ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2021

Beyond the very personal things 2021 was to you, it was almost everyone’s first start-to-finish 365-day pandemic year. For some, that meant work from home and blasting every new song the instant it was available. Some of us hunkered down and made the transition away from music and into news or podcasts or, god forbid, silence. Some of us took first steps to begin making our own art, some eked out a creative practice, some of us stopped doing much of anything. We went to the clubs masked and unmasked or didn’t go out except the once. We invited friends to zoom with their children or come by with three bottles of vodka on the patio. We lived and we listened, waiting for the sound of the all-clear. We're still waiting. In the meantime, here’s what we heard.

ILM’s population has been steadily dwindling this past decade, leading to a relatively slim (but numerically auspicious) 77 votes in this year’s top tracks poll. Discussion in our pregame thread suggests a number of reasons in addition to board recidivism: pandemic venue closings providing less opportunity to discover, the death of journalism leading to lack of critical consensus, the streaming shift allowing for more exploration of the old and the comfortable rather than hunting for the new and - of course - general plague-era weltschmerz and ennui.

Nonetheless, I’m willing to devote a great many hours to providing voice for this exercise because the rewards remain rich. Our core community, diminished though it may be, still thrives with genre specialists, performers, writers, composers, music industry professionals and committed dilettantes. We collectively voted for over 800 songs that one of us would argue was as good as anything they’d heard in 2021, which makes for at least a month of ecstatic listening. As far as end-of-year roundups go, I believe ours is still diverse and excellent enough to remain a vital recommendation engine and a portal to a continued world of audio delight and surprise. Likely a few Chunkys as well.

To that end, I feel the need to strongly recommend that you not read the following list of “winners” as some sort of frozen canon, but instead as a slice of ice-cream cake, a tasty and manageable part of a bigger and impossible-to-stomach confection that represents best and worst only within the boundaries of individual personal taste. Even the most sublime rocky road is a poor pistachio for many folks, so you might do well to prepare yourself for the inevitable rocky road ahead with good grace.

Thanks for taking the time to contribute, to read, to listen, to share and criticize, illuminate and boogie, to revel and bitch, moan and gloat. I hope something here brings you the shock of recognition that someone else hears what you hear and the knowledge that you’re very much not alone.

This is the Top 177 Tracks of 2020 Spotify Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7ph4fIGFYYwb9WRJNpLYFw

This is the Top 77 Tracks of 2020 Tidal Playlist:
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/6598cb38-9849-40ce-affb-cbb8e0985e55

This is the Top 77 Tracks of 2020 YouTube Music Playlist:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMDNL_GkSTFY9hnaVvyiWGy75UVzv19XI

This is the Top 77 Tracks of 2020 Apple Music Playlist:
https://music.apple.com/dk/playlist/ilm-top-77-tracks-of-2021/pl.u-BNA6rvRTKoKgB?l=da

I am acutely aware of the ethics of artist economics with regard to streaming music and the knuckleheaded frustration of Continuing with Spotify? in particular. Ease of use, invested time and inertia mean we're routing playlisting through Doctor Ek's Death Machine as a preferred service for the current year at least. If anyone wants to build a matching Amazon Music / Utopian Celestial Jukebox Without Corporate Ownership playlist, it would absolutely be more than welcome. Feel free to post those here. No motherfucking NFTs please.

In case you’d like to listen to the talent pool, here’s the Nearly Complete Nominee Playlist, which includes 1100+ nominated songs:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6pdEOuQY93Cfg75I4NiaA8

Here’s the complete list of nominated tracks:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k30KkPuBPxuJCW-RNmabHw0mcwr9IS6GSHMFZ6VEFD4

We have been discussing those nominations here:
Hype and Slander: What are you voting for in ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks and Albums Poll?

