The Top 25 Albums of 2017

For a playlist of my favorite tracks off my favorite 2017 albums, here be a Spotify playlist:

First, In Memoriam 2017

Because of the carnage of 2016, in which far too many massively influential artists left us, I have become far more sensitive to these passings.  Relatively speaking, 2017 felt rather calm, but speaking relatively is also callous and distracts from some seriously tragic losses.  Noteworthy were the departures of Malcolm Young, Tommy Keene, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, J. Geils, Gregg Allman, Holger Czukay, Chris Cornell, Saxa (legendary saxophonist for The English Beat), Glen Campbell, and Charles Bradley.  But I was hit significantly harder by a few others…

Tom Petty!  I have not been a vociferous fan of his extensive catalogue but I can confidently say that he was perhaps the coolest, honest, and most authentic elder statesmen of all of rock and roll history.  Damn the Torpedoes was such a key early influence for me growing up in the 70s and a decade later Full Moon Fever kept the straight-up rock and roll faith in a year that I was also discovering The Pixies, The Stone Roses, and Galaxie 500.  With its universal appeal, that album built bridges.

Pat Dinizio of The Smithereens, in December 2017.  I purchased the band’s debut, Especially For You, on cassette on a blind hunch via the Columbia Record and Tape Club. It quickly became (in my world) an all-time classic and favorite, and a Top 10 entry in the albums of 1986.  Perfect jangly power pop. 

Grant Hart of Husker Du.  Husker Du was a tremendously important band to me (as were the subsequent solo ventures and post-Husker bands of Hart and bandmate Bob Mould) ever since “Divide and Conquer” was aired on Toronto’s CFNY and melted my face.  Grant Hart penned and sang some of the most powerful American punk rock classics in the 80s, meanwhile pulling off some of the fastest, tightest drumming you’ll have the pleasure of banging your head to.  Many a day I’d give myself an emotional shot to my skinny, self-absorbed teenage arm by blaring “Keep Hanging On” through my Walkman. 

And…Gord Downie, passing away in 2017 after receiving a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer in 2016.  Because of the unthinkable writing on the wall, 2016 saw the whole country go through a protracted period of mourning and communal celebration of this giant of a man.  The Tragically Hip gave us a farewell tour and a final album, and Gord gave us two solo records: Secret Path and, just prior to his death, Introduce Yerself.  As with his whole life, Gord went out with productive and emotional purpose, and it fucking hurt.  What must it be like to write your final album, as your cognition falters, your body betrays you, and your life turns to mist in a race against time?  What do you do?  Introduce Yerself is profound for this reason and I have been uncertain how to handle it within my 2017 write up.  I feel uncomfortable ordering it within a list of relative merit, to the point where I have omitted it.  Momentarily standing back as best I can, the album is a good to great collection of airy, largely piano driven poems, stories, and biographies.  But in the context of Gord’s story of life, love, death, art, and activism, it is also album of the year, a heart-wrenching and haunting gift.  As a new father, I was reduced to tears listening to “Bedtime”, a wistful moment-by-moment narrative of Gord putting his children to bed without waking them up.  It’s literalness gives way to a devastating metaphor of love, loss, and the unshakeable bond of family.  This was the moment, weeks after Gord’s death, that I let the sadness of 2016 come flooding back in.  We all miss him.       

Is it repetitive to say year after year that it was “a great year for music”?  I keep saying this.  This is the new normal, because in our hyper-connected online reality, I can always seem to find an avalanche of excellent records.  Musical trends?  They may be there, fabricated in the highly regulated universe of mainstream pop music, but trends are simultaneously irrelevant and impotent.  Fewer kids are picking up guitars, apparently, but I’m able to hear way more guitar driven bands in 2017 than in 1997.  For all I know, on the whole, the proportion of shitty music (in my estimation) may be higher now than it was 10 years ago (I have no idea, really).  Who cares?  There are far too many albums in one’s own wheelhouse of preferred genres to even listen to in a year.   In 2017, I acquired about 25 additional albums released in 2016 that obviously were not under consideration for the 2016 Top 20 list.  Four or so would have bumped out current occupants (namely, amazing albums by Jim Guthrie & JJ Ipsen, Goat, EZTV, and The Moles).  It’s tough to keep up.  Anyway, I’m going to stop saying “it was a great year for music”, but I’ll note that this year’s list is 25 LPs long, rather than the usual 20, because I just couldn’t omit a few.  It is always a good year for music, until further notice, such as when legislation against net neutrality requires that I only listen to Kendrick Lamar and Drake (and put a bullet in my head).

My Top 25 Favorite Albums of 2017

2017 was punctuated by the re-emergence of great Canadian indie rock, feeling a lot like the landscape of 10 to 15 years ago.  Hooray for releases by Wolf Parade, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Emily Haines, The New Pornographers, Japandroids, Do Make Say Think, Elliott Brood, and Lowest of the Low (and of course Gord Downie).  And these are just the Canadian acts who have been around back in the heyday.  New records by Canadians Mac Demarco, Alvvays, Annie Sumi,  Metz, Bird City, Richard Laviolette, Colin Stetson, and Austra also caught my ear.

Before the main list, here’s a quick top 10 favorite songs from 2017 (all accessible via the Spotify playlist):

1. Haze – Angelo De Augustine
2. Call It Dreaming – Iron & Wine
3.  Zombie – Langhorne Slim 
4. Your Type – Alvvays
5. Continental Breakfast – Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile 
6. Body Chamber – Versing
7. Valley Boy – Wolf Parade
8. Hug Of Thunder – Broken Social Scene
9. Fatal Gift – Emily Haines
10. My Only – Pains of Being Pure of Heart

  And now…The Top 25 Albums of 2017..

