ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2017

starts in a few hours!

Smooth beginning, you guys.

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/FileLibrary/ProductResources/Images/204417-L-LO.jpg

ILM’s Top 77 Albums of 2017 - Spotify Playlist

woo!

ohshitohshitohshitohshit

hello is this thing switched on?

So it begins. Soon.

hehe yay

https://i.imgur.com/6xdlGrc.jpg

77 AIMEE MANN "Mental Illness" (186 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)
spoitfy

Didn't even know she had a new one out.

Great little bruiser of a record.

think I quite liked what I heard

Aaw, this is lovely. It just missed my ballot so it's great to see it here! Has lots of pretty Elliott Smith inflections and is her strongest for a while imo

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

76 L'RAIN "L'rain" (198 points, 7 votes)
spotify

Aaaah TOO LOW

My #2. An absolutely incredible record

L'Rain didn't quite make my ballot but it's excellent, glad to see it show up

whoop whoop. This'll be one that really breaks through this year instead of 2017.

i really look forward to hearing what she does in the future since this is such a good debut, first two tracks and Which Fork/I'll Be are the highlights

Mental Illness sounds especially beautiful on this chilly January morning.

https://i.imgur.com/0MTVioT.jpg

75 ELDER "Reflections of a Floating World" (200 points, 6 votes)
spotify

hey one of my votes already appeared! <3 the l'rain album

I think the whole L'Rain album follows a beautiful dream logic. It's obviously a very carefully thought-through song-cycle (maybe sound-cycle?) - progge as fuck but also spry and lean. Emotionally intense and deeply sad, yet also blithely playful. It's the best debut I've heard in ages. Not just for the psychedelic R&B fans out there. It's for all of you.

Not for everyone, obviously, but the Elder album is superlative contemporary prog-metal.

It seemed decent enough to me but I've not heard it in full yet! Maybe that'll have to be addressed

enjoying the cover. might check it out

That L'Rain album would have made my Top 10 had I heard it in time, gorgeous stuff.

I nearly lost my shit at the birthday voicemail.

seriously.

Wow, it took tracks forever to get to the 200 point barrier, and we get there at #75 in this one.

that is strange. i'd have thought it'd be the other way round

That makes sense, given a similar number of ballots aimed at (what I assume must be) fewer entries than the tracks poll?

I wasn't bowled over by Elder's previous album but loved this one.

There were more albums than tracks nominated iirc

Think it's a combination of more albums ballots and more consensus - there was SO MUCH vote splitting in the tracks poll

108 album ballots vs. 105 tracks ballots. That's pretty even. Maybe just more albums consensus for 2017?

more consensus is natural given basically no vote splitting per artist, I would think

the albums poll has always had more consensus than the tracks poll, at least while i've been here

much less vote-splitting is the obvious reason but also just less range - there are more good tracks released than good albums

True, true. I just got out of bed. Brain not working yet.

https://i.imgur.com/8QDYjSM.jpg

74 PLAYBOI CARTI "Playboi Carti" (201 points, 7 votes)
spotify

very low for an excellent record

I try not to be a dinosaur and keep up on contemporary rap but try as I might this is one of those records that just makes me feel old

Amazed that there were more LP than tracks ballots, I never feel I've heard enough LPs by the end of a year to justify voting.

I really like the track that got in the 77. Just silly enough to make me love it.

Magnolia is a fucking dope tune.

yeah this is surprisingly low. Pi'erre and Carti are great together & wokeuplikethis* especially is fantastic

Wow, it took tracks forever to get to the 200 point barrier, and we get there at #75 in this one.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, January 29, 2018

that is strange. i'd have thought it'd be the other way round

― Badgers (dog latin), Monday, January 29, 2018

108 album ballots vs. 105 tracks ballots. That's pretty even. Maybe just more albums consensus for 2017?

― Johnny Fever, Monday, January 29, 2018

For me, I think the killer point is that it looks as if you need 6+ voters to make the 77, so bang goes my slim hopes of squeezing in a couple of records that I know have a dedicated, but tiny, fanbase here.

