ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

Maybe people were confusing her with Ulrich Schnauss.

i gave in and listened to the waxahatchee and huh i think i like it. country dylan vibes growing like vines all over it. "fire" works a billion times better in context

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 1:02 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"hell" is amazing

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 2:07 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Lilacs" and "Hell" are my favorites, and yeah, it's just an easy, summer American rock album with fantastic melodies

Anyway, her 2019 album Big Room is well worth checking out too, if you like Tumbling Towards a Wall. TTaW was step towards a more unique sound, though, Big Room was more generic ambient in the Biosphere style (but still nice).

(xpost)

i voted for the k-lone and ana roxanne albums, pretty confident another 5 or 6 will place, sad that shinichi atobe will likely miss out yet again (mystery to me why ilm doesn't like this guy more, amazingly consistent producer who's put out a string of stunning, concise records with a unique sound that get fairly good coverage, so i dunno)

want to listen to the brandy, cleo sol and ichiko aoba and need to give keiyaa another shot. didn't vote for theo, had 'this is for you' as my #1 in the tracks but found the album just a bit too much in places

looks like b. dillon is going to beat b. dylan here too huh?

placed 3 (all today), with 3 to come, and I'm 95% certain that it won't be more or less than that, pretty content with that all told, best discovery of the day for me is probably very embarrassingly soccer mommy ffs

The KeiyaA rules. Did vote.

It had been said xp

the jeff parker album is great the only one of these i own

i should check out soccer mommy more, that band name is hard to take

football mother

eh, the big song is okay but not inspiring enough to get past the name for IMO

lol imagine if they were called "Footy Mum"

that would be a great name tbh

sound like the sort of band that emil.y might have seen. 3rd on the bill at the green door store on a wet tuessday night

lol otm

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

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 12:17 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

SHOW YOURSELF COWARD

― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 12:18 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's me!

Ooh the K-Lone placed. I liked it a lot and appreciate he went in a different direction for the album, but I think there were better chilled Balearic revival records this year. Namely Reuben Vaun Smith and Double Geography.

Very surprised the keiyaA album surpassed Cleo Sol, not that it's a bad album but the Cleo one is a lot more accessible

Really liked the KeiyaA album, really disliked the review posted right after the announce

yeah lmaooo at that Keiya review, punchline:

https://spectrumculture.com/wp-content/uploads/userphoto/313.jpg

KeiyaA! A million sorries I should have voted u higher

xp I wish to add that that guy performs as "DJ Antithesis"

listened to the kairon, irse! and by god have they earned the exclamation point in their name.

:D both xp and not

sound like the sort of band that emil.y might have seen. 3rd on the bill at the green door store on a wet tuessday night

― would a nit be nice? (NickB)

Heyyyyyy (okay yes, I can see it)

The Ana Roxanne album is lovely (listening to it for the first time). I checked out her previous release in 2019 and really liked it, but this one is stronger, I think.

Lol sorry for the Keiyaa snippet review, I’m not curating those as carefully. I’m mostly going for the top ones on albumoftheyear. For Keiyaa there were only the SC and P4k reviews available.

Should have used the p4k one.

“
On her debut album Forever, Ya Girl, the Chicago-bred, New York-based singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist KeiyaA merges Earl Sweatshirt-ish grime and the grit of deconstructed club with hints of psych and funk.”

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/keiyaa-forever-ya-girl/

yeah this is an occasion where Pitchfork was the choice

the Charles Webster album is awesome, thanking you poll

I guess I'm a rockist now (again tbrr) ;_; the albums rollout has been much more useful to me

Nice results so far. I voted for Annie, Perfume Genius and Victoria Monét. I went back to the Westerman album after the track results last week and really should have had that on my list. Cleo Sol and KeiyaA are albums I enjoyed but only heard once. Definitely need to revisit those. Then there's a handful of things I hadn't heard at all that sound really cool. Good work everyone.

I have been feeling extremely isolated and dysphoric for the last 10 months and have found it hard to pay attention to music, for the first time in my life. I couldn’t bring myself to vote, but reading the rollout threads has been a raft that's buoyed me. I’m now listening to music again and enjoying it, thanks to you all and these threads

Just the Theo Parrish was on my ballot, from this batch. Made do with the Cleo Sol and Julianna Barwick track nominations instead. The latter's "Oh, Memory" might the best thing I've ever heard, lol, possibly blinding me somewhat to some of the charms of the rest of the album. Lattimore was on that too, IIRC.

I spent quite a bit of time with the KeiyaA and K-LONE too, but they eventually slid off the end of my ballot to make way for things that will surely place at about #485. Naturally. Really enjoyed KeiyaA's ever so slightly, er, wonky vibe. I'm all about the wonkiness.

I shall better inform myself about Westerman and Ichiko Aoba. Thanks for the tip...

I've had 5 place so far, but I'm expecting almost all of my ballot to turn up - except that my #1 is looking pretty doubtful at this stage.

I missed out on Westerman, but listening to it now and it's gorgeous.

Westerman reminds me a little of The Beta Band

I like the Ichiko Aoba album

How did I never heard about Ana Roxanne until now?

Listening to the KeiyaA album now - this is really nice! quite liked Charles Webster and Kairon IRSE from yesterday's rollout too.

Poppy, Victoria Monet and Cleo Sol were on my list but didn't quite make it, voted for Moodymann and Annie.

I didn't vote ofc but Ichiko Aoba is the business and this is her least-special album to date (and it's still terrific). I like Westerman too.

Oddly enough, I mention Ichiko to certain Japanese music people and they're like "who?" It is strange. She is spectacular

Super stoked to see K-LONE make it. Was on my list and one my favorite electronic records of the year

New Ichiko Aoba album dropped a few hours ago btw!

What??

btw Ichiko Aoba was also a late find that, had I heard it sooner, I might have placed it - but happy it's here too.

Oh wait no, it’s a single: https://ichikoaoba.bandcamp.com/track/asleep-among-endives

Just noticed because I was looking for the album in this thread to listen to it.

not getting into that Charles Webster album in 2020 was a big mistake

Westerman kind of is giving me a slight Beta Band vibe yeah

fgti,fwiw i heard of Aoba a few months ago from a friend in Kumamoto not super into music. She's reminding me Nikaido Kazumi's quieter work. Excited to hear more.

The K-Lone is awesome and i would've voted it high!

Liking the Westerman album I think! Lovely little 80s dream. No idea why Blue Comanche is seen as the standout mind, except that it's the most balearic in sound

if I was being saltier I'd say that Blue Comanche has the most boring chord-sequence on the album, and the guitar part sounds juuust like Every Breath You Take, which is why it got track props

but I'm enjoying the album so I won't

it gets away with a simple chord progression because of that gorgeous, sighing melody

lol i know i know

i am in favour! keep going westerman