ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

I put Green on the other day while it was gently snowing and I felt like a cornball but it was really beautiful

ufo: that's a kinder way of putting it, something about the wandering melodies starts to cloud my brain

the wandering and yet utterly uninteresting melodies

sorry, too negative, let's be positive: ariana grande album had me v interested for 2 tracks with all the orchestration

Circling back to earlier in the list, I've used that Ulla album as my late-night before-bed listening the last few nights and it's almost hypnotic, really enjoyed it.

Pharaoh Overlord sound like the type of band you only ever hear on Cleopatra Records' "A Tribute To ______" compilations, usually after Razed In Black

*closes hands, bows sagely* if u dish it u must also take, namaste

Yeah I really want to love the Ichiko album a lot more but it was missing a little something I couldn't put my finger on. You could be right imago, there just isn't enough there when it comes to melody, and I think I'd prefer this as gently orchestrated instrumental music. As it stands, it pushes ever so slightly into off putting Sigur Ros style territory

Okay as someone who mostly tolerates Paramore and feels most of their stuff is meant for someone in the room next door, the first song on Hayley Williams album is fucking great

isn't it!

"simmer" is an amazing song

It's like... Tune-yards, Lorde, and Emma Ruth Rundle got together and wrote a pop song that was then produced by Paul Epworth?

shd have placed in trax where did it finish, ah 106th. unlucky

This feels like a successor to the first Poe album

spotify users, join in listening to the rollout together ay: https://app.jqbx.fm/room/ilxors

now sampling stuff from yesterday

imo grande album not v good apart from first two, 'my hair' and 'positions', all of which are the tracks where the orchestra is used the most. ariana pls become chamberpop

"my hair" is by far my fav on positions, gives me mary j vibes

Lol they should put DJP’s Poe comparison on a sticker on the front of the album

https://i.imgur.com/gJ5KVJR.jpg
#30: The Microphones - Microphones in 2020 - 356 points - 14 votes

the microphones - microphones in 2020 (2020)

https://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com/album/microphones-in-2020

“Trundling through an expansive but fraught landscape, the narration is preoccupied with minutiae because the true meaning is so large, so fundamental, it’s best stirred up through feeling rather than explained.”
https://crackmagazine.net/article/album-reviews/the-microphones-microphones-in-2020/

^ not on spotify btw

trundling is it

yeah!

(probably the one thing that is not going to be on Spotify lol)

I actually liked this, good wibbly distortion noises later on in the piece

i love this. I've heard it two entire times

i love microphones/mt. eerie but i cannot deal with post-wife-death microphones/mt. eerie

oh then you should actually be good with this one

yeah rina's ballads are really not good

The 'Dance in the Dark' single she released late last year was actually better than any of the album ballads imo.

xps to NA this one is a lengthy self-examination but not focused on his wife's death. I can't listen to those albums either. Anyway I <3 this album and I <3 Phil.

... what other modes does he have?

Ariana Grande is unambiguously bad

nevermind i misread

i suppose the self examination without nature metaphors is a new vein

conversely, Rina Sawayama is surprisingly good? I was not expecting this

Caught up, and just want to say

I have seen the word pastiche more times over these poll rollouts than in the entire rest of my life put together.

― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Thursday, February 4, 2021 7:37 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

cool i'm giving it a shot now

microphones in 2020 is phil's very best work, i could listen to that meditative guitar phrase forever. really evocative of an ocean journey for some reason?

he sings about trying to create eternity in his music after seeing stereolab live and i think he accomplishes that here at last

at this point i just start hearing trundling guitars when out in nature

ah yeah i hear that! i was impressed the K-Lone got so much love. thought it was just me, Evan and a few other Balearic revival threadheads who were into it

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Thursday, February 4, 2021 9:42 AM (fifty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Agreed! It was nice to see also especially since Gigi Masin (my #1) making the list at this point seems like a massive long shot...

So at least I helped get something placed.

Phil seems like a real one but I am almost bever in the mood to listen to this stuff

never

at this point i just start hearing trundling guitars when out in nature

you & me both

or when i sit and listen to my blood

https://i.imgur.com/wbFWE3o.jpg
#29: Destroyer - Have We Met? - 361 points - 12 votes- 1 Nº1 vote

Destroyer "Have We Met" out 1/31/20

https://destroyer.bandcamp.com/album/have-we-met

“On his masterful new album, Dan Bejar moves like a ghost through his familiar and inscrutable universe.”
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/destroyer-have-we-met/

we have

The last show I saw before lockdown. The album's faded, though, after playing it for a week last January.

haha xp

I like some tracks off of this one, but it never stuck with me as much as some of his previous albums

re: microphones in 2020. I can't really describe how much I needed this song/video combo when it came out. Sitting down and being immersed by his music and photos during such a point of uncertainty in life, I'll forever cherish

I voted for this. I like it a lot. The name of the album is "Have We Met" though, not "Have We Met?"

this was a really good destroyer album tbh

there's a feeling of ILM going a bit full-circle on indie rock in recent times, having previously dismissed it as sonically unimaginative and limited in scope comparred to other genres

dl, i think you're working off an incomplete picture of ilm (or you have confused "ilm" with "the lex"). the beths and soccer mommy placing is not materially different to me than, say, alvvays placing in the tracks polls, except that the beths is imo a much better band than alvvays