The 10 Best Albums of 2017

My annual tradition’s latest entry

2017 saw a number of great releases from artists new and old, expected and unexpected. As always, it was difficult to prune down my final list to 10, even if the excellent releases began to drop off toward the end of the year. As the year draws to a close, you’ll find my list of best albums below. You can find my 2016 list here.

10. Deaf Havana — All These Countless Nights

I wrote about this album almost as soon as it released, calling it a welcome evolution of Deaf Havana’s sound and style. The group writes traditional rock songs, but infuses their melodies with lyrical weight and emotional poignance. This formula is hardly unique on its own, but the band’s individual members are all skilled at their instruments and the end result is a solid album that is well worth a spot on this list.

Part of the appeal of this album is that it occupies the top spot on an already-impressive discography. Deaf Havana have changed their style multiple times, moving from country-infused rock to the more traditional tones that mark All These Countless Nights, but each individual album showcases the same skill and excellence. The difference between earlier projects and this one is that the time and skill each band member has devoted to his craft results in the best release to date. For new listeners, I’d recommend checking out the band’s back catalogue, which (personally, at least) makes the new album feel even more worthwhile.

All These Countless Nights isn’t perfect — its style is good, but the songs start to blend together after a while. There also are few truly standout songs, meaning that this album succeeds more on its general consistency than on any awe-inspiring songs or moments. However, these are minor complaints and they shouldn’t deter listeners from an album that is excellent overall.

9. alt-J — Relaxer

alt-J is an interesting band to define, and one that I had never heard of prior to seeing this album pop up in a Spotify recommendations playlist. The band’s sound is somewhere between British pop and folk, and the band relies more on creating a musical atmosphere rather than instrumental brilliance. Haunting vocals overlay an eclectic collection of rhythms and strings, all placed over lyrics that are often incomprehensible at first glance.

However, this album lands in my top 10 largely because of its best song: “Adeline.” The lyrics look like a lovelorn farewell from a cursory read, but in an interview with NPR the band revealed the true message:

“This song was written on the road while we were touring our second album. It’s about a Tasmanian devil that falls in love with a woman he watches swimming every day. As Adeline swims, she sings the Irish song ‘The Auld Triangle’, which is a favorite song of ours to sing when we are traveling and/or drinking.”

Whatever the inspiration, the song is hauntingly beautiful from start to finish. The band is fantastic at creating an engrossing atmosphere with their music, and the gradually building crescendo of sound and emotion near the end of “Adeline” catch me off guard nearly every time.

The rest of the album doesn’t quite reach the heights of its best song, but the atmosphere remains strong throughout. “Last Year,” which follows “Adeline,” is a great example, as the song itself isn’t a good follow up, but upholds the same atmospheric beauty. As a complete project, Relaxer is a success, and a good sign for alt-J’s future.

8. Paramore — After Laughter

This is another album I’ve written about, and is easily the album on this list that I changed my mind about the most. In short, I hated Paramore’s first effort the first time around, and quickly wrote it off as a worthless follow-up, and another sign of the band’s decline in recent years. The poppy sound is a complete transformation from the rock/punk notes that marked their earlier albums, and the songs seemed shallow at first. After seeing the largely positive reception After Laughter continued to garner though, I gave it another listen and found myself hooked. Paramore will never be the punk band that released earlier rock songs, but their evolution here is welcome and interesting.

The best song on this album is easily “Fake Happy.” Singer Hayley Williams has always boasted an incredible voice, and her performance here cements this reputation. It’s not that the vocal range here is especially demanding, but rather the way that Williams moves from note to note and verse to verse so easily and flawlessly. The lyrics are a fairly straightforward affair of hiding weakness from friends and acquaintances, but the presentation is fantastic.

I’m glad that I gave this album another chance. It’s worth a listen for anyone, regardless of how much one knows about the band. Paramore’s earlier albums may always stand as their best, but I wish more bands would take risks like this one. After Laughter is a fun, poppy foray for a band trying to re-invent itself. It’s also a massive musical success.

7. Lorde-Melodrama

I’ve been aware of Lorde since her early success with Pure Heroine, an album that catapulted the young songwriter to massive success. I didn’t love that album however. I found the songs to be a little slow for my personal tastes, so I passed on this album while recognizing Lorde’s remarkable talent.

Melodrama is faster-paced than Pure Heroine, though it retains many of the same pop sensibilities. It’s also a little more aggressive, a little more confident, and completely indicative of a young songwriter who can write better music than nearly all of her peers. In the world of pop — a genre sadly devoid of much originality or innovation — Lorde stands out as one of the best writers in recent memory.

