Lurker > Giggsalot

12. Algiers - The Underside of Power
Key Track: The Underside of Power ()

It's 2018, and Algiers are the best and most important rock band on the planet. Their seamless and unholy merging of noisy post-punk and gospel arrived stunningly fully-formed on their 2015 debut self-titled record, at times sounding like Trent Reznor remixing negro spiritual music for the Black Lives Matter generation. It was my favourite album of that year, and their follow-up, The Underside of Power, is in many ways even better. This thing is an absolute tour-de-force for Algiers as a band unit; over 45 minutes here they delve into screeching synth punk, apocalyptic post-trap soundscapes, tender piano ballads and everything in between, all without sacrificing a coherent vision or their established aesthetic. Not everything works perfectly here - the second half can't quite keep up with the first - but these guys are truly incredible, and there's no band that the world needs more right now than Algiers.

11. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
Key Track: uhhhhh ()

If you know one thing about Mirror Reaper, you know it's an 83-minute single track doom metal album. Frankly, I don't blame you if that's the only thing you need to know. But Mirror Reaper is an album of absolutely stunning composition, pacing and scope, and a heart-wrenching monument to loss. Framed as a sonic epitaph to former Bell Witch drummer Adrien Guerra (whose vocals are included here, credited to the "voice of the dead"), it's essentially a funereal doom symphony of two parts, with significant portions of the record given over to bleak, impossibly fragile sounds reminiscient of early Low. It goes without saying: you'll probably never listen to Mirror Reaper with complete unblinking focus. Your mind will wander. And yes, the album could probably have made its point in half the time. But that's kind of missing the point; grief is an indulgent, overwhelming feeling, and Mirror Reaper is a staggeringly potent embodiment of that emotion.
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14. Ian William Craig - Slow Vessels
Key Track: Arrive, Arrive ()

Ian William Craig's 2016 album Centres is one of the ambient records of the decade, a deeply melancholic core of singer-songwriter tracks anchored in Craig's flawless falsetto, completely enshrouded and obscured in swirling, ambiguous tape loops. It sounds like a Bon Iver album that sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Its new companion piece, Slow Vessels, strips back the drones and presents the songs in a plainer form - raw, fragile and unveiled as the haunting lamentations they are. On Centers, the powerful emotion of these songs feels abstract and dream-like, but here, nothing is left to the imagination. Neither is better than the other, but both are utterly essential for anyone who values getting lost in sound.

13. Tyler the Creator - Flower Boy
Key Track: Boredom ()

HE DID IT. HE ACTUALLY FUCKING DID IT.

Like many people on the internet, I've been convinced against my better judgement for years that Tyler the Creator had a masterpiece somewhere inside him. I'd stopped paying active attention to his work - I didn't even listen to Cherry Bomb - but I was always ready to step back in whenever the fuck he grew up. And six years after the shambolic Goblin roll-out, Flower Boy is what I always wanted. Compared to Tyler's previous high point, Wolf, every single aspect of the music has improved massively; the wordplay, the lyrical topics, the flows, the use of guests, the music. Tyler's always had immense potential as a producer, but here he really nails it as a Kanye-esque curator - he sings all over this record, allows instrumental passages to develop for minutes on end, and there are several songs here where he's barely involved vocally at all. Tyler's rebellious rage has been finally faded into ennui and genuinely relateable internal conflict, and on Flower Boy he channels that into a colorful, affecting and often beautiful song cycle. Welcome to the big leagues, Tyler. We've been waiting for you.
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Surskit posted...

Hi, I'm super late but:

Traditional Latin American pop of the absolute highest order. I don't know anything about this style of music, but I'm a sucker for flamenco guitar and Cuban rhythms, and on Musas Lafourcade lives up to her reputation as the standard bearer for this kind of stuff. Put this on and make paella for your girl and she'll think you're the classiest motherfucker she's ever seen.

1. Robbed. This album is fantastic.
2. I wouldn't call this anywhere near Lafourcade's signature style; she started off as a pure pop girl before transitioning into more of that "quirky indie pop" during the mid-2000s. This is basically a covers album; the songs are traditional Latin American songs from anywhere between Chile and Mexico.
3. Flamenco is a Spanish music style. This guitar is typical of bolero.
4. Paellas are Spanish as well but I'll forgive you. Just make sure that girl isn't latina haha.
5. Do listen to "Hasta La Raiz" if you liked this and haven't already; it's her best album imo.

oh shit, a person with actual knowledge. good to have you!

