ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

Not the best song on the album but I like it. Sounds a bit like a VU&N outtake.

Love this but voted for the LP instead

Oh, cool. I didn't think she'd make the tracks poll. This song is wonderful.

Julia Holter, she's great. She's been through a lot apparently w/r/t that asshole formerly from Real Estate, and i have warmer feelings towards her for personal reasons too. a friend of ours took his own life a couple years back and she was a friend of his as well, and sang a lovely song at his memorial service along w/a couple others.

Excellent - voted for the album instead but pleased to see this track place

Is this rollout always this unpleasant? The sniping is quite tiring.

― L'assie (Euler)

I don't think we've even had a proper argument break out this run. I try not to be actively mean about things but a little snark is part of the fun.

baby snark do-do-do-do

Great song, definitely an album thing for me but if I was going to pick an individual track this'd probably be it.

Re: the Beths, I can't get excited by them really but I do quite like the tracks that have placed, they remind me of now-defunct UK indiepopsters Standard Fare.

i'm frankly pleased this has been such a chatty rollout; we're poised to hit the same number of posts from the entire 2017 poll before the end of today.

[snark]overripe tin-eared avant-fluff[/snark]

(obviously you can all have at anything i rly like in this manner - but there hasn't been any for two days!)

Read that as [shark].

aaah haha

http://i.imgur.com/IySF71U.jpg

14: Sheck Wes – “Mo Bamba” – 297 points – 9 votes
video

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=26388

I saw Sheck Wes at the beginning of the summer when he played MoMA PS1’s Warmup series. He played “Mo Bamba” three times. It went off every single time. I’ve since heard “Mo Bamba” on what feels like every single dance floor that was tangentially hip-hop related, and honestly, it still goes off every time! I’m astounded that “Mo Bamba” is all build with no cathartic release, but I can’t argue with the energy this brings to a room. - Crystal Leww

“Mo Bamba” is a masterpiece of negative space. Sheck Wes gives the track the room to unfurl, to expand and contract without adhering to a strict beat or structure. The second “bamba” is what really kills me. It sounds like Sheck Wes spitting a sour taste from his mouth, then followed by a bratty string of “fuck, shit, bitch!” — an artful encapsulation of the blunt boredom of young angst, feeling like you know everything but where your next thought is going to bring you. - Ashley John

TOOO LOOOOOOOOOW

there we go

xp that Julia Holter track is really nice!

hah this comment on the Krystal Klear vid:

Jenny Higgins6 months ago (edited)

Does anybody else get a New Order vibe from this? Love it

idk if that's supposed to be sarcastic or not

Probably not.

NB for those of you who don't know better and that work in open offices that "Mo Bamba" is very much a NSFW single and (imo) best imparts whatever enjoyment you're likely to get from it at earsplitting volume

"mo bamba" my no. 3

New Order is dinosaur synthpop these days.

i'm guessing tyga's "taste" got 78'd? shame

guys mo bamba is so good

the song bangs too, lol ;) ;)

Is the rest of the album on par with 'Mo Bamba?' Liking this.

imo yes

Oh, "Future Me Hates Me" and "I Shall Love 2" are the third and fourth tracks from my ballot to place. Good to see. (I had voted for "Geyser" after all.)

Oh, "Future Me Hates Me" and "I Shall Love 2" are the third and fourth tracks from my ballot to place. Good to see. (I had voted for "Geyser" after all.)

― silent as a seashell Julia (Sund4r), Thursday, January 31, 2019 1:47 PM (seven seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*dramatically fistbumps you on a beach*

Didn't hear the Holter album this year (as I have probably said many times, her doomy electronic songs were the ones that hit me and she moved away from those), but oooh the ending of that track is fucking gorgeous.

how much is a #1 vote worth? 40 points? add that to the 'future me hates me' me total and that's where it would have landed had i not been a lazy ass

mo bamba was my #2 and i prob shoulda put it as my #1

jsut checked my ballot and i had it #7 and i kinda wanna yell TOO LOW at myself????????

i mean putting mitski songs at 1-6 was probably overkill (jkjkjkjkjkjk it was only 1-2)

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

13: Rosalía – “Pienso en tu mirá” – 306 points – 10 votes – 1 first place vote
video

Rosalía (Post-Flamenco Art-Pop From Spain)

so good

lol at today's ring composition

this, as established earlier, grew on me a little

I feel like more of a tourist in this year's poll than any I can remember.

