ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2023

Poll will begin in a couple of minutes, first I need coffee.

Here's the links for our 2023 tracks poll for future reference:
ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2023
ILM 2023 Tracks Poll Ballots/Stats/Banter/Recriminations Thread

And here’s the Top 77 Albums of 2023 Spotify Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2IT0NrRXOEf8xbd24luDBo

Apple Music Playlist

Tidal Playlist

If anyone wants to build a matching YouTube / Tidal / Apple Music / Amazon Music - please share it. I'd like to request the mods if said playlists are shared please be so kind to add them to this opening post for visibility.

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

It's a bit of busy week for me, I'll try to add small blurbs from reviews... wont promise they'll be the best ones available, I'll mostly go with top results since I wont have time to read several reviews... if there's a review from an album you voted for or that you love which you want to point us to please share.

Also going to add ilm threads that mention the album - in case I'm missing a relevant ilm thread please share.

I'll add Bancamp links too when available.

https://i.imgur.com/6zLw6dA.jpeg
77. Mary Lattimore - Goodbye, Hotel Arkada 130 points - 4 votes
Bandcamp
Mary Lattimore
Since Lattimore released her first solo album, The Withdrawing Room, in 2013, her expansive, long-form solo pieces and collaborations have become incrementally refined, growing from improvised harp expression into reflective and enveloping ambient music in the same traditions as Brian Eno, Pauline Oliveros, and Harold Budd. Across Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, she continues to craft poignant work that tints the atmosphere, transporting the listener to the remembrances and moments of imagination that float freely within the mind's eye.

Here we go!

thought i might have voted for this but must have been a late cut for me
beautiful album

hooray for moka and seandalai! please go easy on yrselves though

i will listen to this

only know lattimore's earlier stuff. looks like there are some crazy guests on this though - lol tolhurst, Rachel goswell, Roy montgomery...

consistently strong output over the years - i think i've loved each record she's released

I should give Lattimore another chance, the first album didn’t do it for me so I stopped paying attention

I liked "Silver Ladders" but I havent kept up with her stuff

listening to this a being reminded that she was doing harp + fx pedals way before a certain youtuber made it a thing

(at least I'm assuming those are pedals?)

https://i.imgur.com/hMEb09L.jpeg
76. Vanishing Twin - Afternoon X 136 points - 4 votes
Bandcamp
Valentina Magaletti
Even in its most obscure moments, Afternoon X embodies a lively sense of exploratory wonder. Drawing from a deep catalog of inspirations, Vanishing Twin have long made music for sharp-eared listeners. But with this album’s unpredictable forms, the trio moves confidently beyond its acuity for cultural synthesis, stepping into stranger, more scintillating territory where unexpected shifts and mercurial sounds are the standard. The beauty of Afternoon X lies in its unusual balance of chaos and calm.

yessss, glad to see this made it. Great band, great album. They are really digging deeper into that weird abstract Broadcast/Focus Group thing on this one. My only reservation is that this has also made me go back and spend more time with Ookii Gekkou, and now I'm obsessed with that one and think that is their pinnacle so far.

I really need to get on the Vanishing Twin love, every song I've heard of them I've liked but I haven't listened to a full album yet.

Ah, glad Vanishing Twin made it. I put at #11, which it seems was just high enough. Album is less immediate than their earlier releases, but rewards the effort. Launch gig in December was tremendous though - one of my live highlights of last year.

yeah Moka, I think they are very much something you'd like

I totally forgot this came out and haven't checked it out yet. I liked their last two albums, but they haven't quite made that one that made me properly fall for them.

https://i.imgur.com/MpHSMPU.jpeg
75. Jamila Woods - Water made us 137 points - 8 votes
Bandcamp
Jamila Woods
Water Made Us is dextrous and steady. It conjures a profound sweetness from ordinary musings and takes the guile out of relationships. Woods gives herself over to a state of ease that is neither well-earned nor hard-fought, simply possible. Life will do as life does; all we can do is continue on until we arrive where we need to be. This is Woods’ realization on Water Made Us, and throughout, she sounds like she’s skipping: like she’s meeting love, time and again in various formations, and each time meeting herself anew.

Lattimore has never quite landed for me, but I agree w/ NickB that those guests are intriguing

p sure I voted for Vanishing Twin, just a really likeable project, and that Magaletti thread is a remarkable bonanza of cool music

I was quite disappointed in the Woods album. Loved her first two but this did nothing for me.

Surprised Jamila is so low. It wasn't on the same level as her previous two, but I still really liked it.

Agreed -- too low. Her most approachable album.

https://i.imgur.com/69CEljG.jpeg
74. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan 139 points - 5 votes - 2 º1 votes
Rolling Country 2023
In a business where we’re supposed to make artist comps, there really isn’t one for Zach Bryan. Musically, he walks the line between Americana and radio country, most similar to early Eric Church, but more heartland-ish. His prolific output rivals that of Charley Crockett, but it hews less closely to classic country. And his meteoric rise recalls Tyler Childers, but faster and with a higher ceiling – Bryan’s camp recently announced a massive stadium tour for next summer. And the crowds…I’ve never seen Red Rocks as overstuffed as it was for his June show this year, mostly with younger folks who needed something a little better than what corporate country radio has been feeding them. Bryan’s new, self-titled album, relatively sparse at “only” 16 tracks, continues what he does best – mixing the heartfelt and the anthemic to hit a sweet spot no one else in country music has been able to find.

Back to back votes for me, and I get to see them both in the next six weeks. Would not have guessed we had to voters who considered this AOTY! That's pretty cool considering I think I was the sole voter for his last album. This one is more ragged and obviously a lot tighter. He is a phenom, his rise almost inexplicable.

tidal playlist: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/0f5e0e35-dad6-48aa-acdb-51d105c9a750

ty silverfish!

lol just realized I misspelled Zach for Zack on the image... sorry bout that

catching up now, listened to a couple of Mary Lattimore tracks, her music keeps being recommended to me by Tidal lately for some reason. It's fine but not anything that particularly holds my attention. Enjoying this Vanishing Twin album now, feels like a lost Stereolab album.

this next one was a hard title to fit on the image

https://i.imgur.com/JFHqheG.jpeg
73. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation 140 points - 5 votes
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity
What's perhaps most remarkable about PetroDragonic Apocalypse is how fully and authentically King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard inhabits the target aesthetic. A first-time listener might reasonably peg it as the work of a full-time metal band, studied in the teachings of Slayer and Megadeth. This ability to operate in any of its chosen lanes with maximum commitment, sincerity, and raw skill may be the exact reason the group has been able to grow its audience so steadily. Each new record works like an episode of an ongoing serial, presenting the musicians' ceaseless whims, experiments and reinventions as the elements of a grand adventure.

I respect Zach Bryan without loving his music, but I think he represents an interesting/nebulous neutral ground in the ongoing country music culture wars. He appeals both to the bro-country and Americana crowds without really being either. Apart from speaking up for trans rights last year (good for him) he mostly keeps his head down on politics.

Oh nice, love when King Gizz goes into metal mode

not a big fan of metal but this album is so much fun I kinda loved it

my discord server budz who otherwise largely share a taste with me are mad keen for this lot. i don't get it. help?

man, every time i hear some music and i go "oh what is this?" and they say "it's king gizzard and the lizard wizard" and I'm like "oh this is loads better than i expected that band to sound like but now i know this information please turn it off"

xp

maybe they are too jam band-ish for you?

Mary Lattimore is underappreciated. Glad she made it.

xp it's just the name is off putting. i do intend to properly listen

a hard title to fit on the image
lol, you'd think they'd have a little more consideration

To me, their main thing is kind of motorik garage rock jams. This particular one is them doing metal, which I like, but to me isn't exactly their signature sound.

yea King Gizzard have so many different styles and they do go all out on them which is nice, like they've made some legitimately great prog albums alongside the motorik stuff, that alone is enough to make me like them. they have a silly name and attract a lot of weird/obsessive fans but they are very good

Somehow I haven't heard Vanishing Twin yet, although I love her other trios (Moin and especially Holy Tongue, who I didn't connect was her project until the nominations and then listened to their discography obsessively for a few days). Will rectify that today!

Love Lattimore, though this one didn't really stick with me much.

https://i.imgur.com/3TH8d9x.jpeg
72. ANOHNI and the Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross 143 points - 5 votes
ANOHNI
There are a couple of points where the simplicity of the arrangements makes the songs feel slightly formulaic, but even then, Anohni’s voice is captivating. She seldom seems like anything other than an extraordinary artist – it’s instructive to look back at the press around I Am a Bird Now and realise how much of the current discourse about gender its songs presaged nearly 20 years ago – but My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross feels like a particularly powerful entry in her discography: surrounded by music that’s beautiful but relatively straightforward, that voice seems more extraordinary still.

this is probably the right spot for the anohni album

no votes for me so far, but i did like the jamila woods album. it was a big step down from legacy! legacy!, but still, an album with "tiny garden" on it can't be anything other than pretty good

Just played the Lattimore for the first time; quite nice with a gorgeous closer that recalls Julianna Barwick.

Felt the same about the Woods album, it's nice and "Tiny Garden" (which I voted for in tracks) is great. But didn't grab me like the last one.

https://i.imgur.com/dKZS4y6.jpeg
71. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Destiny 144 points - 5 votes
Bandcamp
ILM 2023 Listening Club
2023 AOTY So Far
The word “nostalgia” has often been used to pinpoint the effect of Sabrina’s evocative blends. But her varied influences—from the obvious (The Avalanches, Daft Punk, ABBA) to the less so (Bon Iver, Reba McEntire)—and surreal imagery don’t reflect a wistfulness exclusive to any particular decade or scene. Less than a sense of time, Sabrina’s nostalgia revels in the word’s emotional connotations: the ambient sense of sadness that is the grand condition of experiencing joy. She understands profoundly that sometimes the best party is just the first one in a while that’s truly fun.

DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ is such a dumb but awesome name at the same time. I love it.

DJ Sabrina too low!

I should probably already know this, but what's the deal w/ Sabrina? genre, vibe, what have you

I would have totally voted for it, only heard a couple of songs off it and liked them, my mood wasn’t compatible with it last year, think I’ll love it eventually.

Also the album is like 4 hours long so it always seemed like a daunting task specially for this kind of music - that is usually more my cup of tea in low doses - when I wanted to approach it.

Sounds like The Avalanches mixed with "Digital Love."

I heart Sabrina, voted for this. I will admit that I have not yet managed to listen to all 4 hours of it in one go, but can confirm that the density and dizziness and joyfulness of it continue unabated throughout.

checking this Sabrina out now, perfect for the workday!

The overwhelming volume and generosity of her output is ridiculous but very much in line with her more-everything aesthetic.

enjoyed the sabrina album, didn't go back to it as it's length was quite challenging

Her website is awesome, too

https://djsabrinatheteenagedj.com/

(impossibly elderly man voice) 4 hours is a song dump, not an album.

Ooh, just catching up now. Nothing I've voted for so far and no time atm to listen through, unfortunately. I've said before KG&TLW are one of the very few bands whose name I find so off-putting that I have written them off without ever hearing them - I like plenty of acts with terrible names but it's too far for me! I don't even mind DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ as a name, but King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard just sucks too bad.

https://last-donut-of-the-night.ghost.io/dj-sabrina-the-teenage-dj-interview/

Your albums are very long, to the point where consuming them in one sitting is difficult, especially Destiny. Tell me about why your music is presented this way, and what the risks and rewards are to releasing music in such a daunting and potentially overwhelming fashion.

With streaming being the dominant technology, there's no reason for the restraints of previously dominant physical media to dictate how creative anyone should be. Movies have never had a time limit on them because there's never been a dominant format that was restricted to a specific length. Even if home viewing (VHS, Laserdisc, DVD) ever played a part in deciding (which generally have much more length flexibility than compact discs or vinyl), movie makers would either add more tapes or discs to accommodate their films, not the other way around.

Makin' Magick was only long because a record label owner kept stringing me along. I said "Here's another track!" and he said, "Thanks!" and I said, "Here's ANOTHER track!" and he said, "Thanks!" and around June or July I said, "Okay, I've got the artwork for it and it's an hour long, I'm just going to put it out if you're not interested," and he said, "No, don't, I want to do something," so eventually I just had two hours of stuff that I'd put out on Soundcloud (inspired by Jai Paul's approach of just putting stuff up for listening there), and I just eventually decided to put it out myself.

