Still working on it. I've chosen 50 albums, don't know where I'm putting them all yet, and allowing time for any that sneak up on me
Ah, 2017. It was a wild year for me, and as is typical, different music played different parts in my life. Early in the year, my apartment was destroyed in a fire, and the near-death-ness inspired me to quit my steady job. I spent six months or so living with other people while working 70+ hours a week to save up for graduate school. I moved to Philadelphia in September and started my MFA program. Right after the fire, I went to the Diet Cig record release show in Brooklyn with some of my friends and we had the best time. The show was awesome, but being with my friends and having a good time also just felt really good and cathartic. The Diet Cig record, Swear I’m Good At This, and the Japandroids records, Near to the Wild Heart of Life, were on repeat during those days. I discovered that driving from my fiance’s grandmother’s house -- where we had been living at the time -- to a new city with my life packed in the car and an eclipse overhead might be the perfect time to listen to the Japandroids. If anyone else is ever in that situation, definitely put on Near to the Wild Heart of Life. Also shortly after the fire (and the insurance check), I splurged on tickets to Jason Isbell in Nashville in October. My parents, my fiancé, and I went down there, toured the city, ate hot chicken and BBQ, drank in front of live music, bought records and saw Jason two nights at the Ryman Auditorium. Incredible shows and a great experience. XPNFest and Shadow of the City were great this year. A co-worker at my job over the summer was also a Bleachers fan and we blasted Gone Now a lot, our hard-working summer culminating at the Stone Pony at the very beginning of local summer, screaming “you survived motherfucker you’ve got to give yourself a break” into each other’s faces. Some old favorites put out solid records this year (Old 97’s, Josh Ritter, Blitzen Trapper, Dan Wilson, The Killers) some new acts jumped onto my radar and have become potential new favorites (Tyler Childers, Gang of Youths, Sheer Mag, Alex Lahey) and there’s still a ton of stuff I haven’t given enough listens (Nicole Atkins, Deer Tick, Amber Coffman, The Mountain Goats, Liam Gallagher). I’d also like to improve the amount of female artists I listen to: in my top 30 there’s 10 but just 2 in the top 10. Anyway, here’s my 30 favorite albums, 10 favorite songs, my favorite shows of the year, some 2016 albums, and some of the albums I’m most looking forward to in 2018. Albums: Japandroids - Near to the Wild Heart of Life Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound Diet Cig - Swear I’m Good At This Old 97s - Graveyard Whistling Tyler Childers - Purgatory Josh Ritter - Gathering Gang of Youths - Go Farther in Lightness Bleachers - Gone Now Alex Lahey - Love You Like A Brother White Reaper - The World’s Best American Band Colter Wall - Colter Wall Blitzen Trapper - Wild and Reckless Sheer Mag - Need To Feel Your Love The Killers - Wonderful, Wonderful John Moreland - Big Bad Luv Dan Wilson - Re-Covered Neil Young - Hitchhiker Charly Bliss - Guppy The Wild Reeds - The World We Built Haim - Something To Tell You Ron Gallo - Heavy Meta Alex the Astronaut - See You Soon - EP and To Whom It May Concern - EP Chuck Prophet - Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins Craig Finn - We All Want the Same Thing Bridget Kearney - Won’t Let You Down Paramore - After Laughter Girlpool - Powerplant Bash & Pop - Anything Can Happen Dead Man Winter - Furnace Cloud Nothings - Life Without Sound 10 songs: “Say Yes To Life” by Gang of Youths “If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell “Feathered Indians” by Tyler Childers “Dream of Mickey Mantle” by Bleachers “God in Chicago” by Craig Finn “Want You Back” by Haim “Cut to the Feeling” by Carly Rae Jepsen “Talking About Love To A Cigarette” by Wilderado “Latchkey Kid” by John Moreland "New Year's Day" by Taylor Swift