ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

we should challenge each other to diversify our tastes, rather than artificially engineer a more diverse list. attack the cause, not the effect

what if nominations started in feb 2019 and ran until jan 2020 and we just started the spotify list then and it slowly grew all year? i'd prob end up "diversifying my tastes" if i had that list instead of the little bubble i made for myself for the 11 months of the year it's not top 77 time

and yes i am aware of the irony of me calling that "diversifying my tastes" but you know what i mean

forks is doing this: Listening to ILX Listen: 2019

Aw man you were my only hope RIP "Tyres"

― slack thompson (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 29 January 2019 21:44 (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wasn't voting for that one anyway!

xp i was gonna say! jump in if you wanna! I'll post a different sort of thread in February to make it a bit more clear, but at the moment I have a playlist with 200 songs discussed across all the genre threads... AND you will be happy to hear that I have a self-imposed "two-song-max-per-artist" limit.

if you wanna see what ILX is talking about in January, here it is:
http://open.spotify.com/user/forksclovetofu/playlist/3gfEiJs2o4shZtC6vJEFhY

It's not The Purity Of The Stats so much as it is Why Bother Having A Poll If You're Going To Fuck With The Results To Make It Fit What You Want It To Look Like Anyway

We already fuck with the results by having everyone cram the nominations instead of voting for what they actually listened to throughout the year.

sick forks! i'll try 2 fuck with this this year (altho it sounds overwhelming if it's just everything that everyone just mentions in all of the threads... curious to see how long the list gets)

We already fuck with the results by having everyone cram the nominations instead of voting for what they actually listened to throughout the year.

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 21:58 (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think there's a happy medium

my happy medium is attempting to listen to everything before voting

each to their own

# of artists represented in the top 77 per year (not including featured credits)

2017: 70
2016: 62
2016: 61
2015: 61
2014: 63

Doesn't seem like a huge issue, tbh

(Oops, the last three years should be 2015, 2014, and 2013, obv.)

I don't think one track per artist is fair. Any version of this proposal has to mean treating some votes differently from others. Your vote doesn't count (as far the countdown is concerned, at least) just because it wasn't for the most popular song by the artist.

xp to will: you could realistically listen to like seven new songs a day, right? And figure several of those you'll know in the first minute that it's not for you. So it's much more doable than you might think!

It's a problem with such open ended nominations, not with the voting itself. Cut down number of nominations and people will not feel such a temptation to throw in the 5th best track from an ok album.

they will if they think it's the best track

and therein lies the conundrum

So far the only song of mine that has made it is "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)", and I wouldn't be surprised if that stays that way by the end of this.

yea I think as it is the system kinda punishes great albums with no clear stand-out track, where like 5 tracks will get a solid # of votes but not enough to crack the list. though I suppose that's what the albums poll is for

I'm not convinced it's a real problem, but I do think it's odd you can technically nominate more tracks or albums than you can put on a ballot

We already fuck with the results by having everyone cram the nominations instead of voting for what they actually listened to throughout the year.

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 21:58

I guess some people approach voting this way. I usually nominate less (far less, this year) than my limit, and let a couple things speak to me during the voting period. I think this year I only picked up one new thing before casting my ballot. Are there really voters who wait until the nominations master list is out to begin deciding what they'll vote for?

I'm not convinced it's a real problem, but I do think it's odd you can technically nominate more tracks or albums than you can put on a ballot

― rob, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 22:16 (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nuh-uh! 50 vs 40

there is a case for keeping nominations at 30 tho

just to stir the pot: 1013 tracks got votes. 1400 tracks were nominated.
i honestly don't care one way or the other, but i'd argue that 20 nominations for tracks per person would likely serve us all pretty well for the future and we skip the traditional "bonus' ones.
HOWEVER! then you don't have the ridiculous playlist of doom to explore and that seems to be part of the appeal here, no? eh, what do i know.

Kali Uchis – “In My Dreams” - this isn't waht i was expecting? it's fun and jaunty good pick ilm
Red Velvet – “Bad Boy” - seems good but not quite hooking me, might just not be my thing
Laura Jean – “Girls on the TV” - i've heard this song a bunch of times now and have liked it every time, it was even on my like top 100 songs when i was cutting my list, but i never actually remember anything about it when i am not actively listening to it
Andrew W.K. – “Music Is Worth Living For” - i think i like thinking about andrew wk more than i like listening to andrew wk, but you know what, the whole ~mythology~ is actually a pretty fuckin cool product and i'll just keep reading/thinking about that without a soundtrack
Helena Hauff – “Hyper-Intelligent Genetically Enriched Cyborg” - this is fine, but not a genre i can pick out any song as head and shoulders above any other song in the genre?

