drfindley's Top Albums of 2017

Why did it take you till May 11th of 2018 to post your best albums of 2017? Well friends, it's been a busy year for me with lots of big life events. But is that why it took me 5 months to post this? No, it's because 2017 was a sucky year for music and I bought too many records. To sum it up, I have regrets and I will probably only buy 5-10 records tops this year. 2018 is already depressing except for some Sigur Rós ones that have been special.

There were a lot of new records from bands that I enjoy and lots of records from bands I thought I'd give a try to. In the end, I only really enjoyed about 16 of these records, the rest could go and I'd be ok.

The top 15 were actually pretty good. The National came back with a much better album than the one previous. Laura Marling keeps getting better and better. Slowdive put out an album two decades after their last one and it's like they didn't miss a beat. Big Thief surprised us all with something truly great. The War on Drugs had a solid follow up. Jason Isbell's Vampires is probably my favorite track of the year. Spoon had a great album, their music always sounds great on vinyl. Wolf Parade came out with a very fun live album. Sylvan Esso matured greatly. Moses Somney came out of left field for me and did something great. The rest are interesting.

What about Good/Meh/Awful? I couldn't be bothered to rank some of them after a bit. The Good had something interesting to them, but probably not enough for me to hold onto them. The Meh I regret buying the vinyl before listening. The Awful: At The Drive-In's latest was just bad.

We need to talk about how much I hate Mount Eerie's A Crow Looked at me. Somehow this awful record got 90+/A+/Album of the year rankings. I hated this record so much I didn't even flip it. This record captures the abject sadness of someone who's just lost someone close to them, but it's just that same note over and over and over again. The music is boring, the lyrics are about as clever as a country album and it's just beyond depressing. I find no beauty in it and owning it weighs on my soul.

What is wrong with the music industry? Do I have to enjoy rap/r&b/hip hop to enjoy new music nowadays? Have I finally gotten old enough where "the crap music kids listen to these days" actually is my reality? C'mon 2018, please. I'm begging you to not suck as hard as 2017. 2016 was already lackluster!

Great

1. The National - Sleep Well Beast
2. Laura Marling - Semper Femina
3. Slowdive - Slowdive
4. Big Thief - Capacity
5. The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
6. Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound
7. Spoon - Hot thoughts
8. Jesca Hoop - Memories Are Now
9. Wolf Parade - Cry Cry Cry
10. Sylvan Esso - What Now
11. Moses Sumney - Aromanticism
12. Max Richter - Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works
13. St. Vincent - Masseduction
14. Aimee Mann - Mental Illness
15. Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins
16. Vincent Bélanger - Pure Cello

Good

• The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody
• Mattiel - Mattiel
• Phoebe Bridgers - Strangers in the Alps
• serpentwithfeet blisters
• Sun Seeker - Biddeford
• Beck - Colors
• A Cosmic Gift - Hologram
• The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir
• London Grammar - Truth Is A Beautiful Thing
• Neil Young - Hitchhiker
• Kamasi Washington - Harmony Of Difference
• Dirty Projectors - Dirty Projectors
• Various - Resistance Radio: The Man In The High Castle Album
• Ethan Daniel Davidson - Crows
• Lorde - Melodrama
• Broken Social Scene - Hug Of Thunder
• Lou Canon - Suspicious
• Roger Waters - Is This The Life We Really Want?
• Mark Mulcahy - The Possum In The Driveway
• Ryuichi Sakamoto - Async
• BNQT - Volume 1
• Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
• Dan Auerbach - Waiting On A Song
• Philip Selway - Let Me Go
• Pinback - Some Offcell Voices
• Nick Culp - The Culprit's Blues
• Australian Chamber Orchestra, Jonny Greenwood, Richard Tognetti - Jonny Greenwood: Water / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Night Music
• The Dears – Times Infinity Volume Two
• Sufjan Stevens • Nico Muhly • Bryce Dessner • James McAlister - Planetarium

Meh

• Drew Holcomb And The Neighbors - Souvenir
• Alt-J - Relaxer
• Real Estate - In Mind
• Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound
• Japandroids - Near To The Wild Heart Of Life
• Minus The Bear - Voids
• The XX - I See You
• Offa Rex - The Queen Of Hearts
• The Shins - Heartworms
• The Rural Alberta Advantage - The Wild
• Iron And Wine - Beast Epic
• Björk - Utopia
• Mutemath - Play Dead
• Arcade Fire – Everything Now
• Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps
• serpentwithfeet - blisters

Awful

• At The Drive In* - in•ter a•li•a
• Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me

EDIT: How did I miss Spoon?

 

I'm also pretty bored with most "mainstream" music releases over the past few years. However, I'm finding much of the best stuff is to be found on Bandcamp these days. Eg for my tastes... Ill Considered, Zofff, The Yosssrians, Surf Harp, Stupid Cosmonaut, Zimpel/Ziolek, Warm Digits, Dream Wife, Charly Bliss etc etc etc.

A good way to find stuff you like on Bandcamp is to search by tags, though it can be a deep rabbit hole!

 

Ohhhh @drfindley . I'm afraid you have classification errors happening here.

I'm absolutely confident that Dirty Projectors, Sufjan Stevens, and Alt-J were meant to be in the "Great" column. Your fingers must have slipped. Glad I caught that. You're welcome

Thrilled to see Big Thief and Moses Sumney on here.

