Well, in all honesty I don’t want to remember 2017 all that much, but there was a lot of great music that grabbed my attention. Here is my end of the year list with my favorite 101 songs. I’m sure you will find some new tunes and bands on there.
I was fortunate to catch many of the bands live on the list and got introduced to new bands that really impressed me.
Here are the top 15 tunes that got stuck on repeat for me.
“The Underside of Power” – Algiers
“Bed” – Cende
“Love is Mystical” – Cold War Kids (finally a decent album!)
“Tummy Ache” – Diet Cig
“Ran” – Future Islands (why can’t your whole album be like this?)
“Near to the Wild Heart of Life” – Japandroids
“Everybody Wants to Love You” – Japanese Breakfast
“Europe is Lost” – Kate Tempest (see her live!)
“Little River” – Loamlands
“Hidden Driver” – LVL UP
“The Sound” – Noah Gundersen (a nice departure into new areas)
“Hot Thoughts” – Spoon (quite possibly the best song of the year)
“Modern Woman” – Tennis
“Below” – White Lung
“Soak” – Zola Jesus (one of the best live shows of the year)
My pick for best album of the year was a surprising one as it came out in early January and was generally overlooked. Austra released their 3rd album Future Politics on Domino Records and the album calls for “a commitment to replace the approaching dystopia.” And although Katie has stated that it’s not about being political, I think the album couldn’t have arrived at a better time. As 2017 began, we embarked on governmental uncertainty and a general clusterfuck of a presidency, so this album resonated with me on all fronts. Considering she worked on this album in Mexico City a year before, the album has a weirdly prophetic message about society, government and love. At times haunting and dystopian, there are shreds of optimism throughout. As she states, the album is “about reaching beyond boundaries, in every single field.” Let’s hope that we break through more barriers in 2018.
Other Great Albums
Antisocialites – Alvvays
White Noise – Noah Gunderson
S/T – Rainer Maria – (solid comeback album)
Yours Conditionally– Tennis
Willowbank – Yumi Zouma
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As always, thanks for listening
Pablo