ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2020

2020 was violent, isolating, frustrating, uplifting, monotonous, confrontational, angry, redemptive, life-changing, life-ending. Many of us became ill or ostracized, lost jobs and homes, hobbies and well-being, friends and family. We lost voices on ILX.

Amid that tumult, the pandemic era provided the dubious blessings of more time to listen and greater opportunity to connect through art. More than ever, music was my lifeline. Every chance that this site gave me to hear something new was a genuine gift.

End-of-year list-making frenzy is too often an exercise in arbitrarily enumerating the innumerable. What I love about the ILM 77 is that it is intended not as canon building but as a symposium to learn and offer insight into who we are and what matters to us in this moment, a meditation on individual passions as open benediction.

Thanks for sharing what mattered to you. I hope you find something meaningful here to take on your way.

Here’s the Top 77 Tracks of 2020 Spotify Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/09YV3JA0jtWYT8rick6b14

If anyone wants to build a matching YouTube / Tidal / Apple Music / Amazon Music / Future Times Neural Net Music Service We Don't Know About Yet Playlist, it would be more than welcome. Please post those here.

In case you’d like to listen to the total talent pool, here’s the nominee playlist, which includes some 1250+ of the 1400+ nominated songs:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3pvB14oQVKaNUwNViZAv00

Your poll runners are myself (posting, playlisting), Moka (posting, graphics) and Seandalai (organization and vote tabulation).

With each winning song, wherever possible, I will be posting a link to the song’s video on YouTube, appropriate ILX artist/song/album/genre threads for further reading and - as there’s brisk crossover between the ILX and TSJ population - a link to The Singles Jukebox review of the song in question.

There was a two-way tie for #78 and, in what I assume is a first, both songs happen to be by the same artist. Bragging rights if you can name the artist and tracks before we get to the end of the poll.

Okay, that’s enough intro! 77 tracks ahead. We’ll get into it starting around 9am EST tomorrow.

wooooo

thanks runners

unexpected early start, but I happen to be here for it.

let me get my guess in for the tied 78: Tiwa Savage (hope it’s wrong, but I fear the afropop track results will be/have been severly impacted by vote splitting)

(in which case it would be “Dangerous Love” and “Koroba”)

https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/B3-AT458_Oman_8SR_20180611152444.jpg

Looking forward to this. Lovely introduction to it, off to a good start before anything has been revealed..

It's going to be all Taylor anyway, so I'm guessing #78 is a split between "Peace" and "The Lakes".

I'd guess Dua Lipa with Hallucinate and Break My Heart

...with Physical and Levitating making the 77

I love your opening post, forks! Looking forward to this rollout because I have no idea what will make it and what won't and tbh I won't be mad about anything that places or misses. Unless 100 gecs wins.

Post 77-61 now then fifteen on each ensuing day imo ;)

Yes!!!!!

Oh god, I thought it had actually started for a moment there.

I would've guessed Taylor for the tied 78 but with so many songs nominated I'm not sure it'd be noteworthy enough to mention? I didn't pay any attention to her stuff this year so no idea about track titles or anything anyway.

Tied 78 probably Charli knowing our luck

My prediction for 78 is the two PSB tracks. Long standing affection for them but not enough to get them into the 77.

What I love about the ILM 77 is that it is intended not as canon building but as a symposium to learn and offer insight into who we are and what matters to us in this moment, a meditation on individual passions as open benediction.

this was very nice, thanks forks

gah forks you tease!

j/k much love <3

Best poll on the internet. I always feel super giddy and privileged. Thanks for the amazing work and dedication. Looking forward to this year's celebrating, trashing and analyzing.

Booming intro forks, stoked for the madness!

woot

Only 32 Taylor Swift tracks were nominated, so that leaves 45 spots for everyone to guess!

History lesson: A Decade of EOY Poll Winners

2010 Girl Unit - Wut
2011 Azealia Banks ft. Lazy Jay - 212
2012 Todd Terje - Inspector Norse
2013 Daft Punk - Get Lucky
2014 Tinashe ft. Schoolboy Q - 2 On
2015 Grimes - Realiti (Demo)
2016 Rae Sremmurd - Black Beatles
2017 Charli XCX - Boys
2018 Peggy Gou - It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)
2019 Busy Signal - 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈

excited for this to get underway, my pick for the 78’d individual is bob dylan

bookmarked

2013 Daft Punk - Get Lucky

sigh

Yeah, that seems a bit normie for ILM EOY polls, but didn't we crown "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley a few years before?

somewhat concerned this is going to be quite a normie year. prove me wrong, ILM

or in other words, by the fourth jessie ware song I will be my usual cartoon villain self

ooh actually she's not a bad shout for the double 78. we can all live in hope

that Peggy Gou song is aptly named -- I have zero recollection of what that sounds like

78 tie has to be taylor or jessie

2013 Daft Punk - Get Lucky
sigh

― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Sunday, 24 January 2021 19:24 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Check it out if you get the chance, sound of the summer

Gonna be honest, of the megahits of the 2010s, "Get Lucky" is the one I still have time for (OK, this, "Royals," and "Call Me Maybe," and it's too early to tell about "Old Town Road.")

"Royals" relegated to #28 in 2013 poll in ILX non-normie shocker

Aaah so exciting - such a massive undertaking for all involved. Thank you as always for a high point of January. I'm going to be away until tomorrow evening, but can't wait to catch up.

I think the double #78 will be...Selena Gomez? Simmy?

A decade of #78s in the EOY Poll:

2010 Glasser - Mirrorage
2011 Adele - Rolling in the Deep / Lil B - Motivation (tie)
2012 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Mladic / Mykki Blanco - Wavvy (tie)
2013 Kidnap Kid - So Close
2014 St. Vincent - Digital Witness
2015 OMI - Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix)
2016 Underworld - If Rah
2017 Big Thief - Mythological Beauty
2018 Black Dresses - Thoughts and Prayers
2019 Jenny Hval - High Alice

87-78 last year was an incredible bunch of tracks IIRC

i loved that s/t st. vincent album at the time and i could not be less interested in listening to it again

lol at rolling in the deep tying with Lil B at 78, very ilm moment

xp found it and it's not quite as good s I remembered but still would go to bat for half of these at least

78 Jenny Hval - High Alice
79 Wang & Neo Image - Just Off Wave
80 Charli XCX ft. Sky Ferreira - Cross You Out
81 Rapsody ft. GZA & D'Angelo - Ibtihaj
81The Mountain Goats - Younger
83 Denzel Curry - RICKY
84 SAULT - Let Me Go
85 Algiers - Can the Sub Bass Speak?
85 Raphael Saadiq - This World is Drunk
87 SAULT - Why Why Why Why Why
88 J Balvin & Bad Bunny - La Canción
89 Ocean Wisdom ft. Dizzee Rascal - Blessed
89 ShooterGang Kony - Charlie
91 Clipping - Blood of the Fang

"High Alice" is spectacular

still can't believe Denzel didn't crack it

Thoughts And Prayers getting 78d was stunningly frustrating, reliving that now thaaanks lol

While y'all are talking history, is there an interesting tale about how 77 become the magic number?

secrete and rare

more and more, people are saying 77 is too low a number

what i'm saying is that Moka outdid herself with the graphics this year and y'all are going to be very happy with them.

I won't, just to be contrarian.

I voted in the EOY poll for the first time since I can't remember, but regardless of whether or not I participate, the EOY countdown is something I always look forward to every year ^_^

hey seanandalai, i genuinely don't know the answer: how many people voted this year for tracks?

I would've guessed Taylor for the tied 78 but with so many songs nominated I'm not sure it'd be noteworthy enough to mention?

my guess is the taylor hive have conspired in secret to focus on just a track or two. just seems like the taylor fan thing to do

I say this with love*

btw breastcrawl what does the image of the horse and rider portend? simply "hold your horses"?

77 was a semi-arbitrary decision iirc. at least one of the pollrunners that year said there were so many strong tracks among the results that year that the standard number (50?) seemed like too few but weren't sure what it should be (100 being perhaps excessive?). someone randomly posted 77 and they went w/ that and it stuck

i'm pretty sure they went w/ it b/c "ass on the floor" was #77 that year

anyways looking forward to this :)

Based upon nothing at all really, I assumed the number 77 was picked cos it's like...The Punk Rock Year.

some ppl just dont know abt 77

someone randomly posted 77

wrong, there's a reason.

I assumed the number 77 was picked cos it's like...The Punk Rock Year.

me too

i'm pretty sure they went w/ it b/c "ass on the floor" was #77 that year

― dyl, Sunday, January 24, 2021 11:17 PM (yesterday)

ok *kinda* .... but not really

lmao

some ppl just dont know abt 77

seems wrong to withhold knowledge imo but otoh perhaps it's for the best

I suggested to do a top 100 this year, but I was advised against it unless I wanted trouble with the 77 mafia.

We will post the top 100 and add those songs to the playlist once we finish, so effectively it IS a top 100!
Except it’s not and of course it never will be.

I know I say this every year and I disappoint quite a few people by overhyping them, but I think the full top 77 is very agreeable, full of variety and filled with surprises - or at least several tracks I didn’t see in any other EOY list, and I read quite a few of those.

I was advised against it unless I wanted trouble with the 77 mafia.

there won't be trouble if no one is looking for trouble, is all

In addition to "Ass on the Floor" I see there was also the following that year. Seemingly a reference to Quadron, shortly before ciderpress's suggestion of 77 was adopted.

I could do a top 77, because I happen to be a big supporter of album #76. I'll think about it, ha!
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, January 23, 2011

btw breastcrawl what does the image of the horse and rider portend? simply "hold your horses"?

Seemingly a reference to Quadron, shortly before ciderpress's suggestion of 77 was adopted.