RIP Drab Majesty :(

they'd have stood a better chance had DJP gotten a ballot in, I'd imagine.

Anyway. Count me as another who came to the L'Rain record after the voting deadline. Not sure I'd have voted for it but it's in my Top 50 for 2017 easy.

paolo, we are closest neighbours. great ballot, if i do say so myself.

Weirdly feels like Stormzy's time in the sun is already passing (or at least that's the impression I get) while J Hus is at peak hype. Wiley's work is impressive for a vet

xp thanks! I liked yours too

Stormzy's headlining a day at Wireless that sold out in record time, I'd say he's fine. Grime in general is old-hat compared to what J Hus and friends are doing but everyone knows that anyway.

I think I don't listen voraciously to enough new albums to be a viable music-poll voter. things I've been into this year include Wiley, GAS, Migos, Kehlani, did TQD even make it?, Kendrick...maybe the Vince Staples but I'm not half as into it as Summertime '06 at the moment, JLin. I need to hear the J Hus album but I know that would be my bag, and I was unaware of Wednesday Campanella but I'm keen to listen to that, suspect i'll be all over it.

Also Zaytoven's Trapping Made It Happen but I don't even know if that's an "album". Probably other things I can't remember at work, dancewise especially. I tend to shove the things I like into big random playlists with stuff from earlier years so I don't think much about albums as albums nowadays, and most of what I'm into is about sound and texture as much as artistic definition maybe.

anyway it's handy when these lists come up with even a few suggestions that I can be late to in 2018, it's just a bit of fun.

what i'm getting from the few times i've delved deeper is that most of J Hus's cohorts sound very very similar to J Hus, even down to the tonality of their voices. could be wrong as i've only scraped the surface. Also I'm getting very confused about the term 'Afrobeats' now.

J hus was robbed

Grime in general is old-hat compared to what J Hus and friends are doing but everyone knows that anyway.

Agreed. The old guard in grime (eg Wiley, Skepta, JME, Ghetts, P Money etc) are still good at what they do but there's very few new MCs and producers coming through to get excited about. It's going to be interesting to see if anyone else from the afro-bashment/afro-swing scene (or indeed from the drill scene) can do a J Hus this year

never heard of uk drill. need to investigate

Ghetts' 'Know My Ting' was excellent from last year

Can anyone do me a quick breakdown of the different sub-genres of the UK grime/afrobeats/bashment/swing/drill scene? If I didn't know better, I'd have lumped J Hus in with the grime scene, or a continuation of the grime scene at least, but it seems they're counted as quite separate

Grime - Wiley, Stormzy, JME, Skepta etc. You know what this sounds like
Afrobeats - catch-all term for modern pop music from Africa at this stage but especially Ghana/Nigeria
UK drill - mostly what used to be called Road Rap - Giggs, Krept & Konan etc
Afrobashment - the newer stuff that takes in elements of all three, much younger artists and listeners involved on the whole - J Hus is the standard bearer but also Mostack/Kojo Funds/AbraCadabra etc. Some of this stuff has gone mainstream very quickly (eg Not3s 'Addison Lee', Yungen & Yxng Bane 'Bestie') to the extent that J Hus could be said to have genuinely changed the sound of British pop already

Okay, makes more sense. I've heard J Hus be described as 'Afrobeats' and broke into a sweat. Afrobashment makes more sense, but yes I've heard a bit of these guys (Mostack etc) and it's definitely a THING isn't it? Looking at Spotify playlists it looks like there's a lot of crossover with afrobeats in Nigeria and dancehall in Jamaica, with collabs with Burna Boy, Alkaline etc

Yeah I mean some of those guys you mention play to like 100,000 people in Lagos and given that most of the UK artists are of African heritage they're obviously looking to get some of that exposure. Which is why I think the first international British rap superstar is likely to come from that scene rather than grime or UK rap. Someone like Hus makes a lot more sense in a market that's already used to Wizkid popping up all over the place whereas the language, slang etc of grime doesn't really translate.

