ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

Decent album, predictably diminishing returns.

can't get past the corny melodies but ach if it's a gateway drug i'll take it

Was disappointed in the Deafheaven after their last album and single but perhaps didn't give it enough of a fair chance.

the corny melodies are the reason i like it! i hope they get cornier!

I adored the Domenique Dumont first album. This one I haven't really given enough of a chance but on a surface skim sounds a little more grounded? Maybe a little less unique and more tying into other music that exists along side it?

Anyway, if anything it led to me making a mix and starting a night based on 16bit beachside vibes https://soundcloud.com/clubstoic/club-stoic

I think I’ve been mixing up Deafheaven and Wolves in the Throne Room this whole time and I only remember again when listening.

lol

I couldn't even be bothered to hate-listen to this one

So happy The Armed got in - my number ten! Their music sounds like a DIY punk comic festival

Loving the Wye Oak! They always have such nice balance of textures, blending organic rock and electronic instruments more fluidly than most - piano and synth interplay on It Was Not Natural is a good example.

Feels like a band that's outlived its moment among critics. Looked again and only found it at the bottom of Mojo's list.

wait, is Domenique Dumont a band then?

Deafheaven reached peak melodic corniness with that one (admittedly great) song with the chord progression that sounded like 'Lavender' by Marillion.

the armed record is good but like... i sure do know why i didn't vote for it

https://i.imgur.com/zG8Rttz.jpg
#52: Noname - Room 25 - 257 points – 11 votes

Briana Younger: "The Chicago rapper’s second album is a transcendent coming-of-age tale built around cosmic jazz and neo-soul, delivered by a woman deeply invested in her interiority and that of the world around her."

Ural Garrett: "Noname overwhelmingly succeeds in telling her coming-of-age story where she removes all emotional layers to explore everything from comical socio-political ideology to sexuality minus self-serving preachiness."

the armed record is good but like... i sure do know why i didn't vote for it

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 9:41 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is indeed way better than the deafheaven though

wait, is Domenique Dumont a band then?

― frame casual (dog latin)

Apparently they're a duo... with a third unnamed collaborator?

mysterious tropical chillwave group Domenique Dumont — now revealed to be Latvian duo Arturs Liepins + Anete Stuce, with the help of “an enigmatic French artist whose existence cannot be confirmed nor denied

I regretted not voting for this so I'm v glad it placed!

Perhaps it's deliberate on their part, but 'Domenique' is faux-French.

Didn't have room for Noname but I think I can safely say it'll be the best 'name your price' album in the countdown.

voted for Noname, but if i see another fucking review mention the "my pussy wrote a thesis on colonialism" line, im gonna flip the shit

Pretty OT, but I'm listening to the albums list and just realized Andrew W.K. is basically a 'roided out Neil Diamond.

there are lots and lots of good lines on the album

xp to me

i didn't like this noname as much as the last one but it's good

The Noname album is another good record I need to spend more time with.

telefone is better, but it's better than most things

https://i.imgur.com/MiKTyxW.jpg
#51: Boygenius - Boygenius EP - 260 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote

Natalia Barr: "Within such a short span of time, boygenius manages to cover universal experiences of insecurity and perpetual, sometimes funny sadness, along with more individual situations like the instability of touring, all with the same specificity, cleverness, and dreamlike melodies that could not have come from anyone else, nor could it have come from these musicians individually."

Tony Inglis: "The EP from the supergroup made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus widens the horizons of each artist while simultaneously nailing down what makes each one of them unique."

I kept trying to get into the Noname album, but it just felt kinda slight and sketch-like.

good album but not as essential as either phoebe bridgers or julien baker's solo stuff imo

disagree, it's absolutely on par

significantly better than the second JB album! I saved my vote for "Bite the Hand"

also, best live show I saw last year

voted for Noname, but if i see another fucking review mention the "my pussy wrote a thesis on colonialism" line, im gonna flip the shit

― simmy simmy ya, simmy yam simmy yay (voodoo chili), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 1

boygenius ep maybe slightly less good than the lucy dacus record that came out this year but overall an embarrassment of riches for an ep

Never listened to Boygenius because of that dumb Pitchfork headline.

i haven't heard the dacus record i should def check it out

Dacus record is great and I feel bad that I didn't vote for it

Great EP.

boygenius discussion here:
Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle, my god

(Paul Ponzi's post still makes me laugh, sorry.)

oh yeah this is already def my thing 30 seconds into the first track why didn't i listen to this before / vote for this?

this is already feeling like getting to the bridgers album a year late

congrats mordy, historian is amazing

i didn't vote for it either but like... my top 25 is stacked imo, it was hard

i listened to "night shift" the other day and was just extremely knocked out over what a great piece of songwriting it is

https://i.imgur.com/8B6pmLe.jpg
#50: Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood - 260 points – 10 votes - 1 first place vote

Nina Posner: ""What works reliably is to know the raw silk, hold the uncut wood," says Ursula Le Guin in her translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. Inspired by this sentiment, as well as Halo's time scoring a film for the Dutch art collective Metahaven, the more abstract aspects of Raw Silk Uncut Wood allow her to establish moods that are at once non-prescriptive and immediately visceral."

Jordan Bassett: "There’s no vocal on the record: having defined her trademark sound on ‘Dust’, Halo has set out to confound one more – perhaps indicating that her music’s as playful as her persona after all."

great record

Really surprised to see Noname this low. Such a great album. My third vote to place.

Haven't checked out the Domenique Dumont album yet. Le Soleil Dans Le Monde was one of the standouts on the Spotify playlist. Agree with the people about how great the EP was from a couple of years ago.

I couldn't really get into Boygenius as much as I wanted to. That goes for the solo work of Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers too (beyond a couple of tracks). I really came round to the Lucy Dacus album in December. Wonder if she has a chance of making it? I thought Night Shift would be on the tracks list for sure.

voted for Noname, but if i see another fucking review mention the "my pussy wrote a thesis on colonialism" line, im gonna flip the shit

― simmy simmy ya, simmy yam simmy yay (voodoo chili), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 11:47 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yes seeing this line quoted again and again like it was genius may have turned me on the album, which I wanted to like after Telefone

I can't imagine Dacus outranking the Boygenius EP :(

Lots of albums today I vaguely remember being released that I didn't hear much about and consequently slept on.

I can't imagine Dacus outranking the Boygenius EP :(

― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 10:06 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can, if only bc it appeared on 100000 year-end lists

Didn't vote for Noname in the end - it felt very slight and I didn't revisit enough. It's probably me.

The Boygenius record is fantastic; the first of mine to place.

Would I like Lucy Dacus if I like Pheobe Bridgers and one of the songs off the Boygenius ep that I heard in my dads car on 6music that one time?

Phoebe Bridgers solo album is in hindsight my favorite album of 2017. Instead I got a 2018 listening to that for the first time AND the Boygenius work.

Boygenius EP very much feels like an EP, it lacks heft and mass, but it's great, sometimes amazing. They fit together but obviously work very differently with sounds and lyrics, Bridgers blunt specificity, Baker's epic gloom, it's a potent mix and I think they can do even greater things together later on.