End-Of-Year 2021 ballots, etc., Pt. 2 (ILM's Tracks & Albums Poll)
Beneath these comments is my ballot for ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll
We could vote 25 of each, though only for tracks and albums nominated by the voters; there were over 900 tracks, but I only nommed three - the first three on my ballot - since it seemed to miss the spirit and the adventure to nominate a whole bunch of tracks and then vote for what I nominated.
I obviously didn't listen to all 900+ tracks, but the poll did what I wanted, which was to introduce a bunch of stuff to me and let me rethink some of what I'd met before incl a handful I'd only heard a couple of times as part of Tom's 2021 poll. The only new-to-me track to actually make my ballot was Karol G's "El Makinon," which I may still be underrating. Kept another of hers off my list for being too 2020; listening as we speak to her album to see if it'll make my Expert Witness ballot. (Probably not, which isn't fair given how few listens it'll get prior to deadline. Life isn't fair.)
Karol G & Mariah Angeliq "El Makinon"
Went through a lot of contortions convincing myself to knock things off my ballot to make room for Busta's good-hearted and poignant amapiano, "Ngixolele," which ended up not making it after all. At the end I decided PinkPantheress's "Pain" was more unique or at least more crucial for doing mood-brushed, spacey-self-involvement that I otherwise rarely like.
"Pain" and Taylor's long redo of "All Too Well" are ones that sound better when I'm listening to them than when I'm remembering them. Taylor finally got the boot for not being as fun as Carly Pearce's similarly retrospectively resentful "Next Girl," which also didn't make my list, and for being 10 whole minutes of nuanced unhappiness. Listening, though, there's a "With Or Without You" emotional swell, which doesn't often get yoked and yoked well to singer-songwriter nuance and phrasing. Am almost certainly underrating "Pain" as well; hard to make that stuff sound as strong as this does. PinkPantheress is currently earning my nuanced nonappreciation for her more boring tracks racking in the votes and praise elsewhere. Whatever. It's my list and I can do what I want. Maybe.
Was going to say that RXK Nephew wins the award hands down for Favorite Artist I Least Want To Have Buttonhole Me At A Party. Actually, that would probably be [name redacted] or [name redacted], but that's based merely on their lives as revealed through their public behavior whereas for RXK Nephew it's his life as revealed through his art, which I suspect is his life as lived from moment to moment. Anyhow, his LP is typically and not surprisingly inconsistent, which is a good match for his ideas.
Shit, religious people startin' to scare me
Shit, the government wrote the Bible
They knew who was gon' win American Idol
I never liked Simon off American Idol
I ain't really like how he talked to black people
How the fuck Flava Flav still alive?
Shit, before Kobe, before Deebo
I expected his ass to up and die
I ain't got nothin' against Flava Flav
They said I was ugly as Flava Flav
Now I got twenty hoes like Flava Flav
RXK Nephew "American tterrorist"
Squid's Bright Green Field sounds more like Red Dark Sweet than does anything else I've ever voted for in a poll, including 75 Dollar Bill, who have someone who was in Red Dark Sweet. Specifically thinking of the Squid guitars, which can go from abrasive to dreamy in a second, like you put the Velvets and the Byrds together in your slow cooker.
75 Dollar Bill seem similar to, surprisingly, Mdou Moctar. Moctar's alb is mostly nice-sounding Niger gentle fock-rock with psychedelic touches, with one blazing hard rock guitar track (which nonetheless sounds melodically like Phil Ochs in circularly tuneful style). Anyway, 75 Dollar Bill are similarly tuneful noodle, but with math-thump, and generally stronger. Only one listen in on either of those albs but 75 Dollar Bill likely to get a second before tonight's Expert Witness deadline.
Wrote this on Twitter about Billie Eilish's "Happier Than Ever":
I'd be fine with her singing [that is, I'd be fine with the song given how well she sings it] even if the words were terrible, but they're thoughtful, so many specifics, a whole feeling of how deep she was IN this thing, so "wish I could explain" applies to her too, not just to the person who won't understand.
Spelling and capitalization as they appeared on the nominations list, from which we copied-and-pasted our votes.
Frank Kogan's ballot, ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll
TRACKS:
DJ Wesley Gonzaga, MC Cyclope & MC Laureta - Sarra Nela Com Fuzil na Bandolera
DJ Malícia, MC Jhenny, Thammy - Vulgo Malvadão
MC J Mito, MC Yuri & MC Menor da Alvorada ft. DJ Will DF - Aquecimento do Striptease
Sho Madjozi - Jamani
Wet Leg - Chaise Longue
Go_A - SHUM
Ashley Monroe - Siren
Pale Waves - Easy
Squid - Narrator
Billie Eillish - Your Power
KAROL G & Mariah Angeliq - EL MAKINON
Squid - Pamphlets
Shygirl - TASTY (Boyz Noise Remix)
Mitski - Working for the Knife
City Girls - Twerkulator
Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
rxk nephew - american tterrorist
audiobooks - LaLaLa It's The Good Life
RXK Nephew - Squabble
Joy Orbison, Lea Sen - Better
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Dodonpa
Billie Eilish - I Didn't Change My Number
Amyl And The Sniffers - Guided By Angels
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
PinkPantheress - Pain
ALBUMS:
Squid - Bright Green Field
Ashley Monroe - Rosegold
75 Dollar Bill - Live Ateliers Claus
Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
RXK Nephew - Slitherman Activated
PinkPantheress "Pain"
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/382796.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.
