ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2016

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'?

Wow, you guys weren't kidding about the Branca album! If ever I was imprisoned in one of those CIA black sites, they'd only need to play this once to make me rat every one of my comrades.

Because I had to give a different title to start the thread. Anything with ILM or 77 in the title seems to be prohibited or blocked now?

dog latin, there are some (comparatively) sparser pieces on this Tim Hecker album, not quite so much information assaulting yr eardrums. some really beautiful textures, it's kind of like an electronic mbv album with the rock element removed

xp haha, sund4r hits the nail on the head with his fennesz comparison

xp, how strange!

love streams is the best album that I heard live this year while I was in line waiting for a beer

kidding, I enjoy Tim Hecker's albums and one of my favorite live performances was one of his shows, but I haven't listened to the most recent album nearly as much as some others. love streams differs with the ways instruments are used and kind of drift out of the fog/fuzz, maybe more accessible? idk

"love streams is the best album that I heard live this year while I was in line waiting for a beer"

If I had a nickel

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

I voted for this record as more of a singular piece, but damned if this song isn't really standing out to me this morning.

'Medusa' is great as well.

yeah "Real Big Sky" is crushing

wow at Real Big Sky, will have to listen to the rest

what kind of thing is that Rundle album?

Wide-open and spacious singer/songwriter stuff with crunchy parts

somewhat gothy downbeat singer-songwriter stuff, RIYL Marissa Nadler, Chelsea Wolfe, Anna von Hausswolff etc

voted for tim hecker - not his best but its up there

perfect soundtrack for walking to the gym in sub-zero weather during the twilight of the obama years

http://i.imgur.com/2cTrqDu.jpg

73 MAREN MORRIS Hero (221 points, 7 votes)

TOO HIGH

way too low

the little album that could in terms of it climbing up my year-end list basically every time i listened to it

a remarkable, fully-formed pop country debut imo

Maren Morris <3 Never thought I'd love a country artist singing "me and Diddy dripping diamonds like Marilyn" so much, as on "Rich"

Opening run of six is unimpeachable, love the weariness of having to hear her bff complain yet again on "Drunk Girls Don't Cry" especially

I'd loved her singles and EP before the album but as a debut statement it really put me in mind of a young Taylor Swift, except worldlier and more prone to sarcasm

Emma Ruth Rundle sounds intriguing

re: maren morris, "once" is the most crushing song i listened to on repeat last year probably

Sund4r - I'm at work at the moment so probably not the best time to listen to this (I managed about 2 mins). I guess the point is it's supposed to be jarring but my main thing with him (and similarly Oneohtrix Point Never) is that with 'arty' music like this I feel like I need some sort of context to understand what is being projected conceptually, and with a lot of their music I feel I'm missing the point a lot of the time. Did like Oneohtrix's last album cos he was clearly going back to the aggressive boys-bedroom music of his youth, and that's something I can get behind.

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