ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

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 :)

wow we're in brad heaven rn

― resident hack (Simon H.), Monday, January 28, 2019 2:11 PM (seventeen minutes ago)

brad's ballot will obv be required listening this weekend

Countdown took a while to warm up (even if Kali Uchis was an ok start) but its def done that after that Braxton-mewithoutyou double!

unexpectedly really like this WK track!

Fabiana Palladino - wait is that Pino’s daughter?

Soco, Shimmer and Long as I Live all passed me by on the nominations playlist but are sounding really good now.

Fabiana Palladino - wait is that Pino’s daughter?

― my name is leee john, for we are many (NickB), Monday, January 28, 2019 2:31 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

according to wiki--yes

i'm gonna be the one in the garden shouting for "shimmer" when i see the who in may

actually, idk if pino will be there, but i also won't actually shout for "shimmer"

I believe Fabiana was in Jessie Ware's touring band at one point

she does sound more influenced by jessie ware than the who tbh

was that second quote from breastcrawl, forks?
― rob

Kali Uchis - Dreamy, as advertised. I like this quite a bit and would like to hear more of them.
Red Velvet - I'm highly indifferent to this
Laura Jean - Pretty low-key, but she won me over by the end. Think I'll be returning to this one, it gets under your skin, a slow burner.
Andrew W.K. - I think this may be the first time I've ever listened to an Andrew W.K. track, yet it is pretty much exactly what I imagined. I just don't think I have place in my life for his particular brand of loud, anthemic pop rock, there's just something painfully dopey about it.
Helena Hauff - This is dope. I listened to this album a bit when it came out, but moved on quickly, not sure why. More armies of malevolent robots please.
Drake - Holy god, I hate Drake. I guess this is decent party music, but the rapping is utterly generic, no big surprise here.
DJ Koze - 10 minutes of stasis, not bad, but hardly thrilling. ILM's taste in house music is a bit too subtle for me.
MGMT - This is a great album, perhaps hurt a bit by coming out so early in the year. The fact this track placed indicates to me that at least one more is coming, maybe more. A running theme for me this year is albums I liked having lots of tracks nominated, not always my favorite ones. I was tempted to also nom the title track and "TSLAMP", but was worried it would all get vote split to hell.
Rolling Blackouts Costal Fever - I really like the guitars on this, the singing and melody wears a bit thin, but I could see liking these guys if they keep it interesting.
Mr. Twin Sister - I listened to it, and can barely remember it a few minutes later.
Parquet Courts - this is the first track I voted for. See my comments on MGMT about vote splitting. "Violence" and "Before the Water Gets Too High" were worthy of nominations, perhaps "Mardi Gras Beads" and "Freebird II" too.
Soccer Mommy - Just missed my ballot. Good tune, I like the bass tone and detuned guitar arpeggios. Would've prefered to see "Cool" or "Last Girl" on here. Some odd songwriting twists and production choices, helped Soccer Mommy standout in a fairly crowded genre.
Ravyn Lenae - Very nice. Lots of unusual, almost opreratic vocal flourishes really make this track for me.
Fabiana Palladino - This is fine. I suspect the thin demo quality was a plus for some.
Toni Braxton - Good to see her going strong, not my cup of tea, though.
mewithoutYou - some nice guitar textures over dumb thudding drums with unremarkable vocals. Kind of reminds me of Smashing Pumpkins if Jimmie Chamberlin sucked and Billy Corgan had no personality.
Wizkid - not for me.

xps

Yes, that was my quote - and I also was the one who had “Soco” at #1. It’s the first time Wizkid has placed in one of these polls; it was about time and I’m happy. Would be great if “Fake Love”, the other stone-cold classic he made last year, places as well.

And while we’re fixing things: the correct artist credit for this track would be “Starboy feat. Wizkid, Terri, Spotless & Ceeza Milli”. It’s Wizkid plus three mini-Wizzy’s (I say respectfully).

I was a bit confused about who to credit in Soco, so I went by the nominee name. Isn’t Starboy another alias for Wizkid?

Yes and no, it’s complicated. Starboy is one of his nicknames, plus the name of his label - and in this case the artist name he uses for non-RCA, Africa-only releases. Or something. But it is in fact him plus three others, and that’s how it’s officially labeled.

I also wish I had lobbied for “Soco” (and a bunch of other things for that matter) - it deserves to be so much higher on this list.

RE: DJ Koze, I think my pick would've been for Illumination or Seeing Aliens as Pick Up is great but a little same-y. the album was pretty essential for me last year tho'. And hey! Any of you Koze fans out there would do well to listen to Detroit Swindle's 2018 LP High Life as it's in the same vein and is just as necessary.

(btw thank you, rob, for your eagle eye!)

xp I was left a little cold by the Koze album, but I almost voted for "Baby (How Much I LFO You)" cause I'm a sucker for that type of fluttery, sample-based sound. It sounds like it could be a hip-hop beat by Exile or somebody.

Soco soco - soco soco...

no problem! I was about to post "breastcrawl is one of the unsung mvps of ilm" when it occurred to me you'd been literally unsung there (no shots at forks, I appreciate all the work you're doing)

Interesting to compare last year's Monday:

77 LUIS FONSI ft. DADDY YANKEE "Despacito" [146 points, 8 votes]
76 AVALON EMERSON "One More Fluorescent Rush" [149 points, 7 votes]
75 MINOR SCIENCE "Volumes" [150 points, 5 votes]
74 GOLDLINK ft. BRENT FAIYAZ & SHY GLIZZY "Crew" [151 points, 5 votes]
73 KELELA "LMK" [151 points, 7 votes]
72 LAUREL HALO "Moontalk" [152 points, 4 votes, 1 first place vote]
71 TORNADO WALLACE ft. SUI ZHEN "Today" [153 points, 5 votes, 1 first place vote]
70 TAYLOR ALXNDR "Nightwork" [153 points, 6 votes]
69 KEDR LIVANSKIY "Ariadna" [156 points, 5 votes]
TIE-67 BULLION "Blue Pedro" [158 points, 5 votes]
TIE-67 TWICE "Likey" [158 points, 5 votes]
66 BLACKPINK "As If It's Your Last" [159 points, 6 votes]
65 FRENCH MONTANA ft. SWAE LEE "Unforgettable" [160 points, 5 votes, 1 first place vote]
TIE-63 THE MOUNTAIN GOATS "Wear Black" [160 points, 6 votes]
TIE-63 JESSIE WARE "Midnight" [160 points, 6 votes]
62 TAYLOR SWIFT "Look What You Made Me Do" [163 points, 5 votes]
61 BRIAN ENO with KEVIN SHIELDS "Only Once Away My Son" [163 points, 6 votes]