Lurker > Giggsalot

sometimes! "okay" is about the most neutral descriptor i can think of, and 4.5/10 is a fairly neutral score (the fact you landed 6th out of 10 kinda backs this up too). like I said, the song was curious and not unpleasant to listen to but it never grabbed me and by halfway through I was kind of waiting for it to end. sorry about that!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

fashionably late as ever

Every Time I Die - We'rewolf
This was way better than I expected actually! Has a bit of a Trophy Scars vibe with the combining of punk aggression with a bar band groove. Last minute of this was genuinely a lot of fun. 6.5/10

Crash Kings - Dressed to the 9's
Looks like we're blues rocking this week! This kind of music is never gonna hit my emotional center, but it's decent enough. Decent swing to this, even if I'll have completely forgotten it in ten minutes. 6/10

Boy Pablo - Everytime
This was cute. Kind of a Slowdive vibe to this, which I will always get down to. 6.5/10

Mr Twin Sister - Blush
Oh shit this is smooth as a motherfucker. I need more of this in my life, stat. 8.5/10

Frank Zappa - Night School
Well this isn't like any Zappa I've ever heard! On second thought, the songwriting isn't all that atypical, but the arrangement is pretty unexpected. It's okay, I guess. Gets points for uniqueness more than memorability. 4.5/10

Joanovarc - White Trash
Distinctly not the metalcore band Joan of Arc. I have no ear for this stuff, so this just sounds like Shania Twain gone rock to me. There are worse things in the world than that, but I won't be coming back to this. 4.5/10

Set It Off - The Haunting
What's with the off-kilter rhythm and the strings and the histrionic lyrics and oh god is that a music box I can't deal with this. There's something kinda unique and interesting in among this mess but mostly it's just a car crash I can't bring myself to look away from. Points for making me feel something, at least! 3.5/10

Rise Against - Halfway There
These might be some of the most disinterested sounding punk vocals I've ever heard. He sounds like he's wondering if he left the oven on. Other than that, there's nothing remarkable here. 4/10

Primus - Spegetti Western
All I knew about this band ten minutes ago is that people jizz all over the bassist for some reason. I wish it stayed that way, this was horrendous. Like Korn trying to be funny. 2/10

La Dispute - Woman (in Mirror)
Nearly missed this one! Glad I didn't, La Dispute are really good at what they do. I missed this album for some reason, but this makes me want to check it out. There's no CAN I GET INTO HEAVEN IF I KILL MYSELF here, but no band could replicate that. This sounds like it has legs though, digging it a lot. 7.5/10

---

1. Blush
2. Woman (in Mirror)
3. Everytime
We'rewolf
Dressed to the Nines
Night School
White Trash
Halfway There
The Haunting
Spegetti Western
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

i guess i won't be clicking on that!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

huh

a religious figure gets murdered in an inaccessible mountain temple and maya is suspected, where have i seen this before

if larry shows up i'm gonna lose it
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

hey guys! I'm finally getting to AA6 now. just finished 6-2, figured I'd give some running thoughts.

6-1 was okay. I think the change of setting was pretty effective in switching things up and giving phoenix an excuse to be a newbie again. the facts of the case weren't very interesting, but the characters were pretty good - ahlbi was really endearing and the villain (whose excellent name I am not going to look up) was pretty good, though the constant musical interludes definitely became less amusing as time went on. the vague allusions to darker things going on in khura'in were kinda cool, though I did feel like it undercut things at the end to hear that the killer didn't actually steal the orb. they did a kinda similar thing in DD, as I recall, revealing that the 5-1 killer didn't bomb the courtroom after all. definitely goes to the overcomplexity of everything in recent AA games that you guys discussed before - I didn't like it then, and i didn't really like this either. but that's a minor point really! overall, kind of a middling intro case.

I actually liked 6-2 a lot! I scanned this topic to see what people said about it, and I definitely concur that the murder was a bit mad and not really perfectly explained. but overall, this falls into the 5-3 category for me - cases where there's a really good setting and cast, and a fairly ridiculous murder doesn't really detract much from the overall impact. Trucy is great as ever here, I really like the Apollo/Athena double act, and the case specific characters are cool too - Retinz/Reus is a quality villain, even if he felt like he went down one testimony too soon, and I enjoyed the Betty/Bonny dynamic once their twin identities were revealed. for a first non-tutorial case, I enjoyed this a lot (thinking about it, I think that most X-2 cases are actually kind of overrated).

vague AAI2-excluding off-the-top-of-my-head case rankings, for perspective:

pinnacle: 3-5, 2-4, 1-4
near perfect: 1-5, 3-4, 5-4/5, 3-3, 5-3, 3-2
great: 4-4, 1-3, E1-4, E1-5
good: 6-2, 4-1, 2-2, 5-2
decent: E1-3, 4-2, 3-1, 6-1, E1-1, E1-2
not great, bob: 2-3, 1-2, 5-1, 1-1, 2-1, 4-3
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

and now for something completely different

Sturgill Simpson - Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)
https://vimeo.com/188578366
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

