it’s my fav albums of 2k17
cw: some of the metal albums are pry gruesome. so, if gore isn’t your thing, keep that in mind.
- Code Orange — Forever
Forever is visceral. Typically, this wouldn’t be that compelling. It’s 2017. Blood as a hardcore/metal aesthetic is now largely kitsch. That being said, Code Orange’s sanguine tinted nightmarescape successfully conveys the industrio-occult turmoil of the band’s progression and somehow makes gore intimidating again and not just kinda gross. While the tumblr poet hardcore of Love is Love // Return to Dust and the sludgey severity of I Am King were both impressively raw, Forever more thoroughly realizes the band’s ethos of hate directed at all corrupt entities, human or divine.
Code Orange has always been defined by metallic riffs and an attitude of utmost grimness. Forever takes this industrial aura to its logical next stage with interludes of menacing synth dissonances that call to mind the factory-esque consternation of 90’s goth synthpop. These modest electronic additions allow Code Orange to both build up to ferocious charges and transition into needed melodic respites. Forever is a dreadfully matured album.
2. Baths — Romaplasm
Outwardly, Romaplasm is a distinct deviation from Will Wiesenfeld’s signature production style. The drum programming is substantially not as glitched out, there is a less prominent emphasis on resonant, almost Broadway-ish pianos, and Wiesenfeld sounds way more elated than his previous releases. Is Romaplasm…synthpop? Not the morose and fussily ornamented songwriting featured on Obsidian?
Not exactly. Romaplasm is still very much a Baths venture into the blurred boundary of real life crises and JPRG escapism, but it exchanges the Victorian melancholia of Final Fantasy VI with the more bucolic mystique of Final Fantasy IV. Airship imagery and declarations of “I’m queer in a way that works for you” conflate within a space of frantic synth arpeggios and adroitly layered vocals. Wiesenfeld seems to be letting himself have more fun with expressing the pensive inquiries of identity and relationships that pervade his past work. Tbh, Romaplasm has tracks that straight up bounce. Definitely my fav Baths release so far.
3. MIKE — May God Bless Your Hustle
May God Bless Your Hustle could be chalked off by a hip-hop cynic as just another smokey east coast lofi project, heavily affected soul sampling and degraded drum breaks. But, that’s a profoundly reductive assessment. MIKE isn’t just a MF Doom derivative, he’s an attention grabbing young voice that knows how to detail a narrative while still making you nod your head.
While Ghostface is spitting hyper-stimulated tongue twisters and A$AP Rocky is making club walls shake, MIKE offers another expression of NYC lyricism, a reserved, yet still engaging, candor, a self-awareness and personal vision that I wish I possessed when I was 18. May God Bless Your Hustle adeptly illustrates the dramas and tensions of his Bronx upbringing over instrumentals that are as stoic as they are smooth. MIKE’s approach to wordsmithing is sometimes terse, but never overly cryptic. Speaking with a similar succinctness, I’m looking forward to MIKE’s progression as a lyricist and artist.
4. Fen — Winter
Okay, so at first glace, I’m not gonna lie, Fen’s Winter sounds like the most basic black metal LP maybe ever. “Fen,” a marshland with a primordial, archaically European connotation. “Winter,” the most black metal thematic of all eternity. Also, an album art featuring a Dungeons and Dragons manual illustration. Seriously? Fortunately, I love black metal and I did not let these possible red flags deter me. And dang, I’m so very very glad I listened.
Winter’s unpromising appearance veils one of the most ambitious metal albums I’ve heard in a while. But, ambition with an intent of reclamation. When an scene, especially one with as much pageantry as black metal, smothers itself with aesthetic credo and expectation, projects often mutate into inadvertent caricatures. Winter commences with an aim of recapturing the foreboding essence of black metal. While this could be deemed a delusive foray of nostalgia, Fen delivers with a dynamic and contemporary sound. Touches of expansive synth pads, doom metal chugging, atypical time signatures, and tragically sleek shoegaze measures compliment more classical black metal instrumentation. Winter has everything that makes black metal so captivating, but for a 2017, not 1993, audience.
5. Aminé — Good For You
It’s pretty damn eyebrow-raising for a poppy hip hop album to stand out in a year that Drake releases something, but Aminé has done it. Good For You is such a fun LP. It’s humorous, it has its contemplative moments, and honestly, it’s downright whimsical at times. Aminé’s lyricism is exceptionally versatile, but curiously so, switching from the intricate downer bars of “Sundays,” to the flexed braggadocio of “Yellow,” to the the Boys Like Girls (no joke) chorus of “Hero.” Good For You is definitely a serious debut, but Aminé takes some joy in the comedic mien of rapping too.
Aside from his remarkable command over rapping and singing, The upbeat, synth’d out production of Good For You is much appreciated. Now, I am down with the minor key iciness of popular hip hop in 2017, but Aminé proves you can stunt on a spritely beat too. You need to dance, drive, or intently listen to something? Good For You is unilaterally fun.
6. Lowly — Heba
When one discusses an acclaimed electronically driven album, moods like “natural” and “warm” rarely come to mind. But, that is exactly what Lowly has crafted, a synthetic record with an organic chamber pop atmosphere. With its shimmering chords and utterly clean drumming, Heba contains some of the most pristine sounding tracks of 2017.
