2017. Phew. We’ve almost made it through this godless year, and for that, we deserve to congratulate each other. As always there are so many great records to filter and sort through. Below you’ll find thirty entries, each with recommendations of which tracks you might want to focus on, as well as similar artists, and albums you might also enjoy. My number one album this year was the definition of a grower – an artist I had never heard of before this year started, but one I kept returning to again and again. A sparkling, deeply comforting yet futuristic gem of an electronic pop record.
But honestly, any of the top five could’ve easily been my album of the year. Two hands held high in the air for all our queers who released fantastic music this year, especially Arca, Elysia Crampton, Grizzly Bear, Jay Som, Jlin, Lotic, Perfume Genius, Rabit, Moses Sumeny, The xx – so excellent. Here’s to surviving 2018:
30
CHELSEA WOLFE : Hiss Spun
RIYL : ethereal doom folk, gothic rock, PJ Harvey, Isis, Marissa Nadler, Nico
Listen to: “16 Psyche” / “Vex” / “Twin Fawn”
Companion Record : MYRKUR : Mareridt
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29
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER : Good Time OST
RIYL : cinematic synth, ominous arp, Stranger Things, The Terminator OST’s, Iggy Pop, Oneohtrix Point Never
Listen to: “The Pure and The Damned (ft. Iggy Pop)” / “Leaving the Park” / “Good Time”
Companion Record : CLINT MANSELL : Black Mirror: San Junipero OST
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28
ZOLA JESUS : Okovi
RIYL : goth pop, Nite Jewel, Frankie Rose, Diamanda Galas, Fever Ray, Alice Glass, Perfume Genius
Listen to: “Siphon” / “Wiseblood” / “Remains”
Companion Record : LYDIA AINSWORTH : Darling Of the Afterglow
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27
ARIEL PINK : Dedicated to Bobby Jameson
RIYL: Ariel Pink, John Maus, Frank Zappa, Ween, Kurt Cobain reincarnated as a sunset strip lounge singer, TV Carnage, Everything is Terrible, 80’s horror movies on VHS, heat-warped AM pop
Listen to: “Feels Like Heaven” / “Time to Live” / “Acting (ft. DAM-FUNK)”
Companion Record : JOHN MAUS : Screen Memories
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26
DEMEN : Nektyr
RIYL : Grouper, gothic folk, wintry bliss, sorcery, casting spells
Listen to: “Niorum” / “Illdrop” / “Korridorer”
Companion Record : DRAB MAJESTY : The Demonstration
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25
BLANCK MASS : World Eater
RIYL : scorched pastoral thrash, trance nostalgia, Fuck Buttons, industrial beauty, fraying electrical cables
Listen to: “John Doe’s Carnival of Error” / “Silent Treatment” / “Hive Mind”
Companion Record : GODFLESH : Post Self
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24
VARIOUS ARTISTS (PAN) : Mono No Aware
RIYL: ambient beauty, meditation, Yves Tumor, PAN records
Listen to: “Yves Tumor : Limerence” / “Malibu : Held” / “M.E.S.H. : Exasthrus (Pane)”
Companion Records : WILLIAM BASINSKI : A Shadow in Time, BING & RUTH : No Home of the Mind, BRIAN ENO : Reflection
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23
SHABAZZ PALACES: Quazarz: Born On a Gangster Star / Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines
RIYL: experimental hip-hop, afro-futurist astronomy, Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, Thee Satisfaction, dub-hop, Arca, latter-day Kanye West
Listen to: “Shine a Light (ft. Thadillac)” / “Since C.A.Y.A.” / “Welcome to Quazarz”
Listen
22
SAMPHA : Process
RIYL: Solange, The xx, Björk, SBTRKT, Drake, Jessie Ware, Blood Orange, FKA twigs
Listen to: “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano)” / “Kora Sings” / “Timmy’s Prayer”
Companion Record : THE XX : I See You
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21
JOHNNY JEWEL: Windswept
RIYL : Twin Peaks OST (1990), Johnny Jewel, Chromatics, Angelo Badalementi, Nine Inch Nails
Listen to : “Desire : Saturday” / “Glass Candy : Motel” / “Chromatics : Blue Moon”
Companion Records : ANGELO BADALEMENTI : Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack, VARIOUS ARTISTS : Twin Peaks: Music From the Limited Event Series
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20
TOPS : Sugar At the Gate
RIYL: summery indie pop, Real Estate, Empress Of, Sean Nicholas Savage, Beach House
Listen to: “Cutlass Cruiser” / “Topless” / “Petals”
Companion Record : JAY SOM : Everybody Works
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19
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM : American Dream
RIYL: post-punk, post-disco, new wave, Arthur Russell, Joy Division, New Order, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Suicide
Listen to: “How Do You Sleep?” / “Oh Baby” / “Black Screen”
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18
JLIN : Black Origami
