2017 end of the year lists

i'm old and bald, and i will say this is probably my laziest year

― "the fgti incident?" (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 20 November 2017 17:18 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

weird you forgot doughy

too lazy to include it

Yes and no! Penguin Cafe is lead by Arthur Jeffes is the son of Simon Jeffes, founder of Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Along similar lines of chamber and modern classical, pretty nice.

Thumbs up on Decibel putting Spirit Adrift at #2.

RT with an album that hasn’t come out yet is so fucking pretentious. I doubt they have advance copies too, the whole thing would have leaked already if they were giving advances.

The whole thing has leaked

― Number None

Which thing?

Bjork new album

I think it's more savvy than pretentious though, trying to sell Björk records is all

Drift, the super-indie/hipster record shop in Totnes.

https://driftrecords.com/blogs/deluxe/2017-records-of-the-year

And the actual top 100:
1. Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent
2. Blanck Mass - World Eater
3. Kendrick Lamar - Damn
4. Thundercat - Drunk
5. Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness
6. Bing & Ruth - No Home of the Mind
7. James Holden & The Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits
8. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me
9. Kevin Morby - City Music
10. Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology
11. Godspeed You Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers
12. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Kid
13. Omni - Multi - task
14. Four Tet - New Energy
15. Aldous Harding - Party
16. Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog
17. Ty Segall - Ty Segall
18. Kelly Lee Owens - Kelly Lee Owens
19. Dirty Projectors - Dirty Projectors
20. Jlin - Black Origami
21. Oh Sees - Orc
22. Ulrika Spacek - Modern English Decoration
23. Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives
24. Angelo De Augustine - Swim Inside The Moon
25. H. Hawkline - I Romanticize
26. LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
27. Binker and Moses - Journey To The Mountain Of Forever
28. Slowdive - Slowdive
29. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
30. Wand - Plum
31. Bonobo - Migration
32. Richard Dawson - Peasant
33. Crescent - Resin Pockets
34. Sampha - Process
35. The Moonlandingz - Interplanetary Class Classics
36. Floating Points - Mojave Desert
37. Temples - Volcano
38. Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
39. Jake Xerxes Fussell - What in the Natural World
40. VENN - Runes
41. Daniel Brandt - Eternal Something
42. Stormzy - Gang Signs & Prayer
43. Andrea Belfi - Ore
44. Jen Cloher - Jen Cloher
45. Alvvays - Antisocialites
46. Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band - Dreaming In The Non-Dream
47. Nadia Reid - Preservation
48. The National - Sleep Well Beast
49. Mario Batkovic - Mario Batkovic
50. Cigarettes After Sex - Cigarettes After Sex
51. Girl Ray - Earl Grey
52. The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
53. Gnod - Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine
54. Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet
55. Real Estate - In Mind
56. The Surfing Magazines - The Surfing Magazines
57. Algiers - The Underside Of Power
58. Warm Digits - Wireless World
59. Snapped Ankles - Come Play The Trees
60. Bicep - Bicep
61. WALL - Untitled
62. Kelela - Take Me Apart
63. Katie Von Schleicher - Shitty Hits
64. Hiss Golden Messenger - Hallelujah Anyhow
65. The Cairo Gang - Untouchable
66. Laurel Halo - Dust
67. Laura Marling - Semper Femina
68. Mogwai - Every Country's Sun
69. Pixx - The Age Of Anxiety
70. Alex Rex - Vermillion
71. Proper Ornaments - Foxhole
72. Jakuzi - Fantezi Muzik
73. Seamus Fogarty - The Curious Hand
74. This Is The Kit - Moonshine Freeze
75. Big Theif - Capacity
76. British Sea Power - Let The Dancers Inherit The Party
77. Songhoy Blues - Résistance
78. Soulwax - From Deewee
79. The Afghan Whigs - In Spades
80. Endless Boogie - Vibe Killer
81. Liars - TFCF
82. Jesca Hoop - Memories Are Now
83. The Weather Station - The Weather Station
84. Forest Swords - Compassion
85. Beach Fossils - Somersault
86. Penguin Cafe - The Imperfect Sea
87. Lowly - Heba
88. Lapalux - Ruinism
89. UMFANG - Symbolic Use Of Light
90. Michael Chapman - 50
91. Los Campesinos! - Sick Scenes
92. Soccer Mommy - Collection
93. Susanne Sundfør - Music For People In Trouble
94. Arca - Arca
95. Will Stratton - Rosewood Almanac
96. Hannah Peel - Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia
97. (Sandy) Alex G - Rocket
98. Antibalas - Where The Gods Are In Peace
99. Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Navigator
100. Perfume Genius - No Shape

I like how the top 20 or so is the most enervatingly boring set of choices and then the #1 is a complete curveball.

