ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

I felt a bit burned out on Big Thief/Lenker after last year and this album didn't really suit my mood. Shocked to see it so low.

a shit, still not got round to listening to this despite being a huge Big Thief fan. maybe it's because i have an aversion to solo acoustic singer-songwritey music? is that what this is?

yeah, I'm an AL/BF fan but haven't connected with this (...yet)

how every noise I made — water running, dishes clinking — felt like part of the tracks

see, this would make it impossible for me to actually experience and enjoy the music.

nothing like people's autechre comments in a poll thread to highlight the fact that most people never got into / will never get into music as sound sculpture.

I felt a bit burned out on Big Thief/Lenker after last year and this album didn't really suit my mood.

Same. I didn't find the noodling compelling either.

Big Thief are just about the right side of "slight" for me. Took me a while to appreciate how luxuriant U.F.O.F. really is; it felt so whipsy and thin on first listen. Maybe that's why I'm put-off listening to a Lenker solo album

Meetings all day today, on a short break now, sorry to be missing this rollout, but as usual it is full of artists I've never heard of with descriptions that make me want to dive in. I have actually been jonesing for new jazz that doesn't sound like pastiche of old jazz and this Jeff Parker record, esp. "Go Awat," is exactly hitting it for me right now.

Enjoyed PLUS but despite my fave Autechre albums often being their most dishwasher-y it was such a joyful surprise to hear a conventional, gorgeous album from them in SIGN, and it sounding as great as in the ol' days.

https://i.imgur.com/SLheReL.jpg
#64: Run The Jewels - “RTJ4” - 204 points - 8 votes

Run The Jewels - El-P and Killer Mike

“Killer Mike and El-P have always traded dazzlingly intricate verses, all alliteration and propulsive rhymes, over inventive, nonlinear productions, and RTJ4 supersizes their outsider aesthetic without squandering any hard-won authenticity.”
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/07/run-the-jewels-run-the-jewels-4-review-a-remarkable-hit-rate

big thief fans should not miss out on "not a lot, just forever" imo. ymmv

another perfect crop!

I can never understand what separates Big Thief from the kind of miserabilist indie that gets clowned on here on the regular.

RTJ inherently a tracks act to me

I’m not a RTJ person, but for those who are: does this placement surprise you, or does it seem just about right?

wow -- this is low

there's just something about RTJ that really really grates on me. everything sounds so hot and over-compressed so it distorts just a tiny bit, and Killer Mike always sounds like he's got his hand clasped around the mouthpiece. it's a production choice that i can't get past

Guardian quote says it all!

I think this is too low, I usually find RTJ albums have just a few highlights, but this one is just solid all the way through and very cohesive

my favorite Mike verse on RTJ4:

Amazing, ain't it, how we made it and didn't fake it?
Life's a disguise, the truth is butt naked
Used to be a time I'd see it and not say it
Now I understand that woke folk be playin'
Ain't no revolution is televised and digitized
You've been hypnotized and Twitter-ized by silly guys
Cues to the evenin' news, make sure you ill-advised
Got you celebratin' the generators of genocide
Any good deed is pummeled, punished, and penalized
Rulers of the world will slice it up like a dinner pie
Race in a nation told you to identify
People take false pride and warfare incentivized
Fuck that, me and my tribe, we on an iller vibe
We accept the role of the villains 'cause we been villainized
Stomped to the dirt of the Earth, we still will arise
In the Terrordome, let me alone as I soliloquize

i still think the first run the jewels album is the best one

xp to DL that production choice is very on-purpose and I'm not always in the mood for it myself, but there are other times it's exactly what I want to hear. Everything just hits so *hard* sonically

RTJ are one of those acts that are both kinda corny and very very good

i still like them. But holy hell do i not want to meet anyone who's always in the mood for them

that would certainly be an exhausting person

R.A.P. Music >>>> RTJ but I still like RTJ fine, I just wish El-P rapped less

meow the jewels is my favourite

I mean, obviously it was unfortunately timeless already, but hearing this verse just weeks after George Floyd's murder knocked the wind out of me and still hits hard:

The way I see it, you're probably freest from the ages one to four
Around the age of five you're shipped away for your body to be stored
They promise education, but really they give you tests and scores
And they predictin' prison population by who scoring the lowest
And usually the lowest scores the poorest and they look like me
And every day on the evening news, they feed you fear for free
And you so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me
Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, "I can't breathe"

I think this placement isn't so bad. RTJ4 had some really good songs, but as an album I rate it well below the earlier ones.

the Lenker album is another that just barely missed my ballot, really nice stuff

I'm not always in the mood for it myself, but there are other times it's exactly what I want to hear

I feel like I could say this is true for pretty much all the music I love. The stuff I like the most is the stuff that hits the spot when I'm in a specific mindset.

count me in as also being surprised at how low this is. I can't really put my finger on what made the difference, but this is the first RTJ album that didn't quickly wear out its welcome for me. I always felt like there was something missing from the first few, but I couldn't say exactly what.

many xps but

most people never got into / will never get into music as sound sculpture

For me, I can get into it but it helps if it's in a museum or gallery or even a live venue. Some place set aside just for listening to music. It doesn't translate to home listening for me, I think it requires too much attention (and/or it just fades into the background).

digging the ana roxanne at the moment, a hearty thanks to its voters

https://i.imgur.com/kyGApC2.jpg
#63: Lido Pimienta - “Miss Colombia”   - 210 points - 6 votes

Lido Pimienta

https://lidopimienta.bandcamp.com/album/miss-colombia

“The organic, delightfully earnest tracks blend Miss Colombia‘s avant-Latin sonic palette with revered cross-generational traditions, forging a new world of musical borderlessness that Pimienta is glad to call home.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/lido-pimienta-miss-colombia-review-984306/

For me, I can get into it but it helps if it's in a museum or gallery or even a live venue. Some place set aside just for listening to music. It doesn't translate to home listening for me, I think it requires too much attention (and/or it just fades into the background).

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, February 1, 2021 7:31 PM (fifty-three seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

i hear you on this, it's a struggle. i only catch moments of full attention on good days, but when i do it's great. helps that i wear headphones everywhere lol.

i really like this record

never heard of this, intrigued

Rules. Voted for this. i think only discussion around here was on the Polaris Prize thread.

won the polaris before right?

loving this

this made my ballot. lido is so fucking cool. this is a good placement for her - it's a v good album but she's going to top this shortly I think

oh, missed her own thread, linked

also some great remixes floating around

i'm late, but the selena gomez album is really great in parts ("lose you to love me", "vulnerable", "ring", "let me get me"), but still felt like a disappointment bc i feel like she has a masterpiece in her but i'll probably have to wait another 3-5 years for the next attempt. her work with mattman & robin is god-like

I prefer listening to Killer Mike's interviews to listening to RTJ these days

Very surprised RTJ4 placed this low! (though I didn't have ballot room for it myself either)

Lenker s/t is beautiful yet soul destroying and probably best consumed in tiny doses, at least it is for me.

Very happy to see Ana Roxana place!

xps Her previous album won the Polaris Prize yeah

I need to give this one another listen, I liked her album before this.

yeahhhhh! Lido was in my top 10

my Virgo-Libra cusp sister