ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

My takeaway from this poll is that the afropop threads are where the action is.

KING had the benefit of a few years' build up before the album came out (and it coming out early in the year to boot).

Hard to believe it's barely more than a year since "Akanamali" came out. Now it feels like Sun El-Musician is the established and well-known patrician of the scene.

*Sun-El Musician

You’re right on both counts. I just feel Tugela Fairy is the kind of album to sweep large sections of ILM off their feet (even more so than the Sun-El album).

Absolutely! And I prefer it slightly to the Sun-El album myself.

I prefer it by some margin. It’s just so perfectly sequenced, with those warming-up and cooling-down sections. But that’s for the album rollout!.

This is where link to Zinaro’s “Dali Wami”, a song from 2017 that I discovered last year and voted for as well. It floors me every time:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5x4YRV6l01lCwGgd1mU82z?si=5S5EbCzVQoqBL11Z8M6EBQ

(It features vocal group Thee Legacy, who have a newish song out with Mlindo and DJ Maphorisa that I will post on the Sun-El thread)

had completely blanked on the mlindo album and am playing now; it's great on first blush!

Ancestors is just painfully beautiful
https://open.spotify.com/track/2Mok61Qjkt1jsTQQzZ4IYo

It's all great but I also particularly love "Usbahle" off that album.

y’all are listing songs that made me remember albums I didn’t put on my albums ballot!

glad to see some love for the Mlindo album! that's been a favourite of mine and hopefully there's a chance of it showing up in the albums poll? exploring South African pop was a musical highlight of last year for me, there's so much great stuff coming out of there at the moment. i got into the sa afrohouse stuff via the love on TSJ for "Akanamali" and then enthusiastically kept up with everything Sun-El released leading up to his album, including Simmy's "Ubala" which lead to a lot of anticipation for her album as well.

i would be very surprised if at least one Robyn track doesn't show up in the top 20, it would have been weirder if she'd shown up by now with anything other than some album cut but you all probably nominated too many for that to have happened (and didn't even nominate the best one, "Ever Again" iirc)

i thought Akanamali placed in last year's singles poll? i swear that's where i heard it first

it did, at #6. ulysses campaigned heavily for it but i was already a fan after hearing it from TSJ

Samthing posted something about finishing an album. Highly anticipating

i voted for a different Let's Eat Grandma song and do wonder if it will still show up? i really do like "Donnie Darko" but didn't think that would be the song that placed here.

so far, four of my choices have shown up.

it's probably my fault that The 1975 song showed up in the Top 77 as i gave it a boat load of points. 2018's "Champagne Supernova" to a degree.

it's better than Champagne Supernova!

Nonsense

although it's probably actually closer to something from The Bends, "I Always Wanna Die" most reminds me of some of Shiina Ringo's power ballads like Gips in feeling: https://youtu.be/zldBTSx9JpE

That whole 1975 album reminds me of “13 reasons why” of all things.

This is not a good thing.

for some reason i thought "13 reasons why" was a late-era staind album

"akanamali" definitely crossed over from tsj. the discussion on his album's thread has been reasonably active all year so i think simmy's music must have come up there quite shortly after being released, no tsj-acclaim needed.

"amablesser" was nominated btw, so it could still make it! (tho honestly i doubt it would place above "ubala" et al.) i nominated it but didn't end up having room for it on my ballot lol.

"banomoya" might be my favorite of all the songs i hadn't heard before from this poll so the post upthread stating that it was a big hit in south africa tells me that i should probably just start listening to south african radio already

Happy for new to me stuff from the poll: Mr Twin Sister, Hatchie, Simmy, Prince Kaybee, and Natalie Prass.

“AmaBlesser” was a big pop hit there too (just like “Akanamali” itself, the other Sun-El singles did very well too). The Mlindo and Simmy albums are both currently top 10 streaming in SA. It’s actual popular music. Finding the right radio station would be a treat, no doubt!

xp

I realised I forgot to save my ballots... If it's not too much of a trouble, could you maybe send them to the email I included in the ballot? (Don't send it through ILX messaging, that links to a defunct email address.) Thanks!

