ILM Albums Poll 2019: Thread of Stats and Ballots

My weighted ballot:

American Football - American Football
Clairo - Immunity
pronoun - i'll show you stronger
Charli XCX - Charli
Kehlani - While We Wait
Dawn Richard - new breed
Great Grandpa - Four of Arrows
Doja Cat - Hot Pink
Mannequin Pussy - Patience
Origami Angel - Somewhere City
Octo Octa - Resonant Body
Charly Bliss - Young Enough
Akasha System - Echo Earth
SACRED PAWS - Run Around the Sun
Martha - Loves Keep Kicking
Meitei - Komachi
Mikron - Severence
Kornél Kovács - Stockholm Marathon
Robag Wruhme - Venq Tolep
H. Takahashi - Sonne und Wasser

I'm checking and rechecking things like:
- Topdown Dialectic (great!)
- These New Puritans (haven't engaged since Hidden)
- CFCF (very much my kind of thing)
- Koffee (lovely)
- Erika de Casier (would have been on my ballot if I'd listened sooner)

So thanks to the pollrunners and contributors!

xp the Nkisi album is very good

lmao the very last-placing album in the whole poll (alphabetically on 2 points) is called It Wasn't Even Close

Mixed ballot, bold placed.

Sampa The Great - The Return
Thee Oh Sees - Face Stabber
Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love
Roses Gabor - Fantasy & Facts
FKA Twigs - Magdalene
Holly Herndon - Proto
Tourist - Wild
Little Simz - Grey Area
Galcher Lustwerk - Information
Moodymann - Sinner: KDJ-48
Vanishing Twin - The Age of Immunology
Dominik Eulberg - Mannigfaltig
Floating Points - Crush
Varg - Evanescence (a Love Letter)
Silk Road Assassin - State of Ruin

Teebs - Anicca
Barker - Utility
Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin¿
Special Request - Offworld
The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
Mikron - Severence
Billy Woods & Kenny Segal - Hiding Places
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana
Amyl and The Sniffers - Amyl and the Sniffers
Ziúr - ATØ

Completely forgot about the Floating Points album, slightly surprised it didn't make the lower reaches

Bdnp

1. Anna Webber - Clockwise
2. Liturgy - H.A.Q.Q.
3. Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride
4. Efdemin - New Atlantis
5. Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter 4: Memphis
6. People Like Us - The Mirror
7. Samthing Soweto - Isphithiphithi
8. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah - Ancestral Recall
9. James Blake - Assume Form
10. Big Thief - U.F.O.F.
11. Sunn O))) - Life Metal
12. Sir Babygirl - Crush On Me
13. Deathspell Omega - The Furnaces of Palingenesia
14. Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
15. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
16. Kogekunst - LaLa
17. Fly Pan Am - C'est Ca
18. 100 Gecs - 1000 Gecs
19. slowthai - Nothing Great About Britain
20. White Ward - Love Exchange Failure
21. Davido - A Good Time
22. Holly Herndon - Proto
23. Rajna Swaminathan - Of Agency and Abstraction
24. Richard Dawson - 2020
25. Lambchop - This (is what I wanted to tell you)

My #1 was a lonely vote. Also gutted to learn nobody else voted for Efdemin :(

Weighted:

Big Thief - U.F.O.F.
Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride
Plaid - Polymer
Big Thief - Two Hands
Richard Dawson - 2020
Eyvind Kang - Chirality
Chemical Brothers - No Geography
Girl Band - The Talkies
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
Beyoncé - Homecoming
Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
Fontaines DC - Dogrel
Hama - Houmeissa
Kelsey Lu - Blood
Nihiloxica - Biiri
SAULT - 5
These New Puritans - inside the rose
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
Koffee - Rapture
Rico Nasty & Kenny Beats - Anger Management
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
Equiknoxx - Eternal Children
Follakazoid - I
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah - Ancestral Recall
Blick Bassy - 1958

Didn't really listen to many full albums this year, so some of these I only gave cursory listens to I'll admit

Unweighted, bold did not place:

