ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

I voted for Utility but will fully admit that my techno* listening was p cursory this year. I'm checking out the Efdemin right now (this folk song isn't doing much for me though)

love the barker

More okayishness; I'm ok with that.

https://i.imgur.com/SnaJimZ.jpg
#62 – Rapsody – Eve (211 points, 8 votes)

https://hiphopdx.com/reviews/id.3503/title.review-rapsody-firmly-secures-her-hip-hop-legacy-with-women-empowering-eve

damn albums looking to be a rap blowout

nice album, wanted to like it more than i did

TOO LOW DAMN

forks, where are you pulling these cropped images from?

the barker is great, glad some folks are doing it wrong enough to get into the albums list

nice album, wanted to like it more than i did

exactly how I felt about it, but there's some really great songs on it, just a bit inconsistent and goes on a bit long

Yay for Rapsody!

last one; moka should take over tomorrow with refixed images and more albums

https://i.imgur.com/0fkkic5.jpg
#61 – SACRED PAWS – Run Around the Sun (212 points, 8 votes)

Sacred Paws - Strike A Match
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sacred-paws-run-around-the-sun/

love love loved strike a match, this one struck me as diminishing returns.

#63 – Barker – Utility (210 points, 8 votes)

Lower on my ballot, glad it made it. Such a beautiful record that seems to transcend the seemingly infinite pool of decent techno last year.

Gonna say, 2019 felt like a really strong year for electronic music in general. For this year specifically, it would have been fun to have an 'electronic music' ballot poll a la the metal one.

I played the Rapsody a lot in early fall. The Phil Collins sample is one of my favorites of the last couple years. Often her attitude >> her rhymes and rapping. Laila's Wisdom is the better album. Still -- it's a good record.

Oh gee, had no idea Sacred Paws was a contender. I kinda feel bad that the indie part of my brain has atrophied a bit or something and doesn't really love it (or Trash Kit) a bit more. :)

Everything so far a mystery to me and then my number 2 pops up just like that; Utility is a sublime piece of work

love the sacred paws slight in some ways but v warm and fun album that I needed last year

cate le bon was my only vote today. nervous about my number one not making it.

point totals have been crazy tight so far

oh cool! nice to see that place. didn't vote for much indie this year but i voted for that, fun album! also voted for the barker and the caterina barbieri albums, go me

my #1 almost certainly hasn't made it, but am holding out a lot of hope for #2...for now

how many Magma fans we got on this board

Barbieri was very high on my list. Beautiful, emotionally resonant music that unfortunately makes me want to buy lots of very expensive reverb modules. Probably my most re-played album of the year.

Whole Barbieri album was good but that opening track was what made me listen to the whole thing - stunning piece

she really upped her game on that record and i'm a bit fed up with myself that i missed the chance to see her live

yeah, this album really grew on me, even more than Patterns of Consciousness

Utility is lovely. I like what Moodles said about how removing the kicks brings a lot of the details to the forefront

I'm glad to see Sacred Paws show up on here. They didn't quite make my list, but I listened to them a lot. I enjoy their songs whenever they come on, but they rarely stick with me or compel me to listen more.

The Sampa album win me over bit by bit, but wow, it's long

Is the lady on The National album cover dreaming about sashimi?

Also, did The National somehow get more tuneful and melodic, or am I just imagining it?

Yay, I voted for Sacred Paws! Very fun jangle-pop sort of stuff, "Brush Your Hair" was a standout track for me.

After hearing Brush Your Hair (which is fine) I wasn't tempted to listen to the SACRED PAWS album as it sounded so similar to the last one. Not that that's a bad thing, but the sound was indistinguishable

Kinda chuffed that 4 things I voted for have made it already. But then I remember that ILM polls are usually like this for me. All but Rapsody would apparently have been outside the 77 without my (unweighted) points, and #56 to #27 will inevitably be a complete mystery to me. LOL.

The Matana Roberts was really satisfying and pleasurable, an album that I expect i would be able to keep finding new things in for a while. I have Coin Coin 2 and really loved her live show in 2013 but I dragged on actually taking the time to listen to this one, weirdly, because I knew it would be good. I'm glad the poll gave me a reason to do so,

listening to the clipping album and oh they're not doing noise-rap anymore

sounds like theater!

nevermind there's still some noise for sure it just opens surprisingly conservative compared to what i'd heard in the past for them

la mala ordina gets shall we say a tetch noisy

nevermind there's still some noise for sure it just opens surprisingly conservative compared to what i'd heard in the past for them

Yeah I'm feeling this. I gave it a quick listen through and enjoyed it (it's the only thing from today that's on my long list) but it seemed a lot more subdued compared to CLPPNG.

maybe my one criticism is that a lot of their tracks are roughly the same tempo

Tbh the idea of 'noise rap' was so unappealing that I've ignored Clipping altogether so these comments actually make me want to check them out.

^ yep. And I think the earlier stuff I heard was 'noise rap'. Much as I like noise (and rap), they don't sound like two flavours that go together

Nothing too loathsome so far except for that National album (and I like Alligator and Boxer for the most part, maybe because the more minimal rock setup helps undercut their unavowed crooner-isms). And I'm glad to see so much love for clipping. and (especially) Matana Roberts.

National is an odd one, for me. Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers is probably my favourite of theirs, I saw them on that tour too and they were brilliantly unhinged and raw. But that's 17 years ago (wow). The more they "perfected" their sound and lost the rough edges, the more uninteresting it became for me. Trouble Will Find Me is the last album I know and enjoyed. After that I was just saturated I think. The bombastic, over-the-top, singer-goes-through-the-crowd-every-concert last tour I saw them - which everyone around me absolutely *loved* - was too big and too Bono for me. I wish them well but am content never to hear new work from them ever again. I 'grew out of' them or something. (I've this with more bands)

Yeah, that resonates with my experience (minus the live part, as I've never seen them in person).

their latest is pretty easily their best, i voted for it. id always found them enjoyable but never quite capable of a really good album until now

at the very least, "you had your soul with you" is their best ever song

I should have voted for that The National album, the first ones of theirs I've really liked. But it is too long to me, and ends up feeling a bit shapeless. You had your soul with you is a great song, yeah.