I’m really digging the Die Wilde Jugend album, to my own slight bemusement. It’s a change of pace and mood from what I tend to listen to normally. “2000 Elefanten” is the only track on it that matches my definition of a jam.

Krautrock is a blind spot for me, but I am (or was, back in the day) familiar with Neue Deutsche Welle, and I guess at the time I didn’t recognise the krautrock groups like Malaria and Der Plan had in their dna. Will be rooting for this album during the roll-out next week (assuming it has a chance of placing).

I can't believe it's taken me this long to actually listen to the Simmy album. SA house has been largely ruling my world this year. It's a really lovely record, a great companion piece to Sun-El Musician's record. I just wanted to mention the song 'Club Controller' by Prince Kaybee, which won't place but really should have.

(once again kicking myself for missing the voting thread)

I don't think you need to be grounded in Krautrock to enjoy Die Wilde Jagd - I'm certainly not. 2000 Elefanten is definitely the 'pop' hit on the record, but the whole thing is such a vibe.

I have a suspicion the top 20 is going to be like 40% Ariana and Robyn.

There were about 8 Robyn tracks nominated so surely she'll suffer from vote splitting

"Honey", "thank u, next" and "no tears left to cry" are all obvious locks, "Missing U" might make it as well and one of the other Ariana singles could have a chance i guess but i'd be a bit surprised since the album was pretty polarising here apart from "no tears left to cry"

I have a suspicion the top 20 is going to be like 40% Ariana and Robyn.

― Matt DC, Thursday, January 31, 2019 9:35 AM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*sigh*

I'm hoping for a couple of curveballs today if only so the poll can be saved from that dull fate

i think there's still a fair bit of room left for curveballs and if ariana or robyn were going to get like 4 tracks each some of them would have shown up by now surely

Another late convert to the Simmy album here after 1.5 listens through. Will definitely have to pay attention to the afro-house/pop discussion this year!

Not sure what to expect in the rest of the rollout apart from a couple of obvious things. Would be nice to see some UK rap/drill/grime somewhere, I guess 'Homerton B' was most likely to place although it didn't make my ballot in the end.

So we can expect about ten new regular enthusiasts on the afropop thread this year, right (I don't believe in it one second).
I'm hoping for dancehall today, cause, you know.
What's the age average on ILX ? 57 ? more ?

omg, yes of course, they’re called Die Wilde Jagd, not Die Wilde Jugend, freudian slip I guess.

xps

(but also relevant to Nabozo’s post above perhaps lol)

Struggling to imagine what dancehall from last year would place this high, but at least two or three more afropop records seem very likely. Sun el-Musician may have suffered from everyone voting for different album tracks but Burna Boy is a lock.

so of the 28 what is an absolute lock

1975 x2
ariana x2
mitski
robyn
kacey x2
monae
a certain bromley-based indiepop group :D
sun-el musician
arctic monkeys
lana del rey
baby fucking shark
sophie (x2?)
as matt has just said it, burna boy

and i'm obviously missing some locks from bobbins or rap idk. not much room for maneouvre but let's see

only dancehall affiliated thing on my ballot was a bassline x dancehall thing: sharda ft shanique marie 'wanna know'. was actually my number one but no way will it place now

'itgehane' will def be in there

How is it possible to predict what is going to be in? Every single track has been a surprise to me except Drake because he is famous for memes and coats. Do you have relatives in the police something is fishy

The only bobbins that will definitely place are Peggy Gou and Krystal Klear. Both locks in terms of what's already placed.

I wouldn't bet on the Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey or any individual Sophie making it. Ella Mai definitely will though. Also Pusha T, Swae Lee, definitely one more Christine & The Queens.

There's plenty of room for curveballs.

I can see Burna ending up just OUTSIDE (gettit?) the Tracks 77 because of the votes being ever so perfectly split between “Ye”, “Gbona” and “On The Low” (plus “PH City Vibration”?). Guessing “Ye” still has the best shot at placing. Today is crunch time. (His album will place big, evidently)

How is it possible to predict what is going to be in? Every single track has been a surprise to me except Drake because he is famous for memes and coats. Do you have relatives in the police something is fishy

I phoned up Harry Redknapp and he said he'd seen Travis Scott hanging around Loftus Road.

lol

Think Janelle may be another x2