ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2021

I think I was one of the #1 voters for Kaputt when I was strictly lurking. Pleased with any discomfort it caused that lex guy.

lol at how the 2012 thread goes straight in, minimal preamble just posters firing shots

I do feel we've lost the theatre of old - the 2010-2015 or so EOY polls were close to being the most fun I've ever had on the internet - but as a way to sum up the musical year and discover a bunch of great new releases there's still nothing that comes close ime.

I wonder what metal will make the cut...

looking through the 2018 poll and i'm thinking that might a historically great year for albums, just hit after hit

There's been a significant further divergence I feel in the past few years between my tastes & those of the greater body of ILX, but I ised to be able to get 5-7 albums in the countdown & I think thats possible this time so I hope it happens again

That said, I'm p sure there's like 12 albums on there that I'm gonna be the sole vote for so

*used

I'll know from the points total of #77 how likely it is that much of my ballot places

One quibble with forks' otherwise excellent intro, tho: we had 77 tracks voters, but wasn't it more like 85 albums voters?

I only did albums, I think there were others.

I also gave Kaputt my #1 vote back in the day. I still would!

final count: 86 albums ballots
― Vangelis fleadh (seandalai), Saturday, January 22, 2022 2:40 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh I took "One for every voter" to mean every voter got at least one album from their ballot on the list, but now I'm not sure

https://i.imgur.com/Hsx7q2V.jpg
77. Various Artists ‎ - Heisei No Oto- Japanese Left-Field Pop From The CD Age, 1989-1996
128 points / 5 votes / 1 #1 vote
Video from the album: Take No Michi - “Dream Dolphin”
Music from Memory (Label) - Search and Seek

Oh we're in it now!

This is an amazing compilation, strongly suggest to look for the physical (cd/vinyl) version, as the digital/streaming version is missing half of the songs.

am generally anti-compilation but this looks about as interesting as compilations get

i have this, it's great. but comps never come to mind when voting.

let's gooooo

Nice presentation Moka!

I am interested in this comp, but this is not exactly an auspicious start to a list of the best albums of 2022

very very similar points threshold to songs, which gives me a good sense about a few things

I know suggestions to change the poll never go anywhere (and that's ok), but an archival comp/reissue top 10 side poll would actually be p neat (and here's why)

I'm always a little disappointed MORE comps don't make our EOY list. There's a whole universe of stuff out there and some very smart people assembling it all in just the right way.

I tend to be p absolutist about this sort of thing but I cant say I didnt like it when the Onyeabor comp made it

Had not heard of this until now and it looks great, so that's a net positive.

you can't allow this and not backyardigans basically ;)

I need to go back to this compilation. I only heard it once and kept meaning to revisit it all year. Some great stuff on it.

https://i.imgur.com/TdbIdP1.jpg
76. Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God
130 points / 5 votes
Video from the album: “Bed Head”
Anyone into Manchester Orchestra?

i was just wondering last night if this album would make the albums poll

"Anyone into Manchester Orchestra?"

Five people, no more, no less.

Manchester, so much to orchestrate for.

*Six* people if I had voted, but at least I nominated it.

i think tim f said that he got into this record bc even though it is a really beautifully-produced alt rock album with both big and soft guitars it consistently pulses like a dance record

Moka has convinced me to listen to this with that image (and whoever made the cover lol)

I objectively don't like Bed Head, but I feel strangely compelled not to turn it off

that guy's voice is very country music

This is one of those bands I've ignored partly due to an irrational aversion to the name but the song linked above is pretty good

https://i.imgur.com/M87JQLg.jpg
75. Doja Cat - Planet Her
132 points / 4 votes
Video from the album: “Get Into It Yuh”
thraed of DOJA CAT

so nearly missed out :(

I already knew I didn't care for Manchester Orchestra, but I checked out Bed Head to see if they'd actually made something I'd like.

The answer is a resounding no.

Poll in rapid decline after a great start.

that's the spirit!

I actually enjoyed Bed Head quite a bit tbh despite so much going against it

also when you listen to the million masks of god as a whole there are great sequencing feats like the way "keel timing" and "bed head" are like inversions of each other etc.

manchester orchestra are something that i feel like i could like, but it hasn't really happened yet

Poll in rapid decline after a great start.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever)

Lol

Hey at least we’re in the bottom part of the poll and not in the top 10

One quibble with forks' otherwise excellent intro, tho: we had 77 tracks voters, but wasn't it more like 85 albums voters?

And more importantly, playlist is now updating.

That Left-Field Pop comp is amazing btw; loads of great finds in there!

that comp is prob most only vote to place, fittingly just barely

planet her is solid, doesn't quite compare to hot pink. some serious highlights, many of which were massive hits: "woman," "kiss me more," "ain't shit," "get into it"

actually i think i'll have one more

Some of the missing songs from the leftfield pop compilation can be found on streaming if you want to hear the rest.

I know because I was obsessed with Yosue Inoue’s “pi po pa” last summer.

