ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018

this poll has been kind of a de facto lurker poll for a couple years now
I'm here for saer.

me too tbh

Ah, "Nobody" was my #2 and "Boo'd Up" made the bottom of my ballot (just below Greta Van Fleet). Good stuff.

peggggggyyyy! :))))))

Just catching and broken the top 20. Thanks for the work everyone. I am really tired but happily awake and enjoying.

me @ Snail Mail missing the top 77

https://media.tenor.com/images/73b83bdcf5b7717d720c0e53625767d4/tenor.gif

Discovering Koffee's four 2018 singles has been one of the great ancillary effects of the poll rundown for me.

Hahahahahahahaha called it.

Seriously though I expected Peggy to come in at like #13 or thereabouts but I love it when a song just quietly creeps up on people and this was THE ubiquitous jam of 2018 without ever really announcing itself as such. But I probably heard it in the wild more than any other song and it doesn't sound like anything else.

yeah just listening to the radio i heard it as often on radio 1 as i did on nts

Discovering Koffee's four 2018 singles has been one of the great ancillary effects of the poll rundown for me.

― Tim F, Thursday, January 31, 2019 11:25 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same here

First time I never heard the tracks poll #1 until it was revealed or so I thought until I checked my last.fm stats :/

Because no one demanded it, here's some rough "by genre" breakdowns (with several of the songs appearing twice when overlap demands it) for the 77. Obviously, this is a very arguable attempt at classification, so let's argue about it! Extra Credit: WHAT DOES IT MEEEEEEEEEEAN

Electronic / House / Ambient "Bobbins" -
1: Peggy Gou – “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)”
7: Jessie Ware – “Overtime
16: Krystal Klear – Neutron Dance”
22: Eris Drew – “Hold Me (T4T Embrace Mix)”
29: Marie Davidson – “Work It”
30: Octo Octa – “Beam Me Up (To the Goddess Mix)”
31: Donato Dozzy – “Cleo”
42: Kasper Marrot – “Keflavik”
43: Beach House – “Lemon Glow”
44: Peach – “Silky”
52: Autechre – “all end”
54: Talaboman – “Dins El Llit (Superpitcher Remix)”
57: Jon Hopkins – “Emerald Rush”
64: Fabiana Palladino – “Shimmer”
71: DJ Koze – “Pick Up”
73: Helena Hauff – “Hyper-Intelligent Genetically Enriched Cyborg”

Rock / Indie -
2: The 1975 – “Love It If We Made It”
4: Lana Del Rey – “Venice Bitch”
9: Mitski – “Nobody”
17: The Beths – “Future Me Hates Me”
19: Lana Del Rey – “Mariners Apartment Complex”
20: Empress Of – “When I’m With Him”
26: The 1975 – “Give Yourself a Try”
27: The 1975 - “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME”
37: Hatchie – “Sure”
41: The Beths – “Little Death”
45: MGMT – “Me and Michael”
48: The 1975 – “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)”
49: Hop Along – “How Simple”
53: Mitski – “Geyser”
55: The Chats – “Smoko”
62: mewithoutyou – “Julia (or, Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses)”
65: Soccer Mommy – “Your Dog”
68: Parquet Courts – “Total Football”
69: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – “Talking Straight”
70: MGMT – “When You Die”
74: Andrew W.K. – “Music Is Worth Living For”

R&B -
3: Ella Mai – “Boo’d Up”
33: Khalid featuring 6lak and Ty Dolla $ign – “OTW”
63: Toni Braxton – “Long As I Live”
66: Ravyn Lenae – “Sticky”
77: Kali Uchis – “In My Dreams”

Pop / Alt-Pop -
5: Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry”
6: Ariana Grande – “thank u, next
8: Janelle Monáe – “Make Me Feel”
10: Kero Kero Bonito – “”Only Acting”
23: Robyn – “Honey”
25: Christine and The Queens featuring Dam-Funk – “Girlfriend”
28: Lizzo – “Boys"
34: Tracey Thorn – “Queen”
40: Doja Cat – “Mooo!”
43: Beach House – “Lemon Glow”
47: Natalie Prass – “Short Court Style”
51: Roísín Murphy – “Plaything”
56: Christine and the Queens – “Doesn’t Matter (Voleur de soleil)”
58: Kim Petras – “Heart to Break”
64: Fabiana Palladino – “Shimmer”
75: Laura Jean – “Girls on the TV”
77: Kali Uchis – “In My Dreams”