I actually did know this was covers, but it didn't feel all that significant from an outsider/layman perspective. naturally that changes if you're familiar with the style, but I didn't expect anyone here to be. I appreciate the genre correction too; I figured flamenco wouldn't apply, but I wasn't sure what else to use.

also, there's no way in hell I'd be making paella for any Spanish speakers! I work with enough actual Spaniards to ever risk my reputation like that.

will try and get 14-11 up tonight!
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That's a fascinating statement actually, I wonder what my pick for best produced hip-hop album ever would be.

My gut reaction was Aquemini. Not sure if I'd settle on that if I really thought on it, but it's certainly up there.
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4:44 is Jay's best record in a long ass time, but as far as No ID goes the production on Summertime '06 is way better
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evening bump!
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technically that was 2016, Seph! I know because I put it on my songs of the year playlist last year. definitely amazing though, shame the album didn't live up to it.

perfect pop songs of 2017, off the top of my head: Slide, SZA's Drew Barrymore, N.E.R.D's Lemon, Lorde's Homemade Dynamite and Boys by Charli XCX
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

interesting that you call staples the best rapper of the last three years, btw.

curious how he compares to some other rappers for you, but i'll wait for the list to be completed before i start that discussion so that you don't have to reveal any potential list spoilers.

That was a tiny bit of hyperbole, maybe - I certainly don't think he's miles ahead of everybody else or anything. But he's certainly in the discussion for me. Looking forward to having that chat once the list is done!

Glad to see the Slide love too!
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

yeah, maybe i'll give TDIU a shot anyway out of curiosity but i'm not expecting much from it.

from big fish theory i only know bagbak (from the black panther trailer) and i did not like that song. hate to be negative all the time but yeah :-/ probably a minority opinion as most people seemed to really dig it when that trailer came out.

edit: oh, i didn't even notice that's your favorite track on the album lol

Oh well! It's definitely an in-your-face sound, it certainly won't appeal to everyone. Maybe check out Vince's Summertime '06 album, that's at least a little more sonically conventional (and also better overall in my view).

Nelson_Mandela posted...

Giggsalot posted...

Even in a poptimistic world where Calvin Harris made arguably my favourite song of the year,

What song is that?!

His whole album is surprisingly good, actually - just missed this list! This is by far the best track on it though, pretty flawless pop song for me.
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

i'm interested in the majority of these albums but i'm gonna skip the dusk in us; i absolutely hate metalcore/post-hardcore so there's no chance i'm going to like this. the consensus seems to be that it's a great album, though.

That's fair enough! They're certainly diverse enough that you'd probably find something to enjoy, but their core sound is definitely that so it's probably not worth the struggle.

Let me know what you think of anything you do give a listen to!
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17. Everything Everything - A Fever Dream
Key Track: Desire ()

Even in a poptimistic world where Calvin Harris made arguably my favourite song of the year, it's a relief when the best pop music remains just a tiny bit under the mainstream radar. The music of Everything Everything is absolutely effervescent in its colour and exuberance, and A Fever Dream is their second knock-it-out-the-park album in succession. Desire does Muse better than Muse, Run the Numbers does Royal Blood better than Royal Blood, and the dual centerpieces of the title track and Put Me Together create such an enveloping ambience that I never fail to be completely sucked into a dream world before the manic Ivory Tower slaps me awake. Pretty much everything here is fantastic, and anyone who has any use for energy or fun in their music needs to get on these guys yesterday.

16. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
Key Track: Bagbak ()

Vince Staples is the best rapper in the world, and probably has been for the last three years or so. No one else in the rap world shares his intelligence, efficiency and surgical precision; there's no wasted word in a Staples verse, and the utter lack of pretentiousness in his delivery only serves to emphasize how much better he is than most of his overexuberant peers. So it's naturally a bit of a double-edged sword when he chose to make an album that emphasizes atmosphere over bars. But the Burial-esque sound washes of Big Fish Theory's first half flow so immaculately that it's almost a disappointment when the more lyric-focused bangers of the second half show up. Big Fish Theory is still a record that only Staples could have made; a study of a conflicted mind, set to a deeply nocturnal, house-inflected backdrop. It's sonically and lyrically completely unique, and the fact that I don't think this is his masterpiece only indicates the potential I think Staples has.

