Hype and Slander: What are you voting for in ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks and Albums Poll?

it's likely to place so doesn't need more hype really but koffee's "west indies" is a minor miracle imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvOABOa3IrU

yeah, banger

Not sure I was as fussed about that one as the initial string of singles froma couple of years back like 'Toast'. I was pretty excited by her particular voice and style, but I don't really hear anything raising the bar here. Maybe needs to grow on me

I wouldn't rank West Indies as highly as Toast or Lockdown personally—it's a bit too mellow/wavey in comparison—but in terms of what's changed, her singing skill has levelled up impressively to my ears. Her range on WI is much wider than I would have expected based on the Toast-era stuff

Funny how “LaLaLa It’s The Good Life” has so much in common with “Chaise Longue”: spoken verses + earworm choruses + videos that feel like TikTok with a budget.

the thing i love about "west indies" is that it takes the concept of partying and applies it to all of life - the video especially makes it clear. i feel like it makes this argument that partying is a spiritual state (c.f.prince's line that life is just a party). the softness of the song is such a tender counterpoint to the pride in the chorus and some of the material brags. i feel like it's asking, "why can't everything i do be joyful?" and sort of presenting s thesis about how that might look.

it's trying to do this trick of total escapism and spiritual rootedness that i feel like we should all know is impossible to pull off, but then it succeeds somehow. what i mean by it being a minor miracle.

andrew wkoffee

it's a very rich production job, which probably helps to fuse those two things

Funny how “LaLaLa It’s The Good Life” has so much in common with “Chaise Longue”: spoken verses + earworm choruses + videos that feel like TikTok with a budget.

― ... (Eazy), Monday, 10 January 2022 16:44 (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

and yet of the two, it's unsurprisingly The Chap Gone Hyperpop that does it for me

Ok forks, you need to do a list of highlights now for the remaining 25 alphabet letters.

great posts map!

Yeah I had missed the Koffee track but found it on the playlist, it's great. More Koffee in '22 plz.

supposedly her debut album is coming out this year

that track kind of leaves me cold.

Xp I have another 28 tracks just for A!

you should skip to the bottom of the list afterward, to give those alphabetically challenged songs some love

Speaking of more tracks---for my (Album)nom (from Holy Modal Rounders, Classic or Dud?

Just listened to the first half of this on Bandcamp--take it away, Louisiana Music Factory:
Louisiana Red Hot Records release “Peter Stampfel’s 20th Century” is an epic 100 song collection. The 5 Disc box set is augmented by an impressive 30,000+ words in an 88 page booklet that outlines the history of each selection alongside tales from the singular life of the artist, with pithy production notes from producer Mark Bingham added for good measure...Features Mark Bingham, Michael Cerveris, Jonathan Frelich, Michot’s Melody Makers, Alex McMurray, Amasa Miller and Sarah Quintana
Seemed a bit too much like faded sheet music imagery, wallpaper at first (hey, he should do Statler Bros' "Flowers on the Wall," also Sahm-Dylan duet "Wallflower"--maybe next time--could happen, given the range here), with singing close to a groan, just a little slow strumming for his bed---but pretty soon he and the music perked up, in bloom when it's the right time , sprouting and shedding and grafting instruments and styles(I won't tell you where the drums and wah-wah show up), also happiness and sadness and excitement and reveries and diving and rolling and popping up again, gracefully shadowing words and bridges and intros I didn't know about (a lot of old songs have intros rarely played later on), and I never know quite what he and helpers will go and do next, though it all hangs together.
I do recall, during maybe the first 20, thinking that there might be some duplication of effort, that I might end up just liking 50 or so. But so far I like almost that many, and pretty sure will be more keepers in the second half (it's not divided up on Bandcamp, I just ran out of listening time 'til tomorrow).
https://louisianaredhotrecords.bandcamp.com/album/peter-stampfels-20th-century

― dow, Tuesday, November 23, 2021 7:31 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

diving and rolling and popping up again,, like Ishmael and Melville and RIP Dave Hickey, getting high on what they know and can still do, back in the saddle again. And again. ("Once more, with feeling.")