25.  Versing – Nirvana 

This is good place to shout out the podcast “KEXP Song of the Day”.  Every day, without fuss or commentary, a new song is posted by Seattle’s preeminent indie and new music focused radio station.  Versing’s “Body Chamber” dropped into my headphones and I was soon bobbing my head over a new stack of dirty dishes.  Despite the intro bass line that unnervingly sounds a little too much like “My Sharona”, this tune evolves into that perfect indie rock sound of the early to mid-nineties.  The album could have been part of those classic Merge and Matador rosters that introduced us to the scratchy, DIY guitar gems of Pavement, Guided By Voices, Versus, Chavez, and so many others.  Contemporary comparisons would be Japandroids, Yuck, and Courtney Barnett. Catchy, overdriven rock love.  Choice track: “Body Chamber”.

24.  James Elkington – Wintres Woman

Never heard of this guy until Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin complimented the guitar fingerpicking of “Make It Up” in a Facebook post.  Given Franklin is my all-time favorite guitarist, it was worth a look-see.  Whoa and indeed!  To date, Elkington has been on the sidelines of the Chicago music scene, quietly contributing to and collaborating with the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Steve Gunn, and Nathan Salsburg.  This is his first proper solo record and it is a minor masterpiece of strikingly beautiful prog-folk.  He sounds quite similar to Gunn and Salsberg, and also has roots in the outsider tradition of experimental folk guitar pioneered by John Fahey, Bert Jansch and the whole of Tompkins Square records.  Elegant and masterful acoustic guitar playing overlaid with introspective and airy baritone vocals.  Choice track:  “Make It Up”. 

23. Langhorne Slim – Lost At Last

This is another feller that I have somehow missed over the years, and I have truly been missing out.  Langhorne Slim is the moniker for country folk troubadour Sean Scolnick.  The music is steeped in old timey bluegrass, honkey-tonk, and travellin’ folk, influenced heavily by Bob Dylan, The Band, and Woody Guthrie.  At times, things move into the realm of country gospel, accompanied by foot-stomping choral arrangements, suggesting comparisons to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.  But it’s not all throwback – on the sublime and silly “Zombie”, he sounds like The Hidden Cameras (although it also sounds like it’s produced by Phil Spector).  Langhorne Slim’s music is simple and straightforward, but the careful attention to instrumentation and production (notably, heart-breaking Nashville Skyline vocals, chiming pedal steel, and the best upright country bass I think I’ve heard) raises it to new devotional heights.  Choice track:  “Zombie”.

22.  The Feelies –  In Between

Elder statesmen of unassuming guitar-based indie pop, The Feelies return with their first album since 2011 and only their second since their initial demise in 1991.  The Feelies were utterly unique in the post-punk landscape of New York in the 1980s, having little to do with the current crop of new wave and power pop bands.   Their closest relatives were the Velvet Underground (minus the dark and arty pretensions), the Flying Nun contingent (The Bats, The Clean), and contemporary mates Yo La Tengo.  Thirty-seven or so years later and little has changed, other than a greater preference for acoustic guitar and a less frenetic strumming pace.  The tasty recipe remains – jangly, irresistible chord progressions and riffs, with muted, almost amateurish singing.  But so damn catchy!  A new Feelies record is like receiving a postcard from a long lost friend telling you they’re happy and doing just fine.  Choice track:  “Time Will Tell”.

21.  Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice

How random and unexpected.  I am a gigantic fan of the currently incomparable Courtney Barnett (who slotted in at #2 of 2015 with Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit) and an on and off fan of Kurt Vile (who I like a fair bit, but who can also feel drab at times).  Let’s just say that Courtney has lifted Kurt up a fair bit, and while he brought her down a tad, the result is on the whole a pretty great album.  The uber-slacker vibe of Vile matches with Barnett pretty well, as they trade witty, sarcastic, and sometimes poignant lines with one another in disaffected drawls and twangs.  When it’s just Vile singing, it is a borderline irritant, but Barnett always drops into to save him.  While I miss Courtney’s indie rock fury, these are great chiming folk songs.  And no matter how laid back and off the cuff these two sound, there is no mistaking that there has been great care taken to interweave their impressive guitar lines and narratives.  They let the songs breath and expand, with all songs coming in at 4+ minutes, and a couple over 6.  Highlights are “Continental Breakfast” and “Blue Cheese”, both gorgeous and shiny folk-pop gems.  Great live show too!  Choice track: “Continental Breakfast”.

20. The New Pornographers – Whiteout Conditions

The New Pornos, now hallowed demigods of Canadian Rock, have never put out a bad album.  In fact, in my estimation, all their albums have been of the highest toe-tapping quality; they scarcely put out a bad song!  (Although, I suppose Dan Bejar’s songs are usually subpar in comparison – he should just go be Destroyer and be done with it.  Carl Newman and Neko Case got it covered).  The quality, unsurprisingly, is maintained on Whiteout Conditions.  The band sounds just as big, catchy, and super tight as ever, but what is remarkable is how irresistible the melodies are…again!  Their song writing formula – Newman leading the vocals and Case and Katherine Calder providing soaring chorus harmonies – is bulletproof and indomitable.  If anything has changed, there are noticeably more electronic flourishes, beats, and arpeggios underpinning the songs to great effect (e.g., “Second Sleep” could be a School of Seven Bells track).  All in all, another grand contribution.  Choice track: “Second Sleep”.