Skankin' Sweet
Oh hey, this guy hangs out with Joey Badass! I'm not sure if this song is something I will retain any memories of one hour from now, but I'm looking forward to summer as much as the next guy, so fuck it. This was fun. 6.5/10

Enigma
I never got into these guys even when I liked this kind of stuff, and now it's just a mess. There's nothing coherent about the song construction at all; like all of the worst prog metal, this is basically just a arbitrary selection of riffs stuck together at random. Are some of them decent? Sure! But this is barely even a song. 3.5/10

Kalamazoo
As someone whose favourite vocalists mostly can't sing - wow, what a grating voice. This became way more interesting than I expected it to be given the trudging, Billy Joel beginning, but it never really turned into anything that I'd ever choose to listen to. 4/10

What They Do
It is to my great shame that I've never really been able to get into The Roots. Their classic mid-90s stuff, in particular, just kind of sounds muddy and indistinct to me. This was far from bad, but I was basically ready for it to be over halfway through. Ending instrumental was nice though! 6/10

Season 2, Episode 3
This sounds like the dude from How to Dress Well giving up all the turbid whinging and kicking back with Mega Man games. I can dig it. 6.5/10

Jekyll
I want to like these guys but nothing ever really connected with me. This got intriguingly weird halfway through, but despite enjoying the Latin vibes, this kind of smooth neo-soul represents a disappointing middle ground for me. I'd probably love it if it either veered spacier and more fragile or went full funk on the downbeat, but as it is I can only really admire it from afar. 6/10

Out of the Black
ROCK MUSIC WILL NEVER DIE. It'll just slink off into mediocrity until we forget it was ever exciting. Don't ask me to listen to a full album of these guys, but this was a fun four minutes. 6/10

Killer
If I hadn't read the comments about this apparently being some super-talented one man band, I could've believed this was a focus-grouped new single from an ex-One Directioner. I don't know if the apparent talent and passion behind this makes that better or worse, but either way this is rubbish. 3/10

Skies
Hahaha oh wow it's been a while since I listened to Protest or anyone remotely like them. I was actually shocked by how much I didn't completely hate this. It's still basically Fall Out Boy for nerdy Rush fans, but there are worse things in the world than that. 4/10

While the Earth Sleeps
This is so completely and unquestionably 90s that it almost sounds like some kind of other world now. It's actually kind of okay, even if it is totally silly! All the different elements come together really nicely at the end. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. 7/10

Down to the River (Live in Bellwoods 42)
I was kind of enjoying this until the vocal performance got all histrionic. It's cool that dude is passionate, I guess, but it's totally incongruous with the solo guitar arrangement. There's a cool song underneath here, but the performance does very little for me. 5.5/10

Ranking:

1. While the Earth Sleeps
2. Season 2, Episode 3
3. Skankin' Sweet
Out of the Black
Jekyll
What They Do
Down to the River (Live in Bellwoods 42)
Skies
Kalamazoo
Enigma
Killer
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

yeah that was exactly my thinking, found myself cheering for wozniacki with that in mind
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

yeah, no FF I-VI, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Earthbound, Mario RPG, FFT, Xenogears is just nuts (there's probably others too, that's just off the top of my head). 2000s omissions might seem more inexplicable at times, but that's still way better than getting almost nothing.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

that was an awesome match

pleased for wozniacki, both of them deserve to be grand slam champs and i have no doubt halep will grab one soon (french?)

men's final that good tomorrow please
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

super intriguing top ten so far!

- DQ8 and FFT are also on my list of "games I should really play one day" (FFT was never released in Europe for some reason, or else I'd have definitely played it in my PS1 RPG phase)

- Spelunky looks great! will definitely at that to the list too.

- and T&T is obviously brilliant, probably a top ten game for me too. 3-5 is my pick for best AA case as well. alignment!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

awesome, noted. I guess by that definition the only actual visual novels I've played have been the zero escape games. certainly not opposed to narratively driven adventures either though!

I haven't played inside, but weirdly I did play through most of limbo at a party a few years back. it was pretty cool! from everything I've heard inside is basically the same but way better, and I watched the ending on youtube since everyone was raving about it and I figured I might never play it. I think it's fair to assume I'd like it a lot, though, hopefully I'll get to it someday!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

transience posted...

