ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

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.

I need to give TFS a few more listens. I do love "you let my tyres down" a lot

xxp yeah I can see it as a descendant of "The Magnificent Seven" or whatever but my god I found it intolerable

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

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 6 February 2019 16:02 (eighteen seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the gloves are now officially off for the rest of the rundown fyi

but i will spare the Arctic Monkeys as they have somehow evolved to survive where their landfill brethren did not

yeah yeah they were never 'true' landfill, w/e

We'll since you are not particularly interested in discussing number 30 and I want to forget ever making such a mistake in this poll... here's 29:

https://i.imgur.com/zNAD1Fs.jpg
#29: Ariana Grande - Sweetener - 364 points – 11 votes - 1 first place vote

Ariana Grande - AG4 (2018 album)

I can't forgive her for licking those donuts.
― kornrulez6969

#31 is (like Let’s Eat Grandma – “Donnie Darko” from the tracks poll) one of those artist name/title combinations that'll make it very hard for me to want to check it out.

Booooooooo

please don't check out TFS, tuomas

i think i can guess who the first place voter is

the critical consensus that sweetener is the pinnacle of both ariana's career and pop in 2018 instead of re-heated pharrell leftovers from 2005 with a few nice max martin songs is just completely baffling to me

I loved "No Tears..." but the album was at least half duds

Lol, best blurb

Is that what the title track is about?

i liked "four out of five" from the AM album at least and can respect them for doing such a left turn at the peak of their career.

j0rdan otm about sweetener and even the martin/ilya tracks didn't quite reach the heights they reached on dangerous woman

I’m sorry but I’m not listening to a band called “ tropical fuck storm “

Damn! I didn't think Sweetener would be this high. I was rooting for her so much for this era, but apart from No Tears Left To Cry, Breathin' and Everytime this album did nothing for me. Pharrell's productions sound like rejects from the second Gwen Stefani album!

I'm only one listen into the new album and it's stronger than Sweetener, but I guess we needed the predecessor.

You guys are all tripping

Sweetener is AOTY

arctic monkeys is way too low

I’m sorry but I’m not listening to a band called “ tropical fuck storm “

I was gonna get mad but tbh for a long time this was my feeling re Arctic Monkeys lol

Sorry LJ I should've put TFS higher on my ballot but the album was so good at what it did that it always put me in a deep depression. My #22 :(

(Relax Moka, this is hardly the first time someone skipped an album on a rollout. Happened a bunch I think)

pretty insensitive band name for anyone who's seen the aftereffects of a tropical fuck storm

My favorite since their first album

arctic monkeys album is basically aladdin sane 2

Ariana album was a late cut; I'd prob rank it #29 of 2018 as well

Pharrell's productions sound like rejects from the second Gwen Stefani album!

And yet ironically it was 7 Rings, which had no Pharell involvement, where she started sampling The Sound of Music.

I think this decade has seen pressure in pop acts to release some sort of statement album and AG fans decided this was it and flocked to it before the decade was over. Little did they know she quickly forgot about it and started pushing a single for her next album instead, and some backlash for Sweetener happened. I think the final verdict for which one was it will depend on AG5 being better than AG4 but "7 rings" is hideous and it does not help its case imho.

https://i.imgur.com/HaXM6cS.jpg
#28: Against All Logic - 2012-2017 - 380 points – 12 votes

Andrew Gaerig: "These are thrilling, racing tracks, but they're also familiar, both functionally—every hi-hat in its right place—and emotionally, with the kind of crests and ecstasies you might find on 1990s labels like Nu Groove and Cajual."

Fred Thomas: "Over the course of the album's 11 tracks, nods are made to various phases in the development of electronic music. Early-'90s rave, egregiously detuned analog synth melodies à la the giddy experimentalism of Aphex Twin, disco edits, minimal house, and even moments of pre-techno influences are all touched upon as restless and colorful album washes by A.A.L., showing a different side of Jaar's range, but it's easily the most carefree and inviting of his work."

called it!

would probably have this at about #28 too, pleasant album

I think this decade has seen pressure in pop acts to release some sort of statement album and AG fans decided this was it and flocked to it before the decade was over

Actually, it’s divisive among fans as well.

oh yeh listened to this what seems aaaages ago

remember liking it so will have to revisit

I didn't vote for it but RIP Mid-air Thief

AAL was #1 on RYM for most of last year iirc

why the heck didn't i vote for this hailu mergia record? it's so lovely

arctic monkeys album is basically aladdin sane 2

― ciderpress, Wednesday, February 6, 2019 10:17 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

kinda agree

such a #28 record

three tracks in, this against all logic album is pretty good on first spin.

AAL was #1 on RYM for most of last year iirc

I thought that honor unfortunately went to Kids See Ghosts.