ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2016

Rollout begins shortly.

Here's the Spotify playlist.

61-77 today, 41-60 tomorrow, 21-40 on Wednesday, top 20 on Thursday.

Enjoy!

TOO LOW

http://i.imgur.com/KRUNA2n.png

http://i.imgur.com/8tvMVls.jpg

77 MARK BARROTT Sketches From an Island 2 (207 points, 8 votes)

i don't usually believe in the seasonality of music but winter is definitely not ideal for this one

Sketches From An Island was #38 in 2014. This one's more of the same in a pretty good way, listened to it a bit over the summer, can't really remember anything specific about it beyond the soothing vibes

I like that Mark Barrott album, maybe a bit too slight to have voted for it though

Didn't hear about this but did enjoy "Cascades" from the tracks playlist, although I see that's not on the album.

almost.....but there's something a little stiff about it, I'd like it to billow in the breeze a bit more.

207 points! That seems a high bar...

album scores are always higher since theres fewer of them and no vote splitting

i hadn't heard about this but the first two tracks are nice, i usually like this sort of thing

I got with his double a-side a lot more than this album last year. Those first couple of track titles on the album are just crossing that line for me

http://i.imgur.com/fPZ1EG7.jpg

76 GLENN BRANCA Symphony no. 13 (Hallucination City) For 100 Guitars (210 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)

I voted for Barrott. don't have much of a defense against "too slight" other than albums like this have utility and I actually put this on more often than more substantial stuff.

I imagine this one is heavier

Let me provide the first TOO LOW of the day

Paging Sund4r, DAM

(Didn't vote for this myself but listened a couple of times and it's really impressive/gigantic)

Let me provide the first TOO LOW of the day

I gave it the #1 vote so I'm sympathetic to this pov. I'm just happy to see it place, though, really. I really think it's the culmination of Branca's symphonic guitar work.

Out of the records that International Feel put out this year, I think I prefer more expansive drift of the CFCF and the Wolf Muller & Cass albums. Mark Barrott is just a bit too cocktailsy for me.

Think Branca may have a little too much loud guitar for Tuomas btw

cool. not heard either of these but it looks like an interesting start

This is guaranteed to be Tuomas's favorite. ONE HUNDRED GUITARS.

"This would be okay if it wasn't for the pointless guitar"

ONE HUNDRED POINTLESS GUITARS

http://i.imgur.com/RgfQqum.jpg

75 TIM HECKER Love Streams (210 points, 7 votes)

haven't gotten around to this one but i approve of tim hecker in general

Oh wow, I haven't kept up with his work in a few years but I'm listening with interest.

Never heard it. I like Tim Hecker but its something I'm rarely in the mood for

Tim Hecker rather perfectly marks the point where the experimental discourse and I go separate ways

btw I don't think "cocktailsy" fairly applies to the entirety of Sketches, unless they play Cluster at your local cocktail bar

Didn't hear about this but did enjoy "Cascades" from the tracks playlist, although I see that's not on the album.

― Jeff W

I liked Cascades a lot more than anything on the album.

Not as dense and overwhelming as the last couple but definitely the prettiest record that Tim Hecker has put out for a while

This sounds like boilerplate Eno through a broken speaker. *shrug*

hecker record was p nixe

It definitely sounds like a Tim Hecker album.

I think the Van Halen tribute is still my favourite thing by him tbh.

http://i.imgur.com/GTVLUX7.jpg

74 EMMA RUTH RUNDLE Marked For Death (219 points, 7 votes)

yesssss

"Real Big Sky" was easily the most devastating song I heard all year

i still don't get the point of Tim Hecker. I've really tried with his stuff, but I just can't get my head around it. Too ambient to be noise, too noisy to be ambient. He compresses everything so much that I can barely work out what's going on. Just never works for me.

very very good record, was my #4 or so i think

I'm devastated that I totally missed the voting for this...

Guess I'll just be an observer this year :(

that's how I feel, but I actually voted ;)

didn't vote for ERR but...

"Real Big Sky" was easily the most devastating song I heard all year

that's how I feel, but I actually voted ;)

― frogbs, Monday, January 30, 2017 9:53 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You... feel like you didn't vote?

Dog latin, let me know what you think of this, if you don't know it. Otherwise, I don't always disagree with you re Hecker. I love Fennesz, who isn't worlds away, so I don't know what that's about. (I don't think it's just that Fennesz plays guitar.)

You... feel like you didn't vote?

no, but that nothing I voted for is gonna make the countdown. Except for the Underworld album which I'm sure will show its face around here!!!

I don't always disagree with you re Hecker.

I mean, it always seems pleasant.

a single house in SE London has thrown nearly 100 points at your possible number 1. probably 78'd though xp

This is neither here nor there but why does the bookmark come up as 'Album Poll Rollout' and not 'ILM's Top 77 albums of 2016'?

