I've been doing my best this year to listen to new music, and not just the 3 bands I've liked since Middle School, just cause I hear the old "god today's music SUCKS" line one too many times.
Today's music does not suck. Maybe there's MORE sucky stuff today than there was in the 60s, but that doesn't take away the good. And there is plenty of good that came outta 2017 (music-wise I mean).
In no particular order, trying to stay as genre-varied as possible, here are 10 great records from this here!
1. Xiu Xiu: FORGET
GENRE: Dark Pop, Experimental Rock, Catchy Weirdness
TRACK: "Wondering"
There was a YouTube comment on one of Xiu Xiu's songs that read "I'm uncomfortable but I want to dance." And that's as good a description of Xiu Xiu (pronounced 'shoe shoe') as you can get.
Stradling the lines between dream and nightmare, "FORGET" stands as a dark pop record that will linger with you for a long time to come, with its candy-coated melodies and haunting isolation. You'll either love this one or be freaked by it.
2. Alvvays: ANTISOCIALITES
GENRE: Dream Pop, Indie Pop, Bedroom-Dancing-Tunes
TRACK: "In Undertow"
Alvvays are back, following their 2014 self-titled released, with a stronger singing presence, compliments of lead singer Molly Rankin, and groovier, sometimes melancholic songs.
Sweet and sad, this is one of the best indie-flavored records I've heard this year.
3. King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard: SKETCHES OF BRUNSWICK EAST
GENRE: Psych Rock, Prog Rock, Chill Australian Grooves
TRACK: "Countdown"
Yes, that's their band name, it's pretty cool. And as a band, these guys live up to their bonkers moniker.
Sounding like a more rock orientated "Tame Impala", "Sketches of Brunswick East" is the third album released in 2017 alone, and the most accessible by my ears.
"King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard" is a band you need to look out for, a group that recontextualizes a lot of the psych and garage rock sounds of the 60s for a modern palate. If you dig this album, check out their "Nonagon Infinity" record from last year. It'll peel your face back, it's such a wild ride.
4. Algiers: UNDERSIDE OF POWER
GENRE: Post-Punk, Gospel, Anti-Authority Goodness
TRACK: "The Underside of Power"
These guys and their attitude are what we (specifically in the U.S.) need right now. A no holds barred, aggressive, and passionate group of musicians getting together and challenging the status quo with their songs.
"Algiers" stands as a weird mix between the dark and groovy sounds of post-punk, with flavors of gospel music, and even moments of pure punk, "The Underside of Power" is a cathartic listen. The title track alone (linked above) is worth the price of admission alone.
5. Oxbow: THIN BLACK DUKE
GENRE: Experimental Rock, Art Rock, Mysterious Tragedy
TRACK: "Cold & Well-Lit Place"
I had never heard of these guys before this year, but "Oxbow" is an experimental rock group pumping out music since '89, incorporating the sounds of noise rock, jazz music, and blues to create something that sounds different .
This album might not be everyone's cup of tea, as it's a set of songs that takes a few listens to really set in and get the most out of, but some of the more straightforward tracks, like the one linked above (along with the stellar, haunting music video) are irresistible, in both their melodic catchiness and the tortured, passionate vocals of singer Eugene S. Robinson.
6. Brockhampton: SATURATION
GENRE: Alternative Hip Hop, Pop rap, 21st Century Boy Band
TRACK: "BANK"
I'm bummed by the lack of punk rock music on this list. It's a sound that is probably waning in really stand out music at this moment in history, but it's a spirit that I always gravitate towards in music- the aggression, the no-punches-pulled attitude, and the straightforward ferocity are things I always like in a band.
Thankfully, there's a lot of hip-hop related groups out there that have stepped up to carry that torch forward. "Brockhampton" is definitely one of those groups. Composed of 14 members (no lie), "Brockhampton" came onto the scene this year with 3 albums of music (sitting at a tie with "King Gizzard"), all of which feature insanely cool beats, hooks, and flows, but a whole assortment of different vocalists, rapping creative, unique bar after bar on this 17 track album.
