ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

ILM's Albums of the Year 2010-2019

2010 Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Food: The Son of Chico Dusty
2011 Destroyer - Kaputt
2012 Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
2013 Haim - Days Are Gone
2014 D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah
2015 Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
2016 KING - We Are KING
2017 Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
2018 Low - Double Negative
2019 Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Are we getting more rockist as time goes on? Will we start voting for Paul Weller albums and talking about 'real' instruments?

To Pimp a Butterfly retains the record for the most points (2204) and the most votes (62), but Kaputt received more #1 votes (12!) than any other album in the current era of EOY polling.

We had more voters back then though, right?

thought Miguel killed his year percentile wise

Can’t wait for the decade poll

fp

narcissism of small differences lol

really happy that Tinashe made the top 10. it was my #1!
I guess I'll have to give a try to Weyes Blood?

it's a really good record

what a year for music tbh

Aside from King, this is the first album poll winner I liked a lot. Glad it beat LDR.

i'd probably rank them thusly

2017 Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
2011 Destroyer - Kaputt
2015 Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
2018 Low - Double Negative
2014 D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah
2016 KING - We Are KING
2010 Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Food: The Son of Chico Dusty
2012 Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
2013 Haim - Days Are Gone

2019 Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

oops sorry meant to add in parentheses after Weyes Blood (tbd)

the images were totally incredible. moka, idk if you've ever been tapped to design cover art, but i'd hire you.

― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili)

Thank you! I love doing the poll images so I don’t get too rusty. In one of my past incarnations I worked as a digital designer for Ogilvy & Mather, mostly doing apps & websites for their clients, nowadays I’m a club and bar owner so I don’t really design anymore, sometimes I do it for free to help friends or just for fun.

yes really great images, and great poll, thank you poll runners!

indeed!!

I forgot that Low won last year. that was a wonderful thing.

yes it was!

My biggest too low was Angel Olsen - expected that to crack the top ten, or at least come close.

another thing i'm surprised didn't show up is the Kehlani album. thought that was even better than SweetSexySavage which was top 20 in 2017 but i guess no momentum here

can someone post the full list recap please

sorry, i'm way behind but wanted to ask:

We already talked about it in the relevant thread but to me this album is a musical scam of sorts.

which thread is this?

Brittany Howard album was top 5 for me, breaks my heart it didn’t catch anyone’s ear.

I will post a poll recap later tonight when I am in front of a computer

Brittany Howard album was top 5 for me, breaks my heart it didn’t catch anyone’s ear.

lol I just asked in the stats thread who the other voter was.

That album clicked with me late, and in a way Alabama Shakes never has. I'm glad it did, though, because I've been listening to it semi-obsessively since xmas and I'm not sick of it yet.

To Pimp a Butterfly retains the record for the most points (2204) and the most votes (62), but Kaputt received more #1 votes (12!) than any other album in the current era of EOY polling.

― seandalai

Ten Love Songs also got 12 number one votes in 2015. I imagine her points would be well ahead of most winners.

i will give kaputt another #1 vote if there's ever a decade poll

decade poll is planned for June or july i think

lol i missed the post about kali malone album being a "scam of sorts", good one

people will """"listen""" to anything nowadays ehhh?

can someone post the full list recap please

― ciderpress, Friday, 7 February 2020 12:42 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is available in the stats and ballots thread btw (in google docs excel form)

yeah i didn't see that thread got posted already thanks

Gavin, Leeds at 12:53 7 Feb 20

Big thanks to the polrunners, lots to check out and revisit in the top 77 this year.

Tayhana - Tierra del Fuego

I listened to this the other day and liked it!

I didn't participate in the poll, but for a while now, the ILX EOY Poll has been my signal for the year coming to a close -- I look forward to it every year, and I'm stoked for more great music ahead ^__^

I'm a sensitive horse girl btw

I voted for Taylor's Lover but I've listened to it in these past few weeks and I could've voted it higher now. The two lead singles are clunkers - the rest of the album is basically good to great. And having given it some time, it's amazing how fully formed her left turns to new sounds work - False Gods, It's Nice to Have a Friend. In 'big pop' I still don't think there's anyone who's replaced her in her niche, lyrically - and this material points to several new avenues for her outside of the regrettable snark-pop of the lead single, where she can find new hats for herself but still maintain that unique monopoly. It's nice to have a friend! You don't need big bad Katy Perry lead single to pitch your album though, Taylor, and I don't think those singles worked that well commercially either way. It's a great album! And reputation was also underrated by me I've discovered (those lead singles were actually less egregious).

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

― toilet-cleaning brain surgeon (pomenitul), Thursday, February 6, 2020 11:35 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I'll pick this up; Dawn just finished with a trilogy of albums that kind of laid out an almost visionary re-imagining of what R&B should sound like and how it can mean. You seem to be looking for something with a little more sonic ambition, and you'll be led to the second one in that triad, Blackheart, an album that I think most here would agree is one of this decade's great defining albums

New Breed is the first full-length after that mammoth undertaking (though she does tend to litter the ground with stray tracks, EPs, collabs) and it's a mixtapes, so it's more small-scale, off-the-cuff, more intimate, personal, going back to her roots, etc. All familiar cliches but since Dawn doesn't really traffic in cliches, you end up w something like the plenitude of samples of the Mardi Gras ceremonies her family participated in, a personal touch you don't really get w generic r&b. Otherwise, for the converted, I think New Breed is like DAMN.--an artist with not much left to prove engaging with a much more accessible idea of pop music just to remove any doubt. Unfortunately, unlike DAMN, not every song hit the charts the day it was released but what can you do...?

lolilm.gif

Thank you so much to Moka, ulysses and the gang. As people upthread have said, this is something I look forward to every year. It interrupts my life, distracts me from work, makes me distant from my partner (luckily she happened to be on holiday during the rollout), but it is so worth it because it gives me so much to listen to in the coming months and usually I'm still fully digesting stuff from EOY well into spring and summer.

Thanks for an amazing rollout. I was surprisingly hivemind-y this year.

Honestly there isn't any point trying to convince Pom of this because 'generic' is one of those words that people throw around when they don't like the music enough to engage with what might be distinctive about it. A listen to Blackheart probably isn't going to change that.

Gutted that Sudan Archives didn't make the rollout by the way, stunning record.

lol ilm you so crazy

I was joking about being to r&b as Tuomas is to rock. There are quite a few r&b albums I genuinely love, so I appreciate the reply, Drugs. I'll be sure to check out Blackheart.

Anyway, I didn't expect to jive with the hivemind's #1 so: good job, ILM.

Burial wuz robbed.

He has a track about that

I like Burial a lot but I couldn't with a clear conscience vote for a compilation w/ tracks I've known for years already.

xp lol

Belated thanks to the pollrunners, and a shout out to Moka for the lovely images.

Seconded!

And congratulations to Marissa for winning the poll

lol