ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

*forges axe, hammers distortion pedal*

orange in the grass, roll away!
mother mckenzie in the nightshade!
joshua resurrected hemingway!
(hemingway hemingway)

this gang gang dance record is GREAT. how did i miss this?

Ventriloquism is a great album and I really don't know what Tuomas is talking about re: "less singular singers" unless he thinks "singular" is synonymous with "rangy"

― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 4:29 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think he was specifically saying "less singular than Nina Simone," which makes a little more sense. But still--Prince, Janet, Sade, Tina, even George Clinton, they're all pretty singular.

Enjoying the Noname I think

best result from youtubing eiko ishibashi was finding an unreleased mark e. smith interview.

this might be too much but the gang gang dance has always made me think of aerial in its laterally expanding curvature

Each GGD dance album just feels like a ride and while this one is gentler than the others, the view from up there is amazing.

I liked the last 2 GGD albums a lot more than this one :/

for Colonel Poo: https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3311

there are some other articles/guides but this is decent

of course you will find perspectives from all sides that say that things are not, in fact, industrial, ebm, or techno but there is a kind of genre grey area where a bunch of junk currently lives

I'm thinking of stuff like Final Cut

The three things so far that were on my (unranked) ballot: Tirzah, Noname and Everything's Fine

Some things I definitely need to listen to some more: Eiko Ishibashi, Dominique Dumont, Hailu Mergia, Saba, Kadhja Bonet, Neneh Cherry, Kamisi Washington

I liked the last 2 GGD albums a lot more than this one :/

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, February 5, 2019 3:57 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same. I tried, but it just felt too gauzy and meandering. Nothing like the immediacy of "First Communion" or "MindKilla."

"J-Tree" is pretty immediate i thought. it's a very natural continuation from Eye Contact, just more chilled out

Great poll so far and it's kind of refreshing to see hard rock and metal back on the menu. I'm excited to check out the albums by Sleep and Yob. The Armed are fun and I can see the appeal but maybe a bit exhausting

I really enjoyed the Parquet Courts album and would have placed it high. on my ballot. I'd completely lost interest in them circa Sunbathing Animal but this album is a hoot - a big grab bag of influences; a nice twist on their usual sound.

This Black Dresses album is so horrible. I don't know if it's ugly pretty or just ugly but the production is frankly unacceptable. Turning everything up so everything peaks way too much isn't really a sound design aesthetic I can parse.

All told, there's loads here I've either never heard of or haven't checked out properly yet.

Ventriloquism is a great album and I really don't know what Tuomas is talking about re: "less singular singers" unless he thinks "singular" is synonymous with "rangy"

― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Tuesday, February 5, 2019 4:29 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think he was specifically saying "less singular than Nina Simone," which makes a little more sense. But still--Prince, Janet, Sade, Tina, even George Clinton, they're all pretty singular.

The Nina Simone debut album was a bit of a disappointment too, I liked the arrangements and production, but the truth is that as a singer Ndgeocello simply doesn't have the range and versatility needed to cover those tunes. (There was a good reason why she didn't sing herself on her jazz album, but instead had guest singers better fitted for the genre.) A good case in point is "Four Women": in the original version, Simone alters her voice to fit the role of each of the four women in the song, and the final "PEACHES" that closes the tune is absolutely dripping of both sarcasm and barely suppressed rage. But Ndegeocello sings the whole song with her trademark monotone voice, there's no variation between the different women's lyrics, which makes the whole tune half as effective and expressive as the Simone version.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 16:21

xxp J-TREE was one of the tracks I liked yeah

i am happy that already two albums from my unranked ballot placed. first the phantastic breeders comeback which beams me back 25 years with the same kind of brash energy and infectious drive as "the last splash". then meshell ndegecello's beautiful cover album which made me discover a couple of great songs i didn't know before. i love her voice which often sounds as if it was behind a curtain, warm but at the same time far away. occasionally it reminds me of sade. it also has a dreamlike quality. and the instruments and production of ventriloquism are great, no frills but there is a lot of love to the
detail which can be heard and felt.

imago, lets talk after. curious to see what you think of the show. I left with a such a smile on my face. after going to hardcore shows for a decade+, seeing them flipped it all on its head. they are a blast. the show was also like 5 bucks and half capacity. it was very awesome

Glad to see GGD place - one of my votes.

Today is as good a day as any to finally give "The Dream My Bones Dream" a whirl - hoping to it now.

(Also voted for Mariah. Need to get caught up on Kamasi.)

Dj Healer isn't going to make it is? ;_;

Ought aren't gonna make this either it seems

Yeah.. We both should've voted for that to happen tbf

(you put me on Ought, still on high rotation here, what an album)

*sigh* you didn't vote either LBI? I think it was my AOTY for a little while in 2018

wanted to but couldn't find the time, sadly.

I didn't vote, but the Meshell Ndegeocello record is one of my favs, and reading Brad's great review just makes me appreciate it more.

I would've voted for Ought had I voted.

the Black Dresses album is the only thing this year that I felt like I 100% needed. it hits me in the same place that Xiu Xiu's Knife Play did when it came out. the entire thing is a a big mass/mess of exposed nerves and I get why it might have limited appeal.

Will Sandro Perri, Mr. Twin Sister and Mary Lattimore not place? I thought those got lots of love in their threads, but maybe not enough love to get as high as the list is now

No yes no

Perri could make it actually

i meant to vote for Sandro Perri but couldn't decide whether to vote for In Another Life the track or the album and ended up forgetting to vote for him at all

I'll be shocked if Mr Twin Sister aren't in the top 10. Possibly even top 5. The last album made number 14 in the 2014 list and I think this album has been even more popular on here.

hm idk about that

This is the stage where I give up hope of some albums sneaking in that I thought had a slim chance of making it. Rae Morris and Melody's Echo Chamber don't seem likely at this point. Still hoping Tracey Thorn will make it. Maybe people just voted for the single instead?

I expect Thorn to make it

I haven't followed any Sandro Perri threads, but the album feels like a 24-minute single + 3 b-sides.

I think this album has been even more popular on here.

Part of this is due to people coming around to the last Mr Twin Sister album late, as it was reveled in the 2014 poll. It will place high here (not sure how high) partly because it was so anticipated and partly because it's pretty good (not as good as the s/t, but it will be buoyed out of respect).

I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought the S/T was the stronger album. I do like Salt, it just hasn't hit me in the same way and I liked the two songs on the double A-side more than most of the songs that made the album.

those are on the album it’s canon

salt is better than the s/t which really falls off in the last three tracks (they're not bad just nowhere on the level of the rest of the album)

i do wish they'd put power of two/echo arms on salt though; if you slot them between alien fm and koh-i-noor it balances out the album really well and elevates it further

Can't see Rae Morris placing now but would be very surprised if Tracey Thorn didn't

xps

tracey thorn has a broad coalition - would expect to see her in the teens

catching up:

reality tv stars can be Kardashian-esque near-billionaires or the President of the United States ... but a pop star ... no way!

whiney, did you honest expect Cardi's album to be as good as it is?

--

Biographical storytelling aside, they could use a new singer.

I'm not saying my assessment of Scheidt's vocals is fair but for some reason they register as distinctly insincere to my ears.

O_O

--

rollout very much up my alley so far, The Armed and The Breeders rule so haaaaaaaaard

will listen to that Breeders shortly

was just listening again to the Ishibashi (whose second track is amazing) and during the third track I suddenly lost where I was and thought I was listening to Field Music haha

Btw thanks for the playlist forks!

Only catching up to the rollout now. Black Dresses was my no 2, love that album. Other than that