Loud and Quiet's Top 40 Albums of 2017

Loud and Quiet's Top 40 Albums of 2017

Original Source →

40.

August 25, 2017
Critic Score
81
18 reviews
‘Holiday Destination’, her third album, is a bold, heartfelt beast that wears its politics and defiance firmly on its sleeve.

38.

May 5, 2017
Critic Score
76
8 reviews

The real skill that this duo has managed to display here is in creating a distinctive sense of personality around whom they are and what they do whilst operating in a self-imposed ever-shifting musical landscape, in which standing still appears to be a crime.

37.

May 19, 2017
Critic Score
80
14 reviews

Songs melt into one another, merging from breathless prog grooves to aching balladry and back again. Weaver is offering something deeper than nostalgic noodling.

36.

Kite Base - Latent Whispers
May 26, 2017
Critic Score
80
2 reviews

35.

October 27, 2017
Critic Score
75
9 reviews
Dury’s always been keen to play down his talents, aware of his privilege as the son of Ian Dury, but on his fifth album his composition skills are as insuppressible as his trademark humour.

34.

May 5, 2017
Critic Score
79
19 reviews

While ‘Compassion’ isn’t an ode to the fissures and fallout of Brexit, Trump and the chaos in the Middle East, it captures the uncertainty and insecurity perfectly, manifesting itself as an incongruent collection of tracks that seep deep.

33.

May 5, 2017
Critic Score
82
35 reviews
Returning to Slowdive’s latest album is like plunging back into the pool after a long hot bake in the sun.

32.

September 8, 2017
Critic Score
76
18 reviews

Exploring fresh musical territories without leaving tradition behind following a two-decade career, ‘Mountain Moves’ is the LP of a band at their peek.

31.

Lower Slaughter - What Big Eyes
September 15, 2017
Critic Score
80
2 reviews

30.

September 22, 2017
Critic Score
60
1 review

29.

September 8, 2017
Critic Score
76
10 reviews

28.

September 22, 2017
Critic Score
75
8 reviews
It all makes for an achievement that feels worth the wait: it may have had a long gestation by their standards, but in ‘Plum’ Wand have made their first true great.

27.

January 27, 2017
Critic Score
76
13 reviews

26.

September 29, 2017
Critic Score
80
10 reviews
‘Neō Wax Bloom’ is an epic ode to short-attention spans that will make you glad it fried your brain with information and desensitised you to bright lights.

25.

April 7, 2017
Critic Score
82
23 reviews

The whole effect is something that’s the very opposite of escapist, but rather reflective and deeply personal. ‘Arca’ is an album that’s also a prison – a place where you’re trapped in Ghersi’s compelling, claustrophobic world.

24.

September 8, 2017
Critic Score
78
29 reviews

Three albums in with ‘Love What Survives’, they’re moving forward once again with a floating mix of motorik beats, woozy pop and some solid vocal collaborations.

23.

April 7, 2017
Critic Score
81
42 reviews

If ‘I Love You, Honeybear’ was a sarcastic title for a record of hard truths, it’s got nothing on the name ‘Pure Comedy’ – Tillman’s 75-minute slow avalanche of ballads that relentlessly nags at the absurdity of mankind.

22.

June 16, 2017
Critic Score
77
24 reviews
This is a very natural sounding record, effortless in form, stylistically distinct and completely coherent.

21.

Wesley Gonzalez - Excellent Musician
June 30, 2017
Critic Score
80
4 reviews

20.

September 1, 2017
Critic Score
85
47 reviews
The not-so-good news is that it’s LCD’s weakest album. That, however, is like saying ‘Abbey Road’ is The Beatles’ fourth best album. It’s obviously still great, and not just because it’s just there.

19.

April 7, 2017
Critic Score
76
15 reviews

For a record to have such a bizarre, profound (and not always entirely pleasant) impact is a rarity; for the same record to boast such a catalogue of eminently danceable, cathartic moments is astounding.

