Hype and Slander: What are you voting for in ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks and Albums Poll?

Re Lorde, I felt like this better captured the vibe she was going for. Plus I like the hokey '90s rhythm track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTE2J0bWizc

Is Tim F not active anymore? Enjoyed his eoy thread.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 5 January 2022 05:25 (one week ago) link

not dead, but too busy with work to actually do anything w/r/t this poll or write up my songs of the year yet :-/

I still have plans though

Hopefully you can still vote though

FromA catch-all thread for the current jazz scene in London, including Shabaka Hutchings, Yazz Ahmed, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, Camilla George, Theon Cross, Zara McFarlane, Daniel Casimir, SEED Ensemble, ---first nomspotting:

Nérija member Rosie Turton's EP Expansions and Transformations: Part I & II is totally refreshing from first notes, riding with Turton's deep, luminous trombone--fave so far is "part II," where she's in call and response w violin---skylight electronics passing over them both at one point, with piano periphery and roiling bass and drums---they kick up the tempo on "The Unknown (Rework)," a new version of a song from 2018 alb Rosie's 5ive. And a closing remix of "Part II" keeps it up, without getting gimmicky: whole thing is reflective grain of acoustic jazz with electronics (and influence of associated dynamics) folded into the planes o'flow, the grid of orbit:
https://rosieturton.bandcamp.com/album/expansions-and-transformations-part-i-ii

― dow, Wednesday, June 23

I've listened to around 250 tunes from the Tracks playlist so far. I pretty much focused on new 'bobbins' / breakbeat / techno / garage last year so a lot of what I've heard so far has been new to me (apart from the neo-soul / house / jazzy bits my wife has been playing).

Standouts so far:
Julian Lage - Saint Rose (I adore the rhythm section on this, it would be great even without the guitar imo)
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul - HAHA (guess you had to be there tbf)
Pa Salieu - Style & Fashion
Paul Frick & Daniel Brandt - Neo Beidermeir
Zakes Bantwini - Osama
Megan Thee Stallion - Thot Shit (crikey)

I'm still weirded out by the trend of huge artists just straight up not having drums on their tunes. For example tracks like Drake - Champagne Poetry or Billie Eilish. I'm so used to drums being the focal point of the genres I listen to (and spend so much time fiddling with drums in Ableton) that it is jarring to come across finished huge pop songs that don't even have a hihat let alone a snare drum.

** Meant to type 'Billie Eilish - Getting Older' up there btw

Faves in bold

Angel Haze - Weight: Few artist burned their bridges more thoroughly than Angel, who dropped Dirty Gold, a contracted album, for free on the internet in 2013 when she got incensed her rollout wasn’t moving fast enough. I’m sure the facts of the matter are more complicated than that sentence but I’m also sure most anyone running a label is going to think twice about working with her. That’s a bummer because she’s a fucking great rapper and either that debacle or something in her life stopped her career dead shortly thereafter. This mostly unremarked upon single marked her return earlier in 2021. I didn’t nominate Weight but it’s on my shortlist; she sounds just as sharp as she did a decade ago (!!!!!), still underrated and still ready to compete with anyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOycRO6mabo

Annie - April: Bombastic plastic which is good or bad depending on where your head is at. I fluctuate. Right now I’m into it but my mood sometimes makes this a slog.

The Anxiety - Meet Me at Our Spot: Willow is Having a Moment right now, something that feels like the precursor to her getting serious chart success as a mature artist. I was a fan of her first two albums so it’s a particular bummer that I can’t connect with anything she’s been doing lately. I guess that's hardly a surprise as I didn’t care for Avril or Travis Barker back in the aughts so their immediate rock deification seems like chasing false gods.

Anz - You Could Be: I still really need to listen to the All Hours EP (and am gonna queue that up now that I’m thinking about it) but holy fuck this single is amazing. Pure free skate energy, disco ball sparkle and perfect vocals, this deserves US crossover success in the worst way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra9waH-J6Lc

AprilBlue - Clarity: 90’s Indie Pop with a bit of 00’s guitar attitude and declamatory dancing-in-front-of-the-closet-mirror vocals. This is a madeleine of sorts for music that I have limited love for but it brings enough of its own soul to the table that I’m won over.