It seemed to do better than any of the later, shorter albums (which generally weren't that much longer than Daft Punk's Homework) so I decided Charmed should be a long one, longer than Makin' Magick, and it was the most popular since MM! I did a few more shorter albums after Charmed, which...weren't as popular...so I tried an album even longer than Charmed to see if it would work a third time...

https://i.imgur.com/IKFlZ7o.jpeg
70. Fire-Toolz - I am upset because I see something that is not there. 146 points - 4 votes - 2 º1 votes
Bandcamp
Fire-Toolz
The music on this release is as unpredictable as Fire-Toolz fans have come to expect, mashing together harsh techno, noise, and screamo sounds with smooth jazz, new age, and progressive rock among other flavors. It sometimes seems to pivot between entirely unrelated records mid-track, and other times it sounds like entirely unrelated records are playing over top of each other, molding together into odd, illuminating new styles. This is a sonic universe strewn with death-metal rasps, Top Gun-soundtrack guitar-virtuoso shredding, straight-from-the-elevator saxophone, airy synthesizers, and clattering late-’90s electronic beats — as if Marcloid layered an arena on top of a dance club on top of a DIY art space.

My #1. I really thought it would be quite a bit higher :(

ditto, but glad it's here :)

I voted for this! Pretty low admittedly. Its approach is a bit overwhelming at first listen but I grew to really dig it.

I'm fascinated by DJ Sabrina's mystique + workrate + intricate yet formulaic approach but the 'drumless' version of 'Destiny' particularly impressed me this time.

angel marcloid forever. infinite energy summoner. creator of havens

I ended up not catching up with this one. F-T records usually veer between stuff I love a lot and stuff that isn't for me at all - the rock parts are usually not my bag, y'know?

my review: https://rateyourmusic.com/music-review/acoleuthic/fire-toolz/i-am-upset-because-i-see-something-that-is-not-there/195195842

Aw, that's a great review.

Great review imago!

https://i.imgur.com/gZkvGV3.jpeg
69. William Tyler & the Impossible Truth - Secret Stratosphere 146 points - 6 votes
Bandcamp
William Tyler
Backed by a killer band of Nashville musicians, the guitarist electrifies and expands his inventive blend of Southern rock and space rock.

Three in a row that i very much enjoyed

I should really check out the Tyler records

I also voted for Fire-Toolz in the lower half of my ballot. I'm a sucker for black-metal vocals with non-metal musical styles. I guess I'm a certified out-of-it old-timer but I had never listened to Zach Bryan until now. He's pretty good, huh?

https://i.imgur.com/k8zJOuh.jpeg
68. L'Rain - I Killed Your Dog 147 points - 6 votes
Bandcamp
Does anything sound like L'Rain?
Described by L’Rain’s Taja Cheek as something of an “anti-break-up” record, I Killed Your Dog sounds like it is more for things, than against. Explorations of different kinds of love are at the root of this record, and explorations of different musical influences, as L’Rain at times imagines conversations with her younger self (particularly on ‘Knead Bee’ which re-envisions Fatigue’s ‘Need Be’), as she plays the role of witty, wiser older sister. Duality abounds and contradictions reign, with L’Rain managing to create a world where all of this makes sense and sensuality. Part of the beauty of the record is that it resembles a sonic, thematic and emotional collage, a celebration of compelling sounds and sensibilities.

so good, massively back on track after the finding-her-feet-with-a-full-band Fatigue. my #6

feels like she split the difference perfectly between the mindbending psych float of her debut and the collagey stop-start games of Fatigue

Some initial thoughts:

I really like the Sabrina, had never listened before because of the name.

I'm with emil.y on King Gizzard— the name is so repulsive that I won't listen to them, ever.

ditto with the title of this L'Rain album— won't ever listen to her because of it.

As for F-T, I am the opposite of o.nate— I listened to enough grindcore growing up, the last thing I want is those kinds of vocals over otherwise pleasing music. Totally ruins it for me.

Ah, the L'Rain album is so good, though. This one I did expect to be a bit higher. I pair the title in my name with Kevin Coyne singing "I confess I killed the cat", though I like cats more than dogs so that one gets me more (tbf it is on a concept album about the moors murderers soooooo maybe I should be more concerned about the human deaths, but no!)

Really shocked Anohni is this low considering how well Hopelessness did when it came out. That one grew off me pretty quickly whereas My Back is probably my favourite thing she's done since I Am A Bird Now.

I haven't listened to the Sabrina album yet. I voted for Charmed in the 2020 poll but haven't gone back to it at all. I love what they're doing, but the album lengths are daunting for sure.

L'Rain was my last cut. My favourite album of hers so far. Another one I thought would be much higher.

*in my name should be "in my head"

xp to self

I have two dogs, both rescues, and enough dogs are killed without reason every year that I just don't care to even entertain a "concept album." Name it something else.

if the entire fire-toolz album was as good as "notavurient wave-form collapse," it would've been the best album of the year

The William Tyler album was top 10 for me, glad it made it! I've loved his more pastoral/meditative/experimental playing for a long time, but really dug him in this rock-band setting. Also got to see him with the band (minus Luke Schneider) last year, such a fun show.

(I know that this is a "me" thing, I just can't get over it)

secret stratosphere is insanely dope, totally forgot about it when i was making my lists tho

i am up and down on KGATLW but when people say they refuse to listen at all because of the name i can't help but imagine their monocles popping out as they exclaim "heavens!"

The concept album is the Kevin Coyne thing (in collaboration with Dagmar Krause, which is what makes it great, I don't really care for KC himself), L'Rain's album isn't about murder. Just to clarify.

Oh, sorry!

That makes it worse! lol

https://i.imgur.com/AptnbS9.jpeg
67. The Necks - Travel 148 points - 7 votes
Bandcamp
New Necks
Is it among their best? It’s another Necks album, meaning another 80 minutes of what, when considering the 35 years of their career to date, can seem like gazing out of the window on a marathon flight crossing continents, each vista – deserts, mountain ranges, forests, seas – imperceptibly or abruptly giving way to the next. Sand, rocks, trees, water: all are the same and yet never the same twice. The music that began in 1987 continues on its unbroken path, always familiar but always different. Travel is well named.

i am up and down on KGATLW but when people say they refuse to listen at all because of the name i can't help but imagine their monocles popping out as they exclaim "heavens!"

― na (NA)

Much as I love a good monocle-pop, it's not a shocking name. It's a full-body cringe name.

NA, KGATLW literally sounds like something a drunk fratboy would talk about at a beer pong competition. It's repulsive and drips with awful masc energy

"I Accidentally Domed Your Dog" ftw

Perfect!

Little anecdote from the William Tyler show I saw, it was a local bar here and apparently his parents live around here somewhere, so there was a Tyler family contingent at the show. I went up to the merch table afterward to buy the vinyl (I think the only actual vinyl I bought all last year, but I wanted to support the effort). My purchase got delayed for a minute because his dad came up to Tyler at the table to tell him they were heading out but had enjoyed the show. He gave Tyler a little hug and said, "Proud of you!" I thought it was really sweet.

Just listened to the first half of Fire-Toolz; would almost certainly have voted for it if I'd got around to it in time. Oh well, will probably buy on Friday instead.

I've stuck the Tyler on. Enjoying so far

i unalived your dog

lol

Eh, I am fine with being a weirdo about it. It's a repellent album title.

I totally forgot about The Necks this year! Good album.

The L’Rain album felt like a huge drop in quality after Fatigue (for me) though I did vote for “Pet Rock” in tracks

https://i.imgur.com/gohhw6V.jpeg
66. Mitski - This Land Is Inhospitable & So Are We 150 points - 6 votes
Bandcamp
Mitski
After contemplating retirement, Mitski returns with a new album that’s warmer, quieter, and more organic-sounding. For the first time in a while, she sounds like she has space to breathe.

it feels against my nature to be like “i prefer [artist]’s early stuff” but i prefer mitski’s early stuff

Voted for The Necks, one of my favorite albums by The Necks.

I voted for The Necks, first of mine to show so far, good stuff

xp!

I like their new (?) strategy of 20-minute tracks instead of 60-minute ones, although I love all the long form albums as well

Necks record was on my ballot, great record for bicycling

speaking of huge drops in quality

although in this case tbf, the continuation of a quality drop that began with the previous album

i used to call her and weyes blood my favourite current american songwriters, with comparable melodic sensibilities...except here half the time it feels like she's trying to be weyes blood, and it doesn't work. lacks the gorgeous melodies, sonic invention and structural ingenuity of her best stuff, gets by on vibes alone. what happened mitski, was it the tiktok stans

still a few good songs on it i guess, and she's gotten richard dawson as her support on a current/impending tour. going through all my favourite other songwriters one by one like some sort of music vampire lol. who's parasocial now imago

i'm gonna live forever (if it kills me) is loooovely btw

with 38.5 million monthly listeners around the globe, mitski is the 73rd biggest artist on spotify

can't say i saw that one coming. especially since this is her at her most subdued

https://i.imgur.com/cQiwaye.jpeg
65. Rogê - Curyman 155 points - 5 votes
Bandcamp
Modern Brazil - s/d
Recorded in Los Angeles after Rogê relocated from the turbulence his native Rio, the album’s mellower moments of are reminiscent of the downer folk Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil dabbled in during their years of exile. Following in their lead, Rogê bridges distance with sound on Curyman, giving new depth to his music and songwriting by embracing new environments and collaborations, paying homage to Brazil’s rich musical traditions while also looking steadily toward the future.

I have liked everything Mitski has done until this record, including last year's underrated Laurel Hell, but just could not find my way into this one. Baffled by the plodding "My Love Is All Mine" having over Spotify 500M plays, but still genuinely thrilled for her.

oooh first one i haven't heard of at all. seems promising!

I did prefer Laurel Hell tbf, its highs were higher than this album's imo

re: mitski, "bug like an angel" is one of my favorite songs of hers. i loved the backing vocals that seemed to put off a few people on her thread, cool effect.

https://i.imgur.com/oo0q1lj.jpeg
64. Jim Legxacy - homeless n*gga pop music 158 points - 5 votes - 1 º1 vote
jim legxacy
The rapper-producer’s new mixtape creates its own solar system, one where Hannah Montana samples and Jersey club orbit around the triplet suns of Afrobeats, emo, and rap.

The Roge record was a good discovery through the playlist, need to give it another listen

Placed as I'm walking through SE LDN streets. Our best representation since Squeeze or something. Voted ofc

would say too low, but it juuuuust missed my ballot. so blame me, if you have to

Think a late cut for me too

someone page ufo

with you on 'Bug Like An Angel' vc

sorry, I mean, our best representation since Kate Bush #oneofourown

I'm with emil.y on King Gizzard— the name is so repulsive that I won't listen to them, ever.

I held out for a long while, but Petrodragonic finally won me over. People say Thrash Metal/Megadeth but I'm hearing mostly White Zombie-style death rock, which is is kinda refreshing these days. Not sure I want to hear anything more to be honest.

DJ Sabrina is cool, I usually just put it on random for 20 minutes. Ahnoni, very good, have played that a lot this year.

Reckon jim legxacy could pull off a Kate Bush cover too

I also voted for Mitski in the lower half of my ballot. I guess I prefer early (by which I mean "Bury Me at Makeout Creek") and late Mitski (this album). This one feels more immediate to me again, with less busy production, which sometimes detracts from my appreciation of the middle albums.

Jim legxacy is cool but I've not found that spark that makes you lot rave about him - what is it you hear that really stands out, fans?

funnily enough, it's the same brevity and economy combined with rumbling, did-I-hear-that sonic restlessness that also characterises my favourite Mitski material

micro-emo nuggets

and their strange intensity

Re: Mitski, this is spot on:

half the time it feels like she's trying to be weyes blood

I think it does work though, solid album - it's the occasional country music vibe shining through that I don't care for.

https://i.imgur.com/pJIshb2.jpeg
63. Snooper - super snooper 160 points - 5 votes
Bandcamp
rolling punk rock 2024
The Nashville egg punks’ debut is a short, speedy trip to the world of “Devo-core.” Bring your giant puppets.

that’s funny i don’t think she’s trying to be weyes blood, but “my love is mine” does sound like a wb song with less interesting chords

I meant to listen to this but failed to get round to it - I promise I will soon! It does sound very fun.