18.

October 13, 2017
Critic Score
86
47 reviews
The result is a fierce, histrionic, riotous and deceptively beautiful record that, for the all the confessionalism, retains St Vincent’s alluringly enigmatic presence. Long may the mystery endure.

17.

June 23, 2017
Critic Score
84
25 reviews
From the political and ideological to the guttural and anthemic, Algiers angry voice remains a protest sound for these restless days and nights.

16.

February 24, 2017
Critic Score
80
33 reviews
It’s Bruner’s boldest project, and one that forces you to hear his own voice above all others.

15.

June 2, 2017
Critic Score
75
20 reviews
Here, Chastity Belt prove that pop music can have substance.

14.

March 3, 2017
Critic Score
74
25 reviews

In both content and delivery ‘English Tapas’ is reminiscent of John Cooper Clark at the tail end of a cheap amphetamine binge. And I mean that in a good way. It’s bleak, tough and funny. Like life.

13.

September 8, 2017
Critic Score
73
13 reviews

Somewhere between the stadium pop of Heart and the dive-bar dirt of Springsteen, Cameron is undeniable in craft, humour and sax solos.

12.

May 19, 2017
Critic Score
82
16 reviews

The different voices and inversions mean that, even though she operates within the broad confines of gothic folk, she has an air of unpredictability. This suggests that the listener is party to a talent at the very start of her creative life.

11.

April 14, 2017
Critic Score
93
43 reviews
After four albums, Kendrick is still spitting like he has something to prove. The effect is devastatingly raw.

10.

June 9, 2017
Critic Score
83
23 reviews

9.

March 10, 2017
Critic Score
86
10 reviews
The government may be eager to get rid of the architecture that gives the album its name, but Idles have offered a ‘Brutalism’ that demolishes back.

8.

August 25, 2017
Critic Score
84
3 reviews

The composition of the tracks give way to rhythmic peaks and flows, and while there isn’t a story as such, the narrative sense of journey makes this record as much literature as it is music.

7.

June 16, 2017
Critic Score
91
43 reviews

She seeks to articulate the unbearable emotional heaviness of being on the brink of adulthood, and of all the yearning, identity crises and self-examination that that entails. That she manages it with sincerity despite her status as an established global pop star success story, with triumphalism despite being so audibly let down by the reality, and with authority despite still not having completed the journey herself is what makes ‘Melodrama’ such a compelling experience.

6.

March 3, 2017
Critic Score
78
27 reviews
It is visceral (synonyms: explosive, impassioned) and it is punishing (severe, relentless), and yet it is much more than Thesaurus.com’s noble attempts at adding colour to my descriptions.

4.

Timber Timbre - Sincerely, Future Pollution
April 7, 2017
Critic Score
74
17 reviews

Written as the nadir of 2016 was coming into focus, it paints a somewhat dystopian vision of a society out of control and typifies the record’s tone of, in his own words, “utter chaos and confusion.” This is a good thing for ‘Sincerely, Future Pollution’, whose nine tracks have a deliciously inky, retro feel, like Nick Cave fronting a bitter ’80s Vegas house band.

3.

June 2, 2017
Critic Score
84
15 reviews
‘Peasant’ is a potent and mournfully beautiful meditation on humankind’s inability to fix itself.

2.

March 24, 2017
Critic Score
80
16 reviews

At its heart, however, this is still a record with techno at its core, and it’s demonstrated by Owens’ aptitude for subtlety and nuance.

1.

September 29, 2017
Critic Score
83
25 reviews
Truth is a big theme on ‘Relatives In Decent’, joining the heavy sense of unexpected hope in resignation that’s filled the band’s previous three albums and is still present here in Joe Casey’s cryptic lyrics
Original Source: https://www.loudandquiet.com/short/best-albums-2017-loud-and-quiet-top-40/
Comments
Sign in to comment
No one has said anything yet.
Connect with AOTY
Like Us
Follow Us

February Playlist