ILM Albums Poll 2019: Thread of Stats and Ballots

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