ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

Hi Moka! We're busy praising Tirzah. Your choice of break placement worked out lol

― imago

Well in that case, rollout starts in 8 hours so you all give the album a few more spins.

Haha

https://i.imgur.com/P456zwG.jpg
#33: Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs - 340 points – 10 votes - 1 first place vote

Earl Sweatshirt

Ben Beaumont-Thomas: "Amid a rap culture of sprawling albums with cosmopolitan beats that hop between country and style, Earl Sweatshirt’s third album initially seems as modest as its title. Mostly self-produced and with few guests – two of whom are his own parents – its 15 tracks only break the two-minute mark twice. But it ends up being one of the best rap albums of the year, a smoky iceberg of great emotional depth"

Clayton Purdom: "The video-game melancholia and digital ephemera of I Don’t Like Shit showed how purposeful the blown-out sonics of the SoundCloud era can be when paired with a generational talent, but Some Rap Songs places Earl’s aesthetic within a longer timeline, reaching back to the atmospheric, bomb-shelter style of turn-of-the-millennium backpack rap, as well as the early-’90s golden age to which that nodded."

Well that told me.

I voted for OPN and Madeline Kenney. Would love to see them show up.

great lil album

I preferred his last album, but I do like this. Definitely need to spend more time with it.

if this means Pusha placed higher that's pretty sad

Didn't have enough time with the Earl album to vote for it, but liked it at first listen

On my top ten, especially for "December 24th."

Impressive amount of albums so far that are completely new to me, I have a lot of catching up to do

ahhhh, my #1, was worried for a bit. I love everything about it. I like the previous album, the standing on the corner record from 2017 is really cool and I really like all three of the MIKE releases from 2018 which all work in a similar area but this is a big leap above. laconic & lean, the way he approaches everything is so well considered and yet he's also extremely open and direct. idk, I am still listening to this a lot, it's a little jewel

https://i.imgur.com/7HRlLO0.jpg
#32: Makaya McCraven - Universal Beings - 350 points – 12 votes

Earl Sweatshirt

Thom Jurek: "Universal Beings is unique from any other jazz recording in 2018: It marries virtuoso musicianship, technological savvy, a keen editor's ear for creative inspiration, and a plethora of almighty grooves."

Nate Chinen: "The jazz drummer and producer’s hypnotic double album is culled from a year’s worth of gig tapes that he’s layered and spliced together into something wholly new and radically communal."

a smoky iceberg huh

what the

haha um I think those are the wrong blurbs?

We should get Makaya McCraven, Thundercat and Kamasi Washington to team up into a jazz-man-super-league.

xp oh wait just the link, sorry

Ah the blurbs are the right ones I added the earl sweatshirt ilm link by mistake, there's no ilm thread for Makaya.

the blurbs are right, just wrong thread link

Hey nice. I'm still wrapping my head around this one, since it's very long and I've only had one opportunity to listen in full. But it's super cool stuff and I voted for it.

sry gonna stop posting fron my phone

voted for this too. luscious airy album that covers a lot of ground, hits some sublime grooves, loads of great musicians, what's not to like?

what's a good representative part, or is this a 'play from the start and don't complain' job

enjoying Earl fwiw

[post redacted by mod]

Wow! I voted for this, my only vote based on promise and potential instead of repeated plays. A last-minute discovery from my recommendations playlist.

brilliant album from a group I previously never gave a shit about

Wow, I probably listened to as much jazz as anything else last year but I never got around to McCraven, though I meant to, esp since iirc it was unperson's aoty. Exciting.

Listening to the Hailu Mergia rn, which is super enjoyable. Wednesday Campanella didn't do that much for me, unfortunately.

I was talking about Makaya McCraven, if that wasn’t clear!

xps probably

OK I guess I need to hear this McCraven album

xps to imago- try 'The Newbies Lift Off' or 'Mantra'

Damn I skipped #31!

MODS!!

lol

tough, whatever was 31 is now officially better than the arctic monkeys forever

Moka you should wait and reveal it at the end

Not even heard of this McCraven, will give it a listen. Think I'll skip Arctic Monkeys, mind you.

lollll

xp nah - that's it wiped from the books

https://i.imgur.com/DAvJvLY.jpg
#31: Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death in Meatspaces - 356 points – 12 votes - 1 first place vote

Sean Caldwell: "Tropical Fuck Storm is less Gang Of Four than they are The Pop Group, a similar level of poetic critique and takedowns packaged and delivered with unsettling and risky discord, a veritable junkyard sculpture thoughtfully constructed from punk scraps, crusty psychedelia and a rhythmic articulation of ideas bred from the spoken word."

Nathan Stevens: "There’s a newfound focus on A Laughing Death in Meatspace. The Drones were an explicitly political band, but TFS is even sharper in their dissections of corruption and xenophobia in a melting world."

muuuuuch better than the AMs. also WAY TOO LOW

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY #1!!

I can delete the AM post if you like, so they're in order. Or just edit it to [redacted] so the rest of the posts don't become incomprehensible?

enjoyed this

Or neither, of course.

xp to self

yes emily please delete. We'll have to go back to the future with that one. I'll post it in a few mins.

I thought this was a lock for top 20 tbh

My #4 - an incredible record. Angry, witty, musically inventive and utterly feral. Righteous sundrenched guitar mania. Absolutely fucked.

boy, did I give that Arctic Monkeys a chance thanks to my colleagues' repping for it

Omg TOO LOW