ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2018

my hot take is this band is not good

woo! 1975 isn't going to win the poll! musgraves full speed ahead

loool, thanks for cutting off the blurb there

xxp I apologise for not voting for Simmy. Didn't think she needed my support. Looks like I was wrong.

true relief owl city didnt win

Sounds more like "We Didn't Start the Fire".
/

― Tuomas, Thursday, February 7, 2019 12:19 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm sure it does, i wasn't making the obvious comparison, also it's not a historical narrative

(also a good idea to listen to it now and wait till that 1975 storm in a teacup blows over)

eight songs in, officially obsessed with "el mal querer"

I've tried with every album they released but I don't think I've managed to listen to a 1975 album in its entirety.

good album with some real snoozers

Previous 1975 album much better and also more adventurous, this one felt like some sort of weird fan service

I'm now rooting for a female artist whose name begins with M, that's for sure

Monáe?

1975 storm in a teacup blows over)

― breastcrawl, Thursday, February 7, 2019 1:24 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

band is so boring i can't imagine feeling particularly strong about anything related to them

I don't hate this at all! But the love mystifies me a little. I guess the drumming and general musicianship are rly good even if the songwriting is a little by the book

― imago, Thursday, February 7, 2019

If general musicianship was the criteria, there'd be a lot more lite jazz on the list [insert OPN joke here]
Really psyched that the Beths cracked the top 10 btw.

monae?

you know what, i have come around on "Love It If We Made It"
don't care for the rest of the album tho

monae, musgraves, mitski, montana, hannah

Mobyn?

xp's I almost started a thread a while back about tracks named "Teachers" (Daft Punk, Soulwax, Mumdance) but we could totally roll it into a list of songs that namecheck a list of bands

feel like Scooter pioneered this when they wrote "Hyper Hyper"

Kind of glad this isn't #1, and I voted for a couple tracks from it.

Mimi Parker?

yes please.

Well here's one:

Since it's obvious Meg Bowles, Nao, Nadah el Shazly, Sarah Davachi, or Kuniko Kato aren't gonna place so high, I'm rooting for JM to win too.

https://i.imgur.com/dYMnp1O.jpg
#6: Mitski - Be the Cowboy - 747 points – 23 votes - 1 first place vote

Mitski

Sean Hannah: "Be the Cowboy is about capriciousness, denying the contrivances of beauty in some ways while bending to its standards in others. She’s walking the divide between love and heartache, between dejection and fury. But Miyawaki has the talent to straddle that line with poise and aplomb; she’s the geyser and also the slow dancer."

Laura Snapes: "It is hard to sing at a remove and maintain emotional directness – Mitski is famously private – but like St Vincent or even David Lynch, she specialises in the bait-and-switch of delight and obfuscation."

TOO LOW

Steady Mobyn

monae getting this high is... fine

is it a good time to admit that i haaaaate the lyrics on that record

Happy to see the Beths and Autechre, NTS was my #1 vote, just an amazing piece of art.

xp's I almost started a thread a while back about tracks named "Teachers" (Daft Punk, Soulwax, Mumdance) but we could totally roll it into a list of songs that namecheck a list of bands

feel like Scooter pioneered this when they wrote "Hyper Hyper"

― frogbs, Thursday, February 7, 2019 9:28 PM

Scooter "Hyper Hyper" poll

I'm pretty sure we had a similar poll on Daft Punk's "Teachers" too. :)

wait'll you see the point delineation between #5 and #6
and then every one of the remaining albums!

I'm cool with giving this a Too Low, but then it was only #4 on my list so I guess I shouldn't complain.

is it a good time to admit that i haaaaate the lyrics on that record

on dirty computer? yeah, they were extremely corny imo

monae getting this high is... fine

lol I made my piece with this inevitability long ago

My #5, could easily have been higher. Incredible song after incredible song. She really is raising the bar for modern pop songwriting imo - this is her best yet and there appears to be no limit to her capacity to wring surprise, drama and ageless melody from the basic tools of indie and pop. Shout-out to her genius producer Patrick Hyland as well, who also recorded the only album in my top 5 that won't place (Trust Fund)

Is the album cover meant to look like it says "Be the Mitski Cowboy"? It's really irritating me.

(Not the Moka image, those are all excellent, the album itself)

can't remember the song that got me into mitski a few years back, was playing on the college radio station hm okay found it: "townie"

i love that song -- is this record anything like that ?

on dirty computer? yeah, they were extremely corny imo

― josh az (2011nostalgia), Thursday, February 7, 2019 12:31 PM (fifty-four seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

we'll put water in your guns / we'll do it all for fun

so corny, scans weird, second line is filler, just... agh. i don't even care about lyrics on pop records usually but dirty computer's are p awkward throughout

This placing lower than Puberty 2 did is fair and just.

monae's lyrics are bad in general

I've been out with a terrible cold since Monday so I've missed most of this but this seems like a very good time for me to appear and say too low

emil.y, you're not alone in feeling mildly perturbed by that particular style of sign text placement!

Another M coming up

i don't even care about lyrics on pop records usually but dirty computer's are p awkward throughout

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Thursday, February 7, 2019 1:35 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for me the problem isn't filler lyrics (all lyrics should be filler imo), it's when, idk yeah i guess when things are corny or out of place and you just think "why on earth would you try to stuff that idea or that commentary into this song in this way, i'm trying to groove here !!"

townie rules
my fav mitski tune

https://i.imgur.com/cQjgCJx.jpg
#5: Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer - 748 points – 25 votes - 1 first place vote

Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer album/film

Andrew Trendell: "Throwing in rap, soul, pop, R&B, space-rock and whatever the hell she wants with her fearless message, Janelle Monáe doesn’t believe in walls or limits: this is a fluid celebration of freedom, raging and raving against the oppressors. In fact, only one label sticks – icon."

Charis McGowan: "'Dirty Computer' captures the plight of today's outsiders who are fighting back, forming the world to be. Monáe is 10 steps ahead, past the Trump era, embracing the robot-utopia that gives hope to an unprejudiced and equal world. She´s already there - now the rest of us have to catch up."

django jane is particularly wtf

dang you got this in before i could make a post Malone joke

xp at frogbs

oh man, modeselektor did their own version of "hyper hyper" too lol

dang you got this in before i could make a post Malone joke

― budo jeru

that's actually the next M coming up.