Andavald – Undir skyggðarhaldi
Andvaka – Andvana
Arild Andersen, Clive Bell & Mark Wastell – Tales of Hackney
Big Brave – A Gaze Among Them
Billy Woods & Kenny Segal – Hiding Places
Danish String Quartet – Prism II: Bach, Beethoven, Schnittke
Danny Brown – uknowhatimsayin¿
Dmitri Kourliandski – Non–lieux
Edmund Finnis – The Air, Turning (M. Simpson, E.–Fl. Thom, B. Beilmn, V. Ólafsson, BMCG, R. Baker, Britten Sinfonia, A. Gourlay, London Contemporary Orchestra, R. Ames, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, I. Volkov)
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Kalle Randalu & Kaspars Putniņš – Liszt, Pärt
Gabriel Fauré – Nocturnes (Eric Le Sage)
György Kurtág – Scenes (Viktoriia Vitrenko, David Grimal, Luigi Gaggero, Niek de Groot)
Horațiu Rădulescu – The Complete Cello Works (Laurence Marie Tunnell & Ian Pace)
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes – Cypress Grove
Lingua Ignota – Caligula
Maja S. K. Ratkje – Sult
Ryan Carter – Chamber Works (Fr. Dillon, E. Torquati, K. Kirchoff, Calder Quartet, JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire)
Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis
Michael Tanner with Alison Cotton and Lino Capra Vaccina – The Blackening
Misþyrming – Algleymi
Robert Rich – Tactile Ground
Tamara Stefanovich – Influences
Tomb Mold – Planetary Clairvoyance
Toshio Hosokawa – gardens (Mario Caroli, Ukho Ensemble Kiyv, Luigi Gaggero)
Tristan Murail – Portulan (Ensemble Cairn, Guillaume Bourgogne)

Too late to nominate, would've voted for them otherwise:

juneunit – juneunit
Stefan Fraunberger – Quellgeister#3 – Bussd
Þóranna Björnsdóttir & Federico Placidi – Lucid

I oddly forgot to mention the Fraunberger when we talked about organ drones during the rollout. It's a magnificent record that Kali Malone fans would very likely enjoy.

And please remember to vote in the METAL & HEAVY MUSIC poll:

2019 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock Poll: VOTING & CAMPAIGNING thread (open until the 21st of February)

You nominated Zachary Paul iirc, and a belated thank you for that is in place. Even though you didn't vote for it!

xp

My pleasure! I was so bulimic last year, listening-wise, that a ballot with 100 records on it would've been useful for once.

I didn't keep my ballot but it was very close to my real Top 25 of the year, so almost certainly was as below. LDR was my real #13 of 2019 but I assumed it would do fine w/o me so left it off my ballot. Never guessed Weyes Blood would outstrip it by as much as it did or I'd have omitted that as well.

Weighted, bold DNP

The Japanese House - Good At Falling
Dawn Richard - new breed
Pulselovers - Cotswold Stone
Le SuperHomard - Meadow Lane Park
Gabe Knox - ABC
Article 54 - The Hustle
Dempagumi.inc - Wareware wa Dempagumi.inc da
Matmos - Plastic Anniversary
Phono Ghosts - Warm Pad, Sharp Stab
Ariana Grande - Thank U, Next
Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
Szczepan Buczkowski - Smile Eyes and the Children Folk
Vic Mars - Inner Roads and Outer Paths
Little Simz - GREY Area
Various Artists - Scarred For Life: The Album
Shura - forevher
Listening Center - Retrieving
The Home Current - The Splendour of Change
Julia Michaels - Inner Monologue, Part 1
Terror Jr. - Unfortunately, Terror Jr.
Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Holly Herndon - PROTO (4AD)
Spellling - Mazy Fly
Anna Wise - As If It Were Forever
Vanishing Twin - The Age of Immunology

I hear thee. Listening to Fraunberger right now, it's good! I'm ready to be scammed ;)

xp

lol!

It's my fault that Vanishing Twin didn't make the 77...

Interesting that a full 10 people *did* vote for it, but frequently at relatively low rankings, it seems. The unranked-ness of my own ballot conceals the fact that I wanted to like a little more than I actually did!

Yes, the Vanishing Twin record was a bit weaker than their previous ones. However, they played one of the gigs of the year in 2019 and are a GOOD THING in general so I put them at the bottom of my ballot.

P.S. correction to my ballot above: swap the positions of Anna Wise and Holly Herndon

My weighted ballot, bold did not place

Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated
Ariana Grande - thank u, next
Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race (#234)
Waste Of Space Orchestra - Syntheosis (#96)
Bill Callahan - Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest (#102)
CFCF - Night Bus 4: Memory of Night Bus (#201)
Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
Taylor Swift - Lover
Hatchie - Keepsake
Tropical Fuck Storm - Braindrops (#82)
CFCF - Liquid Colors
Clairo - Immunity
Galcher Lustwerk - Information (#86)
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Prince - Originals (#171)
Amyl and The Sniffers - Amyl and the Sniffers (#498)

mixed ballot, bold did not place

Filmmaker - Somber Realm
100 Gecs - 1000 Gecs
Jenny Lewis - On The Line
Andy Stott - It Should Be Us
SAULT - 5
SAULT - 7
Kim Gordon - No Home Record
Marika Hackman - Any Human Friend
Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Anna Meredith - FIBS
Boy Harsher - Careful
French Vanilla - How Am I Not Myself?
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
The Juan Maclean - The Brighter the Light
Underworld - Drift Series 1
I Hate Models - L'âge Des Métamorphoses
Paula Temple - Edge Of Everything
Black Dresses - Love And Affection For Stupid Little Bitches
Rapsody - Eve
Default Genders — main pop girl 2019
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
Stephen Malkmus - Groove Denied
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
Pharmakon - Devour
Autechre - Warp Tapes 89-93

