the single best album of 2017 you feel is overlooked

Going back to beginning of thread, I was excited when the Shadow Band album first came out, but I've sort of neglected it. Need to revisit.

My #1 so far has not shown up on any other EOY list that I'm aware of:

Motorpsycho - The Tower
http://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-17/

ha, I listened to a few tracks off that on your recommendation - not my style, but definitely worth a listen!

that motorpsycho album is stellar as always. another proggy candidate ~ elbow little fictions

thanks to whoever mentioned beaches, into this

Yeh that beaches record is great, dunno if i listened to an extended one but it was a bit too long for me

Really love this release from Rings Around Saturn. Maybe not technically an album but it's 40 minutes of music. Just really emotive music from Drexciyan electro to balearic electro-funk.

https://firecrackerrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/unthank011

Deep Purple - In Rock

Dunno about "single best", but am a bit surprised that exactly zero of these zillions of yearend roundups mention Ouï by Camille. Of several enjoyable things about this album is her sense of melody, which I find to be akin to that of Liz Fraser.

Thanks, enjoying this on first listen in a way that makes me suspect I will be listening further.

Also, the vocals sometimes go off in unexpected directions (Twix).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP4tsnttO-k

Simple, but terrific video, I think.

Spellling from Oakland, CA arrive seemingly fully-formed making an amazing sound that brings to the tip of your mind many sonic reference points, but is good enough to quickly push that tendency away and just demand attention on its own merit:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1443573223_10.jpg

https://spellling.bandcamp.com/album/pantheon-of-me-2

(Since there's nothing on Youtube I can embed, I guess I'll play the references game to get anyone to check it out. The record has tones of Sade, Cocteau Twins, Erykah Badu, Portishead, This Mortal Coil, Nona Hendryx, Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook's 'Sleeps With the Fishes' record, The Knife, and my favorite record from last year (discovered this year), Serpentwithfeet. Really bracing, singular, confident stuff.)

^thank you Soundslike, that Spellling album is really good!

tonstartssbandht - sorcerer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vv2se_K_J0

they are terminally underrated and overlooked, great band

What about the album of 2016 that you feel is overcooked??

I don’t know the answer, but I feel it’s worth asking because it rhymes

Changing my answer from Nelly Furtado to The Rubs

https://therubsaretrash.bandcamp.com/album/impossible-dream-lp

yeah that Rubs record rulz

I like what Spellling is doing generally so much i have no idea after 2 listens if they are good. I think def yes.

Surprised there wasn't more love for the Rostam record. Pretty sure it's my fave of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66y8JMEvTas

I liked some tracks on the Rostam album but didn't really feel compelled to revisit it much, maybe I should though. Bike Dream was especially good

Spellling reminds me of some of His Name is Alive maybe?

xp - I love most of the tracks on the album. Fun, kitchen-sink production, sing-along harmonies - all the stuff I love.

pretty sure i have not seen this album getting any love, but i love its dirty beats and weird atmospherics.

https://ninjatune.net/release/kutmah/trobbb

sorry to perseverate, this is one of the better reimaginings of a classic i've heard:
https://spellling.bandcamp.com/track/higher-ground

the whole sequence of bolt from the blue/higher ground/blue (american dream)/place without a form is fucking nice imo.

I have a new favorite to replace the Mdou Moctar record, Eyvind Kang's Plainlight. maddeningly released in a non-streaming vinyl-only edition of 400

http://www.suncitygirls.com/abduction/Plainlight.php

whenuweremine nominated the Charlotte Dos Santos album Cleo. I had not seen it mentioned anywhere before that. Incredible voice, incredible singer. Might be too whimsical for some tastes (covering a 13th century song, writing new lyrics for Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay, doing a new 60s-sounding Latin soul song in English) but I think she makes it all work. File under vocal jazz and soul, I guess.

yasmine hamdan - al jamilat

https://yasminehamdan.bandcamp.com/album/al-jamilat

i came across a video for a song off this album while i was just clicking through a "recommended for you" playlist on youtube, so i don't really have any idea what the larger social or musical context for this artist is. she's lebanese, the lyrics aren't in english, the video i saw had subtitles that made the lyrics seem very apocalyptic and political, but the music is very beautiful and ethereal. it's not lo-fi but it doesn't seem to have any interest in being conventionally hooky and poppy. i guess i would say RIYL grimes' visions, maybe juana molina or susanne sundfør.

it's really good, i know the language barrier is a factor in why it isn't more well known, but i'm really surprised that i haven't seen it show up in any year-end discourse given the quality and how good the videos are.

Yeah, Yasmine Hamdan is great. Seek out 'Soap Kills' as well, if you don't know it yet, her previous (electro)pop band.

(though her solo effort 'Ya Nass' is my fave)

Any impressions of Jo Harman? She seems not to have been mentioned on ILM ever. I think she's good, but I'm not sure how good yet. I love the 70s (probably more than any decade for English language popular music, maybe popular music in general), but sometimes the echoes of the 70s seem too obvious.

Very good singer. I'm still on the fence about the songwriting.

Really enjoying the Charlotte Dos Santos; thanks Rudipherous!

Fabiano do Nascimento - Tempo Dos Mestres: Gilberto Gil Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday

Listening to this one. So far it's beautiful.

haha, yes it's a great one

I have a new favorite to replace the Mdou Moctar record, Eyvind Kang's Plainlight. maddeningly released in a non-streaming vinyl-only edition of 400

http://www.suncitygirls.com/abduction/Plainlight.php🕸

it is soooo good

I will repeat: Camille is fantastic and you don't know what you're missing if you haven't given it a spin. It's not the cabaret music I suspect some are expecting. It's very melodic, but there are often separate layers of Camille's vocals doing primarily rhythmic things (in addition to the rhythmically oriented instrumental layer). The technique is often very adventurous, but it's much too catchy to be filed with extreme experimental vocal music.

(anatol_merklich, glad you like the Charlotte Dos Santos. I think I might rank Camille slightly higher at the moment, because it's so polished. And it feels like Camille is inventing her own unique sub-genre of pop music.)

I like the Camille album

Casey Dienel's Imitation of a Woman To Love (https://caseydienel.bandcamp.com/) is very overlooked - found out about it thanks to maura's write-up. ambitious artpop riyl roisin murphy albums especially

*the last two roisin murphy albums

Ouï didn't quite rise out of the pack of good 2017 albums for me but it's definitely Camille's best record since Le Fil. Did anyone try the alternate version, Ouïï, which seems to be the same songs arranged for voice and tambour?

Gilberto Gil Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday

not sure you could write a more appealing 8 word description of an album, diving into it now

Xiu Xiu - FORGET

^absolutely

Billy Woods - Known Unknowns

thinking plague hoping against hope

Blind Boys of Alabama - Almost Home

alvarius b with a beaker in the burner and an otter in the oven

that fabiano do nascimento album is great, been caning it