Best Albums Of 2017

As we shake off the cobwebs from the champagne on New Year’s Eve, we take one last look back at 2017 with some of our favorite albums….

INHEAVEN – INHEAVEN

INHEAVEN’s debut album sounds as subtle as a chainsaw and rips through your speakers in under 40 minutes. This is the sound of the next generation grappling with no future in a post-Brexit/Trump world order. This is the sound of the next generation kidnapping the rock canon from Springsteen to Nirvana and kicking the myths we created to a bloody pulp. Filtering loud/soft dynamics through a rumbling wall of sound, INHEAVEN demands more than apathy from their fellow millennials. They are showing us what made rock-n-roll indispensable to four generations of teenagers and asking where it went and why the f*ck we gave it up for i-Phones and social media. London was trying to wake us up with the Sex Pistols, Clash, and The Damned in the 1970s and London is again calling as INHEAVEN join Savages and Wolf Alice in the trenches of rock-n-roll where revolutions are plotted and hope springs eternal. – Jason Lent

 

Rahim AlHaj – Letters From Iraq

Grammy nominated Rahim AlHaj took letters by Iraqi women and children written to the United States and transformed them into amazing songs. Each song is a different letter and words are not needed to convey what they were about. His oud and accompanying string quintet put you in the middle of the struggle, grief, and mayhem that these people experienced. “Letter 4. The Last Time We Will Fly Birds” is about a teenage boy who kept homing pigeons on the apartment rooftop where he would secretly meet with his girlfriend. On the way home from school, he sees from a distance his pigeons flying circles around the building. They have nowhere to land because his apartment has been destroyed by a car bomb. That song transports you to that street scene, and it is both incredibly beautiful and emotionally devastating. So much great music has come out in 2017 but this album has moved me most. – Angela Leavell

Other albums of note from 2017:

Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark – The Punishment Of Luxury

An unexpected career renaissance continues with the third album from OMD since reuniting. Kraftwerk inspired electronics blend seamlessly with the band’s penchant for grand melodies. 

Tokyo Motor Fist – Tokyo Motor Fist

Remember Trixter and Danger Danger? It’s ok with you don’t. They were late arrivals on the hair metal scene and were buried in the rubble of a music scene never meant to grow old. Tokyo Motor Fist pairs Danger Danger singer Ted Poley with Trixter axeman Steve Brown and the result is a glorious return to the riffs and hooks of glam metal’s best years even if the hair isn’t what it used to be. 

 

Cigarettes After Sex – Cigarettes After Sex

Aptly named, the music of Cigarettes After Sex seemingly evaporates like a tendril of smoke hanging over your bed in the early morning hours. The consistent tone of the album becomes more hypnotic the further you wander in.

 

Lorde – Melodrama

With this confident follow-up to the world conquering debut, Lorde establishes herself as a modern-day Kate Bush full of beautiful contradictions.