Lowly can be passive aggressive with the energy of their compositions. You don’t really expect when they will beckon you to sway. Even their minutes of lamentation call on one to tap their toes ever so slightly. Electronic music can often restrict artists to particular emotions, but Lowly has found a way flourish despite the rigidity of Korg circuitry.
7. USNEA — Portals Into Futility
When I went to Catholic High School, once or twice every semester they would usher the religious ed classes into an auditorium to get a confession in. As you waited for your turn to tell the priest you drank a bud light that last weekend, they would play Gregorian chants loudly to make sure no one could eavesdrop on your sins. USNEA’s Portals Into Futility is like the flip side of the coin of that experience, nihilistic cantillating that offers abjection over redemption.
Metal bands take a lot of pride in world and mythos building, but not USNEA. The very obviously delight more in world ending. Superficially, Portals Into Futility sounds like an abrasive elegy for existence, but in actuality, it’s a celebration. With a little bit of sludge and a whole lot doom, USNEA seeks to “pick the flower of dissolution.”
8. Antwon — Sunnyvale Gardens
I’ve been bumping Antwon for going on 5 years now and he has yet to release a disappointing project. There is no subgenre of hip hop that Twon can’t work with. Cloud rap, trap, boom bap, g-funk, it’s all there. While Antwon’s past releases have aurally focused on specific tones (Double Ecstasy's slick club bangers, Heavy Hearted in Duldrums’s spacious goth vibes), Sunnyvale Gardens is an exposition on the rapper’s talents, showcasing vocoded jams, deeply emotional hooks, and more general block party tracks.
Antwon is fundamentally a California rapper, this is felt in the swagger of Sunnyvale’s beats and his confident inflections, but he carries himself with a punk nonchalance which is definitely what caused me to gravitate to his music during my glum teen years, back when I needed lofi hip hop to validate my dourness. But now I’m 22 years old with an eagerness for the polished ennui of Antwon in 2017. It’s lit.
9. Shizune — CHEAT DEATH, LIVE DEAD!
I personally found 2017 to be an absolutely disappointing year for post-hardcore/emocore/emo yadda yadda. There were several hyped albums, but it seems the “emo revival” of 2k14 has officially come to its lackluster end. Lucky for us punky listeners though, skramz is way too harsh to ever have a marketable blogosophere revival and there’s a slew of outstanding acts recording material, waiting for us to stumble onto their bandcamp pages. Coming out of Italy is the perpetually intense Shizune.
CHEAT DEATH, LIVE DEAD! is very clearly recalling late 90’s screamo, but definitely not piggybacking. While 2015’s Le Voyageur Imprudent was Shizune at their most unabashedly revivalistic, CHEAT DEATH, LIVE DEAD! reapproaches their 90’s inspired sound with a basis of hardcore brevity. Each track absolutely cuts with a tragic fury that masks an underlying yearning, “I beg you! Will you care for me tonight?” Care for (listen to) Shizune tonight.
10. Japanese Breakfast — Soft Sounds From Another Planet
Congrats to Japanese Breakfast for making my top 10 aoty two years in a row which hasn’t happened yet! They’re awesome. “Boyish” is probably my fav song of 2017.
Psychopomp was a stellar effort. It’s highs were gorgeous and its lows were solemn. But there were moments in which it felt aesthetically all over, a sort of placelessness. In Soft Sounds from Another Planet, Japanese Breakfast has found that place beyond the bounds of Earth’s atmosphere. Soft Sounds isn’t truly a concept album in the sense that each track depicts a new alien landscape, but a sense of extra-terrestrial detachment from Earth, from reality, does motivate the LP.
Understanding interstellar travel as a figurative expression of disengagement here on Earth, Michelle Zauner’s sad android romances, tales of bodily dissociation, and spacey ambiances, become even more terribly splendid. They’re not phenomena occurring light-years away, but conflicts happening right here in our Solar System. With Soft Sounds From Another Planet, Japanese Breakfast terraforms a space in the deep divides between people, a world within a lovely, but deeply wounded, world.
Honorable Mentions
Fred Thomas — Changer
At this point, Thomas is an indie rock journeyman. His newest record rides on fast-tongued monologues, jaunty guitars, and a whole lot of synth and brass parts. A little disjointed at times, but it’s a mostly awesome addition to an already very awesome discography.
Sufferer — S/T
One of 2017’s better post-hardcore releases. Gets a lil warped tour-y at points, but it offers a perspective on mental illness that is both fitful and insightful.
Tica Douglas — Our Lady Star of the Sea, Help and Protect Us
I’m looking forward to when Douglas gets featured on Stereogum. In a hypersaturated market of NYC indie songwriters, I’m glad there is a stand out voice.
bastiengoat — culp
I’m a sucker for bombastic, mindless EDM, but luckily I have bastiengoat to produce dance tracks that make me feel smart and cool. I’m bad at dancing, but if I turn on culp, I can pretend I’m good.
Airiel — Molten Young Lovers
This maybe the most lively shoegaze album ever made? For those moments when Loveless isn’t dancey enough.