15. Oxbow - Thin Black Duke
Key Track: Other People ()

Oxbow are one of the most interesting bands of the last 25 years, somehow shifting from their noisy punk roots to something resembling a demented chamber rock band without losing even a touch of their unique vibe. Thin Black Duke, their first album in a decade, is their softest and most lushly orchestrated to date, adorned with beautiful arrangements resembling maudlin of the Well or These New Puritans' Field of Reeds. But at its heart, this is still a unusual, mystical and slightly mad art rock record, powered by Eugene Robinson's diverse and manic vocals. Thin Black Duke is a difficult record that slowly worms its way into your brain over repeated listens, but it's some of the most gorgeous and rewarding rock music of the year. I'll be figuring this out for years.
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Into the top twenty yayyyyyyyy

20. Blanck Mass - World Eater
Key Track: Rhesus Negative ()

A few years back I stumbled upon Fuck Buttons' Slow Focus and found it to be a puzzling and pretty awesome record. Melding massive drone swells and massive dubstep synths with progressive electronic song structures, it was the first electronic record I'd ever heard to effectively mimic the overwhelming builds of post-rock entirely synthetically. I then forgot about it almost completely. Fast forward to 2017, and Fuck Buttons' appropriately named Benjamin Power is still doing a variation of the same thing: World Eater is a complete sensory overload of an electronic record, pumping up post-industrial, dubstep and trap sounds to a scale that completely dwarves anything anyone else is doing. These pieces, even the low-key, R&B-tinged ones, are utterly massive. World Eater would be a ridiculous title for almost anything, but it's hard to argue with its use here.

19. Converge - The Dusk in Us
Key Track: A Single Tear ()

"Consistently brilliant band continues being brilliant" isn't much of a narrative, but it's hard to know what else to say here. Converge have been the premiere band in hardcore punk for the best part of two decades now, and while The Dusk in Us isn't their greatest record, it's still outrageously good by any standards. It's scarcely believable that something of this intensity and sheer power was made by men in their forties. This isn't all empty thrashing either: the softer pieces are some of their best ever, closer Reptilian might be their best straight up doom track, and in Trigger, a deliciously gnarled slice of noise rock, they throw a curveball of such quality that I'd love to hear an entire album of it. These guys are not mortal.

18. The National - Sleep Well Beast
Key Track: The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness ()

"Consistently brilliant band continues being brilliant" isn't much of a narrative, but luckily this doesn't quite apply to The National anymore. After the by-numbers and blandly morose Trouble Will Find Me broke their winning streak, I came into Sleep Well Beast with a concerned skepticism. Could they be done? Nope! Beast is a great record, switching up the formula and songwriting just enough to make them feel fresh again. It would be easy to focus on the subtle and well-used electronic touches that permeate the record, but the most crucial shifts are exemplified in lead single The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness: a song with an addictive shambling rhythm unlike anything they've ever done, and a honest to god guitar solo. They made a guitar solo an exciting thing in 2017! That's impressive. Elsewhere, the tempos vary healthily, the lyrics hurt in all the right ways, and the trademark sob-into-your-whisky ballads are as exemplary as ever. This is a great record.
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Interesting question! And don't hesitate to ask more, I'm happy to discuss stuff.

A few points in response:

i) The rest of Culture isn't significantly better or different than Bad & Boujee lyrically. The lyrics are never the focus at all, and they make no attempt to be.

ii) Even if their lyrical skills are comparable, Quavo and Offset are significantly better MCs than someone like Hittman for me, because they're more charismatic and the musical qualities of their rapping (flow, voice) are far superior. It's the same as Snoop really, he hasn't said anything of substance in years, and while that might disqualify him from being the absolute best, he's still pretty great.

iii) I do like 2001, at least to a point: if it came out this year, I'd probably put it close to or slightly above Culture. But there's a big difference between that (essentially a 7.5 - 8/10 record) and a "best hip hop ever" list, and it's hard for me to imagine any rap record with mediocre lyricism to approach the latter level for me. The closest thing to a counterexample to that is probably Young Thug's Jeffery, which is completely amazing on a sonic level and pure nonsense lyrically, but that's so consistently melodic that my brain hardly even processes it as a rap album. Something like 2001 or Culture has no such ambiguity to work with, so it's harder for them to access a mental loophole like that.

Does that make any sense?
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bump!
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It's certainly impressive, I feel like the consistency is kind of a double-edged sword in how closely all of Saturation adheres to the same formula. I really don't need anything else in that style from them anymore, because I have two hours of it already - the real test is if their next project (singular, hopefully) can push them forward and do something genuinely different. But I'm certainly excited to see if they manage it!

