ILM's 2022 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / VOTING THREAD

Here we go!

Go here to vote: https://forms.gle/r3QsS9HG6vk2ShDP6

Voting ends at MIDNIGHT PST on Friday, January 20th, 2022.

The procedure is simple: enter your tracks and album ballots (up to 25 items on each), one item per line, in the appropriate fields below. Please copy each line directly from the nominations list; do not number your ballot.

You can choose one of three ballot types, which determine how points are allocated to each item you vote for:

(1) Weighted: The first item on your ballot receives 50 points, the second receives 48 points, and so on, until the 25th item receives 2 points.

(2) Unweighted: Each item on your ballot receives 26 points.

(3) Mixed: To submit a mixed ballot, you must divide your ballot in two with an extra blank line. The upper portion of the ballot will be treated as weighted, with the first item receiving 50 points, and so on. The lower portion will be treated as unweighted, in that all items will receive the same number of points. The score allocated to items in the unweighted portion is calculated as 26 minus the number of items in the weighted portion (this is so that any weighted, unweighted or mixed ballot consisting of 25 items will allocate a total of exactly 650 points).

TRACK NOMINATIONS
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E-PAaV4KHrTPi5stkShDtxoeRrdEdqnX_pRji_mbADM/

ALBUM NOMINATIONS
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pyael8EjndQ-2I61i5JWTwCa0SNzUm_Q3xlPKcWua0I/

PLAYLISTS
Tracks - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6KkJodsMzHIz4XIXq1f8ro
Albums - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45AL48bS1jzEgT7xqSZiXq

IT’S TIME

VOTE SHAPES

Is this the first year where M.I.A. has released an album and ilm completely ignored it? Granted, she flushed all remaining good will she had in 2022, but there are usually some reliable "art not artist" nominators. lol

Shit. Missed the noms as I've been busy. I was going to do it today

If this is allowed to be a campaigning thread, I hope that everyone placing Beyonce's house album on their lists also find it in their souls to give a slow (even a lower one) to Kerri Chandler's first full length LP in a very long time.

That seems to imply that Beyoncé and Kerri Chandler have something in common, or that people who don't also listen to Kerri Chandler are choosing Beyoncé as their token house pick. Obviously I'm not discouraging anyone here, it sounds like a gentle offer, but also like a conditionality, and what's next ? Only vote for Björk's album if you've heard other gabber albums, Rosalía if you're deeply versed in any genre she brushes, or the Beatles if you're versed in Indian classical lol ?

Probably it's a non-debate by now though and not really worth discussing, so ignore my attempt to stir and happy voting everyone.

Shit. Missed the noms as I've been busy. I was going to do it today

YYYAAAASSSSSSS!!!!!!

just hit shuffle on the tracks playlist. gonna try to let it do its damn thing until i hit the finish line.

xp lol the noms start at the same time every year and the voting starts at the same time every year and the rollout starts at more or less the same time every year, and it's all been that way since at least 2010 and maybe before that

xps The MIA album being ok and better than her previous one (I'd be very surprised if that one was discussed the end of that year) doesn't mean it's anything approaching AOTY.

Yeah, but out of 1100 tracks nominated she got zero. We usually see her get nominated even if she's bad. It's the ilm way. Or was.

Please don't register this as me complaining. I'm not. Just observing.

Remember a couple years ago when we all loved the Weird Al album and yet no one remembers to nom it?

(Not that this is at all the same thing)

And as I say too often, there’s simply TOO MUCH MUSIC and stuff will inevitably be forgotten. I’m sure that all the LP and track noms cover barely a fraction of music released last year.

I don't have any trouble grasping that there are 1100 better songs from 2022 than the passable "Beep". But point taken.

Voted

You all have 18 more days

THERE'S A TAYLOR SWIFT SONG ON HERE THAT I LOVE 100% WITHOUT RESERVATION

what's really good?!

Will there be a separate CAMPAIGNING thread or do we do it in this one?

And if in this one, I assume no embeds?

I never got involved in the polls in the earlier ILX days (really until the last couple), but I think the playlist is my favorite part. Looking forward to going through it.

okay i completely missed the dennis bovell smile remix - definitely voting for that!

I have the albums playlist on shuffle and so far my big discovery is the Gabor Lazar album. I remember hearing it, maybe pre-release, but totally forgot about it. I love some (presumably) NI Razor jams, always.

Gwenno is really lovely too

wow is the whole real lies album this good!??

shuffling through the albums playlist is pretty crazy, a real infinite jukebox feel (some big sonic through lines too though)

The Strings of Sao Domingos, ooh

the Real Lies album is incredible and totally underrated / untalked about.

xp Gabor’s been on a wild roll of quality the last few years, latest one was great but the preceding couple of records were even tastier (imho), would’ve killed to have heard that material in a club/live setting..

the Real Lies album is incredible and totally underrated / untalked about.

― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Monday, January 2, 2023 2:24 PM

yeah, wow. i wasn’t even going to do an albums ballot. reconsidering.

the Real Lies album is incredible and totally underrated / untalked about.

― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Monday, January 2, 2023 2:24 PM

yeah, wow. i wasn’t even going to do an albums ballot. reconsidering.

random observation: i've been shuffling the tracks playlist all day and have heard two songs so far that sample the "amen brother" break.

in 2022.

wild.

like... will it ever get old?

no. no it will not.🤘🏻

~sorry to spam this thread i will stop just tell me stfu~

biggest revelation from today's listening is that tops are fucking excellent. i saw them open for king krule years ago and they were good! i didn't have enough money to visit their merch table and subsequently forgot about them in the shuffle of my brain. but they're still around and their more recent material is great.

The Amen break is evergreen, it's never gone away, that doesn't phase me. I did note a whole lot of '90s house influence though, so many Korg M1 organs.

campaign in here. go for it. i will be.

I nearly nominated another Aquarian track that would've upped the Amen further.

It's 303s that have seemed like the biggest revival to me in recent years tho.

also nearly nominated Tops - 'Future Waits' just missed my cut.

I had heard that Tops song a while back but forgot about it; will have to vote for it now. Vaguely reminds me of some of the longer Belle & Sebastian tracks like "Your Cover's Blown."

It might be gauche to promote a jokey song from a TV show but I nominated "Rock Your Boy's Body" from Righteous Gemstones. When I heard it at the end of its episode I wondered what was this deranged, moody pop song they found and subsequently found out it was written by Edi Patterson in the voice of her unhinged character on the show. The whispered "Hungry like a monkey/pussy gonna take a bite" has been popping up in my head for about a year.

2022 probably marked the start of a new golden era of girl groups in K-pop, artistically and commercially, so I hope we finally get some K-pop back in the top 77. For one of the most popular scenes in pop it's been absent on this poll for years.

NewJeans might be the best situated with their effortless cool and earwormy soundbites -- Hype Boy was the highlight of the year for a long time for me, but the vibe-y, arresting late release Ditto may have matched it.

Another contender is Le Sserafim's playful reggaeton-inspired Antifragile . Another group debuting in 2022 to immediate popularity.

The other track I'll single out is "Love Farewell" by Jake Xerxes Fussell. My joking description of him is he's like the NYRB Classics of folk music in that he finds and revamps forgotten songs of the past in spiffy new editions. The whole album is good as usual but this one gradually revealed itself as the prettiest and most soothing tune I heard all year. Features background vocals by Will Oldham.

OK, one more: "Kraut" by Lady Aicha & Pisko Cranes Original Fulu Mziki of Kinsasha is the most slamming song I've heard in a while. You'll be fired up and sending emails like a motherfucker when you hear this.

Yah "Kraut" is the standout on that album and is incredible. Many thanks to morrisp for the Momma noms. Heavy Yuck vibes, which is very my thing.

thanks Chris, I don't think i noticed that Gemstones song at the time. But if we couldn't get "Misbehavin'" to place in 2019, well ...

My big discovery from EOY season was "Los Aparatos" by El Alfa.
The fact that they didn't do the video as an Animaniacs-style cartoon adventure is a huge missed opportunity IMO. But regardless, this one has been stuck in my head for weeks.

ty chris! paying special attention to those!

as for me, i picked up the shuffle where i left off yesterday afternoon and the first track was this george clanton remix of vitesse x's "us ephemeral" and holy fucken FUCK i just played it three times in a row! wasn't going to do a weighted ballot, but i might have to now.

(and yet _another_ amen sample!)

People should give k-pop one more chance this year. I agree on Ditto: I heard the hype about NewJeans, but the first few songs I listened to didn't do much for me. Ditto, though, is wonderful. K-pop song of the year is Red Velvet - Feel My Rhythm for me, though, which uses a classical sample absolutely amazingly.

2022 was won by Nigeria, though, and even though Naija-pop isn't traditionally thought of as album-music, there were great long-plays from Rema, Cruel Santino and (especially) Asake this year.

Also campaigning a bit for Denmark: It was on sean's list of best tracks, it's another great sample, Gilli - Baiana. Same sample was used in two British songs this year, by Nia Archive and Hazey, but I think Gilli (and Nicki Pooyandeh, the producer who produces at least 25% of Danish hip hop hits in any given year) got there first.

That Tops EP sounds like indie Steely Dan x Cyndi Lauper or something.

yep, i got 80s fleetwood mac vibes from it. really refreshing!

xp Gabor’s been on a wild roll of quality the last few years, latest one was great but the preceding couple of records were even tastier (imho), would’ve killed to have heard that material in a club/live setting..

