THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2017 -- INTRO
If I'm honest, the albums I obsessed over the most in 2017 were by Doris Day and Dick Haymes. Thanks to a new book, I headed down a rabbit hole of great music from the glory days of pop singers like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. "The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums" is a collection of essays by Will Friedwald, each piece focusing on a different artist and album(s). Essentially, these are his Desert Island Discs and Friedwald (one of the great experts on jazz singers and other swingers) brings passion and enthusiasm to everything from classic albums by Sarah Vaughan and Sinatra (natch) to relative obscurities by Tiny Tim (!) and a Latin jazz piece by Della Reese. I already knew a lot of these albums, but it's impossible to hear Friedwald wax rhapsodic about some of these wax cylinders and NOT give another listen to Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. On the other hand, reading about 15-20 works I HADN'T heard before and having them ranked alongside some of the greatest albums of all time was equally irresistible. Suddenly a little-known Jack Teagarden work or a masterpiece by Johnny Hartman became something I had to hear RIGHT NOW!
And that brings me to the other sea change in my music-listening life: streaming. Along with the thousands of CDs, hundreds of cassettes, dozens of LPs and terabytes of digital audio I've compiled over the years, I now subscribe to Spotify. (Forgive me, artists! I campaign for higher royalty rates all the time.) While the service is woefully inadequate on contemporary jazz and world music, pathetic when it comes to the vast libraries of sound out there in many categories throughout history and lacking in a million other ways...it sure does have a lot of music on tap, including pretty much anything remotely mainstream put out in the last few years.
Spotify gave me instant access to Doris Day's "Day By Day" and "Day By Night," two incomparable albums of Day at her peak, not to mention a studio recording of songs from the great musical "Annie Get Your Gun" starring Day and Robert Goulet that was a revelation for me in terms of Day and Goulet and the musical (which I've never seen but which features a lot of great songs). And Dick Haymes! The poor man's Sinatra? Never given him a second thought, but by God for one brief moment on Capitol the guy recorded two sublime albums that can stand proudly alongside Sinatra's best (namely "Moondreams" and the slightly less perfect but still great "Rain Or Shine").
So streaming has left me drowning in music possibilities. Wonderfully, I began the year diving deep into Tom Petty (before he died) and marveling how consistently good he was for so many years. I ended the year BingeListening to Billy Joel from start to finish. (Turns out he was probably wise to stop when he did. And yes, "An Innocent Man" and "Turnstiles" are his two best albums just as I imagined, but he had more good songs in those last few years than I remembered.) And in the middle I savored Joni Mitchell. What a legend! Streaming allowed me to fill in the gaps on Mitchell and listen to her peak music from a great debut in 1969 up to 1979's "Mingus." (I haven't braved the relatively lesser works of the 1980s yet.) It's a sustained level of greatness few can come close to equalling (the Beatles, Dylan) and if you haven't heard "Blue" or "Court and Spark" or "For The Roses," what the heck are you waiting for?
Yet just as Spotify allowed me to check out some of music's major artists with unparalleled ease, I also stayed on top of new releases like never before. I checked out hundreds of new albums. Why? Because I could! I listened widely if not wisely, broadly if not deeply. It's an eternal struggle: do I focus on the many classic albums I could listen to again and again and discover new facets? (Stuff like Miles Davis and the Beatles and so on.) Or do I try and discover the next new thing? It's a tricky balance and streaming has left me more bewildered than ever. I think a lot of people are facing the problem critics have faced for years: too much damn stuff and not enough time to listen to it all.
I fear people are responding by taking the easy way out. They probably just jump to a new song or two, maybe glom onto a playlist for their daily workout or spend their commute depending on an algorithm to offer up music from their high school/college days that is familiar enough to be comforting and yet has a random song or two mixed in that's new to them, just enough to make them feel they're not repeating themselves. Are they diving deep into a great artist like Steely Dan by actually paying attention to "Pretzel Logic" or "Aja?" Or are they barking out, "Alexa, play Steely Dan" and then moving on after she spins four or five familiar hits? Don't worry. I haven't found the proper balance yet either.