The Aereogramme connection is certainly alluring

the Robert Smith thing is a hard no

you’re a hard no

… sorry, reflex

lol accepted

The main thing I take away from the Robert Smith track is the relative lack of expressiveness of the Chvrches singer. Its kind of like W.C. Fields said about never doing a scene with a dog or a kid, because they'll steal the show. The equivalent for a goth singer must be never do a duet with Robert Smith. Even though his voice is far from the instrument it once was, it's still like saturated technicolor compared to the monochromatic palette of Mayberry. There is very little variation in it to my ears. Her lyrics when I can make them out seem interesting, but you get no sense she's singing about such dark stuff from the sound of her voice.

I would argue pretty strongly that the contrast between the timbre of her voice and the subject matter of the lyrics are intrinsic to CHVRCHES' appeal

also how is Robert's voice "far from the instrument it once was"?

OK maybe "far from" is too harsh, but just the usual effects of aging, particularly on the upper register. He reels it back in when in the old days he would have gone for it.

Well yeah, Robert is not Dennis DeYoung or anything

surprised the Lindsey Buckingham and Poppy albums didn’t even crack the top 100. both had pretty vocal support in their respective ILM threads. i loved and voted for both (although i will admit the second half of Lindsey Buckingham drops off p hard)

Subset of ilmers who vote in this poll is not representative of the whole board for a bunch of reasons

I don't think I'll bother next year tbh.

Brad, did you listen to the Rachika Nayar album that should have placed in this poll? It has some affinities with emo, it's a really lovely album.

It is here, if you haven't listened to it.

i voted for the poppy EP which was much better than the album but her 2020 album only just made the 77 so not too surprising

I wish I liked a band today as much as I liked The Cure

i actually preferred the poppy album to the ep, but i gather im in the minority. i thought the new stuff was a big step up from the 2020 album. less zany genre switching but way stronger hooks

Dan S, have you heard FACS?

https://wearefacs.bandcamp.com/music

^Weirdly, I ended up seeing them open for Metz (w Preoccupations) next door at the one gig I've seen in two year during this brief window between lockdowns in December. They were p good.

I don't think anyone else posted an Apple Music playlist. Here is one, a bit late but perhaps still useful to some:

https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/ilm-top-77-albums-2021/pl.u-WabZZqafvvXWxV

back from a lovely holiday and time to resolve some cognitive dissonance that's arisen due to my listening choices on the way home - ah, reality, etc

so this CHVRCHES album then

i have given it the most open-hearted listen i possibly can. i have read the breathless praise by numerous ilxors whom i respect and who clearly listen to plenty of music. i really want to like it. but it's a magic-eye thing and i haven't got the knack. to me, this is track after track of midtempo minor-key 'drama pop' with each melody as predictable as the last, every vocal delivered in exactly the same affectless manner, and every production choice geared towards a sort of shiny synth-rock soup that, over the course of forty minutes, diminishes markedly in impact.

what's wrong with me? what am i missing? should i not have preceded it with the new Black Dresses and thus given it an impossible level of pop intensity to live up to? is ILM a deep cell of CHVRCHES superfans? is there a recipe for pop that CHVRCHES have perfected, but a recipe that only a certain sort of pop gourmand would truly understand? idk help me here, because we're gonna keep running into this wall

You could always just not listen to it

lol DJP otm, see also

Can You Force Yourself To Like A Record Through Blunt-Force Repetition?

it's my fault for calling imago out i guess, i regret it

i will add

that 'nightmares' has a good coda

it's not something i would have really expected you to love, it's just impeccably made pop-rock but not something that's going to seem interesting or exciting to someone who isn't already sympathetic to what they're going for

it occupies fairly similar territory to the 1975 really, just more focused & more goth. there's even the blue nile tribute track i've been wanting the 1975 to make forever

I salute your trying, imago. Sometimes it’s just impossible to get there.

(I don’t think I’ve ever heard the band in question. Eventually.)

but the 1975 at their best gain power from being stylistically all over the place, and making these big sprawling unpredictable albums that work pop-rock angles in hypermodern, unusual ways

are CHVRCHES doing...that too? just in a way that's subtler?

as I say I am massively sympathetic to some of their ingredients (the cure and aereogramme being associated acts, and garbage, whose first album is absolutely my shit!) and How Not To Drown is indeed really good, but I can't bring the rest into focus...yet

not really, which is why i wouldn't have expected you to love it

If anything about this debate was useful for me it was when Brad highlighted their emo influences so matter-of-factly—a connection I'd never made myself—which explains why I like almost nothing about them. Not that I needed a reason, but it bothered me not to have one.

the CHVRCHES album is more mining one vein to superb effect imo - I also would not guess imago would like it based on what I usually see you champion

(added the apple playlist to the OP)

incoming: more of number 41:

PLAY WITH THE CHANGES REMIXED

ARRIVES SEPTEMBER 16TH

CLICK THE LINK TO PRE-ORDER NOW🦋 https://t.co/MLsvZnHKx4 pic.twitter.com/jSBoCtoKBO

— R O J O (@Rochelle_Jordan) July 26, 2022