Your Pal Ray's Top 25 of '17
I suppose I listened to enough new music this year to make one of these. Edited Jan 24, 2018. |
| 25 |  | Animal Collective
Meeting of the Waters
Mostly on here just to say that "Man of Oil" is potentially song of the year, and is a top 5 Collective track.
Fav Track: "Man of Oil" |
| 24 |  | Thundercat
Drunk
A decent chunk of this grew off me pretty quick, but the highlights are still high.
Fav Track: “Lava Lamp” |
| 23 |  | St. Vincent
MASSEDUCTION
This is the first album I've seen performed in its entirety live, so it's special for that, even if I prefer Actor-era Annie to this. "Slow Disco" is a perfect ballad and "Los Ageless" is tight, and these higher moments make up for some of the more lame, ham-fisted ones, like the title track.
Fav Track: "Slow Disco" |
| 22 |  | Iglooghost
Neo Wax Bloom
This can be annoying at the wrong time but when I have the patience for it it's super rich and fun. Apparently, this subgenre of electronic music is called "wonky" which is awesome because that's actually the perfect adjective to describe this sound. If this guy played the clubs instead of Glittertits I'd actually go out at night (all the drunk people wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyways).
Fav Track: "Solar Blade" |
| 21 |  | Boris
Dear
These sludge metal maesters usurped the spot on this list I was positive would belong to Chelsea Wolfe. The only other Boris I’ve heard is their beloved Feedbacker, but I actually prefer this; it’s heavier and more dynamic, is unafraid to dial back the experimentalism and tackle some more conventional songwriting (“Absolutego”) without losing the appeal of their repetitive trawling-through-sludge sound (“The Power”). I still lowkey stand by the slogan "Boris is Boring", but this is so tonally interesting I can't help but enjoy it.
Fav Track: "Dear" |
| 20 |  | Future Islands
The Far Field
I've got a huge soft spot for Future Islands, and Sam Herring is one of the best vocalists around. This album's a bit repetitive as a whole, but the best songs are the best they've ever done.
Fav Track: "Time on Her Side" |
| 19 |  | Milo
Who Told You To Think??!!?!?!?!
I mean, Milo is still a little wack, but at the same time, I can't sit here and pretend like Milo's not the rapper I, as an English-degree-toting book nerd, relate to the most. I mean we've clearly read a lot of the same things, whether it's Batman or Bertrand Russell. And even tho I'm biased, there is a logical appeal to the whole English/Philosophy-major-turned-rapper schtick. I mean, Milo's got Things. To. Say. And he's been ironically flowing long enough that the flow has turned pretty good somehow? Kinda? Also, the production of this is the best he's ever had.
"The job of resurrectors is to... raise the dead."
Fav Track: "Embroidering Machine" |
| 18 |  | Venenum
Trance of Death
I've been flirting with getting into more metal this fall/winter and out of the few new metal albums I’ve checked, this is the only one that I kept going back to. It's got a lot of what I like to hear in a genre I'm not super used to; blackened/death vocals that aren't impossible to understand (even if said clarity leads to hearing the lyrics ‘I do not understand the understander of understanding’), cymbals and hi hats that sound like chains rattling in howling wind, lots of good chugga-chugs, vaguely psychedelic without sounding too proggy. Also, album art looks like a better version of Yusuke's "Desire" painting from Persona 5, so that's cool.
Fav Track: "Trance of Death Part III: There Are Other Worlds..." |
| 17 |  | Avey Tare
Eucalyptus
The evolved form of “Meeting of the Waters”; way more stuff, more developed ideas, but no songs /quite/ as good as “Man of Oil”.
Fav Track: “Selection of a Place” |
| 16 |  | Tyler, the Creator
Flower Boy
If youd've told me at the beginning of the year that I would like the new Tyler more than the new Vince I'd have laughed right in your face. But damn. This is sexy. And that Wheezy verse is ***dank***.
Fav Track: “I Ain’t Got Time!” |
| 15 |  | The Physics House Band
Mercury Fountain
Above-par Mars Volta-esque jamming done pitch-perfectly by four teenagers. The more meditative sections create a perfect sci-fi setting that the more riff-driven sections get to exist in. Would love to hear these guys play the Metroid soundtrack or something. Would also love to see these boys live.
Fav Track: Haven’t ever listened to this without just playing the whole thing cuz it's pretty short and each track blends right into the next soooo… |
| 14 |  | Xiu Xiu
Forget
One of the most memorable Xiu Xiu records, accessible without being sacrificial. That Vaginal Davis poem at the end is love.
Fav Track: "Forget" |
| 13 |  | John Zorn
There Is No More Firmament
More Messiaen worship and super atonal jazz that somehow doesn't sound like a migraine from the master of such niche things.
