ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2016

“Siempre Es Viernes En Mi Corazon” was m my #1. Slight on first listen, contains multitudes thereafter

"Work From Home" is such a solid pop song, which on the one hand is why I didn't vote for it bc it never really transcended 7/10, but on the other hand it meant it never really got old no matter how many times I heard it. Def deserves to be here in a ubiquitous-sound-of-2016 way.

Fifth Harmony's album was pretty good too, it was mostly "mustardwave and tropical house a year behind the times" but there were some really good songs there. My personal keeper was the Japan-only bonus track "Big Bad Wolf" which has been scrubbed in non-sped-up form from most of the internet for no reason? Snappy percussion and artificially elongated harmonies and some absolutely brilliant disco bass coming in on the hook

"mustardwave and tropical house a year behind the times" lol

hah so nice to see "Broccoli" here

love wfh and all the oppression it stand for

blow a kiss fire a gun all we need is somebody to lean in

I'll have to check out that Fifth Harmony album, because "mustardwave and tropical house a year behind the times" sounds great! Voted for Work From Home as well.

Work From Home is great but it always felt like the raw material for a 2012-era Funkystepz remix that never came.

I fuck with Broccoli and Chance and that Young Thug track is actually pretty enjoyable but god there are a lot of nasal rappers around right now.

YG is like hearing the voice of Moses in comparison.

Is it nasally so much as wobbly-voiced? It bothers me as well, it's weird how 2 Chainz feels like a relief from all the singsonginess in the Chance song

lol xp yes

wow that many people fuck w/ work from home?

I never warmed to "Work From Home." The repetition of"work," as on Rihanna's hit, is the year's least appealing hook.

http://i.imgur.com/6ny94VT.jpg

36 ANGEL OLSEN “Sister” [240 points, 8 votes]
https://youtu.be/-mIA1r2ZELU

I like this album but singling out tracks feels weird/wrong

thought this track was the standout but yeh this album as a whole flows p nicely

So is this one of those Olsen sisters? This is pretty neat, though I still don't understand why all the indie rock female vocalists have to do that voice that sounds like they're halfway between being detached and falling asleep.

Though I guess indie male vocalists do it too, sorry for being needlessly gendered. It just sounds weird, like if you're so tired that you have yawn all the time, maybe come back to the studio the next day after a proper 8 hour sleep?

So is this one of those Olsen sisters?

<3

I'm liking Angel Olsen less and less with each release. I really wanted to like this but it failed to reach me, with the exception maybe of 'Shut Up and Kiss Me'. I miss when she was all eerie and hysterical on Half Way Home - that was a beautiful album.

oh look tuomas is telling women how to sing again

xposts lol

all the indie rock female vocalists

This is really a bit much

Love the first half of My Woman. The rest is just sort of nothing.

Yeah, sorry for that stupid generalisation, that's why I added the correction in the next post. But it certainly seems like a prominent style many indie singers (male ones too) do.

i think this song is gorgeous (and i guess that means "shut up kiss me" will be top 20?) but yeah it feels weird to isolate as a track

My Woman is a great album. Sister was my initial highlight when I first listened to it. Her delivery of, "All my life I thought I'd change" is so perfect and so moving.

great album imo, but yeah wouldn't have been able to pull a song off it for tracks purposes

I don't really agree that she sounds asleep or detached in any case. I thing her singing voice is really strong - she's got this whole wavering Skeeter Davis thing going on. It's just that I think the songs on My Woman lack interesting melodic arcs throughout.

the album weirdly didn't really do anything for me beyond those two songs

It's just that I think the songs on My Woman lack interesting melodic arcs throughout.

― tangenttangent, Wednesday, January 25, 2017 2:22 PM (fourteen seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this was ultimately why I could't get into Angel Olsen's debut; I didn't try with this but "Sister" feels like more of the same, (non-)melodically

i like her band though xpost

I find the arrangements pretty beige as well, like the songwriting could well be amazing but the music is so bland

all the indie rock female vocalists

I believe Tuomas the rock connoisseur is referring to the Blink 182 song by the same name?

can't wait for Tuomas to hear Whitney (assuming they place at all)

I feel much the same about Angel Olsen as I do about Sharon van Etten, I want to like her music but it's let down by the arrangements even when I like the song itself.

this was ultimately why I could't get into Angel Olsen's debut

Definitely try 'The Waiting' and 'Free' from Half Way Home if you're interested in hearing more of her - those songs really go places.

can't wait for Tuomas to hear Whitney (assuming they place at all)

― nashwan, Wednesday, January 25, 2017 7:24 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh god ew no

my favorite angel olsen sound was the hushed 'white fire'/'enemy'/etc one and the new record kind of abandoned that angle so i couldn't get into it. i thought it was an important foil to the sloppy rockers

http://i.imgur.com/w2PQj14.jpg

35 RÖYKSOPP FT. SUSANNE SUNDFØR “Never Ever” [259 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]
https://youtu.be/JDBzeM6KLlQ

ha here's something i voted for

I find the arrangements pretty beige as well, like the songwriting could well be amazing but the music is so bland

― lex pretend, Wednesday, January 25, 2017 9:24 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm this song is on its face basically unobjectionable, but serving up another watered down version of Roy Orbison feels p inessential in 2016. I don't think I'll ever wrap my head around how conservative indie/rock is now, and nostalgia for the late 80s /early 90s version of 50s music is partic baffling. that space rock song on the first day too: my roommate in the 90s had literally hundreds of albums like that and it was fairly derivative then. maybe I'm kidding myself but I feel like Bardo Pond at least had a little more grit

To be fair to Tuomas, I initially thought Angel Olsen was "one of those Olsen sisters" too. I think because I knew there was a third, more 'credible' Olsen sister out there somewhere.

xpost lol, which is more ILxbaity: Röyksopp ft Susanne Sundfør or a Robyn GAS remix?

I don't think I'll ever wrap my head around how conservative indie/rock is now

You're not listening to the right indie rock.

the synth tones in this are basically irresistible to me

junior boys ft miguel coming 2017

Looks like St Etienne didn't release anything this year xp to emil.y

in case anyone wanted to go there there's an 18-minute dub of this song https://youtu.be/4iX8tZTv0yg

Yeah, I wanted to like the Angel Olsen record, but it sort of felt like every song had the same verse melody

the college station I advise has every Olsen song from the new album and it drives me mad

*on rotation, I should say

Royksopp still around? oh