Yeah, it's pretty unexpected. Kind of pleasing, though. I have no idea how they compile this list, whether it's based off sales, or if they invite people to contribute, or if it's just the guy who runs the shop and his staff coming up with it.

James Holden & The Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits
Omni - Multi - task
Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band - Dreaming In The Non-Dream
Proper Ornaments - Foxhole
Algiers - The Underside Of Power
WALL - Untitled
Antibalas - Where The Gods Are In Peace

A list good enough to choose these is a sign that it may be worth investigating some of the unfamiliar titles. And while I admire Protomartyr a lot, I like the Algiers album 100x more, and don't understand why they're being dismissed. At least it made this list. The Rolling Blackouts CS EP is spotty, and the Real Estate album is weak compared to the album by the masters, The Feelies.

that Protomartyr is real good if yer into post-punk

and yeah the failure of Algiers to catch on critically the way it should have is vexing to me as well

I am into post-punk and will arbitrate

I'm sure there's loads of good stuff on the list but I dunno, it's so uniform, taken altogether you can just see the annoying neckbeard a mile off. I mean, it's a record shop in Totnes so who really cares, but I don't find myself compelled to investigate any of the unfamiliar records.

that Bing & Ruth record is fine but what's the story behind it becoming the ambient album du jour

xp guys i need confirmation over what hairstyles i'm allowed to invoke in my withering dismissals of eoy material

Looking at a photo of people queuing up outside there seems to be an equal distribution of baldies and neckbeards so you're on safe ground with either.

a photo of a queue outside a record shop has to be for RSD therefore probably full of chancers who never visit otherwise

If you needed solo accordian minimalism in your life, the Mario Batkovic is the best option to date.

^^very cool album

No mention of Chelsea Wolfe thus far? :(

Or Wolf Alice for that matter.

that Bing & Ruth record is fine but what's the story behind it becoming the ambient album du jour

i don't really know but it's on a big indie (4AD), there were no new records from some of the more well-known names in that whole boomkat classical area (nils frahm, olafur arnalds, winged victory for the sullen etc) and also it's pretty good (if you like that sort of thing)

Wolf Alice will clean up in UK lists for sure

Wolf Alice appear to have slipped into that category of rock music that gets daytime Radio 1 play but gets ignored by 6music and that sort of stuff tends to also get ignored by yr more image-conscious publications. I like that album a lot but they might as well be the Foo Fighters or Enter Shikari at this stage.

what even are the important crit lists in the uk anymore?

listy wisties

'old on chums

Wolf Alice is #3 on the Q list. I haven't read that mag in 20+ yrs but the list is about exactly what I'd expect.

Q magazine’s Top 10 albums of 2017:

Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.
LCD Soundsystem – American Dream
Wolf Alice – Visions Of A Life
Lorde – Melodrama
Gorillaz – Humanz
St. Vincent – Masseduction
Father John Misty – Pure Comedy
Baxter Dury – Prince Of Tears
Queens Of The Stone Age – Villains
The National – Sleep Well Beast

They've got Queens of the Stone Age too!

I v much like The National but in no way does that album belong in a top 10

I can see a bigger problem than The National in there lol

Father Fucking John Misty

I wasn't even talking about that haha!

Gorillaz? I couldn't get through one sitting with that one

I completely failed to notice that there was a Gorillaz album this year.

it's so peaceful here in my concrete bunker where I have no idea half of these dorks are still making records

I find it quite hard to understand how Albarn could have fallen this far

from such a low step? I know

aw

i love Protomartyr but how are they a curveball on that list up there? indie rock band, strong PR game, tons of hype/postiive reviews from the usual suspects, etc.

CBC's 100 Best Canadian Songs of 2017

i love Protomartyr but how are they a curveball on that list up there? indie rock band, strong PR game, tons of hype/postiive reviews from the usual suspects, etc.

― alpine static, Tuesday, November 21

Pitchfork gave Relatives in Descent a 6.9.

nice

lol

Steve Earle, the godfather of alt-country, said it best: Colter Wall is "the best young singer-songwriter I've seen in 20 years."

metacritic has Protomartyr at an avg of 8.5

but really, i'm talking more in terms of general chatter...i can't see them as a curveball on a list that includes Thundercat, Mt. Eerie, Morby, GYBE, Segall, KAS, Oh Sees, FJM, Fleek Foxes, etc. all acts that soak up plenty of pixels.

and again i like them! a lot!

a curveball would be, like ... Colter Wall or Cindy Wilson or Stabscotch or w/e

that's gotta sting for Justin Townes Earle

I don't get the impression they're real close.