― bingo dabber acid, Monday, January 2, 2023 4:28 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Btw if you like this, then I highly recommend you check out the Church Andrews and Matt Davies album I nominated, sonically they're two sides of the same coin in my mind (also has incredible live drumming that sounds like it can't possibly be live).

Saer has a point when he calls for fewer nominations. Forty of your own is a lot when you're voting for fifty and the goal is to build a common list. It could be a little artificial if your ballot can be max 50-60% of your own nominates though.
I'd like to add "More conversation !" to his suggestion. One cool thing that we had in 2022 was the midyear thread, for a bit of shameless preview and sharing. Or people sharing their top in their specialty genre at the end of the year. Otherwise maybe the conversations tend to be a bit siloed, or long lists of YT links, and our limited attention spans keep being our worst enemy.

don't have much to say and just wish i managed to be active here more of the year (maybe this time!), but...

maybe a rolling 2023 creme de la creme thread?

lol i dunno

mostly think it's working fine.

that would be a very contentious thread

there will be conversations about the 77 i am sure

yes it'd be silly and largely besides the point until year end nonsense time

maybe if we add avatars we could attract more zoomers

Do we still do a "Summer Jams" thread? That always worked nicely as a mid-year tracks touchpoint

We do, but it's been basically DOA the last few years imo.

Last year we had this thread: 2022 AOTY So Far. And for a few years prior we had a "rolling favorite tracks & albums YEAR" thread.

I discovered one of my noms via the Summer Jams thread. We also have rolling genre threads, and obv. threads for artists/albums that folks are especially passionate about. This is how I discover music throughout the year; no way could/would I "cram" via the massive nomination list.

I try to listen to every track that places on the EOY poll, and it's very rare there's one that makes me think – "I would have voted for this if I had known about it..." So I guess the system works for me.

don't have much to say and just wish i managed to be active here more of the year (maybe this time!), but...

maybe a rolling 2023 creme de la creme thread?

lol i dunno

mostly think it's working fine.

― maf you one two (maffew12)

So… I was thinking: I really enjoyed listening to songs others ilxors queued on turntable/plug/outloud but it was live so you had to be there to queue songs and there was no easy way to archive and listen later. Would there be interest in a “ilm listening club” in the form of a private, collaborative spotify playlist? Only rules would be to not delete other people’s songs and only post one track before another ilxor adds another, so if there’s at least two people sharing back and forth the playlist keeps rolling…

There could even be two playlists: one exclusively of 2023 recommendations and another without year constrictions…

Idk I’ve discovered some amazing tracks via this year’s noms playlist and get lost in the individual rolling threads so if several ilxors are interested in participating it could turn out into something great.

Come up with some guidelines to ensure one person doesn't add 1000 similar songs, and I'd absolutely be interested/participate

I like the "only post one track before another ilxor adds another" but feels like something like one track per poster per week/day would be helpful to keep it manageable. If it gets really big, it'll cease to be useful.

Yeah I mean I was saying wait your turn for at least one person to post assuming there’s not much participation so the playlist doesn’t die a boring death but if there’s idk at least 8 people sharing tracks then yeah, oversharing could be a problem… the rule should then be maybe limit yourself to one song per week or something so the rest and the more inactive members have time to do a “weekly catch-up”…

It also helps having these sort of restrictions to pick carefully what you want to queue… quality over quantity

Idk just an idea and it should be more polished but if there’s enough interest we can all chime in on how to make it work.

There were rolling collaborative 'anything goes' playlists back in the day and tho prone to chaos they mostly worked well. Collab. playlists on Spotify now seem to be invite-only so it should be easy enough to manage and worth a go.

would participate! good idea. ultimately I'm not looking to change any board stuff around for shameless last minute crammers like me

hope to poke my head into the usual Rolling threads more this year

I like the idea of a current year listening club starting after the polls with a thread where people comment on latest additions (offhand or Tim F style). I would aim for 3-7 songs per week, either on first-come first-served basis, or people mention when they have a song they want to post and Moka adds it.

I wouldn't do all-time anything goes, but it could be very interesting for a specific era / location / broad genre. Say, pre-1950s music, or a travelogue through lesser-known countries / subcultures.

They've not crossed my path before, but really enjoying the De Lux album so thanks to whoever nominated that. Scratching that itch I didn't know I had for more 80s influenced synth-pop a la Cut Copy

Was me. De Lux have put a bunch of good tracks out over the years and the singer's quite a Byrne-soundalike at times.

Sooo impatient.

hey emil.y, huge congrats on slum of legs making christgau's year end list!!! coupla years late but...

almost fell off my chair when i saw that :)))

Haha yes, we just saw that ourselves. Honestly I feel like if it keeps getting reviews over the years that's no bad thing: screw release-date push, just review us whenever. Half of the band didn't know who Christgau was, while I was like w(°o°)w !

