ILM's Top 100 Albums of the 2010s

Let's do this! Thanks again to ufo for helping me set up this poll.

Here's the Spotify playlist I'll be updating. If someone wants to share one for another service (tidal, youtube, apple music, etc..) please do so.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6242kDTBIbwWzzbIENutuc

Here's the tracks thread:
ILM's Top 100 Tracks of the 2010s

https://i.imgur.com/QAZNgtv.jpg
100. Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place (2011)
[343 points / 6 votes]
Previous Placement: 13 in 2011

starting with the sort of featureless arty piffle that's going to stand in for the avant-garde in this rollout, I see

best behaviour for the tracks poll, but best behaviour is OVER

Crap, I forgot to submit a ballot

A little Julianna goes a long way. I like "Bob in your gait" from this album

leggo

https://i.imgur.com/t4PKVcx.jpg
99. Owen Pallett - In Conflict (2014)
[358 points / 7 votes]
Previous Placement: 4 in 2014

lol OK this is great, I feel bad already

The Barwick is pretty music! I didn't vote for it, but I've never been mad at the new age revival she was/is a part of

OP has gotten better with each successive album, is my controversial stance

Lol imago. There’s several albums on the countdown that I’m sure you love don’t worry.

Voted for Nepenthe but everything Barwick has done has been at least a B or B+. For the new parents out there, her stuff works wonders at getting infants to bed.

I mostly lost track of her after Nepenthe, should check those later albums out

Xpost: Ok, I’m gonna take that advice and use the Barwick today for her nap.

Her latest album (2020's Healing is a Miracle) is her most dynamic and varied -- has collaborations with Mary Lattimore, Nosaj Thing, and Jonsi

I lost my ballot but pretty sure I voted for a different Owen Pallett album. Glad this is here.

Tidal playlist: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/3bedfb88-2397-40b9-a186-6141d2381087

Thanks silverfish!

Lattimore AND Jonsi! All-action stuff

https://i.imgur.com/kppOaFV.jpg
98. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact (2011)
[361 points / 6 votes]
Previous Placement: 6 in 2011

surprised this is this low

Her latest album (2020's Healing is a Miracle) is her most dynamic and varied -- has collaborations with Mary Lattimore, Nosaj Thing, and Jonsi

This Gang Gang Dance album is one I rediscovered while preparing my ballot, just so good, have been listening to it a lot in the last couple of weeks

Great start w/ JB. I'll have to catch up w/ her recent work.

looking at my ballot, it looks like I only put Gang Gang Dance in the unweighted portion of my ballot, I feel like it would probably be top 10 if I did my ballot today.

voted for this one, glad it's here!

i didn't realize it placed so highly in its year-end poll

https://i.imgur.com/gDXIje4.jpg
97. CFCF - Liquid Colours (2019)
[362 points / 6 votes / 1 Nº1 vote]
Previous Placement: 26 in 2019

https://i.imgur.com/Kw10EfU.jpg
96. Caroline Polachek - Pang (2019)
[363 points / 5 votes]
Previous Placement: 15 in 2019

Great start. In Conflict and Eye Contact are career highlights from Owen and Gang Gang Dance. Both slipped from my ballot last minute.

Liquid Colours is an album that wasn't on my radar until in it placed on our 2019 poll. It's really gorgeous stuff.

It's everything time

CFCF yay

Caroline Polachek is one of the many artists I've discovered since stumbling across this board. Really great.

Pang is another one I cut from my list last minute. It really should have been on there, but I was rationalising my crazy decisions any way I could. I had Door and I Belong In Your Arms on my tracks list so figured those were my Polachek votes covered. Brilliant album.

I always thought Gang Gang Dance's 'It's everything time' aesthetic was better in theory than in practice, but a while back I heard Saint Dymphna again, and it was powerfully retro-futuristic. The sound of a promised future that never came, while music mostly became more minimalistic.

Except, in 2013, it went maximalist again, if you were looking in the right places. Let's see if these results reflect this...

I had assumed, based on the name, that Gang Gang Dance sounded something like Art Brut. Listening now I see I was correct.