― dow, Tuesday, November 23, 2021 9:57 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

I knew there would be some gaps between further listening sessions, but had to jump more than expected,so right now I can't remember exactly which ones I'm likely to start skipping from last week's sessions, which sessions added up to the first 42 or so.
But right now, I'm tempted to begin again with 12. "Ragtime Cowboy Joe"----then, for continuity x momentum's sake, skip some of the good 'uns along with duds, and jump to 50. "It Isn’t Fair" and maybe
51."Jezebel"--then def. 53."Tennessee Wig Walk," and proceed from there for quite a ways---he reinvents Roundery folk-rock, with itchy warm blankets, corn cobs, corn plasters, potbellied stoves, bear breath, bear everything---eventually, in the late 70s-80s-90s-etc. material, the music becomes more like it was then, but not (when it's good) too close to original effect: he's still turning up aspects I'd forgotten about or never noticed, as in the reeely olde stuff he started with.
For inst.,(skip 74. "September Gurls" and 75."Tangled Up In Blue, " go to 76.) the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" is no longer nerf pop, it's a slowed, gathering, electric bluesy approach, trying not to scare her away---and that along with several varied but compatible reworkings soon after, overall gives me a flashback to youg weirdo romanitc Jonathan Richman---then Stampfel goes on to other things.
Skip 81. "Dancing With Myself" (voice totally inert there). Skip 86. "My Hometown" and 87. "Don’t Dream It’s Over"---then everything else is fine!!
I'm sure I'll find more keepers; this was just a single playlist.

― dow, Wednesday, December 1, 2021 8:40 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

And as xgau indicated, damn if Stampfel and "Earth To Grandma" don't seem genetically bonded, via Wussy's Chuck Cleaver, ditto "Yellow," with clouds of Chris Martin vocals cleared away--lovely compatibles also incl. "Loser," "Tubthumping," "I Will Survive," and Prine-DeMent homage "In Spite of Ourselves."A duet with Lilli Lewis on the 2nd vocal. No runny eggs on this track."

― dow, Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Now it's seeming like 70 keepers, and not your usual kinds of keepers: sweet!

very glad imago heard "LaLaLa It's The Good Life"

i presumed he nominated it!

voting for quite a few of ufo's this year

Amythyst Kiah - Tender Organs: This is my nomination and will definitely be making my ballot. Amethyst has gotten zero traction on this board (a quick look suggests no one but me has ever mentioned her name) but that’s clearly my fault as I should be a louder proselytizer. I though her album Wary and Strange was one of the best of the year, solid country and folk pop with an honest twang and remarkable songwriting throughout. Tender Organs is maybe the best of the bunch, a frightened meditation on fragility and fallibility that showcases Kiah’s blazing voice, careful phrasing and emotional drive. She’s a powerhouse and I wish you’d give this a listen.
All Holy Shit, forks, I just did and you're so right!Wary and Strange might come from a school report on her, but ain't sorry. Some sort-of-post-Armatrading? ballads, but/and keeps building to this folkbluestronic grind, while staying thematic (a break-up or at least can't-get-no-satisfaction album overall), like "Fancy Drones" has this doleful grunty wry lick, but is also about fancy drones of the sterile insect people, in which she includes herself, unless it's just the usuall rhetorical "we," but doesn't sound like it. Voice can delivery dark volleys of notes, short shots, never oversung. Most of the "tronica" part is in unobtrustive beats with guitar guts hanging over the balcony.Thanks again!
https://amythystkiah1.bandcamp.com/

Yay a convert! Glad you agree and can hear what i'm hearing; much of what joy i get from life these days is on the back of that sentiment.
I caught her live at the start of '19 when she was working toward a fuller voice through banjo blues and even then she was a revelation. Her first LP, Dig, is worth more than a sample spin but yes to everything you said about Wary and Strange and a bucket of mud to boot. You know who she's been making me think of is Swordfishtrombones-era Tom Waits: the same funky and weird instrumentation and world building and virtuosity.

True, though I like her voice better than his! Kind of like if Giddens continued deep in the vein of Carolina Chocolate Drops' cover of "Hit 'Em Up Style," adding electric guitar and other homewired-sounding sources.

Kiah happens to be part of a "supergroup" band with Giddens, Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla. Their album Songs of Our Native Daughters is a meditation on the Black roots of americana, minstrelsy and folk. It's recommended.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Our_Native_Daughters

I feel like Giddens gets handwaved off as NPR bait by a certain sort of lazy listener which i find indefensible. She's fuckin' great and has developed into one of the most influential, curious and enjoyable artists of her generation.

Analog Tara - Undecagon: Wonderful EDM of the trance out with your pants off variety. Is the rest of the EP this good? I’ll be finding out shortly.

that analog tara track was one of mine. i love the vocal on that, it's like the grubby basement dive version of metro area's 'miura'

I feel like Giddens gets handwaved off as NPR bait by a certain sort of lazy listener which i find indefensible. She's fuckin' great and has developed into one of the most influential, curious and enjoyable artists of her generation.

