ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2020

the Dagny track sounds like Carly Rae Jepsen with all the personality sucked out

could we refrain from posting embedded YouTubes in this thread as a courtesy to folks without a high-speed internet connection? It's gonna be a 2000+ post thread fast so the faster we can get it to load the better.

Not really comparable, but as a sort of bridge between St. Germain and Jorja Smith I recommend fans of the Jorja Smith track to listen to Movementt by Emma-Jean Thackray as well. It didn't make the nominations but I think it has a good house/jazz fusion as well.

btw, no one has called the proper single artist/two song combo for the tie at 78 as of yet

Blue Comanche sounds like Running Up That Hill.

― tangenttangent, maandag 25 januari 2021 18:13

oooh am digging "Rotting Hills."

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), maandag 25 januari 2021 18:15

lovely sequencing

xp

So, we’ve ruled out Swift, Ware, Dylan and Dua Lipa?

Is it a former or present ILXer?

I expected the digs at Dagny not reinventing the wheel but a couple of spins in and I think most people will be hooked on its porcelain sugar high, liking it or not. It had a modest commercial start, but ended up the #1 Norwegian airplay hit of 2020, slowly eating away at initial resistance (and Dagny also had the #2)

my guess for #78 is oneohtrix point never

That Jorja Smith song interpretation is so great. The flow & vibe are totally mesmerising. The drums somehow remind me of Kruder & Dorfmeister. Grand cru. I also loved the Westerman which indeed made me think of a new Arthur Russell track. Thanks.

That Jorja Smith song is fantastic.

"Surpriser" is at least fun and energetic and not predictable; can believe there are other tracks in the genre that surpass it.

Oh, might our joint 78 be a certain bunch of lads from Wilmslow...

I appreciate how 78 speculation has become a Thing here

"Surpriser" reminds me of "Tiki Taka," also on the noms list.

We’ll have to start an if you like x, you’ll love y thread after this is done, filled w lovely youtubes

I did in fact vote, including for the Jorja which I adore.

I thought I voted for “jazzidisciples” but revisiting my drafting spreadsheet I see it is in the very sad “fifty songs which literally changed my life but were not in my top 25” section

oooh good guess crut

Thanks sean, Moka and forks!

based on their track in Tom E's 2020 twitter poll, Khruangbin really did fall off last year. but I'm posting to acknowledge, re their video, that an ex-ilx0r would take any opportunity to note that St3phen K Am0s tried to pick them up once.

My Discover Weekly is always so good and weird the Monday after the week I spend frantically listening to everything on the noms list

xp

So, we’ve ruled out Swift, Ware, Dylan and Dua Lipa?

Is it a former or present ILXer?

Is #78 The 1975? Could see enough vote splitting but limited enthusiasm there for "The Birthday Party" / "Me & You Together Song" / "Jesus Christ" / "Guys"

if it is let it be known I called it first about 15 posts upthread

I never cared for destroyer before but enjoyed have we met the one time I listened. I dig “cue synthesizer”.

"Jaguar" is a nice track. I voted for "Experience."

Is "Surpriser!" hyperpop? I don't know who this music is for. Do people connect with this? Dance to it?

s it a former or present ILXer?

― edited for dog profanity (cryptosicko), Monday, 25 January 2021 20:09 (fifty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

correct! It's Momus

Love the vocals and melody on the verse of "Somebody." Wish the chorus went bigger.

Catching up for today - voted for Rose Rouge, When I'm In Your Arms & Ain't It Different, so happy they all made it; with Arms & Different especially I wasn't sure if they would place . Time (You and I) & Jaguar had also impressed me when flicking through the nominations playlist but didn't quite make my ballot.

Of the tunes that were completely new to me, Rotting Hills is probably my favourite so far. Also enjoyed Dragonball Durag & Jazzidisciples, and Surpriser is really quite something.

I feel like I only ever listen to Destroyer in the context of ILM EOY polls but always enjoy it. There's probably a few artists that go into this category for me (US Girls comes to mind).

Is "Surpriser!" hyperpop? I don't know who this music is for. Do people connect with this? Dance to it?

