In no time at all, this’ll be the distant past.

The importance of the next ten albums is how easy for me was to enjoy them in this 2017 filled with emotions, situations and opportunities for reflection. I had nothing to do but to sit, put on my headphones and hit the play button.   

Here’s why.  

10. Protomartyr – Relatives in Descent

Who? A post-punk Detroit-based band that, in my opinion, can be defined without using the ‘post’ part. This is their 4th album, and it’s pretty much as great as their two last ones.  

Why I love it? I guess dark and somber tones are usual traits in post-punk, but in the case of Protomartyr, those can mix well with fun, even if the lyrics throught the album are anything but. Joe Casey’s baritone voice carries the songs like a desperate man over a turmoil of noise, but you are attracted by it and the social commentary anyway. These are punk songs in every way.  

The verse. A particularly hard one because Casey’s lyrics are product of his dreams and random thoughts, but if you want to quote him, take: ‘Their god is such a strange, vindictive beast/He only blesses those who prosper’.   

Sweet track. Don’t go to Anacita. Without question. The most fun in the album and also the one that carries the verse above mentioned.  

9. Big Thief – Capacity

Who? A New York-based indie rock band (!) that released their debut last year and they followed that with a much stronger release.  

Why I love it? The music is strong and steady, and it channels what’s great about indie rock, being electric or acoustic. There is a sense that everyone playing here knows well how they want to sound and every song stands well on its own. But what drives the album the most, is vocalist Adrianne Lenker’s powerful singing, because, besides the harsh and raw accountings of her life, it inevitably forces you to pay attention.   

The verse. ‘There’s a woman inside of me, there’s a woman inside of you too/And she don’t always do pretty things’. And that’s the album’s first chorus.   

Sweet track. Mary. 

8. Ty Segall – Ty Segall

Who? Contemporary rock’s most prolific artist. In this, his 9th album in the same amount of years (plus a lot of collabs), he polishes his brand of garage rock to great results.  

Why I love it? What’s great about Ty Segall’s increasing discography is that it never loses its way. No matter what new members are in his band or new styles he explores, the albums feel essential and interesting every time. Well here, he channels a softer version, not rare but not common either. Same case. The songs aren’t boring, and every time he founds a new way of making them sound fresh. That’s goddamn pure talent. Ty Segall probably doesn’t care if he’s saving rock, but he’s doing it anyway.   

The verse. ‘Oh I feel every air, it is clear, I’m not scared’. Powerful chorus over powerful riff.  

Sweet track. Orange Color Queen. Ty Segall doing a love song? Well, it’s awesome.   

7. Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked At Me

Who? Phil Elverum, writing as Mount Eerie since 2003, is an expert at doing experimental & folk music. This is his eighth album, one that is completely influenced by the loss of his wife.  

Why I love it? A Crow Looked At Me doesn’t need much explanation. But that’s what makes it remarkable. It is a simple and raw description of the life of a man after he lost the love of his life and the mother of her daughter. Elverum’s sincere lyrics, and the sparse but sweet instrumentation that surrounds them, create an atmosphere of sorrow, one that is not made for you to imagine or re-live his pain, but to help you understand it. That’s art in its most pure state.   

The verse. ‘The ground absorbs and remakes whatever falls, nothing dies here.’  

Sweet track. Toothbrush/Trash.

6. Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up

Who? Finally! After six long years, Fleet Foxes finally released their third album, and it was worth the wait.  

Why I love it? Texture has never been a strange thing in this band’s music, but here they take it to the next level. With longer songs that change and transform without warning, Robin Pecknold and co. combine introspective lyrics with social comment, delivered, as they well know how, beautifully and leaving you fulfilled. The wide arrangements are the perfect background for Pecknold’s lyrics, that within the context of the album, no matter who he’s talking to, you feel that it’s the whole world.  

The verse. ‘How could it all fall in one day?/Where we too sure of the sun?’. Delivered to the band’s co-founder, I fell that Pecknold is asking it to the whole world.  

Sweet track. If you Need To, Keep Time On Me is the only ballad in the album, which gives it a special role within it.    

5. Father John Misty – Pure Comedy

Who? Josh Tillman, writing as Father John Misty since 2012, is very well known for his sarcastic tone and experimental folk tunes.   