O_o

Man, what Art Brut album have you heard?

lol wp keyes

https://i.imgur.com/4cRnrTH.jpg
95. Saint Etienne - Words and Music by Saint Etienne (2012)
[363 points / 6 votes]
Previous Placement: 27 in 2012

Ffs how did I forget the CFCF? would've had that top 20

Here they are!

https://i.imgur.com/H7qjNoe.jpg
94. Spoon - They Want My Soul (2014)
[366 points / 6 votes]
Previous Placement: 37 in 2014

was just thinking last night that I needed to play Liquid Colours soon

Huh, a Spoon album I didn't even remember existing.

Except, in 2013, it went maximalist again, if you were looking in the right places. Let's see if these results reflect this...

― imago, 22. august 2022 17:09 (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I checked my old ballots, and in 2014 I put Skrillex on there, so apparently I knew where to look... :/

The only essential Spoon albums since Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Transference is my fave, voted for it here (don't expect it to show up?)

JB, OP, GGD all either lowish on my ballot or just outside the cut, they're good albums!

Super surprised by the lack of St. Vincent. Strange Mercy is a masterpiece.

Goes to show I should have voted. But it seemed too much work lol

I remember someone on this board saying Sky Ferreira backing band sounds like The Jesus and Mary Chain, that's about right.

Xp I should have listened to Moka. Farrah Abraham is really not a good starting point...

Really enjoying Ten Love Songs, I can see why it got so much love. I'll definitely be revisiting this one.

stop reminding me about how I had 2 copies of that Sky album on green vinyl that I got rid of BEFORE it became worth $300-$400 a pop...

yeah Ten Love Songs was really good & had the sort of stunning & wildly unexpected sections I'd expect from a #1

Kaputt was decent but I find it hard to take seriously

It's excellent: imagine an older, wider Britney crossed with Curve.

Older than yesterday
Now it's nothing but my way
My loneliness ain't killing me no more

Wider than yesterday
Now it's nothing but my way
Your bony curve ain't killing me no more

As I said before, the secret best part of Kaputt is The Laziest River.

Haha, I voted Kaputt number one and have only heard "The Laziest River" once. I do remember really, really liking it. Kaputt is like a lost peak New Order record or that is how it registered in my head.

Thanks ufo and Moka! I didn't think Ten Love Songs would win, I would have put my money on Kaputt or King.

stop reminding me about how I had 2 copies of that Sky album on green vinyl that I got rid of BEFORE it became worth $300-$400 a pop...

― Evan, Friday, August 26, 2022 4:24 PM

I got around to buying a (black) vinyl copy pretty late, like 2018, and even now that version goes for crazy money.

Nice work ufo and Moka! Thanks again for your not inconsiderable toil.

So I had as many selections placing between 102 and 113 as I had in the top 100. I could have jiggled the 90-somethings around by merely opting for a weighted ballot, even. That'll learn me!

Pleasantly surprised to see Ten Love Songs take the top slot. Didn't make my ballot but it feels very much like an ILM album, and "Delirious" is all-time for me. I voted for the other four albums in the top five anyhow, so no disappointment here. Much thanks to ufo and Moka for this excellent poll!

Listening to the Sky Ferreira now and from what I’ve heard so far this sounds nothing like “everything is embarrassing”.

On track 8 atm. What a fucking weird album lol. Omanko came out of nowhere… So far I can get the Garbage comparisons from track 1 and 4. Did Shirley wrote those? The 4th even sounded like Shirley’s voice doing a guest spot on the verses.

The rest is actually giving me more EMA vibes, than Garbage.

manson has co-writes on a few non-album ferreira tracks, nothing that's on the album

i think dev hynes was pretty key to the sound of "everything is embarrassing", it's very much in line with his other productions for solange, crj etc. but he's not on the album at all which goes for a very different sound

Leafing through Ariel Rechtshaid's production credits, cannot for the life of me work out if I like him or hate him lol

As an early adopter of Sky Ferreira's whole thing (I started our thread), and as someone sympathetic to the work of Dev Hynes, I never warmed to Everything Is Embarrassing like everyone else seemed to. I love the hell out of the album, though. She's who I came back and edited my albums ballot for because I'd left it off like a dumbass. Turned out that I got her into the top 10, so go me!

As well as St. Vincent, I'm surprised by the lack of M83. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming was critically huge at the time but seems to have dropped way off the radar.

i don't think he was ever particularly loved here though

That album was #17 in 2011 and #270 in the 2010s poll, which represents a little bit of a drop-off but not much.

It was my #1!

I wouldn't say that ILM hasn't cared about M83: Before the mainstream breakout of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, Before the Dawn Heals Us placed at #18 in our 2005 poll, and Saturdays = Youth at #13 in 2008.

