20 albums and 1 EP: my 2017 in music.
Hello all and welcome to my favourite records of 2017!
2017 has been quite a year for many reasons and musically is no different, as this has been one of the strongest years for new music in some time (which may or may not have to do with the current president in the white house and for one of these at least, Brexit). It has been a particularly great year for female voices in music - just under half the acts here are, or include, women or at least are female fronted, with Björk surely to join them - and I’m not sure there has been a time where women have been so well promoted. It is a stupid thing to have to say of course, but it is at least encouraging that change is happening in a positive way. It is also encouraging given the latter half of the year socio-politically has largely been concerned with how much assault and sexism women have to put up with in a very public but important manner (although again, this doesn’t seem to be deterring the president, yet anyway.)
This year, I have chosen 20 (and 1 EP because I like to cheat) albums to feature, something I don’t think I’ve been able to do before. This probably has much to do with this being my first full year as a (semi)-professional journalist, something I feel I really marked properly this time last year when I was sent to Prague to interview The Lumineers, which was a fairly mad-yet-incredible experience. However, it’s not like I wasn’t paying attention before, and I have made a playlist including 50 different records from 2017 I have enjoyed in some capacity and a more concise one for this list.
Since that Lumineers interview, I’ve had the opportunity to cover from great events and records in 2017, as well as meet a whole load of very welcoming and great people to whom I must say thanks (especially as today is Thanksgiving). To Derek of Drowned in Sound, Tallah from The Skinny, Caitlin from Uproxx and many others, thank you for your continued support and friendship, I couldn’t have done it without any of you. In 2017 I got to:
Cover the BBC6 Music Festival in Glasgow, which was a really rather special weekend in my spiritual home. Interview some really excellent people, including: Jeremy Bolm, Touche Amore Angus Andrew, Liars Barry Burns, Mogwai Alex Cameron And finally, Joe Casey of Protomartyr (twice) which was by far the most difficult one, but ended up being pretty great.
I also got to keep travelling in the name of music journalism (what a trip!) by covering Mikkeller and The National’s inaugural HAVEN Festival in Copenhagen (a city long overdue a visit - I loved it!) and got to see Iggy Pop be the absolute boss-man, and drink SO. MUCH. GREAT. BEER.
And even more crazily, I got sent out to CALGARY, ALBERTA CANADA to cover Sled Island. There I got to see the likes of Low, Mono and Waxahatchee play in a church, Converge play in a weird British Union Vets centre, Wolves in the Throne Room and Daughters in a dive bar and I got to see The Rolling Stones’ mobile studio (which my parents visited just before I was born.) It was an amazing week I will never forget, full of incredible music and new friends, and while I didn’t find Bret Hart I did get to tour the city’s rather amazing beer scene, which I’m still in disbelief about, to be honest.
I also got to see and have many special live experiences this year less further afield, such as The XX’s triumphant show outside SWG3, Glasgow, getting to see City of Caterpillar (!) after all these years in Berlin, Julien Baker play one of my all-time favourite songs, St. Vincent transcend mere mortal status, Mogwai play in a famous Berlin gay club for TV and Thee Oh Sees play in a tiny, cramped basement this summer.
And finally, I RELEASED MY OWN ACTUAL, PHYSICAL ALBUM THIS YEAR!!! It was tough and stressful at times, but I am immensely proud of it and owe so much to my boys Kenni and Joe Campbell who make up FRAUEN, as well as the people around us who supported it, including Lewis Glass, Gary Taylor, Kyle Wood, Sean Campbell, Louise Grace Kenny (& Owen) my wonderful partner Ann-Christin Heinrich, and everyone who put on shows and came out to see us in our favourite haunts of Glasgow, Manchester, London, Brighton, Leeds and Newcastle (to name a few!) put us up for the night, drove us, bought a record, said a nice thing and generally were awesome.