I'm bummed the Spoon album wasn't worth ranking for you. I know it wasn't anything new for them, but regular Spoon albums are better than 99% of the junk released these days.

Margo Price should be on this list somewhere as well.

There's plenty in 2018 I'm looking forward to. Off the top of my head, we already have John Prine, Leon Bridges, Son Lux, Lord Huron, Messthetics, Nils Frahm, Courtney Barnett (soon), Dirty Projectors, DMB (yeah, yeah, I know), and several others...

I guess I'm not quite as old and pessimistic as you...yet.

Thanks for the list!

 

I too was slightly disappointed in the disco sounds of Minus the Bear and MUTEMATH. They should both get back to giving us our progressive alternative stuff and lace the disco to Daft Punk.

 

Dirty Projectors was fun, not didn't strike me. Planetarium I tried so hard to enjoy, I even saw them perform it live, but it's not my jam. Alt-J, just kind of a dud. Too bad, I loved their previous albums.

Wow, I completely lost that off my list. Not sure how that happened. Easily in the top 10 this year for me. Especially great sounding on vinyl. Added to the list.

Nils Frahm, yes. Great live. Leon Bridges I'm hopeful for (I hope it doesn't sound awful on vinyl like his previous). I hope for good things from Courtney Barnet, but I've been burned pretty bad last year by follow ons. Can DMB produce an album that's decent in the last 10-15 years? Nothing since Busted Stuff, which was really just revisited Lillywhite Sessions from 1999. I'm trying to be hopeful?

 

Spoon is my favorite band. Glad to see them on your list...I had no idea there was a new wolf parade album! On my way to the record store!

db

 

I thought Big Whiskey & the Groo Grux King was super solid. Their album after that was fine as well. Not great, but certainly better than their dark period.

Adding Jeff Coffin and Tim Reynolds as permanent members breathed some new life into them.

 

I liked him better when he was basically Sam Cooke but haven’t given the new album a lot of listens.

I know the pain, but the tracks I’ve heard are good. I haven’t listened to the full leak.

Some 2017 records I liked that aren’t on your list, in no order: Alvvays, Juana Molina, Jane Weaver, Robyn Hitchcock, Joan Shelley, Marty Stuart, Terry, Feature, Sneaks, Waxahatchee, Julien Baker, Jen Cloher, Kacy & Clayton, Angel Olsen, Margo Price, Fazerdaze, Nikki Lane, White Reaper, The Wooden Sky

 

Wow Mutemath is still a thing. I liked their beat ....bought their first cd....and it had a Dynamic Range of 1. If anyone could record every instrument at 11 it was Mutemath on this cd. Sad, but hilarious at the same time.

 

That's hilarious. They are definitely more for the music than the SQ.

In their defense, I think their first album was something they recorded themselves and in the worst of the loudness wars. It was also marketed as CCM, something they had to sue WEA about.

..but 1? I knew it was bad, but wow. That is like Fantasy Metal numbers.

 

The 1 was not literal. It's actually a 6.

Compressed, yes, but it doesn't make my ears bleed. I've got their first two albums and enjoy them quite a bit when the mood strikes.

 

• Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me

he talks about the death of his young wife and you call this awful. sorry but fuk you

 

Seriously? Feeling sad for the chap doesn't mean you have to like his music, nor avoid critical comment for fear of offending some flower somewhere.

 

Imagine I made a video capturing a tragic death of someone I cared about that lasted 45-60 minutes and played it from 10-12 different perspectives. Now imagine it wasn't a peaceful slip into the night, but something difficult to witness.

That's what this album is like for me. Just awful. Sorry, I have empathy for the man, but not for the record.

 

its all good, I probably overreacted but I thought the album was unique, really heartfelt and made me think about lots of hard stuff while listening. I can understand critics, but for me the experience this albums bring is quite unique and calling it awful seem far fetched.

 

I saw him tour these songs and the ones on the latest album early this year and it was electrifying good. On record I agree something is missing. It doesn't completely successfully transmute the private grief into public art so that listening to it has an unpleasant voyeuristic quality. Partly I think it's the way the record sounds. While I have nothing but respect for his undertaking the project, my secret fantasy is that he had just taken these songs to Albini or someone similarly wizardy to record his hypnotic live acoustic versions onto tape. The result would still be extraordinarily hard to listen to but maybe also transcendental enough to become more than therapy by record.

 

I'm slowly working my way down this list as I have only heard a few of these artists. So far my appreciation of these releases is not at the level of @drfindley , but I appreciate the exposure to new music. I'm sure there will be something in the list that I end up liking quite a bit.

 

Yes, I'm also going down the list. I already had Jason Isbell and enjoyed that.

Received the St. Vincent yesterday and that's so horrible I think I may return it. I don't understand how that's not in the Awful category.

Got the Laura Marling and that's so good I'm picking up her other albums.

Prine's new one was mentioned and that's a keeper. Recording sounds great and the vinyl quality was top notch.

I have the new Leon Bridges as well but haven't had a change to listen yet.

Need to check out the others I hadn't heard yet.

 

It's been a rough year, I'm not as in love with the music this year as I was last year. My enjoyment starts to fall down pretty fast after a bit.

I found if you really hate music done strictly to a click track, St. Vincent will drive you crazy. It's a good album, but I may not revisit it much after this year.

Laura Marling is *so* good. Her other albums i've listened to I've quite enjoyed.