RIYL : night music, apocalyptic future visions, dark footwork, Mortal Kombat 2, post-juke electronics, minimalist intensity, Holly Herndon, Aphex Twin
Listen to: “Nyakinyua Rising” / “Challenge (To Be Continued) (ft. William Basinski)” / “Carbon 7 (161)
Companion Record : ACTRESS : AZD
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17
JULIA HOLTER : In the Same Room
RIYL : modernist poetry, Tori Amos, Laurel Halo, Joni Mitchell, Robert Wyatt, ornately sculpted folk-pop gems
Listen to : “Silhouette” / “In the Green Wild” / “So Lillies”
Companion Record : GRIZZLY BEAR : Painted Ruins
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16
ARCA : Arca
RIYL : Björk, Alien glitch hop, atmospheric wonky, experimental IDM, progressive UK bass, Autechre, genderfluid, genreless, queer outsider electro, seduction, noise
Listen to: “Desafio” / “Anoche” / “Sin Rumbo”
Companion Record : FOREST SWORDS : Compassion
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15
VINCE STAPLES : Big Fish Theory
RIYL: club-hop, electro, Damon Albarn, UK club divas, Danny Brown, Vic Mensa, Kendrick Lamar, Earl Sweatshirt, paranoia
Listen to: “Big Fish Theory” / “Bagbak” / “Yeah Right”
Listen
14
VISIBLE CLOAKS : Reassemblage / Lex
RIYL: Oneohtrix Point Never, Motion Graphics, MiyakoKoda, Laurel Halo, Fairlights, Mallets and Bamboo compilations, Japanese tea ceremonies, Lost in Translation on hallucinogens
Listen to: “Screen” / “Terrazzo (ft. Motion Graphics)” / “Valve (ft. Miyako Koda)”
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13
GAS:Narkopop
RIYL: dark forests, subsumption, ambient dub, My Bloody Valentine, Cluster, Surgeon, Terrence Malick
Listen to: “Narkopop 1” / “Narkopop 3” / “Narkopop 5”
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12
JULIE BYRNE : Not Even Happiness
RIYL : Leonard Cohen, Sharon Van Etten, Twin Peaks, Judee Sill, folk, singer-songwriter
Listen to: “Natural Blue” / “Follow My Voice” / “I Live Now As a Singer”
Companion Record : ALDOUS HARDING : Party
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11
LAUREL HALO : Dust
RIYL : Julia Holter, Björk, Actress, Lawfawnduh, Arthur Russell, Autechre, Oneohtrix Point Never, Holly Herndon, Lost in Translation, David Lynch
Listen to: “Sun to Solar” / “Moontalk” / “Jelly”
Companion Record : KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH : The Kid
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10
MOUNT EERIE : A Crow Looked At Me
RIYL : barely music, Sun Kil Moon, Will Oldham, Julie Doiron, mortality, reality, processing death
Listen to: “Real Death” / “Soria Moria” / “Ravens”
Listen
09
BJÖRK : Utopia
RIYL : Björk, Arca, Rabit, sonnets, eventualities, birdsong, paradise pop, modern fairytales
Listen to: “Arisen My Senses” / “Saint” / “Future Forever”
Listen
08
KELELA : Take Me Apart
RIYL: Aaliyah, FKA twigs, Fever Ray, SZA, SVW, Michael Jackson, TLC, Tinashe, Jessie Ware, future rnb, make-out music
Listen to: “LMK” / “Altadena” / “Frontline”
Companion Record : NITE JEWEL : Real High
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07
CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG : Rest
Listen to: “Rest” / “Deadly Valentine” / “Kate”
Companion Record : KEDR LIVANSKIY : Ariadna
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06
KENDRICK LAMAR : DAMN.
RIYL: ALL CAPS, west coast hip hop, Dr. Dre., Rihanna, Kanye West, Fear of a Black Planet, Achtung Baby, The Life of Pablo
Listen to: “LOVE. (ft. Zacari)” / “GOD.” / “LOYALTY. (ft. Rihanna)”
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05
SLOWDIVE : Slowdive
RIYL : shoegaze, Seefeel, Lush, Sigur Ros, AR Kane, Cocteau Twins
Listen to: “Slomo” / “Sugar For the Pill” / “Don’t Know Why”
Listen
04
PERFUME GENIUS : No Shape
RIYL : romance, Jenny Hval, serpentwithfeet, Weyes Blood, Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, Prince, Sade, Twin Peaks OST
Listen to: “Sides (ft. Weyes Blood)” / “Die 4 U” / “Wreath”
Companion Record : MOSES SUMNEY : Aromanticism
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03
FEVER RAY : Plunge
RIYL : The Knife, funhouse synths, dark ambient abyss, protest pop, performance art, authority-fucking, radical queerness, sex positivity
Listen to: “To the Moon and Back” / “Mustn’t Hurry” / “IDK About You”
Listen
02
KING KRULE : The Ooz
RIYL : King Krule, Zoo Kid, DJ Screw, Andy Stott, Madlib, J Dilla, early 90’s Wu-Tang production, cloud rap, flickering street lights, grey skies, sensual synth pop, stoned loner trip hop, post-punk hip hop
Listen to: “The Locomotive” / “Dum Surfer” / “Czech One”
Companion Record : MOUNT KIMBIE : Love What Survives
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01
KELLY LEE OWENS : Kelly Lee Owens
RIYL : Aaliyah, Jenny Hval, Björk, Laurel Halo, Julia Holter, Chromatics, gorgeous electronic art pop, sparkling electro, cloud club
Listen to: “Lucid” / “Keep Walking” / “Throwing Lines”
Listen