We could vote 25 of each, though only for tracks and albums nominated by the voters; there were over 900 tracks, but I only nommed three - the first three on my ballot - since it seemed to miss the spirit and the adventure to nominate a whole bunch of tracks and then vote for what I nominated.
I obviously didn't listen to all 900+ tracks, but the poll did what I wanted, which was to introduce a bunch of stuff to me and let me rethink some of what I'd met before incl a handful I'd only heard a couple of times as part of Tom's 2021 poll. The only new-to-me track to actually make my ballot was Karol G's "El Makinon," which I may still be underrating. Kept another of hers off my list for being too 2020; listening as we speak to her album to see if it'll make my Expert Witness ballot. (Probably not, which isn't fair given how few listens it'll get prior to deadline. Life isn't fair.)
Karol G & Mariah Angeliq "El Makinon"
Click to viewWent through a lot of contortions convincing myself to knock things off my ballot to make room for Busta's good-hearted and poignant amapiano, "Ngixolele," which ended up not making it after all. At the end I decided PinkPantheress's "Pain" was more unique or at least more crucial for doing mood-brushed, spacey-self-involvement that I otherwise rarely like.
"Pain" and Taylor's long redo of "All Too Well" are ones that sound better when I'm listening to them than when I'm remembering them. Taylor finally got the boot for not being as fun as Carly Pearce's similarly retrospectively resentful "Next Girl," which also didn't make my list, and for being 10 whole minutes of nuanced unhappiness. Listening, though, there's a "With Or Without You" emotional swell, which doesn't often get yoked and yoked well to singer-songwriter nuance and phrasing. Am almost certainly underrating "Pain" as well; hard to make that stuff sound as strong as this does. PinkPantheress is currently earning my nuanced nonappreciation for her more boring tracks racking in the votes and praise elsewhere. Whatever. It's my list and I can do what I want. Maybe.
Was going to say that RXK Nephew wins the award hands down for Favorite Artist I Least Want To Have Buttonhole Me At A Party. Actually, that would probably be [name redacted] or [name redacted], but that's based merely on their lives as revealed through their public behavior whereas for RXK Nephew it's his life as revealed through his art, which I suspect is his life as lived from moment to moment. Anyhow, his LP is typically and not surprisingly inconsistent, which is a good match for his ideas.
Shit, religious people startin' to scare me
Shit, the government wrote the Bible
They knew who was gon' win American Idol
I never liked Simon off American Idol
I ain't really like how he talked to black people
How the fuck Flava Flav still alive?
Shit, before Kobe, before Deebo
I expected his ass to up and die
I ain't got nothin' against Flava Flav
They said I was ugly as Flava Flav
Now I got twenty hoes like Flava Flav
RXK Nephew "American tterrorist"
Squid's Bright Green Field sounds more like Red Dark Sweet than does anything else I've ever voted for in a poll, including 75 Dollar Bill, who have someone who was in Red Dark Sweet. Specifically thinking of the Squid guitars, which can go from abrasive to dreamy in a second, like you put the Velvets and the Byrds together in your slow cooker.
75 Dollar Bill seem similar to, surprisingly, Mdou Moctar. Moctar's alb is mostly nice-sounding Niger gentle fock-rock with psychedelic touches, with one blazing hard rock guitar track (which nonetheless sounds melodically like Phil Ochs in circularly tuneful style). Anyway, 75 Dollar Bill are similarly tuneful noodle, but with math-thump, and generally stronger. Only one listen in on either of those albs but 75 Dollar Bill likely to get a second before tonight's Expert Witness deadline.
Wrote this on Twitter about Billie Eilish's "Happier Than Ever":
I'd be fine with her singing [that is, I'd be fine with the song given how well she sings it] even if the words were terrible, but they're thoughtful, so many specifics, a whole feeling of how deep she was IN this thing, so "wish I could explain" applies to her too, not just to the person who won't understand.
Spelling and capitalization as they appeared on the nominations list, from which we copied-and-pasted our votes.
Frank Kogan's ballot, ILM's 2021 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll
TRACKS:
DJ Wesley Gonzaga, MC Cyclope & MC Laureta - Sarra Nela Com Fuzil na Bandolera
DJ Malícia, MC Jhenny, Thammy - Vulgo Malvadão
MC J Mito, MC Yuri & MC Menor da Alvorada ft. DJ Will DF - Aquecimento do Striptease
Sho Madjozi - Jamani
Wet Leg - Chaise Longue
Go_A - SHUM
Ashley Monroe - Siren
Pale Waves - Easy
Squid - Narrator
Billie Eillish - Your Power
KAROL G & Mariah Angeliq - EL MAKINON
Squid - Pamphlets
Shygirl - TASTY (Boyz Noise Remix)
Mitski - Working for the Knife
City Girls - Twerkulator
Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
rxk nephew - american tterrorist
audiobooks - LaLaLa It's The Good Life
RXK Nephew - Squabble
Joy Orbison, Lea Sen - Better
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Dodonpa
Billie Eilish - I Didn't Change My Number
Amyl And The Sniffers - Guided By Angels
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
PinkPantheress - Pain
ALBUMS:
Squid - Bright Green Field
Ashley Monroe - Rosegold
75 Dollar Bill - Live Ateliers Claus
Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime
RXK Nephew - Slitherman Activated
PinkPantheress "Pain"
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/382796.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.