TOP 10 ABLUMS OF 2017

Tough year. It weighed heavily on me. I often found myself overwhelmed by my thoughts, feelings, concerns, and frustrations for the state of our country and the world at this truly polarizing time. Thank goodness for family, friends, community, and music! Here are my favorite albums of 2017. 

10. Slowdive, Slowdive

It’s been 22 years since Slowdive recorded an album, and their self-titled release is a stunning return, washing over you with expansive soundscapes and shimmering layers that feel timeless. Guitars stretch into endless textures, drums pulse with steady restraint, and the vocals of Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell float through like distant echoes, tender yet enveloping. The songs drift between dreamlike haze and grounded clarity, carrying both the weight of memory and the spark of renewal. Slowdive captures everything that made the band so beloved while sounding fresh and vital, a powerful reminder of shoegaze’s ability to transport and transform.

9. Dori Freeman, Letters Never Read

Dori Freeman’s Letters Never Read is an album full of understated charm and clarity. She leans into classic Appalachian roots without sounding like a revivalist, blending country, folk, and pop with a voice that’s as steady as it is arresting. Produced by Teddy Thompson, the album keeps things spare but intentional, letting songs like “If I Could Make You My Own” and “Cold Waves” unfold with unforced grace. Freeman writes with plainspoken precision, never overselling the sentiment, just letting her words and the warmth of her delivery do the heavy lifting. Freeman is a family favorite and Letters Never Read is another wonderful album.

    

8. Trampolene, Swansea To Hornsey

Trampolene’s debut album Swansea to Hornsey is a real banger. Direct and unvarnished, it blends spoken word with sharp-edged indie rock. Jack Jones delivers poems and lyrics with a clear sense of purpose, drawing from personal experience and working-class life. Tracks like “Artwork of Youth” and “Ketamine” balance reflection with bite, while the band drives everything forward with raw guitars and tight rhythms. It’s grounded, honest, and never pretends to be anything it’s not.

   

7. Everything Everything, A Fever Dream 

Everything Everything’s A Fever Dream sharpens the band’s gift for restless, high-concept pop into something more focused and unsettling. The album trades some of their earlier maximalist energy for a tighter, more emotionally charged sound, without losing their signature blend of glitchy electronics, nervy guitar work, and Jonathan Higgs’ falsetto urgency. Lyrically, it’s steeped in anxiety, of politics, technology, and personal dislocation, but it never wallows. Tracks like “Can’t Do” and “Desire” pulse with tension, moving between euphoria and dread in a way that feels both cathartic and eerily current.

    

6. Wolf Parade, Cry Cry Cry

After a six-year hiatus, Wolf Parade returns with Cry Cry Cry, an album that feels like a homecoming with frayed edges. The band sounds familiar but not frozen in time. The synths are still bold, the guitars still nervy, but there’s a weariness baked into the songwriting that adds weight without dragging things down. Tracks like “Valley Boy” and “You’re Dreaming” carry an anxious grandeur, shaped by the push and pull between Spencer Krug’s theatrical flourishes and Dan Boeckner’s rawer edge. It’s a record that leans into reflection without losing the pulse that made them matter in the first place.

    

5. Ulver, The Assassination Of Julius Caesar

I was unfamiliar with the Norwegian band Ulver during their early, dark metal years. I first discovered them with their eleventh album, The Assassination of Julius Caesar. It was one of my favorite albums of 2017 and continues to be a regular listen for me. With influences of Depeche Mode and other pop-synth bands of the late '80's and early '90's, the band officially moved as far away from their earlier music and sound as possible. Yet, they have managed to maintain the dark and doom undercurrent that has always defined their sound and storytelling. 

There are not many bands still together and playing after 27 years let alone pushing the envelope of creativity, but here's Ulver. Fusing rock and electronica sounds into a rich musical soundscape, there is no shortage of music to explore on AOJC. And with each listen you find something new that makes the listening experience that much better. And to me, that's what makes a great album.

4. Susanne Sundfør, Music For People In Trouble 

Norwegian singer songwriter Susanne Sundfør has been making music since the mid 2000s, moving between electronic pop, folk, and more experimental music along the way. Her previous album, Ten Love Songs, was filled with synthesizers and big electronic arrangements. On her sixth album, Music for People in Trouble, she heads in a very different direction.

Piano and acoustic guitar are at the center of much of the album, giving Sundfør’s incredible voice plenty of room. She has talked about making the record during a time when she was thinking about the anxiety and uncertainty she saw in the world around her. “Everything is moving so rapidly, sometimes violently, sometimes dauntingly. I think a lot of people experience anxiety these days.”

Despite some of the heavier subjects, Music for People in Trouble is an absolutely beautiful album. It’s quiet and intimate at times, strange and unexpected at others, and another example of what a remarkable artist Sundfør is.

3. Little Cub, Still Life

What a debut album! South London’s Little Cub make synth driven pop that draws heavily from the electronic music of the ’80s, but with lyrics that are very much about life today. On Still Life, the band writes about politics, relationships, social media, technology, and the general uneasiness of modern life, often setting those subjects against music that is surprisingly upbeat and danceable.

There are synthesizers everywhere, along with guitars, electronic rhythms, and Dominic Gore’s understated vocals. I love the contrast between how good much of this music makes you feel and what Gore is actually singing about. Still Life is one of the best debut albums that I can remember being this excited about.

2. Hurray For The Riff Raff, The Navigator

Alynda Mariposa Segarra, who fronts the band Hurray For The Riff Raff, grew up in the Bronx. Over time, they had become increasingly aware of how gentrification had eroded the Puetro Rican culture which stood in stark contrast to how it continued to flourish in Puerto Rico despite the damage being done to so many communities by the many economic and social challenged that they faced. 

This awareness lead Segarra to conceive of The Navigator, which follow a protagonist named Navita, a 16 year old street kid, who is navigating an over-gentrified city sometime in the near future. With a perfectly formed '70's rock storytelling sensibility, in a similar vain to The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Segarra and the band unfold Navita's story and journey in a wonderful fashion. One which brings understanding to the challenges Navita and community face and inspiration from how they ultimately take back their culture.

1. LCD Soundsystem, American Dream

In 2011, James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem played what was supposed to be their farewell concert at Madison Square Garden. Six years later, Murphy had more to say, to share, and to question. And so he gave us American Dream.

Murphy writes about aging, love, regret, friendship, and trying to make sense of where he is in his life. Musically, American Dream is filled with synthesizers, drum machines, guitars, and rhythms that build and build, sometimes over the course of eight or nine minutes. There are echoes of David Bowie, Talking Heads, and some of the darker electronic music of the ’80s, but it still sounds unmistakably like LCD Soundsystem.

The album ends with “Black Screen,” Murphy’s tribute to Bowie, slowly drifting away over its final minutes. It’s a beautiful way to close an album. What a return.