19.  Penguin Café – The Imperfect Sea

Simon Jeffes, founder and composer of the incomparable Penguin Café Orchestra, died of a brain tumor in 1997, effectively halting the work of the collective.  It was a terrible loss, as PCO had a singular artistic vision, incorporating disparate worldwide musical genres, instruments, styles, and found sounds into a neo-classical western framework of cycle, repetition, and growth.  Never short of interesting, and most often spellbinding and emotional, PCO’s instrumentals reflected an abundance of talent and musical innovation.  After about 20 years and a wholly unique catalog of music, PCO ended.  Until, that is, Jeffes’ son Arthur brought it back to life.  With a brand new membership and aspirations to recapture and reignite the PCO ethos, the younger Jeffes returned with Penguin Café.  I confess I missed the first two albums (2011’s A Matter of Time and 2014’s The Red Book) – perhaps I just didn’t believe he could (or should) pull it off.  Cynically, I thought this may be a lesser talent coasting on a father’s legacy – after all, he did not even reassemble any original members.  The Imperfect Sea has proved me wrong, and embarrassingly so.  It is a truly remarkable and beautiful record that is delivered exactly within the oeuvre of his father’s vision. Sweeping, magnificent, mournful, and inspirational.  Choice track: “Ricercar”.

18.  The Magnetic Fields – 50 Song Memoir

What’s with the prolificacy of Stephen Merritt?  Sheesh.  In the rare instance an artist/band has the artistic pretension (and resources and material) to issue a triple-LP, it tends to happen only once in their career.  Not many do it, especially when you exclude posthumous b-sides and live releases, which shouldn’t count.   Wait…I can’t actually name any bonafide triple LPs other than Sandinista by The Clash, Have One On Me by Joanna Newsom and, you guessed it, 69 Love Songs by Magnetic Fields.  Merritt has already been down this road.  Nonetheless, in 2017 he decides to drop a quintuple LP set!  50 songs on 5 CDs or vinyl platters, each song earmarked to a successive year in his life.  Conceptually, this is interesting and beyond ambitious, but I am not sure how to rate this as an “album”.   There is obviously some filler here, but there are also a pile of great songs that harken back to the early days of MF albums Distant Plastic Trees, Get Lost, as well as Merritt’s output as The 6ths.  Simple, wry, mid-tempo indie pop that bubbles and bops. If you put the best tracks of the fifty into a single album, it would vie for album of the year, and there is easily enough here for an accomplished double-LP.  Should points be lost for putting out too much music at once?  I don’t know.  I suspect I’ll never get to fully know this record, but the numerous gems in here gives it year-end list status, although not without a certain amount of hand wringing.  Choice track: “’88: Ethan Frome”.

17. Shake Some Action! – Crash Through Or Crash

It’s hard for me to get used to this band name, which is obviously taken (punctuation and all!) from the Flamin’ Groovies’ classic song and album.  Cognitive annoyance aside, SSA! are clearly influenced by the high energy old school power pop of the Groovies (and Big Star), but update it with a much denser sonic attack of fuzz, drive, and reverb.  Many songs could easily slot into the playlist of a Nuggets box-set, exuding that wonderful garage psychedelia of the mid-60s, and sometimes resembling the sound of The Strokes, White Stripes, or Crystal Stilts.  A truly welcome surprise and a band I will surely be keeping an eye on.  Choice track:  “Waiting For The Sun”. 

16.  The Shins – Heartworms

Ever since hearing “New Slang” (the song that “will change your life”, as per the quotable quote of Natalie Portman in Garden State) I’ve been a diehard Shins fan.  While each album after debut Oh Inverted World has shown slightly diminishing returns, Heartworms reasserts (and slightly reimagines) The Shins as the indie rock/pop masters they are.  The impossibly high but crystal clear vocals of James Mercer once again shine through these eleven heart-warming ear-worms (get it?), amongst more varied instrumentation, including swelling folk strings, gurgling synths, and occasional electropop beats.  The always alluring guitar strums and riffs, quintessential to the Shins sound, bring it all together.  Fans should be overjoyed with this release.  Choice track: “Heartworms”.

15  Shugo Tokumaru – Toss

I’ve been waiting patiently for Shugo Tokumaru’s follow up to his absolutely sublime LP In Focus? (#12 of 2013). Tokumaru is a wild-eyed genius.  As with his previous output, Toss is a frenetic, fluorescent carnival ride of impossibly happy/trippy orchestral pop songs.  I’m unaware of anyone producing such candy-coated complexity, although there are decent parallels to some of Jim Guthrie’s videogame soundtrack work and to Dan Deacon’s fuzzy 8-bit dance freak outs.  Those comparisons weaken considerably upon recognizing that Takumaru has assembled, orchestrated, and produced over 20 contributors, representing numerous brass, stringed, and percussive instruments.  Compiling layers upon layers of myriad MIDI-based digital tracks is an impressive feat on its own, but the ability to manage this cacophony of live instruments is rather astounding, at least within his feverish, hyperdriven framework.  There is so much going on yet it is all crystal clear and balanced, never sounding like an indulgent pile on.  And his vocals (all sung in Japanese) are smooth as silk.  I should note too that there is some respite from the frenzy on a couple of tracks, where he slows things down a bit, evoking a warm folky charm that allows one to catch a breath.  And please check out these amazing people perform some 2013 songs live on KEXP.  LIVE! Arigatou gozaimasu, Tukomaru-San.  Choice track (and once again, AMAZING video): “Lift”. 

