Best of 2017: Albums, Music

2017: A Year in Music

2017: the year that felt like a decade. That felt true in life as it did in music. For the stories that we shared, most specifically, that of our current president and the myriad things that he has done which have changed the complexion of the modern world and made time seem to dilate, there is little that I can say that would add to the conversation. It was there. We have had to live through it. But it is decidedly relevant in terms of music that was made, and how we perceived it, and how it shaped us.

For me, personally, there was life: a seemingly endless winter, heartbreak, an ethereal, lovely spring, a dry, desperate summer and the smoke of the world seeming to burn around us, recovery, rehabilitation, a new house, a new car, a new job, a new life. These all changed me, how I listened, how I experienced.

It is also worth noting how and why I consumed music this year - whereas in 2014/2015 I spent a lot of time and effort trying to leave how to DJ and curating playlists for NYC, this year I spent much of my resources seeking out world music to flesh out the sounds of a little bar in Seattle. That aesthetic direction has some influence over how this list ended up and what I actually made it to this year.

2017 feels like the year where the word got too big, moved too quick. Consensus is gone. The world is fragmented, isolated. There is more and more and more. Generally, it is great. But it is hard to not feel, at least at times, overwhelmed. And this is life now.

So this is my list of stuff that made it through all the noise, that made an impact on me this year.

Rock & Roll can change the world. If you are nice to people.

Algiers – The Underside of Power

I first heard Algiers after a Friday night shift, lying in bed with headphones on, scrolling through new releases. It was a rare moment with music, where I was immediately rapt; it felt like a revelation. Six months later, it still feels new, relevant, important. In a year where political discourse is inescapable, where the world is increasingly global, where influences smash together to point to the future, there is this record. When I hear Walk Like a Panther, the screaming, distorted vocals give me goosebumps. When I hear this album, I feel like it should be at the center of the conversation. And so it is at the top of my list.

Vince Staples – Big Fish Theory

It is my opinion that Vince Staples is the future of hip hop if not the future of music. He is pushing himself as an artist and he is a singular and relevant voice. His second full-length is an essential listen, a step forward, a raging ball of energy.

Kendrick Lamar – Damn. (Collector’s Edition)

Damn. Is obviously the best record of the year – it is the only remaining consensus pick in a year utterly devoid of consensus. Similarly, Kendrick has long been one of, if not the single greatest talents, in all of music, this being his follow-up to his last consensus album of the year. Throughout, I have admired him, but rarely connected with his work. For me, Damn. Is Kendrick at his most accessible – and at his best. It is best listened to in the recently released ‘collector’s edition’.

Gorillaz – Humanz

Humanz is, in a way, The Last Jedi of albums. It is the sound of an established artist pushing the boundaries and polarizing the fan base. Humanz was conceived as a party record for the end of the world. It is, perhaps, messy, unrefined, but quite like other maximilists whose work I love and admire – see also: Kanye West – Humanz is overflowing with ideas and generosity. The production from Twilite Tone is some of the best of the year. It is fun and serious, contemplative and forward-looking. An underappreciated gem.

The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding

A Deeper Understanding is the best album yet from the War on Drugs. It is Adam Granduciel grappling with his humanity, with purpose and existence, but wrapped up in a warm hug of Springsteenian reverb & throaty mumble-singing and epic, swooning guitar solos. It is the bedroom anthem rock we needed in 2017.

The National – Sleep Well Beast

The Dessner’s did their best to make a The National make a Radiohead record record  and Matt Berninger slapped his everyday humanity and contemporary acumen all over the top of it to make a haunting, beautiful record that stands out even amongst their already prolific body of similar work.

St. Vincent – MASSEDUCTION

(Mass/seduction) One of the world’s greatest living guitarist suppressing her strengths to find something new. My favorite St. Vincent is Strange Mercy/John Congleton St. Vincent. Some of her over-the-top meta-performance art antics have lost me in recent years. Here, her vulnerability has pushed her to new and different heights. She strips bare her own towering aesthetic and finds something new through it all, disguising her most recent masterwork with a thin veneer of bubblegum pop.

Valerie June – The Order of Time

The greatest hits of Americana, the rollicking south, soul and blues all smashed together through the eyes of one of America’s most distinct voices. It feels epic and timeless from the first track.