Arca - Born Yesterday (with Sia), Queer (with Planningtorock): It finally solidified in my mind last year when I heard Arca’s installation at the Museum of Modern Art that I don’t like her music. The squelch and zap and trap of it all feels disjointed and amelodic in a way that only rarely seems to catch my attention or properly support the vocals. As it happens, I think this Sia track has something good at its core in a Total Eclipse of the Heart kinda way but the pep and pop is swallowed up by the electric hydra. The effect on Queer is even more pronounced and more of a turn off somehow. And yes, i get this is intentional and thematically "Arca's thing" but I am sad to report it is not mine no matter how hard I've tried.

Ariana Grande - Test Drive: I loved Positions a lot but this seems like an outtake for a reason. Grande doesn’t quite project herself here in the way I want her to and the production is balsa wood construction. I don’t DISlike it and I still let it play out when it queues but it feels very placeholder.

Ari Lennox - Pressure: I always forget that I kinda like Ari Lennox. Some of it is her name, which I consistently confuse as some sort of Eurythmics-based arch do-you-get-it hipster DJ reference of the DJ Seinfeld or Ross From Friends variety. But Ari’s not a hipster, she’s a solid R&B vocalist who gets much of her heat from feature spots. Pressure sounds like and is her unvarnished hit; all tick-tock pussy power dip dive instruction, honeyed and coquettish and phenomenally good.

Arlo Parks - Black Dog: Parks was one of my favorite new artists found in the past year, a solid lyricist and pitch-perfect representation of last generation ennui and post-prozac worldview. Black Dog is a definite high-point from her debut album, a recitation of tactics to save the desperately depressed. Having been on both sides of the equation, this beautifully rendered portion of loving the lost rings painfully honest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOu0Ht0-D4M

Armand Hammer/Alchemist with Earl Sweatshirt - Falling Out of the Sky: Recently I met a sweet and tremendously creative and chatty twentysomething guy at a friend’s going away party and we got along well enough that we took some moments during the safer moments of COVID to hang out and see some concerts. This kid likes hip hop and he has strong opinions about what constitutes real hip hop. He finds my interest in the genre amusing but he also appreciates that I can quote songs and have a broad listening background so I have old head cred. As such, I text him recommendations and he clowns me for almost everything I bring to him. At one point this summer I had tickets to see Armand Hammer and The Alchemist but who wants to go to a rap show solo? So I invited him but he didn’t know who they were so I sent him Falling Out the Sky as exhibit A. He hates Odd Future for some reason and I didn’t know that and I got like thirty are-you-fucking-kidding-me reaction gifs in response: Medea rolling her eyes and MJ laughing at his laptop and so on. I dunno. I still think this is real good.

The Armed - AN ITERATION: I’ve tried The Armed a few times now and I don’t like this at all.

Arooj Aftab - Mohabbat, Saans Lo: In some of the circles I hang in, people talk about Arooj Aftab’s breakout year as a well earned and lengthy success story but I will freely admit that I’m late to the table. As I consider her work that much more powerful in its totality, my vote will likely go to Arooj’s album rather than any individual track but suffice it to say that both of these are alluringly beautiful.

ArrDee - Oliver Twist: Oh man the video is SO bad and ArrDee has a face for radio and a 4chan driving force but there’s no denying this is a fucking jam.

Arushi Jain - Zid: A super brief scan of the tracks on Jain’s Under the Lilac Sky album suggest this wonderful, spacey electronic gem isn’t a fluke. I’ll need to work my way through the LP but in the meantime, this is very pure.

Ashley Monroe - Siren: No shade on whoever nominated it, but Siren likely isn’t even my fourth favorite track off Monroe's admittedly uneven but still very good Rosegold album, an LP that smacks of the Rhinestone Disco alt-country moment that Kacey stamped into the Nashville fabric. My pick would likely be the sinewy potboiler Groove but I opted instead to nominate a little heard duet called Easy Going. I think Monroe is one of my favorite country singers and no one cares but I have mixed feelings about the direction she’s currently pointed in. In any case, Siren is a very good song that I would likely be kinder to if it came from an artist I felt less invested in.

