By: Cormac Riordan, Staff Writer
2017 has been a strong year for music. The past fall has been the grounds for many great albums to come out, including some that can be considered the best albums of the year. Some albums which I would consider to be the best of this year include Tyler the Creator’s Flower Boy, Thundercat’s Drunk, Soft Sounds from Another Planet by Japanese Breakfast, and Out in the Storm by Waxahatchee. But in this article, I’ll be focusing on the previous releases of this fall, specifically September/October. It’s been a crowded year, so sometimes it’s nice to look back and see what one might’ve missed
Perhaps no artist has had a more productive 2017 than Young Thug. He put out a country-influenced trap album called Beautiful Thugger Girls in June, followed with two projects this fall. The first, and somewhat weaker project, is entitled Young Martha, and is a collaborative EP with the producer Carnage. The EP is a strong four tracks; both rapper and producer bring their best and create an enjoyable, if fleeting, experience. However, Young Thug dropped another collaboration this past week, a full length mixtape with Future called Super Slimey. This thirteen track mixtape pairs Future and Thug’s voices well together, much more so than on Future’s previous collaborative mixtape which he did with Drake in 2015, What a Time to Be Alive. Thug’s confidence in his lack of peers is captured perfectly in the song Cruise Ship, where he raps “Ain’t got no fuckin’ neighbors, ain’t got no neighbors/Yeah, no neighbors, oh”.
Other albums that have come out this fall that I found particularly successful include the first solo project from the former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij, put out under the name Rostam. Entitled Half-Life, it’s a dreamy electronic pop album, full of interesting hooks and beats, and promises an interesting solo career to watch. Similarly pop-influenced is another debut, this one called Aromanticism, by Moses Sumney. It’s a delicate album, full of his lovely high voice and gentle guitar blocking, and the lead single off it, “Plastic” is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard this year. Another album for fans of unique voices and interesting guitar playing is The Ooz by King Krule, his follow up to 2013’s 6 Feet Beneath the Moon. It’s certainly not the easiest album to listen to, Krule’s voice can be quite off putting, but once you get used to it, the beauty in the lyrics and musical constructions are hard to deny. The Ooz is not an album for everyone, but it’s definitely an album for me, and I enjoy and frequently love Krule’s musicality of this album.
Despite the quality of all these albums, I have been saving the best two for the last. The first, another debut album from British electronic musician Iglooghost, called Neō Wax Bloom, isn’t as hard to get into as The Ooz, but certainly presents its own challenges. Best described as “wonky”, the album is eclectic and frantic, but creates such a unique sonic space that even if one has a strong aversion to “busy” electronic music, this is a project worth checking out. But an even stronger album remains, what is perhaps my second favorite album of the year, Antisocialites, by Alvvays. It’s a surf pop-influenced alternative album, full of dreamy guitar loops and beautiful lyrics from the lead singer Molly Rankin. It’s a gorgeous album, but also a fun one, and the opening track sells one on the album immediately. It crashes into you, a quick build up of synth to a drum beat and guitar accompaniment, and then Rankin’s gorgeous vocals come in. I’ll leave you with the some of those beautiful lyrics, from the song “Dreams Tonite”: “Don’t sit by the phone for me/Wait at home for me, all alone for me/Your face was supposed to be hanging over me like a rosary/So morose for me; seeing ghosts of me; writing oaths to me/Is it so naive to wonder…”