It’s a lot more difficult to keep track of new music once your kid is fully and frighteningly mobile. Time is at a premium and more of it than can be justified was spent compiling this year’s edition of my annual passion project, but a few insights were gained in the process of creating The Best Songs of 2017 (link for Spotify playlist):
1. I’m so jealous that TODAY’S YOUTH™ are growing up with access to the entire musical universe at their fingertips. Would have changed my life.
2. Sylvan Esso, Future Islands, and Hercules & Love Affair are steadily climbing the list of my all-time favorite groups
3. Not Even Happiness by Julie Byrne is a pantheon-level singer-songwriter album.
4. Bruckner’s Take You to the Bronx is one of the most fun and inventive songs I can remember in a long time.
5. I found a (smallish) place in my musical heart for Young Thug.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/user/ulteriormotifs/playlist/2kRMkcOiUQ9dK8Uh3H9XnU
6. The Japandroids have aged extremely well.
7. Ryan Adams: see above x 1,000.
8. I discovered the depths of my love for Waxahatchee
9. In 2017, the Year of our Lord, Blondie released an album and it was really good.
10. Sampha’s (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano gave me more feels than any other song this year.
11 .My most frequently played type of music this year (according to Spotify) was indietronica, a genre I didn’t know existed one month ago.
12. Black Thought’s (G.O.A.T.) freestyle was really the best song of 2017.
13. Wu Tang is still for the children.
Ulteriormotifs 