So, onto the list. As a result of my year, I’ve decided to order this in release order rather than ranking, although I will point out the top five. A quick glance at this suggests that September was an absolutely ridiculous month (it was) and no I didn’t forget LCD Soundsystem, whereas I have nothing in May (Do Make Say Think and Slowdive were… fine but nothing special.) I am currently catching up on stuff I missed as I am writing this, so to Julie Byrne, Aldous Harding, Kelly Lee Owens, SZA, Big Thief, Idles, Sampha, Jlin, Jay Som, Lorde, Vince Staples and as mentioned, Björk you could all find yourself making up your own list in a month’s time.
A glaring but now expected omission is Science Fiction by Brand New, which up until a couple weeks ago I ranked as one of my top three records of the year. While of course, everyone should be wary of what we read online, Jesse Lacey’s frankly embarrassing and vague response to the matter has, quite likely, put a disastrous end to a previously remarkable and canonised career which was setting itself up for a glorious and perfect ending in 2018. Now, it’s very difficult to separate the art from the idea that this is an unsavoury at best, psychopathic at worst, white male who took advantage of his status and the surrounding scene towards young girls and called it a “sex addiction” which is highly troubling. Even his movements towards a “perfect end” to the band now feels slightly chilling, and at the time of writing, it seems as though he will (rightfully) not be rewarded with that. What a horrible turn of events for an artist and a band who have meant so much to so many people for well over a decade, the one band many have kept with them since their adolescence only for it all to go up in flames in an instant. The one (pyrrhic) positive from all this is that the continued conversation is finally giving victims a voice, and that is the most important matter which should never be forgotten.
OK, that unpleasantness behind us, let’s get on with the list:
Priests - Nothing Feels Natural (January) *4th
So, just to completely undermine my ordering here, I slept massively on this band and album until the summer, almost six months after release. Thankfully, I caught them just in time to see them play live in Hamburg this June shortly after moving to Germany (oh yeah that happened too, what a year eh?) after seeing they were playing that week at the legendary Hafenklang venue. I checked out ‘Jj’ and was immediately bowled over, something a completely new artist to me hadn’t done for some time. There’s a moment in that song, a couple minutes in, where the sensation of “lifting off” occurs both in the music and listening experience, it is a thrill, to say the least. The rest of the album thankfully stood up just as highly (especially it’s title track) and I admonished myself for not checking out this band clearly designed for my exact tastes. Live they were a force of nature, each member bringing something exciting, while collectively they reminded me of a tougher version of ESG’s “dance-punk”. So while I may have missed the boat initially, this record has quietly grown and grown in my estimation, to one of the year’s standouts, and will be excited to see what they do next.
Thundercat - Drunk (February) *2nd
The absolute boy does it again. Anyone who knows me knows Thundercat is one of my all-time boys, he’d be in my wrestling stable without a shadow of a doubt. I’ve been largely obsessed with Stephen Bruner since his fantastic turn on Flying Lotus's Cosmogramma and he has just got better ever since. For the first half of the year, Drunk was comfortably my favourite album of the record, knowing it would take something special to knock it off its perch (it did, but we’ll come to that later). This is, paradoxically, both his most cohesive and chaotic album yet, detailing the wide range of emotions a drunk night on the tiles can elicit while also being his most confident statement musically yet. On top of that, Kendrick Lamar returns the favour for that 2016 Grammy win Bruner played a part in winning for To Pimp a Butterfly, the legendary Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald show up on the lead single, and in the album’s clear highlight, Bruner completes his Tron suite with an ode to his cat of the same name.
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - The French Press (March) - EP of the year, for whatever that’s worth.
Australian music, from Melbourne especially, is in a pretty impressive state right now. Along with the above, Alex Cameron, Royal Headache, Julia Jacklin, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Total Control (to name a few) have in recent years created a formidable scene down under, making them a globally recognised force to be reckoned with in the music world. Despite the slightly annoying name, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever hit the BBC Radio 6 Playlists around March (though sadly not the Glasgow Music festival at the time) and with the song 'The French Press’ turned many heads. The song gave 'Cause = Time’ (a song somehow nearly 15 years old already) by Broken Social Scene a most welcome reboot while maintaining their own charming style. One would be forgiven for thinking this EP of the same name is just a vehicle for that one single, but no, to those who went out in search for more were rewarded with an excellent six tracks from top to bottom. This was only their second release after last year’s Talk Tight so it will be very exciting to see what their first full-length LP brings us, hopefully, next year sometime.
