ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2019

wasn't too keen on the Cate Le Bon song that placed in tracks but the Gorky's connection is interesting? Is it similar throughout?

https://i.imgur.com/VGz3Xz2.jpg
#75 – Better Oblivion Community Center – s/t (182 points, 6 votes)

Better Oblivion Community Center

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/better-oblivion-community-center-better-oblivion-community-center/

The Cate Le Bon did very little for me, I'm afraid (too much self-affected quirkiness?), but it's always nice to see Laurel Halo in a 77 (except when she's 'singing', of course).

how many ballots were there, out of curiosity?

never heard of this

Better Oblivion CC was the first 2019 album I liked. "Dylan Thomas" still the best tune.

The album's too nice to have made my ballot.

Oberst "side projects" continue to be more reliable than the main event.

Spotify has been insisting for months I should be into this BOCC album.

xp, on ballot numbers: you'd need to ask seanandalai

Oh, I thought I hadn't heard of this one but I had heard that Oberst was doing something new, so I guess I'd sort of semi-heard of it? Not sure how much I care about actually listening to it, though.

Simon, how could you! New Bright Eyes this year and we all can’t wait.

Never got around to giving this a proper listen, but I liked some of what I did hear.

Is that *the* Conor Oberst? I think I'll pass.

prettiest possible descendant of early scritti politti at points

Now this hadn't occurred to me! I think I dig it.

I voted for the CLB record. I really didn't think I liked her before this point. "Daylight Matters" prolly is kinda indicative, yeah.

I'm more interested in BOCC as a Phoebe Bridgers side project than a Conor Oberst side project.

Did any other DJ Kicks place in previous years? I know some are 'higher concept' than others

Didn't vote for the Laurel Halo DJ Kicks but it is a great mix. The run of "Lachowa" -> "Koraimer Bro" -> "Temptation" in the middle is fire.

Also, 2017-Stranger in the Alps, 2018-boygenius, 2019-BOCC is impressive.

better oblivion community center is... an ok record

Reward was the first Cate Le Bon album I really got into. It was on my long list.

There are a couple of nice moments on the Better Oblivion Community Center album, but it needed a lot less Conor Oberst.

Decent record, Dylan Thomas towers over the rest

Mug Museum still the best imo, but Reward comes pretty close. See also, in 2019: Deerhunter as produced by Le Bon, plus her album with Bradford Cox -- both very good!

Jibes with my experience of all Bridgers-related projects—one knockout song per record

Nice enough album I never returned to after two or three spins.

for youtube - would it be too contentious to have a "sampler" playlist - like one track per album?

https://i.imgur.com/THye0EA.jpg
#74 – Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow (183 points, 6 votes)

Sharon Van Etten

https://variety.com/2019/music/reviews/album-review-sharon-van-ettens-remind-me-tomorrow-1203111170/

not as good as are we there but still very good

Distance between the album's placement and 'Seventeen's on the tracks poll seems about right.

Sharon got the bad congleton, angel got the good congleton

Almost forgot this was happening today. Very excited that Cate Le Bon and Laurel Halo managed to sneak in, those are two if my favorites. The Halo mix deserves a lot more attention, one of the best I've heard in a long time.

Nowhere near as good as 'Are We There Yet', but still pretty good.

The rest of the album is not as stunning as "Seventeen" but solid.

I should have voted for BOCC's Little Trouble in the tracks poll, love that song. I think of it as a great Phoebe Bridgers song. The album never clicked. Nor did Remind Me Tomorrow.

I thought RMT was SVE's best record by far. The others all blurred together for me by the fourth or fifth track.

I didn't know what people were talking about when they talked about 'Congleton' but I looked him up and saw his production credits and was like 'Ah, I seeee'

it is wild to me that the guy from The Paper Chase is now one of the most sought-after producers around

I voted for 'seventeen' in tracks. I've barely listened to this album though. I probably should.

https://i.imgur.com/RfjqeiR.jpg
#73 – Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter 4: Memphis (184 points, 6 votes)

matana roberts: 'coin coin' and other things

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/matana-roberts-coin-coin-chapter-four-memphis/

I own Coin Coin 2 but haven't really dug into it yet. I oughta get on that.