Amen to this. She invites the NPR-friendly tag of course, but she's a huge talent. Amazing to see live in any context.

thanks for analog tara nick; I am listening now

some rap songs i'm voting for:

remble - "touchable": remble became a meme of sorts for his crisp enunciation ("remble raps in m.l.a. format," "remble raps like the model of a modern major general"), but he also just makes great songs, like this gleefully violent, bell-tolling slapper that reels off memorable line after memorable line

isaiah rashad - "lay wit ya" ft. duke deuce: guttural and grimy, slithering around at ground level until duke nukem blows the whole thing wide open

tisakorean - "how i walk in the club": "they say the club on capacity...ION CARE!"

yaw tog - "sore": apocalyptic drill out of ghana. idk why i nommed the uk-ified remix, but whatever, the song is massive.

bawo - "starts with a text": lackadaisical, yet technical, with a gorgeous, electric keys-driven beat.

wiardon - "stay down": the best song i heard in 2021 by anyone who was too young to vote in the 2020 election.

young dolph & key glock "aspen": long live dolph

Somebody beat me to nominating this, which is good, because I didn't hear it before nomination deadline---from What Are You Listening To in 2022?

Cliche listening choice for a rainy winter's day (3 times in a row, which never happens, and getting more into details and the overall each time)jazz-blues-r&b ballads, small group, female singer, that 60s-early 70s vibe extended even though new songs, yet the scene is now/you are there: Lady Blackbird's Black Acid Soul, which title I thought was just hype before listening, but recording set-brings out just enough hyperreal, dry edge to voice and baby grand piano, also occasional vibes, used for inst. on one track as piccolo bass-range drone, sparingly, countering the upright bass on that same and I think every other track. Eventually some variety of instruments and tempo (also the closing title track sees and raises previous sonic designs' increasingly bolder, splashier advance into the 21st Century).
Stylish singing, writing, playing, recording never affected, always and increasingly affecting---that one you might be hearing on local public radio, that you're thinking (esp. w piano) might be written by Laura Nyro? Actually Tim Fuckin Hardin, and nothing like "If I Were A Carpenter," although I could imagine Blackbird (whose opener, "Blackbird," is not the Beatles') getting away with that too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkuqQifTC_k

(Sorry, Tim---actually I heard him doing a pretty decent version of that song recently)
Have yet to hie my ass to listen to Our Native Daughters, though I'm a fan of all members.

The upright bass*, which is* on that same and I think every other track, I meant, though maybe just that once also w the vibes.

recording set*-up*, that is.

I like Analog Tara, just a classic palette but every instrument sounds amazing.

I haven't seen much slander. I suppose it's ok and everyone is just saving it for the results thread :P

I'll be voting for Lorde's Mood Ring

ban

that do?

tbf there's been a lot on the tracks playlist that's filled me with revulsion but honestly nothing so much as Lorde's Mood Ring so I'm v happy to play along here

It's the best

I don't think I've heard anything which makes me angry enough to slander it in the playlist yet. Actual results are always were the complaints usually come through ime. Have no idea what to expect this year tbh, it seems like a rather slow and unremarkable year for mainstream pop and hip hop acts, but a good year elsewhere.

I predict: lots of disco and synthpop

Re Lorde, I felt like this better captured the vibe she was going for. Plus I like the hokey '90s rhythm track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTE2J0bWizc

Is Tim F not active anymore? Enjoyed his eoy thread.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 5 January 2022 05:25 (one week ago) link

not dead, but too busy with work to actually do anything w/r/t this poll or write up my songs of the year yet :-/

I still have plans though

Hopefully you can still vote though

FromA catch-all thread for the current jazz scene in London, including Shabaka Hutchings, Yazz Ahmed, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, Camilla George, Theon Cross, Zara McFarlane, Daniel Casimir, SEED Ensemble, ---first nomspotting:

Nérija member Rosie Turton's EP Expansions and Transformations: Part I & II is totally refreshing from first notes, riding with Turton's deep, luminous trombone--fave so far is "part II," where she's in call and response w violin---skylight electronics passing over them both at one point, with piano periphery and roiling bass and drums---they kick up the tempo on "The Unknown (Rework)," a new version of a song from 2018 alb Rosie's 5ive. And a closing remix of "Part II" keeps it up, without getting gimmicky: whole thing is reflective grain of acoustic jazz with electronics (and influence of associated dynamics) folded into the planes o'flow, the grid of orbit:
https://rosieturton.bandcamp.com/album/expansions-and-transformations-part-i-ii

― dow, Wednesday, June 23

I've listened to around 250 tunes from the Tracks playlist so far. I pretty much focused on new 'bobbins' / breakbeat / techno / garage last year so a lot of what I've heard so far has been new to me (apart from the neo-soul / house / jazzy bits my wife has been playing).

