I basically never narrowed it down from my final 8, but Strange Ranger ended up getting the nod for the final spot based on the mood of the day. It easily could have gone to Meat Wave, Mogwai, or Billy Corgan.
Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent - I’ve already said a lot about it and @Severed799 has covered it in depth and better than I could, so just go listen to it if you haven’t given it a shot yet. To me no album better captures the dread of 2017. “Half Sister” alone puts Joe Casey into the top tier of lyricists.
Priests - Nothing Feels Natural - It’s nice to see this getting a bit of attention on year end lists, but I still think it’s being massively underrated. It’s a flat out classic and not just a token bottom-of-the-list punk album. Every second on this album is there for a reason, there’s a true sense of urgency, and there are so many great twists along the way where the songs become something else (see “Pink White House.” Every song is very different, but it’s easy to forget given how seamlessly it flows as an album. And lyrically she has a very interesting style, where the topic seemingly jumps around but it’s all somehow linked (I read an interview and she said something like it’s an internal conversation with herself, which seems spot on). It’s interesting trying to piece everything together.
Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps - This one shot up my list when it finally clicked as a whole, and now I have no idea how I didn’t see it right away. It’s really sad, brutally so at times. You can really hear the Elliott Smith influence at times. I think if 2017 had been a normal year where the world wasn’t being taken over by monsters, this would have been my top album based on historical picks. I can’t believe she wrote “Georgia” when she was 16.
The National - Sleep Well Beast - It’s another great National album. The first half is good, the second half is truly phenomenal. I like the way he didn’t fall into the usual “artist who had a kid” trappings, and instead closed out the album with a song partly about how the next generation is going to take back the world from the right wing. (Also is it just me, or does “Carin at the Liquor Store” have a resemblance to “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”?)
Strange Ranger - Daymoon - I love this band. The lazy comparison would be if Rot Forever is The Fruit that Ate Itself, Daymoon is Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks. This album is much more abstract and restrained than the debut - it’s like half of the songs are small mood pieces that set up the heavy hitters, one of the latter being “Most Perfect Gold of the Century”, a definite song of the year candidate. I don’t know what it is, and it’s sort of an intangible thing, but they’re able to tap into and convey a specific kind of sadness that no one else with the exception of Isaac Brock and maybe Neil Young has. The first several times I listened to this, I was slightly disappointed and it felt like a collection of random songs, but now it flows so well and really functions as one large piece.
Meat Wave - The Incessant - I’m so mad that I didn’t give this a vote. It might have edged out Strange Ranger if I hadn’t still been recovering from the flu. It’s flat out one of the best heavy-indie rock albums I’ve ever heard, and it drives me nuts that it’s going to go largely unnoticed. It’s relentless. The tension and release is perfectly done, songs keep getting more and more intense, and there truly isn’t a second that doesn’t belong. I’ve probably made this comparison before, but picture an alternate universe where the Foo Fighters made a concept album in between S/T and The Colour and the Shape about facing everything horrible. “Leopard Print Jet Ski” is such a uniquely crafted and perfectly done song.
Mogwai - Every Country’s Sun - I’m not sure what to say, this is a great album that flows perfectly. The first third brings you up, the middle third slows you down, and then the ending sequence blows things apart, and it all feels so natural. I don’t know why nobody is raving about “Old Poisons”, it’s incredible.
Billy Corgan - Ogilala - I don’t care what anyone says, he’s still got it. The songs are really well constructed, the melodies are great, and his new voice works really well here. Most importantly, he seems very engaged and while I don’t know what he’s singing about, he’s clearly gotten his Rivers Cuomo phase out of the way on Monuments. The emotional content is back. “Archer” is probably the most simple song on the album, but also the best.
