ILM's 2020 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD

cheers to silverfish for Jockstrap tip, not just that track but the whole record is great

I never actually got around to listening to the album, I guess I'll do that now

it is dead good

cuz the whole album ruuuules !

Wish i had nominated some though. I probably won't even vote in tracks unless i get to spend most of the weekend going through noms. Here's hoping.

it is good, it is weird

if anyone else is interested in hearing some intricate & elegiac fringe indie that almost nobody has heard of, i am obsessing over this today, the incredible spin-off sequel to a merely decent record that came out to greater notice earlier in the year

https://surfacetoairmissive.bandcamp.com/album/shellys-secret

i meant Kate NV. but i got to check more of these albums getting talked up

gonna vote soon, but first i wanted to rep for some rap songs i'm putting on my ballot

king von - "took her to the o": one of my fav story raps in a long while. it's hard not to hang on every word--von had a kind of controlled intensity on the mic not seen since dmx. it's harder to listen to now, since von's murder, but it's a remarkably well-crafted narrative, and chopsquad dj's whirling dervish of a beat gives the song a sense of paranoid intensity. and the story pays off, ending on a bleak bit of gallows humor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzt31eJTGxo

sada baby - "aktivated": effective, propulsive sample with a bug-eyed vocal. an anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q_a6gCou0E

rio da yung og & louie ray - "movie": quintessential michigan rap, two guys competing with one another to see who can be the most disrespectful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm1ToRW0ip8

los & nutty - "i'm jus fuckin around": more tag-team michigan rap, this time both guys take an instrumental funky enough for '90s dj quik and fight so hard against the beat they prob got calls from vince mcmahon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtmK4owlW3Q

pg ra & jetsonmade - "keeping time": beautiful, subdued, street wisdom with booming 808s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PxRBDsCejU

42 dugg - "one of one" ft. babyface ray: sensing a theme here, another detroit duo. helluva is one of the smoothest producers around, combining detroit's propulsiveness with high-def west coast sheen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd5Qe5eW12s

brian brown - "runnin" ft. reaux marquez: soulful southern rap in the isaiah rashad mold with an understated earworm hook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05AxIXk1GCY

yg teck - "what you know": lyrics are poignant and reflective, but what i really love about this song is the bouncy piano and teck's prominent baltimore accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLEPAI2-yFc

sorry didn't mean to embed, used to be that posting the short code would post as a url, not an embed

Another lesson learned to pay more attention to nominations: how did one Kate NV track get in and not be Sayonara, Marafon 15 or Plans?

― or something.

Would’ve voted for those. The one nommed isn’t a highlight for me.

sometimes you just need a song to get louder as it goes on. this just hits all my pleasure spots. apology if this is the wrong thread to campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE7vLPSfw6Q

2020 was obviously a great year for disco/post-disco and whilst ilx heavyweights Jessie, Dua, Roisin et al will be getting lots of love, the Horse Meat Disco album is also worthy of your attention, with this track featuring legend Kathy Sledge being one of the many highlights

Horse Meat Disco feat Kathy Sledge - Falling Deep In Love

just got to a slew of rob nominations on the playlist, all new to me, an excellent run. especially like govana,aidonia 'yeah man'.

*i only vote for stuff i heard pre nom period so i can't help these trax but they all seem like keepers to me.

(*I made an exception for the Slum of Legs album.)

cheers, oscar!
I basically follow the same not-new-to-me policy, as much to make ballot finalizing less of a nightmare as to reflect what *my* 2020 was actually like. tbh: with regret, I just couldn't muster the energy to comb the playlist this year

same tbh, I'll be doing well if I even get a ballot in

holy shit that Pet Shop Boys was 2020? god damn this year went slow

I voted. note to self: nominate more tracks next year!!!!!

Horse Meat Disco

holy shit

I really didn't spend any time here all year and am debating whether or not I will submit a ballot, but I hope Komplicerad by Miss Li gets some attention. To my ears it is basically 2020 Call Me Maybe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbsKcqVUd8w

I'm now on the good side of those who have voted ! Join us !

Voted last week but have since fallen heavily for the Mary Halvorson album: please give this love! It has a brace of impossibly cosy Robert Wyatt contributions! Top 10 in my heart.

Regrettably didn't get around to the Bug+Dis Fig or CS+Kreme albums until now either but both are really satisfying gloom.

Would love to see Echos by Beatriz Ferreyra place in the tracks list - no idea whether it got much attention here but it is crushing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0b-u69xdws

Voted! I have a feeling my tracks ballot is going to look deranged when I look at it after the rollout—what a year...

Voted... and have just realised I made a mistake on my albums ballot (put the wrong album by an artist with more than one on the noms list).

When's the deadline again?

Week today

just voted!

I hope Komplicerad by Miss Li gets some attention

There won't be space on my ballot, but I found this on the nominations playlist and saved it! Kind of reminds me of Every Night by Hannah Diamond.

37 ballots in, good job everyone, keep voting!

Voted last night! Felt less stressful than other years for some reason.