Yay! My #5. The first in the series that isn't a reinvention, it just sounds like a Matana Roberts album, but the whole project is so overwhelming great. She has kinda invented her own genre at this point?

At least I pushed the Sharon van Etten into the top 77. One of my fave 4 albums last year. There is more than "Seventeen" to it, eg. "Comeback Kid".

yes the other single is good

Oh nice, my first one to place. I've yet to hear the first three instalments but this one won me over right away, even though I'm generally allergic to spoken word segments in a jazz setting. Everything on this album – compositionally, improvisationally, poetically, historically – comes together exactly as it should. As an aside, I didn't quite catch Matana Roberts's pronunciation of 'Coin Coin': is it more English or French (in which case it's the equivalent of a duck going 'quack quack')?

That Moog/Mellotron in "Comeback Kid" is fabulous.

Her Mighty Waters Run is just so powerful a song - it blew me away.

You need to hear at least #2 and #3, pom, they have the same flow. The first one is a bit more conventionally jazz-like, but things like this is just as stunning to me.

I don't like the spoken word poetry workshop stuff so much either Pom, but Matana is no run of the mill plodder!

I definitely will check out her other material!

As a side note, if two more of mine place, it'll be a small miracle.

Still have this lined up to fully appreciate it some time soon.

At least I pushed the Sharon van Etten into the top 77. One of my fave 4 albums last year. There is more than "Seventeen" to it, eg. "Comeback Kid".

― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Monday, February 3, 2020 10:40 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

'you shadow' is a nice little song too

I'm a little underinformed about MR myself and have barely skimmed the earlier instalments. I was definitely moved to listen by her frequent appearances on lists around December and was immediately all "oh, this *is* quite interesting, innit." Interesting enough to award some points, it turned out.

The beginning of this rollout is a gigantic question mark to me.

give him a break, it’s a hard word to spell

it's not "the ASDA"

...and yet so remarkably easy to copy and paste

idk i struggled with it

that’s a phithi

Big Phith?

Re: Dawn Richard, Blackheart is sounding pretty good so far.

fixed in that list, thanks for the edit note... and for the pronunciation!
Iss-peety-peety, yeah?

thanx!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOKoDZZvuH8

check the chorus, from 1:00-1:20

My takeaway from the Jenny Hval album is that I would maybe enjoy a Jenny Hval instrumental album

Full version of BASQUIAT massively superior to the edit that made the tracks poll

Is there any poll that you could vote for that in, imago?

Jamila Woods?

Not is v much the only EOY representation Two Hands required. Talk about an album with a highlight

"shoulders," "the toy" > "not"

Lol fine.

I liked the Woods album! Good #1 choice

it's not "the ASDA"

― dogs,

who let the dogs in?

Not is maybe my fourth, fifth favourite song on Two Hands

I mean, it's good and that, but I get the impression it stands out because it's their most hard-rockingest song since the Capacity album after the relatively sedate UFOF record. guitar solo is cool but I've heard guitar solos before and will again

The dog let himself in apparently

that's a pretty accurate ranking. though i wouldn't call it a song. it's more like two separate parts which are in themselves no songs and together neither. it's not called not for nothing.

Maybe I expected (and wanted) a whole album like that

i think not is a far-and-away highlight, but mainly because of live versions, which are almost unbearably intense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKmD6-piK2A

ah there's me thinking Not was a song. things are so very confusing these days

Fooled by that old verse-chorus structure

Full version of BASQUIAT massively superior to the edit that made the tracks poll

pretty sure there wasn’t, the YouTube link in the rollout linked to the full length video.

full-length *track

lol

maybe I just liked it way more this time and never noticed it was 7 minutes long

oops

I've had the albums list playing on shuffle a lot since the rollout ended, and it's pretty much non-stop good vibes. It makes a strangely consistent listening experience despite the variety of the list itself. The only things I can't completely go with are the couple of country records, and that's very much my own personal biases at play.

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God, Ancestral Recall is so fucking beautiful. The end.