How Good Was The Year (in music) - 2017?

Music
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22

ten r&b songs i loved

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23

This is my outdated list of top albums, when I finally finished my list in December 2018. Top 10 Iā€™m certain of, the rest I also really enjoyed but ranking not exact. Doesnā€™t matter anyway because several of these have fallen to make room for others. Just calling them out as important & in rotation at the time.

  1. B Boys - Dada
  2. A. Savage - Thawing Dawn
  3. The Stevens - Good
  4. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard with Mild High Club - Sketches of Brunswick East
  5. Acid Baby Jesus - Lilac Days
  6. Second Still - Second Still
  7. DiCaprio - I Went to the Mall Yesterday and I Got Sick
  8. Oh Sees - Orc
  9. WALL - Untitled
  10. James Holden & the Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits

H.Grimace - Self Architect
The Black Angels - Death Song
Wand - Plum
Ty Segall - s/t
King Gizzard & tLW - Flying Microtonal Banana
L.A. Witch - s/t
Kane Strang - Two Hearts and No Brain
Alex G - Rocket
Ariel Pink - Dedicated to Bobby Jameson
CFM - Dichotomy Desaturated
Moon Duo - Occult Architecture Vol. 1 & 2
Ulrika Spacek - Modern English Decoration
Fever Ray - Plunge
Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog
Why? - Moh Lhean
King Gizzard & tLW - Polygondwanaland
Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins
Century Palm - Meet You
Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent
Strange Relations - Editorial You
Liars - TFCF
Institute - Subordination
Idles - Brutalism
Tera Melos - Trash Generator
Dasher - Sodium
Tim Darcy - Saturday Night
Flat Worms - s/t

It was a big year for King Gizzard, releasing a whopping 5 albums, and I was along for the ride each step of the way. Saw them live for Flying Microtonal Banana (amazing show) and Murder of the Universe (meh show). FMB was my favorite of their albums for most of the year, but by the end of 2018 I had really started to favor the chill vibes of Sketches of Brunswick East. Iā€™ll also say that I tired of them after this run and the only full album Iā€™ve listened to was Infest the Ratsā€™ Nest in 2019.

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Even as Tyler, the Creator eventually slid into the top spot, one album has remained in the #2 position and thatā€™s Parquet Courts man Andrew Savageā€™s solo venture Thawing Dawn. Of all the albums in my list above, this is the one I revisit most often and continually enjoy most whenever I put it on. A really good solo drive or nature walk album. If youā€™re a fan of Parquet Courts as well as Alt Country or America, do yourself a favor and listen to this album.

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25

Donā€™t think I even knew this existed! Cheers

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26

Not heard much Vince Staples but maybe I should.

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A great year, maybe even the second best of last decade behind 2013.

Fighting for a top 5 Spot, either then or now or both (alphabetical)

Big Thief - Capacity
Billy Corgan - Ogilala
Brand New - Science Fiction
Meat Wave - The Incessant
METZ - Strange Peace
Midwife - Like Author, Like Daughter
Mogwai - Every Countryā€™s Sun
The National - Sleep Well Beast
Priests - Nothing Feels Natural
Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent
Strange Ranger - Daymoon

Also great

The Afghan Whigs - In Spades
Everything Everything - A Fever Dream
Pile - Dripping
Slowdive - S/T
Underground Lovers - Staring at You Staring at Me
The World Is a Beautiful Place - Always Foreign

Also good or even great, just not really in the rotation, need to revisit or get more familiar with

A. Savage - Thawing Dawn
Alessandro Cortini - Iniziare
Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound
Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness
Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps
QOTSA - Villains
Wolf Parade - Cry Cry Cry

Great EPs

The Hand - Volume 3
The Hand - Volume 4
NIN - Add Violence
Palm Haze - Tangy Dream
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - The French Press
Two Moons - More Rain

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28

Not going to overthink the song nomination this time.

Song Nomination: Strange Ranger - Most Perfect Gold of the Century

Think itā€™s quietly one of the very best songs of last decade. Iā€™m not sure if Iā€™ve ever heard someone capture that Neil Young / Jason Molina / Isaac Brock weary depression thing better or more organically than they have here. Those bits where it crests are pure hopelessness.

The way itā€™s used at the end of Daymoon is incredible too. Halfway through the album thereā€™s a short interlude thatā€™s an instrumental version of it that the band membersā€™ dogs are barking over, itā€™s one of the most oddly affecting things Iā€™ve ever heard. And thereā€™s something sort of abstract about the album in general - some songs almost feel like fragments and everything feels sort of connected by a dream logic / feeling, but then Most Perfect Gold of the Century comes in right at the end and everything locks into place and makes sense.

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this was definitely my favourite of the 5 they released that year

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30

Nominated track:

We went to see them on my 40th birthday that year and Eno signed my record with a birthday greeting!

Other honourable mentions

Album of the year nomination - Sacred Paws / Strike a Match

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31

Loved Vol 1, still think it might be the best thing theyā€™ve done. Found Vol 2 a bit boring in comparison. Good idea to separate the loud tracks and the quiet dreamy tracks onto 2 different releases but Iā€™m usually less into their quiet dreamy tracks so I end up just never listening to that one.

v good shout, i didnā€™t start getting into them until they released Perfume the following year, and then got much more into them when they released Laughing Matter, went to see them live and got very into the early stuff. Plum was the last one I got round to checking out properly, ages after the rest, but turns out itā€™s great.

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32

As itā€™s been mentioned but not nominated yetā€¦

Nominate album: Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent

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33

Album nomination: Glassjaw - Material Control

Did not get this at all on release but now itā€™s almost my go-to Glassjaw album

Song nomination: Protomartyr - The Chuckler

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34

2017 was like last week, Iā€™ve still got unheard albums from 2017 on my listen to list.
This may be cheating as they were released as two albums but really theyā€™re part of a whole.

Nominate album Ths Shins - Heartworms

Edit: scrub that ā€˜The Worms Heartā€™ came out in Jan 2018 but Iā€™ll still nominate ā€˜Heartwormsā€™

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Album Nomination: King Krule - The OOZ

His first album didnā€™t do much for me at the time. But his tracks with Mount Kimbie were really good and I remember hearing Dum Surfer for the first time and it peaking my interest a lot more than anything of his iā€™d heard before. Since gone back to his debut and enjoyed more that I had before, so a kind of transformative album for me in regards to him. Still his best album too.

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36

It was a fantastic year, letā€™s start with Vessels. Released a fantastic second album as a dance band, but have vanished since.

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37

Think if you were a fan of Sketches then maybe give Butterfly 3000 a try as it leans into their more vibe-y poppy side. Felt a bit the same about Gizz post 2017 but theyā€™ve been on a bit of a hot streak again recently and the last couple of records have all been great!

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Think I hit peak album consumption around 2017, have increasingly cut back since then. Looking back loads to still like but sheer quantity means lots I havenā€™t revisited much.

Will probably be either
Jasmine Guffond - Traced
or
Colleen - A Flame My Love, A Frequency.

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39

96 hours in my 2017 backlog, lol. And I consumed over 200 releases already.

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40

Where did Eyre Llew go? A fantastic debut of shoegaze / post rock and nothing but a disappointing split ep since?

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41

Will have to have a think about best album, but song of the year by a mile is

(Nominate Song: Casisdead - Pat Earrings)

Song of the decade too

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