Favorite Albums of 2017
The end of the year is a little over a week away and 2017 is wrapping up just as I expected. I’m sitting here on the Friday before Christmas, scrambling to complete a list that I’ve had literally an entire year to put together.
Procrastination — 1 / Nate — 0.
Let me be honest from the jump — I didn’t pay nearly as much attention to music this year as I usually do. When I first took note of it earlier in the year, I assumed that the inevitable decline of interest had finally caught up with me in my late 30s. I’m talking about that point where people slowly give up trying to keep up with new music/film/TV and stick to more well-worn pathways.
But that’s not really it. Okay, maybe a little.
I have lost a step. That’s undeniable. The “new” bands that I’m “discovering” already have an album or a handful of EPs under their belt. The bleeding edge is beyond my reach. A couple of years ago, that would’ve bothered me.
The bigger reason is that my mind has been…preoccupied, to put it mildly. Turns out, its stressful to watch a vindictive bull stumble around a china shop (or a horse loose in a hospital, if you prefer) on a daily basis, especially when they’re the face of the country you love. More than that, though, it’s the constant lies and deceit.
When I get frustrated, depressed, or angry, I turn to music. It’s always been my safest refuge.
It wasn’t easy to keep up with all of the really strong albums that came out in 2017. There weren’t many that completely blew me away, but plenty grabbed my attention. To awkwardly slip into a baseball analogy — there were a lot of stand-up doubles this year, not many home runs.
Whittling down all of the albums and artists that I enjoyed was difficult. This could’ve easily been extended to a Top 15 or even Top 20. But again, procrastination wins. I’ll include some of the other albums I considered at the end, just to be safe.
Here’s my list, in no particular order.
Yeah, yeah, technically Mike and El dropped RTJ3 in December of 2016. But that was after I put out my 2016 list, so it has to be in this years’.
It’s not as classic as RTJ1 and it’s not as bombastic as RTJ2. But like those two albums, it matched the cultural moment almost perfectly, sliding seamlessly into the zeitgeist.
It also helps to have the best producer working in hip hop today. El-P has been on a completely different level for well over a decade. Teaming up with Killer Mike just put him over the top. Every track crackles and thumps and turns your head.
This album makes me ache for my youth. The gauzy pop hooks that surround Molly Rankin’s breezily direct delivery take me back to any summer evening between the ages of 16 and 24. Right in that moment before the last rays of the day bleed out of the sky, when the smell of dew in the air is intoxicating.
There’s aching and longing here. “Don’t sit by the phone for me / wait at home for me / all alone for me / your face was supposed to be hanging over me like a rosary / so morose for me / seeing ghosts of me / writing oaths for me” But Rankin doesn’t bask in it so much as exorcise it.
Antisocialites is one of those albums that bears repeated listens. I love that more and more bands these days are putting effort into crafting full albums, instead of a few singles with some slop slapped around it. And *Alvvays* has created — both sonically and lyrically — a wonderful album.
Priests — Nothing Feels Natural
You ever see a band live that blows you away so completely that their album is a letdown to listen to afterwards? Not because the album sounds bad, but because the band was so incredibly locked in and the vibe in the room was perfect.
Sara and I saw *Priests* at a small art-house show back in January and that’s exactly how it went down. Nothing Feels Natural is a fantastic, taut, raucous album. It’s incredibly poised for a full-length debut. But it doesn’t match how great they are live. Go see *Priests*. Now.
We already knew that Kendrick Lamar was a powerhouse storyteller. Good Kid M.A.A.D. City taught us that. And we knew he wasn’t afraid to expand his sound after To Pimp A Butterfly blew our minds.
But Lamar has honed himself to an even finer edge on DAMN. It’s more raw, more urgent. This is the sound of pretense being set to the side so real shit can be heard loud and clear.
The National — Sleep Well Beast
*The National* are a band best heard in small, partially underground clubs. Some place that’s a mirror of their sound — part jazz club, part industrial space where the thundering drums echo for days.
You can hear it from the opening notes of “Nobody Else Will Be There,” dark and dusty and sensual as ever.
Sleep Well Beast is a return to the more claustrophobic sound of Boxer and Alligator. The expansiveness bursts forth on occasion, but this is an intimate record. And it’s not because the mix often makes it sound like Matt has crawled into your head. (in a good way!) It feels like the band found dark, sweaty, boxy studio and holed up in it for a month or two.
Call me crazy, but I love those kind of records.
I’ve always been a sucker for Americana. Give me a pedal steel guitar in a song steeped with longing and I fall head over heels every time. It’s the music of the boxy flyover states that I call home. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Middle Kids are closer to Middle Earth than Minnesota.
By now, I’m used to hearing that Americana sound from Sweden’s The Tallest Man on Earth and First Aid Kit, or Lay Low out of Iceland. I suppose it makes sense in Australia, too. It has, like the US, experienced a “settling of the frontier” in the past 150 years. That sense of expansiveness and the wide-open sound that comes with it fits for Aussies, too.
There is a confidence here that makes this EP feel like a full-length. There’s a toe-tapping drive forward that makes it stretch beyond it’s six songs, hinting at something bigger over the horizon.
It must get exhausting to be Britt Daniel and crew. Since 2001’s Kill the Moonlight, Spoon has been the very picture of consistency. Even the minor stumbles, like 2010’s muted Transference, are solid records. While standouts like 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga still sizzle ten years on.
Hot Thoughts is a strut. It’s taut and confident. It’s the kind of album Prince would’ve made if he grew up listening to indie rock and Motown in equal measure. This is the sound of a band at the height of it’s powers, doing whatever it wants. But then again, Spoon has always sounded that way.
Hurray for the Riff Raff — The Navigator
I’m not sure what it is, exactly, that gives a voice authenticity. But whatever it is, Alynda Segarra has it in spades. She wraps it around whatever she’s singing and makes it completely hers. She’s defiant and self-assured, without the need to veer into bombast.
“Do your best, but fuck the rest. Be something” she sings on the plaintive Pa’lante (which means “forward”). It’s not necessarily delivered in anger, but with an internal steeliness that is indomitable.
The slow build of that song mirrors the arc of the album. And it’s fist-in-the-air culmination lays bare a powerful force that had simmered throughout. It’s a hopeful, constructive, progressive drive that calls for building off the past to make a better future, together. Oh, and on top of all that, it’s just a great listen!
Waxahatchee — Out in the Storm
You know those movies that, if you ran across them on cable back in the day, you HAD to stop what you were doing? Even today, if I’m channel-surfing and stumble upon Shawshank Redemption or Die Hard, then I have to sit and watch the rest. That’s the kind of album Out in the Storm is. If I hear one song on shuffle, I HAVE to pull up the album and listen to the rest.
Out in the Storm is one of the most complete front-to-back albums I’ve heard this year. Though it is a bit strange to hear echoes of ’90s alternative bombast on a record put out by a 20-something. Given current musical trends, though, I’m learning to live with it.
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit — The Nashville Sound
From the opening note of The Nashville Sound, there’s no place I would rather be than driving down the gravel roads I grew up criss-crossing. Windows down. The sweet smell of high summer in the air. Dust billowing up behind like a thunderhead. And Jason Isbell slinging harsh truths and choice lines on ten songs that should all be in heavy rotation on your local country station.
Albums that are also very good
(Bandcamp links when available)
Japandroids — Near to the Wild Heart of Life
White Reaper — World’s Best American Band
Dan Auerbach — Waiting on a Song
Algiers — Underside of Power
Ted Leo — The Hanged Man