I Voted™

c+p from the earlier lobbying thread:
I am listening through to as many of the track nominations as I can until voting, organized alphabetically by song name. Lots of good stuff but here's the key new discoveries I'm loving

• 10K - Obongjayar (stompin')
• 12 Problems - Rapsody (missed this coming out, great track!)
• 150 - Porij (does the rest of their music sound like this? feels like it's in the Rhye/Bibio camp which is up my alley)
• 4 American Dollars - US Girls (first thing I've heard from her that won me over)
• 8 Melodies - Arthur (messy and nerdy)
• Ain't Nice - Viagra Boys (this is an anthem! might make my ballot!)
• Aktivated - Sada Baby (very effective sample)
• April Fools Day and Bugged - CS+ Kreme (i need to check this album out)
• Avaa hiukset, Medusa - Tienhaara (i'm always a sucker for folks playing in the diamanda galas kiddie pool)
• Avalanche - Aimee Mann (dang, so good)
• Back to It - Josie Dunne (total Meghan Trainor novelty vibes and yet this is really enjoyable)
• Bad Boy Tenor - Kiko Bun (never heard of this guy, very nice)
• Best Of - Hyroglifics (twitchy twitchy)
• Betty - Pa Salieu (i think i tried this once before some time ago but damn it landed now)
• Black Dog - Arlo Park (i think i heard 'Eugene' earlier this year and liked the sadgirl vibe; this follows suit)
• Body Bag - Ivorian Doll (slaps)
• Boris Johnson is a Fucking Cunt - The Kunts (does what it says on the label and doesn't overstay its welcome)
• Boss Trick - Real Lies (i've been obsessively replaying this and am more than a little embarrassed how much this got me in the >*f33lz*<)
• Box in My Head - Blue Oyster Cult (lol, very fun)
• Brand New Drop (Thys Remix) - Addison Groove (my beat, she is broken)
• Can't Hang - Suzanne (complex, full-bodied, spicy like a shiraz)
• Can You Do - The Aces (second song I fell for off this album in the past week; these guys deserve HAIM attention)
• Care - beabadoobee (i kinda hate her whole thing based on everything i've ever heard but this has a very Liz Phair vibe to it and afforded surprising access)
• Chaila - Denise Chaila (a fresh and enjoyable approach to the question of naming but i still wish she told me how to say hers!)
• Chambers Secrets - Julian Winding (orbital-esque, specifically "The Saint")
• Chicken with Waffles - Boof (woulda liked to have had this on deck over the summer but i imagine it will keep)
• Citations - Mildlife (i'll admit that I audibly groaned when the vocals started, but it was okay after all)
• The City - Jockstrap (hated this on my first two listens and then did a complete u-turn)
• Comme des Garcons - Rina Sawayama (never quite cracked this album but this is dope... indicative of the whole LP?)
• Concrete - Poppy (my gf stopped by and told me to turn this shit off and then it dropped into a different mode and she said 'well this part is okay' and then it switched back again and she just seemed confused)
• Confusion - Ellen Allien (you can put Madonna's Vogue over this, which is fun)
• Crash Pad - George Clanton and Nick Hexum (i had avoided this guy because of his terrible terrible name but this is a pleasant little trip down deep mood lane)
• Crazy - Kelly Rowland (damn, in full-on Beyonce voice huh)
• Dance II - Discovery Zone (don't mind me, I'm just gonna put on my reeboks and a pair of new jams and skip down this light-up sidewalk)
• Dawn Patol - Brothertiger (another one for the mellower days of that lost summer)
• Debbie Take Control of the Stereo - Helen Love (this is absolutely terrible, i love it)
• Decades - Wilma Archer (i keep wobbling about whether this is good or not which means it probably is)
• Dicked Down in Dallas - Trey Lewis (objectively terrible but I can't help but be impressed by which it says the quiet part loud; feels like I have THEY LIVE hearing aids in)
• Disco Man - Remi Wolf (this is ALSO absolutely terrible and i love it)
• Doves - Facta (burble, wurble, gurble, gerbil)
• Dreams of U and Me Above the Mezcal Moon - DJ Seinfeld (i had avoided this guy because of his terrible terrible name but this is a pleasant little trip into a patrick nagel painting)
• Drunk or Lonely - Maddie and Tae (i prefer Die from a Broken Heart, but this is solid)
• Dumelang - Malome Vector and Blaq Diamond (pretty sure I played once at one point in this year and then mislaid it stupidly, this is fire)

