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

cover looks a Sam Prekop photo

Basically what I'm saying is that Arctic Monkeys as I know them are pretty bad, and I'm not sure why you'd expect them to place well in an ilx poll!

yeah they're basically austere lounge-pop now, nothing like the first few albums

this javiera mena album has a nice kpop bite to it which i'm v much enjoying

Great intro!

The previous Javiera Mena album was a disappointment and she kind of fell off my radar after that. I only checked this one out after hearing the single on the playlist and seeing Monotony campaign for it. It's really great and was a late addition to my list. Nice to see her make it.

I thought the Arctic Monkeys album would be much higher. I heard it a few times at work and just thought it sounded like a bunch of Richard Hawley B-sides. I don't think I'll ever get the appeal of that band.

6 votes for =76 doesn't fill me with much hope for the majority of my votes tho

Oh, more like whatever Alex Turner's side project band was? Something about Shadow Puppets? I wasn't into that either, tbh.

xps

Oh no! I didn’t do that album cover! lol as I explained in the voting thread:

For the album porting of the polls I always use the actual album covers with a template for info. This year the idea of using AI for both the album and tracks crossed my mind. But, using AI for the tracks proved to be too much time consuming and I wouldn’t have been able to start this poll today if done that way.

as i say, i wasn't sure about this direction at first but the songs are much stronger this time, something like 'sculptures of anything goes' was unthinkable even one album ago

anyway i'm not extremely invested in defending the arctic monkeys but given ilm leanings it's just surprising to see it this low. that's allllll

their last album came in at #30 in 2018

6 votes for =76 doesn't fill me with much hope for the majority of my votes tho

― nxd

I'm feeling this. I thought there might be a few surprise entries from my ballot low down but if it takes at least 6 votes to get in then, bleh, probably not.

I'm guessing there will be a lot of "shockingly low" comments as it was a pretty strong year overall.

The Arctic Monkeys album is a realization of what attempted on the last album, which I'd dismissed at the time and now I get, thanks to The Car.

I get not wanting to listen to them now.

Using AI was fun and all and there’s some results in that poll that I like even better than the actual artwork, but next year - if I’m around and invited to the eoy team - I’ll spend more time in the template instead of fooling around with ai lol.

not big on the monkeys but have checked these records out. shocking it was 4 years between?!

i hadn't heard of Mena and I'm enjoying this

154 points is a more important variable than 6 votes, imo. Something with 2 second place votes could stomp it.

https://i.imgur.com/FOHolSF.png
#75: Suede - Autofiction - 154 points - 7 votes
Suede

Contently changing, constantly evolving and refusing to commit to one sound, Suede sound totally rejuvenated, opening a fresh chapter in the ever-evolving story of the band.

Already described in interviews by vocalist and songwriter-in-chief Brett Anderson as the band’s punk record, Autofiction represents a vast departure musically from Suede’s last record, 2018’s The Blue Hour. Yet at the same time, it easily identifies as a Suede album.

I've been hearing two Arctic Monkeys songs on the radio, one sounds like Spacehog and the other sounds like Supergrass. Maybe 11-year-old me would've liked them.

Oh wait, I might be mixing up this scoring with other polls'scoring. xp

Moka - having played around with AI images a tiny bit myself I can imagine it would take way more time than your normal way of doing things! There's so much tweaking you have to do to get a good result.

Suede brought it so hard live this year. First time I'd ever seen them.

Arctic Monkeys, Suede - what year are we living in?? (NB I have no idea if this Suede album is good and I could definitely believe it is.)

nu-suede has been amazingly high quality for a reunion group but this was a clear step down from their previous two imo. will give it another go mind

#1 vote gives 50 points iirc. So for something to place at this level you need to have over 4 highly placed votes.

My albums ballot was crazy short this year, but I'm glad I made room for Suede. It got them in!

I thought there might be a few surprise entries from my ballot low down but if it takes at least 6 votes to get in then, bleh, probably not.

― emil.y, Monday, 30 January 2023 15:00 (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

btw as we're here emil.y it's a shame i only discovered it this late but that 2021 MXLX album is insanely great, would have been high up my ballot (although not as high as his sideproject Won't from the same year)

Moka - having played around with AI images a tiny bit myself I can imagine it would take way more time than your normal way of doing things! There's so much tweaking you have to do to get a good result.

― emil.y

Yeah! When I started it seemed like a good idea but trying to get 77 decent images with all those variations is not that fun when you end up with 1,000+ images to choose from. I ended up manually editing a few that looked good but had details I didn’t like.