Ashley Shadow with Bonnie Prince Billy - Don’t Slow Me Down: I went through a Palace phase in college and keep an eye on Oldham because of it. Everything he’s on that I’ve heard in the playlist thus far sounds underbaked and that goes for this morose little shitkicklet too.

audiobooks: The Doll, LaLaLa It’s the Good Life: audiobooks is one of those groups where the name of the band turned me off enough that I never made any effort to give them a try. I suppose I’m rethinking that now. LJ had a freakout upthread on LaLaLa which I found enjoyable but a bit too overtired and manic to really fall in love with. But The Doll, an electrogoth meditation on the heartbreak of breakups that has the dourest bit of Scissor Sisters and The Knife in its DNA, that one fucking got me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRQGZPXuIrM

Avalanches with MGMT and Johnny Marr - The Divine Chord: The Avalanches are hit and miss for me and this one’s a miss.

Avalon Emerson - Champu Princess: I’m a fan of Avalon Emerson’s production and very much dug her DJ Kicks from last year. Champu Princess is solid running music, diverting musically up and down the path enough that it never loses my attention.

Avataar - Worldview: Entirely enjoyable, if somewhat unchallenging, coffeehouse jazz that I might fall harder for in person.


Axel Rulay with Farruko and El Alfa - Si es Trucho es Trucho: It felt like this song was everywhere in NYC this summer but maybe my ears were just sensitive to it because it’s so goddamn catchy? The upper register of Axel Rulay’s voice sits soft on my ear. I prefer this remix, which parties a bit harder.

Ayanne - Le bara: Ivory Coast pop R&B that bops. I appreciate the bass bump and the synth flourishes and faux marimba and pan flute and Ayanne’s voice which is likely the best effect on a track filled with them.

DARKSIDE - The Limit. This came on the speaker yesterday when we were lying on the couch. It rocked and filled the room. The beat / sound-design are so cool to follow if you let the vocals naturally drift in the background. Awesome manipulations on the bass / drums that end each part of the song and remind me one time of Autechre, one time of free jazz, one time of field recordings. I don't know what that flute-like sound is, maybe a synth or guitar distortion, but it's awesome. I wish this was an entire genre, and it's just Nicolas Jaar. I was voting for the album anyway, but I am putting this on my ballot immediately and highly.

some highlights from my nominations:

SSIEGE - Il Re Delle Mandorle, best track on their beautiful mini album (or EP idk) Meteora. i can imagine this being too humble to stand out while listening to hundreds of tracks for the poll, but this release grew on me in a huge way after it initially seemed a bit slight. it has a simple, gorgeous, good-natured quality that i gravitated to last year.

Ike Zwanikken - Bianca, my favorite track on Knekelhuis's lowkey comp "and felt like..." which really hangs together excellently as a cohesive album.

Froid Dub - Shotgun Dub, An Iceberg Cruising the Jamaican Coastline maintains a cold, sinister feel across the whole release that is addictive. There's a lot of variety across the EP despite the focused atmosphere. It felt to me like the evil cousin of the amazing Good Block EP last year.

The Zenmenn - Flags Of The World, An Homage to Friendship is probably the song with the broadest appeal from Enter the Zenmenn, but I think this goofy track is more representative of the relaxed balearic humor of the album that is perfect for hanging around the house with the windows open on a nice day.

Michal Turtle / Suso Saiz - Caravan To Inek, my favorite track on a perfect album. This was the hypnotic, contemplative soundtrack to my morning coffee and my evening painting sessions this year.

glad to see the anz love, i've listened to that track so many times and it just gets better

Same!

Yep it's grand. Reminds me of some of my favourite dubstep tunes from back in the day and also cut from a similar cloth to Barbarossa by K-Lone from a few years back now

I've listened to around 250 tunes from the Tracks playlist so far. I pretty much focused on new 'bobbins' / breakbeat / techno / garage last year so a lot of what I've heard so far has been new to me (apart from the neo-soul / house / jazzy bits my wife has been playing).

Standouts so far:
Julian Lage - Saint Rose (I adore the rhythm section on this, it would be great even without the guitar imo)
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul - HAHA (guess you had to be there tbf)
Pa Salieu - Style & Fashion
Paul Frick & Daniel Brandt - Neo Beidermeir
Zakes Bantwini - Osama
Megan Thee Stallion - Thot Shit (crikey)

I'm still weirded out by the trend of huge artists just straight up not having drums on their tunes. For example tracks like Drake - Champagne Poetry or Billie Eilish. I'm so used to drums being the focal point of the genres I listen to (and spend so much time fiddling with drums in Ableton) that it is jarring to come across finished huge pop songs that don't even have a hihat let alone a snare drum.

