My top 15 albums of 2017
Over the past few years, my interest in music has been expanding quite rapidly. I’m not sure exactly what spurred this change but I suspect that it’s partly due to subscribing to Spotify. Although I still listened to music a lot previously, I now have a much larger variety of music available very easily across different devices. With the Discover Weekly playlist, the Daily Mixes and the Release Radar, I’ve been able to keep up with new music and discover lots of interesting artists. With that being said, here are my top 15 albums for 2017.
1. All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ — Joey Bada$$
I feel as though my relationship with Joey Bada$$ developed quite quickly in 2017. His 2013 single Unorthodox first appeared in my Discover Weekly towards the end of 2016. In fact, I have it added to my “Best of Discover Weekly” playlist on December 28th, 2016. As we rolled on into 2017, I eventually watched season 2 of Mr. Robot only to find out that Joey played the recurring character of Leon. I was actually fascinated by this character prior to knowing that he was, in fact, Joey Bada$$. Then finally, the music video for Land of the Free came out in March.
This song caught me from the first time I heard it. I generally prefer more lyrical rap and with the added political subtext and lyrics over a simple beat with dreamy sounds, it really checked all my boxes very quickly. Once the album came out, I quickly fell in love with it and I’ve had it on repeat since last spring. Devastated, the album’s first single has the feel of an anthem. The album has some standout features SchoolBoy Q on Rockabye Baby and J. Cole on Legendary. My favorite feature has to go to Chronixx on Babylon, a track with a strong reggae vibe that deals with oppression and has a very raw feel to it. The final song, Amerikkkan Idol, clocks in at a little over 6 minutes and is a perfect song to close out the album. In what is likely a play on words with the TV show American Idol, Joey goes all out in denouncing the American government.
2. Emperor of Sand — Mastodon
I have a confession to make: Mastodon is perhaps my current favorite metal band. At the very least, they’re my favorite North American metal band. I grew up as a metalhead in my teenagers and my affinity quickly turned more towards melodic death metal and power metal from Europe. I have to admit, the first time I heard Mastodon’s first album Remission, I thought to myself “ugh another one of these weird sounding American bands…” 7 albums and 15 years later, here we are. I have to say that when I really got into Mastodon was with their 2009 album Crack the Skye. I think of it as a modern metal masterpiece and it’s also allowed me to appreciate Mastodon and give them the credit that they are due. This year, I also finally got to see them headline a show. While I’d seen them previously at festivals, this was my first time seeing them headline and it was a treat. I also learned a valuable lesson in my “older age”: glasses are very prone to dislodging in a mosh pit.
I think this album does a really good job of representing where the band currently is. With 3 different singers, each of which plays a different instrument — guitar, bass and drums (!!!) — they are able to right groovy riffs as well as really heavy riffs, the guitar solos are on point, the bass features prominently and the drumming is fantastic and original, unlike much of the more repetitive drumming which metalheads can get accustomed to. Beyond that, while the lyrics are predictably dark, as is suited to metal, there’s a real sense of humanity and personality that comes from them to give the songs are more visceral. In their making of documentary on YouTube, the band discusses how this album can be thought of as a concept album with cancer as a central theme. Many of the band members had close ones who had cancer and they each had to deal with that. Music, of course, was an outlet for many of them and it’s offered up some fantastic songs. Roots Remain is a standout as well as the closing track Jaguar God.
3. Villains — Queens of the Stone Age
While Mastodon may be my favorite band, Queens of the Stone Age, or QotSA, is quite possibly my current favorite band. It’s a toss up between them and the Arctic Monkeys based on whoever has had the most recent album release (hello 2018). Four years ago with …Like Clockwork, frontman, guitarist and lead singer Josh Homme had recently had a near-death experience, having spent some time in a coma. That album was rather dark and that experience clearly had an impact. Villains is almost a response to that album. Homme wants to live life and have a good time, and he wants you to dance. One of the lyrics in The Evil Has Landed even spells it out:
Going on a living spree / Any wanna come with me
Produced by Mark Ronson (producer of Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk), this album takes the QotSA you know and inserts a dose of carefree fun to give a fun album that you can recognize as being a brainchild of Homme, while giving it a new dimension that we usually don’t have with QotSA. A lot of the songs have a more old time rock feel and there’s some punk influence as well. My favorites are undoubtedly Head Like a Haunted House, and The Evil Has Landed. The songs both have great energy, fantastic riffs and guitar work and really make you want to rock out and dance at the same time. This is backed up by stellar bass lines that establish a groove along with the tight drumming. If I have one criticism it’s that I feel that the drumming is a little bit muted. I think this is a choice with the vibe of the album but I was hoping for more from Jon Theodore’s first studio album with the band. That being said, the live show was fantastic and the energy of the drumming could definitely be felt in that context!
4. Everything Now — Arcade Fire
This album seems to have gotten very mixed reviews with fans and critics alike. However, I have quite enjoyed it and I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Admittedly, and I say this with a little bit of shame, despite them being a local band partly from Montreal, I only really got into Arcade Fire when I heard that they won a Grammy for The Suburbs. I had heard of them previously but I guess I wasn’t enough of a hipster then. I think that tempers my attachment to their first two albums, Funeral and Neon Bible as well as their self-titled EP.
What I see in this album is the continuation of the progression this band has taken from those first two albums, to the critically acclaimed The Suburbs and its follow up Reflektor, to this current release. I will concede that there are some weaker songs on the album but I’ve often thought that with Arcade Fire anyway. This album perhaps suffers from opening too strong and not keeping up. Everything Now follow up by Signs of Life and Creature of Comfort likely make the strongest trio of songs in the album. But the album does have a revival towards the end, Put Your Money on Me, being a definite highlight.