So here's a chance to make good use of your favorite streaming service. If one of these albums sounds intriguing to you, it's never been easier for you to check it out. I'm not even bothering to include YouTube videos for key songs or links to artist websites anymore. If you don't have a streaming service, obviously you can indeed go to YouTube and check out key tracks from any of the acts mentioned. So here are my favorite albums of the year, followed by a breakdown of what excited me about each particular act. Enjoy!
THE FORTY (OR SO) BEST ALBUMS OF 2017
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT -- Dreams And Daggers
CHRIS STAPLETON -- From A Room, Vol. 1
ORCHESTRA BAOBAB -- Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng
SZA -- Ctrl
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Hadestown Original Cast Album (Off Bway)
JOHN MORELAND -- Big Bad Luv
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS -- 50 Song Memoir
SIA -- Everyday is Christmas
THE JOHN SALLY RIDE -- A New Set Of Downs
COURTNEY BARNETT AND KURT VILE -- Lotta Sea Lice
KASEY CHAMBERS -- Dragonfly
BOB DYLAN -- Triplicate
DANIEL CAESAR -- Freudian
JASON ISBELL -- The Nashville Sound
KRONOS QUARTET AND TRIO DA KALI -- Ladilikan
STANTON MOORE -- With You In Mind
AIMEE MANN -- Mental Illness
JAKE XERSES FUSSELL -- What In The Natural World
LORDE -- Melodrama
DON BRYANT -- Don't Give Up On Love
ROBERT CRAY AND HI RHYTHM -- Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm
CURTIS HARDING -- Face Your Fears
CHARLY BLISS -- Guppy
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Sunday in The Park With George (Bway 2017)
THE NATIONAL -- Sleep Well Beast
MOSES SUMNEY -- Aromanticism
SAMPHA -- Process
WESLEY STACE'S JOHN WESLEY HARDING -- Wesley Stace's John Wesley Harding
DORA FREEMAN -- Letter Never Sent
ANNA TIVEL -- Small Believer
KAMASI WASHINGTON -- Harmony of Difference
CHEAP TRICK -- We're All Alright!
SAZ'SIO -- At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me
INDIA.ARIE -- Songversation: Medicine
LARRY CAMPBELL AND TERESA WILLIAMS -- Contraband Love
KHALID -- American Teen
ZULI -- On Human Freakout Mountain
LEWIS CAPALDI -- Bloom
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Southern Soul Crate
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Baby Driver OST
RODNEY CROWELL -- Close Ties
JOHN MELLENCAMP -- Sad Clowns and Hillbillies
OZUNA -- Odisea
LIAM GALLAGHER -- As You Were
DAVID RAWLINGS -- Poor David's Almanack
JUANES -- Mis Planes Son Amarte
FAIRPORT CONVENTION -- Come All Ye -- The First Ten Years (1968-1978)
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO -- Songs Of Peace and Love
THE BEST FORTY (OR SO) ALBUMS OF 2017 -- IN DEPTH
1-10
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT -- Dreams And Daggers
The most exciting jazz vocal album since Cassandra Wilson broke through with Blue Light To Dawn, my favorite album of 1993. Salvant won the Grammy for this double album and no wonder. But what exactly is she doing? She's not expanding the Great American Songbook the way Wilson did by embracing everything from the Monkees to Tom Waits. She's not pushing the envelope musically. She's not radically reinterpreting songs with some meta narrative or re-contextualization. And yet, she's doing all of this, quietly, subtly, brilliantly. Salvant digs up some obscurities but they aren't presented as curios or quaint novelties, just good songs worth singing. She's got a terrific band, led by pianist Aaron Diehl. Her originals nestle comfortably alongside classics by Noel Coward and Irving Berlin. And her singing just...illuminates the songs without any muss or fuss. Somehow she can sing a number like "If A Girl Isn't Pretty" (which I'd never heard before) and do justice to the tune, get the laughs it genuinely deserves (without winking at the audience) and yet also in some mysterious way get you thinking about its out-dated attitudes towards women. And yet it's also just a wonderful old tune. She effortlessly deconstructs it with the x-ray intelligence of her singing. Unlike Vaughan (who I shamefully have only just warmed up to, a little) Salvant never curlicues her singing, never indulges in showboating even if her voice could do so with ease. A lesser singer would have a blast with the bluesy, sexy double (or triple) entendre that is "You've Got To Give Me Some." Salvant makes it sexier and funnier than anyone else by not underlining a single joke. With the restraint and lyrical focus of Blossom Dearie and the dynamics of Dinah Washington and the thoroughly modern sensibility of Wilson (this is no throwback chanteuse), Salvant just delivers. She embodies these 23 numbers like a cabaret performer and she swings these numbers like a jazz singer and she reinvigorates these standards like an artist. I can't wait to hear what she does next.