Fav Track: "Freud" |
| 12 |  | Nai Palm
Needle Paw
I feel like putting this on here is cheating, but Choose Your Weapon might be my AotY from 2015, and hearing some of the best tracks off it plus some amazing new songs and covers all in this very intimate, stripped down setting gets me hyped.
Fav Track: “Crossfire / So Into You" |
| 11 |  | Kendrick Lamar
DAMN.
Oh that syrup good, won't you sit it on my sandwiches?
Fav Track: "Duckworth" |
| 10 |  | Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow, Bobby Previte with Iggy Pop
Loneliness Road
Perfectly good, somber jazz trio, the exact type of music I wanna hear when I eat out. 2017 was a 70-year old disgruntled Iggy Pop crooning "don't lose yourself" out of tune into a dangling mic with a beer can in one hand and absolutely nothing in the other.
Fav Track: "Everyday" |
| 9 |  | Kauan
Kaiho
Well, this would be my favorite metal album of the year if Kauan could still be considered metal after this, but they've transcended. This is some of the most luscious and least pretentious post rock to ever grace these ears. I mean, it's not Sigur Ros' untitled album (which is definitely more pretentious), but still. Utter tranquility.
Fav Track: "Siiville Nousu" |
| 8 |  | Destroyer
ken
I mean yeah, if it were Kaputt, it’d probably be at the top of this list, but this is still tight even if it’s overall a more dreary affair (first track’s title, hint hint). This is like Destroyer retreats - alongside everyone else apparently in 2017 - back into the '80s, shoulders hunched, and sulks in a way everyone can still get down to.
Fav Track: “Sky’s Grey” |
| 7 |  | Bjork
Utopia
Björk transforms into a bird of paradise and sings about a brave new world.
Fav Track: "Saint" |
| 6 |  | Christian Scott
The Centennial Trilogy
808s and smexy trumpet.
Fav Track: "Completely (feat. Elena Pinderhughes)" |
| 5 |  | Pretend
Circular Ræsoning
I'm as surprised as you to find a math/emo album this high on my list but this is simply gorgeous. These guys remove everything I dislike in this genre and just focus on the good stuff; an overall jazzy approach with wandering twinkle guitar passages with no discernible cadence in sight; they could just go on forever. Plays like a long lullaby, and on the rare occasion that there is vocals, they are reduced to whispers set against the purely decorative shine of the drums and guitar. Lots of late night drives home with this in the background.
Fav Track: "Reminder," |
| 4 |  | King Krule
The OOZ
King Krule, meet Archy Marshall. Archy, Krule. You two should have a lot to talk about, like monsters and girls who’ve made you depressed in the past.
Fav Track: “Slush Puppy” |
| 3 |  | Kamasi Washington
Harmony of Difference
Celebrated my graduation from U of L by seeing Kamasi's live show and let me tell you; the songs off this are meant for celebration. Oh man this album is incredible. It condenses what makes The Epic (an album I'm still digesting two years later) great into a smaller package with a more direct message. The message? Acknowledging individuality and the imperfections of integration and unabashedly celebrating that very thing nonetheless. When five motifs, each belonging to their own respective track, come together in the final track "Truth", there's dissonance, but it would obviously be a far worse song if there wasn't. Big thanks to Kamasi for coming to Louisville and even bringing his dad along to jam with him, I feel so honored.
Fav Track: "Truth" |
| 2 |  | Arca
Arca
Was not expecting to dig Arca's solo album more than Utopia but the more minimal and intimate feel of this tops the flute-drenched Björk odyssey for me. At first, I thought it was just because we've had this almost all year while Utopia is still pretty new, but no, I just adore this album. Choosing to sing was one the best choices Alejandro Ghersi could have made, his voice on this is haunting and hollow, dramatic without being a drag (no pun intended, Arca is totally a killer drag in the other sense of the word).
Fav Track: "Sin Rumbo" |
| 1 |  | Shugo Tokumaru
TOSS
A decade later and Tokumaru has finally come through with the album that the low-budget but brilliant EXIT strived to be. I mean, the instrumentation on this thing is enough to make any composition student swoon yet it succeeds just as thoroughly at being an immensely joyous pop album. And although the album truly shines when Tokumaru is placing a horn over a flute over the perfect drum hit with the precision of a surgeon, do NOT sleep on "Migiri" with it's lonely acoustic passages played over crackling static, a newfound folk classic. Maybe it is a bit condensed and congested, but to these ears it's the most intricate listen of 2017, and also the most fun. AOTY.
Fav Track: "Cheese Eye" |
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