Why I love it? Despite being long, satirical, and having a harsh truth as a central theme, with his inventive lyrics and musical arrangements, Tillman creates a beautiful album that accurately describes the nature of humanity, particularly right now. His vision is wide and the music is inspired by it, but what grabs my attention the most is how, after everything that’s described in the songs, he still thinks humanity has a chance for redemption.  

The verse. In a 74 minute album there can be a huge amount of great verses. That line with Taylor Swift is fun (see Total Entertainment Forever), but I’ll choose ‘Just random matter, suspended in the dark/I hate to say it, but each other’s all we’ve got’. Don’t get fooled, that’s hope.  

Sweet track. The only song of 2017 that I know completely is Pure Comedy. So, no contest.       

4. The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding

Who? One of the most important rock bands there is. Hands down. In their major-label debut and fourth album, The War on Drugs use every resource at their disposal to expand their sound.  

Why I love it? The sonic ideas of the band are larger, wider and more ambitious, and the lyrics, while still speaking from a personal point of view, try to put singer Adam Granduciel in a specific place in the world. While you can feel that it drags at times, with each listen you detect different elements that give the songs a new perspective. Say what you will, but The War on Drugs are experts at creating musical landscapes.   

The verse. ‘Is an old memory just another way of saying goodbye?’  

Sweet track.Thinking of a Place, the 11-minute centerpiece, is technically the ideal presentation of the album. Talking about great first singles.  

3. Lorde – Melodrama

Who? New Zealand-born, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connorwas an adolescent girl when she started writing music. Her popularity has grown since her 2013 debut, and she has delivered an album worth her place in the scene.  

Why I love it?Melodrama is, at its simplest, a solid pop album with polished production. The songs are beat and synth driven, with a couple of great piano ballads in the mix too. At the same time, it is a deep immersion in the life of a young woman that not only has suffered heartbreak and pain, but also has found the way to start loving herself before going out into the world. And that gives more power to a pop song than any well-produced beat can. 

The verse. ‘I care for myself the way I used to care about you’. If that’s not an important realization for a young woman then I don’t know what is.

Sweet track. Plenty of big choruses and addictive beats here, but the place belongs to the falsetto-filled Homemade Dynamite. 

2. The Feelies – In Between

Who? Part of the 80’s alternative rock movement, this band is considered influential by several artists and critics. This is their 6th album in total and only 2nd this century. 

Why I love it? Despite having a mostly indie aesthetic in their early career, their new album doesn’t bother in having an identity. Essential, calm, easy-going, natural. The songs flow with ease, going from riff to riff, from acoustic to electric, supporting themselves in simple but strong rhythm sections. Lyrically, life has become something simple: the time between being born and being death. The Feelies know where and who they are and they value it, and that’s what gives purpose to every track here. This is how a 30 year old band should sound.    The verse. ‘What do you wanna know?/What do you wanna do?/Where you gonna go?’ The fact that they doesn’t answer those questions in the song, makes clear that they are for you. They already have their own answers.

Sweet track. Mmmmmmmmmmm, the last track is a 9 minute jam reprise of the title song, but Gone, Gone, Gone, portrays the album’s identity with precision. 

1. The National – Sleep Well Beast

Who? One of my favorites bands of the 21st century. Here, in their 7th album, the darkness goes deeper and prettier, with lyrics ranging from the nature of marriage, to our current social turmoil.

Why I love it? I can think of one simple thing: musicianship. The National are excellent at delivering a message through their music and they’ve released an album where they mix new elements and everything I’ve come to love about them with precision. The Devendorf brothers’ inventive and steady rhythm section, the Dessner twins’ multiple use of guitar, keyboards and now synths, and Matt Berninger’s unmistakable voice are all expertly arranged so the only thing left to do is let yourself go and be carried by the album.

It’s not perfect. It’s just a fabulous album from a very talented band that hasn’t really released one that I don’t appreciate. And I’m thankful for that. 

The verse. ‘I’m just trying to stay in touch with everything I’m still in touch with’. 

Sweet track. Tough choice. But I have to give it to The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness, it’s pretty much the single that drove this album into greatness.  

Hope you liked this list, and remember: comment, share, and more than anything, recommend more music. Wishing you a 2018 musically awesome.