23. Clap! Clap! - A Thousand Skies
Key Track: Ode to the Pleiades ()

If you took Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma and replaced the space-jazz underpinnings with African folk music, A Thousand Skies would be the best possible result. The second of this list's trio of Africa-inspired electronic albums, Clap! Clap!'s second record is a completely unique experience, and a triumph in creative sampling and enveloping songwriting. In fifteen songs over 42 minutes, A Thousand Skies takes the user by the hand and flies them over sub-Saharan Africa before ascending to the stars above. It's a genuinely stunning ride.

22. Slowdive - Slowdive
Key Track: Sugar for the Pill ()

One of the year's best feelgood stories for sure. Slowdive still being good, 22 years after Pygmalion, would have engendered mostly relief. Slowdive still being this good is nothing but sheer joy. This album is nothing but a demonstration in absolute mastery in dreamy, melancholic shoegaze; if this had been released 18 months after Souvlaki we'd be placing it alongside their other classics without a doubt. An overly cynical perspective might claim Slowdive to be more pleasant than remarkable, but that never stopped them before. I hope these guys make music forever.

21. Cunninlynguists - Rose Azura Njano
Key Track: Violet (The Upper Room) ()

Some of the best evidence yet for the emotional power of absence. Slowdive broke up and came back twenty years later with a remarkably solid, perfectly on-point Slowdive album, and everyone erupted in applause. Meanwhile, Cunninlynguists stuck around, dispensed with the dramatics and dropped Rose Azura Njano, a remarkably solid, perfectly on-point Cunninlynguists album, and basically no one cared. Sure, it's not their best album, and it's perhaps the least groundbreaking of their six full records. But these guys are one of the most consistently brilliant hip-hop acts of the century, and they haven't missed a step here. Miss this at your peril.
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26. Brockhampton - Saturation I - III
Key Track: Gummy ()

What can I say about these guys that hasn't been said already? For those living under a rock, Brockhampton are the most discussed rap group of the year - an internet-spawn self-described "boy band" comprising about 15 dudes and every style of contemporary rap in one posse cut-heavy package. In simple terms, they're Odd Future with less immaturity, and they've blown the fuck up. Of the three Saturation albums they dropped to exponentially increasing hype last year, II is my personal favourite, but all three records are remarkably consistent and show a whole lot to be excited about. Brockhampton are far from the finished article, but there's only so contrary I can bring myself to be: these guys deserve the hype.

25. Angles 9 - Disappeared Behind the Sun
Key Track: Disappeared Behind the Sun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBbAgxNUhIc&t=1357s)

I'll keep this one simple. Angles 9 are my favourite jazz act going at the moment, and pretty much the closest thing you can find to big band-era Charles Mingus in 2017. They make the avant-garde accessible, and the weird groovy as fuck. This isn't their best album - for that, 2014's Injuries is the way to go - but it's reliably fantastic, and every jazz fan should stop reading this right now and listen to it. These guys are amazing.

24. Slow - V: Oceans
Key Track: Aurore ()

This is about the best funeral doom-by-numbers album I've ever heard. The songs move in exactly the way your heart wants them to, the chord progressions are all predictable yet immensely satisfying, and when they steal Skepticism riffs they steal great Skepticism riffs. The atmosphere and production are immaculate too; if you're looking for a sad, heavy album to pull you and your brain into another world, this is pretty close to flawless. This is one of the least "interesting" albums on the list, but anyone that I ever turned onto Skepticism should listen to this right away.
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29. Benjamin Clementine - I Tell a Fly
Key Track: Phantom of Aleppoville ()

I know I've said this a lot already, but holy balls this is a weird album. Ben Clementine's 2015 debut At Least For Now was a massive favourite of mine, easily one of the most expressive and unique singer-songwriter albums of the decade. By any measure, this guy is the real deal. But this? What the hell is this? I Tell A Fly is a jaw-dropping opus of stunning impressionistic piano passages, baroque jazz flourishes and utterly mad song structures; I've heard this at least ten times now, and I still have no idea where it's going next. The fact that he manages to craft some genuinely catchy pop songs in the midst of all this almost feels like showing off. I don't love everything on this album, but if you have any friends who think that nothing novel or interesting is happening in music in 2017, show them I Tell A Fly. They might walk funny for a while afterwards.

