B&C Best of 2017 - Discussion Thread

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I do know about his backstory. It's very saddening. But that doesn't mean he picks fresh, interesting imagery or handles meter well. Just take a look at the lyrics for The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows. It's an overstuffed wall of purple prose, with an occasional swear dropped in to make it sound like a human being wrote it. No amount of autobiography could make me love those lyrics, but the music masks it pretty damn well.

I hate that I'm that guy shitting on the album, because I have it in my top 25. The guy has a great ear for melody and a potent band.
 
I don't have an issue with the length of this album OR Teens of Denial.

I'm waiting on one more listen before I make my official list. That's the Rolling Blackouts album which I ordered a CD of online (was cheaper than the MP3s), and hopefully it doesn't arrive too late after the Xmas rush.

Not sure if I'm going to have a legit #1 this year. In all honesty it's the La Femme album, which had the audacity to come out in the fall of 2016 before I was paying attention. But the normal contenders (Los Campesinos!, Shuttlecock) aren't quite stellar enough to set themselves apart for that designation, as much as I enjoy them.

BTW all you Los Angeles peeps, La Femme is playing a FREE show at Zebulon next Saturday night. Really cool venue:

https://www.ticketfly.com/event/1615180-la-femme-special-guests-los-angeles/
 
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Just take a look at the lyrics for The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows.

Just look at the title.

All I can see is a copyeditor's red pen asking "can a shadow be frank? Amend."

Also, if you need to know the backstory to get the lyrics properly - whether it's Gang of Youths or SOE, both of which are having this argument made about them - then the lyrics need to be improved. The backstory should be enlivening for a serious fan, not something that makes or breaks the level of appreciation for any old listener.
 
I’m being overly harsh anyway. It’s just because I love it so much; I haven’t fallen for an artist this hard since Sufjan, and that was nearly three years ago.

The music is indeed what makes it. The lyrics are completely stuffed with the sort of life-affirming wordery that I’ve criticised from other artists before. But in this case it works. It’s genuine. It’s the conviction in the delivery, the backstory and absolutely the music that makes it so great imo.
 
The music is indeed what makes it. The lyrics are completely stuffed with the sort of life-affirming wordery that I’ve criticised from other artists before. But in this case it works. It’s genuine. It’s the conviction in the delivery, the backstory and absolutely the music that makes it so great imo.

Hard to tell if this is about Gang of Yoofs or SOE.
 
Also, if you need to know the backstory to get the lyrics properly - whether it's Gang of Youths or SOE, both of which are having this argument made about them - then the lyrics need to be improved. The backstory should be enlivening for a serious fan, not something that makes or breaks the level of appreciation for any old listener.

This x1000000. I haven't heard this particular album, but a lot of people in EYKIW need to have this repeated to them several times over re: SOE.
 
My top ten tracks in an order that should flow kinda well. I don't think there's anything too surprising in there except for one Dutch and one Belgian artist which I always put in to be at least somewhat original. :lol:


Mount Eerie - Real Death (This track has made me cry several times, which I can't recall any other song ever doing.)

Alt-J - Adeline (Fuck the haters.)

Fleet Foxes - Third of May / Odaigahara (Contains life-affirming lyrics such as: To be held within one's self is deathlike, oh I know.)

Spinvis - Stefan en Lisette (A story about a boy and a girl (in Dutch sadly) with lots of funny lines. The music's good too.)

Big Thief - Shark Smile (A song about someone dying in a car crash.)

Cloud Nothings - Enter Entirely (Has the best coda of 2017.)

Rhinos Are People Too - L.A. Confidential (If you like shoegaze and dreamy pop music, please listen to this: link. The song is catchy as hell and the video is pretty funny too.)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Anthem for No State (No band can make post-rock songs as epic as this.)

Kendrick Lamar feat. U2 - XXX. (Hey, U2 made my top 10!)

Lorde - Perfect Places (Lorde writes and anthem for today's youth and succeeds even though I can't really relate. That's some feat.)
 
Rhinos Are People Too - L.A. Confidential (If you like shoegaze and dreamy pop music, please listen to this: link. The song is catchy as hell and the video is pretty funny too.)

Ooh nice rec. I'm playing their album through right now, seems like good stuff. :up:
 
Yeah, the album is pretty good too although nothing comes close to L.A. Confidential imo.

And ha, I bet you're the first person in Oceania listening to them. Even in Belgium, they're basically unknown.
 
