ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2020

yeah you've heard this before even if you haven't

Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode - “Jerusalema” : i really like this! hadn't heard it before, just a very breezy and uplifting track. very cool that it became such a widespread phenom. (agreed that the american industry would have fucked it up somehow)

Waxahatchee - “Fire” : i kept seeing the name of this act and figured it was like a duo of electronic bros or something but then the polite-but-unmemorable tune my city's community station played one morning was back-announced as being by them (or her, not sure if the name is for a group or what). of course the dj also had to mention that it was "from my number-____ record of the year" or w/e b/c ppl who listen to those stations are presumed (i guess correctly) to be preoccupied by where things fit into hierarchies of quality or at least where tastemakers would draw those lines. (not that we're much different here!) anyway this is better than the other one i heard but still not that good? i probably wouldn't have liked it at all if not for the very basic but nice chord progression.

Kelly Lee Owens - “Melt!” : i like this but it should be longer imo. maybe i'll give the album a try.

Jessy Lanza - “Lick in Heaven” : pretty neat but a little lacking in something that i can't quite put my finger on. video is horrible

Looking forward to the Romy album but can’t help feel disappointed by this.

"anyone around" was my lanza jam of last year (didn't vote for it), thought it played a lot more to her particular strengths. "lick in heaven" is a little too wispy to be the kind of populist dance hit it's trying to be.

Nigerian afrobeat crooner Wande Coal’s first-ever appearance on the 77 comes courtesy of “Again,” a minimal R&B ballad that provides an uncluttered showcase for Coal’s buttery, graceful voice.

https://i.imgur.com/SKcI5um.png
#53: Wande Coal - “Again” - 155 points - 5 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote
video

rolling afro 2020

too!!! low!!!!!!

This is tasteful and pretty

This song succeeds despite its shit synth and drum sounds. Credit to his voice I guess.

third time through and still enjoying this
v relaxing

weird theme emerging: so far I voted for "Repeat" and "Again"

I should register my awe of Moka's work here -- is it standard for the C and O to do that? love it

This is tasteful and pretty

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, January 26, 2021 12:13 PM (twelve minutes ago)

This is an easy song to underrate ime, it really grew on me over the course of the year. I'm curious who our #1 was

Re: Jerusalema, I truly love the Burna Boy remix, but it wasn't nominated so...
Again is another track I like a lot but didn't vote for. Nice to see it place.

1. the remixes of the romy track are all really good it's true
2. idk there's like a quadrant of my brain that lights up whenever i hear a vocal cut-up

Marmite &
Cilantro &
Licorice &
The 1975

https://i.imgur.com/tt436bk.png
#52: The 1975 - “Birthday Party” - 156 points - 4 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote
video

the 1975

lol @ the image choice

Oh christ, I didn't realize the whole video was like that. Gross!

Also, this song suuuuuuucks. The 1975 have the ability now and then to make something good, but this is a whiff.

Oh shit re: Kelly Lee Owens, this bangs

voted for a different 75 song that will surely make it

Wait the 1975 is country now???

I do like the Pinegrove reference, which is necessary given that this follows the formula of a Pinegrove song a bit.

The drums on this sound really listless and not in a cool chill way, more like the drum stick is sticky and the drummer has to exert some effort to lift it off the tom every time he hits it

This kinda sounds like a parody of Nu-Taylor

Still don't really get this band

Spot on xp

I should register my awe of Moka's work here -- is it standard for the C and O to do that? love it

― rob

I can't quite take credit for that one! Safe from choosing the typeface and where to place the ligatures and diacritics, the typeface itself it's designed to do that which is why I picked it. It's a very charming typeface.

This suggests we'll get a few too many 1975 tracks on here. They put out one really great song last year.

'again' was my #1

ends well. better in album context

gordon bennett

#52: The 1975 - “Birthday Party” - 156 points - 4 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote

if you thought the Romy song was coasting on fame...

no such thing as too many 1975 tracks, this song rules

still never heard this band

“Sex” is the only 1975 song I like

deej, iirc it was you repping for "Again" in the rolling thread that prompted me to revisit it and realize I'd overlooked how beautiful it is

that's super cool, Moka, thanks

the birthday party video really IS gross

I prefer music that's a little more exciting, like jeff tweedy's solo albums

loool

If anything Notes is underrated.

The images are of course great. I had actively been hoping for some nod to graphic design trends from a hundred years ago and these fit the bill.

― nashwan

This is more or less on purpose, glad you picked it up! I was looking at a lot of 1910's and 1920's design at the time for inspiration. In the end it mostly reflects on the typeface used. I had a couple of tests where the image would be framed in a more art deco style but dropped it.

My second option for typeface was 'Voyage' http://toolsandtoys.net/voyage-typeface-by-vj-type/, https://vj-type.com/6-voyage which also has that same sort of mood.

Sorry 1975 fans, but the 1975 still suck.

at some point they fully morphed both aesthetically and lyrically into "trenchant social commentary: the band" and a switch flipped for me and they went from charming to intolerable

I can't even listen to the songs I used to like anymore :/

Beware of this painfully catchy “hard times” disco prog track; its running and closing chorus thoroughly earwormed me when I wasn’t paying attention. You may be next.

https://i.imgur.com/lDCJYiP.png
#51: US Girls - “4 American Dollars” - 156 points - 6 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote
video

U.S. Girls

re: "the birthday party": i love this song, i love its construction, the chorus only coming in at the very beginning and end, like a mantra that's been rearranged slightly by what occurs in the interim, and the interim full of free associative half-snatches of dialogue and monologue about self-indulgence and self-consciousness of that self-indulgence, it's like a weird stoned loop of someone embarrassing themselves, and i don't think i've ever heard a rock band's trademark acoustic ballad suspended inside such a warped cloud of production

this was not my US Girls vote but it's lovely. I know I just railed against "trenchant social commentary" which these folks are absolutely guilty of but at least they remembered to bring some jams