ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

the only real bummer for me with the Domenique Dumont album was the inclusion of a five-year-old track that was previously released (Le château de corail)

I'm not opposed to echoey oceanic pablum--though I found the Lattimore dull--but it does feel like I have a lot of it to catch up on post-poll

Mary Lattimore is an interesting one for me because her 2018 album was very important to me but in the context of listening to it on repeat in the course of processing the death of a close family member.

I listened to her 2020 album about three times, but it always felt like I was placing myself back in 2018, in slightly unpleasant ways - obviously, an issue with me not the record. I like to think I’ll be able to return to it at some point and form an independent relationship with this album.

For current purposes, I resolved the impasse by listening to Nailah Hunter instead.

Yessss Mary Lattimore, harpist to the (indie) stars. Truly one of my faves of the year, and my favorite record from her.

I've tried multiple times with Lattimore, but it always feels a bit too noodley for my taste

the only real bummer for me with the Domenique Dumont album was the inclusion of a five-year-old track that was previously released (Le château de corail)

― real muthaphuckkin jeez (crüt), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 11:53 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean, the intention was to score a film. Not exactly a regular new LP.

no noodles for moodles

lol

I'm very picky about my noodles

I want to be able to hear the Mary Lattimore record the way you guys do but it's just nice sounds to me, maybe it needs either many repeats or one-shot closely focused listening?

https://i.imgur.com/6WaRskB.jpg
#53: Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud - 250 points - 7 votes - 1 Nº1 vote

Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt

https://waxahatchee.bandcamp.com/album/saint-cloud-2

“Aided by unfussy, clean but never sterile production by Brad Cook – and perhaps the sobriety she has recently embraced – the haze has lifted and her songwriting can really be seen.”
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/27/waxahatchee-saint-cloud-review

I want to be able to hear the Mary Lattimore record the way you guys do but it's just nice sounds to me, maybe it needs either many repeats or one-shot closely focused listening?

It left almost no impression when I first listened but I had it on as background wafting - 'closely focused' prob is the way to go, it got claws in fully during onset of winter. Also I loved the cover so much that I gave it multiple chances and this paid off

Yeah I really loved the album Lattimore did with Meg Baird and I like when she pops up on other people's albums, but I struggle to find a way into her solo stuff and never checked out this one.

I don't buy digital music often (vs. physical formats) so maybe I'm out of the loop but surprised to see Ichiko Aoba charging early 00s mall outlet CD prices for the digital album.

the mysterious and elusive waxahatchee faction rears its head again

who's the #1? I'm curious.

SHOW YOURSELF COWARD

https://i.imgur.com/gw9Rswb.jpg
#52: Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways - 251 points - 8 votes

Bob Dylan - My Rough and Rowdy Ways /2020) Anticipation and Discussion Thread

“For all its bleakness, Rough and Rowdy Ways might well be Bob Dylan’s most consistently brilliant set of songs in years: the die-hards can spend months unravelling the knottier lyrics, but you don’t need a PhD in Dylanology to appreciate its singular quality and power.”
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/13/bob-dylan-rough-and-rowdy-ways-review

I realized when this thread started that I sometimes conflate Weyes Blood and Waxahatchee (not that I've ever listened much to either, just see them referenced mostly).

I like the tracks on the Lattimore record where the harp functions in an un-harplike fashion, and not even as an ambient swirl generator but more like a kalimba. It's just a superb textural record.

I'm genuinely surprised (pleasantly so) that Waxahatchee showed up so low.

tbh glad some of these are being dealt with before the top 50

xpost!!!

