ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

the temper tantrums and explosive arguments that precipitate from these polls are pretty excellent. i seem to remember some wonderful ones centered around black eyed peas, "empire state of mind", that one song by girls, perhaps some others i'm forgetting

ok y'all i'm sorry, this song/album is not for everyone, but i'm so thrilled

This is good guitars.

i didn't even vote for it!

Long AS I Live was the last song I cut and as I submitted my ballot, I had instant regret. Glad it still made the list. Probably my favourite song of hers apart from You're Makin' Me High.

Really happy to see Shimmer and Sticky make the list. Those were two songs I didn't know that I fell in love with on the Spotify playlist. My first two votes to appear!

Good song.

Oh god, this Toni Braxton song is massive! Why didn't I listen to it before voting, surely it would've been in my ballot... By far the best tune in this poll so far!

xps i would go so far as to suggest that part of the reason the yearly poll is such a beloved fixture of ILM is BECAUSE it sets off so much free floating emotion. "How dare Drake show his face in here" is a feature, not a bug.

#62, on the other hand, is horrible. Is grunge back for good? I hope not.

Toni Braxton is the sort of thing I just don't understand at all. There's nothing there for me. You guys do you, I guess.

I was about to faintly praise the Fabiana Pallardino song for being less enervating and predictable than this Shambala stuff usually is, even if it did sound like it was recorded in a wet cardboard box, but then I heard the Toni Braxton song and that made it sound so timid in comparison. Best song yet by a mile.

^^^ even the tuomas comment is perfect xp

#62, on the other hand, is horrible

ok y'all i'm sorry, this song/album is not for everyone

nah, "Julia" is genuinely good. I *nearly* voted for it. Just reward for consistent stanning by Brad.

What about this says "grunge" to you?

It's not my type of thing, but this song's ok and doesn't sound a bit like Mudhoney.

admittedly i don't know quite what to make of "julia" yet. but it has enough bizarrely intriguing features that i will certainly revisit it.

mewithoutyou song is good

wow we're in brad heaven rn

It's not a million miles away from one of the more florid Pumpkins songs but the similarities end there.

Yeah - reminds me of Deftones meets Pinback, or something? Not my usual jam, but I like it

i probably voted for this. great guitars indeed

Toni Braxton is the sort of thing I just don't understand at all.

I definitely didn't get 80s r&b in the 80s, but grew to appreciate it later in life. Some people get it at the time, some people never do, but I'm glad I was lucky enough to and it helps with digging things like this Toni song in 2019.

I'm enjoying Julia a lot more than when I last heard it and it might make me give the album another go. In my memory the guitars sounded great but the lack of a vocal register between mimsy and screaming started to grate after a while.

Toni Braxton is the sort of thing I just don't understand at all. There's nothing there for me. You guys do you, I guess.

Didn't vote for this but really came around to the mewithoutYou record over the past few weeks (and had never been able to get into them before).

Would be quite nice to hear something that sounds like the 21st century sometime soon though.

lol

What about this says "grunge" to you

A century ain't nothing but a number.

huh I did not hate "Julia" though I will probably never listen to it again

Would be quite nice to hear something that sounds like the 21st century sometime soon though.

― Matt DC, Monday, January 28, 2019 2:14 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

overstated but way more right than it should be

Toni Braxton autotuned and dropped on top of a beat someone designed ad hoc sounds like a very bad idea. I prefer she stay in Toni mode, ty.

last one for today but at least we're going out on a high note imo.

http://i.imgur.com/9E9Bt17.jpg

61: Wizkid – “Soco” – 180 points – 6 votes – 1 first place vote
video

Wizkid (aka Starboy)

Wizkid is one of those artists who I rarely actively seek out but I hear all the time and literally everything is enjoyable. Even the lightweight/tossed off stuff is just immensely likeable. – Matt DC

Wizkid is Africa’s best and (arguably) biggest pop star, the grandmaster of melodies and hooks, and, increasingly, vibes. He’s currently making the best music in his career and it’s more “Nigerian” than ever before. You get the sense he’s decided for himself that if he’s going to make it at all outside of Africa, he might as well try to do it on his own terms. - breastcrawl

ayyy

YES though i voted for “fever”

Back tomorrow.

77: Kali Uchis – “In My Dreams”
76: Red Velvet – “Bad Boy”
75: Laura Jean – “Girls on the TV”
74: Andrew W.K. – “Music Is Worth Living For”
73: Helena Hauff – “Hyper-Intelligent Genetically Enriched Cyborg”
72: Drake – “Nice for What”
71: DJ Koze – “Pick Up
70: MGMT – “When You Die”
69: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – “Talking Straight”
68: Parquet Courts – “Total Football”
67: Mr Twin Sister – “Echo Arms”
66: Ravyn Lenae – “Sticky”
65: Soccer Mommy – “Your Dog”
64: Fabiana Palladino – “Shimmer”
63: Toni Braxton – “Long As I Live
62: mewithoutyou – “Julia (or, Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses)”
61: Wizkid – “Soco”

"long as i live" landed in the middle of my ballot, which was also too low, wtf me

same

Yay! I had to cut this from my ballot but it's sweet!

Yes, best track so far!

I pledge to follow the afropop thread more closely this year.

great list so far, but lol @ the idea that anything post-WK was "more" metal

ty to whoever #1'd "Soco" as for some reason I put that at #25 on my ballot

was that second quote from breastcrawl, forks?

wait -- what "sort of thing" is Toni Braxton -- R&B?

Good Monday. Not any real "whoa, wtf is this???" moments as is usually the case, but I'm pleased to make Fabiana Palladino's acquaintance.

Loud metallish guitars, combined with quieter saddo vocals in the verses and shouting in the chorus - isn't that the grunge formula?
― Tuomas, Monday, January 28, 2019 12:16 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the only shouting in “julia” is buried in the mix of the third verse. not expecting you to have memorized this song tho

YES though i voted for “fever”

― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Monday, January 28, 2019 2:19 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this poll could do a lot worse than having Fever and Fake Love still show up

i think "long as i live's" aesthetic is more 90s r&b than 80s r&b, along the same vein of toni's own material from that decade. it stands up with her very best though.

a little bit that i loved reading on the song by sean of said the gramophone:

There are portions of "Long As I Live" that feel as if they could have been released in 1996, in Braxton's un-broken heyday. But listen carefully: you'll hear a voice with more years in it, a production haunted by younger sounds.

Didn’t vote for Julia as my mewithoutyou track, but I easily could have. They do weird, shifting darkness so well.

Have loathed being stuck in work/on my phone today. Can’t wait to get home and catch up on all these songs everyone hates.

ME WITHOUT YOU

Ps. Brad I didn't have the time to vote in the end so I'm sorry my missing vote will keep your 'Embrace Nothingness' from the number one spot just saying

i would’ve been so embarrassed if a faith/void track appeared in the 77

No you wouldn't u liar <3

oh "soco" is v nice :)