So is the origin of the 77 thing such a secret nowadays that you can't even explain it to new(ish) posters? I hope not.

It seems so obvious now

In certain numerological systems based on the English alphabet, the number 77 is associated with Jesus Christ. CHRIST is C = 3, H = 8, R = 18, I = 9, S = 19, T = 20, which added together equal 77.

IL☦️

77 in the poll is from it being the private board's id, right? but idk if there's a story to 77 beyond that

Didn't get a chance to participate this year, but keen to see the results!

there's never more than 77 good tunes in one year anyway

All seventy seven
And we will smoke them all

77 answers (of 77)

77 trombones

The notion of going back to 100 in an era of fewer voters seems wrong-headed

Always thought that if you hang out here for more than a week, you'll usually 'get' 77 (whether that's more getting it or less getting it is up to the individual doing ~research~).

"It's always been 77" suffices by this point.

77 seems always perfect imo
50 too little and 100 just would feel like cannon fodder for the first dozen picks or so, especially on albums

XP: LOL. It's not clear to me after... 18 years or something. Admittedly I wasn't even vaguely curious before recent hours. Sorry everyone. Please forget I raised it.

The hidden board, whose ID number was indeed 77, was discovered by one ILXor it before it was made available to the public when he went through every board ID in the URL until he came across it. This event, and the subsequent debate over the existence and use of the board was so memorable that the board was named 77 and the number itself became an ILX meme.

And there I assumed there was some clever maths reason for it.

Were there only 77 ballots this year

or more than that?

I had also wondered if 77 (incl the hidden board's name) had something to do with punk rock before it was explained to me a couple of years ago. I didn't know there had been debate about it and tbh don't even really understand what happened, technically.

let's get this show on the road, shall we?

It’s the first track of the 77, but will this be our much-beloved disco soul artist’s last spin under the magic mirror ball? Signs point to no...

Hopefully someone will come and post #77 in a minute and we can stop talking about this forever

Omg xp thank you haha

https://i.imgur.com/Njgz4Og.png

#77: Jessie Ware - “What’s Your Pleasure?” - 134 points - 4 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote
video

Jessie Ware: What's Your POLLeasure? (2020)
Jessie Ware - 110% (and everything else she's done)

good placement

P cool that it is the product of two primes.

cool that no. 77 has a no. 1 vote

Jessie gonna bottom the singles and top the albums...versatility, folks

ooh them graphics! <3

Let's get this show on the road properly: Jessie Ware makes incredibly boring music

graphics are once again hot thanks moka

this song title always makes me think of mufasa

oh wait im thinking of “remember where you are”

lmao Simon

My new shout for joint-78 is Fiona Apple btw

i didn't end up voting for any jessie ware tracks bc the album is so consistent it would be very hard to choose. if i did vote for one it wouldn't have been this but it's still a very good track

album is consistent sure but nothing on it rises to the level of “career highlight” for me. not even the mufasa song.

at least half would be career highlights i'd say actually

I've heard this song twice in the wild in the last week.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81nM4Sw%2B9yL._SY355_.jpg

the graphics of the NOW series remain something to aspire to, but that’s very classy stuff, Moka!

as for Jessie: I’ve always loved her, and yet I didn’t feel moved enough to vote for anything she did this year (hinting at the album here, sorry)

looks like that song came joint 5th in the poll of the album - i guess at least a couple more will show up

that's a good looking banner

jessie: never caught my attention

Great start (both the graphics and the first song of the countdown)!

LJs dismissal of Jessie Ware hurts my feelings.

Our first tie of the 77 comes early.

https://i.imgur.com/HgxTi3P.png
#75 (tie): Destroyer - “Cue Synthesizer” - 136 points - 4 votes
video

destroyer
Destroyer "Have We Met" out 1/31/20

ooh i voted for this one!

man this album came out a year ago

I have fond memories of walking around a crowded downtown listening to this near my now permanently closed office. It definitely is weird that this was less than a year ago.

The only knowledge I have of Destroyer comes from ILM polls.

ditto

it will very likely remain that way

you're missing out!

Whereever you are

over the past 15 or so years, my experience with Destroyer has been super consistent: i listen to 1 to 3 tracks off whatever the new album is, find them basically okay but uninspiring then completely forget what both they and he sound like within the hour.
(NB that with a handful of key exceptions, this is the same level of engagement i have with lou reed so i am well aware that ymmv)

Would it have been too obvious to actually cue the instruments when he calls them out?

xp but he's being all meta and extra-cynical on this one, it's about being old and jaded!

I still think Rubies is the only really great Destroyer album; this one didn't click with me at all.

Cool video. Very 2020 vibe for something presumably shot before a certain contagion was even isolated.

This next track, for better and worse, is likely to outlast us all as the key Zoomer memento mori anthem of 2020. The nearest Gen-X cultural analog to my ears is Beck’s “Loser.” Given that this one-hit wonder(?) is similarly bound to be dug up and covered a half dozen times before 2030, maybe it’s best to make your peace with it now.

https://i.imgur.com/HgLHIy7.png
#75 (tie): BENEE with “Gus Dapperton” - “Supalonely” - 136 points - 4 votes
video

rolling pop 2020

singles jukebox

Yeah the entire New Pornographers cinematic universe is theoretically stuff I should like/love, but none of its various franchises ever keep my attention. A flaw of my own, I imagine, because I know people love it.

i love how the instruments bejar calls out don’t actually appear when he “cues” them haha

xps

this may be marketed as 'zoomer' but there's a gang of olds hiding behind the mask. listen to that limp ilm-approved soft-disco backing music. if this makes it and Thos Moser doesn't then that is condemnation imo

gus dapperton

Track bangs. Vocals are trash.

xp it is pronounced "gus dapperton"

the backing is tasteful sure but what's happening on top of that isn't good enough for me to enjoy and it gets so much worse when gus dapperton shows up

people shouldn’t criticize dapperton for ripping off rex orange county, they came up around the same time. people should criticize them both for sucking ass.

this song made me feel bad for slagging off jessie ware

The only knowledge I have of Destroyer comes from ILM polls.

― timber euros (seandalai), 25. tammikuuta 2021 16:25 bookmarkflaglink

ditto

― get down, get down, get down / why piano wenza so? (breastcrawl), 25. tammikuuta 2021 16:26 bookmarkflaglink

it will very likely remain that way

― get down, get down, get down / why piano wenza so? (breastcrawl), 25. tammikuuta 2021 16:28 bookmarkflaglink

i see lj is already on one this year

yeah, you gotta pace yourself imago

bejar says “cue electric guitar,” tuomas shudders

lol Brad I always start like this then something I like places and it's all smiles again, u know the drill

Pretty sure I voted for "Cue Synthesizer". The album is decent, but not quite listened to enough to make my ballot, so I figured I should at least give this track some love.

This was not the Jessie Ware track I voted. I'm sure there's going to be a bunch on here.

Will have to check out BENEE.

The Benee song sounds nice, but the lyrics and the video make me think I'm not exactly it's intended audience at 41 years of age. And that's okay, there's no need for everything to be available for me.

unexpected showing (or did I miss the ILM hype around this track?) sort of enjoyed the poppiness of this.

that's three out of three tracks with polite neo-disco/funk backing. time for something... else, perhaps?

benee song was a tiktok hit right? i was previously unfamiliar with it and now i know there's a kidz bop version lol

yeah it was

puts it on a par with "Dreams", I guess

I think it's kinda interesting, though, that even tho the median age of ILX keeps getting higher, teenpop never disappears from these lists.

(xxxxpost)

this is a good thing

Here's a possibly dumb question that's been on my mind for a while, that will probably make me sound like an old person, and Supalonely has good example of it: Is there a name for that kind of stilted hiccupy vocal delivery that's present in the verses ("Water. Pulling. Down. from the. ceiling")? Like it's become more and more prevalent in music over the past decade, with origins that I assume were in Trap before crossing over into RnB and Pop. But is there a name for it?

no idea if it has a name but yeah it originated in rap before crossing over

well it's just the triplet but without the final syllable being voiced

sometimes without the final two syllables voiced

if the "polite neo-disco/funk backing" is getting to you, perhaps you're in the market of something from our "chillax and vyb3" selection?

https://i.imgur.com/mVPQQNb.png
#74: Westerman - “Blue Comanche” - 138 points - 5 votes
video

bullion

yeah, just staccato triplet bits to fit between the up and down beat

xp

if this makes it and Thos Moser doesn't then that is condemnation imo

That was one of a couple of tracks I was 100% going to vote for and then forgot to put on my ballot so really hope it does make it

Too Low!

love the graphics but had a bit of a lol at "weste rman"

When I've discussed w/r/t rap music, I've usually used the phrase "stop-and-start flow", but I dunno if anyone else does, or whether it can be used with non-rap.

(several xposts)

Probably my favourite track on the Westerman album but there's lots of other good ones

oh wow this is lovely

oh this is nice to see, i quite enjoyed his output this year but nothing quite made my ballot

loved the album, didn't vote for any tracks from it. (i did vote for "confirmation" last year, i believe)

do prefer this Moody Midtempo AOR to Destroyer's, give it that

going full arthur russell on those vocals

Voted Your Hero Is Not Dead over this but I love it too

can't decide whether this song is more peter gabrielle & sebastian or sade jens lekman

although the Eddie Chacon song was the closest I came to actually voting for some MMAOR

xp i'd say sade jens lekman

Not familiar with Westerman at all but yeah this is really nice.

lol Brad I always start like this then something I like places and it's all smiles again, u know the drill

Hey, I was happily talking about numbers!

lj have you heard the full eddie chacon album

if the "polite neo-disco/funk backing" is getting to you, perhaps you're in the market of something from our "chillax and vyb3" selection?

Westerman is new to me. This is lovely.