28. Freddie Gibbs - You Only Live Twice
Key Track: Crushed Glass ()

Unpopular opinion time: Freddie Gibbs can flow immaculately over anything, and Pinata was great, but he really found his sound with the dark, spacey vibe of 2016's Shadow of a Doubt. You Only Live Twice largely continues that sonic angle, with Freddie inspired by a harrowing overseas prison stint on a quashed charge. From the title down this is a comeback informed by the perspective he gained locked up in a foreign jail, but concepts aren't what powers this record - the sheer brilliance of Freddie's rapping does that. The bangers here bang hard (Amnesia, yikes), the introspective moments are genuinely poignant, and everything in between works brilliantly too. Not bad for 32 minutes of material.

27. Flotation Toy Warning - The Machine that Made Us
Key Track: King of Foxgloves ()

With the indie blogosphere having largely abandoned them in favour of trendier hypebeasts in hip-hop and R&B, it's probably a weird time to be in a white guy indie rock band. It's probably even weirder to return to the scene after thirteen years, as Flotation Toy Warning just did. Their sound, a dreamy, expansive take on 2000s indie, is hopelessly outdated by this point, but their sincerity, ambition and earnestness is never in doubt. The songs here range from 2 to 12 minutes long, and there's not a dud among them. If you yearn for the days where Arcade Fire were upstarts and The Flaming Lips were sane, you could do a hell of a lot worse than this.
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32. Sun Kil Moon - Common as Light and Love are Red Valleys of Blood
Key Track: God Bless Ohio ()

In the midst of internet consternation over his too-old-for-this-shit demeanor, Mark Kozelek has evolved in his sixth decade of life into one of the oddest, most fascinating recording artists in contemporary folk music. His transformation into the world's grouchiest spoken word artist reached new heights in 2017 with the release of no less than four new albums, spanning beatnik jazz, ambient soundscapes, and this: his "rap album," as he tongue-in-cheekly described it live recently. Two full hours of travelogues, stream of consciousness storytelling and unreliable narrations, Common as Light is exhausting and excessive, and basically the musical equivalent of road tripping with your weird uncle. But if you're invested in Kozelek and his music, it's a hugely entertaining ride.

31. Jonwayne - Rap Album Two
Key Track: Afraid of Us ()

This is about the least cool rap album of the year, but it's one of the most honest. Detached from almost all of the ironic indie rapper wit of his previous work, Jonwayne spends Rap Album Two detailing his battles with and recovery from alcoholism, with quietly devastating results. Some of the best moments, though, are the subtler ones: the opening verse of Paper, where he imagines himself living the life cycle of a tree, is one of the more unique and beautiful rap stanzas I've heard in a long time. If you're in the market for some potent, moving hip-hop, don't miss out on this.

30. Young Thug - Beautiful Thugger Girls
Key Track: Family Don't Matter ()

...And on the other side of the spectrum there's this! Young Thug's "country album" doesn't quite live up to either last year's stunning JEFFERY or the promise of its absurd title, but it's yet more evidence that mainstream rap's weirdest presence remains both totally inimitable and a surprisingly cogent crafter of coherent album statements. Whether wailing "YEEHAW!" fifteen seconds into the album or rapping over Bright Eyes samples on "Me or Us," Thug remains an absolute lunatic here, and the more cloudy, somber beats suit him well. It's almost endearing that, despite his huge name, Thug apparently remains too weird for complete mainstream ubiquity (outside of guest verses at least, shout out to Havana!). Don't change, Jeffery! Rap would be so much more boring without you.
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most of it is, actually! for some reason, that beat never hit me the way it hits nearly everyone else. that said, if you hate the rapping (outside of Uzi), you probably won't like too much of the album.
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35. Forest Swords - Compassion
Key Track: Knife Edge ()

Since Dagger Paths blew up in 2010, Forest Swords has been one of the most singularly unique musical acts in the world. Seven years later, almost nothing about Matthew Barnes' sound has changed, but it hardly needs to when no one else does what he does. The snarling Morricone guitar lines have been largely switched out for elegiac piano passages, but the dub rhythms and gently pulsing tribal rhythms are as good as ever, and Compassion might be the band's most consistent set of material yet. They'll need to switch it up eventually, but for now I can definitely make room for music as cinematic and casually genre-obliterating as this stuff.

34. Torres - Three Futures
Key Track: Three Futures ()

Mackenzie Scott's second album, 2015's Sprinter, is one of the best rock records of the decade. It's one of those albums that delivered everything I could have ever hoped it to be going in, and it stands up to this day. She'll probably never make a better record. So how do you follow that up? Switching things up entirely, Three Futures is a swirling, floating album where the synths sound natural and the guitars sound like transmissions from another galaxy. In a purely songwriting sense it's perhaps her weakest record yet, but the sound here is so transfixing and unique that I can't turn away. Torres was already great, but this might be the record that makes her fascinating.