Like you have one artist articulating staring death in the face, and another one attempting to come to terms with the senseless death of his child - these are real, raw emotions that most of us have no real way into at this stage of our lives. It's the polar opposite of "oh Leonard Cohen's dead now, let's sling him a dutiful vote".

didn't the last two cohen albums place?

like its fun for flops to troll the deadguy vote & I support that 100% but I think it's more "leonard cohen made a dope album as usual"

yup

when Tribe announced the new album, I was ready to write it off. There were so many factors against it. Fact is, it's a brilliant and very contemporary album, and not at all what I would have expected from them at this point. Not a weak throwback or cash in of any sort, it feels like they've miraculously found a way to do something fresh and new while still maintaining their core identity.

Like I understand the 'in memoriam' aspect--and tbh I'd prob be comfortable calling Blackstar Bowie's fifth album too, so this probably applies to him too--but I'm kind of with rev here. If you're willing to concede that the ATCQ (or Bowie) is not even one of their 3 best albums but still think it's the best album of 2016 then really you're just throwing a megaton of shade on all the rest of new music that happened this year

brutal camron playing card burn

― lag∞n, Sunday, 5 February 2017 02:35 Bookmark

i know it sting but maybe take yr mind off it by reasoning how one could think of chance as updated tribe

xp to DAM: That does not follow logically. The Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders, and arguably People's… are counted among the best albums of all time across all genres. There is a gigantic amount of wiggle room between "one of the best albums ever recorded" and "one of the best albums of this specific year", particularly for a group that is consistently better than everyone around them for the vast majority of their career.

fwiw i've not been able to get 'the story' out of my head for the last few days

the equivalent tribe song has been 'enough', curiously

The best record of the year doesn't have the be that artists best record

Chorley won the Northern Premier League in 2014 but many people around the town say they couldn't hold a candle to the heroes of 1988. Still won the league though!

Well, I mean if DJP can make the math work and thinks that Tribe had reached a level where the only albums that could be used to measure are their past triumphs (or, like, TPAB) then cool

I still think saer just threw a bunch of shade on 'the league' (though maybe not a megaton)

I am not following your train of thought in that last post.

My entire point is that it is unreasonable to say that a new album by a legacy band shouldn't win a poll because they've released better albums in the past. You aren't comparing the current album to their back catalog; you're comparing it to the other albums that came out during its release year. The Tribe album is, to my ears, clearly superior to everything else I listened to, including the De La Soul album I specifically joined Kickstarter for. The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders are among the greatest albums ever recorded; it doesn't make sense to me to say "well this new one is good but it's not better than stuff they did 20 years ago so I hope it doesn't win". It doesn't have to be better than stuff 20 years ago that ATCQ did; it has to be better than stuff people are doing now is. For me, it was. It's really not complicated.

Hey imagine if this ends up being KING's fifth best album.

if they keep up the rate at which they made this album, we'll find out in 25 years

TLET and MM are amazing, amazing albums. i kinda think 'we got it from here...' is possibly on par with them. idk i think the "legacy" acts of 2016 actually did some incredible work. not just ATCQ but bowie, cohen, underworld, moodymann if his DJ Kicks mix counts (considering its tenor and the year i think it counts as a strong artistic statement)...there probably some other artists i'm not thinking of right now.

Old fellas like William Bell and Aaron Neville also released great albums last year, but not "I'll just slide this in right next to their classics" albums.

The Tribe album is just kind of solid and competent (and sure contemporary, mostly bc it sounds like the people they've influenced) and not really exciting in any other way than "Tribe is back". People are wildly overrating it.

Many people released better and more exciting albums last year.

Bowie released far more albums than Tribe, so it's more difficult, unless Stereogum were to pay me, to rank it among his classics.

Whether Blackstar and We Got It From Here are good albums is a matter of opinion. I think they are.

Most of the time, I'm just "let people like what they want to" unless an artist (or their fanbase) really makes my skin crawl, at which point I derive great pleasure in telling people they're wrong. This doesn't seem to be the case with Rev and the Tribe album. Why shit on people for loving a record you admit is good?

Many people released better and more exciting albums last year.

That's fine that you think so. I disagree.

This didn't really occur to me when voting for Tribe but getting to the stage where a big bunch of people think a band's album released 25+ years since their debut is one of their best is another positive way to look at it. Rappers in their 40s being critically acclaimed like their equivalents in other genres commonly are is important right? Damn though I can't believe Killer Mike is only 5 years younger than Tip (who's also 1 year younger than the RZA and Jay)...

Thanks to you guys I'm now going to check out Weyes Blood in SF for Noise Pop in a couple weeks.

