ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

GHOST BOX, HOUSE ARREST

STRANGE FRUIT, INFINITE JEST
BLACK DICE, KANDY KORN
PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN
THIRD POLICEMAN, PRINCE 'PARADE'
EDUCATING MARMALADE
WORLD OF ECHO, COURT AND SPARK
LELAND PALMER IN THE DARK

forgot about this much better version of "losing my edge" on the daphne and celeste record

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Thursday, February 7, 2019 9:17 PM

Sounds more like "We Didn't Start the Fire".
/

I hate it

autechre was my number one. I think it's quite possible that I spent more time listening to autechre in 2018 than all other 2018 albums combined. This is them in top form, perfecting the aesthetic they have been going for since Exai.

oh yeah you can def sing that to the dune of we didn't start the fire

xp's I almost started a thread a while back about tracks named "Teachers" (Daft Punk, Soulwax, Mumdance) but we could totally roll it into a list of songs that namecheck a list of bands

https://i.imgur.com/wvyaiXf.jpg
#7: The 1975 - A brief inquiry into online relationships - 739 points – 23 votes - 3 first place votes

the 1975

Ross Horton: "A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships isn’t perfect. It isn’t the best album released this year, and it doesn’t have any of the best songs released this year on it"

damn!

try again next year fellas

Hot takes in 3.. 2.. 1..

I think it's quite possible that I spent more time listening to autechre in 2018 than all other 2018 albums combined.

well the statistics are working with you on this one

Great to see Sun-El’s fantastic South African house record in the top 10, so fucking deserved.

And for everyone who’s been living under a rock: Simmy’s Tugela Fairy, which was produced by Sun-El and came out later in the year, is even better, my #1 where this one was #7. That should tell you something. Please make sure you give it a listen before we do the *official* poll in two weeks’ time!

my hot take is this band is not good

woo! 1975 isn't going to win the poll! musgraves full speed ahead

loool, thanks for cutting off the blurb there

xxp I apologise for not voting for Simmy. Didn't think she needed my support. Looks like I was wrong.

true relief owl city didnt win

Sounds more like "We Didn't Start the Fire".
/

― Tuomas, Thursday, February 7, 2019 12:19 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm sure it does, i wasn't making the obvious comparison, also it's not a historical narrative

(also a good idea to listen to it now and wait till that 1975 storm in a teacup blows over)

eight songs in, officially obsessed with "el mal querer"

I've tried with every album they released but I don't think I've managed to listen to a 1975 album in its entirety.

good album with some real snoozers

Previous 1975 album much better and also more adventurous, this one felt like some sort of weird fan service

I'm now rooting for a female artist whose name begins with M, that's for sure

Monáe?

1975 storm in a teacup blows over)

― breastcrawl, Thursday, February 7, 2019 1:24 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

band is so boring i can't imagine feeling particularly strong about anything related to them

I don't hate this at all! But the love mystifies me a little. I guess the drumming and general musicianship are rly good even if the songwriting is a little by the book

― imago, Thursday, February 7, 2019

If general musicianship was the criteria, there'd be a lot more lite jazz on the list [insert OPN joke here]
Really psyched that the Beths cracked the top 10 btw.

monae?

you know what, i have come around on "Love It If We Made It"
don't care for the rest of the album tho

monae, musgraves, mitski, montana, hannah

Mobyn?

xp's I almost started a thread a while back about tracks named "Teachers" (Daft Punk, Soulwax, Mumdance) but we could totally roll it into a list of songs that namecheck a list of bands

feel like Scooter pioneered this when they wrote "Hyper Hyper"

Kind of glad this isn't #1, and I voted for a couple tracks from it.

Mimi Parker?

yes please.

Well here's one:

Since it's obvious Meg Bowles, Nao, Nadah el Shazly, Sarah Davachi, or Kuniko Kato aren't gonna place so high, I'm rooting for JM to win too.

https://i.imgur.com/dYMnp1O.jpg
#6: Mitski - Be the Cowboy - 747 points – 23 votes - 1 first place vote

Mitski

Sean Hannah: "Be the Cowboy is about capriciousness, denying the contrivances of beauty in some ways while bending to its standards in others. She’s walking the divide between love and heartache, between dejection and fury. But Miyawaki has the talent to straddle that line with poise and aplomb; she’s the geyser and also the slow dancer."

Laura Snapes: "It is hard to sing at a remove and maintain emotional directness – Mitski is famously private – but like St Vincent or even David Lynch, she specialises in the bait-and-switch of delight and obfuscation."

TOO LOW

Steady Mobyn

monae getting this high is... fine

is it a good time to admit that i haaaaate the lyrics on that record

Happy to see the Beths and Autechre, NTS was my #1 vote, just an amazing piece of art.

xp's I almost started a thread a while back about tracks named "Teachers" (Daft Punk, Soulwax, Mumdance) but we could totally roll it into a list of songs that namecheck a list of bands

feel like Scooter pioneered this when they wrote "Hyper Hyper"

― frogbs, Thursday, February 7, 2019 9:28 PM

Scooter "Hyper Hyper" poll

I'm pretty sure we had a similar poll on Daft Punk's "Teachers" too. :)

wait'll you see the point delineation between #5 and #6
and then every one of the remaining albums!

I'm cool with giving this a Too Low, but then it was only #4 on my list so I guess I shouldn't complain.

is it a good time to admit that i haaaaate the lyrics on that record

on dirty computer? yeah, they were extremely corny imo

monae getting this high is... fine

lol I made my piece with this inevitability long ago

My #5, could easily have been higher. Incredible song after incredible song. She really is raising the bar for modern pop songwriting imo - this is her best yet and there appears to be no limit to her capacity to wring surprise, drama and ageless melody from the basic tools of indie and pop. Shout-out to her genius producer Patrick Hyland as well, who also recorded the only album in my top 5 that won't place (Trust Fund)

Is the album cover meant to look like it says "Be the Mitski Cowboy"? It's really irritating me.

(Not the Moka image, those are all excellent, the album itself)

can't remember the song that got me into mitski a few years back, was playing on the college radio station hm okay found it: "townie"

i love that song -- is this record anything like that ?

on dirty computer? yeah, they were extremely corny imo

― josh az (2011nostalgia), Thursday, February 7, 2019 12:31 PM (fifty-four seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

we'll put water in your guns / we'll do it all for fun

so corny, scans weird, second line is filler, just... agh. i don't even care about lyrics on pop records usually but dirty computer's are p awkward throughout

This placing lower than Puberty 2 did is fair and just.