5. American Dream — LCD Soundsystem
A bit similarly to Arcade Fire, I only got into LCD Soundsystem much later in their career. My introduction may even have been from one of the FIFA video game soundtracks where I Can Change was one of the featured songs. Regardless, when I heard they were actually coming out with a new album, I thought I’d give it a go and it did not disappoint. Neither did seeing them live, even though it was the first show for that segment of their tour and frontman James Murphy had a bit of a cold.
But seeing LCD Soundsystem live also gives you a different appreciation for the band. The music has strong appeal for people who like rock but it’s also made to dance and being at a show where people both want to rock out and dance to songs was a fantastic experience. Call The Police is a perfect example of this. Fittingly serving as the lead single for the album, the song has a relatively simple and repetitive bass line but it anchors the song and gives it a groove to go with and the other instruments build perfectly around it. The lyrics also add another dimension to the song on top of the already fantastic elements. The song makes you want to sing along.
6. Semper Femina — Laura Marling
This album was a very pleasant discovery for me. I believe I was just looking through Metacritic’s top albums for the year, and I stumbled on this album and decided to give it a shot. The first song is titled Soothing and I don’t think it could be a more fitting title. A lot of this album is just soothing. It feels like something you could listen to in a coffee shop, or if you just wanted to chill and think. Conveniently, I listened to this album a lot while strolling through Casablanca during a 22h layover in Morocco. The album now elicits memories from walking along the Corniche and it’s a perfect soothing combo.
7. DAMN. — Kendrick Lamar
Unlike Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem, I’ve followed Kendrick since relatively early on and Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is still my favorite album of his. While I loved To Pimp A Butterfly and I have really enjoyed DAMN., I still don’t get the same enjoyment I do as from GKMC. Beyond that, while I listened to this album a lot, it didn’t last as long as the previous two in my regular rotation. I recognize it as a fantastic album, but it’s not as memorable as the previous two for me.
8. Ti Amo — Phoenix
I feel like Phoenix has largely been forgotten since Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix in 2009. However, in 2013 when I was working in Las Vegas, the song Entertainment from the album Bankrupt! would play non-stop on the radio. Since I was driving a rental, I had the radio on a lot and that song turned me on to the album and to the band in a larger sense. I saw them live then and I saw them again during their tour for this album. As the band have said, this album is in part a tribute to Italian disco and has a very summer feel to it. I also listened to this album extensively during an early fall vacation in Portugal and the vibe was definitely appropriate. It sounds like Phoenix and it has a bit of a feel good pop rock feeling to it.
9. How Did We Get So Dark? — Royal Blood
I first heard of this band when the Arctic Monkeys drummer was pictured wearing their t-shirt. They subsequently toured with them to support their first album. Given the close link between the Arctic Monkeys and Queens of the Stone Age, it was no surprise to see Royal Blood supporting QotSA on their most recent tour, while also promoting their second album. It’s basically more of the same for the English rock duo. I’m both surprised by their popularity and their lack of popularity. It’s very simple rock that occasionally gets heavy. It translates really well to live shows and while I hear Royal Blood on rock radio, I don’t have many friends who know of them. Their characteristics somewhat remind me of AC/DC.
10. Lotta Sea Lice — Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile
Courtney Barnett’s 2015 album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit was one of my favorites of that year. She has this deadpan delivery that goes really well with her music and I find the hints of Australian to be refreshing. In this album, she teams up with someone who has equally unique vocals in Kurt Vile and they combine to make a great indie rock album that’s punctuated by Barnett and Vile’s exchanges.
11. Antisocialites — Alvvays
Dreamy pop rock. That pretty much describes the sound of Alvvays, a Canadian band based out of Toronto. These were another one of my Spotify discoveries. I first heard the song In Undertow in October and given that this is a fairly short album, I checked it out and I loved it and subsequently moved on to their first album as well. As luck would have it, they played a live show in Montreal a few weeks later. Only a few months later and I’m now an eager fan waiting for the next release.
12. Big Fish Theory — Vince Staples
Upon first listen, this album was bit jarring and I couldn’t quite get the hype around it. But after giving it a few more chances, it started growing on me. The electronic inspired music and sound isn’t as typical in hip-hop but Vince Staples makes it work and produces a really interesting and original album that also features lots of great rapping. It also helps that Vince is quite the character
13. Masseduction — St. Vincent
I’d never listened to St. Vincent prior to her self-titled fourth studio album in 2014. But when I did, it blew my mind and was one of my favorites from that year. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this release since then. While it hasn’t reached the same appeal as the previous album, there’s lots of very original music and it seems more focused than the previous album. Los Ageless is definitely the standout song on the album for me.
14. Everybody — Logic
Logic often brings an interesting perspective to his rapping and it often feels very personal and that gives it a strong appeal from my point of view. In this instance, we have a bit more of a concept album that features several minute long segues by none other than Neil deGrasse Tyson. It’s a bit of rollercoaster with ups and downs but it had enough ups to be in my top 15.
Honorable Mention: We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service — A Tribe Called Quest
Even though this album came out in 2016, it was among my top 3 most played albums of 2017 so I felt it deserved inclusion. In the same vein, I could have added Run The Jewels 3, which came out even later, but I wanted to pay special tribute to this album. I never got into ATCQ until recently. Having listened to the older stuff only after this new album, I can understand how this album is a satisfying conclusion to the career of one of the greatest hip-hop groups in the game. I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite hip-hop albums of all time.
The beats are dope, the rapping is top notch, the features are sick, the lyrics are relevant and poignant, I can’t really ask for much more. RIP to Phife Dawg, his legacy will live on through his work.