Kendrick Lamar - DAMN. (April)
What can I say, it’s Kendrick. Like Priests, I took a strangely long time to get round to DAMN. and not even really for any particular reason other than… just listening to other stuff and quietly knowing this would be great when I did finally come around to it. Though DAMN. for me doesn’t quite meet the insanely high mark of Lamar’s previous two albums, it’s still a very, very strong album from one of the best artists of the generation. While this may have the bombast of Good Kid or the sheer scale of Butterfly DAMN. still shows Lamar’s incredible skill as a storyteller, dropping the listener into a fully realised world, largely because it’s his reality. On top of this, he manages to write a song featuring U2 and it not be the worst thing ever! Outside of that, however, James Blake gets to return on his sparse roots on 'ELEMENT.’ ahead of their co-headline tour next year, which singles 'HUMBLE.’ and 'DNA.’ prove Lamar’s chops as an artist able to step back from his bigger concepts and make his point in three-minute bursts.
Timber Timbre - Sincerely, Future Pollution (April)
One of the most perennially underrated bands out, Canadian creepers Timber Timbre had one of the most quietly solid records of the year with Sincerely, Future Pollution. I’ve never been sure why they haven’t quite caught the wider imagination as some of their peers, such as Grizzly Bear for instance, who sonically have had a very similar trajectory from lo-fi “freak-folk” to a more electronic indebted sound. Whatever it is, in a year where everyone and their dog were (understandably) wanting to comment on the state of things in a post-Trump/Brexit world, Timber Timbre took a more subtle approach (a word that perfectly describes the band overall) as they brought up 80’s, Reagan-era sleaze into a modern context, with a healthy dose of Lynchian nightmarish images and structures. Through 9 feverish trips to the classical image of the decaying (in this case, swamp-ridden) city, we see the toxic nature of contemporary Western society poisoning everyone who embraces it, all soundtrack to lounge-jazz samples. It is perhaps the darkest, most sinister record of the year, a prevailing sense of creepiness and uneasiness permeates every beat, every noise, every line of frontman Taylor Kirk’s deadpan delivery in a completely different way to say, Alex Cameron’s multi-coloured coke-ridden characters. As the album’s alluring cover suggests, this is all your favourite black-and-white 70s paranoia films come to life.
Listen: Sewer Blues
Hey Colossus - The Guillotine (June)
Speaking of underrated, how the hell did everyone sleep on Hey Colossus this year? Perhaps they overshot themselves on their epic 2015 double albums In Black & Gold/Radio Static High, but this for me was the best British album of the year and one of the only to really address the mess the UK has got itself into. While the sludge/psyche rock act may not be quite as chaotic or as heavy as some of their earlier output, this is easily their sharpest to date, pinpointing the rage, anger, frustrating, sorrow and even humour in the current idea of being an “Englishman”. This is a loose concept album, based on very similar themes and sounds as Timber Timbre’s (albeit heavier) which skewers the current public conscious, but also provides genuinely breath-taking moments on songs like 'Calenture Boy’.
Englishman
Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up (June)
Robin Pecknold’s triumphant return to music and to Fleet Foxes has been one of the major stories of the year, though he received mixed responses for it. In preparation for this album, Fleet Foxes’ third and first in 6 years, Pecknold debuted a few of these songs, solo, supporting Joanna Newsom last year. At the time it was just good to know he was still writing songs, but the sheer ambition and kaleidoscopic scope of Crack-Up is incredible, for a band largely known for kicking off the folk resurgence in earnest. This record is rather like an intense, feverish, psychedelic vision in which Pecknold leads our hand, a singular voice in the void, while the music moves from madness to calm and back again across 11 beautifully composed tracks. The first time opener 'All That I Need’ kicks in, it takes the listener completely off-guard, washing them away in the oceans and the incoming storm on the album’s artwork sleeve, and the only hope is to try to ride it out and hope you survive. It is a genuinely impressive return to form, one I’m not sure many people thought Pecknold and Co still had in them.