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

With each winning song I will be posting a link to the song’s video on YouTube and, wherever possible, appropriate ILX artist/song/album/genre threads for further reading. As a courtesy to folks without a high-speed internet connection, we ask that everyone reading the thread please refrain from posting embedded YouTubes so that this can load at a manageable speed. YouTubes can (and should!) still be posted as hyperlinks. If you're unsure how that works, click the "Formatting Help" button below the Submit Post button and it will explain how to use hyperlinks on ILX.

As is tradition, we’re encouraging speculation on our just-missed-the-countdown #78 (three votes, 120 points) and you can win deeply meaningful bragging rights if you can name the artist and track before we get to the end.

While you’re waiting, here’s the prior 15 years of threads:

***Put Ya Hands Up for the 2006 ILX TRACKS POLL RESULTS***
**********Just the trax, ma'am: THE ILX 2007 POLL RESULTS, part 1**********
//////////////shawty got poll poll poll poll poll poll poll (part I: 2008 TRAX)\\\\\\\
Yo P&J, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but ILX had the greatest 2009 poll of all time! All time! (2009 ILX Trax Poll Results: TOP TEN TODAY)
ILM'S TOP 77 TRACKS of 2010
ILM'S TOP 77 TRACKS of 2011 (Los resultados!)
ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2012
ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2013
ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014
ILM's TOP 77 TRACKS of 2015
ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2016
ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2017
ILM’s Top 77 Tracks of 2018
ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2019
ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2020

That’s enough prelude. 77 beloved tracks await. We’ll get started around 9am EST on Monday, January 31st.

bookmarked and thank you poll runners!

I'm lactose intolerant so looking forward to grimacing at every result

We’ll get started around 9am EST on Monday, January 31st.

If you only post in the mornings, we can switch channels to the film poll at noon

gonna be various posting times this week, somewhat dependent on me getting back and forth to physical therapy for my shoulder and taking business meetings.

good morning!

Aw forks, that's a great intro. The fact that this thread is up already is going be terrible for my impatience, though.

Excited!

If anyone wants to build a matching YouTube / Apple Music / Amazon Music / Utopian Celestial Jukebox Without Corporate Ownership playlist, it would absolutely be more than welcome. Feel free to post those here.

I’d be happy to build a running YouTube Music version of the Top 77 playlist, if anyone is actually interested & would use it

(I guess this would mean updating it at the end of each day’s rollout, so there’d be a delay)

Oh I am so hyped. Lovely intro, forks

Great intro forks. I didn’t vote this year, as I spent remarkably little of 2021 listening to records from 2021. Excited to see the roll out though, the ilm list is usually my favourite to discover music I’ll come to love.

That is a great intro!

indeed.

i just rediscovered "Better" by Joy Orbison thru the playlist on Spot, and i regret not voting for it so that's my guess for #78.

I'll happily build an Apple Music playlist, though the time zone difference might cause some delays.

The SongShift app will autotransfer a Spotify playlist to an Apple Music playlist fwiw

Great intro

let's rock

Who is Ciara?
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, May 2, 2007 10:52 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

same question here
― peepee, Wednesday, May 2, 2007 11:02 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

never diss me for not knowing who david byrne is again, ilm
― lex pretend, Wednesday, May 2, 2007 11:03 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBlg2J46cHc

oooh, naughty step for raymond

it's a bad list but this i put down to ilm's increasingly shit taste and willingness to give eg camera obscura the time of day as opposed to CASTING THEM OUT
― lex pretend, Friday, May 4, 2007 1:34 PM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is taking too long.
― billstevejim, Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:30 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

results = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
― peepee, Saturday, May 12, 2007 2:41 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't really know what else to compare the thing to except some malodorous cross between "Flat Beat" and "Connected" except with a guy doing some sort of keening-mewling atonal crap on top.
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, May 12, 2007 5:37 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

A beautiful day has dawned! What might accompany the sunshine in through the window?

Great introduction! Really looking forward to this, it’s the first time I have submitted a tracks poll after years of lurking. Predicting a Backyardigans / MC Boing 1/2 finish.

let’s get to rankin

Great intro forks!