From top to bottom, this is a record that grabs you and doesn't let go, in a really accessible way, I feel. Bands that can be both catchy and accessible and also different and creative sounding are the best kind of musicians, I find.
7. Mount Eerie: A CROW LOOKED AT ME
GENRE: Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Depressing Shit
TRACK: "Real Death"
Okay, so this album is depressing. It is so, so sad. It is not a listen for the easily affected, or perhaps even with anyone currently struggling through a death in their life.
"Mount Eerie" was a band once known as "The Microphones", lead by singer-songwriter Phil Elverum. Under both bands, he's put out some crazy cool folk-inspired records ("The Glow pt. 2", "It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water") that deal with nature, and humanities place in it.
Phil Elverum's partner Geneviève Castrée passed in July of 2016, and Phil began working on this record not a month later, releasing it in March of this year. And it is an album all about her. Her death, the slow process of it all, his daughter's life without her mother- it is all dealt with in the most minimalistic, real way. It is not an easy listen.
But it is a beautiful record. Musically it is beautiful, lyrically it is beautiful. A teacher once was talking about why they read/engage with art that brings them negativity, that makes them feel bad things. He said that he thought of it as a sort of poison, like taking a little bit of poison every day in order to build up an immunity to it. And maybe this record is sort of that- a poison. It won't make you immune to the tremendously sad things on this record, but maybe it can be cathartic in a way.
8. Mountain Goats: GOTHS
GENRE: Indie Rock, Folk Rock, Song-Stories
TRACK: "Rain In Soho"
As the title suggests, singer John Darnielle released his sixteenth studio album about the topic of goths. Goth culture, goth music (specifically bands like "The Cure" and "Siouxsie and the Banshees"), and the various transitionary periods that came along with this musical movement.
Darnielle writes songs from the perspective of people either lost in the place of this new musical movement, or who were so entrenched in it that they wiped out after the wave hit the shore and petered out.
Filled with dark humor and clever storytelling, this is an album for anyone a fan of folk-flavored story-songs, all told through the lens of some catchy indie rock.
9. Death Grips: STEROIDS
GENRE: Experimental Hip Hop, Gabber, Seed-Noisey-Nonsense
TRACK: The whole thing
"Death Grips" are a group of madmen led by an insane person. And they're great for it.
Like "Brockhampton", "Death Grips" carry on that punk rock torch, that F-U attitude that you don't see from a lot of musicians these days, even the mystery- "Death Grips" are an enigmatic group to say the least, who fuse this aesthetic of this dark, paranoid internet-underbelly, with intense, blood pumping hip-hop, electronic music, and noise . "Death Grips" are a noisy freaking band.
On this mixtape/EP, "Death Grips" releases a 20 minute, free-flowing roller coaster of an album, one not for the cliched 'faint of heart'. "Death Grips" are weird.
It took me a few listens to sorta 'get' what they were going for, and not in some snobby 'they're so smart' way. They're just weird, man. But in a way that makes them so utterly unique, so different that in their short span of being a band (6 years), they've gone on to influence people like David Bowie and Björk .
10. Kendrick Lamar: DAMN.
GENRE: Hip Hop, Conscious Rap, Catchy Aggression
TRACK: "ELEMENT."
I wasn't hot on this record at first. I'm a huge fan of Kendrick's past works "Good Kid, M.A.A.A.D. City" and "To Pimp a Butterfly", and when I first heard "DAMN.", I felt a little disappointed. 'That's it?'
"DAMN." is a different beast from Kendrick's past stuff. It's aggressive, to the point, and in your face. It's Kendrick at his most pissed off, and in a lot of ways most bitter.
For me, it still stands below his past work. But it's still a Kendrick Lamar album, and it's still really freaking good.
