ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

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)

This was Dawn's K Michelle album

I guess you gotta be into it to really appreciate the micro-differences.

https://i.imgur.com/aQtV0Cg.jpg
#15 - Caroline Polachek - Pang (488 points, 16 votes)
Chairlift - Bruises (This year's "Heartbeats"/"Young Folks")
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/caroline-polachek-pang

maybe you'd be more comfortable with the R&B stylings of Santigold

damn, didn't expect pang to go so far. there's a few undistinguished songs in the middle imo, i look forward to her next solo record

Speaking of annoying

lj turning on pc music as soon as they make viable yet still credibly bizarre pop music is vmic

xp: truth bombs

Speaking of annoying

― TOO LOW, the Curator (imago), Thursday, February 6, 2020 11:47 AM (thirty-eight seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

gecs already placed, man

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

i know i shouldn't mention this because one of the two songs literally features hval telling a story about listening to her own music and then crying, but the Lost Girls EP (LP? it's two songs, each about 15 minutes) shares some of these musical qualities - not so much thumping techno, more just electronic

Here's a thing - is there less lettering on album covers these days? Maybe cos people are buying more vinyl and want a piece of artwork as well as the music within?

lol I knew that was coming (re truth bombs) but nuh-uh

If anything I'd argue covers with no words became more of a thing in response to the increase of streaming and the cover as small avatar

Here's a thing - is there less lettering on album covers these days? Maybe cos people are buying more vinyl and want a piece of artwork as well as the music within?

― doorstep jetski (dog latin), Thursday, February 6, 2020 11:48 AM (forty-one seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

or maybe because more people are listening on streaming services where the artist and title are listed in giant bold letters at all times.

xp, right

browsing thru the Dawn Richard. Some good, modern-funky production. But I can't get with this style of pop-rnb singing. Feel like it'd be my fav album if I was a 15 yr old girl tho.

catching up, but Hval and Gecs were my number one and two, and those plus the two Black Dresses albums fully encapsulated what 2019 felt like to me.