Okay, we’ll be revealing 16 tracks a day on Monday through Thursday with the final 13 dropping on Friday. I am heading back and forth to any number of appointments this week so there may be some daily lag between tracks but I hope there should be plenty to talk about in-between. Today should be pretty consistent though!

Before we get started, I would like to encourage anyone who hasn’t already placed their ballot for this year’s Top 77 TV Poll to do so now, as voting will be closed as of tonight. We’ve got 36 votes so far with a break-even goal of 50. Moka and I will be running the winners sometime after the album poll next week.

Last year’s poll was a real good time and this one promises to provide an equally comprehensive watching guide for your 2022. All you need to do to vote is submit a ballot with your favorite things you watched last year (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; why not get to it?

ILX's Best Television of 2021 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 31, 2022

That’s enough of all that! Let’s get started!

With seven nominated tracks, Billie Eilish was the most nominated artist of the poll*. Though it begins with two minutes of halting, uke-accompanied crooning, “Happier Than Ever” is arguably the most bombastic track from her album of the same name, as it slowly evolves into its cataclysmic guitar fuzz Green-Day-on-Broadway apex. Will this be the last we hear of Eilish on the poll? It’s probably never wise to count her out.

https://i.imgur.com/Y9HPwmw.jpg
77: Billie Eilish - “Happier Than Ever”
120 points / 5 votes
Video

billie eilish

(* - Unless you are combining Cleo Sol and SAULT’s tracks, in which case she leads.)

Boom.

I'm one of the weirdos who prefers Eilish's second album; maybe I get her now.

Good tune. When Billie said "I don't talk shit about you on the internet"....none of us here felt that.

Albarn-approved!

lol

her second album was a gigantic improvement and this was a highlight

good song. i don’t think it makes sense without the intro, which is always removed on the radio

Second album is overall a much better album and Phineas in particular sounds like he has learned a bunch of new tricks and has matured into a rather interesting producer, that said I think the singles from the debut where stronger.

Finneas*

I'm one of the weirdos who prefers Eilish's second album; maybe I get her now.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

I really liked her debut, but I would agree that the second album is stronger overall.

Didn't consider voting for any of her individual tracks even though all the ones nominated are great. The album was high on my list.

This is the only song that gave her a real hit this year isn't it? Feels like all the per-release singles didn't stick around for long at all apart from Therefore I Am from the previous year.

“Your Power” actually charted better than “Happier than Ever”.

I still don’t understand why she didn’t release “Oxytocin” as a single, that was the one song on the album that sounds like an instant hit.

I like this, tho my favorite on the album wasn't even one of the seven nominated. (The improbably successful "Billie Bossa Nova.")

American indie rock band Ohtis’ debut album Curve of the Earth dropped just prior to COVID, following a buzzy 2008 diy release and a decade-long rehab period by lead singer Sam Swinson. “Schatze” is their first new music since 2019 and it’s a clangy, spaced out, semiautobio country-rock ballad that details the living habits of the North American Asshole. The male of the species is notable for its selfish behavior, brusque dismissal of social niceties, and month-long COD binges. Guitarist and vocalist Stef Chura guests with the band, providing a strong vocal counterpoint and a much-needed outside perspective on the Peter Pan shambles at the song’s center. For the record, ‘Schatze’ isn’t German for anything, it’s just the name of a hatefully dickish tomcat owned by a friend of Swinson’s.

https://i.imgur.com/buh2oCK.jpg
76: Ohtis feat. Stef Chura - “Schatze”
122 points / 3 votes / 1 #1 vote
Video

xp "happier than ever" peaked lower than "your power" on the us charts but charted much better overall as the latter fell off the chart after only 6 weeks. "happier than ever" was indeed the only real 'hit single' from the album other than "therefore i am"

Moka you're killing it again this year, that's a really lovely red!