Fool’s Errand
Sheer Mag - Need to Feel Your Love (July)
It’s not often where a band, especially as politically fierce as Sheer Mag are, just consistently put a smile on your face and make you raise a fist and shout “YES!” But that’s the Philadelphia punk-via-70s-radio-rock band do in spades. They manage to elicit a feeling in their music of so-called “simpler times” while simultaneously bludgeoning you in the face with the bullshit attitudes that were just as much of a problem in the 70s as they are today (in fact, an era partly responsible for them). Led by perhaps one of the best frontpeople in music today, Tina Halliday and guitarist co-writer Matt Palmer, Sheer Mag are the quintessential punk band in everything but their sound, one which the original punks would have openly mocked at the time. The irony, of course, is that those original “punk” acts, The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash etc. took largely from 70s glam-rock, they just sped up the songs and make the themes and lyrics angrier. Sheer Mag in many ways remind me of Fucked Up, another punk-band obsessed with 70s revivalism. Both bands understand with loving care and passion that to create truly great punk music, one has to look outside the obvious influences, while keeping an ear open for a catchy hook to couple with prescient themes on oppression, race, sexism, homophobia, police brutality which still plague us today. We need acts like Sheer Mag in these troubling times to remind us, there is another way.
Suffer Me
Waxahatchee - Out in the Storm (July)
Processing a rough break-up is one of music’s classic tropes (hell I did it on that album I put out this year - I promise to shut up about that now) but if the recent re-evaluation of the early-to-mid Emo/Pop-Punk scene has taught us anything, it’s that even these so-called “sensitive” boys can be just as much of the patriarchal problem as more aggressively “macho” acts out there (and in some instances, actually worse). This is a round-about way of saying, traditionally, we rarely get to hear the female side of the story, and if we do, it is often met with patronising audiences of “poor little girl” syndrome. So what a breath of fresh air it has been to see Katie Crutchfield’s Waxahatchee project break free of the shackles of a somewhat suffocating relationship that involved both her romantic and music life and create an album that deconstructs relationships and toxic masculinity in such brilliant fashion. Over the course of these 10 songs, Crutchfield proudly wears her battle-scars and reflects upon where she was and where she is now on Out in the Storm. I saw Crutchfield twice this year, first in the aforementioned church in Calgary, solo, essentially introducing this album to a new audience, and then later, all-female live band featuring her sister Alison (who also supported and is an excellent talent in her own right) and British guitarist Katie Harkin (Sky Larkin, Sleater-Kinney) who really helped make this album shine. Every song here is a stunner, but in 'Sliver’ we have one of the best songs of the year, an anthem of defiance that neatly sums up this great, great album.
Silver
Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins (August) *5th
One of the big narratives of music in 2017 was the “comeback” of mid-to-late 2000s indie-rock having a resurgence. Along with the aforementioned Fleet Foxes, we also had return records from The National, Wolf Parade, LCD Soundsystem and Liars, for instance, most of whom will show up later in this list (because I’m a nostalgic mark apparently). Grizzly Bear have been one of the most consistent acts in that world and with their 5th album Painted Ruins only continued to prove that. While I’m not sure they’ll ever top my personal favourite, Yellow House, in fairness, the band made a statement that they were moving away from the more lo-fi, freak-folk and more towards chamber pop on Veckatimest. Grizzly Bear remain an amazing and consistently surprising act who reveal themselves with every listen, a tactic they’ve still not lost in over a decade. They can do a big pop song 'Mourning Sound’ and the more subtle 'Neighbors’ but they still after all this time have the ability to pull the rug from underneath you 'Three Rings’, 'Four Cypresses’. While this certainly was a great year for “indie” music (whatever that really means) but Grizzly Bear remain the torchbearers.