Country -
11: Kacey Musgraves – “High Horse”
21: Kacey Musgraves – “Slow Burn”

Spanish Language -
12: Rosalía – “Malamente
13: Rosalía – “Pienso en tu mirá”
20: Empress Of – “When I’m With Him”
60: Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin – “I Like It”

Hip Hop -
14: Sheck Wes – “Mo Bamba”
18: Pusha T – “If You Know You Know”
24: Rae Sremmurd featuring Juicy J – “Powerglide”
36: Valee featuring Jeremih – “Womp Womp”
40: Doja Cat – “Mooo!”
60: Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin – “I Like It”
72: Drake – “Nice for What”

Avant-Pop -
15: Julia Holter – “I Shall Love 2”
32: Tirzah – “Holding On”
35: Let’s Eat Grandma – “Donnie Darko”
46: Mr. Twin Sister – “Jaipur”
50: Die Wilde Jagd – “2000 Elefanten”
62: mewithoutyou – “Julia (or, Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses)”
67: Mr Twin Sister – “Echo Arms”

Afropop / Afrobeat -
38: Simmy featuring Sun-El Musician – “Ubala”
39: Simmy – “Umahlalela"
59: Prince Kaybee - “Banomoya”
61: Wizkid – “Soco”

K-Pop -
76: Red Velvet – “Bad Boy”

Did you not listen to that Empress Of song?

I thought Beach House were Glumwave.

1975 are not indie

how dare u

which song won

Peggy Gou

Please vote in The 2018 ILX Metal n' Heavy Rock Poll VOTING + CAMPAIGNING thread! Ballots due Saturday, Feb. 9th!

Can we vote for The 1975 there too?

you can vote for anything on the nominations list

Nominations
https://pastebin.com/z09xZN47

and seandalai provided the voting form and will tabulate the results as usual (thanks again!)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfaHquVS4dUL_G07q9sOAfM-7Co2PXG6N60BDEO74cw5zrTIg/viewform

not telling you if the 1975 are on it or not

On the bobbins front it's a shame no tracks by ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ have made these lists before, partly because I'd like to see those special characters on one of these lovely postcard images.

JF: I like Empress Of! I've seen her live! I think of her as more of an indie artist than an alt-pop one though. If you meant I could've crossed her over to spanish language, sure.

vertical lines: I think of 1975 as "rock" though i'm not entirely sure what their fans want to call them or if it matters.

I was just going by the song itself. There's nothing rock and/or indie about it. Alt-pop for sure. It's been a good long time since she lived in shambhala land.

I guess i think that empress of track is more likely to show up on an indie rock radio show than on a pop playlist. it's slightly mopey. like maybe it's more r&B than it is pop OR indie?

It doesn't really matter, I suppose. Except to the 80,000 people who are looking at the thread from parts unknown lol

see, if i had migrated to reddit instead of ILX i would almost surely be getting paid for this by now
only 1000 people read the poll but they all started their own playlists

Last month I realized I hadn't heard much bobbins in 2018, so I listened to the Resident Advisor top 50. My favorite discoveries from that list were "Neutron Dance," "Keflavik," and “Hold Me (T4T Embrace Mix)." Didn't end up voting for any of them in this poll, but I'm pleased to see that my taste still aligns with ILM's.

you should be horrified lol

Having de-lurked after 5+ years to nom and vote this year (though not solely, I think I said something on the Nintendo Switch thread too), inevitably I've had a horribly busy week and only just caught up with results, let alone listening. Pleased that Ella Mai got as high as it did and the Eris/Octo tracks both placed - just been listening to that while staggering home in the snow and the curdled rave aesthetic lends itself to that very nicely. The Eris is a sort of ultra-limpid "Papua New Guinea" and thus nifty.

i'm sure "keflavik" is great but i have that thing where i can't remember a song because it has the same name as another song. i know i'm an asshole for saying "the definitive song named 'keflavik' will always be by richard pinhas from his 1980 album east/west", but y'all have probably glommed on to my being an asshole by now

please don't take it out on the richard pinhas song, which really is great

not that they needed another placement, but did "it's not living (if it's not with you)" miss out on the top 177 completely? really surprised "give yourself a try" had so much more support

i would just like to be the nth person to thank the poll runners and mention this year's rollout has been extra pretty. thanks :) :)

First time I never heard the tracks poll #1 until it was revealed or so I thought until I checked my last.fm stats :/

― nashwan

The exact same thing just happened to me. I don't remember hearing this song at all. On second listen, I'm into it and I do love a good surprise winner. Ah, it just finished playing on YouTube and went into Inspector Norse. Nice!

