ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

Hooray for Matana Roberts, basically.

Wildcard on this second pass sounds like a companion to Platinum, not really a copy but in the same vein (complete w/the "bad shit is gonna go down" duet w/the slightly lesser country star). it's really a good one. likely would have voted for it if i'd spent more time listening. Mess With My Head is A+ for sure.

So despite liking and voting for Clipping I didn't actually know anything about who was behind it until today and am surprised to find out it's that guy from Hamilton.

The clipping. album is an odd one for me, bits of it I found really effective but as a (quite long) album it just didn't hold my attention

I skip the interludes and "La Mala Ordina" a lot, not because I dislike them but because I'm often anxious to get to the next song and don't often have the luxury of time (related note: meetings suck)

La Mala Ordina is fantastic I think!

one of those tracks where the features are absolutely critical to the narrative

DJP otm about Clipping.

Associating enunciation and wordiness with corniness is suss

And ahistorical!

Like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFYrRkGiVN0

that's why it's corny, it sounds like something that came out when i was in college. but ILM loving music that sounds like it came out when they were in their early 20s is very on-brand.

Mess With My Head is A+ for sure.

― omar little, Monday, February 3, 2020 1:18 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

pretending to like lil xan to own the olds

lol

Spotify playlist has spoilt #63 if anyone's keen to see. Forks must have not noticed he got xposted and hurried off. We're all behind you Forks lol :D

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Weezer_Teal_Album.jpg
#63 – Weezer - Weezer (Teal Album) (208 points, 8 votes)

clipping. sounds exactly how I wanted all these anti-pop consortium / dälek / cloudead bands from the early 2000s to actually sound like. fair to say certain attitudinal parallels with Algiers in some ways?

finally, some bona fide rock n roll

oi stop doing his job for him, he'd have been back soon

fair to say certain attitudinal parallels with Algiers in some ways?

imo yes, also some goth cred to both

haha, the clipping album ends with a performance of Annea Lockwood's 'Piano Burning'!

I only had time to listen to two Clipping tracks, but Shabazz Palaces was my immediate comparison

I *loved* most of Clouddeads stuff tbh but I get the comparison.

Whatever you do, don't listen to it hungover xp about piano burning

Weezer TOO LOW

I listened to The Tragic Epilogue recently and it sounded even better in 2019 imo

dälek are all-time but clipping are a very different thing I think

Whatever you do, don't listen to it hungover xp about piano burning

― tangenttangent, Monday, February 3, 2020

:)

Better Community Oblivion Center is a good album, grew on me after writing it off as ok-ish initially, although still clearly the lesser of Phoebe Bridgers' side projects, and obviously her debut album was the best album of 2017. New album coming soon!

Dylan Thomas is a massive song though and I was hoping to see it place on the track poll

that's why it's corny, it sounds like something that came out when i was in college. but ILM loving music that sounds like it came out when they were in their early 20s is very on-brand.

― na (NA), Monday, February 3, 2020 8:32 PM (twenty-two minutes ago)

#63 – Weezer - Weezer (Teal Album) (208 points, 8 votes)

― enochroot, Monday, February 3, 2020 8:50 PM (four minutes ago)

Overjoyed that JME made it, I voted for it for 'Pricks' alone.

I feel like a lot of those anticon backpacker acts were biting off more than they could chew (and believe me I really wanted to like them). clipping at least sounds convincing and effortless

Pricks is the secret SOTY yeah

I'm still trying to work out if that's a fake #63 because it is then A+++ punchline.

xp the abstract electronic music in the clipping album is a great accompaniment to his voice

clipping = tech nerd lit fiction airlock nightmare read by world's calmest seer, dälek = impassioned emo shoegaze hop of the most dramatic order, both = legendary

was all ready to dismiss barbieri as some quietus shit but the synths are keeping me involved and listening. you fontaines voters are gonna have to explain yourselves tho lol

I was the #1 for weezer

the tyler record this year was really disappointing after how great flower boy was. there's lots of great ideas on it but also so many frustrating ones, especially all the pitch-shifted vocals which end up sounding really harsh before long.

Clearly my beloved Deerhunter ain't making the top 77 :(

I only had time to listen to two Clipping tracks, but Shabazz Palaces was my immediate comparison

FYI, "The Deep" EP contains a collaboration with Shabazz Palaces

I tried with that Cate Le Bon album, a few times, but ...something was missing. Couldn't get into it. (Also it was my first CLB experience.) The Cox/Le Bon team up also left me cold.

Whatever else happens, I'm glad people heard and liked that clipping. album

Wildcard is a solid B+ record that does more right than wrong and honestly that was a huge relief for me with her going from Frank Liddell (who produced everything she'd ever done) to Jay Joyce, whose production is harder edged and felt like a hard left turn from Wings. That turn ended up being more of a relief -- she's never sounded more comfortable and at ease -- and another double LP chock full of "Tin Man"s clearly wasn't where her heart and mind were at following her recent marriage.

About half the songs are good to great: "Mess With My Head" (which is maybe her tightest pop song ever), "Settling Down", "Locomotive" (she crushed this live), "Bluebird", and the closing four song run "Pretty Bitchin" -> "Tequila Does" -> "Track Record" -> "Dark Bars." There are a couple of super kitschy eye-roll tracks that were somehow written by the all-star team of Hillary Lindsey/Lori McKenna/Liz Rose ("All Comes Out in the Wash", "Way Too Pretty for Prison") but most of her albums have at least one or two that are skippable.

I'd rank it behind most of her albums, but in front of Four the Record and probably Revolution on the right day. I consider the other four to be unimpeachable classics and am just grateful that she continues to put out new music every year or two.

I'm just glad The Weight of These Wings has gotten its due. You're mostly otm w/your identifying the key tracks.

The Deerhunter album was surprisingly good, but favorite Deerhunter record by far, but it got no traction at all. It ended up falling off my ballot, but still really good.

I'm enjoying this Matana Roberts record, although I like the instrumental segments more than the spoken word ones. Am I doing it wrong?

Never even heard of the real 63 (assuming Spotify has it right) but I am enjoying it hugely.

xp

This reminds me a lot of late period Mingus

^^ read this as "late period migos"

Yes to Mingus - also reminds me of Marion Brown.