Drake – “Nice for What” - hahaha i voted for this, catty injured drake is the best drake. do you know i saw drake in concert this year? someone was working at the stadium and last minute was like "i ahve 2 tickets." me and my friend went and were like 15 feet from the stage and it was deeply weird, i fully felt like a dad for the first time in my life inasmuch as i was way aged out. then drake looked into this one girl's eyes and said something about falling in love with her and i felt like a dad inasmuch as i wanted to punch this creep for hitting on what i can only assume was 1) a 15 year old and 2) my daughter now, apparently. anyway, nice for what has a good sample
DJ Koze – “Pick Up - this is alright but i feel like i heard this exact song like 15 years ago?
MGMT – “When You Die” - i get it, i guess, but like... hey you know what? i don't think i get it. i like that he kinda shouts a bunch of the words one at a time, that's cool. isn't sad-but-sounds-happy like a little played
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – “Talking Straight” - i dig this, gives me flying nun vibes and that's even before i googled em and realized they were antipodean. cool man, i'll check out the album
Parquet Courts – “Total Football” - i have avoided this band until pretty much now so i am down with this but it seems like everyone else is like I AM OVER THIS BAND, idk, this is fun? holding it up against theme from sparta fc (as upthread) is so unfair but also HILARIOUS so i'll allow it. i guess fuck tom brady too lol

Mr Twin Sister – “Echo Arms” - ilm hivemind singularity gained sentience released record yes yes good good
Ravyn Lenae – “Sticky” - i ranked this and the song has, as the name suggests, been stuck in my fuckin head a lot over the past few months. i feel like a song like this coulda turned out wallpaper but there's just enough there to make it... uhh.. sticky sorry
Soccer Mommy – “Your Dog” - i listened to this song a lot last year and i think i ranked it p highly on my ballot, it chills in a nice little zone between angry and defeated that i appreciate. plus that lil guitar bit is chef kiss
Fabiana Palladino – “Shimmer” - it does sound shimmery
Toni Braxton – “Long As I Live” - i mean this is basically unfuckwithable right?

mewithoutyou – “Julia (or, Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses)” - not gonna lie i keep hearing that wanted "glad you came" song pop up in here and it's v distracting
Wizkid – “Soco” - this is good but i'm too ignorant on the genre to say anything enlightening so i'll just say something dumb. here's my dumb thing: wizkid made me think of that fred savage movie, cool name
Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin – “I Like It” - ugh i also voted for this but idk if i even like it? it is relentlessly catchy tho and i really like the part where she says she runs that shit like cardio
Prince Kaybee featuring Busiswa and TNS - “Banomoya” - ooooooh vibey i like it a lot. maybe my fave first listen from the list so far, wow!!
Kim Petras – “Heart to Break” - thought it was carly rae jepsen the first 1.5 listens, i think i like it more than the real carly rae jepsen song from 2018

Jon Hopkins – “Emerald Rush” - i pretty much love final fantasy arps in any song ever so this scratches an itch fer suuuuure. also it feels like kompakt but like, NASTY. this rules actually
Christine and the Queens – “Doesn’t Matter (Voleur de soleil)” - this seems totally fine but i can't imagine ranking it as the best of anything! it is well done tho and i'd for sure dance if it came on
The Chats – “Smoko” - this is like if zit remedy from degrassi high were BAD (bad as in like bad kids, like who do cigarettes and stuff) (so i guess pre-crash Wheels) and australian. zit remedy rules and so does smoko
Talaboman – “Dins El Llit (Superpitcher Remix)” - sadly i don't think i am as moved by superpitcher as i was ~10 years ago :( i'm realizing now
Mitski – “Geyser” - it's my number one, it's the one i want, and i'll keep putting down the songs that place higher than this one