Snooooperrrrrr

wow this Snooper album from 2023 is some of the greatest shit I have ever heard, also linked in that Spin article

https://snooper7.bandcamp.com/album/super-sn-per

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Wednesday, January 10, 2024 7:56 AM

I ended up not catching up with this one. F-T records usually veer between stuff I love a lot and stuff that isn't for me at all - the rock parts are usually not my bag, y'know?

― emil.y, 29. januar 2024 17:46 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I felt kinda the same about her earlier stuff, it was all so chaotic, and I only liked some of it. But this one felt so cohesive, so well put together, with peaks and valleys, patient builds and crazy chaos, that I took it all in as parts of a whole. Imagos review is lovely, it's such a great sound-world she has created, but to me this one also felt like a great journey through an ever-changing soundscape, where you never really knew what was going to happen. I feel like that about a bunch of my favorite albums - Vision Creation Newsun, Animal Collective's Ark, a bunch of Kraut especially the first Neu, the Beta Band EP compilation even - but it's the first time in a while something new has done that for me. As of now I would definitely put it on my list of all time favorites.

ok, enjoying this king gizzard album, I was among the many who avoided this band because of the name, but if I can enjoy the also badly named butthole surfers, not sure why I need to stay away from this band.

I need to check out that Rogê album. Those downbeat records - A Little More Blue & Joia especially - are my favourite Veloso records.

Just listened to a bit of snooper - fuck yes, that's the stuff!

https://i.imgur.com/bBeZRSF.jpeg
62. NewJeans - NewJeans 2nd EP 'Get Up' 161 points - 5 votes - 1 º1 vote
rolling kpop 2023
Erika de Casier - Essentials
The girl-group’s brisk, club-inflected pop songs cement them as one of the most interesting K-pop acts working today.

"Boy I simply cannot listen to something as ridiculously named as 'King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard'"

*presses play on DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ*

you don't e-ven know my name, do you???

lots of stuff I haven't heard of today, going to have to dig through this all for a while, although I'm pretty sure Zach Bryan is a hard no from me

https://i.imgur.com/9rWjguX.jpeg
61. Troye Sivan - Something To Give Each Other 162 points - 7 votes
troye sivan "my my my!" -- 'one of the first great songs of this young year' or overpraised twink mediocrity??
The Australian singer is a hedonistic pop hero on an album that pulls together club nights, tender moments, last-call horniness, and eclectic samples with remarkable finesse.

Find it weird (and I guess slightly homophobic) that image results for the Troye Sivan album were censored in several sources since there’s no explicit nudity in it.

RECAP 61-77

ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2023

61. Troye Sivan - Something To Give Each Other 162 points - 7 votes
62. NewJeans - NewJeans 2nd EP 'Get Up' 161 points - 5 votes - 1 º1 vote
63. Snooper - super snooper 160 points - 5 votes
64. Jim Legxacy - homeless n*gga pop music 158 points - 5 votes - 1 º1 vote
65. Rogê - Curyman 155 points - 5 votes
66. Mitski - This Land Is Inhospitable & So Are We 150 points - 6 votes
67. The Necks - Travel 148 points - 7 votes
68. L'Rain - I Killed Your Dog 147 points - 6 votes
69. William Tyler & the Impossible Truth - Secret Stratosphere 146 points - 6 votes
70. Fire-Toolz - I am upset because I see something that is not there. 146 points - 4 votes - 2 º1 votes
71. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Destiny 144 points - 5 votes
72. ANOHNI and the Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross 143 points - 5 votes
73. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation 140 points - 5 votes
74. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan 139 points - 5 votes - 2 º1 votes
75. Jamila Woods - Water made us 137 points - 8 votes
76. Vanishing Twin - Afternoon X 136 points - 4 votes
77. Mary Lattimore - Goodbye, Hotel Arkada 130 points - 4 votes

will never tire of the phrase "overpraised twink mediocrity"

Snooper was my first vote to place here

Rather excited to be discovering Jim Legxacy. R&b layers and omnipresence of vocals speak to me.

Of those that placed I voted for Rogê and Jamila Woods, and I would say they placed about correctly.

fantastic live Snooper set here, from a 2022 house show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_p0MqdYC3E

If that's egg punk, I was trying to think what sort of egg it could be, and then I remembered that my wife set fire to an egg once when she fell asleep while she was boiling it, so maybe that, burning egg

Snooper album is quite good! Feels like I really should have heard it given my tastes *pleasantly contemplates my Chemtrails gig this Friday*

i think it's the "your brain on drugs" egg

lol

I can't deal with the vocals on this Fire-Toolz album, I think I'd maybe enjoy it otherwise.

I thought it was that everyone in egg punk was trans.

(in case anyone thinks that's a weird/offensive non-sequitur: egg)

This seems to be a good scene overview:

https://www.spin.com/2024/01/second-wave-egg-punk/

Of the 2023 albums mentioned there, my favorite is probably Checkpoint's "Drift", which (spoiler alert) I voted for.

ah I didn't know that emil.y, thanks, it totally scans with the scene vibe

ah I had no idea about that either

NB I really have no idea if all the egg punks are trans! It's just what it makes me think of.

https://www.spin.com/2024/01/second-wave-egg-punk/

Necks album rules, as does the Jim Legxacy - micro-emo is a good description of the sound. Enjoyed the William Tyler album, but, if I'd got my shit together for the tracks poll, I'd have voted for the Tyler/Hebden EP.

Oh man yeah, I definitely should've voted for the Tyler/Hebden too. Just forgot about it.

Album titles that are complete sentences are in it seems

I can't deal with the vocals on this Fire-Toolz album, I think I'd maybe enjoy it otherwise.

Definitely needs a dub version

jim legxacy was my #1, i really adore his sound that brilliantly fuses afrobeats & emo, very sonically inventive in a low-key way

i could easily have voted for the newjeans ep but cut it from my ballot just because it's so short

i enjoyed the anohni (her best, easily) and l'rain albums but didn't vote for them

the jamila woods album was a bit of a step down from her last and a bit too sacharrine all at once

i don't care about king gizzard in metal mode but i liked their synth album this year

i would enjoy fire-toolz without the screaming

i do not really get dj sabrina at all - the result of her 3 hour albums of song fragments mashed together is always this interminable mush, it's pop squashed down to the thinnest vibes, without any hooks

the mitski album was fine?

the troye sivan album was a disappointment after his last album & ep

snooper are like devo except lo-fi and intentionally more annoying? not sure what anyone is excited about here

I think 'egg punk' has bolder realisation elsewhere, but this is a palatable rendition? Idk, I thought it was 'quite good' if not something I'd consider voting for. Has the decency to be concise

Man, I must be too much of a stan. Jamila Woods' album was a step down but not noticeably so.

don't know what "egg punk" is but i do like the words "egg punk" together

I think 'egg punk' has bolder realisation elsewhere, but this is a palatable rendition?

Seems fair. If you want bolder, there’s a 12-minute track on the Checkpoint album which is kind of what I imagine prog-egg punk would sound like.

https://i.imgur.com/5RgRYNa.jpeg
60. Overmono - Good Lies 165 points - 6 votes
Bandcamp
Rolling Club Music (Non-Bobbins, Non-Techno) 2023
The Australian singer is a hedonistic pop hero on an album that pulls together club nights, tender moments, last-call horniness, and eclectic samples with remarkable finesse.

Damn the blurb was the one for Troye Sivan, there’s no last call horniness on the overmono album… I think.

Enjoying this King Gizzard album

Overmono. I love love loved Bby. But after seeing their name on literally every festival lineup in summer 2022, and seeing a rather subdued performance at one of them, I started to suspect they might be aiming squarely for the middle ground. Are my suspicions correct?

Like, literally I have no idea how they managed to be on so many festival bills without being one of those DJ "franchises" like Pendulum where there are, like, eight of them and they perform at different venues in various combinations

I think they're at that level of popularity because they're good at studying uk rave culture from the 90's and bottling it up for easy consumption.

https://i.imgur.com/2sQnz8k.jpeg
59. JPEGMafia x Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES 176 points - 7 votes
Bandcamp
JPEGMAFIA / Peggy
DANNY BROWN
The iconoclastic rappers collide on a JPEG-produced joint album that plays things fast and loose..

I think I need to get on this album, I usually enjoy jpegmafia's productions but I just can't get into Danny Brown's style which sort of put me off from listening to it.

this is so compressed and distorted that it's a rather unpleasant listen

Yeah that was my experience listening to a couple of tracks from it. I love Jpegmafia's production on 'veteran' and 'all my heroes are cornballs' but I didn't love "LP!" because it has that same sort of issue.

Not sure if it's just that I got too old for it lol

it's been weird to see this on every eoy list but not Quaranta

i thought the Overmono album was very weak but saw them live in Philly in the summer and they absolutely ruled.

I have two dogs, both rescues, and enough dogs are killed without reason every year that I just don't care to even entertain a "concept album." Name it something else.

100% agree.

digging the William Tyler & The Impossible Truth.

https://i.imgur.com/yxsPi4h.jpeg
58. Kali Uchis - Red Moon in Venus 177 points - 10 votes
Kali Uchis
On her lush and captivating third album, the pop star looks to the heavens, summoning the cosmic power of love and the divine feminine. 

Two of my albums of the year back to back. The way Danny Brown hasn't let his introspection interfere with his taste for bat shit beats is so inspiring.

Name it something else.

New L’Rain album is called Digitalia. New L’Rain album is called Throwing Nut. New L’Rain album is called Old Mare Have You Seen My Shoe. New L’Rain album is called Old Man Have You Heard the News. New L’Rain album is called Fatigue 2: Electric Boogaloo. New L’Rain album is…

— 🪨🦴 Taja / L’Rain (@lrain0000) June 14, 2022

subpoll

lol, Old Mare gets my vote

love the Kali Uchis, pretty much at the level of Sin Miedo

still haven't listened to this, but her new one is fantastic

https://i.imgur.com/qvCe8qB.jpeg
57. Yves Tumor - Praise A God Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) 180 points - 5 votes
Bandcamp
Yves Tumor
The art-rock auteur’s latest album is a glistening, richly detailed world that feels like a culmination of their ever-escalating talent and ambition.

really good long lost album from like 1997

Yeah I thought this was great, it was specifically the little bit in Meteora Blues that sounds like AR Kane that got me interested in the first place but consistently great songs throughout

I like Yves Tumor and they're also kind of a hometown hero here (except that they hate the town lol). But my attention tends to wander after a couple of songs. Not quite my thing I guess. An individual track in a mix will generally leap out at me, so I guess I just need them in small doses.

scaring the hoes is just a bad album! i do not enjoy jpegmafia as a producer or rapper

https://i.imgur.com/XEScUqv.jpeg
56. Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess 182 points - 6 votes
All hail Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, AKA Chappell Roan
The pop singer’s full-length debut is a bold and uproarious introduction, buoyed by sturdy songcraft and steely indifference to good taste.

didn't love Praise A Lord quite as much as the last two but I like the direction they've gone. also finally got to see them live, a starry performance at First Avenue felt appropriate.

if i have to see another internet hosanna for jpeg being like, “wow he chopped up a japanese tv commercial to create this beat”…congratulations bitch, it sounds like ass

i did like the song he produced on the armand hammer album, fwiw

he has made cool beats occasionally but this time opted for 'everything is blown out in a bad way' for every track

I saw Yves Tumor a few years ago, really good show. Big goth-glam drama, lots of dry ice.

