ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

when the D&C album came out I wrote it was exactly the sort of thing that was gonna go ignored for a long time and then get rediscovered 10-15 years later

it's a great top 4

I've just noticed Moka's album image template complements The 1975 cover art particularly well. Ye cannae see the join, colour-wise and you've got the sideways on text thing too. Was this in fact your starting point for all of these, Moka, or is that just a coincidence?

― Jeff W

Yeah it works really good on that one but it's a coincidence. The first albums I actually used for tests were Low, Janelle Monae and Christine and the Queens as I was sure they'd make it in the top 77 (I started doing tests before knowing the results) and I needed to see how well the format would work on three different kinds of text lengths.

any one of them is a good #1 and now i have no idea which one will wind up there

the beths on #10, i guess that means that 3 albums of my ballot are in the top ten.

starting to think They Might Be Giants isn't gonna make it

that sucks

4 julia holter
3 low
2 robyn
1 kacey

https://i.imgur.com/W37CVn8.jpg
#4: Julia Holter - Aviary - 916 points – 27 votes - 4 first place votes

Julia Holter

Jenn Pelly: "If Holter’s preceding records were novellas, Aviary feels more like a meticulously organized compilation of mind-altering field notes in which a single page can be a world, and its depth is stunning."

dark horse sneaking into the top 4 would make my week

absolutely fucking incredible record

I was pretty sure this was #3 but close enough

brilliant album, bought the signed 2xLP in advance and did not regret it

an awesome record from an extremely cool person! think i'm going to pick it up today tbh.

It's been a good day of music, but the worst is about to come. Rooting quite hard for Kacey, of what's left

Oh and there it is. Folks, quite often we do not have the same ears, patience or souls. This was absolute fucking torture LOL Brad used the same language conversely!

I feel so joy

liked this a lot and voted for it. I kind of enjoyed her previous albums but this really took it to the next level.

Flatly mumbling 'Joy...Joy' into the fucking abyss as tuneless idiot instruments spiral about pointlessly. YOU GET YOUR KICKS, ILM!

holter doesn't do much for me but i'm open to trying it again once or twice more with open ears.
this nineteen minute first track/first album autechre is like being stuck in a storm of metal shards

Dang this top 10 is choice. I really liked The 1975, and didn't expect to. Autechre absolutely deserves their place here and I was shocked ILM agreed (figured NTS Sessions would be 10-20).

Had I heard the Sun-el Musician record before the Tracks results, it would have absolutely been in my top 10. That album is ridiculous and honestly, TOO LOW. I feel my summer of 2018 had much less happiness injected due to not hearing that album. Certainly is on repeat and will continue to be for weeks.

Rosalía was my #1. Surprised I was the only one who felt that way.

Pains me to say it, but OPN was TOO HIGH.

Sons of Kemet is a really nice surprise to see it that high.

I didn't quite click with Aviary. But I understand why you guys would like it so much.

Holter was my #5, I think, so fair enough (actually my #3 LP, but I ranked two Kpop mini-albums higher).

JFC imago give it a rest.

I pronounce Autechre “oughta care” because I don’t.

— Erik Highter (@EZSnappin) December 4, 2018

I hope Low is #1.

Robyn was overrated and I would be surprised if it places at all.

I submitted an unranked albums ballot with just over ten items, none of which made 77, I think?

all in all, a productive first year ballot for me

1 point leap from #6 to #5
170 point leap from #5 to #4

great 74 this year and a worthy winner, thx to poll runners!

I'm a contrarian and love being non-hivemindy, but I've not been very successful at it this year.

hahaha xp

I gave up on trying to “get” Aviary but maybe I should give it another shot

I still need to buy a copy too.
I posted this in the Holter thread but her last NTS mix makes a neat companion piece to the album:

https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/julia-holter-26th-october-2018

https://i.imgur.com/iqSavKe.jpg
#3: Robyn - Honey - 933 points – 27 votes - 3 first place votes

Robyn

Will Hermes: "On her first album in eight years, taking a more active hand on the production side after what seems to have been a period of painful personal change, Robyn relaxes the tempos and lets the healing ecstasy of club grooves take over."

Stacey Anderson: "Robyn presents her first solo album in eight years subtly, with slight builds and light hands. But her masterful command of emotions on the dancefloor slowly reveals itself across another enthralling record."

FUCK I WAS WRONG

Robyn definitely amid my top five, prob top three; almost certainly her best album to date and totally worth celebrating!

Loved Aviary and had never really clicked with any of Holter's previous records (not that I've heard all of them).

glad she wasn't no. 1 but i totally voted for honey

I think I always knew this was coming down to Low vs. Kacey.

it's going to be Kacey and it won't be close

weird

Too Kacey

if you're doing some insider trading type deal here i'm going to be very upset

I'm finally gonna have to listen to this Low album, aren't I?

https://i.imgur.com/3QKhjYt.jpg
#2: Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour - 1078 points – 30 votes - 5 first place votes

Kacey Musgraves - 2013 Anticipation

Alexis Petridis: "Regardless of genre, you’ll be hard pushed to find a better collection of pop songs this year. Everything clicks perfectly, but the writing has an effortless air; it never sounds as if it’s trying too hard to make a commercial impact, it never cloys, and the influences never swallow the character of the artist who made it."

Sam Sodomsky: "The mystical grandeur of Golden Hour creates a magnetic effect as Kacey Musgraves sings simply about the world as if she’s the first person to notice, and you’re the first one she’s telling."

TOO LOW:

Honey was my #2, it really is the house music Aerial. This and my #1 were the albums that I listened to more than any others this year and there were no other reasonable picks for the top two imo, but maybe I could have put this at #1. It's classic.

https://i.imgur.com/cOFxE21.jpg
#1: Low - Double Negative - 1440 points – 45 votes - 6 first place votes

Low: Classic or classic?

Ben Beaumont Thomas: "This ranks alongside the likes of Anselm Kiefer and Cormac McCarthy as a document of contemporary social collapse, and as such is the most important, devastating album of the year."

Stephen Deusner: "Double Negative is their biggest step forward to date, an album that scrambles their sound completely; it sounds nothing like Low and everything like Low. More than that, it captures what it means to be alive in 2018, when developments in technology create rather than alleviate suffering, when each day seems to present a fresh new hell, when it takes immense will power to maintain equilibrium and hope."

This album is the musical equivalent of an instagram post of someone doing yoga in a field of sunflowers.

― kornrulez6969, Friday, August 17, 2018

WHAT

holy cats!

holy shit!!!

that is...not even remotely close