2017 Albums of the Year; 90–81.
90. Land of Talk — Life After Youth
Dream Rock
Nice and light songs that speak directly to you. This is a calming and ethereal listen, one that feels like a confessional sitting next to a stranger on a train to nowhere.
Check Out: World Made
89. Paramore — After Laughter
Fun Alternative Pop
I didn’t pay attention to Paramore when they were being written about by AbsolutePunk.net etc. But I met someone who swore by them and I checked them out, and their debut truly reminded me of one of my favorite records (Fairweather’s If They Move…). And their tracks on Rock Band were mainstays as well. Watching them grow has been super cool, and hearing these new tracks they’ve thrown together is mind blowing, simply from a style standpoint. I noticed during my initial ride with these that the lyrics within these tracks had a darker side them, a very openly sad aspect to them. It wasn’t months later that Hayley and Chad got a divorce. Rough. I think over time the album goes from “let’s write a veiled breakup album with the same stuff we’ve been riffing since before I felt like shit” to being a little exhausted when it’s all said and done. Cool songs, cool moments, but I have a hard time ignoring the smeared eyeliner if we’re not going to address it.
Check Out: Rose Colored Boy
88. Queens of the Stone Age — Villains
Rock
I’ve never really “got” this band. And it’s not that I don’t see or hear the chops there. I get it. The rock aspect of this band is very apparent. But for me, it comes across with maybe a little bit too much expertise and self-assurance that it feels somewhat planned and polished. But the songs for these guys always feel anthemic, huge arena grinders played by dudes in fucked up places. In a way, the record feels like it’s a message from the devil’s minstrels sent from a place like Mad Max’s Australia. It always feels like it lacks a certain urgency, but from cocky bastards like this it feels alright.
Check Out: Fortress
87. Ho99o9 — United States of Horror
Avant Garde Hip-Hop
In a post-Death Grips world, all bets are off. If any MC is pissed off, they don’t have to spit rhymes in the electric fence cookie cutter world of 4/4 beats that eventually get rubbed raw on your eardrums. You can scream, you can groan and you can writhe on top of ugly, disintegrating and callous production that mirror your outlook. In fact, your whole album doesn’t even have to sound like a hip hop record. It can be a little punk, a little metal, it can be anything folding over itself and emerging as a whole new beast. Ho99o9 have done some really interesting things on this record and while it’s not generally an easy listen, it’s got a lot to say and an incredibly diverse and dense way to say it.
Check Out: Knuckle Up
86. Free Throw — Bear Your Mind
Heavy Pop-Punk
I was trying to break down my lists into genres and when I tried, it was becoming one of two things: microgenres divided into tiny commons of two or three bands OR broadly stroked pigeon holes that never quite defined the bands that I was trying to place into families. So this one hangs loosely between “pop punk” and “scene band” but never really feels like either. Are scene bands even still a thing? The genre might make more sense as something like “bands that kids who used to be into scene bands could still feasibly listen to and maintain their identity.” But ahhhh who knows. These guys have the edge of a hardcore band but the fun and jumpy riffs of a pop punk act. They’re a blast to listen to with excellent production and the ability to weave whisper-light nuance with desperate aggression to make a perfect marriage.
Check Out: Better Have Burn Heal
85. Brutality Will Prevail — In Dark Places
Pantera Inspired Metal
There’s a comforting cadence in an album like this, littered with heavy chugging and roaring vocals, similar in many ways to Pantera and all of the bands that were inspired by them. It’s tough to find anything particularly wrong with it other than the fact that you’ve more than likely heard it or heard something extremely similar. But there are times on albums like this that give each band its special sauce. For me, I can always tell when I’ve heard it when I get that feeling akin to laughter, that sense of everything being just right, whether it’s within the breakdown itself or somewhere circling the outer ring of it. There are moments like in the song “Penitence” that you can find mental and spiritual purity within the palm muted mantras.
Check Out: Death Sings Me to Sleep
84. Clark — Death Peak
Electronic
This album gets me a little too comfortable at times, setting me back into a trancey groove right up to a precipice, right up to the point of release and then suddenly unleashed a cavalcade of strangeness in the background. There are ugly and weird moments on this album, almost as if the skin built to form it wasn’t quite tailored to suit its captive. The attention to detail and nuance here is beautiful and totally thorough. By and large it’s a nice electronic album that lightly touches upon genius in fragments.
Check Out: Hoova
83. Minus the Bear — VOIDS
Chill Pedal Rock
This band will always be on my radar. Their output of late has had a dreamy and spacey quality while still maintaining a level of control and majesty about the guitars and pedal boards that have made their name synonymous with quality. The songs on this record tend to blur together a little bit and I don’t think any of them reach any of their best work but there are still cool moments sprinkled in, like on songs such as the far reaching “Silver” with its gigantism. They bring back some of their mastery of stretching time out further than it should be on a track called ‘Erase’, a song that has a place in the narrative of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one that really hit me in the heart.
Check Out: Lighthouse
82. Matt Pryor — Memento Mori
Singer/Songwriter
I’m not sure when we crossed over from The New Amsterdams over to simply Matt Pryor, but here we are. The ex lead singer of The Get Up Kids plods down far darker paths in his solo efforts, especially on this record. There’s a great deal more musical ‘process’ involved on this record, though the production still maintains a style that makes you feel as if you’re sitting in a coffee house with a small group of folks listening to this guy put his reflections out onto the acoustic. The familiarity of the tones that this guy uses adds so much to the songs on here as well.
Check Out: A Small Explosion
81. The Frightnrs — More to Say Versions
Reggae/Dub
We did this last year. The original record was #26 of last year for me. This record acts as a bit of a remix record of the songs found on last year’s edition into dub versions. Had this been some new material, I’m sure it would have ended up far higher. This is a nice chill listen, one worth putting on and leaning back to. It reminds me of hot, sweaty days with a fan who’s air is just barely brushing your face. This one will stay locked for me.
Check Out: Gotta Find a Way Version