Neighbors
Liars - TFCF (August)
I’ll admit it, this album may have eluded me if I hadn’t been commissioned to interview Angus Andrew this summer. I’ve never been a huge fan of Liars, but I’ve always liked their style and ambition to always try something new with every record, even if with varying results. But man, I am glad I had that experience with Andrew, because TFCF, striking artwork and all, is a mini-career benchmark for him. Liars is now just a solo act, after Andrew’s partner in crime Aaron Hemphill suddenly departed from the band when recording sessions for TFCF began initially in Los Angeles. Andrew’s world was turned upside down by this revelation, so his reaction was to move back to his native Australia, and become a hermit in the bush in New South Wales, outside of Sydney. The result is an album where Andrew fully immerses himself in his surroundings, using field recordings of the natural world he is currently living in as the background sound for him to write songs over. It’s an intriguing experience, especially as I don’t believe Liars’ music have ever really been described as “emotional” before leading TFCF to sound almost like The Moon & Antartica-era Modest Mouse in places. This isn’t the only characteristic though, as Andrew jumps around from genre to genre, all unified by this… buzzing of the bush that sits underneath it all. While not quite Andrew’s peak of records like Drum’s Not Dead or the self-titled album, this is a small renaissance in his career, and it will be interesting to see where he goes next.
Cred Woes
Mogwai - Every Country’s Sun (September)
Yeah, it’s another Mogwai album, which at this stage feels like a warm cup of tea and a hug, but there’s no denying they keep on keeping on. In recent years Mogwai have slowed down their studio album production, favouring soundtrack work for TV and Film in recent years - such as last year’s Atomic and Before the Flood, but they remain a solid act and for my money the greatest Scottish and further, British, act outside of Radiohead. Every Country’s Sun is a mere reminder of the band’s consistent greatness in a year where similar acts Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Do Make Say Think also had strong entries. While there are some familiar tropes on Mogwai’s latest, their 9th studio album, they did add one of their poppiest songs ever 'Party in the Dark’ and a more subtle use of the Carpenter-esque electronics that characterised Rave Tapes on tracks like 'aka47’. The best is indeed saved for last, however, as the album’s excellent title track that closes the album is perhaps one of the band’s most epic yet, one I wouldn’t be surprised if featured at Celtic or Scotland games in the future.
Party in the Dark
Alex Cameron - Forced Witness (September)
Well, this one came from left-field. Again, like Liars, I may well have missed this one had I not been sent to interview him, and even then, my enjoyment wasn’t assured given Cameron’s retroactive sound and questionable lyrical content. However, when it quickly became apparent that Cameron is playing a role lampooning the toxic masculinity his characters exude which is seemingly openly everywhere in 2017. While some fans were disappointed Cameron moved away from his singular, lo-fi sound of his debut Jumping the Shark, his move towards 80s sleaze-pop, like Timber Timbre, is an excellent vehicle in which his rather pathetic characters exist. It’s an intriguing idea, as rarely do musicians or artists “play the loser”, something that only tends to exist in the world of acting. In many ways, Cameron is a performance artist, although in seeing him live (in his semi-hometown Berlin where he recorded the album) he unmasks and speaks about his songs candidly. Whatever it is, Forced Witness is an excellent album full of excellent, catchy ditties, especially his duet with Angel Olsen, who plays her own interesting role in the background of this album, that explore some fairly dark themes with a sense of humour and irony that stay, just about, on the convincing side.