Giggsalot posted...

transience posted...

good to hear! what stuff has appealed so far? maybe I could shoot you a general recommendation. also, it's no surprise at all that our tastes align!

a lot of stuff, to be honest! I used to love RPGs but have never played a Persona or Xeno game; I've never played a Metroid game (or a "metroidvania" whatever that means) despite being a sucker for anything described as atmospheric; my initial experiences of visual novel-type games have been great, but I haven't played a single one on this list either (unless AA counts). I'm also a sucker for puzzle-oriented stuff and platformers, so anything even remotely akin to VVVVVV (or, on the flip side, maybe Braid) would rule.

basically I've probably played through like a dozen games total in the last decade and have almost no idea what I like anymore. even I wouldn't know what to recommend me, but feel free to give it a shot!

hmm. you should play a metroid game! "metroidvania" just means a game (usually 2d) with open-ended nonlinear design; explore a maze-y area to find a new powerup that gains access to a new area. find powerups as you want. you could relate it to maybe vvvvvv except that v doesn't give you powerups. you can go whereever, whenever.

you might like castlevania more than metroid. those games are a little easier to find since they made it to the DS, whereas good metroid is still back on the gba and snes. though if you have a modern console like a wii u, you can pick those games up cheap.

I don't really have many games that I'd categorize as visual novel on here - but I do think you would like life is strange. maybe a lot.

awesome, thanks! I figured Walking Dead and Brothers qualified as visual novels at least but I don't know much about either. will definitely put Life is Strange on the list too.

my gaming at the moment (to the extent that it exists) is mostly PC / 3DS-based, though my parents have a Wii U kicking around that I play around with during holidays and stuff. any starter metroid / castlevania recommendations based on that?
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

transience posted...

good to hear! what stuff has appealed so far? maybe I could shoot you a general recommendation. also, it's no surprise at all that our tastes align!

a lot of stuff, to be honest! I used to love RPGs but have never played a Persona or Xeno game; I've never played a Metroid game (or a "metroidvania" whatever that means) in my life, despite being a sucker for anything described as atmospheric; my initial experiences of visual novel-type games have been great, but I haven't played a single one on this list either (unless AA counts). I'm also a sucker for puzzle-oriented stuff and platformers, so anything even remotely akin to VVVVVV (or, on the flip side, maybe Braid) would rule.

basically I've probably played through like a dozen games total in the last decade and have almost no idea what I like anymore. even I wouldn't know what to recommend me, but feel free to give it a shot!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

transience posted...

heck yeah. you should still play AA6 though!

I actually just started! will probably take me ages to get through, but I think it should be a lot of fun! 6-1 was pretty mediocre but that's nothing unusual. will post in the AA topic when I have any notable thoughts!

also, I'm really enjoying this list - I've hardly played anything on it, but it's full of stuff I think I'd like. I barely devote any time to games nowadays, and when I do it's often artsy indie stuff, so it seems like our tastes align quite a bit. will definitely take some inspiration from this!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

i went back to my parents' place over the holidays thinking "i'm going to start a new game this christmas! maybe AA6 or Undertale or something like that. it's gonna be great!"

i didn't do any of that, but i did play through VVVVVV for about the fourth time. what an absolute classic.

(also the music is ridiculously incredible, so much so that it almost made me into a chiptune fan. not quite though!)
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

a new challenger approaches

The Go! Team - Junior Kickstart


party time motherfuckers
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

neither did I! it's both the most mainstream and the most "pop" year-end #1 I've ever had, but it totally deserves it. definitely stands up to most of my other albums of the year from this decade.

crazy to see you've heard so few though, are you fading from the new music obsession wagon a little these days? obviously I'd recommend everything, and I think you'd love a lot of stuff on the list, but if you're as heavy into the funk/soul sound at the moment as I think you are, I'd maybe guide you to Flower Boy, The Animal Spirits and the N.E.R.D. album first.

what were your albums of the year?
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

I will archive this one day
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

I live in Switzerland and that story's like a year old! what's it doing here now?

anyway yeah switzerland has crazy strict citizenship laws, there are third generation residents here who aren't citizens and can't vote and stuff. it's all a bit mad.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

Okay, one more
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

thanks guys!

maybe one last save
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

save!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

sup bastards

if I Got Five On It or Daydream in Blue don't win this week i also quit

just kidding. see you next topic!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

Nelson_Mandela posted...

Great list as always

Speaking of female art pop, what are your thoughts on Fever Ray's album?

Thanks! Confession time: I haven't heard it. I came late to The Knife (I only got into them with Shaking the Habitual), and only listened to the first Fever Ray album for the first time recently. I want to give it more listens, but for some reason it didn't do much for me initially, so I never got round to Plunge. It's a fairly big oversight though, my bad!

thundersheep posted...

Really like what I've heard from the K.R.I.T.album (the first half) I somehow forgot about it and never went back since I found out about it while on lunch break at work one day.

Somewhat similar feelings on Mount Eerie. I made it two tracks in and just went "No, I cannot handle this level of emotion right now." I read the reviews and was still completely unprepared. I'm sure I'll go back to it at some point, but... yeah, it's heavy.