Standouts so far:
Julian Lage - Saint Rose (I adore the rhythm section on this, it would be great even without the guitar imo)
Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul - HAHA (guess you had to be there tbf)
Pa Salieu - Style & Fashion
Paul Frick & Daniel Brandt - Neo Beidermeir
Zakes Bantwini - Osama
Megan Thee Stallion - Thot Shit (crikey)

I'm still weirded out by the trend of huge artists just straight up not having drums on their tunes. For example tracks like Drake - Champagne Poetry or Billie Eilish. I'm so used to drums being the focal point of the genres I listen to (and spend so much time fiddling with drums in Ableton) that it is jarring to come across finished huge pop songs that don't even have a hihat let alone a snare drum.

** Meant to type 'Billie Eilish - Getting Older' up there btw

Faves in bold

Angel Haze - Weight: Few artist burned their bridges more thoroughly than Angel, who dropped Dirty Gold, a contracted album, for free on the internet in 2013 when she got incensed her rollout wasn’t moving fast enough. I’m sure the facts of the matter are more complicated than that sentence but I’m also sure most anyone running a label is going to think twice about working with her. That’s a bummer because she’s a fucking great rapper and either that debacle or something in her life stopped her career dead shortly thereafter. This mostly unremarked upon single marked her return earlier in 2021. I didn’t nominate Weight but it’s on my shortlist; she sounds just as sharp as she did a decade ago (!!!!!), still underrated and still ready to compete with anyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOycRO6mabo

Annie - April: Bombastic plastic which is good or bad depending on where your head is at. I fluctuate. Right now I’m into it but my mood sometimes makes this a slog.

The Anxiety - Meet Me at Our Spot: Willow is Having a Moment right now, something that feels like the precursor to her getting serious chart success as a mature artist. I was a fan of her first two albums so it’s a particular bummer that I can’t connect with anything she’s been doing lately. I guess that's hardly a surprise as I didn’t care for Avril or Travis Barker back in the aughts so their immediate rock deification seems like chasing false gods.

Anz - You Could Be: I still really need to listen to the All Hours EP (and am gonna queue that up now that I’m thinking about it) but holy fuck this single is amazing. Pure free skate energy, disco ball sparkle and perfect vocals, this deserves US crossover success in the worst way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra9waH-J6Lc

AprilBlue - Clarity: 90’s Indie Pop with a bit of 00’s guitar attitude and declamatory dancing-in-front-of-the-closet-mirror vocals. This is a madeleine of sorts for music that I have limited love for but it brings enough of its own soul to the table that I’m won over.

Arca - Born Yesterday (with Sia), Queer (with Planningtorock): It finally solidified in my mind last year when I heard Arca’s installation at the Museum of Modern Art that I don’t like her music. The squelch and zap and trap of it all feels disjointed and amelodic in a way that only rarely seems to catch my attention or properly support the vocals. As it happens, I think this Sia track has something good at its core in a Total Eclipse of the Heart kinda way but the pep and pop is swallowed up by the electric hydra. The effect on Queer is even more pronounced and more of a turn off somehow. And yes, i get this is intentional and thematically "Arca's thing" but I am sad to report it is not mine no matter how hard I've tried.

Ariana Grande - Test Drive: I loved Positions a lot but this seems like an outtake for a reason. Grande doesn’t quite project herself here in the way I want her to and the production is balsa wood construction. I don’t DISlike it and I still let it play out when it queues but it feels very placeholder.

Ari Lennox - Pressure: I always forget that I kinda like Ari Lennox. Some of it is her name, which I consistently confuse as some sort of Eurythmics-based arch do-you-get-it hipster DJ reference of the DJ Seinfeld or Ross From Friends variety. But Ari’s not a hipster, she’s a solid R&B vocalist who gets much of her heat from feature spots. Pressure sounds like and is her unvarnished hit; all tick-tock pussy power dip dive instruction, honeyed and coquettish and phenomenally good.