I liked "Supalonely", finding "Blue Comanche" a bit dull unfortunately.

lj have you heard the full eddie chacon album

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 25 January 2021 15:06 (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah it's lovely

Very much looking forward to the rollout. I never manage to make enough sense of the chaos to make a tracks poll but it's where I learn most for sure.

so good xp

brad, have you heard the whole westerman album?

The Westerman song is so lovely. I kind of group that album together with the Better Person and Choir Boy ones which both deserved more attention.

I do like Bullion in general, but i'd take Blue Pedro over Blue Comanche any day of the week

well obv but blue pedro completely sui generis never-to-be-repeated moment of magic

Though it remains the dominant musical force of our young century, there’s surprisingly little purist-identifiable hip hop in this year’s 77 Countdown. Even so, that genre has so completely infiltrated all of pop music that it’s easier to pick out the songs on here that DON’T have direct rap influence than vice versa. Board consensus aside, this was an undeniably good year for the form both stateside and internationally, as evidenced by this lasting lead single from UK drill star Headie One’s debut album.

https://i.imgur.com/cjk5hbL.png
#73: Headie One with AJ Tracey and Stormzy - “Ain’t It Different” - 144 points - 5 votes
video

Grime and UK rap 2020

singles jukebox

xp i'd say sade jens lekman

― ufo,

This is my dream description.

this was the clear highlight of the headie one album

there’s surprisingly little purist-identifiable hip hop in this year’s 77 Countdown

not much of a surprise if you were around for last year's countdown

sade jens lekman going to walk away with it this year i can feel it

there’s surprisingly little purist-identifiable hip hop in this year’s 77 Countdown

:(

https://img.discogs.com/YP0o-Y5U2ISi2QyEQ5l1crd1OfQ=/fit-in/600x586/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-14169817-1569162764-7198.jpeg.jpg

i remain disconnected from grime but the headie one track is very good

I had "Ain't It Different" in my top 10, for actually making something worthwhile out of a song by my least favorite band of all time.

Also I had Westerman downballot (#24) for being the best indie pop track I've heard in years.

for actually making something worthwhile out of a song by my least favorite band of all time.

― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Monday, January 25, 2021 8:17 AM (fifteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

greg not a crazytown head i see

interestingly, no one voted for "Ain't It Different" in the recent Top Five Hits in the UK 2020 poll. different audience?

Hey, when you rip "Butterfly" and actually make it good that's a real achievement.

this is well decent

(does this mean The Kunts are a lock for the top 10?)

xp to self

its not even grime really, uk drill is certainly its own thing

lol yeah as i typed that i was like "does this even qualify as grime", such is my disconnection

"ain't it different" is laid-back as far as drill goes, but it's certainly a drill beat

lol i'm so happy to encounter another song that samples "pretty little ditty"

Also it should be noted that "Supalonely" was a late cut from my ballot so I'm happy to see it here (this was a ridiculously good year for music - I cut songs from my ballot that would have been top 10 on my ballot last year).

I voted for the Weste Rman. Didn't rank my ballot, though

yeah "ain't it different" is definitely on the pop crossover end of the uk drill spectrum but that's the end i tend to enjoy the most

I neglected to nominate "Crimson Tide" which is a way better Destroyer song than "Cue Synthesizer" IMO

Didn't find space for 'Ain't It Different' but it's a great track. Hadn't realised it was that big a hit in the UK.

I like the Westerman song.

i voted for "crimson tide" last year but i was a little surprised that it didn't place with his fairly consistent following here. it's indeed the best track from the album

Here’s a delicate hymn that served as the credit roll for the disturbing Norwegian documentary Self Portrait. Sundfør has a history of being highly rated on ILM and, indeed, this song is one of a handful of placing tracks that I haven’t seen on any other end-of-year best ofs.

https://i.imgur.com/K1XBDxa.png
#72: Susanne Sundfør - “When the Lord” - 144 points - 6 votes
video

Susanne Sundfør - "Ten Love Songs"

lol what a year when i miss a susanne sundfør track coming out

Re; Ain't It Different, the recycling of the Patra sample from an older UKG track (M-Dubs 'Bump and Grind') was way more obvious to me than the Crazytown lift. Interesting that the garage->grime->drill continuum is now sampling itself.

uh I didn't even know this existed

wow and it's a good 'un too

oh i'd nearly forgotten about this since it came out right at the start of last year, don't think i'd listened to it since then but it's still really lovely

From the Youtube comments re: Sundfør

When I imagine an angel’s voice all I hear is Susanne.

Aw, me too

Susanne must have the opposite of Phoebe Bridgers' publicity support.

In the end, I cut Susanne in favor of artists doing career best work. I might have voted for "Self Portrait" soundtrack on the albums ballot, if it had been nominated.

Yeah this would have given me a ballot decision to make if I'd heard it before. Splendid. Video is devastating too

also didn’t know this existed, what the hell

I really slept on When The Lord when it came out. Just sounded like another good Susanne Sundfør ballad, but when I revisited it during the last month it hit me so hard like her best work always does. Ended up in my top 10 and made me realise just how much I need a new album from her.

this song is one of a handful of placing tracks that I haven’t seen on any other end-of-year best ofs

Flying from Atlanta to Toronto to go to a Susanne Sundfør concert on the "Music for People in Trouble" tour, since it was coming nowhere near my house, was one of my all time favorite musical moments.

Self Portrait really is a tough watch btw; I tried starting it a little too late one evening and had to tap out after less than a half hour. I'll likely go back at some point.

I was thinking "Ain't It Different" was a welcome change of pace and was pleasantly surprised to hear the playlist go to Thurston Moore's "Hashish" after that but it turns out that it was just the Spotify algorithm moving ahead before the next song was added.

Really regretting not making more of a fuss about this Susanne track in the voting thread. I just assumed everyone was already onboard and it didn't need any kind of push.

This Headie One track is dope, I ought to listen to more grime

Yeah I also unfairly brushed this SS track aside as just a soundtrack when it arrived. She’s one of my favourite artists too.. forgive me

This Headie One track is dope, I ought to listen to more grime

― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Monday, January 25, 2021 10:43 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

*uk drill

only a handful? that doesn't bode well...

I also slept on "When The Lord", it's beautiful. this woman's work...

When I imagine an angel’s voice all I hear is Susanne.

xp shows how little I know!

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRG0S7O_np3Wb9P7o_P8INtIe6ez1985DC9ew&usqp=CAU

VC (or anyone else versed enough to explain): how do you define the difference between UK drill and grime?

sorry, a church, though chapel-shaped

xp

lmao @ "Supalonely", it's not even interesting enough to hate

oh you want something to hate do you

With two full-length LPs released in 2020, each with a lavish (some might say “inevitable”) Deluxe version and one with an extended live variant, long-term reigning queen of pop Taylor Swift absolutely flooded the zone. In line with much of the critical ink spilled, I’m of the school that found folklore the less contrived and more engaging of the pair. With over 34 new tracks available in the airwaves, did we think this song was the best Swift had to offer… or is there yet more to come? All will be unraveled in time.

https://i.imgur.com/Dspo9dT.png
#71: Taylor Swift - “Cardigan” - 145 points - 5 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote
video

Taylor Swift - Folklore
Taylor Swift - POLLklore
should i put a taylor swift temp tattoo on my BF while he is sleeping y/n

singles jukebox

That Susanne Sundfør song choked me up good and proper on more than once occasion in 2020. I sent in an unweighted ballot but if I'd ranked them it would've been top 3

I didn't vote for 'When the Lord' and also had no idea it existed until it was nominated despite liking Susanne Sundfør a lot but I'm glad it placed, it's a beautiful song.

lol it begins

tie with Don Toliver's song with the same title?

you reap what you sow

lol it begins

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP)

Who's this?

i did not vote for any taylor tracks bc all of my feelings about her work were album-oriented last year

oh no

of what was nominated (everything) i expect... three more to place unfortunately. hopefully i'm wrong

can't even hate nu-Taylor, the actual music is fine, even good, which leaves me powerless. but oh that smug face

this particular song is, on the spectrum of fine-to-good, closer to 'fine' imo. there will be better taytay later i think?

i mean the actual production is pretty cool. why did you call the album 'folklore' for fuck's sake

ILM's Top 77 Taylor Swift Tracks of 2020

VC (or anyone else versed enough to explain): how do you define the difference between UK drill and grime?

― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Monday, January 25, 2021 10:46 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

uk drill has a pretty distinct production style with staccato, syncopated snares and sliding 808s.

yeah upgrading this one from 'fine' to 'good' ffs taylor WHY

that's kind of how i break it down in the simplest terms, grime filters down more from club/dance music, drill has elements of grime but comes much more from the hip-hop tradition.

xp to me

Lol there’s a couple of images in the poll that were early tests before the results were send to me - like Tayl or swift or weste rman - where the initial idea was to have the artist name really stand out in big, broken down letters. The idea was scrapped when I couldn’t find a way to make it work with artists like say Headie One due to the features making it look weird. There’s some graphic inconsistency there, don’t mind it.

gr8 images moka obv dw

of what was nominated (everything) i expect... three more to place unfortunately. hopefully i'm wrong

I hope everyone who voted against 77 reform enjoys the taylorfest

yeah don't sweat it moka, these are gorgeous

i somehow didn't manage to fit any taylor on my ballot though i'm sure she's going to do very very well without my help. "cardigan" is great, probably the most tori amos she's ever sounded

grime has never been a catchall for uk rap, there's a distinct sound to it. like compare grime tracks like skepta's "shutdown" and dizzee rascal's "i luv u" with "ain't it different" - it's a very different type of beat.

i could see up to 3 more jessie ware tracks placing too lol

Westerman was a top 10 track of the year for me, so happy it got a chance to appear in this poll. If this is you first time hearing about him check out the full album and the EP of his bandmate/producer Bullion which is in a similar vein.

