ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

anyway for me it's

pimp > low > d'angelo > damn > destroyer > miguel > king > weyes blood > big boi > haim

some of those arrows doing more work than others surely

I don't hate any of, haim didn't do much for me till album 3 though. big boi hampered by some of the worst unskippable skits ever

This year's #78 missed placing by a mere four points. Bragging rights if you can name that ill-fated artist and album before we get to the end of the poll.

Annie - Dark Hearts?

Only place online where two of my favorite albums of the year also were #1 here.

without revealing my votes, as I've had two or three #78s for my number one pick in the last decade i will go for that as my guess

I'm much more in step with ilx albums than singles, typically - that list of winners matches a lot of my favorites of the last decade

imo Low are the closest thing to an outlier on that list, the rest were totally predictable consensus picks for better or worse

Do you mean predictable for ilm specifically or predictable for music in general? Like there are definitely years where ilm went with the very-ilm choice (KING), but I would say that 2015 & 2017 (the two Kendrick albums) are the only years where ilm was exactly in line with the broader critical consensus.

kaleidoscope dream best album of 2012... good choice

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson)

Probably the best winner of the bunch. Not a bad album on that list although I still wish Susanne had won in 2015. As great as Kendrick is, I kind of like it when we go for things that other lists sleep on. KING being the best example of that.

I’m gonna say the 78’d album was....uhhh Squarepusher

Only place online where two of my favorite albums of the year also were #1 here.

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Which two Alfred? I didn't have them as my number ones at the time, but now I'd say Miguel, Destroyer, D'angelo and maybe Weyes Blood were all the right choices. I was looking back at some of my votes over the last 10 years and I don't even know that person anymore. 2010 and 11 in particular had some really weird choices.

Miguel and Weyes Blood were my choices at at the time, but if I were to revote I'd put Billie Eilish at #1 for 2019.

👍🏽

I remember being really excited that I finally had a #1 on my ballot go to #1 in our poll, but then I realized I'd put 'Double Negative' at #2. So I'm still batting .000

my guess for 78’d album is burna boy - twice as tall

I remember being really excited that I finally had a #1 on my ballot go to #1 in our poll, but then I realized I'd put 'Double Negative' at #2. So I'm still batting .000

― Johnny Fever

Yeah, I've never had the number one as my number one either. Since 2014 my number ones have either come 10th (Todd Terje, Shura, Paramore & The Beths) or 2nd (Susanne & Lana). I'm fully expecting my number one to be the runner up again this week.

Sorry, this is probably of no interest to anyone. I'm just bored.

Just going off memory, I probably had Susanne #1 in 2015 and Kendrick #2.

I think I had the 2015 top three as my own top three but in a different order. Great year.

my guess for 78 is PLUS

My wild guess for 78 is Plone.

(no right guesses on 78 yet)

Just checked what was on Pitchfork's list, having become fixated on the Fu&&or Quotient. Modest overlap, it turns out, lol

I feel like I'm out of step with everybody I talk to, so it's very lonely in general but also kind of thrilling to see something I like make the list. Small wins. We'll see.

I'm going to guess number 78 is either Freeze Melt by Cut Copy or the Empress Of album. Both albums I could see receiving four or five votes and getting that close.

Evan OTM

My guess for #78 would be Killah Priest's Rocket to Nebula (which would be TOO LOW obv.). Stoked!

#78 guess: Figures by Aksak Maboul.

I fear it could be a South African one: either Sun-El Musician or Simmy (for being ever so slightly too underwhelming), or (please no) Kabza De Small (for getting ever so slightly too little traction).

The Sun El album was definitely one of the finds of the nomination playlist for me. Would definitely have voted for it if I'd heard it earlier

#78 guess: Figures by Aksak Maboul

It'd be delighted if it made it that high! Love love love Figures, comfortably in my top 10, but there didn't seem much interest elsewhere.

My #78 guess: Ulla - Tumbling Towards a Wall

not to get your hopes up, but i voted for aksak maboul as well

My guess for #78, Bruce Springsteen.

it would be cool to see him place. i think it's his best work this century, though i just squeezed it in at #25! So the guess sounds pretty otm to me

C'mon guys Bruce really needs this one!

I'll go ahead and guess Arca for 78. I feel like the buzz about that album subsided quickly. (Tho it may have lived on in rolling threads that I don't read.)

That Arca album didn't really hold up to repeat listens (for me anyways, I revisited it while doing my year end list)

Not sure about this 'guessing the 78' in the albums poll. In tracks we were told it was a joint placement by the same artist, which narrowed the field considerably. Here it could be one of hundreds

didn't really go back to arca
fortunately he rereleased &&&&& on vinyl so i got my fix

I should have voted for this DJ Python album that I am now randomly listening to while waiting for this to start.

he? uh-oh

I would rather see what did make the rollout instead of people's guesses as to what didn't

wonder if there were any actual 78s released last year?