I'm ready to go, let's do this shit. Gonna be a fucking stretch getting to 15 though. On doing my list I really only super loved four records, and I can do a solid top nine or 10 but it's peanuts after that.
 
I'm ready to go, let's do this shit. Gonna be a fucking stretch getting to 15 though. On doing my list I really only super loved four records, and I can do a solid top nine or 10 but it's peanuts after that.

Listen to more music.

I was going to limit my list to 50 but it's going to be at least 60.
 
That's just it.... this year I discovered that method doesn't work for me. At all. I tried to keep a log of all the albums I wanted to listen to it and it was just too many. And then I'd try to listen to one and I'd go 'oh this is good' but then in one ear out the other. So one of my goals for 2018 is to try not to be so anal in the way I listen to music. It might work for you, LM, others, but it just made me depressed :lol:
 
I barely heard any albums, compared to what I normally do, and I'm confident in saying this was a bananas good year for music. You're crazy, Cobbs.
 
That's just it.... this year I discovered that method doesn't work for me. At all. I tried to keep a log of all the albums I wanted to listen to it and it was just too many. And then I'd try to listen to one and I'd go 'oh this is good' but then in one ear out the other. So one of my goals for 2018 is to try not to be so anal in the way I listen to music. It might work for you, LM, others, but it just made me depressed :lol:

Oh I get you there. I was referring not to total albums heard, but the idea that there are only four great albums in 2017 and hard to even get to 15 worth listing.
 
I think I have a list about ready, I'll try and put it together tonight. This year is just so good, though, it's hard.
 
Ok I really dig this SZA album. Pretty inviting stuff. Definitely big Rihanna influence on some of the vocals. Which makes me think about that Pitchfork article from last year.

I’m surely not the first person to point this out, but Solange had a song “Cranes in the Sky” and so SZA records “Doves in the Wind”?? Uhh...
 
Hey, PFan, are you back at running the actual list/tabulation?

I'm not sure I can do this until late January. I'll be out of the country on vacations next week. If PFan or others can't do it, I'll get to it when I'm back.
 
Random Superlatives as I think of them:

Favorite band that I discovered in 2017 - Public Service Broadcasting.
https://www.publicservicebroadcasting.net/

These guys were made for me. It's plunderphonics on top of actual newly recorded music.

Their first album, Inform-Educate-Entertain ismore broadly about achievements by man in the 20th century. Their second album, The Race For Space is literally an album about the Space Race.

Their song "ROYGBIV" is just about the most stupidly good song ever written.

They did put out an album in 2017 as well, I forgot it didn't come out in 2016, but I still want to pick them as my favorite, and I make the rules here. This also makes me realize that I didn't hear their 2017 album, so *FUCK* my top 15 might be wrong. Too late now.
 
Despite a busy year, I did manage to get a lot of listening in this year, not as much as in the past, but still. This year was super strong. Hardest to pick 15 for me in a while. Though as we know from my above post, I probably have more I'm missing.

1. The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding (12)
2. Ryan Adams - Prisoner (12)
3. Gang of Youths - Go Farther in Lightness (11)
4. The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody (9)
5. Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. (8)
6. Slowdive - Slowdive (7)
7. LCD Soundsystem - American Dream (7)
8. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me (6)
9. Broken Social Scene - Hug of Thunder (5)
10. The Horrors - V (5)
11. The XX – I See You (5)
12. Kesha - Rainbow (4)
13. The Drums - Abysmal Thoughts (4)
14. Mountain Goats - Goths (3)
15. Future Islands - The Far Field (2)
 
Think I'm feeling pretty confident with my list, so I'll go ahead and post it.

1. Kendrick Lamar: DAMN

Defiant yet weary; exuberant yet melancholy; triumphant yet fearful. Kendrick's many and varied complexities inform every piece of this album, which pulls off the rare feat of being simultaneously of-the-moment and universal. He must be the king of attention to detail in the current music scene; the production is pristine throughout, and on a track like Duckworth, each successive listen reveals just how carefully every word has been placed toward the overarching story. On that subject, every alt-right racist should be made to listen to Duckworth until they comprehend that people don't often choose or make their plights.

Best tracks: Feel, Duckworth


2A. The National: Sleep Well Beast

Solemn and vivid in its imagery just like any other National album, Sleep Well Beast also pushed the band into subtle soundscapes that embraced electronica without overemphasizing it. I'll Still Destroy You captures all these dynamics at work, from its skittering intro and impressionistic lyrics to its ferocious coda, while Nobody Else Will Be There is daring in its simplicity and vocal experiment. The maturity and depth of the songcraft is arguably the finest of their esteemed career.