Taylor defined my music listening year more than anyone else, but as others have said, it was all about the album(s), and I kept my votes there

moka, these are gorgeous

My initial tests for this image were for a different TS song.
But that song didn’t make it.

But which song of the nominated 30 TS was it? I can’t tell.

Seven years after they first burst on the scene, not incidentally bringing Sam Smith with them, the Lawrence Brothers have established their Disclosure project as a genre-blind launchpad for A-List guest vocalists. On this track, their second (and I would argue lesser) collaboration with the outrageously talented Malian singer and guitarist Fatoumata Diawara, they’ve gifted Fatou with likely her biggest single yet: a disarmingly upbeat dance track that carries a pointed lament for her homeland.

https://i.imgur.com/brQ9SdH.png
#69 (tie): Disclosure with Fatoumata Diawara - “Douha (Mali Mali)” - 146 points - 4 votes
video

Fatoumata Diawara explains the meaning behind Douha (Mali Mali)

Thread of Disclosure

amazing graphics moka!

They are really good. Is that the New Yorker font?

Surprised Cardigan came this low but ILX dissing the single vmic (I am taking it for granted there's more Swift to come.) I voted one from each album and this wasn't it: "when you are young they assume you know nothing" very on the nose from an artist who's historically pretty on the nose but not so much on these two albums, which is one of the things I really enjoy about them!

Disclosure fell off my ballot at the last minute

“what’s your pleasure” is fabulous, ive had it stuck in my head all weekend

not nuts about the rest of the album but that track is perfect.

Disclosure will place again I imagine

I woulda voted for "Birthday" but I forgot to nominate it

From the Youtube comments re: Sundfør

When I imagine an angel’s voice all I hear is Susanne.

Aw, me too

― flamboyant goon tie included, Monday, January 25, 2021 10:33 AM (forty minutes ago)

I don't like it either, but wishing her dead is a harsh

j/k it's very pretty but I'm too impatient to listen to this during the countdown

i loved that s/t st. vincent album at the time and i could not be less interested in listening to it again

― voodoo chili, Sunday, January 24, 2021 11:41 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Many xps but: This this this... St Vincent definitely an example of my mega-fandom plummeting to complete disinterest in the shortest amount of time

Yay, I'm glad this made it in, although I still prefer their previous collaboration - Ultimatum.

admittedly I don't get out to the opera or anything but susanne is the best live singer I've ever heard

"douha" is cool but i voted for a different disclosure track

results are super ILM-core so far...

The Westerman album was the closest I came last year to a seriously out of character taste expansion, but it was all ultimately a little too placid for me.

"Ain't It Different" best one at this point, though this Disclosure is okay

As part of the core creative team of SAULT, UK singer/songwriter Cleopatra "Cleo Sol" Nikolic had an intimidatingly busy year, releasing two remarkable LPs with SAULT alongside her debut solo album. Nikolic maintains remarkable consistency across her work but the SAULT ethos of shunning both social media and press interviews means it is surprisingly likely fans of one project may be unaware of the other. If you missed Cleo until now, here’s the track her fans on ILM think you should start with.

https://i.imgur.com/JSdFTu8.png
#69 (tie): Cleo Sol - “When I’m in Your Arms” - 146 points - 4 votes
video

Sault - What's the story?
thread to dis hyped releases that you don't get/don't like/wanna complain about

welp, very surprised not to have heard anything on the list yet. quite a few ILM EOY staples (Destroyer) who pop up every year (Taylor Swift) and I think "Oh I might get round to hearing that one day" (Jessie Ware) but don't (Disclosure). Don't see this changing any time soon, but keen to check the stuff I'm not sick to death of hearing about

Ah Cleo Sol! Nice one. Yeah, more interested in this sort of stuff when it's in album format, but GO Cleo!

Nice one, I came close to voting for this, but decided it wasn't the track I'd choose off this wonderful album.

SAULT and co mostly stay in "this is nice" gear for me. Anyway, this is nice

This was very high on my ballot so glad to see it place

The Susanne Sundfør song was hitting my Sarah McLachlan triggers the wrong way but I might try again.

I did try again with "Cardigan" and meh. Maybe the predictable tied-to-the-barline phrasing and singsong melodicism would be worth it if the lyrics were cleverer, since they tend to foreground those.

Disclosure/Fatouma Diawara song is OK, feels actually danceable. The production is still a bit smooth for me but I like the vocal.

admittedly I don't get out to the opera or anything but susanne is the best live singer I've ever heard

― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Monday, 25 January 2021 16:26 (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Same

a little disappointed i'm familiar with everything so far, usually this early part of the rollout is where all the stuff i haven't heard is

yeah post something I can be properly disgusted by!

Say "Cardigan" isn't the lead single and is placed somewhere toward the back half of Folklore. Does it even register as a top 10 Taylor Swift song in 2020?

only heard the jessie song b4 but enjoyed every track so far

haven’t really delved into the SAULT realm so far. I tried a few tracks over the year (more Cleo Sol than actual SAULT), and while they were nice, I felt no urge to move it up on my priority list.

genre-wise this music is obviously right up my alley, I was not-born-but-raised with it, but at this particular point in my life I find that I’d rather hear it straight from the 70s/80s sources - see also Jessie Ware to an extent. (this is purely personal and not meant in any way as an absolute statement btw)

US DJ and producer Avalon Emerson’s big 2020 project was her entry in the DJ Kicks series, a prestigious 25-year-old(!) mixtape collection that’s more or less the biggest available platform for non-pop electronic artists to show their skills off outside of the club. The slightly breathless, bass and synth-heavy original "Rotting Hills" anchors Emerson’s Kicks mix.

https://i.imgur.com/IHyE9dW.png
#68: Avalon Emerson - “Rotting Hills” - 147 points - 5 votes
video

Let's talk about Avalon Emerson

did Cleo Sol and Jessie Ware use the same photographer and stylist

Say "Cardigan" isn't the lead single and is placed somewhere toward the back half of Folklore. Does it even register as a top 10 Taylor Swift song in 2020?

― Indexed,

It's the second song and it hit #1.

admittedly I don't get out to the opera or anything but susanne is the best live singer I've ever heard
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Monday, 25 January 2021 16:26 (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Same

― or something, Monday, January 25, 2021 11:34 AM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

co-sign

in recent years, definitely for me as well

Time to catch up! I was also not hating the new tay tay. Reminded me a bit of the new Waxahatchee.

Beautiful graphics, Moka!

I hope the Cleo placement portends well for the album. I was afraid it would get squeezed out by the SAULTs.

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5ef619d08813ffa92664e83d/1:1/w_600/What%E2%80%99s%20Your%20Pleasure?_Jessie%20Ware.jpghttps://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/9163vpwoVfL._SS500_.jpg

Listening to G. Ramanathan play Carnatic sax now. May check in later.xps Carnatic vocalists highly recommended btw: Sudha Ragunathan was v good at this season's Kalakendra festival.

I think Indexed was suggesting it only got prominent due to being a single and early in order?

this is getting a little "ILM faves: a look back"

Oh and v edifying description of what comprises UK drill, VC.

Cool to see Avalon here, her mixes are always a click away for me.

looks closer to Solange's art imo

Avolon Emerson was a late cut from my ballot, didn't grab me as much as some of her stuff has but still better than the vast majority put out. Enjoyed the mix too

Avalon

They are really good. Is that the New Yorker font?

― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs)

It is not but it does kind of have a similar feel now that I look at them. New Yorker is an art deco font called Irvin, this one is an art nouveau font called Antiga: https://www.behance.net/gallery/65412897/Antiga-Typeface

oh finally something i haven't heard! it's good

should we do a typeface ballot poll?

I think indexed’s question re: Cardigan is a good one. Not sure how the song would rate if it were just another track on the album.

xp You can tell it's not Irvin because Irvin has a distinctive W.

"avalon" and "emerson" both sound like they could be fonts

Say "Cardigan" isn't the lead single and is placed somewhere toward the back half of Folklore. Does it even register as a top 10 Taylor Swift song in 2020?

― Indexed,

It's the second song and it hit #1.

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 25, 2021 10:49 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

All of her lead singles back to "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" have hit #1 or #2, and that list includes "Me!" and "Look What You Made Me Do."

enjoyed that tune of hers which placed fairly high 2 years back

this sounds good too

All of her lead singles back to "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" have hit #1 or #2, and that list includes "Me!" and "Look What You Made Me Do."

(points at taylor swift fans) look what you made "look what you made me do" and "me!" do

I initially found cardigan to be a lower tier folklore-track, but it has grown on me quite a lot. Still would pick several of that album's tracks over it.

mirror upon mirror mirror reflected

Haha
2xp

I never heard "Cardigan" on the radio and it took a while. Prefer "The 1."

I discovered "Rotting Hills," Eris Drew's "Transcendental Access Point," and Bicep's "Apricots" all through the ILM Nominated Tracks playlist and have been playing them on loop for a few weeks.

One More Fluorescent Rush, nxd.

Texan global pop-psychedelica trio Khruangbin have had something of a breakout year, seeing first-time chart success with their 2020-released album Mordechai.

https://i.imgur.com/oeAtQRF.png
#67: Khruangbin - “Time (You and I)” - 148 points - 4 votes
video

Khruangbin

Oooh, stoked to see Avalon Emerson on here. I am such a fan of p much everything she's done,

hadn’t heard “Rotting Hills” but I love it, my favourite so far, even over “Ain’t It Different”

'Rotting Hills' is excellent, I think I've had something by Avalon Emerson on my ballot for four or five years running now. Still not listened to the DJ-Kicks mix yet though!

I voted for the Avalon Emerson DJ Kicks album instead of any of the individual tracks, mostly because I usually just listened to that whole album from beginning to end and never really listened to any of the tracks individually. I'm listening to Rotting Hills now and I feel like it loses something without the context of the mix within which it was placed.