I voted for the Chappell Roan album, catchy tunes and very likable throughout. I hear what people say about theater-kid energy here, even more than on the bigger Dan Nigro production of 2023, but I don't hate theater kids.

i like the descriptions of the music rather than the music of a lot of these recent entries

i think being annoyingly extra in the service of pop music is generally a good thing. really enjoy this chappell roan record

it's been weird to see this on every eoy list but not Quaranta

― soup of magpies (geoffreyess),

I had the same thought. I think Quaranta is slowly becoming my favourite album of his.

https://i.imgur.com/1qRXrGe.jpeg
55. Jessy Lanza - Love Hallucination 182 points - 7 votes
Bandcamp
Jessy Lanza - Pull My Hair Back (2013)
For Lanza, the feel-good element of pop music has always been key, and on Love Hallucination, she doubles down on that idea, making light conversation of everything from simple pleasures like driving to heavier topics like orgasms, self-loathing and near-death experiences. Backed by a cast of co-producers like Pearson Sound, Tensnake and Paul White, she expands her sound to fit these more bracing topics, without losing the DIY charm that made her an instant star to begin with. Instead of asking what LA could bring for Lanza, it seems more fitting to ask what Lanza brings to LA—a welcome dose of self-awareness.

ooh I have this waiting at the library. didn't realize Paul White's on it.

https://i.imgur.com/isbbT81.jpeg
54. Hannah Diamond - Perfect Picture 184 points - 5 votes
Bandcamp
♥☮☯♫ PC MUSIC ♫☯☮♥ ☺☺☺ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°✌
‘Perfect Picture’ is the pinnacle of today’s hyperpop yet steers away from its once abrasive nature towards a well-rounded, rebooted version: one where all that Hannah is and can be is indeed made picture perfect.

xp 'Lick In Heaven' is my favourite track by her - nothing on this really matching that for me but do like 'Midnight Ontario'.

"limbo" is such a jam. really like all of love hallucination tho. her most immediate? usually takes two years for jessy lanza releases to really grow on me and i just instantly got into this one

It took me a while to get into Jessy Lanza… this one is more “safe” house-pop compared to “pull my hair back” which is brilliant, but it’s still expertly produced.

this hannah diamond album is also wonderful. good run of albums that i couldn't fit into a top 25

if i have to see another internet hosanna for jpeg being like, “wow he chopped up a japanese tv commercial to create this beat”…congratulations bitch, it sounds like ass

― kissinger on my list (voodoo chili), Tuesday, January 30, 2024 9:57 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

oh hello yes good my number 7 or something yes

ditto with ivy

i wrote about it

https://i.imgur.com/rBLeBK1.jpg
53. a.s.o. - a.s.o. 185 points - 9 votes
Bandcamp
Tornado Wallace - Lonely Planet
ILM 2023 Listening Club
Day and Seror-O'Neill's chemistry shines through at every turn, suggesting a trust and willingness to experiment that's usually behind the best musical collaborations. a.s.o. is a striking debut that belies the short time they've been collaborating together. It's not a club record, and yet its themes of attraction, seduction, alienation and self-determination feel centred in the club kid experience, where holding out for the next night out and the next big thrill can lead to loose connections, broken promises and missed signals. a.s.o. taps into these feelings with breathtaking emotional depth and maturity.

xpost: good review imago!

nice, my first album vote to place! had no idea this was an ilx hit

I only heard a.s.o. toward the end of the year and didn't get to listen much so didn't vote for it, but it's good!

the sound of this thing is great, just the songs are occasionally a little lacking, still looking forward to their next one

Kept meaning to check out a.s.o. after seeing them on a number of lists. Will rectify that now.

The Overmono tracks that stayed with me all year were penultimate album track "So U Kno" and single "Freedom 2" with Joy Orbison and Kwengface. The latter is better than anything on the album, imo -- a surprising collaboration that really works.

Basically, I'm always here for trip-hop revivalism.

another on my long list!

yeah love how trip-hop is making a comeback, this was perhaps too close to the authentic thing without a meaningful update on the genre, but it's still great at what it does.

agreed with ivy. "love in the darkness" was the one song that really clicked for me

the sound of this thing is great, just the songs are occasionally a little lacking, still looking forward to their next one

― ivy., Tuesday, January 30, 2024 10:55 AM (fifty-seven seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

i generally agree, but the production is good enough for me to not need songs, just basking in the drift of it and the little details

https://i.imgur.com/GavNmk1.jpeg
52. Ratboys - The Window 187 points - 7 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
thraed of my new favorite indie rock band ratboys
The Chicago quartet swings big on a Chris Walla-produced album that brings unexpected grandeur to their modest, rootsy indie rock. It sounds like a breakthrough.

wayyyy too low, i should've voted for it :(

oooh this a.s.o. album is really great

Ratboys album grew on me with every play but I just didn't have enough time with it to prioritize on my list. Very glad to see it here though.

calling new and old a.s.o. heads' attention to this while we're all here:

https://itsaso.bandcamp.com/album/a-s-o-remixed

Relistening to the overmono and it’s hard for me not to like it a lot when it makes a great use of samples from artists I love such as Tirzah and Smerz. Hey if it’s popular and sends money their way who am I to complain?

https://i.imgur.com/ISvOmbc.jpeg
51. PJ Harvey - I Inside the Old Year Dying 194 points - 8 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
PJ Harvey : Classic or Dud
The result is a loose, nimble work of neo-folk that pokes its head into desert blues, experimental rock, and country, then has a good nose around. It manages to sound both mediaeval and futuristic, with big hollow kick drums booming underneath queasy loops and staticky textures, the tales of “milchi seeps heady in the meadows” ringing over boinging, squelching electronics.

I like this album's static virtues but I have to remember to listen to it.

"love in the darkness" was the one song that really clicked for me

Yes, that was my keeper from it too, gorgeous tune. Also it took me far too long go figure out that a.s.o. was a tornado wallace project, doh!

oh ok this is way way way way too low, and the first album to place from my ballot

Also it took me far too long go figure out that a.s.o. was a tornado wallace project, doh!

― blazin' squab (NickB), Tuesday, January 30, 2024 11:17 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

whoa!

yeah that's why the production is so good

i can understand why some didn't respond to i inside the old year dying, especially the hopeless ppl in the pj harvey thread hoping she'll return to rock, but i thought it was so gentle and haunting, carving out a fully-realized space with its music and lyrics that didn't exist before it

PJ album rules, my fave of hers since the 90s

ivy otm

I'm with the Quaranta >>> crew, if I didn't vote for that I should have.

I've never truly fallen for Overmono and prefer their separate solo work (especially Tessela, one of my very faves), but I'm happy for their success and I like to think of them hanging out and touring together as brothers. <3

wouldn't it be funny if someone had included that pull quote in a song eh

PJ would've been on my ballot but i didn't get around to listening to it in full until after voting

https://i.imgur.com/GY5eYCe.jpeg
50. Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah - Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning 196 points - 8 votes
Bandcamp
Thread for Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (f/k/a Christian Scott)
“I think because of the kind of music that we make, the consensus is always that we’re looking forward and looking forward and looking forward and looking forward, where really the approach has always been sort of a sankofan energy, a West African energy, an idea that says you’re moving forward while looking backward, represented by the stork standing forward, but facing backwards,” Adjuah says. Thus, updating ancient West African harplike instruments and singing lyrics based in ancestral lore has allowed him to take his music in an unexpected direction, while preserving its essential qualities. (It helps that a lot of his frequent past collaborators, most notably percussionist Weedie Braimah and bassist Luques Curtis, are part of the ensemble here as well.) It’s possible to draw a line from Rewind That to Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning and understand it all as part of one long narrative of reclamation, of declaration, of mourning and celebration and braggadocio and resistance, that is both uniquely New Orleans and deeply universal and human.

my first vote to place!

no one seems to have anything to say about this, so i'll just say it's as soul-stirring and absorbing as any record i heard all year. love adjuah's quote about "moving forward while looking backward"

too low!!! insanely moving record

i really liked the hannah diamond album but it made me wish she would go all-in on fully “earnest” pop lyrics and ditch the ironic distance. it made sense when the production and songwriting was still kind of shitty and it was more of an art project, but now that they’re full bangers i find it holds something back from the emotional punch. the lyrics written from the perspectives of media-obsessed teenage girls (‘poster girl on my wall, i wanna be just like you/a girl too good to be true’) with a somewhat delusional sense of reality mediated by technology (‘i touch my pad, but you don’t touch me/i get no feedback from my hd screen’) feels a bit played out, and the reminder that it’s social commentary takes me out of it

hannah diamond is much more sincere than she might seem imo. tt told me that when she played live she seemed very insecure and weirdly grateful for the support in a way that couldn't have been faked. sure, there's a self-aware commentary aspect too ofc but it's also something that's felt

one of the things i liked most about the record is that it was relatively easy for me to inhabit, i didn't feel any ironic distance from the sentiments expressed

yes

I LOVE the Chief Xian album, just a fantastic alchemical blend of New Orleans Indian culture, jazz, blues, folk music, everything. I've been an aTunde Adjuah fan for years, but this is really one of a kind.

https://i.imgur.com/u14jVCw.jpeg
49. Kylie Minogue - Tension 202 points - 6 votes - 2 º1 votes
Kylie Minogue: Classic or Dud?
Kylie Minogue’s most relaxed album in years is a compendium of all the sounds she’s best known for: confectionary synth-pop, breezy Euro house, and propulsive EDM.

xps- i feel like it’s a mix of genuine sentiments and cheeky meta humor, but the most glaring moments of the latter are where it loses me. the bridge in ‘affirmations’ (‘i’m a business woman and my own CEO’) felt like a cheap “girl boss” meme and to me undercuts the song, which is otherwise fantastic

that was my #1 -- there was a lot of great music this year, lots of excellent albums, and went with the one which brought me the most effervescent joy. i think the deluxe edition is the one to get -- 14 tracks and still only 45 min long. the bonus track Somebody To Love is secretly one of her best recent songs.

it's kind of remarkable she's doing this at 55 -- as a U2 fan i know all too well what it's like to see artists hit a certain age and sound a bit desperate and clunky, but she's vv effortlessly shifted gears here.

I want to accost the first U2 fan I find and tell that Kylie's making more vital music.

She's making more vital music than just about anyone who was topping pop charts in the late '80s, isn't she? Hard to think of real competition.

The a.s.o. album has a similar vibe to the HTRK album I also enjoyed a couple of years ago.

I was the #1 vote for Ratboys. Surprised it wasn't higher given the love for the tracks.

w/the Infinite Disco livestream and the Vegas shows/ITV special footage i've seen, you can tell she's reached some new levels of confidence as a singer too.

the a.s.o. album left me cold, but i think i have a lower tolerance for trip-hop than i once did.

really surprised that the Ratboys record is so low. it was in my top 5.

It left me cold, as well (and I was intrigued after reading Philip Sherburne's review in Pfork). Felt like something I wouldn't have even been into back in the trip-hop era...

She's making more vital music than just about anyone who was topping pop charts in the late '80s, isn't she? Hard to think of real competition.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, January 30, 2024 12:06 PM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

peter gabriel!

"Boy I simply cannot listen to something as ridiculously named as 'King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard'"

*presses play on DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ*

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, January 29, 2024 10:57 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Just addressing this: KGatLW oozes gross masculine energy— it reminds me of Monster energy drinks. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ sounds like a silly Myspace/Tumbr girlyblog moniker. They're both ridiculous, but one is ridiculous in a repellent way for many people, and one is ridiculous in a charming and relatively harmless way.

Like sorry, if you don't thinkg KGatLW is an awful bro name, I am betting you are a cis straight dude.

i don't think it's an awful bro name. it radiates more harmless stoner energy to me

I'm a cis straight dude but yeah I don't think it's an awful bro name, I think it's something the guys I used to play Magic: the Gathering would've come up with to be funny

it literally makes me make a face, y'all are trippin

It sounds like lots of people's first band name, the one they bring up in later interviews and chuckle about how lucky they are they changed that. (I don't hate the name or the band fwiw.)

it literally makes me make a face, y'all are trippin

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Tuesday, January 30, 2024 12:27 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

and you are projecting. it's obv a very personal thing for you

Re: the Chief Xian/Christian Scott album, I deeply love Mardi Gras Indian music and the core version of it is very stripped down -- bass drum (played upturned with two mallets), tambourines, cowbells, and chants. And it's one of those things that is hard to add anything to without diluting its power. While I don't love all of this record, it does a pretty amazing job of that. Not playing trumpet on it is a very strong decision, and I'm looking forward to seeing him on tour in May.