I don't dislike it, but the hype did her a disservice imho (not financially, of course).

Holter gorgeous
Sheck Wes cool
Rosalía my number #1

huh i should've voted for this, it's beautifully constructed

Not my Rosalía pick, but I won't argue.

Love that Rosalía pick but will both that one and Malamente place?? Didn’t expect her to get both songs so high!

Very good, and I guess “Malamente” is yet to come? My fave of hers is “Di mi nombre”, but I only voted for the album (too low, as I realized when I played it the next day).

I like how thug that track is

im more of a "malamente" stan

yeah that's my pick

oh yeah?

Was this the last one for today?

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

12: Rosalía – “Malamente – 308 points – 10 votes
video

Rosalía (Post-Flamenco Art-Pop From Spain)

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=26668

Flamenco-pop, flamenco-tinged R&B, even flamenco rap and flamenco-reggaetón, are nothing new — past heroes like Rosario, Bebé, Chambao, Papá Levante and fusion legends Ojos de Brujo all have enjoyed international fame and can be considered Rosalía’s natural predecessors in that aspect. Rosalía gladly and effectively acknowledges that tradition while contributing to it with her empowered R&B-flavored chants, and the Latin urban sensibilities in El Guincho’s productions. “Malamente” establishes an interesting dynamic between the modern synths and pads and the traditional palmas a compás, which work in counter-rhythm to her cante, for a track that offers a glimpse into the percussive complexities of rumba while feeling at home in one of those alt-pop playlists. It’s a new step in flamenco’s legacy. - Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa

Rosalía’s sophomore album was inspired by a 13th century fable entitled The Romance of Flamenca, a classic love triangle story that centers on Count Archimbaut’s jealousy-fueled transformation toward insanity. He eventually imprisons his wife — the eponymous Flamenca — in a tower, allowing her to leave its confines for no more than two reasons: bathing and mass. He was meant to represent the very opposite of courtly behavior to the story’s readers, and yet, this portrait of a powerful man restricting a woman’s life is just as necessary today. There’s consequently no greater statement that could have started El mal querer than its lead single, “Malamente.” The interaction of its flamenco palmas with minimal percussion and synth pulses pits listeners in a space between the traditional and contemporary. Even more, the spacious world that she and El Guincho create is simultaneously anxious and impassioned. Rosalía’s vocalizing glides smoothly along the beat before sharply piercing listeners with jaleo in the form of “illo!” and “tra, tra!” adlibs. In the album’s narrative, “Malamente” prefaces Archimbaut and Flamenca’s wedding, and the track’s subtitle indicates that the song is an omen. What is it foretelling, exactly? Well, it warns of the tumultuous relationship that’s to come from the Count and his wife, but it’s also a declaration that Rosalía is putting forth regarding her music, that it’s going to be charting unfamiliar territory. Critics may, and have, decried “Malamente” as being disingenuous to flamenco’s roots, positing that Rosalía is a mere cultural appropriator. This is despite her time spent at the Catalonia College of Music, a school where only one student per year is admitted to studying flamenco, and whose flamenco teacher commented that Rosalía was their most memorable pupil. She has also been vocal in desiring to collaborate with people outside the world of flamenco and has already met with artists such as Pharrell and Arca. In a sense, Rosalía’s critics try to force her into her own proverbial tower, but it’s clear that she won’t stay there. With “Malamente,” she delivers that very message to whoever will listen, reimagining new stories for Flamenca and flamenco in the process. – Joshua Minsoo Kim

A student at the station at the beginning of the semester was raving about an artist called Rosalia. I had no idea whom he meant so I nodded politely. Then when he did it again a few weeks ago I realized it's Rosalía, and he's Columbian and should know better.