― Indexed

Jpop is a big influence on hyperpop but it came so so far before it that I'd say no. It's for anyone who likes it. Yes. Yes.

catching up:

Khruangbin • Time (You and I): sounds good to me, except for the nondescript vocals

Thundercat • Dragonball Durag: wouldn’t mind it sounding even more drunk, but I like it

next up, the song it was an answer song to:

Victoria Monét • Jaguar: I loved the lush singles she released in the build up to Jaguar, the Project (“Ass Like That” and especially “Moment” and “Dive”), so much in fact that I was initially underwhelmed when it turned out to be little more than an EP. came around on the new tracks tho, and decided to put my weight behind the “album” instead of any of its individual tracks. hoping for “Moment” and/or “Dive” (and/or “Experience” perhaps) to place too.

YMM • Surpriser!: can enjoy this kind of thing on occasion when I’m in the mood, but today is not the day

Dagny • Somebody: sweet nothings

Jorja Smith • Rose Rouge: good stuff, very, very good stuff - third track I’m having on a loop today, after “Rotting Ones” and...

...”Jazzidisciples (Zlele)” - fun fact: the reason the track is titled “Jazzidisciples” is that it sings the praises of producer duo JazziDisciples, that’s Tumelo “Mr JazziQ“ Manyoni and Josiah “De Disciple” Makoela, both namechecked in the hook, with JazziQ actually producing the track. not very modest of course, but richly deserved if you consider their amazing output over especially the past year.
Busiswa’s mindblowing “Makazi” (will enough people have voted for it to place?) was another Mr JazziQ production, for instance.

i like "rose rouge" much more than the usual from jorja, who i've found bland in every single instance save her debut single "blue lights"

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?

― MarkoP, Monday, 25 January 2021 14:53 (six hours ago) link

It's called 'scotch snaps' / 'lombard rhythm' and it was big in baroque music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_rhythm

Nothing I voted for today, not a lot I listened to in 2021, but JazziDisciples is lovely.

didn't know you were around fred, howdy!

hej Fred!

Just back for polling!! :) But howdy!

so, it seems pretty clear significantly less people voted than the previous years (unless the voting was a lot more spread out than usual):

we’ve gone from 134 to 152 points for positions 77 to 61, with tracks receiving 4 to 6 votes

...whereas in the 2019 EOY we went from 157 to 177 points with tracks receiving 4 to 7 votes

...and in 2018 from 162 to 180 points, with tracks receiving 5 to 8 votes

Yes this is the only explanation for two of my nominations placing already.

None of mine have placed!

👋 Fred

I've had zero votes/noms place. Seeing tracks show up with only 4 votes gave me some hope that I might finally get some niche-ier dancehall to place, but if my quick mental math is right, most of those had rather high enthusiasm?

Nothing placed for me, though I voted for the album ‘Rose Rouge’ features on.

true, I did vote for the Cleo Sol album iirc

Also, it's become very difficult to gauge enthusiasm around here though. In some ways the most surprising thing today was so many people saying they didn't know Sundfor, an artist I only know about because of ILM, had a new one out.

sorry that im way late to this but

I wouldn't go as far as dog latin -- I like amapiano's sustained tension thing a lot and I wouldn't really call this "chilled" -- but this (very good) song does encapsulate why I threw my hands up at sorting out all the SA tracks this year: like 90% of the songs on the amapiano thread are good but they all merged into a single tasty soup as the year went on.

― rob, Monday, January 25, 2021 12:01 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this and the posts above it strike me as kind of funny bc the reason "Jazzidisciples" stands out so much to me is that it felt like a dramatic shift in the sound amapiano had been moving towards -- where earlier records held onto this forward momentum, they figured out how to make a record that felt almost still and static while not rhythmically being that way at all -- all negative space, slow-motion. i think that's why it became such a huge record. If you're looking from a distance it might seem like a minute change, but if you're following all the records that become hits it had this really revelatory feeling, like oh look at all the possibilities this is opening up

i can think of at least one dancehall song that i voted for that i'd expect to place

not as confident in any of my hip-hop votes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

xps

i can think of at least one dancehall song that i voted for that i'd expect to place

Same! though that is why I specifically wrote "less populist" (also cuz of balloonballoonballoon)

that's a great post deej, and yeah def part of the problem is not following the scene at that level

Thanks Fred!

though that is why I specifically wrote "less populist"

ha fair enough, i don't spend enough time in the rolling dancehall to pick up on the less populist stuff

not as confident in any of my hip-hop votes

speaking of hard-to-gauge enthusiasm: I have no clue if even WAP or The Box or etc. will place, and I admit my own interest in rap is at something of a nadir right now

WAP not placing didn't occur to me