― Agnes, Agatha, Germaine and Jack (Willl), Wednesday, January 12, 2022 6:19 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"HAHA" jumped out to me, too. Didn't make my list but cool track. Many thanks, whoever nominated it.

Basically everything Adigery released this year was amazing.

Glad the Lage and the Megan are hitting!

nice to see some love for Ari Lennox!

Ashley Shadow with Bonnie Prince Billy - Don’t Slow Me Down: I went through a Palace phase in college and keep an eye on Oldham because of it. Everything he’s on that I’ve heard in the playlist thus far sounds underbaked and that goes for this morose little shitkicklet too.

gfy

Tell me what I am missing

The harmony, the timbre of her vocal (reminds me of Paula Frazer from Tarnation), just the choices made re: the melody and structure. It's mournful in a profound way to me and not just some americana cosplay.

Avataar - Worldview: Entirely enjoyable, if somewhat unchallenging, coffeehouse jazz that I might fall harder for in person.

Cool, glad you enjoyed it. It's gentle but fairly complex melodically and there's a lot going on in the solos and interplay.

Does anyone have any non-Spotify tracks they wish to peddle?

album not track, but

https://anarchiveslabel.bandcamp.com/album/eihwaz

JF: Okay, I listened to it twice more and I'm still not hearing it. It's less that I'm accusing it of faking americana roots and more that it seems canned and a bit boring. I spent a fair amount of time in honkytonks as a kid and this doesn't pass the smell test for me.

sund4r: yeah, "unchallenging" for the listener; the composition seems pretty rigorous.

If there's a world in which I get through all these, I'll likely move on to the not-on-spotify tracks next.

I missed the nominations but there is quite a lot of Bandcamp bobbins I enjoyed this year that didn’t make it to Spotify, I might write in one or 2 of them. A few examples:

Obnoxious wobs bobbins: https://pondlifeparty.bandcamp.com/track/daseplate-the-clangers-vip-kontent-remix

Rolling breakbeat garage bobbins: https://dansudiscsuk.bandcamp.com/track/we-run

Jacking French house revival bobbins: Pilot - My Eyes: https://pilot.bandcamp.com/track/my-eyes

The Skeptical remix of Alix Perez - Trinity was probably my favourite D&B of the year: https://1985-music.bandcamp.com/album/5-year-remixes-onef037

Yeah, there's a lot of my noms (and I think a few on my ballot) that are Bandcamp-only. Will check those out.

listening to DJP's internet radio show of his & Fluffy Bear's favorite 2021 tracks and again I am just staggered by how MUCH music is out there these days now that almost literally anyone can make tracks. I haven't known a single thing they've played in the last hour-plus.

(for the record I believe this overload/excess/plethora is a good thing overall)

Forks, thanks for the in-depth ILM Consumer Guide. Totally enjoying it.

glad to hear! gonna try to keep it rolling.

Oh damn there’s a new Ashley Shadow album?? Not a Bonnie Prince Billy fan but otherwise looking forward to this! Thanks for trashing it Forks; I probably wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

Desperately trying to not let my tracks list be too repetitive this year, but those three Real Lies singles are making it hard. I don't see how I can leave any of them off. It's only just dawning on me how special their second album is going to be.

Favourite discoveries from the playlist so far include:

Honey. - Somebody To (So obsessed with this. Reminds me of Louise Burns)
Pi Ja Ma - Should I Call U Baby
Cabiria - DISCO-CAFE
Clara Luciani - Le reste
Telenova - Bones
India Shawn - Don't Play With My Heart
Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés - El Gran Silencio

Really feels like I'm playing catch-up this year. So much great stuff on the playlist that just wasn't on my radar at all.

Here's a Bandcamp-only song I'd like to rep for: https://patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com/track/mystic-folk

Dunno how to describe it really. Wild cutesy prog-EDM banger with a hint of Autechre and two guest vocalists trading fx-slathered verses that builds to the most almighty climax?

everybody please vote for the maria arnal i marcel bagés album

Ok cancel the whole thing and give it to Backyardigans - Castaway. Banger!