I didn't vote but if I had #1 would have gone to Ratboys or Anna St Louis' exquisite In The Air.

just reminds me of awful assie room mate i used to have who would loudly announce 'just gotta go and bleed the lizard' every time he went for a wee xps

aussie not assie

i don’t really see repellent masculine monster energy drink bros listening to a band with “Lizard Wizard” in the name. it’s just a stupid name. they may as well be called Big Chungus and the Humongous Fungus

lol strong wook energy there

https://i.imgur.com/7UI1X0r.jpeg
48. The Clientele - I Am Not There Anymore 202 points - 7 votes
Bandcamp
The Clientele - Best Band Since The Smiths
By album's end we've had everything from impressionistic solo piano daubs (an element inaugurated on the previous album) to a drone derived from a sample of buzzing bees. But outré aspects notwithstanding, The Clientele's gift for the melancholy tear dropper remains eminently intact — if the hazy lost-love recollections of "Chalk Flowers" don't make you misty, you just might be an AI fabrication. I Am Not There Anymore gives the stalwart trio a dazzling new wardrobe, but the same big, bittersweet heart keeps pumping underneath.

sorry for the time out! busy day! I will start stepping on the gas for the last run, one album every 15 mins max.

i will not listen to this album because i am actually there all the time

beautiful album

xposts kgatlw isn't a great name but i don't understand getting hung up on it. it seems like something that someone who is really into who music is marketed to would do. definitely don't think it codes as remotely toxic masc. and really don't understand somehow thinking the name is harmful??? i hear it and think of an earnest stoner into d&d who used to snowboard but doesn't now because of the carbon footprint and maybe because it's too expensive. closest analogue to me are jam band adjacent names like "toad and the wet sprocket". also monster energy drinks are fine.

as far as their overall sound goes, "motorik garage rock jams" is otm. in spite of their rep for stylistic diversity it all kind of ends up sounding like that imo. i've cooled on them after being a little obsessed for a year or so, still like them quite a bit.

psychedelic porn crumpets is an even worse band name for a psych rock band from australia. good stuff though.

https://i.imgur.com/Y28dfTf.jpeg
47. Asake - Work of Art 209 points - 8 votes
Bandcamp
every other day i organize - the long-awaited asake thread
The Nigerian singer-songwriter’s second album is in constant search of innovation, fusing traditional and contemporary African music into a celebration of success and community..

nice, my second vote

Big Chungus and the Humongous Fungus

This just made me laugh for far too long.

as someone listening to every album here i appreciate the slower rollout personally!

Really liked the Clientele album, voted for "Claire's Not Real" in tracks.

as someone listening to every album here i appreciate the slower rollout personally!

― nxd

ok I'll chill then lol

psychedelic porn crumpets

I can'dt

Big Chungus and the Humongous Fungus

if someone here doesn't use this as an actual band name, i'll be disappointed

This just made me laugh for far too long.

Same

ye olde punk band Adrenalin OD had an album called 'Humongus Fungus Among Us' iirc

Eh, like the L'Rain thing it absolutely is personal, and I am absolutely correct in my assessment and you are all wrong :-)

haha yes they did xp

I feel bad coming back to the KG&TLW conversation after missing most of today's rollout and so not adding anything positive to the thread, but as people are sharing what it makes them think of, I will join in. The "bro energy" people and the "D&D nerd" people are BOTH right, imo. It makes me think of awful misogynist toxic nerds, the That Guy of the D&D table. Definitely jam band-ish, too - it makes me think of the sort of jam band fans who are not pleasant stoners but think "show us your tits" is an expression of cool freedom of sexuality. It's cringe in that it's nerdy, but it's an unpleasant nerdery, a boy's club nerdery. Obviously I'm not making that accusation about the band or their fans, I have no idea what they're like, but those are the things the name conjures up to me.

haha fair enough tabes

I can't help loving the KG&TLW artwork, awfully literal tho it be. Descriptions of the music not so appealing.

i'm sorry for encouraging the KG&TLW name discourse with a weak zing attempt yesterday. tables' perspective on this and the l'rain album name are weird to me but they're entitled to their opinion on it and it's not really worth arguing about. i like some of the bands' music but they definitely have some obnoxious tendencies as well and i don't really think anyone is losing out terribly by skipping out on listening to them. i'm a little sensitive about people dismissing bands' music for superficial reasons but i'm sure i've done it too at some point.

asake has a cool name and makes great music

otm

My problem with Asake's name is that I really like 4s4k1 and sometimes I get them confused.

https://i.imgur.com/lnLtRp0.jpeg
46. Katie Dey - Never Falter Hero Girl 212 points - 6 votes- 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
Katie Dey - Flood Network
That fearless approach permeates everything on never falter hero girl, in how Dey freely wields the unexpected beauty and catharsis of MIDI instrumentation, noise, and the natural messiness of life and creation. Anchoring it all, as always, is Dey’s staggering voice, tender and raw and laid mostly bare in moments akin to last year’s forever music, but also rippling with effects that turn her words into an artificial quaver the next.

xp emil.y i think you're right that they're a band for boys in some ways. i see the problems with that but i don't think it's unilaterally a bad thing. i think stu's lyrics, especially when he's singing about the earth / environment and bodies, are really sharp. much more internal than you might think. anyway that's my last kg-defending post itt.

it makes me think of the sort of jam band fans who are not pleasant stoners but think "show us your tits" is an expression of cool freedom of sexuality. It's cringe in that it's nerdy, but it's an unpleasant nerdery, a boy's club nerdery.

unfortunately this describes a number of Ween fans I've come across - the King Gizz nerds I know are generally nice people. maybe some of this is down to lyrics and image - KG is mostly fantasy/science stuff, while I'm pretty sure Ween was the direct inspiration for South Park (and Spongebob, apparently). Ween grew out of that phase but a lot of their fans did not.

Didn't manage to listen to the whole of the Katie Dey album this year hence just voting for the title track in the other poll, but glad to see this place.

My brief interjection into thread (none of my votes have showed up yet wtf) is that this year's 77 will definitely have the 'most words per album title' of any year. No, I'm not counting but c'mon.

I like to think Moka deliberately picked this beautiful typeface knowing they would have to use it so much more than in previous years.

this album is phenomenal, my #2 but my top two stand clear of most things I've heard recently

once again, my extended thoughts

my ballot did feel unusually text-heavy

I've never heard (of) Katie Dey but I'm liking this album.

yeah, Katie Dey astounding

perhaps the most remarkable thing about this is that her previous one (forever music) was pretty disappointing (to me at least) - and then she goes and knocks up one of the greatest things I've ever heard

Really liked the Clientele album, voted for "Claire's Not Real" in tracks.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, January 30, 2024 11:50 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ditto, and I've never been a fan. Always preferred their references (The Left Banke, the Zombies) but the quasi-electronica they played with on this one really worked for me.

Voted for Asake; radiant and effortless melodies. Discovered him through this poll when the last album placed -- thanks ILM.

I like to think Moka deliberately picked this beautiful typeface knowing they would have to use it so much more than in previous years.

― nashwan

lol, I love that typeface and yes, this year might break the record for longest titles - a couple of entries are in danger of breaking the template.

all that without even a fiona apple album this year

https://i.imgur.com/ecd2SUA.jpeg
45. Jonny Nash - Point Of Entry 220 points - 7 votes
Bandcamp
Where Is The Love For Johnny Nash?
 It consists of 11 elegant, unhurried improvisations. All formed of gently picked guitar, reverb, and echo. Jonny’s fragile distant whispers. The results recall Vini Reilly’s more ambient moments, or the artists found on the labels like ECM, and Windham Hill. A music where folk, jazz, and new age meet. Sustained saxophone notes, and understated vibes sometimes accompany the solitary strum. Synths are kept to soft near subliminal textures, and everything seamlessly segues together to surround you like a sleepy afternoon somewhere warm, safe, and secluded. 6-string sketches for summer.

hell yes!

Think this was my final cut
Fantastic little record

(now that this made it, i am fully expecting 9 out of my top 10 albums to show up on the list lol)

Obviously I'm not making that accusation about the band or their fans, I have no idea what they're like, but those are the things the name conjures up to me.

Then maybe don't do it? You don't like the name, so they must have misogynistic fans and therefore the band themselves are bad people? Like what even is that? I could give a fuck about King Gizz and wouldn't have voted for them even if I had finished my ballot in time, but this is gross and if people did this about ILM pop darlings it would have been rightly called out for being not a good look.

Oh this Jonny Nash album sounds like the exact thing I needed right now.

yep this is sounding lovely

You don't like the name, so they must have misogynistic fans and therefore the band themselves are bad people?

This is literally the opposite of what I said. Words have connotations and conjure up imagery and emotion. I described what a particular sequence of words conjures up for me. What you quoted EXPLICITLY says I'm not accusing the bands or their fans of anything.

But why even put that out there? You don't have to like the dumb name, it's fine, but you don't need to make up imaginary fans to justify it.

I put that out there because other people were sharing what it makes them think of. I joined in a conversation. Sorry.

listening to the current playlist at random is quite the experience.

https://i.imgur.com/6vhSRVV.jpeg
44. Romy - Mid Air 232 points - 8 votes
Bandcamp
The XX
Hearkening back to her queer nightlife days, the xx singer and guitarist pays homage to the euphoric dance-pop of the 1990s and 2000s.

vini reilly meets gigi masin is a good idea of what jonny nash has going on

makes sense since he is the ceo of masin’s label and is a band mate of his in the group gaussian curve

went from Jonny Nash to Jessy Lanza to Zach Bryan to Ratboys to Fire-toolz just now and surprisingly I liked a lot of it. Fire-toolz "gleam beam" was surprising... didn't match the descriptions I read upthread, maybe not the best song to represent the album?

the johnny nash record is excellent and i forgot about it by the time i put my ballot together lol

Dj Sabrina now... I don't know if I'm at a very receptive mood but this is turning out to be some great music session.

so many good albums I missed this year huh? thanks voters for sending so many great music my way.

https://i.imgur.com/N1j1ySU.jpeg
43. Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective - *1 233 points - 7 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
rolling hypergarbage 2023
After the apocalyptic overtones of their 2021 breakthrough album, the Vietnamese experimental music collective finds hope in the fusion of rave music and eco-futurism.

Awwww, there was a reasonable amount of chatter about this one so I was hoping it would get a bit higher.

Ooh my first vote to place

forgot to give this a proper listen, I'm sorry

wow now this is interesting

Great day for me, I rated Run Cap, the Nash, and Ratboys pretty high.

jvc, emil.y was doing nothing of the sort you were accusing them of, that was entirely me. let's drop it.

frogbs that Run Cap is tailor made for you!

sorry Rắn Cạp

rắn cạp was my #2 a couple years back, this is as good - exhilarating music

https://i.imgur.com/3ztYrpY.jpeg
42. Actress - LXXXVIII 233 points - 8 votes
Bandcamp
The producer known as ACTRESS and his r&b concrète
Part of the reason why LXXXVIII is so enjoyable is all these callbacks—it's catnip to a diehard Actress fan. There's a few new wrinkles on there, sure—the jazzy chord changes, the piano, the almost formless ambient sections—but mostly it's what he does best. There's a texture to the sounds, a sonic trademark you can sometimes feel more than hear. That kind of consistency can be dangerous when you're a maverick like Actress, but for him it's more of a blessing than a curse. Dummy Corporation proved that he didn't need a concept or conceit to make good music, and while LXXXVIII was apparently inspired by game theory and chess, above all it's a rock-solid Actress album packed with mind-bending sound design and off-kilter grooves. Even when he comes close to repeating himself, he makes it as exciting as hearing his music for the first time all over again. And how many dance music producers can say that?

Johnny Nash another from my long list, gorgeous and lulling in a good way.

I'm guessing that Lý Trang won't make it, but those who like Rắn Cạp should check it out as she was part of the collective for a while. Partly ambient but more intricate than that might suggest, and the songs with vocals kind of remind me of Broadcast?

ran cap another of my votes, what an album

https://i.imgur.com/Eh85N1e.jpeg
41. Katie Gately - Fawn / Brute 234 points - 9 votes
Bandcamp
Katie Gately
Getting to grips with Katie Gately’s music takes time. Eclectic and adventurous, it aims at existing beyond any generic categories. It’s playful and to a certain degree ironic, striking a balance between postmodernism and a new sincerity. Futuristic? Sure. Gately is less interested in crafting tunes than textures. One-dimensional melodies obtain volume with careful arrangement – samples, beats, pads, bits and pieces retrieved from sound libraries feed into an inventive, phantasmagorical facade. This formula has been Gately’s magic charm from the beginning of her musical career when she was spotted (almost immediately) by elements of the music press. 