CHRIS STAPLETON -- From A Room, Vol. 1
Is it the voice? God knows the gravelly, distinctive vocals of Chris Stapleton can make you sit up straight in your seat the second it digs into a line. It has the comforting rasp of Bob Seger and the deep-bone authenticity of the Band and even when he's goofing off on a duet of "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" with actor Chris Pratt during a late night talk show sketch, you just believe whatever he's saying. Heck, maybe they did have the time of their life. This is country or rock or country rock or Americana or whatever you wanna call it. Nine damn good songs and an excellent follow-up to his excellent debut "Traveller." He followed this up months later with "From A Room, Vol. 2" and that's a solid album too but he put his best foot forward right here. The guy just released his first album in 2015 but damned if he doesn't seem like a beloved veteran we've been listening to for years. Thata's pretty special. One thing I know: he hasn't peaked yet.
ORCHESTRA BAOBAB -- Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng
New music from old friends. While they had a flood of music in their first heyday during the 1970s and early 1980s (probably on hard-to-find cassettes), Orchestra Baobab is known in the West for just a handful of beguiling releases. Their most famous album was recorded in 1982, released in 1989 after they broke up and became a sensation around the world when it was reissued by World Circuit records. I have to turn to the experts to tell you they combine Afro-Cuban rhythms to Griot culture and other strands of African music like the Mandinga music of the Casamance. (Hey, this is world music, after all.) Not to worry -- you won't have to consult anyone if you put on the album "Pirate's Choice." Your body will start swaying of its own accord with music that is as beguiling and joyous as anything by Duke Ellington or Bill Wills and his Texas Playboys. The band reformed and toured the world but instead of overwhelming us with music, they've produced just three more studio albums, all brilliant: Specialist In All Styles in 2002, Made In Dakar in 2007 and now a decade later this tribute to one of their original singers, Ndiouga Dieng. Fifty years on, the tradition continues with Alpha Dieng joining some of the original lineup on this album that looks backwards and forwards with disarming ease. Think Buena Vista Social Club.
SZA -- Ctrl
I worried the drama surrounding this debut album might prove far more interesting than the actual music. SZA is a talented songwriter with a passionate fanbase and she agonized over "Ctrl." It sucked! It wasn't worth releasing! She should just erase the whole damn thing and start all over again.! Not since the La's had a debut act seemed so paralyzed by self-doubt. But that insecurity isn't a bug; it's a feature. SZA's songs charm with their second-guessing and their third-guessing and fourth-guessing until you're thoroughly won over by her self-aware teen girl anxieties that aren't a sign of immaturity but the sign of a budding maturity. On the other hand, she also delivers an hilarious ode to the vagina called "Doves In The Wind" that is nutty and sexy and so awesome you can imagine Prince shaking his head in admiration and saying, "Damn!" Janet Jackson may have been the first woman to extol "Control," but SZA is doing it with fewer letters and more vulnerability and thus more strength. A very promising debut.
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Hadestown Original Cast Album (Off Bway)
Hadestown is a musical adaptation of the myth about Orpheus and Eurydice. That's the story of a singer who follows his beloved down to the Underworld. His voice is so beautiful he actually wins the right to lead her back to freedom...as long as he doesn't turn around. This classic tale has been turned into a marvelous rock and roll song cycle that would have been perfect for Jeff Buckley. The story is also a stinging indictment of multi-national corporations that chew up and spit out workers with indifference, all wrapped up in an immersive show brimming over with talented actors, great songs by composer Anaïs Mitchell and a villain for the ages embodied with relish by Patrick Page. It was easily one of my favorite shows of 2016 and I've been dying to see it again. Now, finally, they've released a live recording of the show from its Off Broadway run. Even better, they staged the show again in Canada last fall, figuring out a way to put this musical on Broadway without the prohibitive cost of tearing the theater apart a la Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet. Listen to this cast album and you'll hear the best rock musical since oh, Spring Awakening?
