ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

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

mercifully the end of Flowers busts out the robosynth army again

this is fairing into a fine playlist

Healing is a Miracle is too low! My #2

Just a gorgeous, therapeutic record absolutely necessary for 2020

if Moka hold off 3 more minutes we'll have been able to hear an entire album between placements, lol. THE WAY IT SHOULD BE (j/k)

I think exactly one of my picks is gonna place lol

https://i.imgur.com/kjoaVd9.jpg
#48: Soccer Mommy - Color Theory - 267 points - 11 votes

soccer mommy

https://sopharela.bandcamp.com/album/color-theory

“She has pulled off the difficult trick of developing a new signature sound, without losing the personal perspective that separated her from the pack in the first place.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/caribou-review-suddenly-princess-nokia-everything-sucks-soccer-mommy-stream-a9361336.html

Lol. I will have you know that I am currently enjoying the shit out of 'Polysomn', this is fab!

xps

better than her stage name would suggest but not quite good enough to get my vote

Hive mind is super strong with me this year. With everything that's placing today this is turning out to be my favorite rollout here yet. While only five albums from my list placed so far, an additional 10+ were on my broader long list for the year. Mary Lattimore and Ichiko Aoba were lovely surprises and worthy of their placement.

lol I reviewed the Soccer Mommy album and forget how every song except "circle the drain" goes

I was a big champion of Clean, but nearly all of what I loved about it was missing from this one. Circle The Drain was nice, but nothing else connected with me.

Def not #78 then. Like I said, so hard to gauge the Soccer Mommy contingent.

everyone listen to "crawling in my skin" it's the best song ever written by anybody

we need a new "brad says this is the best song ever" poll haha

thought u meant linkin park for a second

brad never doesn't mean linkin park tbf

this song IS great! really reminds me of something hang on

thought u meant linkin park for a second

― real muthaphuckkin jeez (crüt), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 12:09 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

brad never doesn't mean linkin park tbf

― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 12:10 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

correct

https://i.imgur.com/YkuKbfz.jpg
#47: Cleo Sol - Rose in the Dark - 280 points - 10 votes

Sault - What's the story?

https://cleosol.bandcamp.com/album/rose-in-the-dark

“The heart of the sound, as with Sault, is the rich, string embellished psychedelic soul of Rotary Connection and Norman Whitfield era Temptations, though here there's more of a lovers rock pulse too. But it is distinctly modern; this is music distinctly in the wake of D’Angelo’s Black Messiah and Solange’s A Place at the Table. And the way other old stuff – kitschy Sixties movie themes and northern soul, say – is interpolated suggests both hip hop (A Tribe Called Quest, Lauryn Hill) beats and even Portishead’s arrangements. The grown up confidence in blurring the personal, the political, the sexual and the everyday in the lyrics is reflected in the subtle power of the music; there are no big choruses, and Sol’s voice is velvet throughout, but there’s absolute assurance that the hooks embedded and woven through the grooves are plenty to make it addictive. It is a masterpiece.”
https://theartsdesk.com/new-music/albums-year-2020-cleo-sol-rose-dark

Cleo Sol album is gorgeous! The upper reaches of this poll are sublime so far.

I don't really get soccer mommy.i think the only thing like that that I really loved last year was the deep sea diver album

This fell off my ballot at the last minute to make space for something much less deserving that definitely won't place; so happy it didn't need my help!

this song IS great! really reminds me of something hang on

― imago, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 19:11 (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

think I'm thinking of Deerhunter

now we're getting somewhere

Cleo Sol is one of my discoveries from the EOY poll -- I had no idea she's part of SAULT until last week lol

I liked this better than at least one of the Sault records. What a year for her

Cleo my #3. Wonderful album that reminds me of Sade a bit with its sultry downtempo vibes.

Soccer Mommy fans ~ recommend checking out Samia's The Baby. Same space. Nothing as indelible as "Circle the Drain," but very strong debut.

cleo sol is.. pleasant.

everyone listen to "crawling in my skin" it's the best song ever written by anybody

It doesn't remind me of Deerhunter but I sure do like it.

Last one for the day!

https://i.imgur.com/ndgVXRF.jpg
#46: KeiyaA - Forever, Ya Girl - 285 points - 14 votes

https://keiyaa.bandcamp.com/album/forever-ya-girl

“Hers is an astounding achievement in process-driven neo-soul, available as an implement for both building an Afrocentric future and reawakening the unsilenceable presence of blackness in all time.”
https://spectrumculture.com/2020/05/10/keiyaa-forever-ya-girl-review/

didn't vote for this but very very glad that it placed

Day begins and ends with imago ballot placements :)

I've read too much ILX this year. Also on my ballot; also amazing. I think I said somewhere else, the bass on Negus Son nearly made this melt enshitten himself.

i totally hear the deerhunter in that soccer mommy song btw, good call imago

Wow, talk about being drawn in immediately... That bass! KeiyaA!

#77: Selena Gomez - “Rare (Deluxe)” - 184 points - 8 votes
#76: Jeff Parker - “Suite for Max Brown” - 184 points - 10 votes
#75: Poppy - “I Disagree” - 187 points - 6 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#74: Kairon; IRSE! - “Polysomn” - 188 points - 5 votes
#73: Deftones - “Ohms” - 188 points - 6 votes
#72: Nubya García - “Source” - 190 points - 5 votes
#71: Charles Webster - “Decision Time” - 190 points - 6 votes
#70: Ulla - “Tumbling Towards a Wall” - 190 points - 7 votes
#69: Ana Roxanne - “Because of a Flower” - 190 points - 7 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#68: Moodymann - “Taken Away” - 192 points - 10 votes
#67: Perfume Genius - “Set My Heart on Fire Immediately” - 199 points - 8 votes
#66: Autechre - “Plus” - 200 points - 8 votes
#65: Adrianne Lenker - “Songs” - 200 points - 9 votes
#64: Run The Jewels - “RTJ4” - 204 points - 8 votes
#63: Lido Pimienta - “Miss Colombia” - 210 points - 6 votes
#62: DJ Python - “Mas Amable” - - 216 points - 7 votes
#61: Brandy Clark - “Your Life Is a Record” - 230 points - 10 votes
#60: Pharaoh Overlord - “6” - 232 points - 7 votes
#59: Brandy - “B7” - 239 points - 12 votes
#58: Victoria Monét - JAGUAR - 240 points - 9 votes
#57: Annie - Dark Hearts - 246 points - 8 votes
#56: K-LONE - Cape Cira - 247 points - 8 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#55: Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders - 248 points - 11 votes
#54: Ichiko Aoba - Windswept Adan - 249 points - 8 votes
#53: Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud - 250 points - 7 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#52: Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways - 251 points - 8 votes

#51: Westerman - Your Hero is Not Dead - 254 points - 8 votes

#50: Theo Parrish - Wuddaji - 255 points - 12 votes

#49: Julianna Barwick - Healing Is a Miracle - 262 points - 8 votes

#48: Soccer Mommy - Color Theory - 267 points - 11 votes

#47: Cleo Sol - Rose in the Dark - 280 points - 10 votes

#46: KeiyaA - Forever, Ya Girl - 285 points - 14 votes

Anyway, hat-tip to (Extended Mix) aka as the Reverend for hipping me to this - a beautiful and highly-integrated psychedelic journey, reminded me a little of L'Rain and denotes another new artist of immense promise

Self xp - Negus Poem, not Negus Son, ffs.