ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2020

you're missing out!

Whereever you are

over the past 15 or so years, my experience with Destroyer has been super consistent: i listen to 1 to 3 tracks off whatever the new album is, find them basically okay but uninspiring then completely forget what both they and he sound like within the hour.
(NB that with a handful of key exceptions, this is the same level of engagement i have with lou reed so i am well aware that ymmv)

Would it have been too obvious to actually cue the instruments when he calls them out?

xp but he's being all meta and extra-cynical on this one, it's about being old and jaded!

I still think Rubies is the only really great Destroyer album; this one didn't click with me at all.

Cool video. Very 2020 vibe for something presumably shot before a certain contagion was even isolated.

This next track, for better and worse, is likely to outlast us all as the key Zoomer memento mori anthem of 2020. The nearest Gen-X cultural analog to my ears is Beck’s “Loser.” Given that this one-hit wonder(?) is similarly bound to be dug up and covered a half dozen times before 2030, maybe it’s best to make your peace with it now.

https://i.imgur.com/HgLHIy7.png
#75 (tie): BENEE with “Gus Dapperton” - “Supalonely” - 136 points - 4 votes
video

rolling pop 2020

singles jukebox

Yeah the entire New Pornographers cinematic universe is theoretically stuff I should like/love, but none of its various franchises ever keep my attention. A flaw of my own, I imagine, because I know people love it.

i love how the instruments bejar calls out don’t actually appear when he “cues” them haha

xps

this may be marketed as 'zoomer' but there's a gang of olds hiding behind the mask. listen to that limp ilm-approved soft-disco backing music. if this makes it and Thos Moser doesn't then that is condemnation imo

gus dapperton

Track bangs. Vocals are trash.

xp it is pronounced "gus dapperton"

the backing is tasteful sure but what's happening on top of that isn't good enough for me to enjoy and it gets so much worse when gus dapperton shows up

people shouldn’t criticize dapperton for ripping off rex orange county, they came up around the same time. people should criticize them both for sucking ass.

this song made me feel bad for slagging off jessie ware

The only knowledge I have of Destroyer comes from ILM polls.

― timber euros (seandalai), 25. tammikuuta 2021 16:25 bookmarkflaglink

ditto

― get down, get down, get down / why piano wenza so? (breastcrawl), 25. tammikuuta 2021 16:26 bookmarkflaglink

it will very likely remain that way

― get down, get down, get down / why piano wenza so? (breastcrawl), 25. tammikuuta 2021 16:28 bookmarkflaglink

i see lj is already on one this year

yeah, you gotta pace yourself imago

bejar says “cue electric guitar,” tuomas shudders

lol Brad I always start like this then something I like places and it's all smiles again, u know the drill

Pretty sure I voted for "Cue Synthesizer". The album is decent, but not quite listened to enough to make my ballot, so I figured I should at least give this track some love.

This was not the Jessie Ware track I voted. I'm sure there's going to be a bunch on here.

Will have to check out BENEE.

The Benee song sounds nice, but the lyrics and the video make me think I'm not exactly it's intended audience at 41 years of age. And that's okay, there's no need for everything to be available for me.

unexpected showing (or did I miss the ILM hype around this track?) sort of enjoyed the poppiness of this.

that's three out of three tracks with polite neo-disco/funk backing. time for something... else, perhaps?

benee song was a tiktok hit right? i was previously unfamiliar with it and now i know there's a kidz bop version lol

yeah it was

puts it on a par with "Dreams", I guess

I think it's kinda interesting, though, that even tho the median age of ILX keeps getting higher, teenpop never disappears from these lists.

(xxxxpost)

this is a good thing

Here's a possibly dumb question that's been on my mind for a while, that will probably make me sound like an old person, and Supalonely has good example of it: Is there a name for that kind of stilted hiccupy vocal delivery that's present in the verses ("Water. Pulling. Down. from the. ceiling")? Like it's become more and more prevalent in music over the past decade, with origins that I assume were in Trap before crossing over into RnB and Pop. But is there a name for it?

no idea if it has a name but yeah it originated in rap before crossing over

well it's just the triplet but without the final syllable being voiced

sometimes without the final two syllables voiced

if the "polite neo-disco/funk backing" is getting to you, perhaps you're in the market of something from our "chillax and vyb3" selection?

https://i.imgur.com/mVPQQNb.png
#74: Westerman - “Blue Comanche” - 138 points - 5 votes
video

bullion

yeah, just staccato triplet bits to fit between the up and down beat

xp

if this makes it and Thos Moser doesn't then that is condemnation imo

That was one of a couple of tracks I was 100% going to vote for and then forgot to put on my ballot so really hope it does make it

Too Low!

love the graphics but had a bit of a lol at "weste rman"

When I've discussed w/r/t rap music, I've usually used the phrase "stop-and-start flow", but I dunno if anyone else does, or whether it can be used with non-rap.

(several xposts)

Probably my favourite track on the Westerman album but there's lots of other good ones

oh wow this is lovely

oh this is nice to see, i quite enjoyed his output this year but nothing quite made my ballot

loved the album, didn't vote for any tracks from it. (i did vote for "confirmation" last year, i believe)

do prefer this Moody Midtempo AOR to Destroyer's, give it that

going full arthur russell on those vocals

Voted Your Hero Is Not Dead over this but I love it too