14. Beaches – Second of Spring

Occasionally Bandcamp posts great genre- and geographically-specific articles to showcase new young talents.  I bought a few records based on their review of Australian psychedelia, and a cream of the crop was Beaches double LP Second of Spring (kudos also to Celestial Bum and Black Heart Death Cult).  This album is tremendous.  This is In-the-red fuzzy and distorted garage rock, reminding me of Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segal, Black Angels, Tame Impala, and Dog Day.  These DIY Melbournians know how to conjure a sweet toxic mix of droney chords, punk rock rhythms, cry-baby wah, rumbling bass riffs, and canyon-high vocals.  And without the indulgent psych-rock stoner trappings.  Right up my hard rawk, Big Muff alley.  Choice track: “Arrow”.    

13. This Is The Kit – Moonshine Freeze

Despite being around for some years, the wistful and arty folk of Brit Kate Sables and her revolving collective of musicians – This Is The Kit – is new to my ears.  Moonshine Freeze is a beautiful recording of gentle and intricate guitar patterns, hushed but confident vocal harmonies, and subtle but substantive background sounds and embellishments that create atmosphere and presence.  I’m reminded of Mae Moore, Beth Orton, Kinnie Starr, Ida, and maybe Ani Difranco without the growl.   I’ve yet to immerse myself in the lyrics just yet, but what I’m catching feels poetically earnest and sweetly sombre. Sable’s vocals are really quite gorgeous, understated, and likewise forceful when they ought to be.  The album finds that perfect balance of chill and engaging.  So many modern folk records run the risk of drifting by unappreciated, but Sable adds all sorts of rhythmic flavors (afrobeat, bluesy, jazzy) and instruments (banjo, kick ass horn sections) to the mix to keep your attention.  Choice track:  “Moonshine Freeze”.

12.  Wolf Alice – Visions Of A Life

British band Wolf Alice impressed the pants off me with 2015’s My Love Is Cool (#11 of the year), a kick ass indie-rock record that ran an impressive gamut of styles recalling the Cocteau Twins, Elastica, and PJ Harvey.  The new album (and album of the year at my fave music blog Drowned in Sound) is even more varied.  Ellie Rowsell can croon like Julia Holter one moment and then blow your speakers apart like a wasted and furious Courtney Love.  The songs here are bigger and better, many with sheets of fuzz guitar, new wave synths, booming bass, and angelic vocal arrangements.  Like their debut, there is depth and nuance here, going far beyond mere three chord indie rock.  For example, “After the Zero Hour” unfolds as a folky prog-rock piece worthy of Kate Bush and Joanna Newsom; “Don’t Delete The Kisses” could be a Grimes song.  There is something here for everyone.  Choice track: “Sadboy”.

11. Emily Haines and Soft Skeleton – Choir of the Mind

While Emily Haines is the compelling face and voice of Metric, one gets the sense that her Soft Skeleton records are closer to her heart, wholly and completely hers, and the music she is most interested in making.  Based on this latest record, I hope she continues this course (nothing against Metric, mind you).  This is her second and she seems greatly influenced by her membership in Broken Social Scene and, most notably St. Vincent.  Haines provides an amazing set of lush, complex songs that are equal parts neo-classical,  progressive rock, and danceable electronica.  The arrangements appear to spring initially from spare and elegant piano arpeggios, but often evolve into grandiose, multi-layered modern rock operas, carried by lyrics steeped in regret, sorrow, and desolation (song titles include “Strangle All Romance”, “Wounded”, and, awesomely, “Nihilist Abyss”).  If this sounds all a bit heavy, well, it is.  The world is hard and fucking sucks, and people are terrible, and life is slipping through our fingers.  Yes, sometimes wallowing in such despondent thoughts is part of the process, and Emily Haines can be right there with you in your ear, commiserating.  Choice track: “Fatal Gift”.

10.  Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up

With the departure of drummer Josh Tillman, hastened by the (mystifying) runaway success of his side-project Father John Misty, and the entry of Robin Pecknold into Columbia University, it appeared Fleet Foxes were done in 2014. Happily, the band has returned this year with Crack-Up and I think it is their best release yet.  Their M.O. has not changed in any significant way, although many reviews talk up the band’s putative reinvention, esoteric song titles, and high-brow academic references to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Spanish painters.  While I do acknowledge the arrangements are a little more challenging (evoking Yes and Steven Wilson at times, oddly), it is hard to escape the pithy centre of Fleet Foxes – soaring and sunny folk rock that mines the best of sixties-soaked Americana and British psych-folk.  It is a masterful concoction of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, The Byrds, Moby Grape, Gram Parsons, The Beach Boys and Fairport Convention.  You will not hear sweeter rock harmonies in 2017, methinks.  Choice track: “- Naiads, Cassadies” (yes, that is literally the song title).

9. EMA – Exile in the Outer Ring

Emma Anderson returns with her third album of magnificient industrial noise pop.  Debut Past Life Matyred Saints (#2 of 2011) was harrowingly fabulous, and follow up The Future’s Void (#13 of 2014) was a bit more muted but still compelling.  Exile in the Outer Ring falls somewhere in the middle, jumping back and forth from whispery indie rock songs to alarming industrial noise bombs.  EMA feels like the heir apparent to PJ Harvey, mixing in the punk nihilism of oldies Dry and Rid of Me with the later erudite treatises of Let England Shake and The Hope Six Demolition Project.  But while Harvey is a useful reference, Anderson is doing her own thing – wrapping catchy guitar riffs in barb-wired, electrifying noise, metallic beats, and overall fuzzy mayhem.  Her vocal delivery is alluring and traumatized at the same time, at once beautiful and tragic, creating an uneasiness in the listener.   Choice track: “Blood and Chalk”.

