Either 2017 has been an unusually good year for music or I had just taken my finger off the pulse until recently. Whichever is true, I've had a hard time squeezing my favourite albums of the year into an arbitrary list of 10 (which, it seems to me, we only do because then we can count them on our hands for some reason). So I've picked 12, should anybody care what I think, and I've added honourable mentions at the bottom for those that have missed out. In true clickbait list style, here they are in reverse order.
12) Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
Father John Misty is the pseudonym of American musician Josh Tillman. Reading this, it's easy to assume that this is some kind of parody of religious music but instead, his music is touching, serious and funny, often all at the same time. The themes are as diverse as fame, technology, politics and the environment, and often sounds as if an early Elton John has taken up residency at Speakers' Corner. It's bold, but it's catchy.
11) Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?
If you're a fan of the first album, there's nothing not to like here, something that I'd suspect Royal Blood can only get away with this time and they may have to try some new ideas on their third offering. But none of that matters when they've produced a rousing set of strong choruses, memorable lyrics and bluesy riffs to satisfy your inner air guitarist.
10) Laura Marling - Semper Femina
The hard-working 27-year-old is already on her sixth album and it's her best for some years. The title is Latin for "always woman" but is part of a longer quote by Virgil: "a woman is always fickle and changeable". Marling uses her lyrics to challenge this view but this doesn't mean that the album is super-intellectual and hard-going; quite the opposite. At times, the sound is slinky and smooth, and after nine tracks, you're left wondering where the time went.
9) Lindstrøm - It's Alright Between Us As It Is
This is Norwegian music producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm's fourth solo studio album but he is much busier with collaborations, remixes and singles. His music is described as downbeat space disco and he didn't grow up listening to dance music. He just started making what he thought it should sound like. Each track feels like he's gone back to basics to make the perfect sound but they all gel together. There are electronic bleeps and cyclical hooks aplenty making it feel familiar, yet unique.
8) Loyle Carner - Yesterday's Gone
Listening to the Mercury-nominated debut album from UK rapper Loyle Carner is like eavesdropping on a guy rehearsing in his bedroom while his mate records it. There are raw and honest lyrics, voices in the background, even text messages coming through. At the end, you feel as though you've just spent 42 minutes chilling with a new friend as he tells you all about his life, loves and loss. The penultimate track Sun of Jean features a poem about the artist read out by his mum and a sample of his late stepfather playing piano. The single, NO CD is the closest to being a chart crowd-pleaser but the whole album is nothing like how the US would have you believe rap should be.
7) The Killers - Wonderful Wonderful
After the slightly dodgy Day & Age, Brandon Flowers got a few experiments out of his system with his two solo albums. The band meanwhile tried to re-find their feet with Battle Born and by Wonderful Wonderful, their fifth album, The Killers sound like a band hitting their stride. The Man is a raucous sideswipe at the dangers of masculinity, whilst Run For Cover is a confident 80s synth rock powerhouse. Their lyrics have always been interesting and ambiguous but here they sound politically engaged, personally honest and sure of their intent. If there's one criticism, it's that there are one too many ballads but when they're this good, it's hard to complain.
6) Jessie Ware - Glasshouse
Glasshouse is that rare thing: each track on the album is both completely different and yet completely Jessie Ware. Whether it's the chart-friendliness of Midnight, the sultry romance of Alone, the bossa nova of Selfish Love or the poignancy of the excitement at her new pregnancy in Sam (co-written by Ed Sheeran), Ware proves she knows both how to write a good song, and whom to collaborate with.