Lol I completely agree

someone should just make a whole "year of impact" ballot

xxxp That's one I heard on shuffle that I gotta hear in full.

the poppiest track off parris's album

album is great too! "restrained, bass-heavy electronic music orbiting the fringes of dubstep, grime, and techno." ... yep

someone should just make a whole "year of impact" ballot
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Friday, January 14, 2022 8:04 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Charles Webster, Kali Uchis, Wizkid and Tems, SZA, Dunnie, Tyla, Elaine, Focalistic is not a bad start

MFR Souls and Bassie

First 100 done! 1000 or so to go!

Faves in bold

AYOCHILMANNN with Valee - HIMMYimmy: Rambling weird nerd hop needs the most love so I will pass some along here.

Ayra Starr - Bloody Samaritan: Perfectly lush coastal Afropop with the trustworthy London providing Starr with everything she needs - sax solo inclusive - to bring it home. X no fit kill my vibe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcR0PWGfUhs

Azealia Banks - Fuck Him All Night: The thing about Azealia Banks is that her toxic, mega-combative social media persona is generally worth putting up with because she mostly makes good music. Mostly. This is kinda garbage.

Baby Queen - Raw Thoughts: Mannered and precise in a way that means to make clear that it is absolutely not mannered and precise, ew, who would want to be mannered and precise when you can be weird and stuff.

Bachelor (Jay Som and Palehound) - Stay in the Car, Anything at All: I like the voices but man I cannot get with these songs at all.

BackRoad Gee with BG and TizzTrap - A Yo: Love it when my Clockwork Orange peoples rap so fast and so deeply accented that it reduces syllables to rainstick seeds rattling through the speakers. Relentless, minimal, lyrically impenetrable, good times.

Backxwash with Ada Rook - I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES: On paper, this has all the qualities of Death Grips and clipping that I’m looking for from folks that find machines and then rage at them and then become them and then break down. In practice, Backxwash’s sludginess and low BPM didn’t click every time I tried prior and this all caps offering isn’t bringing me around.

The Backyardigans - Castaways: Oh now this is a fucking brilliant nomination from dyl, buried innocuously amidst a raft of R&B and hip hop. As a childless fellow of a certain age, I had never even heard of the Backyardigans before this but boy do I EVER get how this lovely little samba about putting a good face on isolation could become a pandemic era tiktok meme magnet. It’s absolutely my fave 2005 track on the playlist so far, can I fucking stop singing it loudly in public is the question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9b9xr1bVcE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xToG2dRegMo

Bad Boy Chiller Crew - Don’t You Worry About Me: FUN! FUCKING FUN! WHEE! WE ARE HAVING FUN! SOMEONE PLEASE CALL FOR HELP! THEY WON’T LET ME LEAVE! PLEASE JESUS! FUN! SO MUCH FUN! I WANT TO DIE! FUN!

Bad Bunny - Yonaguni: Something about Bad Bunny's “i’ve been hurt” tone never fails to turn me off but this is about as non-abrasive as guy gets so that’s something. Still not anything I would seek out on my own.

Baltra - Baby, Dreaming of a Disco, I Want You I Need You (Darius Syrossian Remix) - All three are lovely house hits, mostly pulling from a late 90’s bag of tricks that times nicely with the short period I went clubbing at terrible discos with queer rednecks. The music was often good! “Baby” likely my favorite of this batch. As the narrator points out it's a VIBE to be CAUGHT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq0Gu48-Y4w

BAMBII - TWITCH: Dark nightmare dancehall doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that would work but this holds up nicely to repeat play and would likely demolish a late night dancefloor.

Band Gang Lonnie Bands with Young Nudy - Glocks & Choppas: I appreciate the Juvenile sample but the decision to rap way off the beat isn’t winning me over.

Banknulli and Not3s - Foreign: Solid Naija dancepop buoyed up nicely by Bank’s heavily accented, attuned flow.

Barbora Xu - Lintuseni: Oh no, I hear you saying, not another Czech singer/songwriter playing zither with Finnish folk tunes. I know it’s a heavily trammeled path but Xu is doing some very pretty things here even so; please forgive her obviousness. This album is likely worth a closer look for me, very much forksbait.

