ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

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.

This record is boring at the start and fully disintegrated by the end. Audio Alka Seltzer.

https://i.imgur.com/D9z0WAF.jpg
#38: Parquet Courts - Wide Awake - 323 points – 10 votes

Can we talk about how awesome Parquet Courts are?

Rob Hakimian: "We’re ultimately left with the feeling that Parquet Courts are fighting their way through life on Wide Awake!; battling ignorance, standing up against inequality, staving off depression – and they want you to join them in their struggle. Their vocal frustrations make perfect fodder for their post-punk blasts, and in combination they add up to some of the most invigorating music currently being created, making Wide Awake! a valuable and vital call to arms."

Vish Khanna: "
Wide Awake! is a letter-perfect musical contemplation of modern times, where social uprisings are actually affecting positive change. It's urgent and potent music that's thought-provoking and danceable, and whose rage is measured by a pointed optimism."

I support them in general but yeah I did find the album a bit snoozy overall xps

oh so here's the boring indie section of the rollout

lol

mercifully not higher

ok good gag, let's get back to the real countdown pls

perfectly fine album I have a hard time imagining getting excited over

The Snail Mail album would have made a good EP.

Wasn't sold on this Parquet Courts record (or them in general) for ages but it really grew on me, they've got a great sound.

Xxps

GGD too low for me, too. I've found them insistent in the past, tugging at my coat; this is a different kind of confidence - happy to be left quietly in the corner.
Love that it was near Ishibashi in the poll. I can sort of imagine their acoustic shadows copping off in the twilight.

I had Snail Mail down in the thirties somewhere and thought about moving it up, more familiarity might have pushed it to the top 15 on my list.

We are now entering multi-first-place-vote territory.

https://i.imgur.com/IFWgnhU.jpg
#37: Mewithoutyou - untitled - 328 points – 9 votes - 3 first place votes

https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=107911

Brad Nelson: "The Philadelphia band’s seventh album draws from fiction, the history of international warfare, and their own internal rosary of images to create a dense, literary tangle of post-hardcore."

Will Richards: "Not consolidating or scaling back their ambition in the slightest, mewithoutYou continue to be one of indie-rock’s most consistently fascinating voices, and on ‘[Untitled]’ they’re as weird and wonderful as ever."

hi

I loved "Light Up Gold" and assumed "Wide Awake!" would grow on me but it just never did. Can't fault them for trying something different.

Good album that I forgot to vote for

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

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 1:24 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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

i enjoy the slacker kinda indie sound of snail mail, and i don't usually pay much attention to lyrics, so i was kind of surprised at how much the lyrics repelled me. it's not just that it's relationship and friends drama stuff - that's the topic of half of all songs, scientifically speaking - it's something about the the subgenre of relationship stuff that it focuses on, it's very high schooly and it's just not the kind of thing i want to be thinking about for an entire album. i'm really looking forward to her next album, though

I can't shake the feeling of admiring this lot more than actually loving them but it's still nice to see a band this idiosyncratic place this high