Oh nice, a band I enjoy, though not one I have bought from this far.

The Amalon Emerson track is good, I didn't like the more retro synth poppy tunes by her on the DJ-Kicks mix, but this one is dope!

oh i am getting POWERFUL hatred energy off this one

V nice graphic

I discovered "Rotting Hills," Eris Drew's "Transcendental Access Point," and Bicep's "Apricots" all through the ILM Nominated Tracks playlist and have been playing them on loop for a few weeks.

the 2020 khruangbin album was a big step down imo

the grooves gave way to vibes, which is never a good thing

this khurangbin song makes me wish I'd nominated skinshape

this is pure weapons-grade piffle

"So We Won't Forget" has a groove

"rotting hills" is amazing and i now feel devastated i never heard her dj-kicks mix last year

I think I only listened to the older album tbh. Will listen to this when I come back to the playlist.

Blue Comanche sounds like Running Up That Hill.

oooh am digging "Rotting Hills."

Surprised to see Khurangbin show up here tbh, thought this album was definitely a let down compared to their older stuff.

Their EP with Leon Bridges was better than the album imho.

I find I like other bands that do this sort retro-pysch sound better, but I can hear why Khruangbin have positioned themselves as the ones more likely to headline a festival, their production is very polished and careful and "pop" compared to most bands doing this sound.

This Sundfør definitely improves on repeat listens - beautiful!

Unafraid to mix virtuosity with goofiness, the uncategorizable bassist Thundercat effortlessly blends throwback R&B and funk with yacht and prog rock for a jaunty novelty cut that evokes themes at the intersection of Michael McDonald and Zappa. He may be covered in cat hair but he still smells good.

https://i.imgur.com/9W5JpJx.png
#66: Thundercat - “Dragonball Durag” - 148 points - 5 votes
video

Thundercat

This Khruangbin song sounds nice in a mannered way, but I could imagine it being an album track on some mid-70s soul record that no one would particularly stan for, let alone vote it among the best of the year. Is the appeal that someone is doing such a decidedly retro music in 2020 or what?

oh god we're in the Full Piffle Zone

TS: Antiga font vs. Antifa front

I've never listened to Thundercat before, this sounds like Pharrell Williams was hired as the frontman for George Duke's early-80s band, wtf?

That's two songs in a row that could easily be from 40 years ago if it wasn't for the lyrics, is this sound in vogue again? I guess I shouldn't complain, I like it.

'Time (You And I)' became a real favourite of mine last Summer.

I'm told Khruangbin in Thai means 'killfile'.

I hadn't heard this one before but I'm enjoying it. Goofy but sounds good enough to not be annoying.

I'm told Khruangbin in Thai means 'killfile'.

They're from Thailand? I wouldn't have guessed.

The Khurangbin album was one of the biggest releases of the year for us at work. We took a risk picking up Con Todo El Mundo when it first came out and it has been our biggest selling album of the last three years maybe even ever. We must have gone through at least 200 copies already (which is a ton for us). It's one of those albums that if we put it on, people will ask who it is amost immediately (Beta Band style). I'm amazed how much they seem to have connected with people here. Feels like they're set up to become quite big now. The album is good but not as strong as Con Todo. Time is a standout.

i enjoyed that thundercat song that made me feel i was wading through a swamp

I never listen to thundercat, but I always enjoy the way all his songs sound like your radio is drunk

Thoroughly enjoying the little font details in the graphics this year, like how the R in Khruangbin extends under the U and the A inside the C in Thundercat. Amazing work as always!

xp yeah, it's of a woozy piece with Moodymann.
what the hell: i'm gonna throw the Smino remix of Dragonball Durag into the playlist for shits and giggles.

Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?
The kind of blandly pleasant disco-pop which sounds committee-designed to make the ILM Top 77. I don't have a problem with this style, but EOY has been crammed with songs like this for at least a decade with no signs of stopping.

Destroyer - Cue Synthesizer
This guy's waggish mid-Atlantic delivery really worked on me when he was doing Pet Shop Boys-style sophisto-pop. It's a bit grating here.

BENEE - Supalonely
I had actually heard this before. Can't work out if I like it or not. I guess it's a lockdown anthem for some, but just doesn't push my buttons.

Westerman - Blue Comanche
God, what does this remind me of? Is it "Wonderful Life" by Black? This is quite pleasant I guess.

Headie One - Ain't It Different
This is okay. Not sure I'd play it for fun.

Susanne Sundfor - When The Lord
Considering how much I like the song with the microwave ping in it, she's an artist I have only half paid attention to over the years. I know I should delve a bit deeper, but right now the only thing her admittedly remarkable voice makes me think of is ILM EOY lists which is part of the problem of experiencing music at a desk I guess.

Taylor Swift - cardigan
Not the stylistic side-step I'd expected froma much lauded "Gasp she's gone all folky!" album. Just not for me, Taylor's talent and individuality continues to evade me.

Disclosure - Douha
If we have to give it a name then "global beats" has been a massive thing this year, with an incredible amount of amazing pan-international dance music coming out. Not impressed by this kind of watered-down generic club-house backdrop though. We can do better, ILM, and I am betting we will.

Trying to listen along but I'm a bit too down to really get into anything so far. V ILMy choices, ha.

They're from Thailand? I wouldn't have guessed.

― Tuomas

They're from Texas. Drummer and producer Donald Johnson is actually a half of "Beanz & Kornbread" who have produced pretty much every hip hop act in Houston.

Is there a reason "Rotting Hills" is missing from the spotify playlist?

lol n/m just saw it

I wish Rotting Hills sounded more like its cover art suggests it would.

haven't vibed with thundercat stuff since that one ep with "them changes" on it. his lyrics have grown so so cringeworthy, and silly songs like this one clash with his more serious, grief-laden ones.

there used to be a line separating funk devotees like thundercat with pastiche acts like vulfpeck, but that line is thinning by the year.

This guy's waggish mid-Atlantic delivery

His voice did sound p idiosyncratic but is it mid-Atlantic affectation or is it just a Canadian accent + very careful enunciation?

For anyone who is discovering Fatoumata Diawara for the first time via that Disclosure track, i am absolutely BEGGING you to check out her back catalogue as both of her prior albums (Fatou and Fenfo) are about as good as singer/songwriter gets for me. She's pure joy, pure talent, a singular live artist, a fantastic dancer and a humanitarian to boot.

Start with Nterini and Bissa then tell me you don't agree.

She's also one of the subjects of the excellent documentary Mali Blues: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/mali-blues

I'm told Khruangbin in Thai means 'killfile'.

When asked to play their first gig, Lee, who was learning to speak Thai at the time, decided they should use her favorite Thai word "khruangbin" (Thai: เครื่องบิน; RTGS: khrueang bin, lit. Flying thing), which means "flying engine", literally, or "aeroplane," as their name.

His voice did sound p idiosyncratic but is it mid-Atlantic affectation or is it just a Canadian accent + very careful enunciation?

― Inside there's a box and that box has another box within (Sund4r), Monday, January 25, 2021 5:42 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not sure, but to me it always sounds like he's constantly doing a pantomime, or an impression of a swooning, pearl-clutching dame in a period drama "This is a song for Americahhhh"

Yeah there's definitely something odd about it.

I gave up on trying to like Dan Bejar/Destroyer many years ago, but each time he appears in our EOY rollout I try again and the disappointment is consistent.

He also makes me think of Neil Tennant, but when I hear Neil Tennant they're nothing like each other

Thanks to the ongoing contributions of a few key ILXors, ILM has transformed over the past three years into one of the most diverse, comprehensive and enthusiastic English language discovery hubs for contemporary African popular music on the internet. That there’s no reasonable way for anyone to keep up with the literally hundreds of white-hot tracks that have been emerging monthly from our numerous ILM Afropop / Amapiano / Afrobeat genre threads doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t stop by to listen; those spaces welcome dilettantes. Pop in on the right day and you might discover a year-end jam like this one from South African artists Reece Madlisa and Zuma.

https://i.imgur.com/25AlWHb.png
#65: Reece Madlisa and Zuma with Mr JazziQ and Busta 929 - “Jazzidisciples (Zlele)” - 150 points - 5 votes
video

Thread for the AmaPiano awesomeness that is “Baby Are You Coming?” by Zero12finest feat. ThaMagnificent2

breastcrawl, would you like to take a moment to drop a list of the ILM threads in question and maybe your ongoing African playlists as well?

Please sign my petition to ban Tuomas for saying Thundercat sounds like Pharrell

lol

hmmm not heard this! breastcrawl will be disappointed with me when I say I'm pretty cool on amapiano. the great tracks (emcimbini) really stand out, but i don't have time to listen to loads of 7.5min songs of roughly the same formula. it's nice chilled music, and i do like it, but i could also do with a bit more OOMPH on occasion

Hey, finally song I like and voted for. Thanks, fellowship of the five.

Appreciate always finding super catchy african pop tunes on these lists

xp dog latin: There is OOMPH, on occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2NHpLvs2xU

Thanks to the ongoing contributions of a few key ILXors, ILM has transformed over the past three years into one of the most diverse, comprehensive and enthusiastic English language discovery hubs for contemporary African popular music on the internet. That there’s no reasonable way for anyone to keep up with the literally hundreds of white-hot tracks that have been emerging monthly from our numerous ILM Afropop / Amapiano / Afrobeat genre threads doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t stop by to listen; those spaces welcome dilettantes. Pop in on the right day and you might discover a year-end banger like this one from South African artists Reece Madlisa and Zuma.

― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Monday, January 25, 2021 5:49 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

QFT though. We have some serious heads on those threads and it inspired me just before lockdown to start a Facebook group for discussing this kind of stuff, which is now several hundred strong with many posters from around the various scenes contributing

love john vuli gate and the attendant memes

oof, that John Vuli Gate tune! Banger!!

