ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2020

My #5

The Beatrice Dillon reminds me of Matmos in its found-sound-ness, like, there's a sound, you're like "that's not music," "OK, I'll play it again, now is it music" "no" "how about now" "I'm not sure" and then somehow it insists on itself so much that at some point you realize it's a song

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 4 February 2021 19:31 (three minutes ago) link

Sometimes I vibe to the dishwasher like this

The cover of the Horse Lords is too on the nose for the kind of music it is

Workaround is advanced! I haven’t totally wrapped my head around it, really mind blowing stuff. map has written a lot of good stuff about it on the dedicated thread.

"Integral Accident" is sick.

I would like to see what people dancing to Horse Lords looks like

googles dothraki wedding

You can definitely dance to Horse Lords. I have done so.

The cover of the Horse Lords is too on the nose for the kind of music it is

― Guayaquil (eephus!)

it's all "H"s and "L"s!!

honestly shocked that this is so high, but yeah I voted for it

as I said in Tracks, their "mixtapes" are even better IMO

beatrice dillon high* on my list

*lol

Workaround is advanced! I haven’t totally wrapped my head around it, really mind blowing stuff. map has written a lot of good stuff about it on the dedicated thread.

― brimstead, Thursday, February 4, 2021 7:41 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

hey thanks! i also think it's pretty advanced tbh, but it's also comfort music for me. sometimes i wish i was talented enough to dance to it.

Never really bothered with horse Lords before but enjoying this now

https://i.imgur.com/chVqUIR.jpg
#17: Azana - Ingoma - 440 points - 15 votes - 1 Nº1 vote

Azana - Ingoma

“On her debut album Ingoma, Azana effortlessly straddles between soul, pop and house music to create sounds both spiritual and romantic. Wielding a richly textured voice and poetic outlook, the KwaZulu Natal-born songstress ponders love, spirituality and the essence of home. Fittingly, the title pays homage to capturing the emotions of the stories she crafts. “Ingoma means a song and a song can mean so much to you in so many ways,” she tells Apple Music. “A song is a lover, a healer or a fantasy. I'm asking people to gather around and listen to my song. I hope this brings people together and gives them closure. I hope it heals.” Sifting through each of her songs, Azana relays the inspirations that birthed them.”
https://music.apple.com/za/album/ingoma/1516452511

I appreciate the love for CS & Kreme but I admit that I don't really get it (yet?), I didn't click with it but haven't spent time exploring its depths. And it seems like it probably has depths that require exploring?

― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, February 4, 2021 11:38 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Rather than depths that require exploring I wd contend it’s an artful juxtaposition of surfaces that require exploring :) which is equally difficult to intuit from a cursory skim as unexplored depths

That’s me trying a Tim F let me know how I did

ingoma was just a godsend last year. perfect.

this is where I play my *Too Low* card

listened to this for the first time yesterday. supernatural cool, and quite the unique vocal tone. kind of like sun-el sade.

glad you're doing ok, forks. i have never even heard of "spine cancer" before, that shit sounds ... not good.

also:

HORSE LORDS
HORSE LORDS
HORSE LORDS

the year’s best album to come out out of Sun-El World by far

lol deej that really does sound like something I would say; also OTM.

gorgeous record

I've got sooo much listening to catch up on

(sorry, the ilm massive is currently unavailable. we're completely wrapped up in the Azana album)

last one for the day; Moka will finish this out tomorrow!

https://i.imgur.com/9pD9FEB.jpg
#16: Autechre - SIGN - 440 points - 16 votes

Are you telling me this is AE: SIGN? (Autechre LP 14)

https://autechre.bandcamp.com/album/sign

“SIGN is an exceptionally engaging listen: lean, intermittently sedate, even quite pretty.”
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/autechre-sign

“It is their most immediate and enjoyable album to date. The music has a distant, crushing vibe to it, that is totally captivating, but the music isn’t claustrophobic. It gives itself, and the listen, room to breathe and move.”
https://clashmusic.com/reviews/autechre-sign

A really phenomenal run of albums today.

the first graphic with a typo (sorry to be the first person to call it out)

Yes mate

wheeew

plus was no. 15 on my list but it was kind of a stand-in for both records. glad sign placed at around the same position

Yay Beatrice Dillon, one of my 2020 top 10. Partly because it was my go-to music to write to all year.

You can catch up on all your 77 Album listening (with the exception of The Microphones) via our regularly updated ILM 77 Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/76m1OSG2OzW0Kgzx4RAxN2

Here's the up-to-date 77 Album List:

#16: Autechre - SIGN - 440 points - 16 votes
#17: Azana - Ingoma - 440 points - 15 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#18: Horse Lords - The Common Task - 438 points - 16 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#19: Beatrice Dillon - Workaround - 432 points - 16 votes- 1 Nº1 vote
#20: Alabaster DePlume - To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 - 432 points - 13 vote - 3 Nº1 votes
#21: Tiwa Savage - Celia - 431 points - 16 votes
#22: J Hus - Big Conspiracy - 423 points - 14 votes
#23: The Soft Pink Truth - Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? - 415 points - 16 votes
#24: CS + Kreme - Snoopy /howwouldyoufeelwithoutthatthought 412 points - 13 votes - 3 Nº1 votes
#25: playboi carti - whole lotta red - 406 points - 15 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#26: Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher - 405 points - 14 votes
#27: Kelly Lee Owens - Inner Song - 391 points - 15 votes
#28: Katie Pruitt - Expectations - 388 points - 12 votes
#29: Destroyer - Have We Met? - 361 points - 12 votes- 1 Nº1 vote
#30: The Microphones - Microphones in 2020 - 356 points - 14 votes
#31: The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers - 354 points - 10 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#32: Ariana Grande - Positions - 353 points - 14 votes- 1 Nº1 vote
#33: Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA - 342 points - 9 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#34: Pa Salieu - Send Them to Coventry - 330 points - 10 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#35: Grimes - Miss Anthropocene - 329 points - 15 votes
#36: Hum - Inlet - 324 points - 11 votes - 2 Nº1 votes
#37: Slum of Legs - Slum of Legs - 321 points - 14 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#38: Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi - 317 points - 9 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#39: clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned - 314 points - 12 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#40: Vladislav Delay - Rakka - 302 points - 10 votes- 1 Nº1 vote
#41: Hayley Williams - Petals for Armor - 300 points - 14 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#42: Actress - Karma & Desire - 299 points - 14 votes
#43: Stephen Malkmus - Traditional Techniques - 298 points - 10 votes
#44: Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind - 297 points - 10 votes
#45: Simmy - Tugela Fairy (Made Of Stars) - 291 points - 13 votes
#46: KeiyaA - Forever, Ya Girl - 285 points - 14 votes
#47: Cleo Sol - Rose in the Dark - 280 points - 10 votes
#48: Soccer Mommy - Color Theory - 267 points - 11 votes
#49: Julianna Barwick - Healing Is a Miracle - 262 points - 8 votes
#50: Theo Parrish - Wuddaji - 255 points - 12 votes
#51: Westerman - Your Hero is Not Dead - 254 points - 8 votes
#52: Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways - 251 points - 8 votes
#53: Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud - 250 points - 7 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#54: Ichiko Aoba - Windswept Adan - 249 points - 8 votes
#55: Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders - 248 points - 11 votes
#56: K-LONE - Cape Cira - 247 points - 8 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#57: Annie - Dark Hearts - 246 points - 8 votes
#58: Victoria Monét - Jaguar - 240 points - 9 votes
#59: Brandy - b7 - 239 points - 12 votes
#60: Pharaoh Overlord - 6 - 232 points - 7 votes
#61: Brandy Clark - Your Life Is a Record - 230 points - 10 votes
#62: DJ Python - Mas Amable - 216 points - 7 votes
#63: Lido Pimienta - Miss Colombia - 210 points - 6 votes
#64: Run The Jewels - RTJ4 - 204 points - 8 votes
#65: Adrianne Lenker - Songs - 200 points - 9 votes
#66: Autechre - Plus - 200 points - 8 votes
#67: Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately - 199 points - 8 votes
#68: Moodymann - Taken Away - 192 points - 10 votes
#69: Ana Roxanne - Because of a Flower - 190 points - 7 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#70: Ulla - Tumbling Towards a Wall - 190 points - 7 votes
#71: Charles Webster - Decision Time - 190 points - 6 votes
#72: Nubya García - Source - 190 points - 5 votes
#73: Deftones - Ohms - 188 points - 6 votes
#74: Kairon; IRSE! - Polysomn - 188 points - 5 votes
#75: Poppy - I Disagree - 187 points - 6 votes - 1 Nº1 vote
#76: Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown - 184 points - 10 votes
#77: Selena Gomez - Rare (Deluxe) - 184 points - 8 votes

PLUS just about tops SIGN for me, but SIGN is the more "iconic" of the two, if that's the right word, and arguably the Autechre album with the broadest appeal for I'd say two decades

HORSE LOOOOORDS

yay for Azana! It's hard to put my finger exactly on why I liked this so much more than the Simmy or Sun-El albums, but she ranges over moods and modes with a bit more adventurousness imo

voted for SIGN, at #3 right behind PLUS on my ballot. After having gone probably as far as they could with the Exai - Elseq - NTS Sessions sound, this felt like a bit of a reset, going back to something simpler and more direct.

this year more than previous, there's stuff popping up that i literally haven't heard of, a good reminder of the wonders of ILM threads i never visit

what a run. i didn't expect to say this but i wish ingoma were higher.

ready for top 15 predictions!

So, apparently anything Autechre ever release will make it to them ILM top 77? I wish I could understand why people like them so much, but anytime I try them I end up immensely bored. There's so much better music within their genre.

great great list of albums this year. have a strong suspicion that the top 15 will be my least fav section of the rollout ha

taylor (x2?), haim, charli, fiona, 75, sault (x2?)
thats 8 right there. still holding out for Sweven but not too sure how big that was outside of rolling metal

Every album Autechre makes really is great though, nobody’s in their league

Kelly Lee Owens is the only thing on my ballot to place today, but it's also one of only three of today's albums I've even listened to. ILM is definitely being more adventurous in this range than in years past.

expect three more of mine to place, four if something crazy happens

Jessie Ware will definitely be in there

I'm thinking a lot of albums I voted for might place in the top 15
- Wizkid
- A.A.L.
- Fiona Apple
- Roisin Murphy
- Dua Lipa
- Jessie Ware
- Shabaka and the Ancestors
- Lianne la Havas

I'm worried that Omah Lay's EP did not make it. And Keleketla.