ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

this sault album is pretty great!

that said, here's my #1 album

https://i.imgur.com/n0Sgw47.jpg
#27 – Raphael Saadiq – Jimmy Lee (364 points, 13 votes, 1 #1 vote)

Raphael Saadiq - Jimmy Lee- "He Was My Mama's Son"

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/23/753458288/raphael-saadiq-sets-his-dark-meditation-to-music-with-jimmy-lee

yeah!!!!

(just got tickets to see him in New Jersey on valentine's day; pretty hyped)

Two indifferences in a row.

My favourite jazz album of last year's was Marilyn Mazur's awesome (and aptly named) Shamania, but wonder if anyone else here voted for it at all? Frederik?

xxxxpost

I liked about half the Saadiq. By all means watch him live.

This is an impressively diverse list! Just looking at the last 10, three dnp on any of the eoy lists tracked in Rob Mitchum's sheet:

27 Raphael - 133
28 Sault - dnp
29 Comet is Coming - 26
30 Dawson - 88
31 Ancestral Recall - 286
32 Simz - 19
33 Highwomen - 50
34 Arthur Russell - dnp
35 Danny Brown - 30
36 Men I Trust - dnp

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SklyhzT6ty4fJH9wrItm0qOiI6kiloRdkZMhONpZ0CA/edit#gid=0

Awesome! I remember being really disappointed that Stone Rollin' missed our 2011 poll. Delighted to see him this high with the best album of his career.

xp that said, I expect most of the ilm top 26 to be among the top of that list

this is probably the fourth live show of Saadiq's i've seen; got to interview him at one of them and he was hella friendly.

TURBO TIME so here's another top ten pick of mine

https://i.imgur.com/Jgugbgv.jpg
#26 – CFCF – Liquid Colors (365 points, 12 votes)

cfcf - liquid colours

https://www.allmusic.com/album/liquid-colours-mw0003299630

love the Dawson album but Jogging eclipses most of it for me..

It's like a book of short stories, many employing a twist in the tale at the end, others not so much.

Some songs are a bit on the nose (opening track especially). He overuses ephemeral quotidian references (Call Of Duty, Match of the Day, Premier Inn, 'scrounging immigrants', Classic FM) for familiarity and poignant effect, but these can give the effect of observational comedy.

I like the creeping guitar interplay on Heart Emoji and the moral ambiguity of the protagonist who's fully prepared to murder her husband on suspicion of cheating before being surprised by a slug on the kitchen floor.

I also love the forlorn 'Freshers Ball' about the single dad dropping his daughter off at university.

I prefer these shorter more subtle vignettes about every day people and their internal struggles (the competitive dad on 'Two Halves' is a well developed character) than the more blustering political 'state of the nation' material like Fulfilment Centre and Dead Dog In An Alleyway.

One describes working in an absolutely hellish consumer goods depot where people piss themselves and have breakdowns. The other is about the everyday violence and abuse experienced by a homeless person. Unlike many of the other songs, these don't possess a hint of the macabre, bathetic twists he's wont to using, but which cast a tiny ray of hope somewhere in there. These are bleak and utterly hopeless scenarios and quite rightly devoid of joy. But I feel like he could have done a bit more with them than simply telling me that homeless people get treated like animals or that Amazon are evil AF.

Otherwise it comes across a bit 'Another Day In Paradise', a bit 'Mr Wendal'. We never really learn much about the main character on Dead Dog. He's just a homeless person, another homeless person, with no back story. Maybe that's deliberate, of course. Once a man with a personality, now now no more than a dead dog in a black bag. Would it have been condescending to do more?

Get in xp

some fine ear candy is this.

First one I haven't even heard of so far; naturally intrigued.

Eh, the comet isn't all it's cracked up to be. Like I said in the tracks thread, more improv (not necessarily of the 'free' variety) would've been welcome.

― toilet-cleaning brain surgeon (pomenitul), Wednesday, February 5, 2020 4:50 PM (thirty-four minutes ago)

Maybe this is what you meant by "ninja tune," but I got more into this album once I decided it wasn't really jazz and was more like cosmic funk--I can see what you're saying though, part of me wishes this was closer to Lawrence of Newark. I did vote for it, but I like it considerably less than the last Sons of Kemet album, and Shabaka & the Ancestors is still my favorite of his

my interest in this lasted as long as it took flopson to correct 'new wave' to 'new age' in its thread

yes (and wow) to CFCF placing this high

Succint call back to the atmospheric drum 'n bass days of yore, that is way better than it should be. I'd totally believe it was from 1996 if I didn't know any better. It's a doozy.

And we should send that guy a link to this thread because he lamented not being mentioned in any EoY list lol

was just gonna say it sounds retro but effortlessly so

OK I'll check it out, I always check it out eventually haha

xxp someone really should!

Effortlessly, yes!

LJ I'd be highly surprised if this was your thing but you should try it anyway :)

The CFCF album is great.

Fwiw I love the Ninja Tune aesthetic and was partly weaned on it, but something about The Comet Is Coming's attempt at maintaining the illusion of a live-band-first format in the studio rubs me the wrong way. Like, if you're going to stray that far from improv, might as well throw in a few more timbral tricks to make it thoroughly worthwhile (which is what Ninja Tune was so ace at back in the day).

xps obv.

as a fan of late 90s atmospheric dnb, this CFCF didn’t click. It makes PFM sound like Rotterdam Terror Corps. It sounds like dentist office waiting room music with breaks.

I'd enjoy Comet Is Coming if they laid off the pyrotechnic FX a bit.

So much echo and flange, it's like when a guitarist splashes out on a pedalboard, or they bought a bunch of cheap VST plugins in a sale and have to use them ALL.

CFCF is sounding great so far.

It sounds like dentist office waiting room music with breaks.

listening now and this is otm

That's... not a bad thing, actually.

Love that CFCF! Been a fan for a while, but that album was a really nice surprise

xp pretty much what he was aiming at tbh

immaculate production. the aesthetic just isn’t for me.

depends on how much you love waiting to get your teeth drilled i guess

Liking 'Oxygen Lounge' a lot less than 'Re-Utopia'.

They play Charli XCX at my dentist

Charlie FCF

https://i.imgur.com/HMhWZkE.jpg
#25 – Nilüfer Yanya – Miss Universe (378 points, 13 votes, 1 #1 vote)

Nilufer Yanya

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/14/702533463/first-listen-nil-fer-yanya-miss-universe

CFCF was very "I appreciate this intellectually"* and not at all "I want these sounds in my ears" for me, though I'm going to put it on now and see if it connects.

*his write-up of the album is brilliant: https://cfcf.bandcamp.com/album/liquid-colours

CXCX

Oh I almost voted for a track off this, is it all nice guitar pop?

Good album, this. Not surprised to see it place.

Brilliant album. It just kept growing on me throughout the year. I Love her style so much.

xxp it's as much in common with sade as guitar pop

re: CFCF if I'm in the mood for this sort of thing I would just seek out mid 90s atmospheric dnb shit tho. Or Tosca's Suzuki which I still go back to at least once a year.

probably closest to joan armatrading if anything

It's got pleasant guitar pop numbers and sophisti-Sade ones as well.

xps