I wrote about this album back in June, and praised it for its uniqueness and excellent songs. I stand by that opinion now, and this album has only gotten better with a few months under its belt. The best song is probably “Louvre,” “Liability,” or “Green Light,” three songs that are stylistically dissimilar and show Lorde’s impressive songwriting range. She moves from vulnerable to ecstatic in almost a moment’s notice, creating an album that is emotionally poignant and musically beautiful. Melodrama is easily one of the year’s best releases.

6. The National — Sleep Well Beast

This is one of the few albums on this list I haven’t written about this year, but the National’s latest effort is another worthy entry in an impressive catalogue. Their career and discography is worth a paragraph on its own, as Matt Berninger’s signature voice and beautiful lyrics have become a crucial part of my music library. With beautiful songs like “Bloodbuzz Ohio,” “Fake Empire,” or (my personal favorite) “Mr. November,” it’s hard to think of many other bands that have written this many good songs and albums.

The National’s sound is somewhat typical of most indie rock musicians. They rely on fantastic (but somewhat muted) drum work, soft guitar melodies, and Berninger’s beautiful voice. There are slow songs on Sleep Well Beast (such as “Nobody Else Will Be There”), and fast ones, (“Day I Die”), following the trends of most of the group’s earlier work.

Perhaps the best way to describe this album is that it is highly similar to the group’s earlier music. This can be both a blessing and a curse, as it doesn’t quite reach the same heights of Boxer or High Violet. However, the fact that the National have been this good for so long is worth a listen all on its own. Taken on its own, Sleep Well Beast is a beautifully contemplative album about living in 2017 that deserves far more space than I have devoted to it here. Even if it doesn’t differentiate itself enough from its predecessors, I highly recommend this project.

5. The Classic Crime — How to Be Human

This is the first true studio album from The Classic Crime since 2012’s Phoenix, and as I noted in my earlier review, five years is a long time to go between releases. As I also noted, however, this album was worth it. I’ve been a fan of this group for quite a while now, and I’m glad to see them back at it with this release. Their sound is nothing special on its own, as they fall into typical “rock” territory on every album. The lyrics and the earnestness of singer Matt MacDonald’s vocal delivery provide more than enough reason to pay attention, though.

The opening sequence of this album is perhaps its strongest point. “Introduction to Dance” is an instrumental intro track, and it bleeds seamlessly into “Holy Water.” I love this song because it’s a beautiful blend of musical aggression, doubt, and nearly-boundless optimism. That sentence sums up most of the Classic Crime’s discography and creative formula. While that formula doesn’t change much on How to be Human, the band has benefited from honing this formula for years. They’re also an independent group, giving the members much more control over their sound and style.

As a Christian, I’ve always found MacDonald’s religious thoughts and theories fascinating. He copes with a significant amount of doubt on this album, and this state infuses the music with a sense of raw vulnerability. This is most apparent on “Not Done With You Yet,” and “Wonder,” both of which rank among the band’s best songs to date. There is plenty more than could be said about this project, but it is well worth any listener’s time.

4. Brand New — Science Fiction

Because I’m often out of the music-news loop, I had no idea that Brand New was releasing an album in 2017 until the album popped up in Spotify. I downloaded it immediately, and wrote up my thoughts on it not long after. Brand New may be the most talented band I’ve ever hear — a statement I don’t deliver lightly — but their sporadic release schedule made it difficult to keep up with their releases. It also seems likely that this is their swan song, something reviewer SowingSeason noted in his review on Sputnikmusic when he said, “The fact that this is very likely the band’s final record weighs heavily on each aspect of Science Fiction’s existence.”

As I wrote some time ago, the best way to view Science Fiction is as a worthy follow-up to two of the best albums I’ve ever heard. Brand New hit nearly unbelievable heights with Deja Entendu and The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. I found both of these albums some years after their release, but they rank among my most-listened during my college years. The lyricism is haunting, sad, and beautiful, and the backing music strong and complex enough to create a unique experience. “Jesus Christ,” “Degausser,” and “I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Lights,” are all phenomenal songs that move me whenever I hear them. Science Fiction never quite reaches these heights, but there’s never any doubt that it’s the same band writing.

Science Fiction can stand on its own as a phenomenal release. Its first two songs — “Lit me Up” and “Can’t Get it Out” are both great, showcasing the same lyrical weight and musical skill that the band is known for. As good as this album is though, I think it makes more sense to see it as what is probably the end of a great career. If this is indeed the end of Brand New, it’s a worthy one.

3. The Menzingers — After the Party

Early on, as I wrote soon after its release, this was my favorite album of 2017. The album cover is great (I love the use of color), but the music and lyrics are even better. The Menzingers have always been a great band, and their mature songwriting and instrumentation provide an excellent formula. They always seem to fear growing old, and their classic-rock-ish sound provides a seasoned backdrop these feelings of angst.

