Musings from a word nerd.
Musings from a word nerd.
It feels cliché to talk about 2017 as the monstrous entity that it was. Mostly because we all know it. That’s all we talked about all year. (And anyone who doesn’t see it as a series of obstacles probably has a very different opinion on what makes America and humanity great.)
Luckily the music was good. Very good. Some of it was a reaction to 2017, but a lot of it wasn’t. It was just great art that dealt with politics on the personal level. Discussing love, loss, anger, gender, race, technology, fun nights, and oppression weren’t inventions of 2017–and some of these issues have been bubbling for long enough that the explosion was going to happen regardless. So there’s not much else for me to say that these great creators haven’t already done.
My initial hope of doing 30 great tracks stretched and stretched…and so now we have 90 tracks. The first 5 are the ones tattooed on my heart. The next 25 are just so damn good I wanted to make sure you heard them. And the remaining are in alphabetical order just for the sake of ease. Below is the embedded spotify playlist too.
1. Just Dancing – Sylvan Esso
The beginning of a relationship is the most visceral part because you have the rush of “firsts” with a person. “Just Dancing” looks at the reality of hopping from person to person (via dating apps) just to keep yourself in a constant state of early love euphoria. It’s a simple concept laid over a building dance track that is as exciting as it is rueful.
2. This Country – Fever Ray
Who knew the protest song we all needed in 2017 would come from a Swede exploring her sexuality? Whether she’s talking about her native land or the U.S. or the world at large, Fever Ray (aka Karin Dreijer) lets a creepy synth trickle beneath her haunting voice until she exclaims “Free abortions! And clean water! Destroy nuclear! Destroy boring!” Leading to an unexpectedly cathartic “This country makes it hard to fuck!”
3. Pleasure – Feist
You can always tell a Leslie Feist guitar moment. It manages to be aggressive and delicate, and that carries through every note of this title track. As Feist navigates the meaning of pleasure—is it personal or public? Natural or manufactured? It’s a heady topic built on a riff PJ Harvey would be proud of (not to mention the vocal range displayed here), all leading up to a clap along finale that sounds somewhere between defiant and exuberant.
4. Slow Disco – St. Vincent
On her latest album Annie Clark goes big and personal, to varying degrees of success. But it’s no accident that the album’s highlight is a track that feels like the natural extension of her best work (think Strange Mercy meets Teenage Talk). It’s languid but weird in all the right places—including her own pitch-shifted vocals on an a funereal outro.
5. Ocean – Goldfrapp
It’s been a long time since Goldfrapp went epic in the truest sense of the word. Early tracks like Utopia and Strict Machine were wildly different but had one thing in common: They were unrelenting in going big—and then even bigger when you expected them to back down. Ocean follows suit with a cinematic sound that closes the album on perhaps the darkest note of the band’s career. “I borrowed bones, I borrowed skin to save me from the hell I’m in.”
6. Make Love Stay – Blue Hawaii
7. Blood on Me – Sampha
8. The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness – The National
9. WWWater – WWWater
10. Dangerous – The xx
11. Build a Fire – Young Ejecta
12. Heatwave – Amber Mark
13. No Worries – Sarah Jaffe
14. Moving as One – LOYAL
15. Put Your Money on Me – Arcade Fire
16. Underwater – Millie Turner
17. Throwing Lines – Kelly Lee Owens
18. London – Maty Noyes
19. Disco Tits – Tove Lo
20. after that – yaeji
21. Someone – Anna Of The North
22. Glue – Bicep
23. Kids – LIA LIA
24. Lucky Girl – Fazerdaze
25. Flatline – Nelly Furtado
26. Everlasting Love – Sabrina Claudio
27. Deathless – Ibeyi (featuring Kamasi Washington)
28. On My Mind (Jorja Smith X Preditah) – Jorja Smith, Preditah
29. call the police – LCD Soundsystem
30. Baby – Tei Shi
Lotto in Reverse – Alex Lahey
Some Mistakes – Anna Wise
Paradise – ANOHNI
Fire – Beth Ditto
I Feel Alright - Mura Masa Remix – Bonzai, Mura Masa
Country Girl – Boy Harsher
1UL – Danny L Harle
Trees On Fire – DJDS, Amber Mark, Marco Mckinnis
Get It Together – Drake, Black Coffee, Jorja Smith
Heat Of The Night – Eat More Cake
Go To Hell – Empress Of
Falling – Forever
Always Ascending – Franz Ferdinand
Love You More – Fyfe
No Horses – Garbage
Kids (Ain’t All Right) – Grace Mitchell
1986 – HÅN
Controller – Hercules & Love Affair, Faris Badwan
Godmanchester Chinese Bridge – The Howl & The Hum
I Won’t Judge – Jacques Greene
Purple Feelings (feat. Rainsford) – Jerry Folk, Rainsford
Love To Love – Jessie Ware
Something Bout Our Love – JONES
Al oeste – Juana Molina
Sleepwalker – Julie Byrne
LMK – Kelela
Sleep Deprived – LÉON
Leave the War With Me – London Grammar
Wait For Me – Luca D'Alberto
I’m Not A Disco – Maja Francis
Sober (Over You) – Melis
Tailwhip – Men I Trust
Sleeping in My Own Bed – Morly
1 Night (feat. Charli XCX) – Mura Masa, Charli XCX
Shouting at the Dark – The Mynabirds
Cuffed – Nick Hakim
Nobody – Niia
2 Good 2 Be True – Nite Jewel
Off The Radar – Noga Erez
Let Your Hair Down – Ouri, Mind Bath
Choir – Perfume Genius
Closer – POWERS
Crocodile Tears – Ralph
Sticky – Ravyn Lenae
Dance With A Ghost – Sara Hartman
Shine a Light – Shabazz Palaces, Quazarz, Thaddillac
Kimono Hill – Sophia Kennedy
Visions of Gideon – Sufjan Stevens
Hands Up Head Down – Sure Sure
Shake Em Off – Syd
The Weekend – SZA
Moonshine Freeze – This Is The Kit
Further – TOPS
Up The Creek – Tori Amos
Fear & Force – Vagabon
Falling (feat. Okay Kaya) – Vera, Okay Kaya
Virtue – Vero
I / You – vōx
Bleed – WENS
Stay for Real – Young Galaxy