Feist – Pleasure

Feist has been one of music’s most casual geniuses over the last decade and a half, cranking out great albums every few years with little bombast, establishing herself more as an institution than an event. Pleasure is no different. Quite like St. Vincent on this list, Pleasure sees Feist at a moment of vulnerability, which she embraces and stares right back into the face of. Pleasure is a raw, rough record full of pain and emotion. Feist stares into the abyss, and demands that it smile back.

Perfume Genius – No Shape

Slip Away, one of the year’s great tracks, has a drama, theatricality, and weight to it that reverberates throughout the record. It is an album that uses texture and dynamics to perfectly support its weighty material considering love and identity in a changing world. A perfect marriage of content and production work.

Walter Martin – My Kinda Music

I will sneak My Kinda Music in as the eleventh pick so as to avoid being guilty of anointing every Walter Martin album as a top ten album, but it deserves to be called out as one of the greatest and most exuberant albums of the year. Walter Martin is a true delight and his music makes my days brighter and the world a better place. My Kinda Music, his third solo release, continues his tradition of joyous, funny, fun songs with levity and kindness.

More things:

Jlin – Black Origami

Dirty Projectors – Dirty Projectors

The XX – I See You

Father John Misty – Pure Comedy

LCD Soundsystem – American Dream

Spoon – Hot Thoughts

Rostam – Half-Light

Sylvan Esso – What Now

Josh Ritter – Gathering

Margo Price – All American Made

Lee Ann Womack – The Lonely, The Lonesome, & the Gone

Moses Sumney - Aromanticism

Lorde – Melodrama
SZA - Control

Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked at Me

Iron & Wine – Beast Epic

Jens Lekman – Life Will See You Now

Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Navigator

Harry Styles – Harry Styles

Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder

Amber Coffman – City of No Reply

Manchester Orchestra – A Black Mile to the Surface

Vagabon – Infinite Worlds

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound

This is the Kit – Moonshine Freeze

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice

Oumou Sangaré – Mogoya

Sharon Jones – The Soul of A Woman

Julien Baker – Turn Out the Lights

Juana Molina – Halo

From the Archives:

There were three standout re-recordings/anniversary editions that I would like to highlight from '17

Radiohead - OKNOTOK 20TH anniversary edition of OK Computer
A remastered edition of one of the great records of all time plus a small handful of never released songs from the OK Computer sessions plus some excellent B-sides make this the definitive edition of Radiohead's magnum opus.

R.E.M. - Automatic for the People 25th Anniversary

There is too much great music on Earth to really feel compelled by bonus live releases and demos except when it comes to an album where one of our great bands rediscovered themselves and found a different gear. Bonus: listen to the song exploder episode about try not to breathe

The Beatles: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th anniversary remix

The care put in to this remaster by Giles Martin adds depth and clarity to the album that defines what it means to be an album.

Soundtracks have gotten really good recently and Baby Driver was the year's standout winner.

Many of the artists on this list were featured on kexp or tiny desk concerts or song exploder. I would highly recommend them all.

My mixtape for the year:

 https://open.spotify.com/user/1212103938/playlist/6H1xYsB1y8Im3pUP1rDujk

ToJo’s Take: 2015 – The Year in Music

 On the subject of best-of lists, NPR's Bob Boilen, concluded his: “There is no ‘best’ in music, just ones we love. There is no right or wrong, just ones that fuel our soul. That's what my list is filled with.” That is the attitude that I approach my annual lists with, for I am but one man, and not a professional. I listen to music because it moves me. I try and participate in the dialogue of contemporary music. I do my best to listen and to be moved and to respond honestly and without pretension. That said, I welcome disagreement. Please point me to things that moved you, to things that I may have missed.

I am fascinated by the current state of music. The market has changed so dramatically and so rapidly, the bar of entry has been lowered in such a way that it can be scarcely kept up with. Never before has music been both so pervasive and evanescent, and so fundamental in its breadth to our daily lives. And I believe that we are better for it. The marketplace of musical ideas is more robust than ever. There is no shortage of great work out there to engage with. Ultimately, that is the point of this exercise. There is a lot out there, and this is our effort to sort through it; to separate wheat and chaff.