(I'll listen to these two in a sec)

excited to follow along, let's do this

was Cleo Sol or Sault at 78? Prediction, much less Sault this year

motion to remove any and all text alert sounds from songs

for anyone who's using tidal, I've set up a synced playlist here: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/6598cb38-9849-40ce-affb-cbb8e0985e55

the anti-Busy-Signal vote assembles xp

vc, the sound effects are only in "Schatze"s video and not in the song proper

sweet images

it's happenningggggggg

Afrique Victime had best hold on to win Tom Ewing's Twitter poll ffs

― imago, Sunday, 6 February 2022 13:17 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

It did!

\m/

Thanks so much to the pollrunners for this! Super pleased that Anz made it all the way to #2; I love the image of just meeting someone and then being ready to "put" them in your handbag or compact, to prepare for "marriage and stuff". An endearingly hyperbolic banger.

I kind of assumed the similarity to Call Me Maybe is intentional, which is a big move but pays off

I'm not sure where the full results were posted but in the playlist it looks like "Red Dress" placed decently well.

I didn't vote this year but now I wish I had made this my #1.

I also wish you had made it your #1

for a few days "Red Dress" was at #77 but then 50 other people voted

I wasn't able to follow along last week but belatedly enjoying the thread. 77-21, because of the lower bar to entry with fewer voters, are agreeably varied and good throughout. Less for me to enjoy in the top 20 but very pleased ot see Anz place so high.

Great work from the pollrunners as always.

Still very much catching up with this and will be for a while. Just popping in to say thank you to the pollrunners and also that this poll has convinced me Billie Eilish is indeed a class act

xps Hopefully this will raise awareness enough that if she releases something that good again, it will place.

Still not convinced by Eilish. Her best song here was still not as good at moody industrial darkpop as the Halsey song imo

That’s because it wasn’t moody industrial dark pop, it was sleazy electro funk

fair

the last 30 seconds were kiiiinda industrial idk

Like djp, I am also surprised almost half my picks turned up in the poll seeing as I barely post here anymore.

The Reds, The Pinks and The Purples - Dont ever pray in the church on my street
Dry Cleaning - Scratchcard Lanyard
Jane Weaver - The Revelation of Super Visions
Borai & Denham Audio - Make Me
Tinashe - Bouncin
Ted Crick - Sometimes I Forget
Tonstartssbandht - What has happened
Anz - You Could Be
Ohtis ft. Stef Chura - Schatze
Dawn Richard - Bussifame
L'Rain - Two Face
Japanese Breakfast - Posing in Bondage
Suep - Domesicated Dream
Insides - Undressing
Low - The price you pay (it must be wearing off)
Theo Parrish - Lost Angel
Rhododendron - Last Of The Painted Hills
Backxwash - I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES
Real Estate - Half A Human
Parquet Courts - Walking at a Downtown Pace
Mega Bog - Flower
Snail Mail - Valentine
Springtime - Will to power
TV Priest - Decoration
Big Thief - Little things

Finally finished the Apple Music playlist: https://music.apple.com/dk/playlist/ilm-top-77-tracks-of-2021/pl.u-BNA6rvRTKoKgB?l=da

I'll happily make one for albums as well, though it'll be in several weeks time when I'm back from covering the Berlin Film Festival :)

i got some great new songs out of this rollout, thanks to all ye tastemakers

though i will say that after listening to the top 3 i felt like Lisa Simpson after the fancy family’s anagram game tbh

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/y-7xPlJ2Ac3HB3d1RFYWIAK_SPw=/1400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13108279/haveaball.jpg

"Well Rested" is amazing

I listened through everything and marked stuff when applicable.