JOHN MORELAND -- Big Bad Luv
Here's an Okie who started out in punk, moved towards rock and then went stone cold acoustic after he heard Steve Earle and saw the (folk) light. Hell, anyone who can have a conversion experience thanks to Steve Earle is ok in my book. Now Moreland has recorded with a full band for the first time on his latest album. Apparently Rachel Maddow sung his praises (Moreland amusingly said it was the first time his dad ever agreed with a single thing Maddow ever said) and darned if she isn't right. Reading a review of the another-terrific-album variety, I said, "Wait, who? What?" and dove right in. About three seconds after it was over, I played it again and three seconds after that I downloaded "In the Throes," which is more acoustic but just as satisfying and now I'm headed on to "High On Tulsa Heat." Think Steve Earle, because he does.
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS -- 50 Song Memoir
True, it didn't garner quite the attention of "69 Love Songs" but this opus by Stephen Merritt has a terrific hook: he recorded one song for every year he's been alive, from 1966 right up to 2016. Clever! Merritt has a seemingly effortless gift for quirky pop songs that sound like nothing and everything else, jumping through stylistic hoops that lead you from one genre to the next but always anchored by deeply funny and piercing lyrics. But hold on a second. Aren't we just wowed by the meta-concept of it all? Yes and so what. While I've loved some of Merritt's more conventional albums under Magnetic Fields and other monikers -- albums of the 12 or so song variety, 35 minutes and then you're done --the fact is that Merritt benefits from the widescreen epic approach. His eclectic tunes thrive in context. Some film directors need the discipline of 90 minutes while others can't be appreciated until the three hour mark has been left in the dust. So it is with Merritt. His hopscotch through pop history sometimes feels forced and head-snapping on brief albums. But give him a few hours, let yourself be fully immersed in his world and the sheer variety of songs, the dazzling breadth of his musical landscape and the deadpan beauty of his lyrics develop their own giddy power. You need a dozen or so songs just to orient yourself to his sensibility and then you're off, giggling over hilarious song titles when you're not blindsided by his characters and before you know it Merritt-land doesn't feel quirky or disorienting but the most natural, lovely place in the world. He's also damn funny but humor may be the least appreciated element in pop music so I'll leave you to discover that for yourself.
SIA -- Everyday is Christmas
Confession: I haven't really paid much attention to Sia before. I admired her gimmick of sort of not showing her face most of the time, even when performing or appearing on a talk show. She hid her face behind wigs that would give Cousin Itt pause and I thought, "That's cool" but somehow I thought this commentary on popularity or our need to fixate on appearances meant her music wasn't as important as her shtick. But I'm a huge sucker for Christmas music (really, I own more Christmas albums on CD than you can shake a candy cane at). So I'll sample pretty much any Christmas album, hoping to discover a decent cover or a classic tune or an original worthy of being added to my Christmas playlists. Really, if I find one good song on a new Christmas album, I'm happily surprised. This is ten songs and 35 minutes long. The first track is the slightly demented "Santa's Coming For Us," a pop gem that is technically straightforward but has an air of menace that makes you think of the Santa from "Silent Night, Deadly Night" more than jolly old Saint Nick. But my god it's catchy. I played it again. And again. That's a terrific song, I thought. Then came "Candy Cane Lane," which Phil Spector would have given the thumbs up to and then "Snowman," which made me think of Kate Bush with its slightly loopy ode to a romance with a snowman. "Snowflake" had a similar wistful vein and I thought maybe it wasn't the smartest song to follow a similar Our-love-is-melting theme but what the heck was going on? I was four songs in and I liked, even loved, every single song. "Puppies Are Forever," a warning to those who think puppies make great gifts, should be adopted by PETA but from start to finish ("Underneath The Christmas Lights") I was delighted. Ten Christmas originals and while some are stone cold classics, they are all good to great. That just doesn't happen much when it comes to holiday albums. Clearly I need to go back and listen to Sia again for the first time. Think Phil Spector's "A Christmas Gift For You," but shinier and newer and all originals.