A few general impressions of the year of 2015 in very broad strokes:

It was a huge year for hip-hop. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, though I didn’t personally connect with it, is a massive and ambitious work whose greatness I acknowledge, and it certainly feels like the appropriate choice for the year that was 2015, as it has been anointed almost unanimously by the critics. Hip-Hop is not my proverbial bread and butter, but as a casual fan, I cannot recall a year where there were more records that I thought were top-to-bottom excellent. Though only two cracked my personal top ten, just on the periphery were Vince Staples, Action Bronson, Joey Bada$$, A$AP Rocky, STS, as well as a couple of very interesting records from the Ghostface Killah, Big Sean, Freddie Gibbs, Earl Sweatshirt, and a surprise late-December release from Pusha T—all of which I would recommend highly. All that was missing was a full-fledged release from Kanye West (though his 2015 one-offs were universally excellent).

It was also a particularly good year for American roots music, country, and Americana with more great work from, Jason Isbell, Ashley Monroe, Kacey Musgraves, Justin Townes Earle, and newcomer Chris Stapleton to name just a few.

Similarly, it was a big year for the revival of old sounds lead by Leon Bridges, with nods across the board to Pokey LaFarge, and Constant Bop (again, to name a few).

Contemporary Pop music is really quite good, and I think that contemporary music culture has all but erased the notion of “guilty-pleasures”. It feels like it’s nothing if not cool to listen to Taylor Swift, adult male or otherwise – with Ryan Adams’ full-on cover of 1989 providing the perfect punctuation mark to this case. It’s safe to unironically jam out to the new Justin Bieber track (hat tip to Diplo & Skrillex, who both had massive years). That said, I do not believe that artists like Adele holding streaming services hostage to eventually cash in with something like 80% of the year’s actual music sales is at all healthy or the right answer to the music industry’s problems.

I struggle to articulate exactly why, but Lean On by Major Lazer was hands-down my favorite song of the year. A departure from my usual melancholy pick.

If you are a Spotify subscriber and have not yet spent time with their Discover Weekly feature, you would do well to spend some time with it one of these weeks. It has proven to be an indispensable and fascinating resource in my musical life.

Also, it sure is great to have a new song from Missy Elliott.

And now, a list:

10 Surf by Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment

Is the new sound of indie hip-hop: lively, optimistic, musically rich, smart, uniquely 21^st century. Watch this video and it will all become clear.

9 Constant Bop by Bop English

Is a classic throwback, a record that believes in the unadulterated joy of the best that 70’s rock & roll had to offer, updated for the modern era.

8 Art Angels by Grimes

Is the sound of a prodigious talent hitting her stride: it is challenging and rewarding, all framed underneath a shimmering pop sheen.

7 Vestiges & Claws by Jose Gonzalez

Is a beautifully rendered and realized, probing record, a spiritual successor to the work of Nick Drake, that feels nonetheless crucial in the modern age.

6 I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty

Is a caustic love record from the indie scene’s asshole-poet laureate whose fundamental unpleasantness can’t overshadow his stupendous song-craft and witty lyricism, especially with his renewed faith in the meaning of life with love in it.

5 Compton by Dr. Dre

Is the most consistently listenable hip-hop album of the year. A return to form for a legend of hip-hop, fleshed out with a deep cast of talented lyricists who fully realize the good Dr.'s grand ambitions. It is the first record since Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that has succeeded at both mammoth artistic and populist ambitions.

4 Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett

Is whip-smart and just an incredibly done wordy rock record from 2015’s unanimous rookie of the year; a work of musical literature that perfectly encapsulates the life of a 21st-century 20-something (or 30-something).

3 Love Songs for Robots by Patrick Watson

Is a beautiful meditation on life in the modern age – it is immaculately crafted, symphonic and Beatles-esque, it is the sound of a group of touring musicians firing on all cylinders, concerned with the world they occupy: apocalyptic, wistful, hopeful.

2 Divers by Joanna Newsom

Is massively, frighteningly, frustratingly ambitious, an exploration of life and time, a work buried deep in literature and philosophy, across eleven unique arrangers who each treat Newsom’s compositions with great care, for better or worse. The album is incredibly dense, and demands and deserves attention. It is the sound of a singular artist operating at the height of her ambitions, if less obviously emotional, and more obtuse for it.

