COS: Top 50 Albums of 2017

[Wixson 5,004]

 

Last year felt particularly cruel as we watched so many of our pop-culture icons get taken from us without warning. By December, we all yearned for a pause, an ending, a reset. However, none of the comfort that comes with the hopeful act of flipping a calendar page lasted long into 2017. Instead, we’ve felt the pain more acutely and more personally than a year ago. Most of us have witnessed our core values challenged, felt our realities shaken, and endured daily reminders that who we are in our most basic integrity remains very much at stake. For that reason, it’s been a year in which we’ve turned to music out of necessity perhaps more than ever. The albums you find on this list aren’t just records we admired or caught ourselves dancing to. In many cases, they’re part of the reason we’re still here. They’ve consoled and empowered us, understood how we’ve felt, and in a time of such ugly, bitter divisiveness, reminded us that we’re never truly alone in mind, heart, or spirit.

These are the 50 albums we’ve leaned on most this year. Here’s hoping they don’t have to do such heavy lifting in 2018.

 

45. PARAMORE – AFTER LAUGHTER

44. KHALID – AMERICAN TEEN

42. MIGOS – CULTURE  

40. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – AMERICAN DREAM

25. JAY Z – 4:44

15. FUTURE – HNDRXX 

10. SMINO – BLKSWN

09. SPOON – HOT THOUGHTS

08. MOUNT EERIE – A CROW LOOKED AT ME

07. SZA – CTRL

06. ST. VINCENT – MASSEDUCTION

05. SLOWDIVE – SLOWDIVE

04. VINCE STAPLES – BIG FISH THEORY

03. RYAN ADAMS – PRISONER

02. KENDRICK LAMAR – DAMN.

01. LORDE – MELODRAMA

 

Origin: Auckland, New Zealand

The Gist: In 2017, Lorde makes an iconic plea for a revolution, commanding its throne, sounding brazen, rhythmic, and powerful. When she burst onto the scene with 2013’s Pure Heroine, the New Zealand artist’s sudden arrival resulted in immediate fervor for a follow-up as well as no base of knowledge for what to expect from it. But Lorde exuded a mystic depth, meaning that whatever would come next would be worth the wait. After four years of updates and growth, the now-21-year-old Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor returned with Melodrama, a record that spins like a top around decades of pop tradition, plucking pieces into its orbit and reconfiguring them into magnificent new shapes. Despite her surreal abilities and preternatural maturity, Lorde is still a young woman dealing with all of the accompanying pains and joys, and no one captures them as well or as fully in the pop vein — or any vein for that matter.

Why It Rules: Lorde plumbed the depths of her experience and created an album that captures the pomp and circumstance of sudden fame as well as the endless concentric circles of self-analysis and heartbreak. She makes the offbeat seem virtuous, mirroring her optimism in the hyper beats and glossy synths. She renders her heartache all the more realistic by pairing it with a danceable epiphany. And her words — poetic as always — are especially outstanding, touching on resilience, courage, and, yes, pain that lingers like a phantom limb. With 11 tracks brimming with impenetrable confidence, defiance, and heartbreaking sacrifice, this album creates an intimacy through familiarity. Lorde sees the world equally full of shmockos, naysayers, and genuinely pure people and uses it to power her growth — heck, our growth. She is an artist we can learn from while she learns how to navigate through life. At once immediate and layered, massive and minute, thoughtful and instinctual, Melodrama fully solidifies Lorde as the leading voice of pop and an artist, thinker, and capturer of reality beyond comparison.

Essential Tracks: “Green Light”, “Sober”, “Perfect Places”, and “Liability”

Congratulations and well deserved, Lorde! 

FULL LIST/SOURCE: https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/11/top-50-albums-of-2017/full-post/

[James Gibson 3,474]

Talent Always Wins never felt so good  Hope the Grammys learn it

[Wixson 5,004]

I have to say I'm surprised Lust for Life is nowhere to be found, though.

[JR Gg 12,985]

I don't see Hitless and repootation 

[Avenues 4,370]

Migos at 42 - cancelledt

[LetsGetHigh 52,683]

I love Lorde & Melodrama, I am SO happy to see her album shine even though it wasn't as successful as Pure Heroin.  

[Zaskar 3,916]

1 minute ago, Wixson said:

I have to say I'm surprised Lust for Life is nowhere to be found, though.

 

Just now, JR Gg said:

I don't see Hitless and repootation 

It's what they deserve 

[LetsGetHigh 52,683]

Also shocked to see DAMN. in a 2017 compilation, it feels like it was released last year.  

[IAmNotHere1997 25,824]

The question IS: if both Joanne and Melodrama will be nominated for BPVA, will Melodrama snatch Joanne's wig?

[Ryusei 61,036]

Migos?  gurl bye

[TropicOfCANCER 6,292]

I expect to see Lorde topping a lot of year-end lists. Hopefully the grammy's take note, because this is album of the year material. 

[Mario Salas 973]

5 minutes ago, Wixson said:

I have to say I'm surprised Lust for Life is nowhere to be found, though.

That garbage? Are you sure?

[Anderson123 38,067]

Melodrama! No lies detected.

[Wixson 5,004]

16 minutes ago, Mario Salas said:

That garbage? Are you sure?

Judging by its reception, that garbage deserved to be included at least in the top 50. So, yes - quite sure.

[TropicOfCANCER 6,292]

23 minutes ago, Mario Salas said:

That garbage? Are you sure?

I wouldnt says LFL is garbage, but IMO, it's easily one of her weakest outputs. 

There's certainly a sizeable amount of quality songs there, but the album is too long and all the filler songs for some odd reason were given prime tracklist location, while the gems got pushed to the end. In my feelings has no place being on this album.