8. Angelo De Augustine – Swim Inside The Moon

Asthmatic Kitty, the record label curated by savant boy-wonder Sufjan Stevens, has always in my mind fallen short of expectations.  One feels like the brilliant Stevens would put out records that are somehow comparable, if somewhat less amazing and extravagant, to his own output.  I have liked records by Half-Handed Cloud, Castanets, and Juliana Barwick, but there has been nothing particularly revelatory. Until now.  AK has delivered Angelo De Augustine’s second LP, Swim Inside The Moon, and I am enraptured by it.  Reportedly, this LP was recorded almost entirely in De Augustine’s bathtub and the sound of the porcelain reverb is pretty unmistakable, as is the tape hiss and lo-fi production value.  The intimacy is what matters, however; this is one man strumming beautiful patterns on his guitar and singing soaring melodies in a sweet and fragile falsetto.  The effect recalls Sufjan’s early output of Michigan and Seven Swans, Elliott Smith, and, most wonderfully, Pink Moon by Nick Drake.  The first song “Truly Gone” is immediately engaging and pretty, with a interesting circular guitar line complemented by his hushed vocals.  The next song, “Haze”, is impossibly gorgeous and spellbinding and easily ranks as my favorite song of the year.  Throughout, these solo testimonials demonstrate that folk music – just a person and their guitar – can still absolutely slay me.  It’s a weird fine line, as we know that the singer-songwriter is a worn out medium with a toiling cast of millions adding precious little to the canon.  But ever so often, someone like Augustine comes along and breaks your heart to pieces.  Choice track: “Haze”.

7. Sand Pebbles – Pleasure Maps

The Sand Pebbles, hailing from Melbourne, Australia, have been around for a shocking 15 years and, with this release, 7 LPs  – shocking insofar as I had not come across them until a recent review in one of Jack Rabid’s Top 40 lists, as published in the bi-annual supermag The Big Takeover.  I always pay close attention to Jack’s recommendations. Pleasure Maps opens with a propulsive tune (“Desire Lines”) that sounds oddly like a throwback to Canadian new wave, like a long lost Spoons song or something, although a little more, um, Kraftwerk-y.  Then it becomes the American Analog Set jamming with Brian Eno, and I’m becoming smitten.  Throughout, I hear a wonderful mixtures of The Byrds, reverb drenched surf music, and, quite obviously, Luna (the last track, “Friendlier Advice”, is undoubtedly an homage to Luna’s amazing jam-out “Friendly Advice”).  These songs are transportative, buoying me away on wave after jubilant wave of languid psych-rock goodness.  How did I miss this band?  I want the whole back catalogue.  Choice track:  “I Heard The Owl Call Out My Name”.

6.  Pains of Being Pure At Heart – The Echo of Pleasure

Gosh, time flies.  It does not feel all that long ago that I considered Pains to be one of my favorite “new bands” with gobs of potential.  I wish they had been a little more proflic in their 10 year lifespan because everything they put out is tremendous.  The Echo of Pleasure is their fourth album and is once again chock full of hooky fuzzy pop and new wave anthems.  The obvious reference points continue to be The Cure, Echo and Bunnymen, Yo La Tengo, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and the whole C86 indie-pop genre.  This album feels a little more 80’s influenced to me somehow, and I say that in the best way possible (vintage, borderline cheesy synths may be the culprit).  Brilliant, glistening, dream-pop gems.  Choice track: “My Only”.

5.  Slowdive – Slowdive

The shoegaze revival, referenced reverentially in my more recent annual lists, included genre founders Slowdive, to the extent that they reunited to tour once again (as did Swervedriver, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Lush, Sianspheric, and others).  All of us fans were waiting for the “new music” announcement, which came and culminated with 2017’s self-titled LP.  It’s interesting – I always liked Slowdive, but was always a wee bit underwhelmed, feeling their music sort of drifted by unnoticed a good deal of the time.  Later, however, I became a massive fan of Mojave 3 (composed of Slowdive’s Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell) and Halstead’s solo work (an all-time favorite album of mine is his sublime Sleeping On Roads).  The growing familiarity with the Halstead’s projects led me to reappraise and newly appreciate Slowdive’s discography, and has primed me for this one.  And it is glorious.  Reverb-drenched undulating waves of guitar and angelic vocals create an otherworldly, prismatic topography of sound that disarms the senses.  But this isn’t just soundscapes for sound’s sake – underneath it all are distant pop tendrils that tempt and lure you along.  Choice track:  “Star Roving”. 

4.  Alvvays – Antisocialites

Toronto’s Alvvays have been getting supreme love of late, beginning with their self-titled debut in 2013 and now with 2017’s Antisocialites.  That time-gap between albums seems suprising, but it was filled with constant touring, which seems to have focused their chops and positioned them nicely for this follow up.  The first ablum was good, almost great, but this sophomore release is stellar and stunning.  Truth be told, I’m having trouble figuring out why, because the surface recipe is deceivingly straightforward – slacker gal vocals over top of catchy chorus/fuzz guitar.  But there is more going on here, somehow, some sort of pure distillation of the best components of their forebears and contemporaries – The Primitives, Beach House, The Raincoats, Camera Obscura, The Pipettes, Wolf Alice, Veronica Falls, Frankie Rose, and so on.  Amazing, catchy, awesome indie pop, if that’s yer thing.  Alvvays is top of the Canadian alt-pops and I can’t wait to see what they do next.  Choice track: “Your Type”.

