2017 end of the year lists

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.

alpine static otm

although i feel like i should note colter wall is a bit controversial bc his dad is the super conservative saskatchewan premier

also lol
http://www.rollingstone.com/country/features/how-folk-singer-colter-wall-got-a-boost-from-brock-lesnar-w484131

Colter wall's dad is brad wall?!

yep!

Alpine - fair enough, but their profile in the UK is minimal compared to much of the rest of the list, so it felt like a curveball.

I like that this discussion tries to include everything, but really I only care about Cosmopolitan's 50 Best Songs and Fact's 50 Best Albums.

Mojo..
http://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/797-mojos-top-50-albums-of-2017/

Kate Bush and ATCQ are from 2016?

Drowned In Sound's is odd. Not in content (far from it) but in methodology, or explanation thereof: Sean appears to have written it himself rather than polled contributors, because.... dunno.

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4151506-drowned-in-sounds-favourite-albums-of-2017

Drowned in Sound's Favourite Albums of 2017
Editor's Cut
1) Wolf Alice - Visions of Life
2) Kelly Lee Owens - Kelly Lee Owens
3) EMA - Exile in the Outer Ring
4) St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION
5) Noveller - A Pink Sunset For No One
6) Austra - Future Politics
7) Feist - Pleasure
8) Jane Weaver - Modern Cosmology
9) Laura Marling - Semper Femina
10) Juana Molina - Halo
11) Soulwax - From Deewee
12) Thundercat - Drunk
13) Paramore - After Laughter
14) Jean Michel-Blais & CFCF - Cascades
15) Bjork - Utopia
16) Mogwai - Every Country’s Sun
17) Zola Jesus - Okovi
18) Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
19) Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent
20) Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins
21) Hannah Peel - Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiotopia
22) Slowdive - Slowdive
23) Loyle Carner - Yesterday’s Gone
24) Eyre Llew - Atelo
25) Perfume Genius - No Shape
26) Nadine Shah - Holiday Destination
27) LCD Soundsystem - american dream
28) Lorde - Melodrama
29) Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Navigator
30) The Big Moon - Love In the 4th Dimension
31) Princess Nokia - 1992 Deluxe
32) Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory
33) The Horrors - V
34) Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
35) RIDE - Weather Diaries
36) Sylvan Esso - What Now
37) IDLES - Brutalism
38) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Before The Flood
39) Cigarettes After Sex - Cigarettes After Sex
40) Girl Ray - Earl Grey
41) The Mynabirds - Be Here Now
42) SZA - Ctrl
43) Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Fatal Gift
44) Johnny Jewel - Windswept
45) Jesca Hoop - Memories Are Now
46) Katy Perry - Witness
47) Clark - Death Peak
48) Grandaddy - Last Place
49) Tired Lion - Dumb Days
50) William Basinski - A Shadow in Time
51) Four Tet - New Energy
52) Sløtface - Try Not to Freak Out
53) Beck - Colors
54) Bicep - Bicep
55) Alvvays - Antisocialites
56) Juanita Stein - America
57) Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps
58) Broken Social Scene - Hug of Thunder
59) Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
60) Liars - TFCF
61) Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference
62) Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds from Another Planet
63) Ghostpoet - Dark Days + Canapes
64) Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest
65) The National - Sleep Well Beast
66) Jen Cloher - Jen Cloher
67) Do Make Say Think - Stubborn Persistent Delusions
68) Mount Kimbie - Love What Survives
69) Lana Del Rey - Lust for Life
70) Wiley - Godfather
71) Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
72) Max Richter - Three Worlds: Music from Wolf Works
73) Molly Burch - Please Be Mine
74) Rose Elinor Dougall - Stellular
75) Big Thief - Capacity
76) Casey Dienel - Imitation of a Women To Love
77) The Shins - Heartworms
78) Destroyer - Ken
79) Stormzy - Gang Signs & Prayer
80) Cherry Glazerr - Apocolipstick
81) Mura Masa - Mura Masa
82) Fever Ray - Plunge
83) Ryan Adams - Prisoner
84) Depeche Mode - Spirit
85) Laurel Halo - Dust
86) Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Whole Lotta Sea Lice
87) King Krule - The Ooz
88) Kelela - Take Me Apart
89) This Is The Kit - Moonshine Kingdom
90) Sampha - Process
91) Lapalux - Ruinism
92) Afghan Whigs - In Spades
93) Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound
94) Circuit des Yeux - Reaching For Indigo
95) Rapsody - Laila’s Wisdom
96) The War on Drugs - Deeper Understanding
97) Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley
98) Future Islands - Far Field
99) Blanck Mass - World Eater
100) Arcade Fire - Everything Now