ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2017

https://i.imgur.com/7bOMb9E.jpg

32 TAYLOR SWIFT "Reputation" (319 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote)
spotify

reckoned that was coming

can we take a half hour break to come up with the best metaphor to describe this turn of events?

didn't expect a first-place vote tho lol

I'd struggled to square how alice coltrane seemed to rub ppl up the wrong way with the blissful, contemplative music I had heard but now I get it

lovely cover though

32 is a weird spot to throw in another gag entry.

Taylor Beats Alice

I guess some people are baffled by the War on Drugs placing, but I am just as baffled by this Taylor Swift album placing.

avoided this because of look what you made me do and because i hated the album cover

i regret nothing

I never listened beyond the singles (of which "Ready For It" was by far my preference)

there are a few good to great songs buried on there

Yes! Alice Coltrane! That was a last-minute addition to my ballot - I'd never heard any of her '80s material before but it's really something.

lol spotify just interrupted my listening to Alice Coltrane with an ad for Reputation

the metaphor came for me

there are a few good to great songs buried on there

― President Keyes, Wednesday, January 31, 2018 9:14 AM (fifty-seven seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah def

also quite a few real disasters

I have definitely voted for comps and reissues myself but I still feel a bit weird about them doing so well this year, it feels like the voting core just didn't have that many excellent discoveries of new music.

i still can't get over how consistently ugly the sound design on it is

confession: tt played me a track off this saying it wasn't so bad and she was kind of right

taylor is still evil tho

I didn't know if this would make it or not, but a first place vote is absolutely mind boggling.

was it from "taytayfan"?

money is on flopson sticking it to ilm

did markers submit a ballot

In the face of incessant Social Media hot takes, commentary, jokes by and about celebrities, and the demand for twitter-wokeness - the use of hashtags and the right post at the right time as key signifiers that you're supportive of the right causes --- the near radio silence from TS outside of her releases for the past few years has felt refreshing, more so in the face of increasingly absurd allegations thrown at her for not _tweeting out_, the fantasy creature that has been manufactured in her absence, a more grotesque version of the earlier wrongheaded criticism of her, back when misreading or misquoting her lyrics was the chief offence.

So you know, if this album was killer, I would be riding pretty damn hard. It's a bit of a disappointment, instead, not the sound I was hoping for, with a lead single that just seemed sooo corny and misguided (although its comedic motivation comes more into place as part of a bigger thing). But there are still great, really great tracks here: Delicate and .. well, most of the 2nd half of the album really. Parts of Reputation surpass parts of some of her earlier albums. There's funny bits, emotional bits that strike a chord, clever bits and just plain old pretty bits. So yeah, it's got a decent spot on my list. Not my #1 though.

She needs to get better at picking lead singles and hopefully scale back the sound a bit, though.

https://i.imgur.com/PlOPNQy.jpg

31 LAURA MARLING "Semper Femina" (320 points, 12 votes)
spotify

Glad it made it. One of those albums that I think is very good, but that I rarely want to play.

Opening track of this has some cool 90s triphop vibes. Morcheeba recast as folk

Such a great album. She has really been cranking it out without ever faltering in quality.

Didn't vote for albums, but Laura Marling placing higher than Taylor is heartwarming.

is it true she's a tory?

enjoying the Clientele album - what should I check out by them next? Suburban Light or Strange Geometry?

depends on yr interests - SL is more lo-fi and hazy/mysterious while SG is crystalline and bright

This is beautifully produced and sounds fantastic but I find her music less enjoyable with every passing album.

enjoying the Clientele album - what should I check out by them next? Suburban Light or Strange Geometry?

― ufo

Strange Geometry is probably the next one to go for. It's the perfect balance of all the things that make them so great and is probably the closest in sound to the latest album. The Violet Hour is my favourite overall, but it's definitely their least instant release.

it's so un-instant that even after dozens of attempts I still can't seem to find a way in!

Yeah, Strange Geometry for sure is the logical next step.

Suburban Light is extremely wonderful, plus it was reissued recently-ish with a bonus disc that rounds up missing bsides/one-offs/split sides/etc

thanks, will check them out

it's so un-instant that even after dozens of attempts I still can't seem to find a way in!

― Simon H

It took me a long time to get there. I just remember when I first moved to Minnesota in the autumn I kept playing it when I was out walking and it all just fell into place. The perfect soundtrack.

i had no idea how to listen to the taylor swift album so i didn't

God Save The Clientele is also easy to love if you like their brighter vibes. None of their albums should be dismissed.

Reputation did eventually end up on Spotify

https://i.imgur.com/2Z7BaLC.jpg

30 SAINT ETIENNE "Home Counties" (330 points, 13 votes)
spotify

by that time my curiously had long since waned xp

Welcome to ILM.

ilm is insane

Here they are!

looool xp

haha