ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

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#17 - Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love (484 points, 18 votes, 2 number 1 votes)
Jenny Hval - Viscera
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/jenny-hval-the-practice-of-love/

incredible album

Les claimed the name of their group originates from a mishap with an online gecko retailer, in which she was shipped 100 live geckos instead of the one she ordered. (It was impossible to tell from her tone if she was being serious, but let’s just agree it’s a great origin story.)

father of the bride is only really weird in that "my mistake" -> "sunflower" stretch, the rest of it is decidedly unweird

"rich man"/"married in a gold rush" is about as unbearable as vw gets for me, they are underwritten songs

― american bradass (BradNelson),

We're as one.

"THE BATSHIT ALBUM THAT EXPLAINS HOW 2019 FEELS"

yay to inside the rose!

xp only a lil bit like in sides
try the end of anodyne industries

x-post: Father of the Bride, 1000 Gecs or The Practice of Love? Could be anyone of them...

Found this terminally boring, which at least can't be said for the gecs.

how annoying many of you find 100 gecs, is how annoying I find Hval (at least, before this album)

As a whole I didn't like The Practice of Love as much as the previous two Jenny Hval albums but the highlights are really strong.

x-post: Father of the Bride, 1000 Gecs or The Practice of Love? Could be anyone of them...

― Frederik B, Thursday, February 6, 2020 9:21 AM (fifty-eight seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

that's the headline from the outline piece enochroot posted about gecs

part of why i find gecs insufferable, though i guess that's extratextual

i hated jenny hval's work before this album. this album fucking rocks

it is a garden of jewels

there's plenty of textual reasons to dislike them

Given the Adigery thread having been bumped, could Zandoli make it here? Nobody mentioned it yesterday

Has Jenny Hval become a less terrible lyricist because her tell-don't-show approach to writing really killed the last few albums for me, even when they were terrific sonically.

Haha, more gecs! I didn't vote for the whole album in the end as I feel like they're very much a "small doses" act for me, I can totally get into it for short bursts but the sustained gecsness wears me out a little. Maybe I should've still voted for it, though.

I will own up to being one of the #1s for VW. I didn't have a clear favorite record this year but played this one more than any other and got deep into the first two albums again, so it just felt appropriate to give them my top spot. It is a perfect summer album. I hear a lot of Paul Simon and Fleetwood Mac but not to the point of pastiche and think that's a criticism of him more than the music.

gecs: on paper, I should love this. (Reminds me a bit of Crystal Castles and the Farrah Abraham album, both of which I liked a lot.) But I found this exceedingly annoying and hard to get through.

Jenny Hval: amazing album.

Gecs album IS a small dose tbf!

gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec is complete trash, it's delicious

I'm getting very strong Salem vibes from 100 gecs

<3

that is a really good call

Hval admirably short at 33 minutes. Going in now.

i would like the smallest dose of gecs possible (0 gecs)

not sonically the same as Salem but in terms of where it feels like this music is approaching its material, to expand on that comment

I'm a minute into the first song and I keep thinking someone said "let's do Karmin again only this time let's make it weird"

https://i.imgur.com/hFLziWn.jpg
#16 - Dawn Richard - New Breed (486 points, 15 votes)
The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread
https://spectrumculture.com/2019/01/17/dawn-new-breed-review/

this album, otoh, bangs

I don't get what's so remarkable about this at all.

man, i did really like this album. chalk it up to 'came out too early in the year'-itis.

'dreams + converse' stayed in my playlists throughout the year

Dawn my #2. Held off all-comers all year.

damn i forgot to vote for dawn. her most focused record

Many xposts, but Matt DC otm about Hval's tendency to tell not show (I always think this rule is a fallacy in writing until I come across particularly egregious examples and then I remember why people teach it that way). I want to like her but I find this really off-putting.

Completely missed this Dawn release.

I don't get what's so remarkable about this at all.

What do you mean by "remarkable"?

great boots

I'm a minute into the first song and I keep thinking someone said "let's do Karmin again only this time let's make it /weird/"

Think I liked this but didn't love it. Seems to have gone less weird and certainly less adventurous with structure and sonics for some reason - where are the Adderall/Solds and LAs? Might deserve a rescreen regardless, she's a great artist

xps yeah 100 gecs is witch house 2.0, non?

It sounds like generic r&b to me. Based on the descriptions I've read, I was expecting something with more personality.

To me, this sounds like another Dawn Richard album, which is fucking great because I really like Dawn Richard

it's not really a mystery *shrug*

I liked Dawn's contributions on the J-E-T-S album but seem to have completely forgotten to listen to New Breed :/

yay jenny hval! i agree that she tells and doesn't show. but that's kind of her thing. if she didn't have any instruments she'd still be making the same kind of music

nothing but respect and love for Dawn but this one was forgettable. How do the fans rank it relative to the rest of her catalog?

what is "generic R&B"

I like this DAWN album, didn't make my top ten

Stuff that sounds like New Breed.

"'dreams + converse" rules

She's too weird for conventional R&B, so when she tries writing conventional R&B it sounds even more fucked up.

Never been a big Jenny Hval fan but this album really connected with me for some reason. High Alice was my way in.

Dawn must me the most consistent artist on our album polls in the last 10 years. I find her a bit more hit and miss than most seem to, but I really liked this album. Probably my second favourite behind Blackheart.

i think practice of love is the first hval record where i find the music so gorgeous and perfectly textured that i suddenly do not mind her writing voice, in fact the music's meticulously arranged chamber-synth-pop with sudden deviations into thumping techno marries really well to the blunt affect she's always going for. though also "six red cannas" has a hejira reference that can't help but charm me (and also imo "six red cannas" sounds like a house remix of a sarah mclachlan song that doesn't exist)