33. Circuit des Yeux - Reaching for Indigo
Key Track: Brainshift ()

Reaching for Indigo, one of the most intriguing art pop records of the year, absolutely came out of nowhere for me late this year. The first half of the album is absolutely stunning, like a Benjamin Clementine or Antony album coated in Swans eerieness. Things get even weirder in the second half, and I'm still slightly unsure of what to make of it as an overall package. But either way, this is far too idiosyncratic and fantastically evocative to ignore.
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evening bump!
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38. Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Key Track: Nemoralia ()

In which the single most diverse and artistically restless band of the last 25 years make another left turn. In their quarter-century career, Ulver have tackled black metal, folk, trip-hop, ambient, psych rock and modern classical music, handling every single transition with respect and skill. A gimmick they are not. But people were somehow still surprised when they released The Assassination of Julius Caesar: their "pop" album, and essentially the best Depeche Mode album in about two decades. It would be a cheap joke to claim Ulver had finally "found their sound," but Assassination is legitimately one of their best works to date, and maybe a decent entry point into their daunting discography too. So long as you never expect to find the same thing twice.

37. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers
Key Track: Anthem for No State ()

It's probably fair to say at this point that Godspeed are past their artistic zenith. But if they keep giving us albums of this quality, it's hard to complain too much. Much more immediate than its initially underwhelming predecessor Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress, Luciferian Towers is a svelte forty minutes of music that avoids the major issue of their previous two post-reunion albums - the monotonous drone tracks. By contrast, everything here is engaging, and if Bosses Hang, the first of the two epics here, fails to live up to its explosive live incarnation, the closing Anthem for No State can stand alongside anything they've ever recorded. And considering this is a band who once recorded arguably my favourite album of all time, that's a pretty good place to be twenty years in.

36. IDK - IWASVERYBAD
Key Track: Maryland Ass N**** ()

This guy has so much potential it's scary. Completely unknown to me three months ago, IDK's Adult Swim debut shows him to be a remarkably fully formed artist, with a commanding mic presence, great taste in beats and a lyrical versatility reminiscent of early Vince Staples or Kendrick. Like some of Staples' early mixtapes, this is kind of a grab-bag of things that really work and things that kind of don't. But the stuff that works - especially when he discusses his family - is truly stunning, and shows IDK as a guy with a truly unique perspective; this is a guy put MF DOOM, Swiss Beatz and Chief Keef on the same album! This really feels like the beginning of something huge - five years from now, this could be IDK's Section.80 - but for now it's just exciting as hell. Don't sleep on this.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

Giggs do you work in the music industry? Seriously asking because I hardly have time to listen to 5 new albums a year in my old age, let alone 50.

Haha, I guess it's just a question of priorities really. You must fit some hobbies into your glamorous life, right? I work sixty hour weeks most of the year (though admittedly I can sometimes listen to stuff at work), but music remains my passion above pretty much all else, so if I'm home alone some evening then there's a good chance I'm researching and/or listening to something.

I usually get to about 100-150 albums in a year, which is "only" a few a week. If half of those fail to grab me after a listen or two, then it's not a huge time commitment really. I'm pretty sure the majority of this board spends more times playing games than I do on music.
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41. Bicep - Bicep
Key Track: Glue ()

The best house I heard this year. Bicep aren't doing anything particularly new here, but they come across as real students of the genre; the ambient cuts here are reverent and enveloping, the bangers bang, and some of the more somber tracks like Glue even evoke Burial's nocturnal urban wistfulness. The album fades ever-so-slightly in the middle, but for the most part this is a compulsively listenable and exceptionally crafted collection of electronic music.

40. Laura Marling - Semper Femina
Key Track: Soothing ()

Somehow, it seems like Laura Marling always has a new album out. Semper Femina is one of her best, I think - she's certainly a master at her craft, and everything here hangs together wonderfully - but there's a tiny bit of fatigue setting in at this point. Of the nine tracks here, only the slithering jazzy opener Soothing really does anything particularly new. Still, there's a lot of beauty here, and anyone unfamiliar with one of the best singer-songwriters of her generation would do well to give this a listen.