I wouldn't go as far as dog latin -- I like amapiano's sustained tension thing a lot and I wouldn't really call this "chilled" -- but this (very good) song does encapsulate why I threw my hands up at sorting out all the SA tracks this year: like 90% of the songs on the amapiano thread are good but they all merged into a single tasty soup as the year went on.

I could live on that soup. In fact, I have.

Was going to quote that forks post myself, it is very true. I can't keep up with the threads but I always appreciate hearing this stuff in the EoY rollout.

a vibe in search of a song imo

wow, just wow at “Jazzidisciples (Zlele)” placing! brilliant track, one of my top 10 tracks, and I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: South Africa is the world’s House Nation. this track was an actual South African top 10 pop hit.

and thanks for your wonderful introduction there, forks!

(will say tho, with all of the credit I and the rest of the afro crew might take for this, I doubt it would have placed without Tim F’s recent subtle endorsement in his EOY thread)

will give the links and playlist later, as requested!

a vibe in search of a song imo

thanks, Geir

xp
to be fair, if I'd been allowed to go outside this year, I think I would have enjoyed the soup a lot more I think -- ime amapiano is not ideal sitting in my apt with headphones on music :(

xp to rob. yes, i think that's it. i like the sustained tension too, but without being able to listen to all these tracks in some sort of context, they can all blend into one and the lack of release has a similar effect of hearing a lot of 4/4 techno: Brilliant if you're there in the moment and it's being mixed together or performed, but I'm not going to sit at my desk listening to all these shaker-fill intros. It's definitely cool music and a vibrant, exciting scene though.

love john vuli gate and the attendant memes

― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Monday, January 25, 2021 12:58 PM (seven minutes ago)

ysi?

I had "Ain't It Different" on my ballot but dropped it when I realized I actually just like the riff from "Butterfly," which, I now learn, is actually from Red Hot Chili Peppers? Sorry not sorry.

xp search #johnvuligatechallenge

Victoria Monét’s Jaguar EP packs a lot of disco and R&B punch into a sub-25 minute runtime. I’m partial to "Dive," her ode to cunnilingus, but the title track is also a banger.

https://i.imgur.com/vVrveJ4.png
#64: Victoria Monét - “Jaguar” - 150 points - 6 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote
video

rolling r&b 2020

Love love love the way the drums/percussion sound on Jaguar

yeah, it makes me think of Quincy Jones' production

Great! I voted for this one (and one other).

My cat died last year but this was his dying bop.

voted for "Experience" but really pleased to see Victoria make the list!

Oh yeah, I liked some stuff from this album when I heard it on the playlist. Pretty layers.

Ooh I'd have been listening to this non-stop if I'd known it existed.

A few #1 votes so far whereas iirc last year it took quite a while for one to show up.

Oh wait, I'm wrong! I voted for "Experience" and "Moment."

(there were just a few artists for whom I voted for two tracks of theirs, and Victoria was one of them)

I'm not sure about the whole fucking a cat thing tbh

lmaoooo

I think this was one of the songs I kept coming back the most through the year, it’s not my usual style of music at all but the production is so tasteful. It does sound linspired by Quincy Jones’ productions now that you mention it.

plenty of OOMPH! in amapiano, depending on where you look

you could try and do a work out to it at the very least: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIZyAfFBUXo

As noted in the other thread, I decided to follow the principle of not voting for tracks off of albums I also voted for (with one exception, to come later). Thus, I saved my Victoria vote for the albums poll. This is the album's clear highlight though IMO.

I was just trying to buy Jaguar on vinyl from her website but I was too slow as it sold out within minutes as I was checking out!

Voted for Experience but this is almost as good.

Lol emily. I’ll be honest I never pay too much attention to the lyrics. One of the blessings of not being a native english speaker is that I can switch off the part of my brain that translates lyrics that could otherwise ruin a great sounding song.

was pleasantly vibing to "jaguar" before the horns came in and made me move a little bit lol

Her lyrics can be a (minor) weak point of some of her songs.

If you like your cosplay J-Pop idol bands presenting at max levels of schizophrenia, have I got a treat for you.

https://i.imgur.com/xrjIv1l.png
#63: YOU’LL MELT MORE - “Surpriser!” - 151 points - 6 votes
video

The J-Pop Thread

I do get metaphor in songs, I swear, hahaha. But I could definitely see me doing a nashwan (RIP nashwan's cat, I'm sorry) and singing the 'supersonic pussycat' bit to my cat, but then I'd be about to go on to the next couple of lines and be all, erm, NO. BAD AND WRONG.

xps

omg! I voted for Go Out instead, but how wonderful! thank the lord

this one just makes me sad I didn't nominate Melt Yourself Down/Shabaka's "Born in the Manor"

Cool, didn't really want a headache today, but here one comes.

Omg omg omg

i incorrectly presumed the album also called surpriser had been nommed when i did a search :(

i might have voted for this regardless

Her lyrics can be a (minor) weak point of some of her songs.

― You have treated my messenger with contempt. (morrisp), Monday, January 25, 2021 1:26 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i could've sworn she was singing "bas-ket-baaallll" but no, she was singing "let's get wiiild." disappointing imo

didn't care much for Experience, but enjoying Jaguar a lot more

dog latin, you should try mixing some amapiano tracks together yourself. It's easy and a lot of fun. They're basically all the same tempo so you can concentrate on finding the perfect spots to mix in and out of, lol.

Oh this is a pleasant surprise! Felt morally obliged to put them on my list but didn't think they'd show up

can't believe I votesplit this and it still placed looool, so glorious

ok this one is insane

"jazzidisciples" roughly 1000 places too low

the disrespect from lj will not go unnoted

I’m so uh surprised this made it in! My god am I glad I got my first nominations in so early. I’ve listened to this on more or less every journey I’ve had to make over the past year as it adds a delightful urgency. The key change is glorious too.

longneck, yeah i have built some amapiano into my sets. as i say, i'm not against it at all, and even enjoy a fair bit of it, it's just i find it samey after a while

I had never heard of this track or band before, and I can't say I feel like my life was much worse off for it.

YMM are exactly my sort of thing and I do love some of their stuff, but I find that they're just not, um, surprising enough for me to really love them. Also weren't they the ones who did the video with them all in blackface? (I might be wrong about this and it was another JPop group who I'd previously liked, and you can be all 'culturally different meanings in Japan' if you want, but it was not good.)

heheh this You'll Melt More track is VERY INSISTENT on me enjoying it

why would anyone listen to this more than once

^^ this

between this and jazzidisciples i can feel our attention spans at war lol

Am I just super-jaded or is "Surpriser!" not actually that surprising?

xp with emil.y, lol

Video is giving me bertie bassett vibes, song is about as sugary too

recommend the album

Dragonball Durag! <3 <3

Like, it's always funny how people will gripe about more conventional pop music that places and then go wild when something they voted for shows up and it's...this stuff.

why would anyone listen to this more than once

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Monday, January 25, 2021 6:37 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

you mean the ILM Top 77?

victoria monét track totally rules, i missed it last year!!!!!

you guys wanna play dirty huh

It’s just so kitsch and unapologetically garish and there are like a hundred different melodic pockets. I love the sped up chorus so much.

There are some Dempagumi Inc bangers that should've showed up on other 77s before this tho

This sounds like vomiting fruit punch feels.

(ftr emil.y I'm not having much luck connecting You'll Melt More! to a blackface video)

The song sounds to me like someone liked Babymetal but got scared by the guitars

I also think with YMM that nothing's ever going to top this remix from five years ago, so I don't have a strong need to dig any more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEF7hDyrhPE

xposts, oh I think it might have been Dempagumi actually with the shitty video! Sorry to YMM for that.

The song sounds to me like someone liked Babymetal but got scared by the guitars

― Hello Nice FBI Lady (DJP)

Well, Babymetal are Jpop mixed with metal, so this is a little back-to-front in the cause and effect attribution!

(ftr emil.y I'm not having much luck connecting You'll Melt More! to a blackface video)

I believe in you dan, keep at it!

more like ymmv, imo

this is not what i'm usually looking for in j-pop

the tune is kinda dull generic anime op

with a bunch of nonsense happening around it

the last maximally bonkers j-pop group i really went for was momoiro clover z, who had tunes, and who from a quick google definitely appeared in blackface once fuckin yikes

Well, Babymetal are Jpop mixed with metal, so this is a little back-to-front in the cause and effect attribution!

My point was less that this was something influenced by Babymetal and more that this wasn't anything particularly special about the genre based on my exposure to it.

Oh jesus, did they? I still go back to 5th Dimension a lot.

xpost

ha yeah that was the band that came up when I was searching

Fuuuuck. There's no fucking excuse.

save us from the generic music forks

I also think with YMM that nothing's ever going to top this remix from five years ago

This is wonderful, thanks. The video...

save us from the generic music forks

are you proposing that we delete this thread?

:D shhhh

imago, are you up on Tomoe Shinohara?

