Winter is upon us and the end of 2017 is nigh so it;s time to round up the year’s finest music releases. Unlike its predecessor, 2017 didn’t have purple patches where a superabundance of great albums would drop suddenly. However, the calendar was dotted with a few excellent ones. Give these records a spin to help you forget about all those impending assignments.
(Sandy) Alex G – Rocket
This is less of an album, more a delirious scrapbook of musical ideas. The willingness to experiment Alex G showed in previous outings, as well as on Frank Ocean's Endless/Blonde, is given room to germinate on Rocket. Altered vocal pitches and unconventional modes allow the tracks to move seamlessly within the genre confines of folk, power pop, hard-core, R&B. Which isn't to say there's no finished product, 'Bobby', 'Sportstar' and 'Proud' are song-of-the-year contenders.
NOS
Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens
I've no idea what any of these songs are about, and that's no discredit KLO's writing style. It's just every attempt to dissect the lyrics is intercepted by hypnotic layers of pulsating kickdrums, delicate strings, and ethereal, shadowed vocals. The production is startlingly precise for a debut album; no beat, loop or sample is superfluous. This is also a deceptive listen, the music shifts so gradually and incrementally at times that the compulsion to dance doesn't register until it's too late and you're on your feet in front of everyone on the bus.
NOS
Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.
Atop of the dizzying heights of stardom, it was a bold move for Kendrick to abandon the formula that helped him catapult to the top of the rap game. On DAMN, he divagates from the filmic 'concept album' approach that enriched his previous two albums. DAMN. may be less focussed but that doesn't matter. More contemporary production and less complex themes make DAMN. more accessible to casual music listeners. It has acerbic, hard-hitters like 'DNA' and wistful numbers like 'FEEL' and 'FEAR' where Kendrick projects a downtrodden persona, wondering where his fame will lead him to.
AB
Lorde ma- Melodrama
It's hard to think of any other great album that has such obvious, prominent imperfections, e.g. the slightly off-putting spoken interpretation of a bomb exploding on 'Homemade Dynamite', the cheap, rubbery acoustic guitar tone on 'The Louvre' and even the sequencing with the brilliant 'Green Light' being too imposing to open the album. It's not so much that there is such a volume of wonderful elements to counteract the negatives. Melodrama is to be appreciated as a whole because it is such a brave and honest piece of work. It would lose that overwhelming sense of authenticity if it was the polished, formulaic product on a shelf that Lorde must have felt some pressure to make.
NOS
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