One question about Lorde... how do you feel about Green Light? I love the album, don't care for that song AT ALL.

You should really finish off that K.R.I.T. album! As I mentioned, the second disc is probably the best thing he's ever done, and contextualizes disc one in a way that elevates both.

And I really like Green Light! I heard it got a mixed reception as an advance single, but I held off on it until the album came out, and I think it's a perfect opener. It's middling in the context of the album, but that's just because the song quality is so high everywhere. Great song. It's curious to me that you could hate that and like Supercut, for example. I think they're pretty similar tracks!

Mr Lasastryke posted...

oh yeah, what did you think about drake's more life? did you not like it or did you not rank it because it doesn't qualify as an "album"?

personally i LOVED passionfruit. probably my second most listened to song of 2017, after slide.

Take Care is the only Drake album I can genuinely say I liked (NWTS is okay too), so I didn't check out More Life. Passionfruit is okay, but I could never put it with Slide.

MysticBrohan posted...

god that mount eerie album was hard to listen to
might i recommend:
Alex Cameron - Forced Witness
australian singer/songwriter with a knack for interesting songwriting and sticky hooks. its a bit of a character album about a guy whos kinda of a sleazebag but also pretty likable. it didnt get much noise but it was one of my favorite projects of the year.

This actually came up on my radar a few times! I didn't listen to this in full, but I checked out some singles because it sounded interesting and I wanted to like it. For some reason I just didn't though. Maybe it's the 80s aesthetics? I dunno. But something about it just turned me away, which is a shame. Dude definitely seems talented.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

thanks for the praise, guys! will address the questions / comments tomorrow.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

- Oh, and Logic is rubbish, sorry. He's a cut price J. Cole, and that guy's never had much going for him either.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

- I figured it was fairly obvious since I alluded positively to it earlier, it was guessed and i didn't deny it, and it was probably the most highly lauded album of the year besides DAMN. But hey, I'm happy to surprise!
- Melodrama is arguably more "pop" than Pure Heroine, but only in the sense that Pure Heroine completely reshaped the pop landscape in its image. And while Melodrama is considerably more ambitious, creative and artistic, it still lives within that landscape.
- Antonoff might have co-writer's credit on Melodrama from a production standpoint, and i'm sure he contributed a lot, but to undercut Lorde's contribution, even subtextually, is daft. Antonoff had his hands on everything this year, and none of it sounds like Melodrama. It's as personal, distinct and single-minded a pop album as anything this century, and that's not because of Jack Antonoff.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

~ Fin ~

Thanks everyone for following this, it was a lot of fun! Happy to keep the discussion going for the next little while - if anyone has any questions/concerns/threats, don't hesitate.

Here's my 2017 list in full:

1. Lorde - Melodrama
2. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
3. Big K.R.I.T. - 4Eva is a Mighty Long Time
4. Arca - Arca
5. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell Live
6. The Ruins of Beverast - Exuvia
7. Susanne Sundfr - Music for People in Trouble
8. Richard Dawson - Peasant
9. James Holden - The Animal Spirits
10. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN
11. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
12. Algiers - The Underside of Power
13. Tyler the Creator - Flower Boy
14. Ian William Craig - Slow Vessels
15. Oxbow - Thin Black Duke
16. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
17. Everything Everything - A Fever Dream
18. The National - Sleep Well Beast
19. Converge - The Dusk in Us
20. Blanck Mass - World Eater
21. Cunninlynguists - Rose Azura Njano
22. Slowdive - Slowdive
23. Clap! Clap! - A Thousand Skies
24. Slow - V: Oceans
25. Angles 9 - Disappeared Behind the Sun
26. Brockhampton - Saturation I - III
27. Flotation Toy Warning - The Machine that Made Us
28. Freddie Gibbs - You Only Live Twice
29. Benjamin Clementine - I Tell a Fly
30. Jonwayne - Rap Album Two
31. Young Thug - Beautiful Thugger Girls
32. Sun Kil Moon - Common as Light and Love are Red Valleys of Blood
33. Circuit des Yeux - Reaching for Indigo
34. Torres - Three Futures
35. Forest Swords - Compassion
36. IDK - IWASVERYBAD
37. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers
38. Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
39. Migos - CULTURE
40. Laura Marling - Semper Femina
41. Bicep - Bicep
42. King Krule - The Ooz
43. Moses Sumney - Aromanticism
44. Jlin - Black Origami
45. SZA - CTRL
46. Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology
47. Heaven in Her Arms - White Halo
48. Stormzy - Gang Signs and Prayer
49. Natalia Lafourcade - Musas
50. N.E.R.D. - No One Ever Really Dies
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

and since everyone probably knows what #1 is, fuck it. let's end this thing!