Best tracks: Nobody Else Will Be There, I'll Still Destroy You


2B. Slowdive: Slowdive

It's amazing to listen through Slowdive's catalogue and realize that this, released 20+ years after their last album, feels immediately congruous with everything they have done: otherworldly and timeless yet still full of sticky melodies and crushing hooks. There's something intoxicating about the melancholy running through the album, which hangs in the background just enough to stay on your mind without reducing the album to an "I have to be in the mood" sort of vibe. Sugar for the Pill might be the song of the year.

Best tracks: Sugar for the Pill, Go Get It


4. St. Vincent: Masseduction

Annie steps into future funk and brings it hot. At times Madonna on acid and at others Talking Heads-esque, there is an impressive amount of versatility underneath the sheen of the production and freneticism of the electronics. Lyrically, she doubles down on the wry observer persona but still finds time for some introspection in the likes of New York and Slow Disco, making this one of the more dexterous albums of the year.

Best tracks: Masseduction, Los Ageless


5. Big Thief: Capacity

Dig beneath the folky surface and you'll find a collection of childhood nightmares expressed through fragmented memories. Frontwoman Adrianne Lenker's background is harrowing indeed, and it hovers over the album in unmistakable ways. But the songs' alternation between gentle and tense, most notably on Shark Smile, affords the lyrics their just weight without letting them overwhelm the listener. This one flew under the radar a bit, but deserves more attention.

Best tracks: Shark Smile, Watering


6. Arca: Arca

In a year sadly without a Tim Hecker album, Arca's latest was a nice substitute. Playing like the soundtrack to some dystopian piece you might see on Adult Swim at 2 AM, the discordant vocals add a surprisingly emotive element to the austere electronica that has become Arca's signature. This isn't an album I am likely to play often, but it is one of the more distinctive works of the year.

Best tracks: Piel, Miel


7. LCD Soundsystem: American Dream

For whatever reason, I didn't want to like this album. Maybe it was simply the fatigue of Murphy's endless promotional run for the album, which labored awkwardly through self-pity and defiance. But damn does the album deliver. Arguably no one emotes a sense of missed opportunities and the pain that comes along with reflecting on them better than Murphy, and even if several of the tracks wear their first-world problems a bit too proudly, American Dream is a more than worthy addition to LCD's catalogue.

Best tracks: tonite, how do you sleep?


8. Grizzly Bear: Painted Ruins

Grizzly Bear songs can sometimes feel overly-academic in their construction, but on Painted Ruins the complexities underlying the tracks harmonize beautifully more often than not. Three Rings is the best example in that regard, but the layered vocals and textural variety of that track are not a fluke, with Four Cypresses and Aquarian reaching the heights of the band's best tracks as well.

Best tracks: Three Rings, Four Cypresses


9. Torres: Three Futures

Torres has always had a certain menacing quality; on Three Futures, that sense of danger moves into the night. Helen in the Woods is a Nick Cave-esque hellscape, while the title track, Skim, and Marble Focus all take on a more foreboding atmosphere of being someplace you probably shouldn't be. Three Futures shows the sophistication of an artist with twice the experience.

Best tracks: Skim, Concrete Ganesha


10. Perfume Genius: No Shape

The haunting quality of Mike Hadreas' first few albums is still here, but now fleshed out considerably in instrumentation and variety. Sufjan-esque in places and almost 50s-inspired in others, No Shape is a masterclass of flow despite its wide-reaching influences.

Best tracks: Die 4 You, Just Like Love


11. Iron & Wine: Beast Epic

Best track: Claim Your Ghost

12. Spoon: Hot Thoughts
Best track: Can I Sit Next to You?

13. Destroyer: Ken
Best track: Tinseltown Swimming in Blood

14. Charlotte Gainsbourg: Rest
Best track: Rest

15. Japanese Breakfast: Soft Sounds from Another Planet
Best track: Road Head

Honorable mentions
The War on Drugs: A Deeper Understanding
Ibeyi: Ash
Fleet Foxes: Crack-Up

Unfairly maligned
Arcade Fire: Everything Now
Father John Misty: Pure Comedy

Disappointments
Haim: Something to Tell You
The Flaming Lips: Oczy Mlody
 
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