What I'm saying:

Per DJP,

Low End Theory/Midnight Marauders >> We Got It From Here >> all other music in 2016

Now either:

Low End Theory/Midnight Marauders >>>> all other music in 91/93

or

All other muisc in 91/93 >> all other music in 2016 (guesstimating how many pointers go here)

This is what I'm getting at. From the high praise he's giving LET/MM, I'm guessing he's arguing the former (tho I wouldn't actually even disagree with the katter personally now that I think about it)...regardless, I'm ready to be done with bedeviling him about his music tastes. My bad, completely!

all you pedants you must go

Music and cultural "taste" is backed up with correct arguments and facts, not "digging".

― Banaka™ (banaka), Thursday, 16 August 2012 01:09 (four years ago) Permalink

Most of the time, I'm just "let people like what they want to" unless an artist (or their fanbase) really makes my skin crawl, at which point I derive great pleasure in telling people they're wrong. This doesn't seem to be the case with Rev and the Tribe album. Why shit on people for loving a record you admit is good?

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, February 6, 2017 4:09 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Eh, I think it my be my distrust of nostalgia doubling down on things I myself have nostalgia, which for ATCQ is v much the case. But also I chafe at the idea that a legacy act's contemporary update is praised above the younger and fresher artists pushing at the boundaries of rap, when really ATCQ are barely playing catch up. They released work before that revolutionized the genre, but does anyone think We Got It From Here... is going to do that? That's the standard I'm holding them up to because I know what they've done before. Idk, I feel like in some ways it's my own esteem for them that prevents me from accepting this album as worthy of its laurels.

if you're comparing two things, comparing one of them against a set of different things is a different type of comparison

like if Kojak was on tv now, it might be better than all the crime tv shows, but not better than all shows, because we have genres that didn't exist then, right

Don't be so condescending. I'm saying it doesn't stack up against old Tribe albums or what other people are doing currently. It's completely possible to fail on both those measures.

i know it sting but maybe take yr mind off it by reasoning how one could think of chance as updated tribe

― r|t|c, Sunday, February 5, 2017 6:49 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its true tho, i dont expect we got it from here voters to understand

I just want to thank everyone who voted for Hannah Peel. This is a great, beautiful album.

Same here, surprised it doesn't seem to have got much attention elsewhere.

idk Do people really love the old Tribe albums because they "revolutionized the genre"? There was a hip hop album coming out every week or so in the early 90s that did that. I love them because they were dope as hell and re-listenable to the point that you didn't have to spend money on any other music for a month or so after they came out. But I guess if 17 year olds aren't citing WGITFH as inspiration in two years then it must have been a failure.

hehe, there is no questioning the logic of the Drugs A Money post - I like it

didn't like the new tribe too much, but looking at that all time top 10 ilx album poll albums list I found only one or two albums I really like, so I'm p sure I'm the one at fault here ;_;

that logic assumes that the transitive property applies to the space of music preference

I have a lot of misgivings about that last post tbh and I'm not really thrilled with my train of thought throughout this discussion, so I hope the other participants p much forgive me and permit a quick exit

I find Timmy Turner to be more interesting than any Migos song I've heard, btw

mmm, that's the wrong thread, isn't it. sorry.

lol same here tho

Fear of Men album is a huge omission - seems like it would be an ILM favorite if it had more exposure

heres my ballot:

a tribe called quest - we got it from here...thank you for your service
david bowie - blackstar
radiohead - a moon shaped pool
dexy's - let the record show: dexys do irish and country soul
leon vynehall - rojus
dorisburg - irrbloss
glenn branca - Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City) for 100 Guitars
william tyler - modern country
goat - requiem
cass mccombs - mangy love
steve gunn - eyes on the lines
DIIV - is the is are
waveless - spirit island e.p.
happyness - tunnel vision on your part e.p.
dwight yoakam - guitar cadillacs etc etc
king - we are king
lambchop - flotus
factory floor - 25 25
fat white family - songs of our mothers
brian eno - the big ship
bombino - azel
v/a - the sound of durban vol. 1
kanye west - the life of pablo
africans with mainframes - kmt
Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland - Transport

I would add Junior Boys and Omar-S if I was compiling the list now

Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland - Transport

Didn't know this existed!....treehouse from a couple of years ago was great, I'll have a look out for this one

it's a good record you would like it saer

I was kind of under-thrilled by the s/t "Borderland" and need to check it out

full disclosure: I own nearly every recent MvO collaboration on vinyl

I was kind of under-thrilled by the s/t "Borderland" and need to check it out

I only really play Treehouse off it, I don't really remember the rest myself!

I was incorrect, this was the one I was unthrilled by but I'm giving it another go

that logic assumes that the transitive property applies to the space of music preference
even more logic!

wasn't suggesting the argument was "true" tho, just that there was something kinda funny, absurd about the pedantic rationality of it all - it struck a chord with me

btw if you have the opportunity to see moritz von oswald do a dj set, it's fun

this recent tribe album is their best one. duh. xp