RECAP 41-77

ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2023

41. Katie Gately - Fawn / Brute 234 points - 9 votes
42. Actress - LXXXVIII 233 points - 8 votes
43. Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective - *1 233 points - 7 votes - 1 º1 vote
44. Romy - Mid Air 232 points - 8 votes
45. Jonny Nash - Point Of Entry 220 points - 7 votes
46. Katie Dey - Never Falter Hero Girl 212 points - 6 votes- 1 º1 vote
47. Asake - Work of Art 209 points - 8 votes
48. The Clientele - I Am Not There Anymore 202 points - 7 votes
49. Kylie Minogue - Tension 202 points - 6 votes - 2 º1 votes
50. Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah - Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning 196 points - 8 votes
51. PJ Harvey - I Inside the Old Year Dying 194 points - 8 votes - 1 º1 vote
52. Ratboys - The Window 187 points - 7 votes - 1 º1 vote
53. a.s.o. - a.s.o. 185 points - 9 votes
54. Hannah Diamond - Perfect Picture 184 points - 5 votes
55. Jessy Lanza - Love Hallucination 182 points - 7 votes
56. Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess 182 points - 6 votes
57. Yves Tumor - Praise A God Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) 180 points - 5 votes
58. Kali Uchis - Red Moon in Venus 177 points - 10 votes
59. JPEGMafia x Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES 176 points - 7 votes
60. Overmono - Good Lies 165 points - 6 votes
61. Troye Sivan - Something To Give Each Other 162 points - 7 votes
62. NewJeans - NewJeans 2nd EP 'Get Up' 161 points - 5 votes - 1 º1 vote
63. Snooper - super snooper 160 points - 5 votes
64. Jim Legxacy - homeless n*gga pop music 158 points - 5 votes - 1 º1 vote
65. Rogê - Curyman 155 points - 5 votes
66. Mitski - This Land Is Inhospitable & So Are We 150 points - 6 votes
67. The Necks - Travel 148 points - 7 votes
68. L'Rain - I Killed Your Dog 147 points - 6 votes
69. William Tyler & the Impossible Truth - Secret Stratosphere 146 points - 6 votes
70. Fire-Toolz - I am upset because I see something that is not there. 146 points - 4 votes - 2 º1 votes
71. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Destiny 144 points - 5 votes
72. ANOHNI and the Johnsons - My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross 143 points - 5 votes
73. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation 140 points - 5 votes
74. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan 139 points - 5 votes - 2 º1 votes
75. Jamila Woods - Water made us 137 points - 8 votes
76. Vanishing Twin - Afternoon X 136 points - 4 votes
77. Mary Lattimore - Goodbye, Hotel Arkada 130 points - 4 votes

Great day, enjoyed this one too

actress album is a wonderful extended tour of his strengths

been wondering if there's any particular connection between LXXXVIII (great) and 88, which I didn't download in time

this is shaping up to be the most votes i've placed in a while, maybe ever

awesome album, arguably her best

emil.y I am very much enjoying this Lý Trang album, thank you!

Agreed about Actress for sure. Katie Gately is another one I meant to give the time it deserves but eventually forgot about, good reminder to check it out.

A little delayed, but...

Apple Music playlist:

https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/ilm-albums-poll-2023/pl.u-8aAVzreTaaGNDd

Will update when time permits. If there are any problems, let me know and include the word "APPLE" in your post or I might miss it.

my Gately review perhaps too silly to repost this time lol

ftr I voted for the Lý Trang, it's so good

Oh, wheeee, I wasn't sure if Katie Gately would make it this time. It's a really great record.

Also, added the Apple Music playlist to original post.

Love the Johnny Nash album!

Oh emily silverfish also posted a tidal playlist in the opening posts could you add it?

will definitely check out ly trang

Was hoping Asake would finish higher. Oh well. I guess that is a good finish for Chief Adjuah.

Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective was my #1. Def too low. Overmono also too low, but at least it placed.

Oh emily silverfish also posted a tidal playlist in the opening posts could you add it?

― ✖✖✖ (Moka)

Sure thing, just let me find it and I'll put it in there.

Got it.

tidal playlist: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/0f5e0e35-dad6-48aa-acdb-51d105c9a750

― silverfish

Here you go

i also voted for the Ly Trang, fwiw—. Those who might be interested in other prjects from collective members should check out the downer electronica vibes of Jung Buffalo’s Shit Luck, Vague Memories from last year
https://rancapduoi.bandcamp.com/album/shit-luck-vague-memories

Don't think I heard that one, will check it out.

Albums poll is always a vibe. Tonight my listen is Jonny Nash. Simple guitar, ambient electronics, distant jazziness, few vocals. Very nice and comfortable.

i love the jonny nash album, so achingly beautiful

voted for zero from 77-51, but four from 50-41. more to come, probably

was starting to worry that basically nothing I voted for would place but the last two today (Actress and Katie Gately) were things I voted for. Looking at my ballot, I see 1-3 albums likely to place in the top 40, not too bad.

thanks for the reminds about the Gately, it’s on my buy list

xpost to emil.y: it’s a very “foggy drizzly walk” vibe of an EP

I have three votes so far and I'm firmly confident about 15 more will place. Either you play big, or you don't play.

had 6 place so far, expecting 8 or 9 total. 10 would be delightful

excited to check out a whole bunch of today's placements

One record I voted for has shown up so far, my guess is that maaaaybe 3 more will, lol

Only a single album from my ballot so far, I feel like the tracks poll was super hivemindy for me compared to the albums one but enjoying a lot several of the albums I’ve been hearing.

3 so far. I reckon another 7 or 8 of mine to place.

4 for me (aTunde Adjuah, Chappell Roan, William Tyler, DJ Sabrina), certainly more tk.

Looking at my ballot, I think there's at least 9 more that seem like sure things. But every year I'm wrong about at least one that I'm sure will make it.

Nice to be reminded of the Jonny Nash and the Necks, which wafted by me this year. Voted for the William Tyler (might just have voted for "Highway Anxiety / Radioactivity" in the tracks poll if it had been nominated) and the Katie Dey; voted for Jessy Lanza and Katie Gately in the tracks poll rather than this. Keen to dig into the Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective, Rogê & Asake; intrigued by the Vanishing Twin / a.s.o. due to the Moin and Tornado Wallace (and Mikey Young of Total Control / Eddy Current Suppression Ring etc!) connections.

Just going to put my thanks here for DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ— would have never listened without this poll, I am absolutely smitten with this sound.

I'm also really enjoying that, kudos

I like all the random conversations that seem to be thrown in to the Sabrina album? it's like you're hanging out with her at a club

i voted for katie dey & asake today, and also like the a.s.o., pj harvey, hannah diamond and jessy lanza albums quite a bit

this jonny nash album sounds lovely

promising discoveries for me so far: vanishing twin, dj sabrina (which i will absolutely be playing out), Rogê, Rắn Cạp

The DJ Sabrina reminds me of Teengirl Fantasy a little bit, maybe in their early live incarnation when they were incorporating a ton of samples...but like mixed with vaporwave. I adore it.

I get the Avalanches vibe someone mentioned upthread about DJ Sabrina but I'd probably enjoy it more if it wasn't four hours long

Really enjoying the Vanishing Twin though

I think the abridged version of Destiny is slightly under 2 hours if that helps

xp

this Yves Tumor is a good time eh

'in spite of war' taking on the entire current uk postpunk scene and winning

Yves Tumor started out a bit too abstract for me, and then he hit the exact right spot between rock and abstraction on Safe In The Hands of Love, and then he continued on past it, and now I kinda don't get what he is doing at all. I think if I saw him live it might help, but the whole thing is so glam right now, I don't get it.

I won't say the Asake was a let down - I voted for it - but it was much less good than the first one. Still, if he can release an album like that every ten months or so, he is going to be a favorite of mine for a long long time.

the whole thing is so glam right now

ty for concisely explaining to me why I'm liking this so much more than Safe In The Hands Of Love

they not he btw afaict

oh, apparently both are okay, sorry

anyway, that was fabulous

the asake album wasn't quite as great as the first but still sounds excellent in the summer here right now and my main complaint was just that it's more of the same

i haven't really cared for yves tumor's turn to glam rock, it's alright texturally but the songs just aren't quite there

it sounds so good, agree there's a bit of work still to do on the songwriting but that'd be pushing it from really engaging to flat-out overwhelming

currently onto the a.s.o, trying to work out how coffee-table this is. some neat gauzy/electronic textures in the second track indicate that it may have its uses beyond that realm

sadly the big single steals most of its chorus goodness from Pure Shores. i mean, it's good, but cmon lol

it's not really anything more than good trip hop pastiche but it is still quite good at that

Yves tumor is glam in the same way that Prince was glam rock i guess? Its probably a v bad trainspotter way to appreciate music, but it is fun to listen to that album and spot the little 90s musical reference points for various songs. like I already mentioned there's a guitar bit which is a straight lift from AR Kane, but I swear there are bits of Pale saints, pixies, and polvo songs in there, and that's just the P's.

Ratboys has begun well!

sadly the big single steals most of its chorus goodness from Pure Shores. i mean, it's good, but cmon lol

Also 'Crazy' by Seal

oh gosh oh my, No Way is gorgeous, it sounds like later-period Catherine Wheel

what the fuck

things I've listened to since voting that I really wish I'd heard beforehand: the Bruce album. absolutely astonishing. Valuable life lesson: should've listened to what Tim F said. Also the Voice Actor record, gah! why am I so dumb?

Poor Bruce, really should have changed his moniker if he was going to go down the challenging art-pop with sonic headfuckery route.

Love Voice Actor, but I have this thing where I end up seizing on one particular track and forgetting that the whole albums are good - this time it was “U Projected 2”.

How does the new Bruce sound compared with Sonder Somatic? Bumped that one so much when it came out that I kind of forgot he existed when I tired of it.

New Bruce is not a record for the dancefloor at all, it's experimental art pop all centred around his gorgeous vocals - think Tim mentioned Daid Sylvian previously, but his voice also really reminds me of Hayden from Wild Beasts and also somewhat of Jeff Buckley in his more tender moments

Ghosts by Japan would be a good reference point

There are many bands I've not checked out because of the name, but I think The Clientele are the only band I've largely avoided due to the title of their ILX thread. This is decent though

Lol I like the clientele but agree that I hate that thread title. Was never hyped on the “genius” of Morrissey and recoil at the thought of The Smiths being a best band ever. They’re not even the best band to come out of Manchester.

Dying In May rips off Caribou something rotten. Still, not bad

My Childhood is alas not not bad

Catching up with some of the things I've not heard, Rắn Cạp Đuôi and Jonny Nash are the standouts so far. Good work ILX!

https://i.imgur.com/RABQtPV.jpeg
40. Hotline TNT - Cartwheel 238 points - 8 votes
Bandcamp
I can’t stress enough how natural and unforced Cartwheel feels. It doesn’t read like record nerds trying to impress you with as many clever nods as they can fit into a sub-40-minute window. It feels instead, refreshingly, like true songs from honest hearts and practiced hands, an approach to songwriting and an aesthetic sensibility that effortlessly calls to mind the decades worth of material in its milieu rather than sounding like bland imitation.

xxxps

The Necks thread title is horrendous too.

worst title sub-poll to follow

Cartwheel was one of the last albums cut from my ballot. I like it a lot, but in a month I'll put on older shoegaze-records instead.

https://i.imgur.com/rHGtR1v.jpeg
39. Eddie Chacon - Sundown - 243 points - 10 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
Your unexpected new album of the year: Eddie Chacon - Pleasure, Joy and Happiness
Ibiza may be best known for nightlife, but away from the endless raves and debaucherous parties, the island’s natural beauty can be something to get lost in. In October 2021, Los Angeles musicians Eddie Chacon and John Carroll Kirby escaped to the Mediterranean oasis and found themselves doing exactly that—soaking up the ample sun and lush greenery while recording Sundown, a collection of laid-back grooves and sultry meditations on love, loss, and the human experience.