Autechre – “all end” - this is kinda cool vibey shit that i could work to and oh my god how long has this been on? WHAT THE FUCK?
Róisín Murphy – “Plaything” - i thought she said "play with me at the euchre bowl." i actually play in a euchre bowl every january 1st, a tradition i have upheld for like 6 years, so i immediately liked the song. i looked up the real lyrics and have chosen to ignore them
Die Wilde Jagd – “2000 Elefanten” - you know that thing when you put ingredients into one thing, but they don't really combine, you just taste all of the tastes simultaneously? that's this and it's good (that can sometimes be bad) (it's usually bad)
Hop Along – “How Simple” - geez every song by hop along i listen to i like, i just don't know why i never have the wherewithal to seek it anywhere other than ilx year end lists
The 1975 – “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)” - i like 'love it' in spite of myself, sadly this song does not also transcend my general disinterest in the band named after a year
Natalie Prass – “Short Court Style” - the intro had me worried it was gonna be the unbreakable kimmy schmidt theme song but then it got funky and cool, nice pick ilx

fwiw that Drake song is on the extremely short list of Drake songs I enjoy

(the other one is "The Motto")

xp to will: you could realistically listen to like seven new songs a day, right? And figure several of those you'll know in the first minute that it's not for you. So it's much more doable than you might think!

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, January 29, 2019 5:09 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oops sorry i missed this. uhh seven a day might be tough for me honestly! but it would be a good "new years resolution" sorta thing, because i do spend long periods just not listening to anything new and i wanna not do that this year.

yeah i actually like this drake song but i wanted to pass judgment on the meme instead

I'm not convinced it's a real problem, but I do think it's odd you can technically nominate more tracks or albums than you can put on a ballot

― rob, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 22:16 (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nuh-uh! 50 vs 40

― imago, Tuesday, January 29, 2019 5:19 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm boring myself at this point, but I thought due to the "split between tracks & albums however you like rule" that you could technically nominate 40 trax or 40 albums? more to the point, I think I've seen at least one poster submit 40 album noms and no tracks

Just now listening to the second MGMT song. I think I would've been all over this in 2010 when there were several nu retro synth blogs that were super active (is that what bloghouse was?), but nine years later it sounds like cough medicine tastes.

fwiw that Drake song is on the extremely short list of Drake songs I enjoy

― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Tuesday, January 29, 2019 3:23 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(the other one is "The Motto")

― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Tuesday, January 29, 2019 3:23 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly an excellent top 2

Great rundown Will

I liked your Drake story Will

^yes, v good blurb

Funkystepz remix of The Motto is the best thing Drake's ever been involved with

My take fwiw: People should vote for their N favourite tracks of the year, whatever we decide N to be (currently 25) and there should be as few barriers as possible to expressing one's preferences. Discovering that your favourite track wasn't nominated is a barrier - in principle I would be open to a world with unlimited nominations or without a nomination process but that makes it really hard to tabulate. If we want to incentivise "real favourites" over ballot fillers we could reduce N, but many people really do have 25 tracks they love and want to vote for.

Hahaha I mean the stats don’t change, in my proposed system the stats would remain... it just starts in whichever number the repear artists pushed down the number so let’s assume the only repear artist for 2014 was Taylor Swift.

We don't do this for the rollout obv but there is a ranking where all points for an artist get totalled into one entry, e.g. this was 2016: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12dn1OxuFnFyVugIrSblHnLHWBHcEZOIHr880Iwxo95Q/edit?usp=sharing

here we go, let's try to keep this discussion in here

be it resolved that the ILM EOY tracks poll institute a one-track-per-artist-per-rollout limit

already voted nay

Funkystepz remix of The Motto is the best thing Drake's ever been involved with

― Number None, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 22:36 (twenty minutes ago) Permalink

that's great but the Drew Austin remix of "Find Your Love" beats it.

I still like JoJo's cover/remix of "Marvins Room"

that chats tune really does seem like a pale imitation of the cosmic psychos: behold the ugly splendour of these irksome layabouts

Regarding ILM’s infatuation with The 1975:

From the songs of their supposedly brilliant album from last year only “Love it if we made it” makes me believe the hype. That song sells me the whole thing and they sound unique enough instead of a copy of a copy, if the album had at least another song on that level I’d be on board... but the rest of the album is honestly not there for me and it just sounds like a lesser version of a better band or song. I kind of like their “rock band but not actually a rock band” thing they have but only when the results are songs like “love it if we made it”, “i always wanna die” or “tootimetootimetootime” make me want to listen to actual pop radio instead.

They could be Duran Duran, but they're just Power Station most of the time.

Hahaha that’s a simpler way to explain it... I’m stealing that one.

I'd say about a 1/3 of their songs are really good, but they spend way too much time in tedious ballad land.

Hrm, stoked All End made it, but now I wonder if my ballot was counted. I believe I had a mixed songs ballot with All End being #1. Can someone confirm? Maybe I shuffled it around the top 5 at the last minute...

all end was in my top 5 to, glad it showed up!

*too

my first ballot this year, only did albums, and already realized I forgot three picks which should have been top ten