Here we go

I would rather see what did make the rollout instead of people's guesses as to what didn't

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP), Monday, 1 February 2021 14:44 (thirty-six seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

I love how this is shade at both the gabbling 78 commentary and at forks and Moka for not getting on with it yet ;)

https://i.imgur.com/19ZpIzk.jpg

#77: Selena Gomez - “Rare (Deluxe)” - 184 points - 8 votes

Selena Gomez is Good For You

“Gomez is a force, an artist who continues to fight her bad odds, and is finally letting us get a little closer to the battle.”
https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/selena-gomez/selena-gomez-rare-review/

xps sorry she, my apologies

Spoiling us again with the graphics Moka

I guess if 78 is going to be something noteworthy/interesting, it's going to be Grimes

yeah that's good work

Good album.

listened to the Horse Lords album for the first time today. I liked the way the different instrumental components of it were jostling for dominance

also liked the bagpipes operating against type

Bagpipe bit rules

finally landed on the Ulla album; feels sort of like being various appliances? It's several vibes; nice find. Don't think anyone discussed this elsewhere on ILM; where did it get on people's radar?

it was hanging out in my fridge

I played the Jessie Ware album for my 10-year-old daughter and she loves it

xp idk probably browsing online record stores or just from checking new ambient releases on Discogs

for me I mean, I don’t remember how that’s why I said idk lol

I think read an intriguing Resident Advisor review or similar. (re Ulla)

Please have a look at the nominations and if there are any albums you like, vote for it/them. No minimum. You have up to 50 votes.

ALL WELCOME.

Please at least have a look at the nominations.

2020 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock Poll: VOTING & FURTHER CAMPAIGNING thread (open until February 19)

this is good I liked this, but as I said before, Telefon was probably my least favourite track! yeah Plans is well nice

― imago, Friday, 5 February 2021 14:59 (three days ago) link

yes i would add that telefon is a bit of a contrast to the rest of the record

― nxd, Friday, 5 February 2021 15:00

I had never heard of her before the tracks poll. I liked that track but the rest of the record is leaving me cold

Sorry, I’m bringing disco back after this pandemic.

— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) February 8, 2021

lol, just the Ware, Lipa, Murphy, Monet and Overlord in our 77, and I'm probably missing at least one (wasn't the Haim album part-disco too)

Well, definitely Annie and Moodymann and there are not unreasonable arguments to be made for parts or all of Azana, Ariana, Rina, Simmy and Selena. It's a trend!

I played the Jessie Ware album for my 10-year-old daughter and she loves it

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, February 7, 2021 11:11 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

aw this is heartwearming

Listened to the Charli XCX album this morning. Although it strongly features Autotune and brickwalled mastering, two things that turn me off a lot of 21st century pop production, it is actually pretty interesting sonically and has some nice melodies - the pretty/harsh juxtaposition is indeed quite present. I think I will come back to this one.

while autotune and extreme compression can be pretty cliched and overused, I look at them as the modern equivalent of popular effects pedals, they've been used to drive many interesting aesthetic choices over the years. I don't really see it as any different from distortion or wah pedals, everyone does it, some do it better than others. But I tend to bristle at the idea that the very presence of these effects is in and of itself a bad thing.

Yeah, absolutely true, I just tend to be biased against those sounds, not as an ironclad rule but as a tendency. Lots of people hate the sound of distorted guitars or wah-wah pedals.

I mean, my display name quotes Andrew WK, whose sound is fairly compressed so.

There were many years where music reviews would call out the presence of autotune or pro-tools (haha) in a derogatory manner as if those were not tools that are used across a massive span of different types of music, often in ways that are totally undetectable to the listener, and it just started to feel like a really lazy critical shortcut to me.

Ha, well, I also experienced several years of music tech students loading tracks with pitch correctors and sausage fatteners.

I thought vaguely of Bjork at moments in the Charli XCX album.

^ Co-sign--the glitch intro to Click2.0 in particular is one part on How I'm Feeling Now that's especially-on-the-nose Homogenish/Vesperteeny to my ears (which I love)

Yes, that was the one where it came to mind.

Brick walled mastering just hurts my ears now. It's not so much a sound I'm tired of, but more a treatment that colors the entire composition negatively. These types of releases I try and listen either to the vinyl versions or a vinyl rip as the limiting has to be pulled back in order for the music to function on the medium.

I mean, there's a difference between brickwalled mastering as a lazy default and using excessive compression in a mix for extreme effect.