Gonna have to check out this Default Genders thing

Somehow, I'm going to get you guys to listen to Filmmaker eventually

Oh I think I checked in! It was sounding cool but then I saw he did like 5 albums last year and got scared :/ clearly one to watch!

And ohhhhh, Default Genders is an actual ilxor...I thought I was doing my bit voting for Matmos and Dominique haha

yeah, there's a lot of filmmaker, but not really more than autechre or underworld have released in the last couple of years

anyway, I did a best of spotify playlist if anyone is interested: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1KXU4NOPGg7vf7F3H94Zs5?si=Z04CdEGpRX6G3yxLnKhB2w

Nice, ty, will check it out

Burna Boy - African Giant
Copeland - Blushing
Raphael Saadiq - Jimmy Lee
Tool - Fear Inoculum
Emily King - Scenery
Tinashe - Songs For You
Chance the Rapper - The Big Day
The National - I Am Easy To Find
Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Ariana Grande - thank u, next
Jimmy Eat World - Surviving
Tresor - Nostalgia
Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated
Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin¿
glass beach - the first glass beach album
Gunna - Drip Or Drown 2
Harry Styles - Fine Line
Jamila Woods - LEGACY! LEGACY!
Larry June - The Port Of San Francisco
Mereba - The Jungle Is The Only Way Out
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen
Pedro the Lion - Phoenix
Starboy/Wizkid - SoundMan Vol. 1
Tree and Vic Spenser - Nothing IS Something

really didnt have strong feelings for many of these outside my top 5. i spend way less time with albums now compared to past years.

xp default genders album was great!
the covers of secret garden and holy ground <3

Michaela Anne - Desert Dove

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, February 6, 2020 8:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

(high five)

speaking of ILXors, I would have voted for Chants had that album been nominated because it bangs

unweighted, bold didn't place

Angel Olsen - All Mirrors
Big Thief - Two Hands
Big Thief - U.F.O.F.
Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated
Dave – Psychodrama
FKA Twigs – Magdalene
Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
Stormzy - Heavy Is The Head
Taylor Swift – Lover
The Mountain Goats - In League With Dragons

I only wanted to vote for albums I spent a bit of time with hence the short list. Biggest regret was leaving the Little Simz album off.

Weighted, bold did not place. My anti-fuxxor score was high! (What does that mean?)

Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
Jimmy Duck Holmes - Cypress Grove
Burial - Tunes 2011-2019
The Highwomen - S/T
Tool - Fear Inoculum
Padang Food Tigers - Wake up, Mr Pancake
Tunes of Negation - Reach the Endless Sea
Underworld - Drift Series 1
Various Artists - Kankyō OngakuWilco - Ode to Joy
American Football - American Football
Bill Orcutt - Odds Against Tomorrow
CFCF - Liquid Colors
Craig Leon - Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon
Eric Le Sage - Gabriel Fauré: Nocturnes
Sandro Perri - Soft Landing
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
Greg Foat - The Mage
Isasa - Insilio
Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise
Joan Shelley - Like the River Loves the Sea
Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society - Mandatory Reality
Lambchop - This (is what I wanted to tell you)
Mdou Moctar - Ilana (The Creator)

silverfish - I voted for Filmmaker in the tracks poll pretty high, but only discovered it late last year so couldn't in good conscience vote for the album, I love it though!

Notice I tried to sneak in that I voted for the Wilco record.

On reflection, Tool too high, Kankyo Ongaku should have been my no.1.

Was hoping that guitarist/singer Mdou Moctar would place. Oh well.
I wasn’t the only vote for bluesman Jimmy Duck Holmes I see via looking at comments ( haven’t examined stats yet). Also, was 1 of 2 votes for Lady Donli afropop album.

Was hoping that guitarist/singer Mdou Moctar would place. Oh well.
I wasn’t the only vote for bluesman Jimmy Duck Holmes I see via looking at comments ( haven’t examined stats yet). Also, was 1 of 2 votes for Lady Donli afropop album.

I voted for it in here and as its nommed in the metal poll i'll vote for it too even though it obviously belongs far more in this poll.