I fully support throwing a Whiney style poll tantrum and abandoning the tracks rollout, just start the albums on monday with no comment and never reveal the results to anyone

no but always keen to check out mental nonsense xp

note to Moka: re: “Jazzidisciples”, dust* [h]/=obscure amapiano reference/ in the wind, but you misspelled Zuma...[/h]

I voted for Surpriser. Love the insane chaos of it all and it never fails to make me smile

Here's a hyperactive maximalist j-pop track from the previous year that surpasses this one imo

This is her 1996 album: https://open.spotify.com/album/4R4HiowbixsBsdSXAqiTFf?si=6nOSbvZCR4WN3E6LOytUAg

ty

well, fucked that one up well and good, apologies

xp to xps

Norwegian singer-songwriter Dagny fits neatly into the ILM-defined category of "shambhala." Perhaps counterintuitively, that’s not a yoga-branded electrofest but a subgenre of predominantly female-fronted, synth-focused, 80's/90's-era retro-tinged pop. Most shabhala exists on the fringes of the mainstream, less out of any avant-garde airs and more just because of general marketplace devaluation. Dagny has had significant success in the Nordic countries but she’s little known elsewhere; even on ILM, she has yet to merit an artist thread. Perhaps placing in the 77 will change that?

https://i.imgur.com/qDW2w8d.png
#62: Dagny - “Somebody” - 152 points - 4 votes
video

I expect somewhere btwn 7 and an absolute max of 12 from my ballot but I'm at 0 so far lol

Ah, I was going to ask if Tomoe Shinohara released something recently, she was one of the first Jpop artists I got into.

tbh I'm not mad at a little Robyncore

oh cool, that's how you escape from generic

lol

The You'll Melt More! was fine but it was as generic in its niche as Dagny is in hers

I guess this is loosely "shambhala" in the sense that it's got sequencer-led synth parts and she's from a place that's cold, but it sounds like dishwater imo.

quite bland imo

(yes I'm overstating but not by much)

itt Johnny Fever turns and plunges the knife into the shambhala he raised

is there a really good remix of this song which to me sounds like raw remix material lol

i'm not mad at it though

all I ask for in my pop music is a TOUCH of specificity in some kind of respect and I can't detect any here

I love love love this track. Sure it could be a Robyn / Carly Rae collab from 5 years ago, but eeeeevery piece is so perfectly placed, the vocals, the melody, the bridge, it's devilishly well-formed pop. Genuinely one of the best of its kind, when I thought that 'kind' had already peaked.

itt Johnny Fever turns and plunges the knife into the shambhala he raised

More and more of the stuff started to sound like 10th-gen Robyn knockoffs, like this, a few years ago, which is when I quit making the thread every year. At this point, its continued existence is just reverb in the universe.

I quite like this. Like a lesser CRJ B-Side, which is ofc a compliment.

i think this will work well in its placement on the top 77 playlist

2010 Glasser - Mirrorage
2011 Adele - Rolling in the Deep / Lil B - Motivation (tie)
2012 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Mladic / Mykki Blanco - Wavvy (tie)
2013 Kidnap Kid - So Close
2014 St. Vincent - Digital Witness
2015 OMI - Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix)
2016 Underworld - If Rah
2017 Big Thief - Mythological Beauty
2018 Black Dresses - Thoughts and Prayers
2019 Jenny Hval - High Alice

just want to say this list of #78 placements is awesome

not getting that 2012 tie in the rollout was criminal

lol at "dishwasher," it's a little just there for my taste too tbh but different strokes

Okay, one more and then let's call it a day. We'll pick up tomorrow with a more sporadic posting schedule of 15 more tracks.

A quick bit of housekeeping that I should've stated at the outset: could we refrain from posting embedded YouTubes in this thread as a courtesy to folks without a high-speed internet connection? It's gonna be a 2000+ post thread fast so the faster we can get it to load the better.

YouTubes can (and should!) still be posted as hyperlinks... if you're unsure how that works, click the "Formatting Help" button below the Submit Post button and it will explain how to use hyperlinks on ILX.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor / Mykki Blanco

collabs I would endure

i can tell exactly what Dagny is going to sound like from her photo

Dagnnie

Has anyone taken the coveted "forgot to vote but here to tell you how much better my ballot would have been" spot yet? Because I'm available as needed.

10 G's says Tim F shows up at some point to confess he forgot to vote

eh Tim is a pretty reliable voter iirc

could we refrain from posting embedded YouTubes in this thread as a courtesy to folks without a high-speed internet connection?

Sorry forks, I'm usually good at doing this but I just didn't think.

no worries em, just noting for the poll going forward!

After a 2018 album debut that left a lasting impact on the EU/UK pop soul scene, Jorja Smith has found repeated success pursuing a diverse (and no doubt profitable) pathway of collaborations, soundtrack singles and one-off detour projects. The latest of these is her contribution to the nth Blue Note Records catalog cover collection, "Blue Note Re:imagined," with her rework of French producer St Germain’s "Rose Rouge." Both versions follow in the footsteps of Blue Note’s premiere female vocalist, Marlena Shaw.

https://i.imgur.com/pffJx1v.png
#61: Jorja Smith - “Rose Rouge” - 152 points - 5 votes
video

Rolling Jazz Thread 2020

nashwan at 7:12 25 Jan 21
Godspeed You! Black Emperor / Mykki Blanco
collabs I would endure

Read this as Matt Bianco, would certainly be a difficult collaboration.

the tim f effect

Until we’re back, here’s your daily reminder that you can catch up on anything you might’ve missed on the 77 Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/09YV3JA0jtWYT8rick6b14

And here’s our list so far:

#61: Jorja Smith - “Rose Rouge” - 152 points - 5 votes
#62: Dagny - “Somebody” - 152 points - 4 votes
#63: YOU’LL MELT MORE - “Surpriser!” - 151 points - 6 votes
#64: Victoria Monét - “Jaguar” - 150 points - 6 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote
#65: Reece Madlisa and Zuma with Mr JazziQ and Busta 929 - “Jazzidisciples (Zlele)” - 150 points - 5 votes
#66: Thundercat - “Dragonball Durag” - 148 points - 5 votes
#67: Khruangbin - “Time (You and I)” - 148 points - 4 votes
#68: Avalon Emerson - “Rotting Hills” - 147 points - 5 votes
#69 (tie): Cleo Sol - “When I’m in Your Arms” - 146 points - 4 votes
#69 (tie): Disclosure with Fatoumata Diawara - “Douha (Mali Mali)” - 146 points - 4 votes
#71: Taylor Swift - “Cardigan” - 145 points - 5 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote
#72: Susanne Sundfør - “When the Lord” - 144 points - 6 votes
#73: Headie One with AJ Tracey and Stormzy - “Ain’t It Different” - 144 points - 5 votes
#74: Westerman - “Blue Comanche” - 138 points - 5 votes
#75 (tie): BENEE with “Gus Dapperton” - “Supalonely” - 136 points - 4 votes
#75 (tie): Destroyer - “Cue Synthesizer” - 136 points - 4 votes
#77: Jessie Ware - “What’s Your Pleasure?” - 134 points - 4 votes - 1 #1 Track Vote

Supriser! sounds like Bis got back together.

I love Jorja Smith but genuinely had no idea she had new work out this year. This is great.

i didn't vote for the jorja smith (only one of my songs has placed!!!! wow!!!) but what a track

Good first day. Two votes made it in so far. Also, discovered two tracks I hope I never again in my life.

xp Oh wait, apparently Bis did get back together!

good song that I overlooked a little cuz I wasn't wild about the rest of the comp

Supriser! sounds like Bis got back together.

otm and a welcome comparison

i love "Be Honest" and "Come Over" but not heard this. Jorja's a ledge

I prefer St Germain’s version just for nostalgic reasons, but I love how this cover does it’s own thing since it’s not loop based. Drumming is definitely an improvement.

I had 2 of my votes place, as well as 2 others on my longlist, but all 4 of those songs were among the first 6 revealed.

I'm assuming the Scottish Bis was meant upthread. Would like a BiS/Bis collaboration, plz.

I only know the Scottish one. Who's the other? (google search is impossible lol)

this Jorja Smith one is really nice, one of the few I've dug out of today's lot

I forgot to vote.

Jpop Bis!

Rina Sawayama’s ‘Dance in the Dark’ keeps coming on after every last track in the playlist and I keep getting excited that it’s placed.

Can’t remember my final ballot but Westerman, Cleo Sol, Victoria Monet and Jorja Smith are definitely amongst my favorite songs of the year.

The amapiano song was new for me and also loved it.

Drumming is definitely an improvement.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, January 25, 2021 2:23 PM (four minutes ago)

just in case you don't already know, it's the Ezra Collective's drummer Femi Koleoso

jorja smith track is cool

wow, this jorja tune!! best thing to place so far

I definitely meant Scottish Bis!

I forgot to vote.

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 25, 2021 1:27 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

happens to all of us, eventually

I was the #1 for Jaguar.
Rose Rouge too low !
Very surprised at Jazzidisciples placing, just realized Busiswa has a cameo in the clip, now I really have my hopes up to see John Vuli Gate (not really but I did vote for it).
So far excellent discoveries in Rotting Hills and When the Lord. Also pleased with Blue Comanche.
As always ILM has some real clunkers thrown in... usually all the way to the top 10.

I generally like every song so far. I think the only two songs I don't get are the ones by Taylor Swift - whose alleged charm continues to evade me - and You'll Melt More which I can't see myself enjoying under any context - well, maybe for lols - but I'm very glad it exists and gets a chance in this poll.

Does Taylor Swift usually sound like Lana Del Rey ? They seem to occupy the same space. That continuous slow crescendo towards the end of 'Cardigan' makes me want to shoot someone.

I don't hear LDR in Swift at all. She's never languid.

you can tell them apart because Taylor is more self-centered

There are individual Taylor tracks on the last few albums that I think you can tell she's been listening to LDR, but they're so different in affect, approach and style that it would be hard (tho not impossible) to even write a hot-take thinkpiece pairing them.

lol xp

still happily stuck in the afterparty vibe of “Rotting Hills” here

I don’t hear any real similarity (but I don’t spend any time listening to LDR).

Havent really listened to this song in particularly, but I feel like you can hear some Lana influence on some of her songs going back as far as Wildest Dreams from 1989.