Pretty high up in his list too, so cool

Maybe in ten years there'll be enough interest to finance a luxurious reunion tour (we'd all be hella old so got to have hotels and maybe a foot-spa on the rider).

I like the idea of a current year listening club starting after the polls with a thread where people comment on latest additions (offhand or Tim F style). I would aim for 3-7 songs per week, either on first-come first-served basis, or people mention when they have a song they want to post and Moka adds it.

― Nabozo, Wednesday, January 25, 2023 2:01 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Cosigned. Start it, Moka!

Look forward to that even if i don't totally grasp how it's much different from youtube embeds on a Rolling page

Mostly it'll be nice because it will work on my phone.... i see now in the Flagging app thread that it's not just me who can't see YouTube embeds on that. Will have to try using browser more.

ILM 2023 Listening Club

I feel so bad about not voting for Asake's album "Mr Money With the Vibe" that I'm going to tell my friends to start calling me by its name. In its honour.

I saw that Slum Legs listing, super cool. Christgau's list overall I liked just for its Christgau-ness, he has no compunction about sticking by his old faves — Buck 65, Todd Snider and Tommy Womack all in the top 20. But also still an open ear to catch things here and there.

does Buck 65 sound like Serengeti now or do i have that backwards?

interesting record of buck 65

Psyched

Will try to set up the album poll thread tonight

aag but this Anna Butterss record is so good!

Getting into an albums state of mind, here's the list of winners since 2010:

2010: Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
2011: Destroyer - Kaputt
2012: Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream
2013: Haim - Days Are Gone
2014: D’Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah
2015: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
2016: KING - We Are KING
2017: Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
2018: Low - Double Negative
2019: Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
2020: Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure?
2021: Low - Hey What
2022: ???

2023: Smokey Robinson - GASMS

GASM COOMBES

is there anything else that's theoretically a serious contender for #1 apart from big thief and beyonce?

SZA

my guess as stated above was sudan archives

Real Lies could do it. Beyonce usually comes fourth in our polls and I'd like to see her keep that up.

I miss not being in the team of pollrunners so I could speculate and discover things ilm seems to love that I had no idea they existed along the way.

First time - at least since I’ve been helping behind scenes - when we’ll run albums first and then tracks.

Note regarding my end: For album images I didn’t do too much work this time. I’m using the actual album covers for the image as usualz for the tracks poll I used midjourney A.I. which I thought would save more time but it’s actually more time-consuming than picking and editing already existing images. It was still fun to make and love some of the results I got playing around with it.

If I’m around next year I’ll probably spend more time on the template and ditch a.i. completely.

Results for both polls are great imho, hope you’ll enjoy! See you tomorrow!

Thanks seandalai and forks for all the work!

Looking forward to it, thanks!

Albums then tracks is a good idea, because the tracks rollout has always been the main draw of our EOY polls for me. Albums felt like an epilogue (and, now I guess, a prologue).

Opposite for me!

Not surprising. Don't think there's ever been a year with more tracks ballots than albums ballots, but I could be wrong.

oh hey
ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2022 - 21st Anniversary Edition

JF - there was one year! Found seandalai's graph again, and it looks like it was 2019.

https://i.imgur.com/CyFj3XF.png

These are all fake imo
― rob, Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:25 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

If that's real then duck you ilm and really duck you Richard ducking Dawson
― GK Chessington's World of Adventure (Noodle Vague), Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:25 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

"not" is the fake because ilm wouldn't let a song with a killer guitar solo into the top 77
― na (NA), Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:27 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is funny
― nxd, Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:28 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

one year it would be good to announce the fake entries like a month later
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:32 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ok this Big Thief song is very boring and I can absolutely believe its in the top three.
― Matt DC, Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:33 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is the best top three in ILM history (once corrected)
― opden gnash (imago), Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:34 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

i love ilm
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:36 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

wait is it over
who won
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:44 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't really get Balloon either but I'm glad it makes everyone so happy
― may the force leave us alone (zchyrs), Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:44 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Anybody shd've been higher yeah but Burna just couldn't match the sheer musicality and joy of *checks notes* some plodding clever clever dadfolk dirge
― GK Chessington's World of Adventure (Noodle Vague), Thursday, January 30, 2020 8:50 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

so ILM's #1 is a tune with 10k views on YT and no entry in RYM, amazing guys
― frogbs, Thursday, January 30, 2020 9:48 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

imago comparing [redacted pile of shite] to R Wyatt last night has left me in a black hole of depression and bereft of hope for the future of humanity.
― calzino, Friday, January 31, 2020 11:58 AM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2022: 17th Anniversary Edition