3.  Iron and Wine – Beast Epic

Ever since I was mesmerized by the beauty and darkness of Iron and Wine’s Endless Numbered Days, they have been a consistent favorite and a cut above their peers in so many ways.  The incomparably sweet male/female harmonies of Sam and (sister) Sarah Beam deliver penetrating sketches of a lost America, among a backdrop of gorgeous finger picked guitar supported by a range of other effortless folk instrumentation.  When they went in the direction of polished retro-70s AM rock (with Kiss Each Other Clean and Ghost on Ghost) I was impressed but also yearnful for a return to their earlier folk format of Days and debut The Creek Drank The Cradle.  Beast Epic is that return, but with greater wisdom, experience,  dynamics, and nuance.  The set up is old school – gone is the big production, horns and orchestra, and overall sheen –stripped back to the trusty, dusty acoustic guitar, stand-up bass, piano, and subtle strings.  The result is some beautiful countrified folk that is up there with Iron & Wine’s very best work.  Choice track:  “Call It Dreaming”.  

2. Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder

2017 has been marked (in my mind at least), by the resurgence of mid-2000s Canadian indie rock, with BSS and Wolf Parade leading they way.  Once you can put the embarrassing douchy demeanor of Kevin Drew out of your mind (sorry, whenever I see them live, I’m rubbed the wrong way by his “I’m so cool” thing), BSS delivers a powerful new record of wall of sound guitar anthems.  We have waited seven years for this, and the collective is getting pretty long in the tooth, yet it still dramatically coheres, rocks the shit out of shit, and optimally uses the copious talents of its independently successful members – Drew, Emily Haines, Feist, Brendan Canning, Amy Milan, Charles Spearin and a host of others.  Full of propulsive and urgent rock songs, I get a wistful celebratory feeling, nostalgic for the memories of hopping from show to show during one of the greatest rock eras in our history (circa 2003 to 2008, starting with Constantines’ Shine A Light and ending with Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Flight).  BSS bring it all back here, lifting us up like the young lions we used to be (a little bit of a LOL here – I was in my mid-30s.  But still.  It’s the feeling, man.  Screw you).  Choice track:  “Halfway Home”. 

1.  Wolf Parade – Cry, Cry, Cry

If Broken Social Scene reels you in for a group rock hug (of thunder), Wolf Parade lashes out and repels any sort of touchy/feely sentiment.  Wolf Parade is no less a supergroup than BSS, boasting the supreme (and all somehow tortured) talents of Dan Boeckner (Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, Operators), Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Swan Lake), and Spencer Krug (Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, Sunset Rubdown, Moonface).  Their reunion album, Cry, Cry, Cry is equal to their amazing, mind-blowing classic Apologies to the Queen Mary, released way back in 2005.  (As an aside, the ever-cynical, critically bankrupt Pitchfork, which anointed Queen Mary with 9.2/10, lambastes the new album (6.7/10) as a recycling of their old sound, absent of new ideas, a “been there, done that” let-down.  Personally, I kind of want an amazing sounding band to…um…CONTINUE SOUNDING amazing.  And they do! What did they want Wolf Parade to do, put out an album of death metal Rihanna covers?  Meanwhile, Preoccupations (formerly Viet Cong) put out what is essentially a Wolf Parade album clone in 2016 and Pitchfork was salivating over it as “ferociously alive”, giving it a 7.9/10.  Fuck Pitchfork.  Complete idiots).  Okay, now that I got that aside off my chest, what do we have here?  Roiling, careening, propulsive, explosive rock gems.  It’s a heady mix of 80s gothy new wave, angular guitar lines, darkened dance-beats, anthemic choruses, and embittered end of the world shout outs.  Krug and Boeckner bring their A-games, sounding like the best of their other bands, while channeling  David Bowie, The Boomtown Rats, XTC, Modest Mouse, and The Pixies.  A tremendous return.  Choice track: “Valley Boy”.

Some Great Records Falling Outside The 2017 Top 25 List

As you may have noticed, I went to 25 this year instead of the usual 20 as this year’s crop was so great.  But even that narrowing was hard.  Here are some GREAT records that did not make the list, but still garnered a great to excellent rating by my reckoning (i.e., at least 7.5/10).

The New Year – Snow.  The Kadane brothers have come back with their first album since 2008 and, dammit, I didn’t hear it until January 2018, just as I was pushing the blog publish button.  If I’m honest, this record would have finished in the top 10 if I was more judicious (i.e., less lazy).  A bit more upbeat and major chorded than their first slo-core classic outfit (Bedhead), this is some great straight up mid-tempo guitar-centric indie rock that always leads to compelling crescendos – think Seam, Ida, Acetone, and Low.  Not on Spotify, so check out elsewhere!

  

Japandroids – Near to the Wild Heart of Life.  Sorta hurt to leave this duo off the list.  I always root for these guys who give every ounce of themselves to their craft, be it in the studio or to rapturous, crowd-surfing audiences.  Super high energy sing along anthems of shredding guitar, pounding drums, and nostalgic memories of youth.

