ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

'did we really need another song like that'

The democratic answer appears to be 'yes'. Makes me less wary of totalitarianism.

Otherwise, they still feel pretty 'not my thing' but maybe it could grow on me in the right context. xp Oh ha. So I like the one part of one 1975 song that sounds like a Joy Division song.

but do we still like hip hop?

http://i.imgur.com/4VdARkX.jpg

24: Rae Sremmurd featuring Juicy J – “Powerglide” – 260 points – 12 votes
video

rae sremmurd - sremmlife (6 jan 2015)

Carly Rae Sremmurd

'Powerglide' is the fastest five and a half minutes in pop. – mr. raffles

Whenever "Powerglide" comes on, it tends to outclass whatever comes on before or after, but I don't hear it often on pop radio. It hasn't crossed over like 'Black Beatles,' so they're somewhat back to where we were exactly two years ago. – Alfred, Lord Sotosyn

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=25230

At least rappers are now moving on to mid-2000s Three 6 Mafia after covering “Slob on My Knob” for the 20th time. Swae Lee bloats the track slightly by splitting his singing and rapping to two verses while Juicy J appears like a hanger-on rather than a stamp of approval. Even so, “Side 2 Side” didn’t do so hot during its time, so it’s nice to see Rae Sremmurd give a modest single from Most Known Unknown the upgrade it deserves. – Ryo Miyauchi

This seems endless - not in the turgid sense, but like a smooth loop of pleasure that slides into the background so you can ignore most of the dodgy lyrics. – Anthony Easton

metootime was by far my least fav song on a 1975 album that i otherwise liked a lot.

a song i keep forgetting came out last year

I like the idea of getting Dam-Funk to do a wicked keytar solo

fuck it i'm going for a lie-down

powerglide is a fine song, but it will forever remind me of "remember the name" by fort minor

I voted for this and knew it was coming

a song i keep forgetting came out last year

I joked about recency bias on the other thread but it would be interesting to see a release date breakdown when this is over

wasn't too keen on SR3MM overall but there were quite a few tracks i liked more than "powerglide"

i voted for Offshore, but that's really more a Thug song

the third record just kinda evaporated for me on impact, the proper rs record was fine and the solo discs were distinctly less than the sums of their parts. "powerglide" still plenty enjoyable tbf

I can get behind Powerglide

hey voodoochile, is that a new alias? cute!

Didn't listen to Christine & the Queens but ah, nice, we have a song that I know and enjoy now. Rae Sremmurd were p good live last summer.

Oh cool, I didn't expect this to place (purely because I had no idea if there was a consensus favourite from SR3MM). Great song. 'Girlfriend' is also great but that didn't make my ballot.

"powerglide": probably not the only song in the countdown with the lyric "rip lil peep"

voodoo chili, duh

hey voodoochile, is that a new alias? cute!

― breastcrawl, Thursday, January 31, 2019 10:51 AM (thirty-three seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha, it was hard for me not to think of it after seeing those two songs next to each other on the countdown

'Boys' and 'Powerglide' are the most enjoyable of today's rollout so far.

Sometimes it reminds me of Arthur Russell too

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, January 30, 2019 10:29 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes! I could never quite place this.

I approve of “Powerglide”, love that song (although I haven’t played in ages)

played *it

what is that sad keen i hear in the distance?
it is the tormented wail of a bloc of aggrieved superfans crying out as one: "TOO LOW"

http://i.imgur.com/VKqR92T.jpg

23: Robyn – “Honey” – 261 points – 8 votes – 1 first place vote
video

Robyn

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=26399

Sex-as-a-sugary-food is well-worn metaphor, but it has hardly ever sounded as sumptuous and intimate as it does here. Robyn’s continued exploration of the gooey heart of desire — equally melancholic and pornographic — may exude sex, but these golden waves also carry something else. Robyn knows there’s a sliver of sadness that accompanies abandon, and once again she manages to dig into that fraction of a state of mind and deliver four minutes of bliss. She’s giving us what we want and what we need. – Matias Taylor

Did you know “Hang With Me” is a cover? The original is an shy, intimate, almost folky love song, to which Robyn adds the “recklessly, headlessly” chorus and all that Robyn Energy: conviction via big strobing synths, turning a wallflower’s song into a big synthetic light-projection of a violet. This is what Robyn does; for a while, it seemed like it’s all Robyn did anymore. “Honey” is the closest Robyn’s gotten to that quiet draw again. She flips the conceit of The Weeknd’s “What You Need” and drains it of sleaze: the “you won’t get what you need” seems less like a neg than unguarded honesty. She gets lost in her verses, voice almost a hum, lyrics remarkably explicit but sounding more like snuggling against someone’s shoulder. Unlike “Missing You,” it evokes artists other than Robyn (most obviously Róisín Murphy), but it still sounds like nothing else in the alt-pop world, which is a goddamn achievement. – Katherine St Asaph

Too high.

*arises from lie-down* not low enough

lol xp

hey just be thankful this is likely her only placement xps

Honey is so gorgeous. That bass sounds so incredible and warm on headphones. Then those little Moments In Love vocal affects appear and I'm done. I really liked Missing U, but this blows it away.

― kitchen person, Thursday, 27 September 2018 01:22 (four months ago) Permalink

idk why i didn't vote for this

will be absurd if "missing u" or anything else from the album does better than this

The single that broke the internet ILX.

did robyn break the site? haven't been able to log in for fifteen minutes

oh I forgot about "missing u" that's almost certainly showing up

Honey is incredible. It was my #3 and I probably could have voted it #1 easily but I put a couple others ahead of it. Today I might reorder the ballot.

If another 1975 track places and Blackpink don't make it I'm changing my vote on Simon's poll.

Or possibly just taking the site down forever, heh.

Fairly sure this will be it for Robyn on this list. I voted for Because It's In The Music which has been my highlight since day one. I think I'm on my own with that one.

bass really does sound fantastic on this and it's even better coming after the preceding two tracks on the album

no way are blackpink making it though, i don't think there was much love for ddu-du ddu-du from the thread

just mercifully discovered I've left the house without my earphones

well then you don't get to enjoy this

http://i.imgur.com/SH2MpJJ.jpg

22: Eris Drew – “Hold Me (T4T Embrace Mix)” – 268 points – 9 votes – 1 first place vote
video

iso queer sprinkles-y house techno electro breaks etc

no way are blackpink making it though, i don't think there was much love for ddu-du ddu-du from the thread

But... it bangs. Almost nothing from this poll bangs. I NEED BANG.

It was hard to narrow down tracks from the Robyn album, the whole thing is very much of a piece. I thought this was the statement song and the best one, for that matter. Though I did vote for a couple others.

at a guess, this is another eight and a half minutes of exquisite minimal moodz

I like Honey more than I like the album, if that makes sense.

I liked Octo Octa better than Eris Drew. Is that pic from The Wicker Man ?

"honey" has a really excellent video

I love the 1975 but "I always wanna die" and "give yourself a try" seem a little superfluous on this list. the other two that will almost certainly place are much more my idea of the sorts of songs that should place on year-end tracks lists, and also happen to be insanely good, so buckle up ILM

also is it normal historically for there to be such a small difference in votes between the songs in the high 70s (6 votes for #77) and in the low 20s (8 votes for #23)? how was turnout this year compared to other years?

eris drew was my no. 1 vote