ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

this wasn't *quite* consistent enough to make my ballot but def some fantastic highlights

ggd think they're best at big climaxes but are actually best at a sort of quiet, beatific focus

It depends on what I'm feeling like at the moment, they're all awesome.

I saw her live in a 150 capacity joint last year and via her keyboardist passed along some fan art our kid made for her (he's made fan art for a few musicians he likes!) and after i tagged a live photo from the venue on IG coupled with a pic of him holding the art she tracked me down and left a very sweet on the photo for him.

*a very sweet comment

wholesome!

omg omar

"wiggle" is the best song on the black dresses record so far, i'd consider it a misleading intro

black dresses *do* resonate with my personal experience. still terrible

― jolene club remix (BradNelson)

mostly by that i mean "their understanding of what it means to be genderqueer doesn't really intersect with mine". their perspective is valid, but they don't speak for me.

I listened to wiggle and while I didn’t love it, i didn’t hate it either. is the rest............. special

when you say special...

there's a "zombie" sample in "dreaming" that's p hilarious

otherwise from what i've heard so far, rest of the record is like "wiggle" with fewer tunes xp

all right, gotta turn this off

sorry lj i did this bc i feel like i make you listen to a ton of things you hate lol

Loving the queer plurality itt.

Is poll finishing Thursday as usual? Would love to see more results tonight if so

I switched to wednesday campanella, which was the other one I haven’t heard of

wth is this ? oh, japanpaws...

we're getting "5 or 6 more" apparently xp

'in my mouth' has the bangingest tune on the album imo, proper trash anthem

will listen to all these brad votes presently haha

i kinda want to hear a ggd record where they go all out on the cocteau twins x can thing and give us a bunch of 10-20 minute epics, like they've said that's what a lot of their sonfs start out as and i'd love to hear the jammier bits of their albums go on for longer

before i begin tho, let me just take this all the way back to foxing. i rly do like the album but feel it'd be so much stronger if it ended after 'heartbeats'. 7 almost perfect alt-emo bangerz and done

the closer is one of the best songs!

"bastardizer" is my favorite song on the record so i sorta disagree. however... i don't need "five cups" and i never will

it is def too long but also it's a pretty good sign no one can agree on what tracks to cut (no one say "crown candy" the subtle acoustic pixies jam toward the end)

maybe i just need to listen more to the 2nd half. it does feel like it should be 40 minutes long somehow

the placement is weird - I'd prefer it in the penultimate slot - but I like "Five Cups" a lot

Glad to see Gang Gang Dance place, really cool record, I think I prefer it to Eye Contact but it's close, happy to get another album after such a long gap either way.

i would probably like it more if it were placed sensibly true xp

i'm revisiting the ggd record and it's as completely wonderful as i remembered

I can't remember if I voted for Sparrow but that and the Eiko Ishibashi are beautiful records.

So is Kazuashita which was top five of the year for me and kind of like the best Future Sound of London album ever made.

I'm back!

https://i.imgur.com/LCMe4zP.jpg
#40: Natalie Prass - The Future & The Past - 306 points – 11 votes

A thread for Natalie Prass

Harry Harris: "You absolutely can hear the fingerprints of Prass' influences across these tracks, but as well as the Dusty Springfield and Karen Carpenter tones that colour her first record, there's bits of Dionne Warwick, Laura Nyro and Diana Ross. More than that though, you're hearing a songwriter who seems to know exactly what she wants to make, and has all the tools to do that. A glorious, glorious album."

HEYYYYY

i'm revisiting the ggd record and it's as completely wonderful as i remembered

― jolene club remix (BradNelson),

Yeah, I just threw on the Gang Gang Dance album too and I'm instantly realising it was way too low on my ballot.

TOOOOOOOO LOOOOOW

but tbh I was beginning to worry it wouldn't place at all

i ended up not voting for this record but i'm glad it got this far

kind of like the best Future Sound of London album ever made.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, February 5, 2019 11:10 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sold

Awesome start to the top 40. I love this album!

I sort of can't believe how well the Spacebomb crew pulled off this sound

natalie prass album is great and another of my votes. "ship go down" is magnificent but really that whole section from "never too late" to the end is brilliant

i don't think i'd cut anything from the foxing record, voted for it and love it a lot, one of the most ambitious albums in indie rock this year. "five cups" is a very weird song to be on there and i still don't know quite what they were trying to do but it works for me and is lovely leading into "heartbeats". though if i had to cut anything it'd probably be "trapped in dillard's" i guess

nat prass was my #10. amazed at how much i liked it considering how much i disliked her self-titled record

https://i.imgur.com/DG1me0v.jpg
#39: Snail Mail - Lush - 308 points – 9 votes - 1 first place vote

Snail Mail

Sophia Ordaz: "The crushing sameness of the existence described in Snail Mail’s music means that not every song on Lush is essential, but when Jordan hits, she hits a bullseye, with mini-indie masterpieces like “Pristine” and “Heat Wave” set to inspire another generation of songwriters."

Katie Rife: "Even under the weighty burden of heightened media attention and critical acclaim, her band Snail Mail's full-length debut, Lush, unflinchingly delivers more of the raw authenticity that made the Maryland slowcore outfit's 2016 EP, Habit, so magnetic, while boasting both a newfound maturity and musicality."

xpost
Given that I'm a sucker for soul tinged sophistipop expected to like this more. Need to relisten to it.

i don't hear anything in this record but i guess i'll give it another shot

does anyone agree with me that it is really lacking lead guitar lines or any kind of variation in its vocal melodies

"heatwave" from this was really lovely but i'm pretty sure that's because it strongly evokes some 90s indie touchstone i'm unable to place, and the rest did not interest me at all

xp yes

"heatwave" has a nice lead guitar but otherwise i agree

I listened to the Deafheaven album so much. Gets at a lot of what I want from rock music. Album countdown very good so far, esp relieving after that tracks rollout. xps

does anyone agree with me that it is really lacking lead guitar lines or any kind of variation in its vocal melodies

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, 5 February 2019 19:24 (fifty-nine seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this post is not a good sign for my liking of snail mail, ngl

I like the Snail Mail album a lot

snail mail placing above gang gang dance even on ilm is a travesty honestly

this album is kind of indie rock comfort food in a good way, but there's something more to it than just that. i didn't vote for it though.