Elliott BROOD – Ghost Gardens. These Canadian lads just keep on plucking.  Bluegrassy, stomping, whiskey-soaked country rock (with an emphasis on the rock).  Once again, every song is a carousing, crowd-pleasing, heartfelt sing-a-long. 

Mac DeMarco – This Old Dog.  DeMarco is one of those amazing indie outsiders that comes off as a sort of naïve folky, a niche bedroom recorder.  But this is some really mature, keenly delivered stuff.  It’s simple (as per usual) and maybe even lazy sounding at first, but a closer listen reveals layers of careful production and attention to detail.  This is mellow and slack, but also supremely catchy.  He falters at the tail end, though, losing his vibe with some peculiar and ill-advised (and almost maddening) forays into cheesy 80s-sounding RnB.  But listen to lead off track “My Old Man” – so basic, so perfect, like lying in a hammock on a warm summer afternoon.

Tristen – Sneaker Waves.  This is wonderful jangle pop, perhaps too much sheen at times, but brings me back to The Bangles, Kirsty MacColl, The Go Gos, and Juliana Hatfield.  And there is a countrified pop feel too, sounding a bit like Cortney Tidwell. 

Do Make Say Think – Stubborn Persistent Illusions.  More brilliant, moody, and inspiring instrumentals from this Canadian collective.  Recommended for fans of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, and Stars of the Lid.

Jay Som – Everybody Works.  Lo-fi pop maestro Melina Duterte advances her bedroom recording craft exponentially since her first collection (2016’s Turn Into).  This Bandcamp offering seems like a more proper debut of hooky indie gems and has gained wide attention from boutique blogs to mainstream media.  Close relative to Alvvays with a touch of Lordes, Grimes, and…um…Avril Lavigne?  Choice track: “1 Billion Dogs”.

Charly Bliss – Guppy.  I was immediately taken by “Glitter”, which melodically grips you like a top-end Primitives or Juliana Hatfield song.  The rest of the albums is good to great, if sometimes pushing a little too far across that blurry boundary into over-polished pop-punk.

Austra – Future Politics.  Toronto’s Katie Stelmanis gives Emily Haines’ Choir Of The Mind a run for it’s money, with heady, beat-laden synthetic operas.  Recommended if you like Emily (obviously), but also School of Seven Bells, Beach House, Grimes, and Florence + the Machine.

METZ – Strange Peace.  METZ once again absolutely bludgeon us with uncompromising post-hardcore. They sound like the apocalypse and do so much more for me than the sludgy doom metal that’s seen such a recent revival.  This harkens back to the dizzying heights of Minor Threat, Fugazi, Public Image Limited, and The Jesus Lizard, but with even more tension and release, if that’s possible.  Recorded straight to tape by original disruptor Steve Albini.

Arcade Fire – Everything Now.  While most agree that the title track was a great tropical disco single, the consensus has also been that Arcade Fire dropped another dud (the first being Reflektor).  I tended to agree, then witnessed possibly the greatest live show I have ever seen in my life at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.  Seriously.  This spectacle breathed new life and respect into the 2017 album and AF consequently are still a going concern for me.   

Wire – Silver/Lead.  I’ll just say what I said last time around, in reference to 2016’s Nocturnal Koreans:   “[Wire provide a] time-tested recipe of taut minimalist guitar lines, brainy nihilistic lyrics, and cold-filtered vocals.  I truthfully can’t think of a band coming out of the late 70’s art punk scene that evolved to remain as relevant, exacting, and exciting as Wire.”  All true, again, for Silver/Lead.

Annie Sumi – In The Unknown.  Recently settling in my hometown of Guelph, ON, Annie Sumi put out her second album and it is a gorgeous, meditative set of emotional folk gems. Sumi sings like an angel, fingerpicks like a seasoned pro, and ups the production value with beautiful strings and pedal steel this time around, to great effect.  I hear a lot Joni Mitchell here.  Dare I say Annie Sumi might be the next Sarah McLachlan?  I dare!

Richard Laviolette – Taking the Long Way Home.  Another Guelphite, Laviolette finally follows up his first album (2009’s All Of Your Raw Materials).  The old-timey country approach is more prominent this time around, which is not a bad thing by any means, but there are fewer of the more delicate folksy numbers that were so bloody amazing on his first record.  But still a great album and I can’t see how Laviolette is any less of talent than Will Oldham, for example.  He should be a national treasure, and basically needs to make more records.

Bird City – Winnowing.  Jenny Mitchell, indie mainstay of Guelph, ON has been a local musical force, playing all manner of roles in The Barmitzvah Brothers, The Burning Hell, Richard Laviolette’s Oil Spills, as well as treating us with her sublime bedroom recordings as Jenny Omnichord.  She’s jettisoned her omnichords for the banjo and surrounded herself with a host of local musical heroes to put out her debut under the moniker Bird City.  Stripped down, beautiful folk tunes of memory, longing, regret, happiness, and everything in between.

Japanese Breakfast – Soft Sounds From Another Planet.  The Secretly Society record club (which delivers me lovely coloured limited edition vinyl from labels Dead Oceans and Secretly Canadian) sent me Japanese Breakfast one month and what a nice present.  Psychedelic, blissful synth sounds, spacey sonic landscapes, and chill vocals provided by bandleader Michelle Zauner.  Fans of Washed Out, Blonde Redhead, and Chromatics take note.

