ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

Did anyone not vote for Purple Mountains?

there aren't many distorted guitars on that one

I don't understand English that well, so it's not my thing

Catching up: I picked Rapsody from yesterday and glasshousebeachcandy from today to listen to. Liked them both (and ‘Eve’ a lot) on first play but man they need to pass a law limiting album lengths to 50 minutes max. glass beach might also benefit from being remade with gazillion dollar production values.

Looking forward to the objections to listening to Purple Mountains expanding to "I don't like any music whatsoever, so I passed on it."

I don't care if the mountains are black, white, purple

notes? don't care for 'em

notes? more like nopes

Seems I voted for just Andy Stott and Sault from last batch. (My favourite of the two Sault options. Looks like the other did just fine without 26 points from me.)

i do have some actual criticisms of PM that you may be uninterested to hear when it wins the poll on thursday. suffice it to say for now that it's impressive ilx has found a more maudlin and doomish album than that low one last year to latch onto. not that either album is bad, obv!

Neither is maudlin or doomish enough imo.

I only listened to two tracks but found PM to be very drab

well,

I guess we've all got different tastes and likes.

Despite not having much of my ballot place, so many other records I've enjoyed made the list today (Solange, Andy Stott, ChemBros, Hatchie, Kankyō Ongaku, Angel Olsen, Sault) I'm quite stoked. Good stuff everyone

I like to melt stuff, and dislike stuff that doesn't melt.

I'm a first time album poll voter. I voted for 15 albums.

Three have already placed, and I'm pretty sure eight more will. One definitely won't place (Charly Bliss' Young Enough), and three are doubtful (Nilufer Yanya, Mdou Moctar, and The Highwomen).

it's nice to see new voters!

Want to see Nilufer Yanya place; imago claiming Purple Mountains is "mawkish" reveals he owns no dictionary

and charly bliss came top 10 last time they charted, so ynever know aphoristical!

I certainly had Nilufer Yanya and Mdou Moctar on my long list but then... for some reason switched my support to things that will probably place around #563.

I might explode if Charly Bliss doesn't place

I'm young enough to believe the poll should hurt that much

really glad that the kali malone album appeared. it's mind blowing. it made my top 10.
'ancestral recall' will sure appear. i really hope so. it was on my top 10.
and if tinashe doesn't show up, I'll be really sad. each day i realize it's kinda of a r&b masterpiece.

the Kali Malone album has felt like a refuge the last few months

voted for samthing soweto, clairo and lambchop today. there's a few pretty great lambchop records but this new one was probably their best yet, really transcendent. the vocal effect works really wonderfully with the general aqueous atmosphere

i certainly did my part for tinashe and nilufer! i'm pretty confident they'll both be on the list

tinashe was top 10 last time she released a good album and the consensus was this one's even better, i'm not sure why anyone's doubting her placement

I may need Carla dal Forno appreciation lessons. Of all the Aus women recognised further afield her songs seem the least well developed. Unfortunate given that the, er, textures of the finished product always seem so promising for the first few dozen bars.

xp yeah i was expecting it to be at least top 20

Would be forever grateful if someone could provide a roundup of what has placed so far. Takes a long time to load the whole thread and scroll through.

ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

Ah, my eternal thanks. 700 posts since then!

listening to the American Football album and i really should have gone back to it during putting together my ballot, it's fantastic.

are there any other bands who've released their best work by far after reuniting, 20 years after their debut

Tinashe my #2! With all the mentions so far it will definitely place.

As a December release, I hope it gets on some publications' lists at the end of this year (her name doesn't come up in "The 2019 end of the year music lists thread").

listened to the first track of the kali malone album and it's surprisingly enthralling. will have to listen to the whole thing when i have the time.

need to relisten tbh *insert going back to kali joke here*

I’m glad everyone disagrees with me lol.

fell asleep to Kali's sleepy drones last night.

Dan's description upthread about it being a sort of refuge is totally on point, to me. There's a specific warmth to her organ sound that makes it something I keep coming back to, it just flows through me and renders me defenseless in the best possible way. (also, it's one of the very few albums that I can write to; this says nothing about the music, I realize, but that's important to me, still knee deep in a writer's abyss..)

Aine O'Dwyer's "Music For Church Cleaners" is an astonishing record, though to my ears nothing like Kali Malone's album.

I’m glad everyone disagrees with me lol.

adding to the chorus of feeling the kali

I mean, obviously she's not the best organist around, nor the best drone composer. But what she does on that record works perfectly as intended, and that's enough for me.

(xpost)

Malone was finding some lovely chord combinations in those first three tracks (especially the third) - tracks 4 and 5 were a lot flatter in aspect though, which is where I checked out. Might return to the rest later. I like the sound but I need the chords to be 'good'

It gets very jaunty on disc two.

I don't hear it as random at all??

LMAO at 'jaunty' drone records. More of that kind of thing please

:D

Top work those of you who voted for Samthing Soweto - it's gorgeous and best discovery so far