Thanks to everyone who put this together. A great job as always and as I've mentioned before, these lists are the only thing I enjoy about January.

Not as much pop as I expected... no Camila, no Mariah(?)

me listening to half the tracks on this list:

https://i.imgur.com/GrxOubM.jpg

The fake number one was much better than the real number one i don't get the joke!.

The first Kacey Musgraves record was probably the best out of the 77, but the Natalie Prass, Donato Dozzy, Womp Womp and Octo Octa were all ok if not really anything I'd play.

I don't know if this is the best format to hear a lot of new records for the first time. The only record I'd heard before was Neuron Dance which I heard in a changing room in Birkenhead. It wasn't good then either

Saer: I love you and you’re surely a candidate for mvp but what’s the point of following a poll for music you have completely alienated yourself from? Contests are based on lowest common denominators anyways.

The whole rollout would have been like 25% less fun without those Saer posts and it's obvious he's enjoying himself.

Zeitgeisty stuff that feels like it got completely passed over in this poll - Soundcloud rap, UK drill and afroswing, dancehall, London hipster jazz, any kind of dance music that isn't house, techno or disco. I was delighted by that Top 10 but it felt like the most Pitchforky poll in a long time.

Meanwhile I'm not convinced there's anyone who really needs even a single additional record featuring winsome female vocals over gauzy faded 80s synthpop.

I like hearing the different things, certainly the first two days and mostly the third though I kind of tire a little on the home straight.

I've no idea what is going to place and the chances are I won't have heard it before. It doesn't really matter whether I enjoy the music or not, its all valid! Its true none of my choices made it in (or even got a second vote!), but I don't know that beforehand!

Also I like the graphics, and actually I quite like the videos. The jumpsuit outfits in the Natalie Prass video were very good and also the colour palette was very nice

And every video had a play count more than 100x the population of my canton, these are entrepreneurs at work doing a bang up job at the youtube coalface, the edicts allow for the occasional downvote!

considering that they’re way too long in the tooth to be considered anything like hip, the hit rate that ninja tune have been having over the last couple of years is pretty impressive - Peggy Gou, Marie Davidson, Helena Hauff in this poll, and then Young Fathers, Bicep... probably a fair share of duds in there too that I’m blanking on, and yeah it says a lot about their pr nous/resources, but compared to xl or whoever, they’re having a bit of a golden patch

Hard to argue against the bobbins selection, especially the top ones.
Pop was overall good especially if you put it all together, ("Spanish language" genre lol)
I think I just hate most indie rock, at least when it's this wimpy. 2 TFS tracks are worth more than that entire batch.
More r&b and hip hop would be great, but I haven't helped much there.

And I wanna see saer's top. And understand what he's on about, if he's misanthropic or a madman ILM puts up with or what.

Zeitgeisty stuff that feels like it got completely passed over in this poll - Soundcloud rap, UK drill and afroswing, dancehall, London hipster jazz, any kind of dance music that isn't house, techno or disco.

― Matt DC, Friday, 1 February 2019 07:56 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, agreed, many genres of dance music seem to be invisible here, but even more glaring for me is the absence of stuff from the UK charts in general - not only is there no MNEK, no Sigrid, no Clean Bandit, but nobody even notes their absence. Contrast this to the early 2000s when a similar poll would surely be packed with this stuff.

I'm not surprised, the UK charts seem to be at a historical low of local product.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_top-ten_singles_in_2018

All that stuff is dreary AF though and doesn't deserve to be in the poll. The more afropop-slanted stuff - MO/Mabel/Not3s/Kojo Funds/Yxng Bane etc is a lot more lively and creative right now and that's also been largely overlooked.

Wow the ILM Years & Years love really fell off this year didn't it?