Drew McIvor – Through the Tangle of Trees.  McIvor returns with a tremendous genre-jumping mix that adds to his already accomplished reggae, rocksteady, and disco-funk chops.  We got some fragile and pretty folk, bluesy-swing, RnB, thumpin’ country, and some straight up rock.  Ever-present is the best feature – McIvor's smooth and flawless vocals and harmonies.  Dig it!

Soccer Mommy – Collection.  Saw this group open for Luna and I was impressed enough to pick up their cassette Collection.  The pairing with Luna made sense, as they ply the same trade of slowed down, simplified electric guitar pop.  Also seems to reference Juliana Hatfield, Yo La Tengo, and SF Seals. 

Moon Duo – Occult Architecture, vol. 1.  Moon Duo give us another solid album of psychedelic drone pop with 80s-era synths, sounding like an upbeat Joy Division or an angsty OMD.  Contemporary comparisons might be The Men, Crystal Stilts, and Wooden Shjips.

Bully – Losing.  This is great edgy pop-punk, at times sounding a heck of lot like the 90s showings of Hole, Weezer, and The Breeders, and following the same current wave as Beach Slang, Wild Flag, and Vivian Girls.  Cathartic and snidely sweet.

Girlpool – Powerplant. I wanted to like this more than I did, because I adored their previous album, Before The World Was Big.  This is still very good – strange, whimsical, DIY indie rock, sometimes punk-inflected, sometimes slow and spare.  The guitar tones are fabulous – fuzzy, buzzy, and bendy.  Closest relatives would be early Liz Phair and Juliana Hatfield.

And a few records I have not fully listened to, but gave me great first impressions:  2017 albums by Beck, Elbow, Sheer Mag, Waxahatchee, Grizzly Bear, Alex G, Luyas, and Casper Skulls.

Odds and Ends

And I should note a couple amazing cover LPs.  Luna cover a range of fairly obscure songs on A Sentimental Education, including the Velvet Underground’s “Friends” (from the Doug Yule era LP Squeeze, which has essentially been redacted from VU’s discography), “Fire In Cairo” by The Cure, and “Car Wash Hair” by Mercury Rev.  Luna’s live show in Toronto was outstanding.  Jonathan Rado (of Foxygen) covers all of Springsteen’s Born to Run, and it’s quite cool. A big treat this year was the small vinyl pressing of Mutual Benefit covering the lost and rediscovered gem Just Another Diamond Day, the cult-folk classic released by Vashti Bunyon in 1970.

A few singles and EPs deserve a mention.  Lehmann B. Smith, an Aussie on Courtney Barnett’s Milk Records, contributed “Dust” to the label’s split singles club…really dig this track.  The mighty Chavez returned modestly with a 12 inch single, and “Blank In The Blaze” is great highlight (included in the Spotify playlist).  “She’s A Believer” by Black Heart Death Club (from the s/t EP) is a pretty awesome Spaceman 3-influenced psychedelic treat.  And I loved the crunchy indie pop of Kindling (especially “Claims Nonexistence” from their No Generation EP).  Finally, Not For Function, will definitely be making waves in Toronto and beyond over the next while.  I have some back door access to their tunes and they're killer post-punk rockers that sound like a careening Wolf Parade broadsiding Television.  For a taste check out "Doritoes".

The Disappointments, Miscues, and Disparagements of 2018

This year’s disappointments!  Not bad albums, really (although some are), but these are the bands that

I expect more of, that I was excited about.  That failed me and filled me with ire and annoyance.  There’s always a few (as opposed to the truckloads of records that actually sucked, but that I wouldn’t deign to listen to in the first place).

Flaming Lips…I think I give up.  Ever since 1999's The Soft Bulletin (a nearly perfect, trail blazing record) things have gone downhill.  The Lips are always interesting enough for me to hope beyond hope that they’ll bring back the greatness.  Oczy Mlody is an aimless, moody, gurgling pile of nothing, drifting by unremarkably.   There are no hooks and it’s all so tiresome.  Cloud Nothings, who had great high energy indie rock potential, sound like modern alternative bullshit on Life Without Sound, like I am listening to Sum 41.  Avey Tare of Animal Collective attempted to go back to the roots of AC’s Sung Tongs’ (that bastion of indie freak folk) but the result is annoying rather than mesmerizing. 

Mew’s 2017 release, Visuals, is merely okay, and way too poppy and light.  They’ve lost what made them great – the sludge-metal riffs that normally undergird the 80s synths.  I have been waiting for a new Flotation Toy Warning record, but their novel warbly orchestral pieces seem to have wore thin to me, to my surprise.  Such otherworldly potential here, but the formula breaks down into a sort of precious bomast.  That said, check out great song and amazing interactive VR video for “Carry Me To Safety”.   

And finally, the War On Drugs put out a pretty polarizing record, landing on many writers’ year-end best of lists, but it was also panned by quite a few others.  Drawing heavily on Dylan, The Band, and AOR, one has to respect the production chops – it sounds fabulous if taken on its own terms.  But the songs are to my ears overly long, overwrought and, in many places, soft rock sinkholes.  This is a long way from Slave Ambient and the other early bracing records.  I tried to like it numerous times if only because at times I really did – in 30 second snippets, I suddenly felt it was amazing.  And then something would turn and it would be like I was listening to Honeymoon Suite or The Eagles, and the distaste would rise in me.  That taste has remained.  Not horrible as a rock document (I gave it 6.8 out of 10), but it is easily the disappointment of the year.

Signing off!  Maybe, hopefully I'll post more frequently in this space.