Bartholomew Kind - Memento: Haunting, throbbing, oceanic, deeply danceable. I love the repeated vocal, “And I deserve it, I think I deserve it.” Same here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pozBbxgXFo

Basside - NYC2MIA (Sophie Remix): Okay, so I listened to this three times so that you don’t have to and it’s the same thing over and over again for three minutes. It is not good. It is a bad song, really more of a bad sample beaten into mush then baby birded in your mouth for three minutes. Six if you listen to it twice. Nine if you listen to it three times. Which I did. It’s bad.

BATTEN GIRLS - Watashi Koi Hajimetatteyo!: I love how the singers and the production seem to be somewhat coincidentally on the same song at the same time. Love blooms nonetheless among the plastic people in space, pink blossoms falling from the underbelly of the spaceship as we gently zip off in jets of flavored seltzer.

Bawo - Starts with a Text: A bit too Drake-ish in its monotone accessibility and slightly sneering sensuality for me but there’s nothing inherently wrong going on here.

beabadoobee - Last Day on Earth, Cologne: How in the hell is this first song not “beabadoobee - shoodoodooshoodoobedoobedoo”? It’s the title America needed! It would be easier to hate beabadoobee, she of 2020’s ubiquitous coffee track, if only her music wasn’t so dang enjoyable. Cologne was a longer burn for me to come around but I finally warmed to the Veruca Salt of it and now I am in too deep.

Beach Bunny - Good Girls Don’t Get Used: I diggit lyrically and even musically but something in this Paramore-alike never gelled no matter how hard I tried.

forks OTM about that Sophie Remix. i was just listening to it while sorting out my DJ library and thought I'd run it in a ballroom/club set but not for more than a minute.

anyway, i'm here to rep "Notice," by Tammy Lakkis. i'm still processing a lot of music but this might the house jam of the year for me, and i hope it places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnRkwcTJi9I

Haha completely missed the backyardigand nom, we obsessed about it for a weekend in early 2021, a friend wouldn’t stop looping it and we ended up loving it.

'Baby' was one of my noms - Baltra's been on a hot streak for the past 2 or 3 years, and I could easily have nommed at least another couple of his productions (Sunset Jam!). Anyhow, keep going forks!

Yeah I definitely voted way too soon… there’s at least 6 of my votes which I’d change

As Fred said somewhere upthread the whole Backroad Gee tape is really good

#lastminutegang

Faves in bold

Beach House - Superstar, Over and Over: The thing about Beach House’s plush bathyspheres is that one sounds more or less as good as the next to me. They’re fine but they don’t really move me to do much more than shop for affordable pants.

Beak > - Oh Know: This feels a bit like CAN’s Vitamin C which is a definite selling point. Pleasantly shambolic and stomping, great music to play in a hiding cave during a pandemic.

Beautify Junkyards - Reverie: Gossamer thin and weirdly indeterminate in its influences and concepts but no one said you needed to show your work. It’s a short dive in an aquarium tank to open the treasure chest bubbler for a face full of boba-size fizz.

BEC - Pleasure Seeker: In the right head state, this twisted firestarter is a rock rolling down a mountain would provide a path to follow. Under anxiety, it makes me feel like I’m the target. Approach with caution but, by all means, do approach.

Bendik Giske - Cruising (Laurel Halo Remix): This is another cut that spikes my anxiety but where Pleasure Seeker does it by short sharp shocks, this is more serpentine and oblique. It’s going somewhere and the process of getting there is very purple and dazed. That’s not to be discounted or ignored but embraced when possible. See where it takes you!

Benedek - Street Level: I like how this struts up in leg warmers and shakes its hips relentlessly for six minutes. Perhaps more GTA radio or house party than round-the-office listening when everything’s said and done but no one in my office has complained yet.

Ben Watts - That’s the Way Love Is: I like Everything but the Girl as much as anyone, but this is a valentine centerpiece made with used tissues and i don’t know precisely what those kleenex were used for. Painful.

Bethan Lloyd - Boss of Big Dreams: Balkan choir harmonies, weird skipping disco loops, ominous synths approaching and a galloping drum track? Did someone make this just for me? Lloyd is a new find for me and I’ll likely give her 2019 EP a closer listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC9c0jWRjQc

The Bevis Frond - Dreams of Flying: I stopped three times to check to see how long this was gonna keep playing for, but it wasn’t until now that I looked to see the name of the artist. Hard pass.

Bfb da Packman - Weekend at Solomon’s: Some of the lyrics here are fun and I’d really like to like this more, but the production is meh and the slightly-off-the-beat rapping is a pet peeve of mine. Can the nominator recommend another track from this guy for me to try him again?