yeah it's exciting and maybe one of the first examples of a true pan-national genre emerging, or at least a 360 axis between US trap/UK grime/Nigerian Afrobeats/JA Dancehall all collaborating and putting their sounds into a melting pot. I'm not super taken with the UK afrobashment sound yet. I like J Hus's album but the rest is a bit samey from what I've heard. I will keep listening.

maybe one of the first examples of a true pan-national genre emerging

I agree it's exciting but this is an insane statement to make.

well, a new one that's forged across countries as opposed to started in one place and then adopted by others. maybe just talking out my bum

the thing about all this stuff breaking now is I was going to club nights 5+ years ago that had all these elements in the mix: Afrobeats, dancehall, UKG etc and the basis of the sound was there

it's gotta start somewhere and clubs is usually where it starts.

this is a very good list and i am thrilled by the top 10. sad i didn't vote.

btw, I'd nominate Moka as a poll partner, but she may be way too busy.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, February 2, 2018 3:13 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Would endorse.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, 2 February 2018 07:56 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thirded

I never knew Moka was a she!

Thanks, poll runners! I'll do my best to vote next year.

Saturday night is when voting closes for The 2017 ILX Metal n' Heavy Rock Poll VOTING + CAMPAIGNING thread! Ballots due Saturday, Feb. 3rd!

please vote!

Hello there! I would love to help you out whatever you need as a poll partner. My line of work is sometimes very busy but I have several months I’m practically on vacation.

I never knew Moka was a she!

― ArchCarrier

Yes! Feisty, spanish, girl iirc lol

you'd basically need to spend the 3rd or 4th week of the year preparing posts, bbcode, and images for the 77 albums, and then post them over the course of the 4th or 5th week of the year

I can work with that. I’m in.

In case you call on some thread and I’m not around to read it:

motelmoka (at) gmail.com

i knew feisty and spanish; the onion has so many layers

lol

Yay Moka! She'll be great at this.

Love you emily

Ooh wow, looking forward to next year already!

why wait? let's do it now.

It's probably the only way the Tracey Thorn album would win.

octo octa album is incredible; she really has a touch for making quite maximal tracks smooth as ice

It's probably the only way the Tracey Thorn album would win.

NV:

I think I don't listen voraciously to enough new albums to be a viable music-poll voter.

This is p much exactly how I feel, but I talked myself into submitting a 13-album ballot shortly before the deadline, and am glad I did.

I think it's pretty crucial that partial and unranked ballots are allowed. I decided I was comfortable with submitting a ballot that in effect says "here are a few albums from 2017 I enjoyed"; a ranked ballot would feel uncomfortably like stating "this is the actual very best album of 2017".

(nb that is just how it would feel to me, I don't look at the ranked ballots of others as necessarily making grandiose claims or anything)

Yeah I'm the same really. I tend to parasitically use the yearly polls to get recommendations of music to check out. I listened to the tracks Spotify playlist and there was quite a bit of stuff I wasn't aware of that I liked (e.g. I didn't even know Charlotte Gainsbourg was a musician) and downloaded some albums that looked intrsting from the albums poll.

a friend of mine recently said he never heard anything from Stormzy that came close to the Shut Up freestyle, I was about to tell him he was wrong but then I couldn't really come up with as great a song from his catalogue

wonder if he'll ever top it

bummed i didn't vote for BALSAMS by Chuck Johnson.

what's the gif (by gr80?) that every was applauding?

the image for the reveal of #1 and #2. If it's not working, right click the image and open it in a new tab (that's how i saw it)

bummed i didn't vote for BALSAMS by Chuck Johnson.

― omar little, Sunday, February 4, 2018 7:56 PM (yesterday)

my number one!

what's the gif (by gr80?) that every was applauding?

― flopson, Sunday, February 4, 2018 8:34 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

click this

xp my number 6!

works like a balm...

i probably read three whole books just to that album alone in 2017

fantastic stuff, I had no idea. glad you singled it out just now, right up my street.

xps- woahhh