ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

hahaha yesss

choice incomprehensible aussie 77 singles

this is dumb as fuck but I am amused

should be only 90 secs though

yeah overall i can't knock it, it sure does what it does xp

The song itself is as straightforward as a large sausage roll. Over a simple bass riff and the whiny shout of “I’m on Smoko”, it calls some of the yob factor of the Cosmic Psychos, the larrikin spirit of Dune Rats and, if you squint hard enough, some Eddy Current Suppression Ring-inspired riffs. “All of us have always loved those bands, so obviously our music is influenced by theirs," says Sandwith. “We’re also super influenced by bands such as Drunk Mums, Jurassic Nark and Mini Skirt.”

one of the few I haven't heard – should I?

not the worst way to spend three minutes of your life

as an australian i can vaguely appreciate this but mostly hate it

ive experienced being "nambored" way too many times though so i could have gotten behind voting for that one

you'll get the idea pretty quick too

I don't think I need to hear that chorus again.

haha this is fun

Hm, enjoyed Soccer Mommy more than I expected to from the band name.

NB to UK/AU ILXors: i had never heard the term "Smoko" before this song

ogmor really summed it up in the voting thread:

so lowest common denominator it's a jam because of not in spite of its australiosity, blew up in 2018, v powerful hair and energy in the vid

reminds me of a bunch of local bands that'd have a song or two people could get behind, to the bewilderment of anyone who hadn't seen them before. maybe just slightly more cohesive, good enough to release

imo every 77 needs one hilarious "outsider art" placement and this is very far from the worst we've had

im on smoi koi

xxp I'd never heard the term "smoko" either, but it didn't exactly take me long to put together what's going on here

MES looking down from the firmament and coughing up a phlegm of approval

someone check on saer

"smoko" is better than anything by local bands i heard while growing up near where they're from but that's not saying much

i am hoping #54 may be the first saer-approved track

☑

a folk classic

Finally, we're getting somewhere.

'filmed and edited by Matisse Langbein'

should be only 90 secs though

Yeah, they should have gone for the Pink Flag effect and just stopped after the first chorus.

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

54: Talaboman – “Dins El Llit (Superpitcher Remix)” - 187 points – 7 votes - 1 first place vote
video

John Talabot

sick af

oh havent heard the remixes

loved the talaboman record a couple of years back

this one stood out on the noms thread, i love it

this is pretty amazing btw

Dude looks like a bit like Stockhausen on that pic.

Never heard of "Smoko" before, but it sounds like if someone had made an actual song based on what older people were who didn't like punk rock in the '70s imagined it sounds like. Well, at least it doesn't evoke indifference like most other rock songs on the list rather than revulsion.

*in

BUT WHAT DOES SAER THINK ABOUT A DINS EL LLIT

This is really good btw.

oh this is cool. not sure why i never spent more time with the talaboman album back when it came out

exactly what i expected when i saw the artists involved--tactile, never-ending awesomeness

Oh this is great, should've been on my ballot really.

i still jam The Night Land

ooooh this should be good, I always like Talabot-connected stuff

2018 was long enough for me that I puzzled about whether I had heard any songs by Soccer Mommy, when I had in fact seen them live back in July

yeeesh

Needs to start with the organ break and intensify from there. Good but calibrated slightly too chill for my tastes

this was my #1

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

53: Mitski – “Geyser” - 188 points – 7 votes – 1 first place vote
video

Mitski

gentle start with instantly queering touches like quietening organ drone, crazy glitch. no beats to even galumph over. slowly a tambourine enters, chords are lush. drums playing sparse 3-time beat. then suddenly the keyboards lurch in and the guitars and it's not so much galumphing as CRUSHING and SOARING at the same time, it is violent and the only way some people can process this is by saying 'oo er the drums and keys are playing every beat' but actually if u listen properly it's got a swinging sea-shanty beat, there's a canon between guitars and keys, there's a lot going on obviously but u say it like she is just banging away like some teenage punk and that is bollocks, there is so much craft here. – imago

Geyser is so colossal; it has been my favorite song of the year since the day it came out. – Will M.

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=25622

Maybe it’s the organ tones in the intro serving as bait, but “Geyser” reads as religious in a deep sense — not godly but ritualistic. It helps that the lyrics are less verses than chants, psalms to the very art that Mitski practices. This is the lushest that Mitski has ever sounded, all cascading horns and rolling drums, and she wears these grander things magnificently. The only shame is that the song is so short — it’s a holy experience that feels like it could be carried on for a bit longer. – Jacob Sujin Kuppermann

“Geyser” is several songs at once. It begins foreboding and mystic, almost terrifying (I hate how jarring the glitch noise is every time, although that’s the point), and suddenly transforms itself into a love song of purest passion. Beginning at a melancholic point and ending somewhere happier not even two minutes later is emotional whiplash at its finest, and it somehow makes me cry every time I hear it. – Alex Clifton

let the great votesplitting commence

i don't really "get" mitski in general (and this song in particular) but it seems to resonate with so many people whose tastes i appreciate that I kinda feel obliged to let it be.

good song imo

I went with Why Didn't You Stop Me? as my Mitski vote. This doesn't mean that Geyser isn't one of the best songs of the year, which it is.