1. Lorde - Melodrama
Key Track: Writer in the Dark ()

What does album of the year mean anyway? Is it the one that connected with you on the deepest level? That defined your experiences of 2017 thematically? That you feel was the most objectively well crafted?

Could be. And Melodrama ticks all of those boxes. But to name anything other than this as my album of the year would be ridiculous for one simple reason: I listened to this thing endlessly. Seriously. I'm not sure what my second most frequently played 2017 album was (DAMN, maybe?), but I think I spun this twice as much. It was my favourite album of the year back in July, before my relationship with my girlfriend fell apart, and that only cemented its significance to me. I listened to it tonight and it's lost absolutely none of its magic.

Pure Heroine was hard to fault as an album by a suburban sixteen-year old about being a suburban sixteen-year old. I was a suburban sixteen-year old once too, and it struck a wistful chord in me - I liked it at the time, and I still do. But its limitations were so obvious that it felt clear what Lorde had to do next to fulfil her potential. She had to grow up a bit, she had to talk about something deeper while keeping her incisive wit, and she had to expand Pure Heroine's gamechanging yet one-note sound in all directions and colours without losing what made it stand out in the first place. That was all pretty clear in my mind. But it's so rare that artists actually do what I want them to!

Melodrama is the album I would have dreamed Lorde would make, so much so that it's actually kind of stunning. Lorde somehow manages to maintain her laconic charisma while diving deep into her darkest emotions. The lyrics capture the sensory overload of young heartbreak astoundingly. The production and arrangements are varied, perfectly tuned and deeply satisfying. The songwriting here is just ridiculously good - even the weaker songs here would rank among the very best on Pure Heroine. And the album is utterly perfectly paced and compiled; it has a barn-burning opener, a first half full of great singles, a powerful centrepiece, a literally note-perfect second half complete with thematic and sonic callbacks to early tracks, and a, well, perfect closer.

I could talk about Melodrama for years - the sound of it, the endlessly quotable lyrics, the astonishing quality of its every aspect. I have no idea if Lorde will ever top this album. The fact that I'm even entertaining the prospect that she might is frightening. But that's for another list. I can rationalize however I want why my album of the year is a pop album written by a near-teenager. But ultimately, Melodrama is my album of the year because it's the best album of the year. And it's not even really that close.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

2. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me
Key Track: Soria Moria ()

I've spent the last forty-eight entries in this list telling you why you should all listen to those albums. I'm not going to tell you to listen to this one.

Essentially a diaristic singer-songwriter album charting Phil Elverum's desolation after the death of his wife of thirteen years and mother of his infant child, A Crow Looked At Me states in its opening lines that it has no intention of being art. Elverum has called it "barely music." It's sure as fuck not entertainment. This album begins and ends as a portrait of grief - a cathartic outpouring of deep, overwhelming sorrow - to the extent that it feels borderline absurd putting it on this list at all.

It would be unfair to allow the album's concept and lyrics to completely overshadow the musical value of this record. A Crow Looked at Me is a highly accomplished folk album, with beautiful melodies hidden among the meandering vocal deliveries and instinctive songwriting skill informing the subtle shifts in arrangement throughout the longer songs. This is a sparse, unpolished collection of songs, but it's a beautiful one.

But to listen to this is to commit to an experience like no other album. Elverum's words on every track here are emotional gutpunches; it will take you out of everything that you are doing and bring you into a world where nothing exists but this man and his deep, all encompassing pain. The words here are not dramatic, egregious or presented with any kind of agenda - they simply hang in the air, and force you to contend with the honesty they present. It's an exercise in sharing a man's heart-wrenching devastation, and it's as harrowing and visceral as any album I've ever listened to.

I'm not going to tell you to listen to A Crow Looked At Me. It is not an enjoyable album by any conventional measure. It doesn't present a full and satisfying narrative, nor are there any real lessons learned by Elverum over the course of his mourning. This is far too raw of a snapshot for that. But it is a listening experience that, once processed, feels oddly life-affirming; if nothing else, this is an album that gives you a new appreciation for what you have in life, and a reminder that love and happiness are fleeting and to be treasured. I can't think of many more powerful feelings to receive.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

no love for K.R.I.T.? for shame!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

3. Big K.R.I.T. - 4Eva is a Mighty Long Time
Key Track: Miss Georgia Fornia ()

Comeback of the year, holy shit.

It's been seven years since Big K.R.I.T. pulled a Sakaguchi move and made K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, intended as the final statement of a struggling rapper who never broke through, only for its hunger, lyrical incisiveness and virtuosic production to blow the doors off the rap scene and place him immediately among the most vital artists in the game. K.R.I.T., never a man to waste time, spent the next few years riding the wave by releasing several excellent mixtapes, but soon got stuck for two reasons. Firstly, he became the decade's premiere victim of major label fuckery, but more importantly and less frequently discussed - he completely ran out of ideas. The K.R.I.T. projects of recent years, while competent, sounded like they were spit out by algorithm; here's the candy paint song, here's the recycled soul sample, here's the token introspective track. There was no doubting his talent, but I'd pretty much written the dude off as done.