Arlo Parks - Black Dog: Parks was one of my favorite new artists found in the past year, a solid lyricist and pitch-perfect representation of last generation ennui and post-prozac worldview. Black Dog is a definite high-point from her debut album, a recitation of tactics to save the desperately depressed. Having been on both sides of the equation, this beautifully rendered portion of loving the lost rings painfully honest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOu0Ht0-D4M

Armand Hammer/Alchemist with Earl Sweatshirt - Falling Out of the Sky: Recently I met a sweet and tremendously creative and chatty twentysomething guy at a friend’s going away party and we got along well enough that we took some moments during the safer moments of COVID to hang out and see some concerts. This kid likes hip hop and he has strong opinions about what constitutes real hip hop. He finds my interest in the genre amusing but he also appreciates that I can quote songs and have a broad listening background so I have old head cred. As such, I text him recommendations and he clowns me for almost everything I bring to him. At one point this summer I had tickets to see Armand Hammer and The Alchemist but who wants to go to a rap show solo? So I invited him but he didn’t know who they were so I sent him Falling Out the Sky as exhibit A. He hates Odd Future for some reason and I didn’t know that and I got like thirty are-you-fucking-kidding-me reaction gifs in response: Medea rolling her eyes and MJ laughing at his laptop and so on. I dunno. I still think this is real good.

The Armed - AN ITERATION: I’ve tried The Armed a few times now and I don’t like this at all.

Arooj Aftab - Mohabbat, Saans Lo: In some of the circles I hang in, people talk about Arooj Aftab’s breakout year as a well earned and lengthy success story but I will freely admit that I’m late to the table. As I consider her work that much more powerful in its totality, my vote will likely go to Arooj’s album rather than any individual track but suffice it to say that both of these are alluringly beautiful.

ArrDee - Oliver Twist: Oh man the video is SO bad and ArrDee has a face for radio and a 4chan driving force but there’s no denying this is a fucking jam.

Arushi Jain - Zid: A super brief scan of the tracks on Jain’s Under the Lilac Sky album suggest this wonderful, spacey electronic gem isn’t a fluke. I’ll need to work my way through the LP but in the meantime, this is very pure.

Ashley Monroe - Siren: No shade on whoever nominated it, but Siren likely isn’t even my fourth favorite track off Monroe's admittedly uneven but still very good Rosegold album, an LP that smacks of the Rhinestone Disco alt-country moment that Kacey stamped into the Nashville fabric. My pick would likely be the sinewy potboiler Groove but I opted instead to nominate a little heard duet called Easy Going. I think Monroe is one of my favorite country singers and no one cares but I have mixed feelings about the direction she’s currently pointed in. In any case, Siren is a very good song that I would likely be kinder to if it came from an artist I felt less invested in.

Ashley Shadow with Bonnie Prince Billy - Don’t Slow Me Down: I went through a Palace phase in college and keep an eye on Oldham because of it. Everything he’s on that I’ve heard in the playlist thus far sounds underbaked and that goes for this morose little shitkicklet too.

audiobooks: The Doll, LaLaLa It’s the Good Life: audiobooks is one of those groups where the name of the band turned me off enough that I never made any effort to give them a try. I suppose I’m rethinking that now. LJ had a freakout upthread on LaLaLa which I found enjoyable but a bit too overtired and manic to really fall in love with. But The Doll, an electrogoth meditation on the heartbreak of breakups that has the dourest bit of Scissor Sisters and The Knife in its DNA, that one fucking got me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRQGZPXuIrM

Avalanches with MGMT and Johnny Marr - The Divine Chord: The Avalanches are hit and miss for me and this one’s a miss.

Avalon Emerson - Champu Princess: I’m a fan of Avalon Emerson’s production and very much dug her DJ Kicks from last year. Champu Princess is solid running music, diverting musically up and down the path enough that it never loses my attention.

Avataar - Worldview: Entirely enjoyable, if somewhat unchallenging, coffeehouse jazz that I might fall harder for in person.


Axel Rulay with Farruko and El Alfa - Si es Trucho es Trucho: It felt like this song was everywhere in NYC this summer but maybe my ears were just sensitive to it because it’s so goddamn catchy? The upper register of Axel Rulay’s voice sits soft on my ear. I prefer this remix, which parties a bit harder.

Ayanne - Le bara: Ivory Coast pop R&B that bops. I appreciate the bass bump and the synth flourishes and faux marimba and pan flute and Ayanne’s voice which is likely the best effect on a track filled with them.