BIA with Nicki Minaj - WHOLE LOTTA MONEY: Nicki sounds bad here and BIA sounds hoarse while she's aiming for Cardi flow.

BIBI - BAD SAD AND MAD: Is this about rough sex or domestic abuse? Or is the point of the song the difficulty for the listener to easily make that distinction? Either way, this is a remarkably jaunty ballad for a song this violent. The juxtaposition works well and BIBI does some interesting vocal stuff over quirky production. The Timbaland Pony squiggle was a surprise but really, the whole track is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q36iGiqoCXM

Bicep - Apricots: I think this was my nomination, my fave track off one of my fave albums of the year. I get the impression that Bicep’s relative mainstream popularity makes them an unhip pick in the house world but I don’t know that I’ve heard a bad song from them yet. Apricots is extra generous, comfortably uplifting, good to run with and deeply open. It draws strength from Hugh Tracey’s field recordings and the Bulgarian Radio Choir and it has held me aloft through some unhappy moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Govg_XmORLE

Biga Yut and Lithim - Cash Boss: What an amazing find! Primal, forceful, both of its moment and weirdly afrofuturistic. This slaps harder than any number of US/UK postpunk tracks in the playlist and never stops being resolutely weird. The joyous video, packed with A+ style is icing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX2Ba1KS8-s

Big Red Machine with Fleet Foxes - Phoenix: Does Phoenix guest on a song called Fleet Foxes? Do I win hipster bingo if they do? I’m pretty sure I lost because I didn't want to play.

Big Thief - Spud Infinity, Little Things, Time Escaping: I am almost certainly missing something about Big Thief, right? It seems like every critic loves them and it’s not a total mystery why. I hear some of the elements! Something about the whole package turns me away. Like for Spud Infinity, the jaw harp and lap steel and the Gillian Welch vocals should have me caught, but it doesn’t. Somewhere twixt lips and hips this just dies on the vine for me. The other two tracks provide even less traction. Just not my party.

Big Wreck - Bombs Away: On the other hand, I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years that a minor single from a proggy Canadian alt rock guitar band would land so incredibly squarely in my comfort zone. There’s something of Helmet going on here, maybe a little Stone Temple Pilots? In any case, this slouches into Guitar Hero territory in the best possible way and I would totally lift my lighter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZImrFEkGjGs

Bilal Nasser - Exiles and Orange Groves: Okay, fess up, is this an ilxor or someone’s significant other? Nasser hasn’t got much of a digital footprint but what he does have here is a delicate sugarcube of a song: sweet, energizing and crystalline in its detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daAI2tU3UE0

Billie Eilish: Getting Older, GOLDWING, Happier Than Ever, I Didn’t Change My Number, Lost Cause, Oxytocin, Your Power: Instead of listening to this pile of tracks, I just listened to the LP a few times. There’s a few missed shots but taken as a whole, I think it’s stronger than her debut and it’s a fully defensible pick for one of the best albums of the year. My pick would’ve been one of the not-selected tracks, Not My Responsibility, a conversational confrontation which seemed like such an unlikely choice for any artist to slip into a mega-release that I wanted to give it the nod as a contrarian and as a show of appreciation for Eilish’s continuing willingness to do any damn thing she wants. Of the songs, I’d be hard pressed to choose! They’re all quite good for totally different reasons. Eilish's diversity of approach and how well she pulls it off is maybe the largest part of what makes her so impressive. Let’s go with I Didn’t Change My Number; the growling dog and the wurlitzer keep me entranced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oLfyzoCFpw

if off the best rapping is gonna get your goat every time, it’s possible that michigan rap isn’t for you, but if you want a more traditional packman track, try “northside ghetto soulja” or “frenchmen”

*off the beat, duh

Bilal Nasser - Exiles and Orange Groves: Okay, fess up, is this an ilxor or someone’s significant other? Nasser hasn’t got much of a digital footprint but what he does have here is a delicate sugarcube of a song: sweet, energizing and crystalline in its detail.

An acquaintance and colleague of sorts, but not close. It was one of my favourite pieces of the year, though.

I was also surprised by how much I liked the Big Wreck single.

a delicate sugarcube of a song: sweet, energizing and crystalline in its detail.

Amazing description btw