ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2019

xp to pom: did you think this was all gonna be abstract noise songs and yodeling?

Damn, I take this to mean that Twang by Mason Ramsey missed the cut?

Sharon Van Etten at her best is a fantastic songwriter - her ten or so best songs are up there with anyone's over the last decade - but her albums always feel like a slog and a chore because of terrible arrangement choices.

Seventeen is the good SVE but I wish they'd gone all out and gone full Tunnel of Love with the production because the drums and the synths just sound flat and get in the way of one another. She needs better collaborators.

"Seventeen" was my #3. I thought "Con Altura" was a lock for top 10.

That Ciara song is great. How did I not know she released new music this year?

this is a good song, tho i couldn't get into the congleton'd-out album

co-sign

look i know _I_ voted for Mason Ramsey but i dunno about you

I know El Guincho as a gonzo indie techno producer from 2007 and had no idea he was still at large but doing big pop collabs

I'm sure Seventeen slays live but my god why are indie producers so bad at recording synths properly?

did you think this was all gonna be abstract noise songs and yodeling?

^^^ my kind of poll

basically the songs that get canned at eurovision semis

fun fact, it's el guincho's voice at the beginning saying "Esto vamo' a arrancarlo con altura"

Sund4r, I'd seriously be up for a 'NO POP (LOOSELY SPEAKING) ALLOWED!' EOY evil twin poll next year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iji_yL93pdI&vl=en

xp yes, we get it, you're above all this, please tell us 30 more times how much you hate pop music

oh so you don't want US pop you say

http://i.imgur.com/5FtOA3R.jpg
22: Fireboy DML – “Jealous” – 327 points – 9 votes – 1 #1 vote

YouTube Video

rolling Afropop / Afrobeats / Afrodance 2019

YEAH!!!!!

i wasn't sure this was gonna place but YEAH!!!!!!!!!

Whoops, wrong link. Making of Con Altura:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/arts/music/rosalia-j-balvin-con-altura.html

I know we’ve gone past it a fair bit, but I just wanna say that the Sun El Musician tune is probably my discovery of the poll so far. Beautiful track.

xp yes, we get it, you're above all this, please tell us 30 more times how much you hate pop music

a) I'm hamming it up for the audience, this rollout is a play
b) fwiw I engage with music I supposedly hate more consistently than the majority of ILM peeps who don't give the least bit of a fuck about the music I mainly care for, as evidenced by the countless deserted threads devoted to genres and subgenres that garner little to no mainstream attention. Nor can you accuse me of dismissing anything outright as I am certainly not 'above' pointing out the – numerous, might I add – pleasant surprises I've experienced itt and elsewhere.

is this the least amount of rap we've ever had on an eoy 77? not sure what else might even place if suge is so low, mb hot girl summer?

looking forward to next year's Eminem deluge

This song's alright but once again NFM.

Lack of rap is indeed cause for concern.

I mean it wasn't a great year for mainstream US rap singles (the type of rap that usually fares well in these countdowns). It doesn't have to mean anything too grand in the big picture.

Currently there's more UK than US rap on the list which must be a first.

Whoops, wrong link. Making of Con Altura:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/arts/music/rosalia-j-balvin-con-altura.html

― Indexed, Wednesday, January 29, 2020 11:21 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

thank you!

there were plenty of good rap songs this year idk

complaining about poll results is always lame as hell tho

feel like there was a similar lack of raps in last year's rollout too. the fact is, not many folx still post to the rolling rap thread and a lot of those who do don't vote in these polls.

Complaining about poll results is the main reason to have a poll.

(and then there are rap-focused listeners like me who voted for several rap songs, but also lots of intl rap or non-rap)

anyway, jealous is a banger

feel like there was a similar lack of raps in last year's rollout too. the fact is, not many folx still post to the rolling rap thread and a lot of those who do don't vote in these polls.

― culture of mayordom (voodoo chili), Wednesday, January 29, 2020 11:34 AM (twenty-four seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm.

Jealous is a beautiful record. There's something about interplay between the falsetto vocal refrain and the strings that seems to be coming from a decidedly pre-pop place that I still can't put my finger on.

Matt, I'm not sure that makes sense

Complaining about poll results is the main reason to have a poll.

Teach us.

xp: For one thing, maybe I need better headphones but... I don't hear any strings on this song? Lots of guitar and percussion, no strings.

save us forks

Not heard Jealous before but that's lovely tbqhwy

The annual tradition of complaining about complaining about polls is far worse than the annual tradition of complaining about polls. And I'm sure complaining about complaining about complaining about polls is even worse.

Yeah I said strings because I'm not exactly sure whether it's a guitar or another stringed instrument. Obviously I don't mean an orchestral string section.

some sort of balafon thing going on too

what have you done to me!

http://i.imgur.com/sfVclhu.jpg
21: Purple Mountains – “All My Happiness Is Gone” – 335 points – 10 votes

YouTube Video

Purple Mountains (RIP David Berman, August 2019)

I voted highly for this album but to me it works as a unit and voting for individual songs off of it seems kinda pointless. I guess lots of others disagree though.

I think it's safe to assume there won't be a 5th one.

I voted highly for this album but to me it works as a unit and voting for individual songs off of it seems kinda pointless. I guess lots of others disagree though.

― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Wednesday, January 29, 2020 12:48 PM (nineteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

completely agree

last year we had sheck wes, pusha t, rae sremmurd, valee, cardi b, drake, doja cat, so this is quite a fall off. goons have never really gone for the poll too much so the decline is more abt general/crossover fans. anyway I missed the deadline but looking at these results idk if it would have made much difference. rema & donato dozzy the best discoveries so far. TCIC are better live but still think they're the weakest shabaka project by a margin

xxp On the contrary, I predict that "Snow Is Falling on Manhattan" will show up.