It’s weird… for some tracks I ended up with several images I loved in the first attempts and for others I had to keep changing styles and prompts dozens of times to get something that looked good and made sense

Woah, I did not expect to ever see Suede in one of our end of year polls.

Great album. This whole reunion has been such a triumph for them.

https://i.imgur.com/kUUiRs0.png
#74: The Garden - Horseshit on Route 66 - 162 points - 4 votes
rolling twenty-something RYM/internet stuff like hyperpop, hypnagogic pop, hexD, vaporwave, dungeon synth, cloud rap, nightcore, black midi, future funk, dariacore, seapunk, blown out anime voices, br

Horseshit on Route 66 is as fun and as it is experimental, as The Garden usually gets with their hallmark mix of metal, punk, and other alternative sounds.

Overall, Horseshit on Route 66 is an album that reminds us there’s always room to explore,
especially in a genre with a history of puritanical self-preservation.

lol this was one of things on the nominations list I thought was made up

nu-suede has been amazingly high quality for a reunion group but this was a clear step down from their previous two imo. will give it another go mind

― imago,

I strongly disagree. Even the mix doesn't clobber me upside the head.

just missed my ballot, really enjoyed this record

i didn't adore this but i uh know some people who do

Arctic Monkeys, Suede - what year are we living in??

Bloodsports and Autofiction are the two nu-Suede albums I feel the most affection for, but they're all high quality.

Bloodsports and Autofiction are the two nu-Suede albums I feel the most affection for, but they're all high quality.

― ⓓⓡ (Johnny Fever)

Yeah, these are my two favourites too. The Blue Hour is the only one that hasn't fully clicked yet.

Wow- was not expecting to see The Garden place! If nothing else from my ballot places, I will be happy with these results.

https://i.imgur.com/1NAlbSk.png
#72: Ravyn Lenae - HYPNOS - 162 points - 6 votes
Ravyn Lenae - HYPNOS

What she’s taken from her classical training pours effortlessly over Hypnos, an album that fits in some unknown space-time continuum, and gives Lenae a path forward as a unique breakout voice in R&B.

Hypnos is a colourful and other-worldly debut, aligning with its obvious influences but also way beyond that, capturing the same unconventional essence as Janet Jackson in her ’90s prime.

Much as I am a fan of hypergarbage and snotty punk kids, The Garden is just not really for me. It's got too much of the nu-metal and ska punk influence that's floating around now (one of the things that turned me off the Gecs after a while).

I don't think I've even heard of the Ravyn Lenae one - any stans want to wax lyrical about it?

if I include Javiera M in this, so far we’ve gone back to 2011, 2001 and 1991. Next up, it’s Simple Minds!

Lol. Tears for Fears might actually place though

i actually didn't hate the Simple Minds album!

Though I don't think I voted for them, The Garden was a major find for me in this year's nominations. Will be keeping an eye on everything they do in the future.

"Freight Yard" is the definite stand out but there's lots of other hits on here, like Squished Face Slick Pig Living in a Smokey City.

I think I've probably voted for every The Garden album since "Mirror Might Steal Your Charm" in these polls. So this feels good. I also somehow missed the fact that the Arctic Monkeys sound like a totally different band now. This song is sounding pretty good.

You won't find much contemporary classical or tejano or C-Pop or Norwegian rap in the mix

or american rap!

https://i.imgur.com/v7iC0zh.png
#72: Burna Boy - Love, Damini - 162 points - 6 votes
here comes the AFRICAN GIANT / Burna Boy (2019)

An album for the ages, as well as being an awards season shoo-in, it is sure to succeed in doing precisely what Burna told Billboard his music is all about – “bringing people who don’t even speak the same language together to dance.

Despite its panoply of styles and personnel, the album remains consistently interesting while still adhering to the Afro-fusion vibe that is his hallmark.

I don't think I've even heard of the Ravyn Lenae one - any stans want to wax lyrical about it?

― emil.y, Monday, January 30, 2023 10:29 AM

I was a huge proponent of her track "Sticky" whichever year that dropped, but I only skimmed Hypnos once and intended to go back for a more thorough listen. I guess today's the day.

Sticky made it into our top 2017 tracks iirc?

Just checked #66 in 2018

I was today years old when I learned that Senior co-wrote and co-produced Born This Way...

if senior was born this way, does that mean that junior was born that way too?

(sorry, we’re having a bit of a lull on the tracks rollout thread)

I just learned that a month or so ago!

their sound is clearly junior boys' own thing