Nice. I think I slightly prefer Eddie Chacon's first album, but this is great. His albums put me in such a good place.

only artist that was on both my ballots (voted for the gigi masin remix of the title track for the tracks poll… really worth hearing especially if the sun happens to be going down at the time)

https://i.imgur.com/BuTvB0J.jpeg
38. Kate NV - WOW 244 points - 8 votes
Bandcamp
Kate NV
WOW is a regression in the sense that Kate NV has returned to more formless compositions, but the lack of construction feels like the point. It’s reminiscent of arts and crafts, or something you’d bang out alone during recess, translating a sense of childlike wonder and aimless exploration into musical form. The building blocks in this case are the large array of sounds she’s collected over the years, some recorded herself and some from her trusty sample pack; she knocks them together and breaks them down with glee.

Gigi is my favorite but, and I say this with amusement not annoyance, his little ghostly drive-by horn stabs are nearing self-parody territory at this point. Maybe only apparent to those that gleefully listen to everything with his name attached.

xp

guessing i'm in the minority but preferred 'wow' to 'ticket to fame'

Kate Aurelia NV

hopefully means Ticket to Fame will place higher, it's genuinely become on my shortlist of favorite albums

WOW is a great listen too, I love how each track can just be repeated for an hour if you want. glad someone made a Wii Shop Channel album without the specter of "capitalism rots the mind" hanging over it

didn't quite connect with this as much as the Decisive Pink album, hoping that will also show up

Funny to imagine you checking out Wii Shop Channel album after Wii Shop Channel album, letting out a frustrated sigh each time due to yet another Wii Shop Channel album with that cliche "capitalism rots the mind" popping up on queue... oh well on to the next Wii Shop Channel album

(Catching up) Very pleasantly surprised to see Katie Gately place. I thought the ILM love for her had fizzled, even as she gets better every full-length.

not on my damn watch

https://i.imgur.com/EmsyxaU.jpeg
37. Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((World War)) 258 points - 9 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
International Anthem: S/D
Rolling Jazz Thread 2023
The late trumpeter’s third and final album opens dazzling new paths in her work. It’s a heartbreaking glimpse of where she might have gone next, but more importantly, it’s a joy to hear.

It's strange watching this countdown and realising how out-of-touch I've become with (if we're going to give it a label) album-centric music. Like, pre-2016 I DNGAF about the tracks poll - it was albums all the way. Finally paying for Spotify changed that dramatically

It took me a lot of time to realize the title said "Fly or Die" three times, as opposed to something more complicated

xp but yeah, I had heard of barely any of these artists before EOY and it's a personal culture shock

Funny to imagine you checking out Wii Shop Channel album after Wii Shop Channel album, letting out a frustrated sigh each time due to yet another Wii Shop Channel album with that cliche "capitalism rots the mind" popping up on queue... oh well on to the next Wii Shop Channel album

― Evan, Wednesday, January 31, 2024 8:53 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah that's what going through James Ferraro's catalogue is like

On that, I'm starting to think that being named Kate or Katie is a favorable sign on ILM. It confuses me because I'm unfamiliar with all of them.

fawn/brute is especially notable as it's one of those 'oh damn, i'm a parent now' albums which often winds up being annoying but she somehow turns it into her coolest, wildest music yet. peak mothercore

It took me a lot of time to realize the title said "Fly or Die" three times, as opposed to something more complicated

it took me until seeing Moka's work just now!

'fly or die fly' or 'die fly or die'

Jaimie Branch TOO LOW

my #1

RIP

this record is so good, and almost post-punk in its approach

I was smitten with this album on first listen -- felt electrifying and important -- but didn't return to it as much as I thought I would.

Listening to Katie Gately for the first time. Initially challenging but the end of "Howl" and now the chorus of "Fawn" are huge.

https://i.imgur.com/8LwhTcO.jpeg
36. Everything But the Girl - Fuse - 263 points- 9 votes
Everything but the Girl.
After 24 years, the electronic pop duo returns with a moving, handsome album that tells a sophisticated story about recapturing innocence.

xp yeah I'd maybe even drop the "almost"! it genuinely draws on the spirit of post-punk (as opposed to merely reproducing its sonics like so much bland 21 c. "post-punk"), definitely a better lens to listen than "jazz" at any rate

Jaimie Branch was my #2. Great album, so fierce and groovy and melodic and angry. I actually like her shouty punky vocals, but I'm also glad she uses them sparingly. The Meat Puppets cover is unexpected but fits in with the overall arc of the album. I saw her with Fly or Die just about a month before they recorded this, they were fantastic. Very very sad that it was her last album.

the jaimie branch has begun really well, jaunty electric organ will always catch my attention but is a really great sound in this context. c86 jazz lol

Ok hooked on Katie Gately. Are her previous albums this compelling?

EBTG's "Time and Time Again" slays me.

wow Fuse is low. it was everything I could've hoped for.

xxp arguably yes. certainly all worth hearing. 'color' probably the most similar

EBTG's single (which placed in the tracks poll) made me think the album was going to straight-up win this poll at the time, so the fact it's down in the 30s makes me feel that it didn't quite live up to that song, would that be fair?

this amount of electric organ in a jazz album shouldn't be allowed, it's pandering to me too much haha

On that, I'm starting to think that being named Kate or Katie is a favorable sign on ILM.

I voted for two of them in albums, one of them in tracks. The Kate/Katie axis is real.

Ok hooked on Katie Gately. Are her previous albums this compelling?

― Indexed

I would go all the way back to 'Pipes' and listen through. As an opening statement for a career it is absolutely majestic, and while I think there are some dips in quality along the way, she is always great.

yeah don't sleep on Pipes, I still remember my brain falling out of my skull when I first heard that (at emil.y's insistence iirc)

Thanks, will do! Seems unjust that some of these tracks have <9k streams on Spotify. Doesn't feel that far off from what I've heard from, say, Maggie Rogers.

This poll rundown has been packed with really great discoveries, but fucking hell the jaimie branch is shaping up to be maybe as good as or even better than any of them, this is wild

https://i.imgur.com/cKoH0td.jpeg
35. Oneohtrix Point Never - Again 275 points - 8 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
oneohtrix point never
OPN's latest album is his most ambitious, overloaded with ideas that shift and twitch seemingly every few seconds.

guessing i'm in the minority but preferred 'wow' to 'ticket to fame'

― nxd

I think I might end up there but I got real obsessed with TTF this year. Massive spoiler alert, but Kate NV took both my top slots and honestly I kind of wanted to do a reverse unweighted ballot where they both got max points and everything else got slightly less. Not possible, alas.

EBTG's single (which placed in the tracks poll) made me think the album was going to straight-up win this poll at the time, so the fact it's down in the 30s makes me feel that it didn't quite live up to that song, would that be fair?

i think in a few years ppl will think it's as classic as anything they've ever done, myself included (i... don't think i voted for it). i think everyone expected a return to the club and it isn't quite that... but the ballads are devastating, the lyricism is sharp/cutting as ever. i'm gonna put it on right now

I'm glad the Eddie Chacon album placed, seemed like an ILM fave but it came out early in the year so could have been forgotten.

love 0pn but haven't found the motivation to give the last two of three albums a relisten

I got on the Gately train with ‘Loom,’ which is harrowing and astonishing in equal measure. Going to dive into her discography more this year

0pn’s recent output has been bad, that is why xpost

i absolutely detested this. was told off by tt for doing so, but to no avail. curious what about it rubbed me up so much the wrong way. possibly i'm conflating 0pn the presence with 0pn the musician? but idk, i feel that presence has seeped into the music. it could be that i'll completely recant this someday

or maybe not bad but somnolent

It's strange watching this countdown and realising how out-of-touch I've become with (if we're going to give it a label) album-centric music. Like, pre-2016 I DNGAF about the tracks poll - it was albums all the way. Finally paying for Spotify changed that dramatically

I think the kinds of albums that show up on ILM polls has also shifted compared to 10-15 years ago, which I see as a combination of changing voter demographics and streaming making it easier for people to discover and access a broader range of music.

lol I hadn't thought about this but I think Opn is one of those artists I've never given much attention because the name annoys me. I guess we all have our trigger points.

https://i.imgur.com/XXBgD8g.jpeg
34. James Holden - Imagine this is a high dimensional space of all possibilities 287 points - 11 votes
Bandcamp
RFI: Border Community - Nathan Fake, James Holden, The MFA, Petter etc.
After experiments in free jazz and psychedelia, the UK producer reckons with the rave music of his youth. It’s a utopian project that melds dance music’s forms with an organic sensibility.

Oh, I liked this. Didn't vote for it but very much enjoyed it.

lol another long album title

new board description?

Yes not a big fan really but probably my favourite Holden album

I was disappointed by the last couple of oneohtrix point never albums before this one. I was unsure about this one at first, but I kept coming back to it and eventually this one just clicked with me in a way no other album of his did, just absolutely beautiful. I think it's his best album. It's my number 1.

voted for ebtg. finally dove deep into their discography this year and 'fuse' fit right in, not a noticeable drop from temperamental at all

the best opn album this year was the soundtrack from the curse

liked this Holden, yes

i liked holden's last album a lot but this one did nothing for me

https://i.imgur.com/R3QYomI.jpeg
33. Animal Collective - Isn’t It Now? 290 points - 8 votes
animal collective
Bandcamp
On what feels like a companion to Time Skiffs, Animal Collective explore some surprisingly traditional psych-rock modes, but without abandoning their essential trickster spirit.

good 9-song album, but an excellent 7-song album! (end it after "stride rite" and i'd have voted for it)

YES!!!

#33 is respectable, I’m not mad at it

voodoo chili otm

Yes - this is the an album I listened to several times this year and was surprised to find I really enjoyed, despite like a lot of people having fallen off the AC wagon after Merriweather

ha yes this was a bit long but I enjoyed it a lot, nothing really beats "Defeated" though

did you hear last year's album? just as good if not better

xp

it's true, Time Skiffs is excellent as well

Time Skiffs was just OK, the new one was much more my scene.

'Defeat' really is lovely. I keep putting on Time Skiffs and tuning out. I will go back to it

The Holden album cover was done by an ilxor btw

oh that is cool, which ilxor?

good 9-song album, but an excellent 7-song album! (end it after "stride rite" and i'd have voted for it)

― kissinger on my list (voodoo chili), Wednesday, January 31, 2024 10:01 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I like the last 2 tracks! but yeah kind of weird sequencing, "Stride Rite" is such a heartbreaker, one of the few songs that's nearly made me tear up

found him: https://www.instagram.com/jvelezdrawings/

really cool artwork!

https://i.imgur.com/IQUJ8rA.jpeg
32. Meshell Ndegeocello - The Omnichord Real Book 290 points - 9 votes
Meshell Ndegeocello: RFI
Still, The Omnichord Real Book is a jazz album only to the extent that you need it to be. Even as she makes space for jazz artists like pianist Jason Moran and harpist Brandee Younger, Ndegeocello fashions this music in a language of her own. Along with her virtuoso electric bass playing, which grounds the music with a slithery gravity, she leans at times on the digital-primitive synth-rhythms of an Omnichord, the handheld, amoeba-shaped electronic instrument first made by Suzuki in the 1980s.

I love this album: in my top five.

The Holden record didn’t do it for me either, which I found surprising given my love for his past few full-lengths. Like the 0PN record, I found myself really bored whenever I turned it on.

voted for the ndegeocello album in my top ten, a true epic

the best opn album this year was the soundtrack from the curse

Mostly Medeski, I think? But you’re right, it’s so so good

Would you recommend this album for people who are more interested in omnichords than jazz? (NB I like jazz but not nice polite jazz and I worry this might be nice polite jazz)

it's a neo-soul album more than anything else

good album but really loses me with the last two tracks

xp you’re right! i guess i assumed lopatin because of the safdie connection. he also did a couple of interviews about the project

haha unlike the anco album i absolutely love the last two tracks on omnichord

I love this album: in my top five.

― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, January 31, 2024 10:18 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Would've been in mine had I voted. A real pleasure.