Waxahatchee would've been my #4 fwiw

I sometimes conflate Weyes Blood and Waxahatchee

regret to inform you that we are now in a blood-feud

more like my bad and shitty ways

Expected Bob to be much higher, not Mojo/Rolling Stone high, but top 20.

lol

xp to lj

this is a great album with many great songs. should be higher.

xposts i had been curious about the k-lone album. it's really great - pretty but feels lived in too, and is quite funky. definitely dancefloor material.

voted for Brandy!

could've included Victoria Monet and Mary Lattimore in my ballot but ultimately ended up keeping them off

I love Annie and enjoyed Dark Hearts but ultimately kept it off my ballot

I'm curious to check out the K-LONE and also the Ichiko Aoba (after hearing "Porcelain" for the first time last week) as it seems like what the record's all about is in a similar place to where I'm at in my life at the moment

this is a great album with many great songs. should be higher.

co-sign, except I'm thinking of a different album

https://i.imgur.com/dod9Gwx.jpg
#51: Westerman - Your Hero is Not Dead - 254 points - 8 votes

bullion

https://westermanmusic.bandcamp.com/album/your-hero-is-not-dead-2

“The British songwriter’s excellent debut mines the gentle and detailed sounds of soft rock’s past, while his lucid yet uncomplicated lyrics interrogate the uncertainty of the present.”
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/westerman-your-hero-is-not-dead/

yes! so glad Westerman placed, mostly because I only just got into this record this past week, and I've been listening to it nonstop and find the songs stuck in my head so deeply it's almost annoying

probably would've placed high on my ballot!

Ah, nice

Great to see Westerman place higher than Dylan. Another gorgeous album

beautiful album, fit nicely into my top ten

when i first listened to this i never would've expected it to become one of my favorite albums of the year. it's as good as the weird over-produced art pop of the 80's that it's presumably influenced by

Love the K-Lone and Mary Lattimore records. The K-Lone has been reprinted - pre-orders for March if anyone is interested (got a copy a few weeks back).

Voted for it and glad Dylan placed. 52 feels like a good showing

Have been listening to the Westerman after the track in the tracks poll. It's great.

I've said it before but I think this one and Bullion's "We had a good time" EP would be one of the most beloved records of the year on ILM if more people would know about it. It's the sort of melancholic sophistipop created by melomaniacs who are deeply knowledgeable in obscure 70's and 80's music that I'd think sounds tailored for a great part of ILM.

there's some gorgeous acoustic guitar playing on the westerman album, and his songs have a good mix of harmonic complexity and emotional directness. obviously he takes a lot of inspiration from the sophisti-pop era, but i also wasn't surprised when he listed neil young as a major influence.

https://i.imgur.com/eG6vJNA.jpg
#50: Theo Parrish - Wuddaji - 255 points - 12 votes

theo parrish s/d

“This is forward-motion music with the thrust of history at its back. That’s because, like any great DJ, Parrish is an intrepid historian, and his fluency in Black music runs unfathomably deep. Through drum kits and drum machines, analog keyboards and digital samplers, his tracks draw on the venturesome melodies of jazz, the tactile timbres of soul and the dependable rhythms of house.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/theo-parrish-wuddaji-review/2020/12/02/31af728e-2e71-11eb-bae0-50bb17126614_story.html

It's such a solid record that I think I constantly underrate it but the production on this (and the Bullions) is so delicious; hyper-quantized cleanly inky lugubriousness

Parrish album is immense.

theo too low imo

it's the house record that i thought should've placed on jazz lists last year

Wuddaji my discovery last week. Thanks, ILM.

I can't help thinking of Westerman as some sort of living incarnation of Bullion's pop-not-slop playlist, so I've not entirely connected with him as an artist in himself yet

(playlist is here if you've not seen it before:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7f4uYQCSG8rFCRQPmiIL3z?si=sRSRd_35QgS7Sj8jyFnbPA

Voted for Mary Lattimore (gorgeous, lush, meditative ambient) and Waxahatchee (a real companion album this summer, haters be damned, though I am fine with where it placed here vs. the surprisingly high billing it got on many eoy lists). This has been stuck in my head for six months: I wake up feeling nothing/ Camouflage the wavering sky/ I sit at my piano, wander the wild whereby/ And the lilacs drank the water/ And the lilacs die/ And the lilacs drank the water/ Marking in the slow, slow, slow passing of time

Also guilty of sleeping on the Theo until the tracks poll. Plenty to dig into here

I can't help thinking of Westerman as some sort of living incarnation of Bullion's pop-not-slop playlist

Thanks Nick! Loads of splendid textures here by the looks

Not that he needs any more praise at this point but there are some genuine new classics on the Dylan album. Tough crowd.