1 In Colour by Jamie XX

Is a gorgeous and textured musical voyage. It is simultaneously an exploration of the history of electronic music, and a bold step forward, paying homage as it points forward. It is eminently listenable, beautiful, and engrossing. It is the album that I turned to more than any other this year. It is the sound of an old friend. It is a warm blanket. It is excellent.

Click here for a youtube playlist of some of my favorite songs of the year.

Click here for a Spotify playlist of some of my favorite s

ongs of the year.

Honorable Mention:

No Cities to Love by Sleater-Kinney

Summertime ’06 by Vince Staples

1989 by Ryan Adams

Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens

Star Wars by Wilco

From Kinshasa by Mbongwana Star

Multi-Love by Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Currents by Tame Impala

Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes

Traveller by Chris Stapleton

Everybody’s A Good Dog by Diane Coffee

Second Sight by Hey Rosetta!

Coming Home by Leon Bridges

Something More Than Free by Jason Isbell

The Blade by Ashley Monroe

After by Lady Lamb

The Best Albums of 2011

A few notes: This list represents my favorite records of the year roughly in order of my preference for them. My top five are all really kind of tied for first. It would be hard for me to definitively say that I prefer any of these above the other. They are all very different records and I love them all a great deal.

As always, this list is by no means exhaustive. There are a lot of things that I didn't get to as thoroughly as I would have liked to, among them: Middle Brother, Deer Tick, Telekenisis, the new Black Keys, the M83 record (which I do like), Civilian by Wye Oak, etc.

And one last thought: Lady musicians absolutely owned 2011

Let England Shake by PJ Harvey

Is: More than the sum of its parts.

Is: a master-class in record-making; combining poetry, history, and straight songwriting-ballsiness into one hell of an album.

Is: the very definition of contemporary musical cohesiveness

W H O K I L L by tUnEyArDs

Is: Plain and simple, a badass record: a meditation on violence and contemporary womanhood, and a display of raw, extraordinary talent; Merrill Garbus does things with her voice, some floor toms and a ukulele, that astonish and amaze me.

Is: goddam refreshing, dammit; like nothing else you’ve ever heard this year, while still remaining not only palatable by pleasurable.

Strange Mercy by St. Vincent

Is: in a way, a sexier, more listenable W H O K I L L

Is: either the most fun challenging record of the year, or the most challenging fun record of the year

Is: The work of an extraordinary talent (and quite possibly the love of my life) coming into her own; the textures, density, crunch, and imagery are all there, and Annie Clark can straight slay a guitar

Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes

Is: A record that could not have been made in New York City

Is: (Ironically) The anti-Williamsburg record

Is: Hands-down, the best “traditional” guitar-based record of the year

Is: A great album made by a band that, at their best, can hit highs that maybe all but ten other bands on the planet right now could only dream to hit

4 by Beyoncé

Is: The most fun I had listening to music all year

Is: The top-to-bottom best pop record of the year

Is: A compelling collection of compulsively-listenable songs

The King of Limbs by Radiohead

Is: A difficult, alienating record that, in true Radiohead-fashion, is still absolutely worth-it

Is: to In Rainbows, what Kid A was to OK Computer

Undun by the Roots

Is: Hands-down the best Hip-Hop Record of the year, and quite possibly the best Roots record ever made.

Is: Probably a fucking masterpiece

Is: Proof that Black Thought is criminally underrated, and proof that the Roots deserve their status as legends.

Bon Iver by Bon Iver

Is: Despite being a great record, still a lot of fun to poke-fun at.

Is: Nevertheless, still a really good record

Is: In the words of Alex Garnett, almost perfectly: Bon Iver now sounds like Lionel Ritchie on Saddle Creek. Not bad, but also not nearly as earnest as you thought.

Is: Still, again, a great record.

