ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2021

Judging on point totals I think you might be right JF. I think I'm looking at six placing, including all my top 3! But a few of those could def land tomorrow instead of today

Interesting that all the milquetoast stuff is coming in at the very lower reaches. Maybe the stretch in the middle will actually be surprising this year instead of the inverse!

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever)

Or maybe it'll be milquetoast all the way through!

Shh you'll jinx it

ooh voted for heisei no oto
absolute joy of a comp

I like that the poll's open to all sorts of releases fwiw. Found another great archival comp in "Ritmo Fantasía: Balearic Spanish Synth-Pop, Boogie And House (1982-1992)" when randomly playing nominations

Love Hayley Williams, but didn't love this album. It's not bad or anything, just didn't make much of an impression on me enough to go back to it after the first few listens. Her debut grew on me a lot.

https://i.imgur.com/H28sJQH.jpg
73. Spellling - The Turning Wheel
135 points / 5 votes / 1 #1 vote
Video from the album: “Turning Wheel”

wow, very low! didn't vote this but it's decent. fantano giving it a 10 gave it a LOT of exposure tho

ok first track on Heisei (the streaming version) is amazing, I have to check out the Music from Memory thread

I have mixed feelings about comps but am generally for their inclusion. I try not to vote for them myself unless it's something absolutely amazing and completely new to me, and even then only if I'm running short on proper new releases. A couple of comps appearing in the rundown is fine, they can be great introductions to stuff, but I would be worried if we started placing more than one or two.

lol @ the picture misspelling Spellling

Wonder if it got spelllchecked.

I think I was conflating Spelling with Shopping... was not expecting the heavy Kate Bush vibes from this.

For the moment I am just looking at the images

Got to say I adore the albums image style even more than I did the one for the tracks. Adding a little class to the proceedings, thank you Moka.

For anyone who is using Tidal I am keeping a playlist synced with the Spotify one here: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/262ed964-3b7d-4c6a-9d7f-2dde00ea6a85

Oooh it’s SPELLLING no wonder I couldn’t find any thread discussing her.

Here’s the thread:

Spellling - haunted art pop soul

I vaguely remember giving the Spellling album a once-over a few months ago, but there were too many Sgt. Peppers-ish moments that rubbed me the wrong way, even if the rest of what she's doing is pretty great/original. I feel like this lives in the same universe all the waxed mustache stuff from the early part of the last decade, except it doesn't talk to the neighbors.

Thanks emily!

https://i.imgur.com/98w7fbw.jpg
72. Emeka Ogboh - Beyond the Yellow Haze
136 points / 4 votes
Song from the album: “Everydaywehustllin”
Emeka Ogboh

quite enjoying the Manchester Orchestra opening track, way more than Bed Head, lol

No clue about this, but "Everydaywehustlin" is a vibe.

okay what's all this then?

I really liked Mazy Fly but didn't feel the new album at all re: Spellling

nice dubby ambient field recording soup, i liked it but it never sank in enough for me

(linked to the tidal playlist in first post)

first 3 tracks of the MO album are really strong lmao, what is wrong with me

I liked the Emeka Ogboh album - very mellow atmospheric stuff

spellling album is my first vote. brillliant colllection of witchy pop songs

first 3 tracks of the MO album are really strong lmao, what is wrong with me

― imago, Monday, February 7, 2022 9:35 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

finally

Bed Head makes way more sense in context too

fantano giving it a 10 gave it a LOT of exposure tho

― imago, Monday, February 7, 2022 11:04 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol, didn't realize this happened. makes me question my own taste, life, and reality itself

haha

even a needle drop tells the right time etc

JF and DAM otm re: Spellling. Loved Mazy Fly, but aside a couple of highlights (Revolution, The Future), I found the overall sheen and theatricality of this album a little distracting.

This comp looks exciting!

manchester orchestra are something that i feel like i could like

ftr this has not been your opinion ever.

it is now!

this album is significantly better than anything else i've heard from them, you should try it lol

Fine

I should be following the rollout but instead I'm just grooving to Heisei No Oto, great find

I found the overall sheen and theatricality of this album a little distracting.

that's funny, i felt the theatricality in 'mazy fly' too, and that's one of the things that drew me to spellling and a big reason why i love both albums. "real fun" (from mazy) is basically a song where a disney villain reveals how truly evil she is, and i love it lol

I’d need to listen to them both back to back to remember what I really think the difference is, but my sense is that Mazy Fly was a little more dreamily psychedelic and that’s what drew me to it in the first place.

meanwhile this emeka ogboh is something i've never even heard of

Me neither. Its cool though

PSYCHED

i loved the Japanese Left-Field Pop comp, awesome to see it place here

I'm looking over my ballot, and I'm expecting three of my votes to place. Would be nice to get more, but think I'm mostly on my own with the others.

https://i.imgur.com/wN1wWgf.jpg
71. Eris Drew - Quivering in Time
136 points / 6 votes
Song from the album: “Time to Move Close”
Bobbins 2021

this album is significantly better than anything else i've heard from them, you should try it lol

― imago, Monday, 7 February 2022 16:49 (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Foiled again. It’s those tragic 70s chords. This sounds like other things I like. It’s very spacey.