Stranger’s Kiss (duet with Angel Olsen)
The National - Sleep Well Beast (September)
Another year, another solid National album. The National will, it seems, always have a spot on my list, though Sleep Well Beast didn’t crack the top 10 when I was voting in my respective publications. Sleep Well Beast, The National’s seventh studio album, sees the band try and mix things up with the seemingly inevitable turn towards electronic music that basically every guitar-based band eventually dabble in. The results are mostly successful, though in many ways this isn’t as much of a departure as first suggested, remaining very much a National album. The one disappointment, in fact, is that it _doesn’t_ go further in it’s “electronica” as tracks like 'Guilty Party’ prove there are some legs there, but towards the end, they become a bit over-reliant on pretty much one style which gets a little trying. In fact, Sleep Well Beast is probably their most piano-based record as opposed to guitars or electronica, which leads to beautiful opener 'Nobody Else Will Be There’. Meanwhile, the band step back into their older territory on tracks like 'Day I Die’ and the somewhat unfairly maligned 'Turtleneck’. It’s nowhere near the band’s best, but The National are like a familiar friend you can not see for years and dip in with and catch up like no time has passed and will always be welcome to visit. (Fun fact, Ann and I were present for the shooting of the ‘I’ll Still Destroy You’ video as it was at their HAVEN festival, however sadly we didn’t get in!)
I’ll Still Destroy You
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun (September)
Chelsea Wolfe has slowly been getting better and darker throughout her career. Personally, I’m a little surprised Hiss Spun hasn’t featured on more end of year lists, as it is a star turn from the still young LA-based goth, aided massively with Kurt Ballou’s MASSIVE production and guitar chops from Queens of the Stone Age’s Troy van Leeuwen. Perhaps its because she’s fully embraced her “metal-side” that critics have been a little allergic to it, I’m sure there would have been a few raised eyebrows at Aaron Turner (ISIS/Old Man Gloom)’s roar at the end of the excellent 'Vex’. Either way, this is an album from an artist clearly in the ascendancy, and may well prove to be a stepping stone to a masterpiece in the future. Of all the artists currently out there, she’s certainly got the most potential for it.
16 Psyche
Wolves in the Throne Room - Thrive Woven (September)
Continuing on with Metal, here is by far the heaviest entry on this list (though Converge, of course, run them close) from Olympia, Washington’s Wolves in the Throne Room. I had the pleasure of getting to see the American Black Metal legends (I think we’re good to give them that title now) this summer in Calgary and it was an overwhelming experience. To those who don’t know, it may seem at odds to describe extreme, heavy metal as “beautiful” but that is Black Metal. Its atmosphere achieves a sensation that is transcendent when done right and WITTR are masters of it. From the second 'Born in the Serpent’s Eye’ begins, the listener is immediately fully submerged. From there on, this is yet another masterpiece in the band’s already exemplary canon and it is good to have them back to winning ways after the disappointing left-turn 'Celestial’.
Born from the Serpent’s Eye
Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent (September) *1st place
Head and shoulders above, this is the best album of the year. Protomartyr have been quietly getting better and better with every record, and almost achieved a perfect record in 2015’s The Agent Intellect, a record that has aged incredibly well since its slightly underrated release. Now, there’s no avoiding it, the band’s first album for Domino records is seeing a much bigger audience for the Detroit post-punk band who next year could well see themselves at the higher end of many festival slots. Simply put, Protomartyr are the most exciting punk act in the world right now. No one is doing anything as interesting, exciting, challenging as Protomartyr, their heavy, philosophical themes mixed with their highly original sounds. Just listen to the opener 'A Private Understanding’ and see. Who else would dare open an album and a lead single with one of the weirdest drum-beats every committed, an off-key guitar line, frontman Joe Casey delivering the line “Not by my own hand/Automatic writing by phantom limb/Not with my own voice/Pleurisy made to stand on two legs”. While Casey is pretty humble and coy about his band’s success and journalists (myself included) who wanted to impose mad theories about “BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?” when really the answer is “truth is a slippery thing, just listen to it.” Sage advice indeed, when the music is this good.