Metals by Feist

Is: Less pop-forward than Feist’s own excellent “The Reminder” and yet somehow even better for it

Is: Very nearly a masterwork of breathy understatement within the world of pop-music

Cosmic Ocean Ship by Mia Doi Todd

Is: a great little neo-Joan Baez record, instantly spanning decades with ease and comfort, and while remaining confident, delicate, and soothing

Is: Kind of what I imagine it feels like to be wrapped in a warm, delicious blanket by a sexy lady after a long, exhausting day, with her kissing you, cutely, right on the forehead before you fall asleep

Is: Unfortunately, an almost universally-overlooked little record

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Take Care by Drake

Is: Post-Hip-Hop; a uniquely 21st century record, that sees it’s star grappling with a lot of what it’s like to be alive and young (and, nevertheless, struggling with the very thought of what it means to be alive) in the current day and age.

Is: Nevertheless, not as slickly or smartly done as Kanye West’s MBDTF which, for better or worse going to be the standard-bearer for post-hip-hop until something de-thrones it

Watch the Throne by Jay-Z & Kanye West

Is: Not as good as I wanted it to be based on Kanye’s last two outings, but is, nevertheless, a damn fine pop/hip-hop record with some deliciously silky-sex production and lotioned-ass-smooth (if occasionally absurd (and predictably navel-gazing)) rapping.

The Greatest Story Never Told by Saigon

Is: The Second-best hip-hop concept record of the year behind only The Roots’ Undun

Is: A great and compelling concept album with some awesome rapping, but an album whose bombast is also its biggest fault; it would almost certainly be more listenable if it was twenty minutes shorter.

Wounded Rhymes by Lykke Li

Is: A drum-bangingly good record; an ostensibly innocent battle-cry from a Scandinavian siren that will nevertheless steer you towards shipwreck

Tomboy by Panda Bear

Is: A delicious reverb-sandwich

Diamond Mine by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins

Is: Sweet and soothing; a rainy Sunday morning record; “transporting”

Is: Just compelling enough

Build a Rocket Boys by Elbow

Is: Another good record from one of the most consistently good (and underrated) bands of the decade

Is: A glorious meditation on small-town nostalgia; a love letter from your old best friend

HM:

Nostalgia, ULTRA by Frank Ocean

Is: Fun, if inconsistent; a preview of good things to come

The Return of 4 Eva by Big K.R.I.T.

Is: A solid mixtape from a tight, smooth M.C.

Stone Rollin’ by Raphael Saadiq

Is: An exhilarating tour through the greatest-hits of the last 60 years of African-Americana.

Burst Apart by the Antlers

Is: A solid sophomore follow-up to a promising debut; an often-challenging task performed here admirably

Wild Flag by Wild Flag

Is: A blistering power-pop debut from a female super-group; and it’s a hell of a lot of fun

21 by Adele

Is: The most recent work of 2011’s most (and well-deservedly) hailed artists; the work of a phenomenal talent, and home to several of the best songs of the year.

So Beautiful or So What by Paul Simon

Is: Extraordinary in countless ways, least of all being that Paul Simon is 70 years old and he made this record which is really rather good, nostalgia and past-accomplishments aside

Is: The home of several of my favorite guitar noises and textures of the year.

Megafaun by Megafaun

Is: The best album of 2011 by a band that Justin Vernon used to be in, but is not now in (though he does make a cameo)

The Head and the Heart by the Head and the Heart

Is: Such a good indie debut record that Pitchfork HATED the ever loving hell out of it.

The Dreamer/the Believer by Common

Is: A record that sees Common comfortably toeing the line between “radio-friendly MC” and “best MC of all time”

Black Up by Shabazz Palaces

Is: Supposed to be the most-important Hip-Hop Record of the year (Hooray, subpop!)

Is: Not the most important Hip-Hop Record of the year

The Whole Love by Wilco

Is: Probably a “return to form” (whatever that means)

Is: Absolutely better than “Wilco, the album”

Is: A really good album that I can’t get into as much as I would like to, but holy hell if “The Art of Almost” isn’t an absolute doozy and itself worth the price of admission.

Bonus Reissue:The SMiLE Sessions by the Beach Boys

Is: Kind of a miracle

Bonus: Records without words:

The Magic Place by Julianna Barwick

Is: Fascinating if occasionally boring

Looping State of Mind by the Field

Is: My favorite Phillip Glass record that came out this year (that wasn’t made by Phillip Glass)

Is: Could just as aptly be named either: “The Art of Understatement” or “The Art of Minimalism”