ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

Tell us why it's good then!

oh i loved this record, first of all votes to place this fortnite

I was a bit disappointed at first by The Return, it felt a bit too mellow coming after the undeniable energy of, er, "Energy" and "Final Form". But it did grew on me, even the slower jams make sense in the context of it being an introspective concept album on African immigrant experience.

It's gorgeous - Sampa's voice, her words, and the production. Probably the album with the best balance of those three things this year imo. It's super close to my other favs of the year but I had to pick a #1 and it won out

#72 – Jme – Grime MC (187 points, 7 votes)

so happy it made the top. such a great record.

impressive for an album with no digital release whatsoever

And Laurel Halo's DJ-Kicks was my #3, so I'm glad I helped it make it to the the top 77. It really is one of the best DJ mixes of the millennium, and the best record she's ever released. If you buy the Bandcamp version that comes with a free download of full versions of all the tracks, you can see what a great job she did at selecting them and mixing them in a coherent whole.

impressive for an album with no digital release whatsoever

― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Monday, February 3, 2020 12:41 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

did it even see physical release in the US?

not AFAIK

the Laurel Halo DJ-Kicks album was great I thought! It was high on my list. also voted for the Matana Roberts

apologies but clipping always sounds very corny to my ears. it's a combo of diggs' super-wordy and enunciated rapping and the "WE'RE SCARY!" aesthetic

I can't really put into words exactly how offensive this position is to me. It comes across to me as saying Diggs can't be good at hip-hop because he's not black enough.

https://i.imgur.com/L3Sd3kC.jpg
#68 – The National – I Am Easy to Find (195 points, 8 votes)

thread for i am easy to find, the 2019 album by the national and film by mike mills

https://music.avclub.com/the-national-takes-a-deep-breath-on-the-revelatory-i-am-1834779961

This is not one of my fave National albums but I'm surprised to see it this low.

who is this please

probably the most high-profile indie rock band that's going to place?

Seems a shame to bring in all those female vocalists just to have them emulate Berninger's vocal melodies.

80-minute slowroll for this lmao

probably the most high-profile indie rock band that's going to place?

VW?

love this record dearly

oh, right, VW. zzzzz

DJP otm about how Clipping have had to weather repulsive inauthenticity critiques throughout the years. Let the sub bass speak indeed

this would have been a great place for the VW to place actually

I binged the shit out of 2019 releases and this remains one of the 5 or so albums I outright hated the most (sorry Brad).

{alternative}^{alternative} = alternative

Why does "overenunciated" translate to "inauthentic" and "not black enough"? To me it just means, too 90's poetry-slam digable planets.
(none of those a bad thing in my book, btw, but ymmv)

https://i.imgur.com/jH26857.jpg
#67 – Caterina Barbieri – Ecstatic Computation (200 points, 7 votes)

https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=45&threadid=98991

https://thequietus.com/articles/26405-caterina-barbieri-ecstatic-computation

Thanks for the clipping write up, DJP. Will be checking them out.

Never heard of this one.

ooh this Barbieri looks like my kinda thing

voted for this too, it's really nice

Why does "overenunciated" translate to "inauthentic" and "not black enough"? To me it just means, too 90's poetry-slam digable planets.
(none of those a bad thing in my book, btw, but ymmv)

The exact words were "super-wordy and enunciated" and it was in contrast to the description of their music as "WE'RE SCARY", which is absolutely a vibe they were going for on this album but doesn't (to my ears) accurately describe their entire catalog without making a lot of assumptions about tone and intent.

The National album is like sunlight emerging during a still cloudy morning. The use of backing vocals/harmonists as complement worked beautifully. Their best in a dozen years.

Ooh I've actually heard this one. Cool stuff, though I don't quite see what is extraordinary about it.

Embarrassed to admit I only know Diggs from The Get Down and uhh Kimmy Schmidt. The horror elements aren't too enticing personally, but I'm going to check it out

wow this Berbieri record is DOPE

xp: Listen to "Run For Your Life" on headphones. The production job on that song is incredible.

I binged the shit out of 2019 releases and this remains one of the 5 or so albums I outright hated the most (sorry Brad).

― toilet-cleaning brain surgeon (pomenitul), Monday, February 3, 2020 11:36 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

that's fair! a lot of people hate the national!

Listened to this (Barbieri) for the first time quite recently, after I'd already voted. It's a big step up from her previous records, which were good but never surprised. This one does.

Really enjoying Sampa the Great so far. Only on track 11 though.

I really liked the one Sampa the Great song I heard but I never got to the album and the song I liked ("OMG") wasn't nominated

Ecstatic Computation made for a pleasant enough moment.

There's some alright 'left-field'-ish stuff placing in these lower reaches, but nothing I voted for so I've been looking over my ballot - sadly I'm not expecting any nice surprises for me, really. I reckon I have three definite placers and a couple of maybes, anything else would be a shock.

https://i.imgur.com/PkNho9I.jpg
#66 – Tyler, the Creator – IGOR (202 points, 8 votes)

Tyler the Creator

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/tyler-the-creator-igor-review-837811/

I didn’t like this CB album as much as ones I’d heard previously

Hm looks like we might see a lot more rap on this poll than tracks

xp: Listen to "Run For Your Life" on headphones. The production job on that song is incredible.

― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Monday, February 3, 2020 1:51 PM (one minute ago)

this was good advice, thank you!

Not as sharp as Flower Boy, and he's a better producer than rapper.

this and flower boy are just great fun records, really love where tyler's been taking his music

RYM we are not. Slightly preferred FB as well

Yay! That’s three of mine to place already (TTC, Jme and clipping.) - probably a record. Preferred Flower Boy too, but this was still lovely. GONE, GONE / THANK YOU a highlight, as is the mad final 30 seconds of the otherwise prettily chill ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?

otm

I dipped out on following Tyler a long time ago, so when I decided to check this one out, I had to move backwards and hear Flower Boy. I prefer IGOR, but maybe that'd be different if I'd heard Flower Boy first?

https://i.imgur.com/Mhc9AW8.jpg
#65 – FONTAINES D.C. – Dogrel (204 points, 7 votes)

the band that best addrsses 'Irishness' and the subject of Ireland

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/12/fontaines-dc-dogrel-album-review-irish-punks-debut

apologies but clipping always sounds very corny to my ears. it's a combo of diggs' super-wordy and enunciated rapping and the "WE'RE SCARY!" aesthetic

I can't really put into words exactly how offensive this position is to me. It comes across to me as saying Diggs can't be good at hip-hop because he's not black enough.

― totally unnecessary bewbz of exploitation (DJP), Monday, February 3, 2020 12:26 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm not saying he's not good at it, i'm saying i don't like it. i'm not mentioning the rapping style and the aesthetic as being in contrast to each other, i'm mentioning them as two separate things that i don't like. the rapping feels like it's more about technique than expression, which is not something i enjoy, and i have trouble taking "scary" music seriously. it's admittedly a reductive opinion but i've listened to them several times and didn't enjoy it and so didn't go back to give it a deep analysis.