ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2016

The rest isn't quite so blissed-out as this, but the strength of the songs is still there. Try 'Criminal Mystic' - that's the other standout track for me.

It is on Spotify. It isn't about the tune, it's about the SPACE

Olatunji my favorite so far, so SPRIGHTLY.

not really feeling anything posted yet :(

hearing the Olatunji song in a crowded basement club with an excellent soundsystem was one of the musical highlights of my summer. Shame there was an MC who kept barking the 'I don't know about you' part while holding the mic by the mouthpiece. Still, even he didn't ruin it.

I gave the Comet Control album a listen after it placed in the metal poll and thought it was decent but I'm not enough of a fan of that particular sound to ever love something like this. I mean I like Spiritualized's first few albums but I don't really have a hankering for *more* of it.

http://i.imgur.com/rlZLdu4.jpg

68 MIGUEL FT KACEY MUSGRAVES "Waves (Remix)" [174 points, 7 votes]
https://youtu.be/XtS3SyevpvI

a musical hilight of the year for me was sitting next to alfred at p4k while we fanned out to miggy performing waves

Thumbs way up

oh think this is my first vote to place
love this version

beautiful version, I voted for it, who would've thought Kacey remixing Miguel would end up sounding like the xx

Didn't vote for this but yeah this is a great version.

wow

This is a terrible idea on paper and awesome in reality.

Other way round for me

case/lang/veirs album is great, nice to see 'Atomic Number' place though I voted 'Song for Judee'

getting a 'Torn and Frayed' vibe from the Comets track chorus

this is nice. always been hot and cold on miguel but this works really nicely. don't know if i've ever heard the original.

Enjoying the Comet Control. Reminds me of Dragon Turtle and King Black Acid, which is no bad thing.

The Olatunji is great, too. Making me nostalgic for The Gambia (not that that's a particularly safe place to be, right now).

I'd never heard this Waves remix before. This is a brilliant version.

i love the original, one of my favorite tracks from last year. this version is okay but not superior

this is nice. always been hot and cold on miguel but this works really nicely. don't know if i've ever heard the original.

― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin),

uhh have you seen him shirtless with his cat? Hot always hot.

http://i.imgur.com/SdrA75Q.jpg

67 ABRA "Crybaby" [176 points, 7 votes]
https://youtu.be/-I-POWtEJ8U

liked this record, preferred 'rose' out of the two i know of

Hey, Comet Control! I voted for this!

read that as ABBA at first, like wtf is the joke entry doing this early

Great track. Didn't make my ballot, but I really like ABRA's output. Very cool.

that twinkling synth melody bursting in one-and-a-half mins into "Crybaby" is everything, it's so shapeshifting

Princess is a great EP - "Vegas" was actually my favourite song on it but "Crybaby" seemed to be the consensus pick

I like Chance The Rapper okay, but the song is vastly improved if you imagine he's singing 'All night I'm a chicken all night / All night I'm a chicken'

nice, Nylon Strung was my #1! beautiful tune imo, the whole album is easily Underworld's best since beaucoup fish. i like a hundred days off and oblivion with bells, but i think after a couple years of listening that barking is half pretty good, half complete trash.

Atomic Number was my #6, Nighttime Girl was my #7. good list so far!!

was surprised people ITT didn't seem to dig "Nylon Strung" a lot. it's totally gorgeous. though I did vote "Ova Nova" over it - hopefully that one places

Nylon Strung not too bad on earphones just earlier. Not my thing so much but I get how it hits home

Never really managed to get into post-beaucoup fish underworld. I keep trying.

the new one is the first one that has the feel of a peak-era Underworld album to me. i think it helps that it's pretty concise. maybe the work Hyde did with Eno helped too.

"crybaby" is like nu-freestyle. it's perf

"Crybaby" is the only thing on this list so far that i want to spend time with.

oh, sorry, Chance too

i missed the memo on Underworld getting Avicii onboard

wow – I wish The Jukebox had covered it.

haven't felt any of these really except, bizarrely, the psych/prog thing. might listen to full album.

(i like "starboy" enough as radio candy but not nearly enough to have voted for it)

my first impression of abra is that there's something interesting about it (other than the repurposing of 80s freestyle-type instrumentation) but that something about it, maybe the vocals, seem a little too slight?

the emotional obviousness of "nylon strung" is a feature not a flaw

http://i.imgur.com/o7QlVQg.jpg

66 BRANDY CLARK "Girl Next Door" [177 points, 8 votes]
https://youtu.be/HvtzVc--4Y4

xp

i don't hate Avicii! just an observation on first listen

"nylon string" doesn't go far enough though, feels like it wants to be the jacques lu cont remix of "mr brightside" but it doesn't go big or epic enough and also feels super-dated, and doesn't convince me that paying attention to underworld in 2016 was more worthwhile than paying attention to non-heritage dance acts in 2016

LOVE "girl next door"! voted for the album though

two choruses, so generous melodically

Surprised you're not feeling 'Oh Yay', NV.

i like brandy clark a lot but have never liked this song :(

Olatunji track is nice obv, but i wanted it to get bigger, more anthemic

sorry i missed it in the middle numbers for a minute

it's going on my personal playlist anyway

"nylon string" doesn't go far enough though, feels like it wants to be the jacques lu cont remix of "mr brightside" but it doesn't go big or epic enough and also feels super-dated, and doesn't convince me that paying attention to underworld in 2016 was more worthwhile than paying attention to non-heritage dance acts in 2016

hm well i think that it doesn't go far enough is the interesting part, it's just blushing (although they sure do pile on the layers of cheese in the 6 minute version, the abbreviated single version feels kinda lopsided). for me it's a really generous, open-hearted melody with all these bright digressions hanging around it