ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

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

There's just so much great SA house stuff comign out it's practically impossible to keep track of it all

not a scam but a deliberate aesthetic choice

These are not mutually exclusive tbf.

Since you seem to be so hung up on this word, I called it a 'scam' because I love organs and I love drones and I love drony organs and organy drones so I should logically be all over this record yet to my ears it sounds like a cheap Aeolian harp-esque parody of the genre and I have no idea why everyone loves it so much but all the more power to you, really (I'm not being sarcastic).

OK, yeah, this album should have been the first three tracks, Sacrificial Code II and nothing else. Editor!

This Kali Malone would sound so amazing over some crunchy lo-if black metal. It manages to evoke the forest nonetheless.

Fi

she would do great things with Sunn O)))

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

i did vote for Blossom but yeah i'd be pretty surprised if any more SA house showed up higher than Isphithiphithi

i think i'd love glass beach much more if their jazzy smoothness was backed up by having like a prefab sprout/steely dan-esque crooning vocalist rather than the more-pop-punk-end-of-emo vocalist they have

Can we get a rundown of whats placed so far, please?

I too need the chords to be good, if someone could just play the best chords and ignore the rest then it would save everyone a lot of bother.

otm

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#77 – Cate le Bon – Reward (181 points, 6 votes)
#76 – Laurel Halo – DJ Kicks (182 points, 5 votes)
#75 – Better Oblivion Community Center – s/t (182 points, 6 votes)
#74 – Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow (183 points, 6 votes)
#73 – Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter 4: Memphis (184 points, 6 votes)
#72 – Jme – Grime MC (187 points, 7 votes)
#71 – clipping. – There Existed an Addiction to Blood (188 points, 7 votes, 1 #1 vote)
#70 – Blanck Mass – Animated Violence Mild (189 points, 6 votes)
#69 – Sampa the Great – The Return (194 points, 7 votes, 1 #1 vote)
#68 – The National – I Am Easy to Find (195 points, 8 votes)
#67 – Caterina Barbieri – Ecstatic Computation (200 points, 7 votes)
#66 – Tyler, the Creator – IGOR (202 points, 8 votes)
#65 – Fontaines D.C. – Dogrel (204 points, 7 votes)
#64 – Miranda Lambert – Wildcard (208 points, 8 votes)
#63 – Barker – Utility (210 points, 8 votes)
#62 – Rapsody – Eve (211 points, 8 votes)
#61 – Sacred Paws – Run Around the Sun (212 points, 8 votes)
#60 – Andy Stott – It Should Be Us (214 points, 9 votes)
#59 – Moodymann – Sinner (216 points, 6 votes, 1 number 1 vote)
#58 – Thom Yorke – Anima (216 points, 8 votes)
#57 – Samthing Soweto – Isiphithiphithi (220 points, 7 votes)
#56 – Various Artists – 環境音楽 Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 (222 points, 8 votes)
#55 – American Football – American Football (223 points, 7 votes, 2 number 1 votes)
#54 – Clairo – Immunity (223 points, 9 votes)
#53 – Koffee – Rapture (224 points, 7 votes, 1 number 1 vote)
#52 – Carla dal Forno - Look Up Sharp (228 points, 8 votes)
#51 – Lambchop - This (is what I wanted to tell you) (234 points, 8 votes)
#50 – Glass Beach - The First Glass Beach Album (242 points, 8 votes)
#49 – Chemical Brothers - No Geography (244 points, 7 votes)
#48 – Hatchie - Keepsake (266 points, 11 votes)
#47 – Liturgy - H.A.Q.Q. (268 points, 9 votes)
#46 – Solange - When I Get Home (277 points, 12 votes)
#45 – Kali Malone - The Sacrificial Code (278 points, 8 votes)
#44 – Shura - Forevher (278 points, 9 votes)
#43 – Angel Olsen - All Mirrors (284 points, 10 votes)
#41(TIE) - Kim Gordon - No Home Record (288 points, 10 votes)
#41(TIE) - SAULT - 7 (288 points, 10 votes)
*

Thanks breastcrawl - will check

Also props to Tim, Brad & karl for the Khidja & Balabas and Tapan recs

i really really need to spend more time with Sault

for chords to be good it often requires lots of them to be played and none to be discounted - i mean 'good' of course in the context of a sequence, no one chord is good in isolation. maybe a tritone

pvmic