Ah, neo-soul is often not my thing. Omnichords are honestly a pretty "nice, polite" instrument anyway. I love them but I find them best when they're used to be spooky or ethereal rather than sweet. Hmm.

just listen to it, it's astonishing

I'm really enjoying this Jaimie Branch album, which I'd never heard of, which I'm just now getting to the end of. Good job, voters!

WE'RE GONNA TAKE OVER THE WORLD

like i think the craft in the ndegeocello record is apparent even if you're not tapped into the genre that i wouldn't even say it predominantly is. it's a lot of things at once, combines a lot of strains that have always been in her music, and btw she is one of the best musicians to ever do it

really loses me with the last two tracks

― ufo, Wednesday, January 31, 2024 11:29 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

don't understand this at all

I think the album's lightness -- its ethereality -- is a strength.

Ha, you have a good point. I don't have that much time/energy to go through all the results so wanted that extra direction, but you're absolutely right that if I really want the answers to my questions I need to just listen.

xxp

I was the no.1 vote for Chacon! Glorious album.

it's mostly just that "hole in the bucket" being based on the children's song is irritating despite being as gorgeous as a song based on that can be, and reprising "virgo" is also irritating

The No.1 album of the year according to the albumoftheyear list aggregate:

https://i.imgur.com/6kgxrav.jpeg
31. Boygenius - The Record 292 points - 11 votes
Bandcamp
boygenius: Baker Bridgers Dacus LLC
Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus devote their debut record to their singular bond. Each amplifies the other’s songwriting, enriches the detail, and heightens the emotion.

there are a few good songs on this but i never ever come back to it as a whole

Surprised this is so low, but even though I like it a lot and voted it in the top 10 I'm not going to complain. It hasn't lacked for attention.

Also, anyone new to Jaimie Branch should check out the other Fly or Die albums too. The live one is a great place to start.

home to julien baker's best work yet and everyone else's slightly less good than standard work, except for the ones they obviously wrote together

Yeah thought it would be higher after the eoy list hype elsewhere but ilm is an island of its own.

I don't mind its position. I'm one of those who thinks, "Whoa, this is sharper and more poignant than what they do separately." But the hype is smothering.

blander and less compelling than any of its members' solo albums in the end

Boom!

Jaimie Branch would have been my no. 3 had i remembered to submit on time. James Holden, no. 6.

Last year the Asake album became a huge favourite as a result of hearing it via the poll. The latsest one didn't gel with me at all, sadly.

really good album, i voted for it. it may be less than the sum of its parts if only because the three of them have released such great work on their own, but every time i hear it i think i should listen to it more.

ndegeocello album is gorgeous

I think Phoebe's songs are fine but Lucy's songs mostly underperform relative to Home Video ("True Blue" aside). The pre-release of the three tracks was perhaps unhelpful in the end because each one was the best single-performer-dominant song from each respective artist on the album.

truth

I should've had the courage to place the EP on my own listen instead of the album, though I need "Satanist."

*my own list

Yeah it did establish expectations that it didn't quite deliver on. Still, I count eight 4-to-5-star songs, which is pretty good!

even if i was more ambivalent towards them, i'd be very happy they were having such success.

I don’t really “get” the hype around Branch, I tire of the post-punk jazz big band thing really easily. Too much of it makes me feel like I’m at a second line for an old crust-punk friend of mine or something— like it’s almost too right up my alley, so I resist it.

https://i.imgur.com/CdaFdCP.jpeg
30. Decisive Pink - Ticket To Fame 302 points - 9 votes - 2 º1 votes
Bandcamp
Kate NV
Kate NV and Angel Deradoorian lock themselves in a Cologne studio with an arsenal of synths and a mutual appreciation for the absurd; tongue-in-cheek krautrock hijinks ensue.

the synth work on this album tho

the synth work on this album tho

^^^^^^^^^^^

As I gave away earlier, this was my number one. Definitely got a bit obsessed with it.

My biggest comparison point would be the Roberto Cacciapaglia/Ann Steel album, if anybody is wondering.

it's wild how well they work together, kind of a whole being greater than sum of the parts situation for me

Enjoyed being reminded of Decisive Pink on the tracks poll, gotta give this one a full listen.

as much as I like her solo work I hope Decisive Pink becomes the main thing, they really do compliment each other so well

agreed, always liked Kate NV but this collab made me love her.

My biggest comparison point would be the Roberto Cacciapaglia/Ann Steel album, if anybody is wondering.

― emil.y

Ha! Hadn't thought about it, but you're absolutely otm

the videos totally have that vibe too

https://i.imgur.com/I6oKDY3.jpeg
29. Susanne Sundfør - blómi 305 points - 9 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
Susanne Sundfør - "Ten Love Songs"
The album revolves around inspiration, edification, and comfort, all befitting of the title—which means “to bloom” in Norwegian—and serving as a marked departure from earlier songs such as the urgent “Accelerate” and lovelorn “Undercover.”

Thought this was fine but I haven't loved anything since Ten Love Songs.

totally forgot about this album

She's lost me since 2015 but I've tried.

heard the preview tracks and didn't bother ngl. 10LS one hell of a millstone

https://i.imgur.com/vx0fghr.jpeg
28. ML Buch - Suntub 305 points - 11 votes
Bandcamp
2023 AOTY So Far
Copenhagen-based composer ML Buch's sun-soaked second album is a curious psychedelic experiment in indie pop with sublime guitar tones,

Love this album

I completely overlooked her despite some friends insistence on listening to her. They were right... this sounds good.

Her previous one was better tbh but good to see she getting some appreciation now

My biggest comparison point would be the Roberto Cacciapaglia/Ann Steel album, if anybody is wondering.

― emil.y, Wednesday, January 31, 2024 11:03 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

for sure, especially "Cosmic Dancer" (which I think is the best track on either album). it also reminds me a lot of Ralf & Florian/Autobahn era Kraftwerk. whatever it is it fits pretty snugly into my wheelhouse, I knew by the 3rd track this was gonna be my favorite of the year.

too low!

Voted for Suntub. Captivating album. Experimental psychedelia but melodic and entirely approachable.

Also Blomi is great on its own terms, especially the stretch from Fare Thee Well > Leikara Ljoo > Alyosha, and I think we have to accept that if she made another Ten Love Songs it'd never live up to expectations

ok checking Suntub out now

Was curious about that Decisive Pink record, but iirc I was disappointed there wasn't more Deradoorian guitar.

yeah kate played guitar too when she was in glintshake, but thats the old world baby

too low

she plays guitar in the Ode to Boy video!

https://i.imgur.com/LMpsgOG.jpeg
27. Paramore - This Is Why 312 points - 9 votes
in which paramore make combat rock: THIS IS WHY (2023) album discussion thread
For a world hell-bent on erasing the memory of the last three years, Paramore approaches hard times with a refreshing sense of self.

Love the title track off this.

i really love the divide between sides on this album, from funk punk about anxiety to art rock about existential terror

Huge fan of the previous two albums, and I liked the singles from this. But found the album as a whole a bit of a slog. Maybe just didn’t spend enough time with it.

re: ml buch, the guy who posts on twitter as "@listenupnerds" posted a meme

no song more perfect than “crave” has ever been written. change my mind

re: ml buch, the guy who posts on twitter as "@listenupnerds" posted a meme

― kissinger on my list (voodoo chili)

those descriptions sound amazing unironically

https://i.imgur.com/aVCMnpd.jpeg
26. Fever Ray - Radical Romantics 317 points - 10 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
join me in anticipating musics by FEVER RAY (aka one half of the knife)
Wittily exploring desire and relationships, the identity-surfing Swedish star sounds revitalised on their first solo album in six years.

Pleasantly surprised to see Susanne make it to the top 30. It seemed like there was barely any hype for that album. Just like Music For People In Trouble, it grew on me a lot. I know there's people (especially on RYM) who want another electronic album, but I kind of love the path she's on. She already made The Brothel and The Silicone Veil if people want more of the gothy electro pop she perfected on Ten Love Songs.

Huge fan of the previous two four albums, and I liked the singles from this. But found the album as a whole a bit of a slog. Maybe just didn’t spend enough time with it.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, January 31, 2024 12:15 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://i.imgur.com/Uh6ApVI.jpeg
25. Nourished by Time - Erotic Probiotic 2 328 points - 9 votes - 2 º1 votes
Bandcamp
rolling r&b 2023
ILM 2023 Listening Club
Filtering the sound of ’80s freestyle through a buoyant, time-warped haze, the debut album from singer/producer Marcus Brown is both captivating and elusive.

this was my number one

now that is too low! amazing record

ML Buch was in my "I should find out what this is" pile, so thanks for making me listen to it.

I was expecting the Ndegeocello to be higher and also think its appeal is potentially universal.

https://i.imgur.com/dqedDed.jpeg
24. billy woods & Kenny Segal - Maps 338 points - 10 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
the thread where ilxors find out who billy woods is
The New York rapper reconnects with the Los Angeles producer for a masterful road-trip album. Humor and dread, weed and food, technique and style—billy woods is in full command of it all.

liked this album a lot but wasn't as crazy about it as some. voted for the armand hammer album instead

this was one of my votes i knew would show. what has billy woods become. what is he. how is this. is he 'backpacker'. is he central to What Rap Is Now. is he both. has he alchemically fused all the strands of rap to a singularity. will he ever stop

and why choose between his albums eh lol

i feel like i have to when he drops multiple projects per year (all some degree of good haha, but i only have so much time)

here's an abridged version what i said about the nourished by time album in my year-end blog post

Erotic Probiotic 2 is a showcase for Brown’s deep reservoirs of wisdom, laid over primitive synths and driving beats that take inspiration from freestyle. The soundscapes are warm and inviting, giving gravitas to Brown’s spiritual pronouncements, which they deliver in a graceful, throaty baritone. In an uncertain year, Erotic Probiotic 2 was a balm, a paean to the power of positive thinking–a radically optimistic work that dares to posit that a cold and unfeeling universe can become joyous and loving, if only you play the right notes. Nourished By Time plays those notes for me.

Nourished by Time my #1, very glad I showed up early to the Dry Cleaning show last January

that write-up makes it very much your version of my fire-toolz haha. shall give it a whirl in a bit!

not at all a diss but when i first heard it, nourished by time struck me as very much like what you hope you'll get from a 1993 indie rnb record you'd find unloved and ignored at the back of the quid bin but has so much weirdo vibe to it that you know its gonna be great

https://i.imgur.com/JI2WoFF.jpeg
23. Bar Italia - Tracey Denim 341 points - 11 votes - 1 º1 vote
Bandcamp
Who the fuck are Bar Italia?
With a crisper sound and direct homages to underground music of generations past, the enigmatic London trio’s Matador debut is moody, moth-eaten record-collector rock that gets by on moody insouciance.

so this one's moody eh?

it’s such a downer, but so catchy, i love it

i uh don’t quite get this band but happy everyone else is happy

Wondering if op that wrote the thread title has finally learned how to use google search

https://i.imgur.com/wBlKmID.jpeg
22. Kelela - Raven 349 points - 15 votes
Bandcamp
Kelela - Cut 4 Me
Raven isn’t a magpie record, and the shifts between sounds are never jarring or overwhelming. Kelela has too much command over her own sound for that. The album isn’t exactly sequenced like a DJ set, but tracks flow into and out of each other, speeding up or slowing down at their conclusions. Kelela’s hushed, fluid vocals are just spectacular. She’s not a showy singer, but she’s got that same ineffable quality as Sade or Aaliyah — those rare voices that radiate blissful, narcotic cool at all times.

bar italia record is really grimy and mucky and great

re: bar italia - philip sherburne had a shocker with that pitchfork review tbh. listened to it more than practically anything else this year, just when i thought i'd finally escaped the pull of shambling indie rock. it wasn't the miserablism of it though that appealed, it was its sense of defiance, bruised but still surviving. also each song seemed like a puzzle of sorts - they've got three different vocalists and you're never entirely sure whether their talking to each other or past each other or what, each one is like tuning into three different interior monolgues at the same dimly lit party. anyhow it somehow grabbed me and never really let go

I know I'm in the minority, but I thought the other bar italia 2023 record was better.

not sold on the whole album but horsey girl rider is p wonderful

so much to hear from this rundown, been great