Albums that you want to see on a year-end top 10 list are usually ones that stand out among the noise even from the first full listen. This year gave rise to many releases worthy of commendation, but this list includes artists who not only conveyed a concept or feeling through their work but simultaneously exceeded at it. There are no top 10 lists without a scent of personal music taste, but for this list I tried to pick albums that were as inventive as satisfying. And they’re also ordered, because I had to raise the stakes.
10. Toro y Moi - Boo Boo
The perfect summer record, Boo Boo comes with a visual component that follows Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bundick as he drives his van through a West Coast sunset. Tracks such as “Girl Like You” and “Windows” could fit into the playlists of any late-night after party or mid-morning recovery and never lose their dance upon repeated plays. Boo Boo is Bundick’s best effort yet and flows together with the ease of a Saturday afternoon.
9. Florist - If Blue Could Be Happiness
Florist’s second album finds singer Emily Sprague contemplating the more abstract aspects of life and death. Lyrics about mortality, acceptance, love and often melancholy fit perfectly with instrumentals that move with the beauty and mellowness of the northern lights and the softness of clouds. The album’s first single “Understanding Light” shines as a tender ballad about what we might remember after death. Later on, the title track provides one of the records most powerful moments with a beautifully orchestrated refrain, followed by an instrumental track that could easily be mistaken for The Antlers. If Blue Could Be Happiness sounds like no other record this year in the dreamlike atmosphere it summons and never loses hold.
8. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
With the quality and attention Kendrick Lamar puts toward his albums, how one ranks them is not really important. Although DAMN. is not my favorite of his releases, it is one that I’ve mulled over for months now. Intended to be played both forwards and backwards — time is a recurring concept on the album — DAMN. chronicles the descent of a rap star descending into a prideful moral downfall. Lamar likes very much to step into the voice of another to show us the irony of characters like that. Some parts are blatantly autobiographical like the third verse on “LUST.” but how much of Kendrick’s genuine opinions are present on “DNA.” or the lead single “HUMBLE.” we might never know. To tell the story of a radio rapstar, Lamar discovered that he must play the part to complete the feel. Perhaps that explains “Bad Blood.”
7. Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds from Another Planet
With infectious melodies and changing instruments, Soft Sounds from Another Planet by Michelle Zauner, a.k.a. Japanese Breakfast, shifts between levity and sadness. Behind bright hazy guitars and the occasional trumpet, she calls for help on the title track and laments a fallout on the penultimate “This House.” The music on this record is joyously sad and cathartic that leads to a wide range of emotions — and some comic relief — on every immersive listen.
6. Thundercat - Drunk
Released way back in February, Thundercat’s third studio album finds the artist contemplating many things over instrumentals bursting with jazz, funk and face-melting bass playing. Of the topics to which Stephen Bruner devotes the 51 minute run-time include leaving a wallet at the club, imagining life as a cat, cutting back on social media and getting out of the friend zone. But the songwriting and playing are so top notch, he could sing about filing taxes and it would still be just as impressive. Thundercat also brings together a great list of features including Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. All in all, Drunk creates a standalone experience that offers as many wondrous grooves as it does smiles and laughs.
5. The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
The fourth album from the Philadelphia-based band The War on Drugs rocks the most of out of any album released this year all the while keeping its cool. We find bandleader Adam Granduciel looking inward and searching for a deeper understanding of himself, as said on “Pain." He delivers guitar solos as frequently as choruses with a Springsteen-esque heartland aesthetic. Monstrously big-sounding songs like “Knocked Down” and the centerpiece “Thinking of a Place” elevate this effort to the latest entry in the canon of rock music. The album’s entire thematic message can be summarized by one line in the chorus of the latter song. Accompanied by sprite strumming, Granduciel confesses his current state: “I’m moving through the dark/Of a long, black night.”
4. LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
When I first heard this record’s lead single “Call the Police” performed on SNL, I knew I had to listen to American Dream as soon as possible. James Murphy continues to use his meta-lyrics and a dance-punk sound while taking on more mature topics like aging, the politically polarized climate and a cacophony of opinions. Some songs like “Oh Baby” and “Other Voices” nod musically to the early 80s while the lyrical themes — and album cover — skew more toward the books of David Foster Wallace and sociologists. With a title like American Dream, a dissection of this country’s culture is expected. And after six years of hiatus, Murphy finally clears his throats and makes his long-simmering observations known.
3. Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
Crack-Up is a complete contemplation on post-election America and the current factions of citizens who call it home. Songs like “I Should See Memphis” and “If You Need to, Keep Time on Me” fit perfectly with the current times and might cement it as a cultural artifact for future generations much like the work of Bob Dylan or Nirvana has done for past decades. And epics like “Third of May/Ōdaigahara” and “On Another Ocean (January/June)” bring an air of timelessness to this record. Not only is this the best Fleet Foxes releases yet, but it eclipses every other folk albums of 2017 has the potential to become a classic in 10 or 15 years time.
2. Zola Jesus - Okovi
Okovi is an apt name for Zola Jesus’ most recent record. It means “shackles” in Slavic languages and even the album’s cover seems to imply a sludge of psychic weight has taken over. However, on Okovi, songwriter Nicole Hummel cleanses pain in the form of songs that resemble the possession of an onryō. Beating and flickering synths chop up Hummel’s clear singing on “Exhumed” and with lyrics like “We’d hate see you give into those cold, dark night inside your head” on “Siphon,” she paints the chairoscuric picture of overcoming an internal darkness. Many albums this year dealt with braving seemingly impossible circumstances, but Hummel delivers inventive sound production that elevates her voice and melancholy with more force than anyone else. Well, everyone except my pick for number one.
1. King Krule - The Ooz
The Ooz is an album that encompasses anger, loneliness, debauchery, nostalgia with just a glimmer of fun. In a stew of jazzy grooves, punk urgency and grief-stricken crooning, Archy Marshall follows up 2013’s 6 Feet Beneath the Moon with a more expansive and flowing record in his King Krule moniker. Like the jet plane on the album cover, the songs find Marshall sailing through life in both its quiet (“Lonely Blue”) and chaotic (“Dum Surfer”) moments. The album’s second song called “The Locomotive” is my favorite song of the year because of its slow build to a climax of Marshall shouting “Waiting for the train/In the dead of night I howl” to his ultimate resolution “We all have our evils/We’re told just to keep cool.” No album in 2017 matches the visceral highs and the emotional lows of all the gunk molded into The Ooz.
Luke Furman is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Do you agree with Luke's favorites from 2017? Let Luke know by tweeting him @LukeFurmanLog or emailing him at lf491413@ohio.edu.