A Private Understanding
Wolf Parade - Cry, Cry, Cry (October)
Wolf Parade’s triumphant return last year with an EP and Tour was one of the highlights of 2016. Their show at the Scala was one of the best of the year, a renewed vigour that was clearly waning by the end of the previous run was back and they looked fresh and happy to be here. It is perhaps no surprise then that they were able to translate that to the follow-up LP, 'Cry, Cry, Cry’ (which came out on my birthday this year). Yes, it’s a cleaner more polished sound, but goddamn they can still write a song. In 'You’re Dreaming’ and 'Valley Boy’ we have great pop songs from Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug respectively, but it’s when the album goes BIG that it really shines, on such epics as 'Flies on the Sun’, 'Baby Blue’ and 'Weaponized’. Of course, 'Cry, Cry, Cry’ isn’t close to their incredible debut, but that’s an impossible standard to meet, so the band don’t even try it, instead streamlining their later sound into something more confident and coherent (see: 'Am I an Alien Here’) and it’s a very welcome to have them back.
You’re Dreaming
St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION (October)
A bit like Alex Cameron’s Forced Witness, MASSEDUCTION is very much a response to celebrity and paparazzi. Though Cameron doesn’t really sing about that (it doesn’t really fit with the character) the title and artwork certainly do allude to it, while one of the major themes of MASSEDUCTION is on this. Annie Clark had a very public break up with Cara Delevingne which also takes up much of the record, but you can’t really pin this album on any one particular event or theme, other than Clark’s re-evaluation and sexual freedom. MASSEDUCTION is an experience worth seeing live, which made the album work for me, which I was initially a little tentative about. I saw glowing reviews but didn’t quite match them up to the music. Then, seeing Clark “live” (which has caused much controversy), everything made sense. After a first half set where she ran through her greatest hits in release date order, the second half saw her perform the album in full and it really was a performance. Then everything clicked, in what could be Clark’s best record to date, which is an already very high benchmark to clear.
New York
Fever Ray - Plunge (October)
Speaking of sexual liberation, (what a segue!) a couple weeks after St. Vincent’s album, Karin Dreijer Andersson, better known as Fever Ray, surprised fans with a new album which plays on similar themes to Clark’s. While Dreijer’s not quite in the public eye the way Clark has become, she instead crafts an album about sexual politics which is dangerous-yet-endearing and seems particularly pertinent in this current spate of highly public reportage of sexual assault incidents currently ongoing. As ever, Dreijer proves why she is such a force of nature in composing these tracks, which are challenging and danceable, poppy and angry etc. with 'To the Moon and Back’ she has a defining statement, a manifesto and a rallying cry, carrying on the theme’s from The Knife’s possible final record Shaking the Habitual perfectly.
To the Moon and Back
Golden Teacher - No Luscious Life (November)
One of Glasgow’s best bands, Golden Teacher’s debut full length has been waited on for some time. Really, this sextet are best experienced live, as every show immediately becomes a party. It can be difficult sometimes for highly-energised acts to capture that on record, but thankfully Golden Teacher manage it with the help of Emily McLaren & Stuart Evans at Green Door Studios. Golden Teacher are for me the quintessential Glasgow band. They exist in a liminal zone that links the city’s art-punk scene with the world-famous electronic scene, hence their inclusion on the legendary Optimo’s label. The record mix funk, world and electronic music with a punk energy and are an absolute thrill to experience, it would be impossible to not put this record and not feel the groove.
Spiriton
Converge - The Dusk In Us (November) *3rd Place
And finally, rounding out this excellent year are one of my all-time favourite bands, Converge. While I don’t really listen to much heavy music these days, Converge are the exception to the rule in many ways. They exist in their own space within music that is fiercely inventive and original. I recently had an argument with a few people about what genre to classify Converge as and simply put, it’s an impossible and unnecessary task. Converge simply don’t fit into any easy genre classification, they are just Converge. What is a surprise was that, though Converge have never really had a dip in quality, the fact they have been able to produce such a career highlight this late into their salad days is nothing short of remarkable but also typically them? The Dusk in Us is an incredible achievement by all involved. It is perhaps Ballou’s best production job to date, Newton and Koller’s most controlled performance and, crucially, Jacob Bannon’s most assured vocals to date. It seems ridiculous that the 25-year-old band keep finding ways to better themselves, but here we are. Kudos to you Converge for remaining such an inspirational figure not just in the heavier genres, but music as a whole.
A Single Tear
Thank you for reading! Have a happy new year and great festive season.