ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

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.

Westerman album is obviously very well-crafted but I can't seem to connect with it v deeply just yet. Clearly doing its own thing pretty distinct from yr typical popular indie guitar record, though.

i also think dylan's voice sounds great on the new album, especially when compared to the uncomfortably phlegm-y tempest

it took some time for it to unfold for me as well simon, but as i've said, v much worth it

Since nobody's talking about it, the Ichiko Aoba album is bloody lovely, and the songwriting's more fleshed out than a lot of this other ethereal stuff that's coming up. Mary Lattimore's sounding pretty nice right now though.

Ichiko Aoba came along and not a single post was dedicated to that glorious album, wtf

xp lol

Mary Lattimore has all the ingredients to be like catnip for me, which is why I really tried, but it just falls flat for me, it fails to move me.

https://i.imgur.com/CWsJtzR.jpg
#49: Julianna Barwick - Healing Is a Miracle - 262 points - 8 votes

Julianna Barwick

https://juliannabarwick.bandcamp.com/album/healing-is-a-miracle

“The vocalist and producer Juliana Barwick’s revelatory new album asks us to picture healing at a moment when the task feels impossible.”
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/julianna-barwick-healing-is-a-miracle/

oh cool we've not seen this sort of thing place yet today

Barwick came along at the right (lockdown) time for me. The opener is stunning. xp

lol LJ

(I like Barwick but haven't listened much to this one)

This run has been very ~*~ethereal~*~

yes!! voted for Julianna

can't imagine moving through 2020 without this record

this one at least has a deep synth bass tone

What other albums are you throwing on the same pile w/ Barwick?

this is a LOT of ambient- and ambient-adjacent stuff placing by our standards right? not exactly a surprise, but interesting

Guess so, Simon, though they're hardly as similar as lj is making them out to be. Must be ~the times~ maybe?

everyone wanted to chill tf out this past year

there are some cool vocal harmony things going on here, it is somewhat distinct, but it is also v much echoey oceanic pablum and that's okay

o god enter lattimore

everyone wanted to chill tf out this past year

― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 10:28 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^^

Discovered the Barwick album from the nominations playlist. Didn't vote for it but it's become a firm favourite

have heard enough to persist nonetheless, and that's despite a looming 'ft Jonsi'

haha

You'll get through this, I swear

Now the Julianna Barwick is one that seems like it should be perfect for wfh pandemic listening, but I've never put it on because it just seemed too on the nose.

I did like some tracks I heard listening to Ana Roxanne's radio mixes, I'll put it on after I eventually finish this playlist of SOPHIE productions.

Slowly catching up, Ulla is totally my thing and I hadn't heard of them before. (Incidentally, there are a lot of bands named Ulla, most of which are not like this afaict.) For no real reason I didn't keep up with ambient electronic music that doesn't have a strong instrumental component; v glad to hear this.

I don't mind the chillness and I get it, I could go for a rap album placing at some point tho (I can only think of a few that threaten to actually place this year)

hmm, the Barwick descriptions sound enticing-

'ft Jonsi'

never mind

I can think of one with an outside top 5 chance xp

i can think of one mainstream rap album that could place, tbh, maybe two.

i know that imago is thinking of clipping

the ft Jonsi track is seriously testing me

clipping are safe bets I reckon, my fingers are crossed for Ka and Armand Hammer

theo parrish album is a miracle imo. like, listen to it when you need to listen to a miracle. too low.

Actually I'm listening to Ichiko Aoba right now and feeling it. If you had told me in 2019 that I would be all about some wistful New Age-y folk, I might have been a little surprised.

starting to think my beloved workaround won't place.

nah come on workaround's coming

🤲

many xps to voodoo chili--there's a demo of Blue Comanche out now where you can really hear the Neil influence IMO

https://open.spotify.com/track/6oVaHHd4IDGfnNFbBGebm4?si=fkQpRHVvRbqtShtfGeNOTQ

Adore this album. One of her best, and they're all great. Agree that there's a lot of ambient-adjacent stuff so far! Not a bad thing, just interesting.

i've given up on most of my ballot, so i'm sad about vladislav delay, jon hassell, bufiman, phase fatale, helena hauff