39. Migos - CULTURE
Key Track: T-Shirt ()

Migos took over the world with CULTURE, and it sounds exactly like an album that deserves to take over the world. It's at times utterly gloriously stupid (the intro to the album itself gleefully repeating "Culture album coming soon!", Get Right Witcha's baffling "chinks!" ad-lib) but it's also a work of exceptional skill and pop instinct. Every song here sounds like it could be a hit, and not a moment of the hour running time is wasted. And each Migo proves themselves indispensable too - Quavo drips charisma in every verse here, Offset's flows remain a technical marvel, and Takeoff gets probably the most jawdropping moment of all when he massacres the ridiculous Castlevania-style beat of Deadz. CULTURE probably isn't Migos' best work, but its title is no hyperbole. This is Migos' culture now, and it's a pretty damn fun place to be.

(P. S. That T-Shirt video is a work of goddamn art, if you somehow haven't seen it rectify that now)
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yeah, 1000 is kind of all over the place but that hook is so infectious. Pharrell just sounds so excited!

44. Jlin - Black Origami
Key Track: Carbon 7 ()

This shit is nuts. I never got into the DJ Rashad wave of footwork because it felt too repetitive, but this is so through-composed and intricate that it almost has the opposite problem. Black Origami never dwells on a single idea for a second, and generally sounds like the album Flying Lotus might make if he spent three years in the African jungle. Plus, she got William goddamn Basinki on this shit. It's arguably more impressive than enjoyable, but listening to Black Origami makes it obvious why she's one of the few modern artists with a full-throated Richard D. James cosign. Absolutely

43. Moses Sumney -Aromanticism
Key Track: Quarrel ()

With a more engaging atmosphere than CTRL and more interesting songwriting than Sampha's Process, Aromanticism is my R&B album of the year. It's a little lightweight in places - the album only really shows Sumney's potential in its longer cuts - but this is a swirling, sensual introduction to one of the most unique and exciting soul singers to emerge in years.

42. King Krule - The Ooz
Key Track: Dum Surfer ()

Archy Marshall is in this for the long haul, guys. On his first "real" album in four years, London's gruffest ginger kid unleashed a weird world of Waitsian sprawl and diversity; there are nineteen tracks here, some better than others, but none of them break the spell that this album creates. Marshall's sandpaper voice is still a wonder, and as the music flows from pounding post-punk to jazzy guitar noodling to trip-hop infused ballads, it's impossible not to be drawn into the beguiling world of The Ooz. I don't really understand this album yet, but one thing I do understand is that I'll keep listening to this until I do. We'll be talking about this guy in fifty years, folks. Get on the train.
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morning bump!
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47. Heaven in her Arms - White Halo
Key Track: Turbid Fog ()

This is a really weird record for me. Heaven in Her Arms' last record, 2012's Paraselene, was a metallic hardcore record like no other - a sprawling exploration of heavy music that felt like every song belonged to a different subgenre. Its long-awaited follow-up is almost the opposite; this is forty-five focused minutes of straight up worship of Envy, the Japanese screamo legends. Envy have become a tiny bit more in vogue recently since everyone realised Deafheaven stole their whole sound, and I'd argue Heaven in Her Arms do at least an equally good job. This is a celestially beautiful, emotionally powerful record, and the fact that I've heard it all before can only hold it back so much.

46. Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology
Key Track: The Architect ()

I only listened to this for the first time about three weeks ago because it kept showing up on other year-end lists and I was baffled that I hadn't heard of it. It's pretty good! Modern Kosmology is a synthy psych-pop record of excellent songwriting that's kind of hard to talk about because it's so immaculately crafted so as to be slightly dull. Ten tracks, 44 minutes, and not a dud in sight. If you need some spacey Stereolab-esque pop music in your life, don't miss out on this.

45. SZA - CTRL
Key Track: Drew Barrymore ()

Point number one: I don't like this anywhere near as lots of people do.
Point number two: it's still really fucking good.

CTRL probably needs no introduction; it's the consensus R&B album of the year, and made a star out of SZA. Which, even if I don't entirely love this record, is nice to see - both on and off-record, she seems a hugely endearing individual. She also from time to time writes massive songs; Drew Barrymore in particular is a serious song of the year contender for me, a kiss-off and mission statement that manages to both project vulnerability and cast SZA as an uncompromising badass. That's not easy to do, and the R&B world is a better place for having SZA at the table.
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50. N.E.R.D. - No One Ever Really Dies
Key Track: Lemon ()

Pharrell is about as close to a Nile Rodgers-level genius as contemporary pop music has, and like most polymaths he's at his best when he's at his weirdest. And this album is weird. First single and album opener Lemon starts off with a beat that sounds like footwork mixed with a underground Mario level, which disintegrates into an entirely different beat (subsequently absolutely demolished by Rihanna) before the song is a minute old. Elsewhere, there's an eight minute centerpiece called "Lightning Fire Magic Prayer"; Kendrick shares a track with M.I.A.; an indian-tinged Future feature turns into a synth odyssey; and most remarkably Ed Sheeran shows up without ruining everything. Not everything here works, but No One Ever Really Dies is so unique and endearingly bizarre that it deserves a spot on this list.

