2017 was a year filled with good music, including some of the best songs that mainstream and underground music have seen in recent years. From Tyler the Creator to Kendrick Lamar, the year proved a to be a defining one for popular music. However, there are many gems that may have slipped by you that should not be missed.
1. "HEAT" - BROCKHAMPTON
A perfect introduction to the group, this was the second single released for the group’s trilogy of SATURATION albums that skyrocketed them to stardom in recent months. It’s a vitriolic rap posse cut propelled by a grimy, distorted bassline, and it shows off each member’s distinct style in a brilliantly edgy fashion.
2. "Don’t Go to Anacita" - Protomartyr
An absolute barnburner of a track from the post-punk group’s most dynamic record to date. Their singer’s husky vocals are the true star here, but it also shows off the band’s newfound instrumental nuance, with icy guitars and bombastic drums.
3. "Infinite Mint" - Iglooghost
Iglooghost created an insanely energetic fusion of drum and bass, wonky, and glitch pop on his breakout record, but this is actually one of the tamer cuts. Featuring extremely Bjork-
4. "Eating Machine In The Pond" - Squalus
One of the more dynamic tracks on the album, it is a
5. "My Chasm" - Mount Eerie
An incredibly emotional cut from an album that truly has no equal. Written a few months after the death of his wife, who had just given birth to their only child a year before, Phil Elverum discusses his struggle with carrying his grief with him everywhere he goes, making even supermarket small talk a painful experience.
6. "Paradiso" - Chino Amobi
This is the centerpiece and title track on a concept album that mixes progressive electronics, sound collage, and industrial hip-hop to tell a tale of a fictional dystopia. It’s built on a synth-infused tribal beat and a surprisingly melodic vocal hook that just builds and builds before finally imploding on itself.
7. "Woe to All (On the Day of My Death)" - Lingua Ignota
A hauntingly beautiful opening track, combining death industrial freakouts with incredibly poetic neoclassical segments, this track captures darkness in a very unique way. As a fifteen minute opener for its respective album, it is not for the faint of heart.
8. "Delta" - Mount Kimbie
Once on the more dub influenced side of electronic music, this track sees the duo flexing their “New Order” muscles in full force, making a spacious synth-lead new wave song with a trademark quick and rigid drumbeat. Despite being one of a few tracks without vocals on the album, the layers of synths and the track’s linear build keep it engaging.
9. "The Deep" - Clipping
Best known now for their frontman Daveed Digg’s role as Thomas Jefferson in "Hamilton"’s original run, experimental rap group Clipping made this track for a podcast on Afrofuturism. The song tells the story of the mythology built by classic Detroit techno group Drexciya, which was based around the idea that the fetuses within pregnant African women thrown off of slave ships adapted to live underwater and built an advanced society.
Eventually, they are discovered by humans, and a destructive war ensues. Daveed’s flow is as tight as ever, and instrumentally the group channels the techno roots the song is inspired
10. "Scientist" - Richard Dawson
A wonderfully freaky piece of progressive folk from one of Dawson’s best releases. The grand, stomping rhythm coupled with his eccentric vocals and off-kilter guitar playing creates something really quite epic for fans of
11. "Along Alligator Drunes" - Stabscotch
Arguably the most straightforward song on the record, the band channels Big Black/Shellac to make a caustic, angular post-hardcore banger with sneering vocals. It’s sure to make Steve Albini proud.
12. "Can I Get The Real Stuff" - Guerilla Toss
The notoriously noisy and wacky no wave group turn to a poppier, new wave and dance-punk approach to their songwriting, cleaning up their recording style in the process. Filled to the brim with synths (both chirping and droopy) and zany bassline, this stands as a strong contender for one of the year’s catchiest tracks.
13. "Wreath" - Perfume Genius
A shimmering pop epic off of Mike Hadreas’s triumphant fourth album. His vocals cascade along a mountain of strings, distorted guitars, piano, and wonky percussion to make what is truly one of best outsider pop songs in 2017.
14. "Stendhal Syndrome" - IDLES
The raucous British post-punk group put together one of their snarkiest tracks with “Stendhal Syndrome.” Named after a condition defined as an overwhelming emotional response to a piece of art, the group mocks people that don’t appreciate or comprehend high art, with brilliant lines like “Did you see that painting that Rothko did?/Looks like it was painted by a two-year-old kid!”
15. "For Light" - Jay Som
The big,
16. "Man Wearing Helmet" - Bedwetter
Bedwetter is one of artist Travis Miller’s many aliases, and here he draws from the styles of early Def Jux artists such as El-P to create an incredibly dark and introspective rap project, with this being one of the catchiest on the album, while also having an appropriately unsettling instrumental.
17. "Lone Star" - Sun Kil Moon
One of Mark Kozelek’s most long-winded tracks, it switches between seething bass driven sections, and pretty Led Zeppelin III inspired folk sections. He touches on getting banned from San Antonio, the ridiculous bathroom laws in North Carolina, and how internet culture spawned our current president. It’s simultaneously one of his funniest as well as seriously outspoken songs.
18. "Dum Surfer" - King Krule
Easily one of the year’s most surprising singles, it has Archy Marshall ditching his previously skeletal singer/songwriter style as well as his previous
19. "Form Constant; the Grid" - Ex Eye
A brisk avant-garde metal track displaying inklings of jazz fusion and