Shows: - Shovels and Rope at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park - it was a really electric crowd and they always put on a fantastic show, one of the best live acts around, but they could feel it in the room and somehow stepped it up. - The aformentioned Diet Cig at Baby’s Back in Brooklyn - Shadow of the City, mostly Bleachers but also Titus Andronicus and Brian Fallon - Josh Ritter at Union Transfer in Philadelphia - Brian Fallon, solo and acoustic, at House of Independents in Asbury Park 2016 albums that I didn't listen to enough then but have now and would have been on my list last year: Kyle Craft - Dolls of Highland Courtney Marie Andrews - Honest Life Margaret Glaspy - Emotions and Math Maren Morris - Hero 2018 anticipated: Sleepwalkers by Brian Fallon Ruins by First Aid Kit Solo music by Katie Toupin A new Houndmouth album Full Circle Nightmare Kyle Craft Street Safari by Public Access TV Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life by The Wombats Hoping for something new from: - Decemberists - John Fullbright - Titus Andronicus - Hamilton Leithauser
The Menzingers - After The Party Propagandhi - Victory Lap Converge - The Dusk In Us Silverstein - Dead Reflection Hundred Suns - The Presatalis Darkest Hour - Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora Cloakroom - Time Well Dave Hause - Bury Me In Philly Pvris - All We Know Is Heaven, All We Know Is Hell While She Sleeps - You Are We The Ongoing Concept - Places AFI - The Blood Album Less Art - Strangled Light Code Orange - Forever Mutoid Man - War Moans Hundredth - Rare The Flatliners - Inviting Light He Is Legend - Few Fit For An Autopsy - The Great Collapse
Not sure which is worse: that you cheated and included the Neil Young album, or that you ranked it below The Killers. Kidding. Nice list.
1. Kendrick Lamar - Damn. 2. Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights 3. King Krule - The Ooz 4. Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface 5. SZA - ctrl 6. Big Thief - Capacity 7. Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger In the Alps 8. Loyle Carner - Yesterday's Gone 9. Lorde - Melodrama 10. The National - Sleep Well Beast
I think you would like Power Trip. They’re very Ride the Lightning/Master Of Puppets era of Metallica at times.
Really enjoying this Japandroids record so far! I skipped it because I thought Celebration Rock was vastly overrated. Since I’m liking this record though I may have to revisit that one.
i'm waiting on pins and needles and also anticipating being very disappointed at the same time. go cwhit!
1. Creeper - Eternity, In Your Arms 2. G perico - All Blue 3. The Menzingers - After The Party 4. Employed To Serve - The Warmth of a Dying Sun 5. Higher Power - Soul Structure 6. G Perico - 2 Tha Left 7. Sorority Noise - You're Not As ____ As You Think 8. Kamaiyah - Before I wake 9. Tyler The Creator - Flower Boy 10. Iron Chic - You Can't Stay Here 11. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory 12. Converge - The Dusk In Us 13. Cursed Earth - Cycles of Grief 14. Dave Hause - Bury Me In Philly 15. Worriers - Survival Pop 16. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN 17. Muskets - Chew 18. Pvris - AWKOHAWKOH 19. Incendiary - Thousand Mile Stare 20. Code Orange - Forever 21. Mozzy - 1 Up Top Ahk 22. Drawing Last Breath - Final Sacrifice 23. Ruby Ibarra - Circa91 24. Tigers Jaw - Spin 25. Gucci Mane - Droptopwop 26. Prawn - Run 27. G Herbo - Humble Beast 28. Mozzy - Fake Famous 29. Watchcries - Wraith 30. Trapped Under Ice - Heatwave I'll probably hate this tomorrow but w/e
I want @BoldTitan ‘s end of the year list. It better be black mile 9 times and the right away great captain live album once.
Yeah, I probably like it better than a lot of actual 2017 records, but sort of hedged it because it's not a true 2017 record. Whoops. Yeah I had him up there when it first came out but meant to bump it down as more albums came out this year. I guess that means I get to add Cloud Nothings, though.