ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2019

thinkin bout you should have new *much* higher imo. delighted to see Fireboy JML, Killin Dem and Margharitas in the Mall and of course...

balloon

xpost

Hi, all!

Update:
4 now with the "Black Coffee" remix thanks to a Tim F. FB post.

Could this be... a forgereeeeeeeeeeeeee?

― Matt DC, Thursday, 30 January 2020 19:29 (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

underappreciated post

Late to the party and playing lapidary catchup:

1: Busy Signal – “Balloon” – BALLOON
2: Big Thief – “Not” – same reservations as ever
3: Richard Dawson – “Jogging” – not British enough to get this
4: Purple Mountains – “Snow Is Falling in Manhattan” – good but way too high
5: Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)” – ehhhh
6: 100 Gecs – “Money Machine” – absolute fucking trash, even when viewed as novelty music
7: Billie Eilish – “Bury a Friend” – good
8: Tresor featuring Msaki – “Sondela” – plein de bons sentiments
9: Burna Boy – “Anybody” - good
10: Jessie Ware – “Adore You” – ok
11: Roisín Murphy – “Incapable” – meh
12: Octo Octa – “I Need You” – good
13: Big Thief – “UFOF” – same old same old
14: Aldous Harding – “The Barrel” - ok

Ok, I had no idea what "Balloon" was before today, but it's pretty fun! Doesn't feel like it has too much replay value, so I probably wouldn't have voted for it even if I'd heard it, but I would definitely dance to it the deejay played it at a club.

ILM has fully entered the meme era.

Great outcome! Thank you pollrunners! Best top 20 we’ve done?

Of today’s run I voted for Roisin, Octo Octa, Tresor and Busy Signal, and fully support and endorse the appearances of Burna Boy, Jessie Ware, Dua Lipa and Big Thief.

The Roisin track I think of as maybe her ultimate effort with her most perfect lyrics, but that may only be apparent if you are already invested in her persona and how many ways she has sought to negotiate the space between seduction and inaccessibility.

As for Balloon, this is why I love it (from an earlier thread):

“Balloon, balloon, balloon, balloon.” When I’m not listening to “Balloon” (and I had to turn it off to write this sentence) I feel like its unexpected offering of Busy singing about the multitude of balloons at (it seems) a wedding is personally very relatable, gesturing towards that vague sense that maybe you’re focusing on the wrong things; taking pleasure in the surface ephemera rather than forging deeper connections. But once I turn the music back on, this idea falls away, because this song is the furthest thing from elegiac: Busy is really fucking excited about all these balloons. I’ve mostly struggled to strongly connect with dancehall these past few years, hoping its obsession with sickly sweet “summery” synth work-outs (too much current actual-dancehall sounds like an imitation of Ellie Goulding’s fake-dancehall 2013 non-hit “Burn”) would work itself out of Jamaica’s system, to no avail, but there’s always the odd exception that proves the rule; “Balloon”, compulsive and silly and joyous and bug-eyed and irresistible, couldn’t be more exactly what I wanted.

Oh yeah I also love (but did not vote for) “old town road (Remix)” and “bury a friend”.

I dunno, feels like a replay of that year (2011?) when that "Wut" tune won... That one had a whole lot of noveltyish charm too, but has anyone played it since then?

(xxpost)

i have wut on a lot of playlists

still classic

I guess this is what happens when I sit out from the majority of the nomination process and the entirety of voting for this year.
I should have nominated "Concrete"!

As I said above, Balloon has ENDLESS replay value

Concrete's reign will be this year

Balloon is so esoteric, that "Parts Of The Puzzle" isn't even on Rate Your Music.

with no duplicates

66 Jenny Hval - High Alice 156
67 CZ Wang & Neo Image - Just Off Wave 156
68 Charli XCX ft. Sky Ferreira - Cross You Out 152
69 Rapsody ft. GZA & D'Angelo - Ibtihaj 151
69 The Mountain Goats - Younger 151
70 Denzel Curry - RICKY 150
71 Algiers - Can the Sub Bass Speak? 144
71 Raphael Saadiq - This World is Drunk 144
73 J Balvin & Bad Bunny - La Canción 142
74 Ocean Wisdom ft. Dizzee Rascal - Blessed 140
75 ShooterGang Kony - Charlie 140
76 Clipping - Blood of the Fang 139
77 Black Coffee ft. Msaki - Wish You Were Here (Guy Mantzur Remix) 138

how did Badly Drawn Dad get to no.3 ? Good heavens!

so ILM's #1 is a tune with 10k views on YT and no entry in RYM, amazing guys

(not being sarcastic either)

I don't know what's worse, old people listening to old people music (wtf that is) or old people telling other old people they listen to lots of young people music as if its some kind of arms race against the inevitable. Never mind scoring fucking political points off it.