So, uh, holy shit. K.R.I.T.'s first post-Def Jam release is a ninety minute double album of messianic artistic rebirth, and it's fantastic. He sounds newly inspired creatively in every way here - he's rapping better than ever, his song topics are better than ever, his production is off the fucking charts. This is almost certainly his best work yet, and that fact is actually kind of astounding.

The first of the two discs, named after K.R.I.T.'s stage name, is essentially an improved continuation of what he's always done. The bangers bang, the guests do great, and the production has a verve and bite that his stuff has lacked for a while. But if he put it out alone, I'd probably have missed the magic somewhat. The second disc, however, is where the album really comes together. Titled after K.R.I.T's government name, Justin Scott opens with a four minute slow-building instrumental in the Curtis Mayfield tradition, and the album follows it in being a collection of unprecedented ambition from K.R.I.T. The production veers into country-soul, gospel, free-form jazz, the song lengths increase, and Scott tackles some of his most personal and powerful topics yet. It's essentially the closest he's ever come to Aquemini, and that is pretty much the best comparison a southern rapper can ever receive.

This is just an absolute embarrassment of riches. The two discs are brilliantly conceptualized and executed, and for a twenty-song rap album to be this consistent is almost unprecedented. This is a complete Hail Mary of a record, and everything about it works flawlessly. If you've ever cared about K.R.I.T., about southern hip-hop, or about modern music in general, you need this in your life. This is rap album of the year by miles.

To channel the dude on the hilarious skit... it's a classic!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

that's a shame! the hotline bling cover is obviously ridiculous but I can't think of a better way for that album to end.

top three starts tomorrow!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

that's what i'm here for!

(it's so so so so so good seriously)
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

4. Arca - Arca
Key Track: Desafio ()

Some people just don't need help in life. Alejandro Ghersi has been one of the most extraordinarily talented electronic producers out there since the dawn of the decade, acting as a major force in defining the new spacey sound of R&B with acts like FKA Twigs and Kelela, as well as releasing mind-bending solo records which sounded like Autechre trying to make pop music inside a black hole. At some point in the last five years, he also co-produced three songs on Yeezus and became Bjrk's BFF and creative partner. Dude's doing alright.

So when it came out that he was following up 2015's utterly spellbinding instrumental album Mutant with what is essentially a pop record centred around his own voice, I would have had reason to be skeptical. But somehow I wasn't, and my faith was justified. Not only does Ghersi's voice complement his own beats more naturally than any collaborator ever has, but his voice might even be straight up better. It's utterly spine-tinglingly beautiful. The first minute of Piel, the opener here, isn't much more than Ghersi vocalising in Spanish, only accompanied by what sounds like a detuned radio. It's nearly two minutes before anything resembling an instrument appears. And it's utterly devastating. Arca's sonic exploration is just as powerful here as ever - from the numerous riveting instrumental tracks to the dramatic pop overtures of Reverie and Desafio - and the introduction of his vocals takes things to a whole other level. This is one of the most unique, powerful albums of the decade - simultaneously a totally engrossing sonic experience that one can't help get lost in, an intellectually fascinating exercise in sound manipulation and a straightforwardly heartbreaking expression of lost love. At this point, I'm not sure there's a single thing Ghersi can't do. If he wants to write my PhD thesis for me, he's more than welcome.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

5. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell Live
Key Track: Blue Bucket of Gold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FX34TjJe-c&t=3955s)

This is an odd one, but bear with me here. Carrie and Lowell, Sufjan's 2016 ode to his parents, was a melancholic, stripped down return to his folk roots, but his subsequent tour gave rise to rumours that he was completely transforming the album on stage - giving it a massive sound, in complete contrast to the hushed, reverent studio recording. This gave me mixed feelings. On the one hand, while I liked Carrie and Lowell quite a lot, it definitely skirted with sonic monotony. But on the other, Sufjan's recent efforts in huge soundscaping like The Age of Adz had yielded mixed results at best. But in any case, I was intrigued. So when it was announced that they were releasing a live album cut from the tour, I jumped right on it.