Vocalist Greg Barnett opens the album by asking “Where are we gonna go now that our twenties are over?” This simple phrase is a great example of the band’s style and sound. This fear of growing up permeates the entire album, and there’s an unmistakable melancholy in lyrics like “most nights we always fall asleep with something dumb on Netflix” (“Midwestern States”) or “What the hell am I doing, where have my friends gone?” (“The Bars”). What makes this album lyrically strong isn’t just this sense of sadness, but the maturity with which the band tackles these issues.

Later on, the album hits its best point with title track “After the Party.” It’s here that the lyricism hits its fullest evolution, as Barnett and the band turn their earlier sadness into a closing message about age and maturity. “Everybody wants to be famous,” Barnett sings, “But you just want to dance in a basement,” in an unmistakable declaration that this new, older phase of life isn’t so bad. The Menzingers may be sad, but they have an abundance of wisdom and maturity as well. This album falls just short of the top two through no fault of its own.

2. Manchester Orchestra — A Black Mile to the Surface

As I wrote right after this album’s release, Manchester Orchestra has hit new highs in both lyrics and instrumentation. The idea that some bands have perfected their musical formulas is true of multiple entries on this list, but Manchester Orchestra is the fullest realization of this fact. A Black Mile to the Surface is easily the group’s best effort to date, and falls just shy of being the best album of 2017 as well.

Many of the things that make After the Party such an excellent album are true of Black Mile as well. Singer Andy Hull has always been an expert at delivering raw, beautiful lyrics in his signature raspy voice, and here he turns his attention to matters of faith and fatherhood. Gone are the judgements of others found in “Shake it Out” and “The Only One,” they’ve been replaced by far more introspective reflections.

The two best songs on this album are “The Alien” and “The Grocery.” Both songs are stories in the most literal sense — narratives that have a beginning, middle, and end. The Sunshine tells the story of a man trying to kill himself by driving while self-medicated, failing, and then lying in a hospital room. The entire song is delivered in a heartfelt way over muted instrumentation, but the most meaningful moment comes when Hull asks:

Your fear came from your drunken dad and a pair of scissors
Were you just finally letting go?
Did you mean to take out all those people with you?

Didn’t mean to

“The Grocery is another tale of attempted suicide and failure, meeting its emotional climax in the lines “So you load up your pistol and you press it to your lips, And you squeeze on the trigger, all it does is clicks.” It’s here where the album’s true brilliance lies. It’s not just that Hull can tell a beautifully sad story of attempted suicide, but that these stories end in some kind of cathartic release and redemption. These won’t ever be “happy” stories, but there’s so much more than their subject might lead one to believe.

The album ends on “The Silence,” a poignant song written to Hull’s child. Hull reflects on his love for his daughter and his own shortcomings. Like the others, this song is far from joyous, but its final notes are uplifting. Hull reflects:

Let me watch you as close as a memory
Let me hold you above all the misery
Let me open my eyes and be glad that I got here

Hull’s songwriting moves me in a way that few other songs do. Black Mile is a phenomenal album.

1. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit — The Nashville Sound

Jason Isbell is everything that I wish Southern songwriters could all be. His music fluctuates between folk and country, and I truly believe that he has never written a bad lyric. Throughout his career with the Drive-By Truckers, his two solo albums, and his work with a band here, Isbell has cemented himself as the South’s greatest musician and a true lyrical genius. The Nashville Sound is a fantastic snapshot of his musical talent.

Isbell sings about himself, people from the South, rural Alabama, and a host of other subjects. This is the first part of what makes his music so great: he covers a wide range of characters and tells many different stories. The opener, “Last of My Kind,” is a fantastic exploration of identity in 2017. The next song, “Cumberland Gap,” touches on similar themes by exploring the desperate lives of so many people trapped in rural poverty. “White Man’s World” is a thoughtful exploration of racial tensions in the South (and really the entire country), but “If We Were Vampires” may be the best song on the album (and the best love song I’ve ever heard). Isbell sings:

It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we’ll get forty years together
But one day I’ll be gone
Or one day you’ll be gone

Love is temporal. Even if two people love each other for a lifetime, that lifetime will one day end. Isbell captures this sense of inevitability and turns it into a beautiful love song.

This album is also notable for its consistency. There isn’t a single wasted track or moment here, and the entire experience is fantastic from start to finish. My personal favorite song is “Hope the High Road,” a joyful and optimistic reflection on life and the future. Isbell is no stranger to the sad songs and melancholy that mark multiple albums on this list, but he also ends this album with much more balanced takes on life.

It’s this sense of happiness that makes this album the best of 2017. Isbell is able to piece together stories and narratives better than any songwriter I’ve ever listened to, and this latest effort is no exception. There are many reasons to listen any of the albums on this list, but if you only have time for one, make it The Nashville Sound.