Lingua Ignota - Caligula
glass beach - the first glass beach album
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
The Highwomen - S/T
Raphael Saadiq - Jimmy Lee
Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter 4: Memphis
Richard Dawson - 2020
100 Gecs - 1000 Gecs
Opeth - In Cauda Venenum
Zig Zags - They'll Never Take Us Alive
Rapsody - Eve
Glenn Branca - The Third Ascension
Cloud Rat - Pollinator
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
Maxo Kream - Brandon Banks
3776 - Saijiki
Radar State - Strays
Charly Bliss - Young Enough
Rustin Man - Drift Code
Liturgy - H.A.Q.Q.
Teitanblood - The Baneful Choir
Tinashe - Songs For You
Burna Boy - African Giant
Chromatics - Closer to Grey

^weighted

X-post - I see Mdou Moctar album got 7 votes here, and 75 Dollar Bill got 5. Fans of heavy guitar should check out both

I don't remember my exact ballot, but I do know that Charly Bliss was the only vote that placed. For fans of their pop-punk stylings, other things that I probably voted for that might be of interest: The Murlocs, Origami Angel, R.M.F.C., Nightwatchers, Sports Team, Stroppies.

Mdou Moctar was very good live and, generally, live music > recordings. (I had to leave early bc it started so damn late but I was sad about it.) Just didn't spend as much time with the album.

Jamila album is fantastic. My favourite discovery of the poll, I think. Saba's verse on Basquiat. Sheeeeiiit.

I haven't been on ILX much this week and I even missed the last day of the album rollout -- but shit, you guys put a tinashe album in the top 10??? Never change, ILX, never change.

Anyways, kept my (ranked) ballot short this year, Oso Oso and Doja Cat were robbed, gec gec gec gec gec gec gec gec, etc

100 Gecs - 1000 Gecs
Big Thief - U.F.O.F.
Charly Bliss - Young Enough
Solange - When I Get Home
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Clairo - Immunity
Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride
Doja Cat - Hot Pink
Ariana Grande - thank u, next
oso oso - basking in the glow

i didn't nominate or vote so this should not be seen as a complaint but these are albums i loved in 2019 that didn't appear in the poll results:

billy woods/kenny segal - hiding places (ok, i am complaining about this one not making it because it should be on any respectable best of 2019 list)
mope grooves - desire
bogdan raczynski - rave 'till you cry
gong gong gong - phantom rhythm
bill orcutt - odds against tomorrow
possible humans - everybody split
damon locks & black monument ensemble - where future unfolds
pile - green & grey
empath - active listening:night on earth

I'm curious why the Tinashe placement--which was admittedly higher than I expected--is raising eyebrows, when every year surprisingly late-career albums (e.g., Chem Bros, Kim Gordon, Berman, Lambchop, Underworld, Thom Yorke) place without this reaction. What is it about her or her career that makes this more remarkable than ilm loyalty to, say, CRJ?

I think there’s a different career arc here from the other examples you mention. To begin with, I think Tinashe would hate you calling this “a late-career album”. She probably feels like she’s only getting started now.

The thing is, she came out of the gate with a fantastic debut album (yeah, I know there were mixtapes before that) and seemed destined for greatness, artistically and commercially (the imminent future of r&b and all that), but then every album after Aquarius was a disappointment, again both artistically and commercially, (all these increasingly pathetic attempts to recreate “2 On” as if that was all there was to what she had created with Aquarius - Faded Love indeed), until a lot (most?) of us had completely given up on her out of sheer frustration.

Speaking for myself, it took all of the enthusiasm of the posters on the dedicated thread for me to let go of my cynicism and give Songs For You a real chance. I’m still not convinced it’s as good as Aquarius, leave alone better, as some have claimed (it’s certainly not as groundbreaking), but I really really like it now.

CRJ is different in that even though she has never been able to match her initial commercial success, artistically she has been going from strength to strength ever since, at least according to her fandom.

correction: ...but then *everything she released* after Aquarius was a disappointment...

I think Tinashe would hate you calling this “a late-career album”.

I'm not saying Songs For You is itself a "late-career album"; I'm saying ILM frequently has no problem giving artists career-arc leeway and will happily not give up on someone like the Chemical Brothers, who are absolutely a lol-the-90s joke for most people ime.

Anyway, this is something I like about ILM! I don't care about either of these groups, but I thought it was cool that Alfred said The National album is the first he's ever liked, and I think I heard similar sentiments re: Purple Mountains from other posters. So, given how well-known Tinashe's label fuckery was, I found the reactions odd.

Probably a better way to phrase it: SFY is an excellent *comeback* album, which doesn't seem all that remarkable to me in a place where I'm being told the Chemical Brothers and Underworld put out amazing shit in 2019. I agree mentioning CRJ muddied the point