Stand-outs that were new to me:
Altin Gun "Ordunun Dereleri"
Anz “You Could Be”
CHVRCHES & Robert Smith “How Not To Drown”
UNIIQU3 "Microdosing"
Laura Groves “Infinite Wisdom”
Taylor Swift “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)”
Aldous Harding "Old Peel"
Kero Kero Bonito “Well Rested”
Jazmine Sullivan "Pick up your Feelings"
Griff "Black Hole"
The Armed "An Iteration"

Better than I expected but where's the hook:
Billie Eilish “Oxytocin”

Bad music that sucks:
Michael Stipe "Sunday Morning"
Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul “HAHA”
Chi Ching Ching "Vaccine"
Lil Mariko ft. Full Tac "Don't Touch"
James Blake "Say What You Will"
The War on Drugs “I Don’t Live Here Anymore”
Baby Queen “Raw Thoughts”
Self Esteem "I Do This All The Time"
Bethan Lloyd "Boss of Big Dreams"
Lingua Ignota "Pennsylvania Furnace"
Fred Again The Blessed Madonna "Marea (We've Lost Dancing)"

Indifferent/don't care:
Olivia Rodrigo “Deja Vu”
Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen “Like I Used To”
Snail Mail “Valentine”
Beabadoobee “Last Day on Earth”
Caroline Polachek “Bunny is a Rider”
Low "White Horses"

Oh rats, this would have been better in the "Hotpot of Stats" thread. My b.

so um this is a song now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXX05S6tiRk

:/

I take it back, the Bitcoin thief rapper is actually better

Okay, so they are not 3 for 3

Post-punk has its own LMFAO now.

i dont wanna be captain “a 3 year old could paint that” but what i get from this is in 1986 i should have laid down my 10-yo terrible moon spoon songwriting attempts w my bontempi organ keyboard … i coulda been a contender!

Eww, bad song but I quite like some of the guitar sounds on that, got a bit of a grateful dead 'dark star' thing going on

once again i think that's great. admittedly i like dumb things but i don't even really think it's dumb, it's like an internet-damaged brain issuing out its final rudimentary messages

"Chin Up High" is objectively a better song than this

We discussed this song on the Wet Leg thread back in November (when it came out). It has not improve with time

my trax ballot, unweighted

beabadoobee - Last Day On Earth
born at midnite - pop charts
Brent Faiyaz - Show U Off
charlotte cardin - daddy
Chlöe - Have Mercy
d'eon - rhododendron, pt. I
Doja Cat ft. SZA - Kiss Me More
kitten - american football
lindsey buckingham - scream
lsdxoxo - the devil
Olivia Rodrigo - Good 4 U
Pa Salieu ft. slowthai - Glidin'
pale waves - change
PinkPantheress - passion
rostam - 4runner
rxk nephew - american tterorist
Spice ft. Shaggy & Sean Paul - Go Down Deh
squirrel city - widow
summer walker ft. jt from city girls - ex for a reason
Tonstartssbandht - What has happened
UNIIQU3 - Microdosing
wu-lu - broken homes
yu su - xiu
yves tumor - jackie
Tyla ft. Kooldrink - Getting Late

You want this thread, my dude: 2021 Tracks Poll: Hotpot of Stats, Ballots and Flattering Gabardines

I strongly feel that not enough people voted for "9 Days" by DJ Black Low ft. DJ Saxo Boy

i voted for “jaiva low” instead. we shoulda communicated better!!

oh i don't know that one!

ah same album, okeee... well it's all corking ofc.

checked out that blue roses/laura groves album someone mentioned upthread and whew am i glad i did

Laura Groves has made a load of great tracks over the years (Dream Story, Pale Shadow, Inky Sea, Freedom Of The Floor w/ Nautic), and I swear that one of these days she'll make an amazing album

I also had an afternoon with Laura Groves thanks to this thread. The 'A Private Road' EP is lovely.

Magdalena Bay - Chaeri

^ not a knock, but theres something v. hot chip about this one, especially that goofy descending bass thing

i agree entirely and that's part of the appeal for me

Can't think of a better song about scrolling than that "Oh No"!

Belated thanks to all voters and poll runners, and especial applause to forks for the writeups!

thanks! wish i wasn't so swamped and elden ringed; it's time to do tv!

also big thanks to Seemiyah for a public listening playlist!

I totally came around on the Ohtis song.

🥳

welcome very much sir

Haha, I remember hating it on the occasional times we had BBC Radio 6 on in the backend… but after watching the video here it did start to grow on me too.