Having said that, I'd rather Balloon was the soundtrack as the curtain closed than Jogging. Probably.

Anyway, loved the rollout and found a whole bunch of great new stuff. Cheers to everyone involved!

Lol nice one calz even better than the Idles dig

I've been working on an Arab Strap without the tunes zing but it just won't come together

lol calz

I don't really get Balloon either but I'm glad it makes everyone so happy

The adorable thread with the catchy emoji ridden title got a lot of ILM attention (including mine, Balloon was my #3). I mean shit - it's a hilariously catchy and somewhat silly pop song in a popular ILM genre. Became a meme pretty quick. Definitely knew it float up near the top of the EOY list shortly after that thread appeared. FWIW the album is also quite good.

Linky:
🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈BUSY SIGNAL • BALLOON (floating, floating, everybody floating)🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈

balloon is one of a handful of songs that i enjoy just as much as my kids do. its the perfect ilm #1.

I don't really like doing "old people" shtick Chinaski but just trying to find an appropriate framing for the unseemly propriety of a certain kind of stuff the enjoyment whereof feels predicated on a kind of emphasis on lyrical importance or something above all else and especially above beauty

67 CZ Wang & Neo Image - Just Off Wave 156

this is a great track and i had it as my number one until the very last second when i swapped it out for something else and that two points cost it a place. i am such a fucking dummy. anyhow go and listen to it's cos it's great

refuse to listen to balloon just in case you're all tricking me into listening to a foals cover

I don't really like doing "old people" shtick Chinaski but just trying to find an appropriate framing for the unseemly propriety of a certain kind of stuff the enjoyment whereof feels predicated on a kind of emphasis on lyrical importance or something above all else and especially above beauty

― GK Chessington's World of Adventure (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 30 January 2020 20:53 (sixteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah and if you're aiming that at Richard Dawson, writer of melodies, I suggest you need your ears syringed

Comic hyperbole is an important tool in the troll's armory also in the defence of the dignity of popular music

Anyway, 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈

75 ShooterGang Kony - Charlie 140

ok now im against repeat artists in the traxx poll

But it were all waste when a simple Badly Dawson Boy would have sufficed

everyone should watch this performance of Anybody and let the joy of the backup singer rub off on you for the rest of this blessed day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuMM9vv4Gt0

75 ShooterGang Kony - Charlie 140

ok now im against repeat artists in the traxx poll

― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Thursday, January 30, 2020 bookmarkflaglink

man i thought i had this in my top 5 but its not on my ballot at all... must have deleted on accident when i was shuffling around. big fail.

I don't really like doing "old people" shtick Chinaski but just trying to find an appropriate framing for the unseemly propriety of a certain kind of stuff the enjoyment whereof feels predicated on a kind of emphasis on lyrical importance or something above all else and especially above beauty

Aye, I hear that. Just feels a bit curatorial sometimes and proscriptive. Ach. It's all good.

And Badly Drawn Dad I shall totally steal and pass off as my own, Calzino.

I love how this poll propels the winter months.

And speaking of polls being good...don't forget to vote in ulysses's TV poll before it closes tomorrow if you are so inclined.

Just listened to Balloon for the first time. I guess this Lemme Smang It without the funny

It's great when people are nonplussed by hugely popular genres of music

thanks for that alternate bottom-of-the-77 list, CaAL

Which sense of 'nonplussed' are you mobilizing here?

Yet to read the top 30 rollout beyond the placements, but thanks for all your toil pollrunners!

If we are blocking repeat appearances, "This World is Drunk" wouldn't have been in the countdown

IOW congrats Danny Brown

bounce the other Charlie XCX song, too; welcome to the party, Blick Bassy

xxxp the original meaning pom

i still don't really get "balloon" and "jogging" is certainly way too high but those results are pretty great overall (apart from the lack of rap overall)

i'd also completely forgotten about "i need you" in favour of the octo octa album this year and i'm really glad to rediscover it

“I Need You” is on such a different but equally awesome vibe to the album.

Just listened to Balloon for the first time. I guess this Lemme Smang It without the funny

well yeah but Smang It should've placed #1 as well