This is the best thing Sufjan's ever done. Without question. The songs retain all of their intimacy and emotional power, but the expansive arrangements here imbue them with a warmth of tone and a diversity of sound that the album totally lacked. Some of the songs are transformed into huge post-rock swells; some feature skittering electronics; some are even almost left alone (these, tellingly, are the weakest). But all of them feel part of something so much grander here. The original album was a tribute and memorial to Sufjan's complicated childhood, but this is a celebration - of the good, the bad, the joyful and the traumatizing - all of it held up as a remarkable, god-given experience. And it's stunningly beautiful. I can't stress enough how warm and welcoming this album is; every tone rings so clearly, the ambience is completely enveloping and the arrangements feel both sparse and huge, a fitting tribute to the bittersweet yet overwhelmingly personal emotional content. I really can't stress enough both how great and how totally unique this is - if you've ever liked anything Sufjan has done, this is absolutely required listening.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

yeah, I find Fleet Foxes' cutesy pop stuff pleasant, but their more ambitious stuff does nothing for me either texturally or compositionally. I haven't heard Crack-Up, but I did listen to that big nine-minute single they put out and that didn't move me at all. so they won't be showing up here. sorry!

As a side note, everyone should check out Love's Crushing Diamond by Mutual Benefit! It gives me everything that I assume everybody else gets from Fleet Foxes.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

more tonight!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

afternoon bump!

(seriously guys, give those albums a listen)
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

6. The Ruins of Beverast - Exuvia
Key Track: Exuvia ()

Man, what an absolute beast of a record this is. Exuvia starts as strong as any record I can think of - the opening movement of its towering fifteen minute title track lures you into its web unassumingly at first, but soon builds into an absolute tornado of psychedelic shamanic trance metal that destroys everything in sight, with the listener in the eye of the storm. And then it all collapses and begins anew. The remaining hour of Exuvia delivers endlessly on the explosive promise of its opening too; this whole album feels like the result of taking ayahuasca and wandering into a tribal wardance ritual. No matter which direction the music takes (and it takes some weird ones - there are bagpipes here), the nightmarish, psychedelic atmosphere never lets up even for a second. The Ruins of Beverast's Alex von Meilenwald has been behind some of the most inspired, ambitious metal albums of the century, but this is certainly his most perfectly realised; the fact it's the work of a single man almost beggars belief. You'll never hear anything like this ever again - put this on and sink into the dream.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

MELOOONNNN!

7. Susanne Sundfr - Music for People in Trouble
Key Track: Undercover ()

Judging purely by melodic beauty, this is hands down album of the year. Sundfr has gathered a bit of a Bjrk-esque reputation in recent years, but that particular ice goddess hasn't put out a record of songs this straightforwardly beautiful since Vespertine, if ever. Music for People in Trouble isn't an album that blows you away on first listen, but its plaintiveness and unpretentiousness turn out to be its greatest strengths. Sundfr's sound on this record strikes the perfect balance between sparse and lush, the production is pristine and her voice is stunning. This is not an album that lends itself to hifalutin descriptions, but I really can't praise it enough - Music for People in Trouble is a collection of utterly gorgeous songs that gets better every single time I listen to it, and I wouldn't be surprised if I revisited this list in years to come and it landed even higher. If you like singer-songwriter or artsy pop music even slightly, please please don't miss out on this.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

I can't really argue with that! I didn't really go into my various personal issues with TPAB, but there are definitely other reasons why I personally consider DAMN to be a step up. In any case, while I admire his experimentation since, good kid is still my favourite Kendrick project by quite some way.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

8. Richard Dawson - Peasant
Key Track: Weaver ()

It's pretty easy to make weird folk music. All you really need to do is strap on a guitar, howl tunelessly and overdub some field recordings and someone out there will proclaim you a genius. Making good weird folk music, however, is hard, but Richard Dawson hurdles so many obstacles on Peasant that it's easy to forget that they're even there. This is an album where a medieval sound and theme is employed without ever descending into Renaissance Faire fuckery; where the idiosyncratic singing is underpinned by genuinely great melodies, allowing it to be endearing rather than stupid; where he somehow manages to use the word "eiderdown" in a song without looking absurd. This is an album of the weird folk tradition alright - it's indebted to Comus and the Incredible String Band as much as it is anything conventional, there are haunted choirs floating around everywhere here, and Dawson plays the guitar like he's paid commission every time he snaps a string. But the fundamentals of songwriting and arrangement here are so good that everything coalesces into something truly brilliant. Peasant has received a fairly stunning amount of attention for the kind of record it is (The Quietus, a.k.a. the best music publication around, gave this album of the year, and it's seen loads of other nods too) and that feels like a real vindication of songwriting talent. This could hardly be less cool as an album, but when music is this good, who the hell cares?
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

9. James Holden and the Animal Spirits - The Animal Spirits
Key Track: The Animal Spirits ()

Let's start this one simply. Here is a list of user-voted genres for this album on rateyourmusic: Progressive Electronic, Krautrock, Spiritual Jazz, Post-Rock, Neo-Psychedelia. If you are anything like me, you are probably now salivating, wondering how this is even possible, and rushing to listen to this immediately. If not, let me try again.

