential instead of repeated plays. A last-minute discovery from my recommendations playlist.

brilliant album from a group I previously never gave a shit about

Wow, I probably listened to as much jazz as anything else last year but I never got around to McCraven, though I meant to, esp since iirc it was unperson's aoty. Exciting.

Listening to the Hailu Mergia rn, which is super enjoyable. Wednesday Campanella didn't do that much for me, unfortunately.

I was talking about Makaya McCraven, if that wasn’t clear!

xps probably

OK I guess I need to hear this McCraven album

xps to imago- try 'The Newbies Lift Off' or 'Mantra'

Damn I skipped #31!

MODS!!

lol

tough, whatever was 31 is now officially better than the arctic monkeys forever

Moka you should wait and reveal it at the end

Not even heard of this McCraven, will give it a listen. Think I'll skip Arctic Monkeys, mind you.

lollll

xp nah - that's it wiped from the books

https://i.imgur.com/DAvJvLY.jpg
#31: Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death in Meatspaces - 356 points – 12 votes - 1 first place vote

Sean Caldwell: "Tropical Fuck Storm is less Gang Of Four than they are The Pop Group, a similar level of poetic critique and takedowns packaged and delivered with unsettling and risky discord, a veritable junkyard sculpture thoughtfully constructed from punk scraps, crusty psychedelia and a rhythmic articulation of ideas bred from the spoken word."

Nathan Stevens: "There’s a newfound focus on A Laughing Death in Meatspace. The Drones were an explicitly political band, but TFS is even sharper in their dissections of corruption and xenophobia in a melting world."

muuuuuch better than the AMs. also WAY TOO LOW

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY #1!!

I can delete the AM post if you like, so they're in order. Or just edit it to [redacted] so the rest of the posts don't become incomprehensible?

enjoyed this

Or neither, of course.

xp to self

yes emily please delete. We'll have to go back to the future with that one. I'll post it in a few mins.

I thought this was a lock for top 20 tbh

My #4 - an incredible record. Angry, witty, musically inventive and utterly feral. Righteous sundrenched guitar mania. Absolutely fucked.

boy, did I give that Arctic Monkeys a chance thanks to my colleagues' repping for it

Omg TOO LOW

I should have started a McCraven thread, it snuck up to #2 on my ballot, shockingly compelling for a 90 min album

TFS are one of those bands who suffered from my unfortunate tendency to hold trivial things against acts. In this case, it was that the Drones were responsible for one of the most boring gigs of my life, and so I refuse to even listen to TFS in case I accidentally like them and then I have to like a thing by *ugh* those guys.

imago's TFS description is apt but it's a lot more melodic/catchy than he makes it sound! I wrote about it here.

i think that time has come

yeah they can certainly write a tune!! everyone read simon's bit

lol emil.y I know that exact feeling

Moka, I got an error when trying to delete so I did the redacted thing instead, hope that's okay!

also, album cover of the goddamn decade

I am not a big fan of the Drones by any stretch and find their albums a bit of a chore to get through (as much as I recognise their accomplishments). But TFS are a much more live and enjoyable listening experience. It’s slow and dramatic music for impatient people - every crescendo lands exactly when it should. It is a magical chaos.

they didn't get enough credit for accidentally inventing gritty

lol

They're playing London in May I AM SO AMPED

Thanks emily!

the one TFS track I heard had terrible white-guy "rapping" and I turned it off after a minute or so

It’s slow and dramatic music for impatient people - every crescendo lands exactly when it should. It is a magical chaos.

put it better than me, yes

sleeve omg, 'the future of history' is NOT where to start here lol

mind you i like his rapping

simon was right btw i don’t like this record

it sounds like a noisier version of the Tom Robinson Band?

Back to the future:

https://i.imgur.com/7Qxv2Wy.jpg
#30: Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino - 359 points – 12 votes

Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Mark Burrows: "It’s not the Arctic Monkeys you might expect, and living inside Alex Turner’s identity crisis can be an occasionally uncomfortable experience, but give it some time and this sixth album reveals itself as one of the most interesting of the band’s career."

Kitty Empire: "Once you ditch the notion that AM’s successor should rock like it, and give yourself up to rolling around in the psyche of one of our very greatest songwriters like an olive in a martini, then it’s a riveting and immersive listen – an album-bomb dropped without preceding singles.

simon was right btw i don’t like this record

never been sadder to be right :(

Re: Tropical Fuck Storm, never has a band name promised so much and delivered so little.

xps i was struggling to figure out which track contained "rapping", but "the future of history" feels much more rooted in like, post-punk than terrible white-guy attempts at rapping

the tfs record is great, pretty solidly the best version of the drones yet

Didn't vote for TFS but really came around to the album after hating it on first listen. Usually prefer the more melodic end of psych rock but the sort of gnarled sound of it won me over.