I do think that the reaction to Junk (2016) may have hurt M83's general critical reputation (it was #154 here, although I actually prefer it to Hurry Up).

Sad that Kaputt didn't take the top spot, would have caused some delightful reactions. I couldn't sleep for a lot of 2011, so I would lie awake every night listening to that album. It's relaxing in a way unlike anything else.

I just found ILM's general reaction to Hurry Up We're Dreaming a little odd given how much this site would then gush about a lot of the early stuff by The 1975, and those share a lot of the same reference points.

I also prefer Junk, though forgot to nominate it

Thanks for ufo and moka!

Sorta feel like ILM interest in M83 peaked early with the Jackson remix of "Run Into Flowers" and nothing dude ever did subsequently could quite live up to that.

That Superpitcher remix also maybe

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming was too long and patchy to make more impact - saying as someone who likes a few tracks on everything he's done but Saturdays = Youth his best imo.

I def agree S=Y is his best. HUWD has some great tracks but can feel a bit bloated. But no other album brings me back to that time quite like it, except for maybe Channel Pressure by Ford and Lopatin.

Now there's a classic I totally didn't expect to see on this list, given how divisive it is. Weirdly so imo, given the love for Games That We Can Play.

emergency room off channel pressure is incredible

I am indifferent to a lot of OPN but that Ford & Lopatin album rules.

the 1975 are better songwriters, have a lot more going on syncopation-wise & even very early on they had more stylistic depth

S=Y is his best but it's still patchy

HUWD suffers from him being really bad at toplines, the vocal melodies are all so underwritten and he does his annoying yelp thing too much

Haha annoying yelp thing, spot on.

I haven't listened to The 1975 (always been put off by the stupid name) but guess I should check them out.

The yelping thing was definitely an issue for me. Also, it felt like Hurry Up was a bunch of songs that sound good on the surface but don't go anywhere. Like he's really good at writing impressive sounding intros but forgets to write the whole song. I do agree Saturdays = Youth is his best album.

Predictably my favourite song of his is Oblivion which I think I was the only vote for (not that I'm here to complain about Susanne didn't get enough attention in our polls).

Yeah I agree m83 peaked with his 00’s output.

I haven't listened to The 1975 (always been put off by the stupid name) but guess I should check them out.

― The Ghost Club, Sunday, August 28, 2022 6:44 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, The 1975 much more stupid than m83

lol

Naming yourself after a galaxy > naming yourself after a year

I actually didn't know M83 was named after a galaxy. Technically The 1975 is some Kerouac reference, apparently.

I found a page of scribblings. It wasn't really disturbing or dark or anything... the important thing that stuck with me was that the page was dated '1st June. The 1975'. At the time I just thought that the word 'The' preceding a date was a strong use of language. I never thought it would be something that would later come to be so important. When it came to naming the band, it was perfect.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2012/dec/03/manchester-leeds-new-band-up-north-manchester-the-1975

That article (weirdly) doesn't identify who wrote the page(?) Kerouac died in '69...

Naming yourself after a galaxy > naming yourself after a year

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Monday, 29 August 2022 15:23 (two hours ago) link

never thought to create a hierarchy of such a thing...

I like this album by 1991 a lot: https://www.discogs.com/master/499297-1991-High-Tech-High-Life

Other places say it was from handwritten notes inside a poetry book he was looking at.

Naming yourself after a galaxy > naming yourself after a year

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Monday, 29 August 2022 15:23 (two hours ago) link

never thought to create a hierarchy of such a thing...

lol

haha

Yeah I agree m83 peaked with his 00’s output.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, August 28, 2022 8:40 PM (yesterday)

Seeing the lowercase em made me mentally pronounce it "matey". I can't decide if that's better or worse than "the nineteen seventy five" or, locally, "le mille neuf cent soixante quinze"

te nittenhundredeogfemoghalvfjerds

The 1,975

Btw, I listened to Kaputt again today, and I genuinely don't get what people have against it. The instrumentalisation is so good, partly yacht rock, but partly mixed and looped like it was a postrock album. It's so massively accomplished, and I don't think it does anything particularly provocative.

I mean, I get that people might just hate it because it won in 2011 and they wanted something else to win. That's why I now kinda dislike Susanne Sundfør, and I almost voted for that album...