THE JOHN SALLY RIDE -- A New Set Of Downs
COURTNEY BARNETT AND KURT VILE -- Lotta Sea Lice
11-20-ish
KASEY CHAMBERS -- Dragonfly
BOB DYLAN -- Triplicate
DANIEL CAESAR -- Freudian
JASON ISBELL -- The Nashville Sound
KRONOS QUARTET AND TRIO DA KALI -- Ladilikan
STANTON MOORE -- With You In Mind
AIMEE MANN -- Mental Illness
JAKE XERSES FUSSELL -- What In The Natural World
LORDE -- Melodrama
DON BRYANT -- Don't Give Up On Love
ROBERT CRAY AND HI RHYTHM -- Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm
CURTIS HARDING -- Face Your Fears
21-30-ish
CHARLY BLISS -- Guppy
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Sunday in The Park With George (Bway 2017)
THE NATIONAL -- Sleep Well Beast
MOSES SUMNEY -- Aromanticism
SAMPHA -- Process
WESLEY STACE'S JOHN WESLEY HARDING -- Wesley Stace's John Wesley Harding
DORA FREEMAN -- Letter Never Sent
ANNA TIVEL -- Small Believer
KAMASI WASHINGTON -- Harmony of Difference
CHEAP TRICK -- We're All Alright!
SAZ'SIO -- At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me
INDIA.ARIE -- Songversation: Medicine
31-47
LARRY CAMPBELL AND TERESA WILLIAMS -- Contraband Love
KHALID -- American Teen
ZULI -- On Human Freakout Mountain
LEWIS CAPALDI -- Bloom
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Southern Soul Crate
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Baby Driver OST
RODNEY CROWELL -- Close Ties
JOHN MELLENCAMP -- Sad Clowns and Hillbillies
OZUNA -- Odisea
LIAM GALLAGHER -- As You Were
DAVID RAWLINGS -- Poor David's Almanack
JUANES -- Mis Planes Son Amarte
FAIRPORT CONVENTION -- Come All Ye -- The First Ten Years (1968-1978)
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO -- Songs Of Peace and Love
If I'm honest, the albums I obsessed over the most in 2017 were by Doris Day and Dick Haymes. Thanks to a new book, I headed down a rabbit hole of great music from the glory days of pop singers like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. "The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums" is a collection of essays by Will Friedwald, each piece focusing on a different artist and album(s). Essentially, these are his Desert Island Discs and Friedwald (one of the great experts on jazz singers and other swingers) brings passion and enthusiasm to everything from classic albums by Sarah Vaughan and Sinatra (natch) to relative obscurities by Tiny Tim (!) and a Latin jazz piece by Della Reese. I already knew a lot of these albums, but it's impossible to hear Friedwald wax rhapsodic about some of these wax cylinders and NOT give another listen to Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. On the other hand, reading about 15-20 works I HADN'T heard before and having them ranked alongside some of the greatest albums of all time was equally irresistible. Suddenly a little-known Jack Teagarden work or a masterpiece by Johnny Hartman became something I had to hear RIGHT NOW!
And that brings me to the other sea change in my music-listening life: streaming. Along with the thousands of CDs, hundreds of cassettes, dozens of LPs and terabytes of digital audio I've compiled over the years, I now subscribe to Spotify. (Forgive me, artists! I campaign for higher royalty rates all the time.) While the service is woefully inadequate on contemporary jazz and world music, pathetic when it comes to the vast libraries of sound out there in many categories throughout history and lacking in a million other ways...it sure does have a lot of music on tap, including pretty much anything remotely mainstream put out in the last few years.
Spotify gave me instant access to Doris Day's "Day By Day" and "Day By Night," two incomparable albums of Day at her peak, not to mention a studio recording of songs from the great musical "Annie Get Your Gun" starring Day and Robert Goulet that was a revelation for me in terms of Day and Goulet and the musical (which I've never seen but which features a lot of great songs). And Dick Haymes! The poor man's Sinatra? Never given him a second thought, but by God for one brief moment on Capitol the guy recorded two sublime albums that can stand proudly alongside Sinatra's best (namely "Moondreams" and the slightly less perfect but still great "Rain Or Shine").
So streaming has left me drowning in music possibilities. Wonderfully, I began the year diving deep into Tom Petty (before he died) and marveling how consistently good he was for so many years. I ended the year BingeListening to Billy Joel from start to finish. (Turns out he was probably wise to stop when he did. And yes, "An Innocent Man" and "Turnstiles" are his two best albums just as I imagined, but he had more good songs in those last few years than I remembered.) And in the middle I savored Joni Mitchell. What a legend! Streaming allowed me to fill in the gaps on Mitchell and listen to her peak music from a great debut in 1969 up to 1979's "Mingus." (I haven't braved the relatively lesser works of the 1980s yet.) It's a sustained level of greatness few can come close to equalling (the Beatles, Dylan) and if you haven't heard "Blue" or "Court and Spark" or "For The Roses," what the heck are you waiting for?