49. Natalia Lafourcade - Musas
Key Track: T S Sabes Quererme ()

Traditional Latin American pop of the absolute highest order. I don't know anything about this style of music, but I'm a sucker for flamenco guitar and Cuban rhythms, and on Musas Lafourcade lives up to her reputation as the standard bearer for this kind of stuff. Put this on and make paella for your girl and she'll think you're the classiest motherfucker she's ever seen.

48. Stormzy - Gang Signs and Prayer
Key Track: Shut Up ()

The first grime album to ever hit #1 on the UK album charts, Gang Signs and Prayer is a multifaceted and deeply impressive full debut. Stormzy is an undeniable MC, with a booming voice, an indomitable mic presence and subtly clever rhyme schemes, but this album is, for better or worse, much more than that. About half of Gang Signs is given over to gospel-tinged soul cuts that feel genuinely inspired by his Christian upbringing rather than a desire to crossover. These tracks can sometimes feel like a momentum killer after the adrenaline-pumping grime cuts, but they work much better than anyone could reasonably expect, and add a layer of depth to both the album and artist well beyond anything his peers are doing. Probably the most promising grime debut of the decade.
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Hey dudes! It's been a while since I did something like this, but I have a little more time this holiday season than previous years, and I'm pretty high on this year of music, so I figure it's worth resurrecting the album countdown thing.

That said, I'm gonna run through things super briefly this year - I still don't have quite as much time as I did when I was 19, and it's good for me to practice concision anyway. So one paragraph per album, approximately speaking. I'd rather discuss than lecture, in any case. So let's get things going!

In the meantime, predix (especially from anyone who doesn't follow my facebook or memorized my list from that topic a few weeks back) are very welcome.
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cool topic, will get to this later!
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CherryCokes posted...

am I the only one who really loves The Dusk In Us

I've only listened to it twice, so I didn't feel qualified to rank it. but unsurprisingly it seems really good! will almost certainly land in my top 20 when all is said and done, maybe higher.
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also please tell me you've heard the new k.r.i.t!

it had been years since i had looked forward to a project of his, but his new one is legit "magnum opus" territory. it's ambitious, cohesive, sonically gorgeous and more lyrically insightful than ever. surprise of the year for me.
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oh man, age of adz burned you bad, huh?

sufjan's always been all about the arrangements for me. he's not my favourite songwriter in the world, and i found the original carrie and lowell record good but kind of weirdly anaemic, but the arrangements on that new live album are incredible. i think it's his best record ever by quite a distance, and if I didn't feel weird about it being a live album I might have it even higher. if you haven't heard it, you should give it a shot!
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I've found this to be a pretty poor year, honestly. lots of good stuff, precious little truly great.
still lots to hear, but here's a hastily thrown together top 25:

1. lorde - melodrama
2. big k.r.i.t. - 4eva is a mighty long time
3. arca - arca
4. sufjan stevens - carrie and lowell live
5. richard dawson - peasant
6. kendrick lamar - damn
7. the ruins of beverast - exuvia
8. susanne sundfor - music for people in trouble
9. bell witch - mirror reaper
10. tyler the creator - flower boy
11. algiers - the underside of power
12. oxbow - thin black duke
13. everything everything - a fever dream
14. the national - sleep well beast
15. vince staples - big fish theory
16. blanck mass - world eater
17. slowdive - slowdive
18. angles 9 - disappeared behind the sun
19. brockhampton - saturation II
20. flotation toy warning - the machine that made us
21. freddie gibbs - you only live twice
22. jonwayne - rap album two
23. young thug - beautiful thugger girls
24. torres - three futures
25. king krule - the ooz
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all time: if you put a gun to my head, I'd probably say Andre 3000
honourable mentions: MF DOOM, Mos Def, Biggie, Cee-Lo, Nas

in 2017: let's go with Vince Staples
honourable mentions: Kendrick, Young Thug, Freddie Gibbs, Danny Brown, Jay Electronica

favourite album is a whole other discussion, if you think I put a lot of names here then skip my post next time
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