One-time DJ wunderkind James Holden re-emerged a few years ago with The Inheritors, a hugely acclaimed album that positioned him alongside Nicolas Jaar as a premiere soundscaper in modern electronic music. That not being enough, for his next trick Holden assembled a band, and decided to make a self-described "folk-trance" album that feels equally indebted to Tangerine Dream, Pharoah Sanders and Fela Kuti. And The Animal Spirits is exactly as amazing as that sounds. This thing is loaded with a mystical tribal atmosphere, rampaging saxophones, synths that can't decide whether to be guitars or monster trucks and everything in between. Sonically and texturally this thing is just straight up incredible, and I really hope he sticks with this sound because it's probably the biggest blast of "you've never heard anything like this before" that I got all year. Just a ridiculously cool album in every respect.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

glad to be helping you guys find some cool stuff! I imagine everyone's already heard this one though.

10. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN
Key Track: DNA ()

Absolutely no introduction needed here, so I'll jump straight to the hot take: I like DAMN more than To Pimp a Butterfly. I'm not going to say it's better, and I completely understand why people would be disappointed with this. It's a mortal record, after all. Even Butterfly's moments of humility felt choreographed to convey a specific message, but DAMN has no real cohesion and pop overtures and trendy beat choices and U2 are here for some reason. It's a mess. But it's significantly more intriguing for that. DAMN features Kendrick's weirdest and most pop-friendly material ever slotted side by side, deliberately contradicting each other in sound, theme and moral. GKMC and Butterfly both condescended their audience at times by overtly explaining their subtextual themes, but DAMN has weird repeated concepts that never get resolved, a completely non-linear structure, and a bizarre "black Israelite" subplot that must be among the most apocalyptic and frightening ideologies ever featured on a hit record. The fact that DAMN presents all these things without significant explanation or context is the record's strength. Like most of us, Kendrick is a man with a lot on his mind, and not all of it will make sense or cohere into a single path. It's an album that strips him of the prophet label and shows us the conflicted, damaged man he is. And that gives me a lot to go back to; I love the general sound of this thing, from the melancholic interstitial soul pieces to the psychedelia of deep cuts like LUST and FEAR, and lyrically there's always something new to uncover. DAMN is an album with immense replay value, and while I doubt Kendrick is entirely done with high concept work, if this messy, confused artist is the rapper we're dealing with from here on, I'd be more than okay with that.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

Awesome, you should! I'm actually surprised you didn't hear about its quality earlier; it's by far his best reviewed project (I think it made the p4k year-end top ten, and it's currently RYM's top rated non-live/soundtrack album of 2017) and it inspired a ton of thinkpieces, mostly because Tyler almost certainly subtly comes out as queer over the course of the album.

But yeah - it's not without silliness, but it's definitely the first actual mature Tyler album. And if he can keep up this quality, he'll be one of the most important people in the genre for a long time.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

will get the next batch done tonight, including one of the albums guessed so far! additional predictions for that, or indeed the list in general, are welcome until then.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

so far you've collectively got three of them!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

So we've reached the top ten! I'd love to see some predictions, if anyone has any.
To give a hint, here's an approximate genre breakdown of the top ten:

Hip-Hop: 2
Folk: 3
(Art) Pop: 2
Metal: 1
Electronic: 2

---

The list so far is as follows:

11. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper
12. Algiers - The Underside of Power
13. Tyler the Creator - Flower Boy
14. Ian William Craig - Slow Vessels
15. Oxbow - Thin Black Duke
16. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
17. Everything Everything - A Fever Dream
18. The National - Sleep Well Beast
19. Converge - The Dusk in Us
20. Blanck Mass - World Eater
21. Cunninlynguists - Rose Azura Njano
22. Slowdive - Slowdive
23. Clap! Clap! - A Thousand Skies
24. Slow - V: Oceans
25. Angles 9 - Disappeared Behind the Sun
26. Brockhampton - Saturation I - III
27. Flotation Toy Warning - The Machine that Made Us
28. Freddie Gibbs - You Only Live Twice
29. Benjamin Clementine - I Tell a Fly
30. Jonwayne - Rap Album Two
31. Young Thug - Beautiful Thugger Girls
32. Sun Kil Moon - Common as Light and Love are Red Valleys of Blood
33. Circuit des Yeux - Reaching for Indigo
34. Torres - Three Futures
35. Forest Swords - Compassion
36. IDK - IWASVERYBAD
37. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers
38. Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
39. Migos - CULTURE
40. Laura Marling - Semper Femina
41. Bicep - Bicep
42. King Krule - The Ooz
43. Moses Sumney - Aromanticism
44. Jlin - Black Origami
45. SZA - CTRL
46. Jane Weaver - Modern Kosmology
47. Heaven in Her Arms - White Halo
48. Stormzy - Gang Signs and Prayer
49. Natalia Lafourcade - Musas
50. N.E.R.D. - No One Ever Really Dies
---

And if you don't know, now you know.