• Earth Note - Kush Jones (zip zop zip zop)
• Echos - Beatriz Ferreyra (gauzy mindfuck soundscape romp through the subconscious)
• Emcees - MC Yallah (frenetic old school throwback quadruple-tongued flow)-*
• End of Days - Spillage Village (shades of Stankonia and Trinity; i am now officially old enough where the throwback rap i dug in my twenties is getting thrownback to)
• End of the Nite - Elles (praise the DJ and pass the OJ)
• Essence and Eve Bounce (Remix) - Wizkid (never finished the album and this certainly makes me think i should have)
• Exist On - FIT Siegel (MORTAL KOMBAT dunnuhduhnuhduhnuhDUH)
• Exo, Get Outta Ma House - HENGE (Reminds me a bit of Adebisi Shank, all proggy and compressed and nerdy. lovely)
• Fall Again - Duval Timothy with Lil Silva and Melanie Faye (I got heavy into Duval this year after hearing Ball but the album I listened to was Brown Loop and not Help so this was a very pleasant surprise.
• Falling Deep in Love ("12 extended) - Horse Meat Disco with Kathy Sledge (a worthwhile addition to the avalanche of this year's disco revival tracks)
• Fantasy Baseball at the End of the World - John K Samson (good sad white guy music)
• Feel Right - Biig Piig (more disco joy, possibly the most outrageous "best song to worst band name ratio" on this list)
• Firefly - Hey String (one for the percussion noise nerds)
• Firewood - Saronde and Idd Aziz (perhaps a little mannered and "whirled music" for my taste but proof is very much in the pudding and this is good pudding)
• Flood - Material Girl (other tracks from the album left me cold but I like the dense vaporwave via Dilla vibe of this one a lot)
• Floodgates: Minimal Dub - Gage (better than a metronome in a pinch)
• Forgive Me - Scuba (lush retro neon dance)
• For Props - Yves Jarvis (like fennel this adds meaningful and unique flavor in measured dosage to a mix, the extended weird backmasky outro is a vibe)
• Fortune Teller - J Hus (have not cracked the album, clearly should)
• For Want of Gelt - Minor Science (SCIENCE!)
• For You - India Jordan (good call and response in one handy package)
• Fresh Laundry - Allie X (amazing shambala paean to simpler domesticity, definitely a major find!)
• Future Power Sourcers - Marlowe et al (great flow, great production)
• Going Down to Sing in Texas and How Long - Iris DeMent (good sad white lady music)
• Guinnevere - Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah (dude's prolificity means I can't keep up with all the good music he makes so it's nice to bump into it in the wild)
• Hard to Forget - Sam Hunt (i wrote off Sam Hunt after "Body Like a Back Road" but this is absolutely demanding painful repeat listening right now and might make my ballot. Shane Mcanally is a god)
• Harvest Time - Charlotte Dos Santos (this is great, did I miss discussion of it on ILX in the past? Is the rest of the EP as good?)
• Highlander - TeeZandos (great flow, effective production)
• The Hive - Erik Griswold (buzzy buzzy)
• Hoes at Trader Joe's - Chris Crack (i appreciate its inclination to aim for pleasant)
• how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?// - KennyHoopla (interesting mix of modern sadboi and 80's sadboi)

i'm about 500 tracks into the list and getting a 57% hit rate. Will likely drift away in the next week or two but I'd like to do at least another 250 or so.

Essence and Eve Bounce (Remix) - Wizkid (never finished the album and this certainly makes me think i should have)

Fortune Teller - J Hus (have not cracked the album, clearly should)

Got about halfway into the wizkid before i got pulled a different direction and the J Hus is in the long term listen pile. i know it may not seem like it but i'm only human.

just do it and be a legend, forks!

lol, i'll get there

seandalai, can I re-submit my albums ballot? No worries if that causes too much hassle - just want to swap out an album near the bottom of my list for the one I meant to put down.

great discovery today: nauticult/signor benedick the moor - TOE T@G, a really fucked rap banger

also this talabot remix of pye corner audio bangs so hard, i swear if all bobbins banged this hard i would be a bobbins guy

you'd all best be voting for that Pantayo song too

seandalai, can I re-submit my albums ballot? No worries if that causes too much hassle - just want to swap out an album near the bottom of my list for the one I meant to put down.

― Gavin, Leeds, Sunday, 17 January 2021 21:12 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yep, just submit again

I really can't get over how beautiful that Shadow Community song is that's the third song on the playlist. Already regretting not putting it higher on my list as I keep going back to it.

I really can't get over how beautiful that Shadow Community song is that's the third song on the playlist

Seconded. Hadn't come across it before but it ended up in my top 10

shadow community is another alias of mid-air thief, whose 2018 album crumbling i really recommend if you want more in that vein

Mid-Air Thief - Crumbling (Korean prog/psych-folk)

yep, just submit again

― timber euros (seandalai), Monday, January 18, 2021 2:05 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Cool, thanks, have re-sent my ballots.

Thanks to oscar bravo for nominating the Yerin Baek album, I've been enjoying that one a lot. And glad to see you liked some of the tracks I nominated kitchen person!

glad to hear it! only stumbled across it myself because it was in the 'up next' box of smthg I was playing on YouTube and I thought the thumbnail looked interesting.

I can't remember who nominated it, but the Craven Faults record (Enclosures) is really doing it for me today.

Sort of a minimal techno take on the Berlin School? It's hypnotic. https://cravenfaults.bandcamp.com/album/enclosures

shadow community is another alias of mid-air thief, whose 2018 album crumbling i really recommend if you want more in that vein

Mid-Air Thief - Crumbling (Korean prog/psych-folk)

― ufo

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out today.

Really glad people are enjoying the Shadow Community track. :) And yeah, ufo otm - the Mid-Air Thief album is beautiful.

what's it called? I don't do spotify