Yet just as Spotify allowed me to check out some of music's major artists with unparalleled ease, I also stayed on top of new releases like never before. I checked out hundreds of new albums. Why? Because I could! I listened widely if not wisely, broadly if not deeply. It's an eternal struggle: do I focus on the many classic albums I could listen to again and again and discover new facets? (Stuff like Miles Davis and the Beatles and so on.) Or do I try and discover the next new thing? It's a tricky balance and streaming has left me more bewildered than ever. I think a lot of people are facing the problem critics have faced for years: too much damn stuff and not enough time to listen to it all.
I fear people are responding by taking the easy way out. They probably just jump to a new song or two, maybe glom onto a playlist for their daily workout or spend their commute depending on an algorithm to offer up music from their high school/college days that is familiar enough to be comforting and yet has a random song or two mixed in that's new to them, just enough to make them feel they're not repeating themselves. Are they diving deep into a great artist like Steely Dan by actually paying attention to "Pretzel Logic" or "Aja?" Or are they barking out, "Alexa, play Steely Dan" and then moving on after she spins four or five familiar hits? Don't worry. I haven't found the proper balance yet either.
So here's a chance to make good use of your favorite streaming service. If one of these albums sounds intriguing to you, it's never been easier for you to check it out. I'm not even bothering to include YouTube videos for key songs or links to artist websites anymore. If you don't have a streaming service, obviously you can indeed go to YouTube and check out key tracks from any of the acts mentioned. So here are my favorite albums of the year, followed by a breakdown of what excited me about each particular act. Enjoy!
THE FORTY (OR SO) BEST ALBUMS OF 2017
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT -- Dreams And Daggers
CHRIS STAPLETON -- From A Room, Vol. 1
ORCHESTRA BAOBAB -- Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng
SZA -- Ctrl
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Hadestown Original Cast Album (Off Bway)
JOHN MORELAND -- Big Bad Luv
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS -- 50 Song Memoir
SIA -- Everyday is Christmas
THE JOHN SALLY RIDE -- A New Set Of Downs
COURTNEY BARNETT AND KURT VILE -- Lotta Sea Lice
KASEY CHAMBERS -- Dragonfly
BOB DYLAN -- Triplicate
DANIEL CAESAR -- Freudian
JASON ISBELL -- The Nashville Sound
KRONOS QUARTET AND TRIO DA KALI -- Ladilikan
STANTON MOORE -- With You In Mind
AIMEE MANN -- Mental Illness
JAKE XERSES FUSSELL -- What In The Natural World
LORDE -- Melodrama
DON BRYANT -- Don't Give Up On Love
ROBERT CRAY AND HI RHYTHM -- Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm
CURTIS HARDING -- Face Your Fears
CHARLY BLISS -- Guppy
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Sunday in The Park With George (Bway 2017)
THE NATIONAL -- Sleep Well Beast
MOSES SUMNEY -- Aromanticism
SAMPHA -- Process
WESLEY STACE'S JOHN WESLEY HARDING -- Wesley Stace's John Wesley Harding
DORA FREEMAN -- Letter Never Sent
ANNA TIVEL -- Small Believer
KAMASI WASHINGTON -- Harmony of Difference
CHEAP TRICK -- We're All Alright!