5) Susanne Sundfør - Music For People In Trouble
A massive hit in her native Norway, I found this whilst trawling the Norwegian charts for something completely different and I wasn't disappointed. If you could imagine seeing Laura Marling performing in a contemporary art gallery among the installations, you'd be somewhere close to this. Sundfør's recent albums have been more electronic but this, her fifth, was written whilst travelling the world and sees her return to her folky roots. The arrangements are often sparse and intimate but with experimental elements. A babbling brook opens The Sound of War before a dystopian hum takes over halfway through. The lyrics are similarly bonkers in places, opening with "I'm as lucky as the moon" on Mantra, but on Undercover, Sundfør is heartbreakingly honest about trying not to fall in love whilst simultaneously aching for it. The album closes with a collaboration with US musician and fan of all things Scandinavian John Grant which begins like a Gregorian chant but ends as an epic Euro ballad. Even if you're not a fan, you won't hear anything like it this year.
4) Nothing But Thieves - Broken Machine
The cliche goes that second albums are difficult and at times this follow-up to the band's self-titled debut doesn't sound like it came easy. Despite that, Amsterdam is the anthemic stand-out track and the tender Sorry is just as accomplished. It's still a rock album but there are lots of ideas being tried out. The next few tracks seem to make attempts at a reggae beat, rapped verses and political lyrics before returning to more familiar territory halfway through. But whatever the band attempt to master, each track guarantees slick guitar hooks, anthemic choruses and Conor Mason's outstanding, classically trained voice which is showcased perfectly on the piano version of the emotional Particles on the deluxe version of the album. They've got the time and the skill to experiment.
3) Alt-J - RELAXER
It may only be 8 tracks but at 39 minutes in length, it's a fully fledged album. Every track is like a piece of art put together to represent the best of an artist's work. There are interweaving vocals, garage rock, Spanish guitar, sweary vocal hooks, acoustic lullabies ending in a bassoon solo, even a church choir. There's even space for a re-imagining of House of the Rising Sun which is certainly not just there as a cheap cover version to fill space. The band's third album was nominated for the Mercury Prize and was unlucky not to win but having already scooped the prize for their debut in 2012, I doubt they will be too disheartened even though RELAXER may even be an improvement.
2) Arcade Fire - Everything Now
Five albums in, Everything Now represents either a step-up or a change in direction. I guess all will become clear one day, but for now we can revel in this album's inventiveness which started with its viral online marketing campaign. For weeks in advance, there were cryptic tweets, fake reviews and an Everything Now Corp purporting to manufacture commercial goods. Yes, there were claims that Arcade Fire had jumped the shark and the record sounded manufactured but wasn't that the point? In making this album, the band has produced their most accessible to date whilst sticking with thought-provoking lyrics, sing-along choruses and clap-along beats. Yes, the title track sounds like an indie Abba. Yes, there's some weird interlude tracks. Yes, one or two ideas are a bit too bold to work fully. But they've thrown everything at it. They even got Daft Punk's Thomas Bengalter on production duties. There is very little here not to like and not a lot that could beat it...
1) The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
On the band's fourth album, there are still reflective lyrics, breathy vocals and distorted guitars and pianos, but there's a demand to look outwards and the music understandably sounds much greater and more expansive. There's more than a nod to 80s synth-rock added to the Americana, roots and Dylanesque vocals but it all holds together like the most exciting dream you've ever had. The irresistible melancholy on Pain draws you in and then, straight after, Holding On gets your foot tapping. There's more introspection on Strangest Thing and Knocked Down until you're dancing around like an idiot to the greatest song Dire Straits never wrote, Nothing To Find, before the epic, symphony-like Thinking of a Place lets you take a breath. In short, it's an album that begs you to play again and will improve on every listen.
And those that nearly made it, in no particular order...
Glass Animals - How To Be A Human Being, Bastien Keb - 22.02.85, Tom Williams - All Change, Maxïmo Park - A Risk To Exist, Ryan Adams - Prisoner, The National - Sleep Well Beast, Queens of the Stone Age - Villains, Ed Sheeran - ÷
If you don't have time to listen to all of these albums, try my 2017 Spotify playlist instead https://open.spotify.com/user/littlemuddyfunkster/playlist/55eiMzWrcUN5AtAseGItVI
Thanks for reading.