Rose Rouge is great -- it exactly has what someone above says (and I agree) the Dagny track lacks -- specificity. From twenty feet away this sounds like a lot of other stuff, but when you listen to this particular song there are just lots of weird little crags in it that make it itself. Favorite find of the rollout so far.

the Dagny track sounds like Carly Rae Jepsen with all the personality sucked out

could we refrain from posting embedded YouTubes in this thread as a courtesy to folks without a high-speed internet connection? It's gonna be a 2000+ post thread fast so the faster we can get it to load the better.

Not really comparable, but as a sort of bridge between St. Germain and Jorja Smith I recommend fans of the Jorja Smith track to listen to Movementt by Emma-Jean Thackray as well. It didn't make the nominations but I think it has a good house/jazz fusion as well.

btw, no one has called the proper single artist/two song combo for the tie at 78 as of yet

Blue Comanche sounds like Running Up That Hill.

― tangenttangent, maandag 25 januari 2021 18:13

oooh am digging "Rotting Hills."

― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), maandag 25 januari 2021 18:15

lovely sequencing

xp

So, we’ve ruled out Swift, Ware, Dylan and Dua Lipa?

Is it a former or present ILXer?

I expected the digs at Dagny not reinventing the wheel but a couple of spins in and I think most people will be hooked on its porcelain sugar high, liking it or not. It had a modest commercial start, but ended up the #1 Norwegian airplay hit of 2020, slowly eating away at initial resistance (and Dagny also had the #2)

my guess for #78 is oneohtrix point never

That Jorja Smith song interpretation is so great. The flow & vibe are totally mesmerising. The drums somehow remind me of Kruder & Dorfmeister. Grand cru. I also loved the Westerman which indeed made me think of a new Arthur Russell track. Thanks.

That Jorja Smith song is fantastic.

"Surpriser" is at least fun and energetic and not predictable; can believe there are other tracks in the genre that surpass it.

Oh, might our joint 78 be a certain bunch of lads from Wilmslow...

I appreciate how 78 speculation has become a Thing here

"Surpriser" reminds me of "Tiki Taka," also on the noms list.

We’ll have to start an if you like x, you’ll love y thread after this is done, filled w lovely youtubes

I did in fact vote, including for the Jorja which I adore.

I thought I voted for “jazzidisciples” but revisiting my drafting spreadsheet I see it is in the very sad “fifty songs which literally changed my life but were not in my top 25” section

oooh good guess crut

Thanks sean, Moka and forks!

based on their track in Tom E's 2020 twitter poll, Khruangbin really did fall off last year. but I'm posting to acknowledge, re their video, that an ex-ilx0r would take any opportunity to note that St3phen K Am0s tried to pick them up once.

My Discover Weekly is always so good and weird the Monday after the week I spend frantically listening to everything on the noms list

xp

So, we’ve ruled out Swift, Ware, Dylan and Dua Lipa?

Is it a former or present ILXer?

Is #78 The 1975? Could see enough vote splitting but limited enthusiasm there for "The Birthday Party" / "Me & You Together Song" / "Jesus Christ" / "Guys"

if it is let it be known I called it first about 15 posts upthread

I never cared for destroyer before but enjoyed have we met the one time I listened. I dig “cue synthesizer”.

"Jaguar" is a nice track. I voted for "Experience."

Is "Surpriser!" hyperpop? I don't know who this music is for. Do people connect with this? Dance to it?

s it a former or present ILXer?

― edited for dog profanity (cryptosicko), Monday, 25 January 2021 20:09 (fifty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

correct! It's Momus

Love the vocals and melody on the verse of "Somebody." Wish the chorus went bigger.

Catching up for today - voted for Rose Rouge, When I'm In Your Arms & Ain't It Different, so happy they all made it; with Arms & Different especially I wasn't sure if they would place . Time (You and I) & Jaguar had also impressed me when flicking through the nominations playlist but didn't quite make my ballot.

Of the tunes that were completely new to me, Rotting Hills is probably my favourite so far. Also enjoyed Dragonball Durag & Jazzidisciples, and Surpriser is really quite something.

I feel like I only ever listen to Destroyer in the context of ILM EOY polls but always enjoy it. There's probably a few artists that go into this category for me (US Girls comes to mind).

Is "Surpriser!" hyperpop? I don't know who this music is for. Do people connect with this? Dance to it?

― Indexed

Jpop is a big influence on hyperpop but it came so so far before it that I'd say no. It's for anyone who likes it. Yes. Yes.

catching up:

Khruangbin • Time (You and I): sounds good to me, except for the nondescript vocals

Thundercat • Dragonball Durag: wouldn’t mind it sounding even more drunk, but I like it

next up, the song it was an answer song to:

Victoria Monét • Jaguar: I loved the lush singles she released in the build up to Jaguar, the Project (“Ass Like That” and especially “Moment” and “Dive”), so much in fact that I was initially underwhelmed when it turned out to be little more than an EP. came around on the new tracks tho, and decided to put my weight behind the “album” instead of any of its individual tracks. hoping for “Moment” and/or “Dive” (and/or “Experience” perhaps) to place too.

YMM • Surpriser!: can enjoy this kind of thing on occasion when I’m in the mood, but today is not the day

Dagny • Somebody: sweet nothings

Jorja Smith • Rose Rouge: good stuff, very, very good stuff - third track I’m having on a loop today, after “Rotting Ones” and...

...”Jazzidisciples (Zlele)” - fun fact: the reason the track is titled “Jazzidisciples” is that it sings the praises of producer duo JazziDisciples, that’s Tumelo “Mr JazziQ“ Manyoni and Josiah “De Disciple” Makoela, both namechecked in the hook, with JazziQ actually producing the track. not very modest of course, but richly deserved if you consider their amazing output over especially the past year.
Busiswa’s mindblowing “Makazi” (will enough people have voted for it to place?) was another Mr JazziQ production, for instance.

i like "rose rouge" much more than the usual from jorja, who i've found bland in every single instance save her debut single "blue lights"

Here's a possibly dumb question that's been on my mind for a while, that will probably make me sound like an old person, and Supalonely has good example of it: Is there a name for that kind of stilted hiccupy vocal delivery that's present in the verses ("Water. Pulling. Down. from the. ceiling")? Like it's become more and more prevalent in music over the past decade, with origins that I assume were in Trap before crossing over into RnB and Pop. But is there a name for it?

― MarkoP, Monday, 25 January 2021 14:53 (six hours ago) link

It's called 'scotch snaps' / 'lombard rhythm' and it was big in baroque music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_rhythm

Nothing I voted for today, not a lot I listened to in 2021, but JazziDisciples is lovely.

didn't know you were around fred, howdy!

hej Fred!

Just back for polling!! :) But howdy!

so, it seems pretty clear significantly less people voted than the previous years (unless the voting was a lot more spread out than usual):

we’ve gone from 134 to 152 points for positions 77 to 61, with tracks receiving 4 to 6 votes

...whereas in the 2019 EOY we went from 157 to 177 points with tracks receiving 4 to 7 votes

...and in 2018 from 162 to 180 points, with tracks receiving 5 to 8 votes

Yes this is the only explanation for two of my nominations placing already.

None of mine have placed!

👋 Fred

I've had zero votes/noms place. Seeing tracks show up with only 4 votes gave me some hope that I might finally get some niche-ier dancehall to place, but if my quick mental math is right, most of those had rather high enthusiasm?

Nothing placed for me, though I voted for the album ‘Rose Rouge’ features on.

true, I did vote for the Cleo Sol album iirc

Also, it's become very difficult to gauge enthusiasm around here though. In some ways the most surprising thing today was so many people saying they didn't know Sundfor, an artist I only know about because of ILM, had a new one out.

sorry that im way late to this but

I wouldn't go as far as dog latin -- I like amapiano's sustained tension thing a lot and I wouldn't really call this "chilled" -- but this (very good) song does encapsulate why I threw my hands up at sorting out all the SA tracks this year: like 90% of the songs on the amapiano thread are good but they all merged into a single tasty soup as the year went on.

― rob, Monday, January 25, 2021 12:01 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this and the posts above it strike me as kind of funny bc the reason "Jazzidisciples" stands out so much to me is that it felt like a dramatic shift in the sound amapiano had been moving towards -- where earlier records held onto this forward momentum, they figured out how to make a record that felt almost still and static while not rhythmically being that way at all -- all negative space, slow-motion. i think that's why it became such a huge record. If you're looking from a distance it might seem like a minute change, but if you're following all the records that become hits it had this really revelatory feeling, like oh look at all the possibilities this is opening up

i can think of at least one dancehall song that i voted for that i'd expect to place

not as confident in any of my hip-hop votes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

xps

i can think of at least one dancehall song that i voted for that i'd expect to place

Same! though that is why I specifically wrote "less populist" (also cuz of balloonballoonballoon)

that's a great post deej, and yeah def part of the problem is not following the scene at that level

Thanks Fred!

though that is why I specifically wrote "less populist"

ha fair enough, i don't spend enough time in the rolling dancehall to pick up on the less populist stuff

not as confident in any of my hip-hop votes

speaking of hard-to-gauge enthusiasm: I have no clue if even WAP or The Box or etc. will place, and I admit my own interest in rap is at something of a nadir right now

WAP not placing didn't occur to me

yeah, I think deej is hitting on why “Jazzidisciples” doesn’t seem to fit either the “Sweet” mode of amapiano (think “Emcimbini” or the Samthing Soweto/Sha Sha songs that placed last year) or the rougher “Dust” mode (think “John Vuli Gate”, posted by longneck upthread) and why it’s such a fantastic track.

did you vote for it, deej? that would make you the fifth voter if so, I think

xps

what kind of savage *wouldn't* vote for WAP?

maybe #78 is WAP and Savage Remix?? xp

tho if Savage doesn't place then I don't know what ILM is anymore

“WAP”, “Savage (Remix)” and “The Box” will all definitely place (and I say that as a non-voter for either of them)