Wednesday, February 21, 2018

2017 Recap - Music

First, here is a playlist of 2017 songs I liked that didn't make my official 2017 soundtrack: 2017 part two

Now, have you heard about this new way to listen to music? You can subscribe to a service and “stream” as much as you want! Combined with my local library, this allowed me to listen to a lot of albums this year. Excluding those I only listened to once or twice, here is how I classify 2017’s albums:


This is remastered album sounds great, I hope they do this to more Beatles records!
  • Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th anniversary remaster



Superb
  • Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
  • Lorde - Melodrama
  • The New Pornographers - Whiteout Conditions
  • Spoon - Hot Thoughts





Real Good
  • Arcade Fire - Everything Now
    • (The great songs are significant enough for me to ignore the clunky “Infinite Content” songs. For reasons I cannot articulate, like the “Chemistry” lyric, “Go to the city / Go to the store / Ask for a loan from another bank”.)
  • Allison Crutchfield - Tourist in this Town
    • (These are very good songs with bad production values despite distribution by a respected label.)
  • Alvvays - Antisocialites
  • Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps




Solid.
  • Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound
  • Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
  • Aimee Mann - Mental Illness
  • Diet Cig - Swear I’m Good at This
  • U2 - Songs of Experience
    • (No one is going to go bonkers over this group of songs, but I’m happy that I like most of them, and very happy that they are still an operational rock band.)
  • Waxahatchee - Out in the Storm
  • Shins - Heartworms




Multiple good songs on these but also a song or two that I dislike enough to bump it down here
  • St. Vincent - Masseduction
    • (I thought this was the year, but I may be doomed to like only two St. Vincent songs per album forever.)
  • Wolf Alice - Visions of a Life
    • (“Beautifully Unconventional” and “Planet Hunter” are just the silliest things, and I’m sure they are not meant to be.)
  • Beck - Colors
  • Kesha - Rainbow




Fine but not memorable, or too one-note to keep my interest over the entire album
  • Ryan Adams - Prisoner
  • XX - I See You
  • Queens of the Stone Age - Villans
    • (Sharp downturn after the first two songs. Some of those songs really grate on me.)
  • Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights
  • Phoenix - Ti Amo
  • Liam Gallagher - As You Were
  • Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?
    • (Have not decided if this is legitimately good or British Nickelback.)
  • Tristen - Sneaker Waves
  • HAIM - Something to Tell You




Man, I tried, but I’m just not digging it
  • Real Estate - In Mind
  • Father John Misty - Pure Comedy (papa johns misty May 2017)
    • Texting my pal:
      • “I think this new Father John Misty album is good (!) but repetitive and I lose interest halfway in.”
    • (30 minutes pass)
      • “And after I lose interest but keep listening, I get madder and madder about the repetition and I’m back to hating him.”
    • So anyway, I much prefer Papa John's Misty
  • Feist - Pleasure
  • Lana Del Rey - Lust for Life

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