SAZ'SIO -- At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me
INDIA.ARIE -- Songversation: Medicine
LARRY CAMPBELL AND TERESA WILLIAMS -- Contraband Love
KHALID -- American Teen
ZULI -- On Human Freakout Mountain
LEWIS CAPALDI -- Bloom
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Southern Soul Crate
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Baby Driver OST
RODNEY CROWELL -- Close Ties
JOHN MELLENCAMP -- Sad Clowns and Hillbillies
OZUNA -- Odisea
LIAM GALLAGHER -- As You Were
DAVID RAWLINGS -- Poor David's Almanack
JUANES -- Mis Planes Son Amarte
FAIRPORT CONVENTION -- Come All Ye -- The First Ten Years (1968-1978)
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO -- Songs Of Peace and Love
THE BEST FORTY (OR SO) ALBUMS OF 2017 -- IN DEPTH
1-10
CÉCILE MCLORIN SALVANT -- Dreams And Daggers
The most exciting jazz vocal album since Cassandra Wilson broke through with Blue Light To Dawn, my favorite album of 1993. Salvant won the Grammy for this double album and no wonder. But what exactly is she doing? She's not expanding the Great American Songbook the way Wilson did by embracing everything from the Monkees to Tom Waits. She's not pushing the envelope musically. She's not radically reinterpreting songs with some meta narrative or re-contextualization. And yet, she's doing all of this, quietly, subtly, brilliantly. Salvant digs up some obscurities but they aren't presented as curios or quaint novelties, just good songs worth singing. She's got a terrific band, led by pianist Aaron Diehl. Her originals nestle comfortably alongside classics by Noel Coward and Irving Berlin. And her singing just...illuminates the songs without any muss or fuss. Somehow she can sing a number like "If A Girl Isn't Pretty" (which I'd never heard before) and do justice to the tune, get the laughs it genuinely deserves (without winking at the audience) and yet also in some mysterious way get you thinking about its out-dated attitudes towards women. And yet it's also just a wonderful old tune. She effortlessly deconstructs it with the x-ray intelligence of her singing. Unlike Vaughan (who I shamefully have only just warmed up to, a little) Salvant never curlicues her singing, never indulges in showboating even if her voice could do so with ease. A lesser singer would have a blast with the bluesy, sexy double (or triple) entendre that is "You've Got To Give Me Some." Salvant makes it sexier and funnier than anyone else by not underlining a single joke. With the restraint and lyrical focus of Blossom Dearie and the dynamics of Dinah Washington and the thoroughly modern sensibility of Wilson (this is no throwback chanteuse), Salvant just delivers. She embodies these 23 numbers like a cabaret performer and she swings these numbers like a jazz singer and she reinvigorates these standards like an artist. I can't wait to hear what she does next.
CHRIS STAPLETON -- From A Room, Vol. 1
Is it the voice? God knows the gravelly, distinctive vocals of Chris Stapleton can make you sit up straight in your seat the second it digs into a line. It has the comforting rasp of Bob Seger and the deep-bone authenticity of the Band and even when he's goofing off on a duet of "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" with actor Chris Pratt during a late night talk show sketch, you just believe whatever he's saying. Heck, maybe they did have the time of their life. This is country or rock or country rock or Americana or whatever you wanna call it. Nine damn good songs and an excellent follow-up to his excellent debut "Traveller." He followed this up months later with "From A Room, Vol. 2" and that's a solid album too but he put his best foot forward right here. The guy just released his first album in 2015 but damned if he doesn't seem like a beloved veteran we've been listening to for years. Thata's pretty special. One thing I know: he hasn't peaked yet.
ORCHESTRA BAOBAB -- Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng
New music from old friends. While they had a flood of music in their first heyday during the 1970s and early 1980s (probably on hard-to-find cassettes), Orchestra Baobab is known in the West for just a handful of beguiling releases. Their most famous album was recorded in 1982, released in 1989 after they broke up and became a sensation around the world when it was reissued by World Circuit records. I have to turn to the experts to tell you they combine Afro-Cuban rhythms to Griot culture and other strands of African music like the Mandinga music of the Casamance. (Hey, this is world music, after all.) Not to worry -- you won't have to consult anyone if you put on the album "Pirate's Choice." Your body will start swaying of its own accord with music that is as beguiling and joyous as anything by Duke Ellington or Bill Wills and his Texas Playboys. The band reformed and toured the world but instead of overwhelming us with music, they've produced just three more studio albums, all brilliant: Specialist In All Styles in 2002, Made In Dakar in 2007 and now a decade later this tribute to one of their original singers, Ndiouga Dieng. Fifty years on, the tradition continues with Alpha Dieng joining some of the original lineup on this album that looks backwards and forwards with disarming ease. Think Buena Vista Social Club.
SZA -- Ctrl
I worried the drama surrounding this debut album might prove far more interesting than the actual music. SZA is a talented songwriter with a passionate fanbase and she agonized over "Ctrl." It sucked! It wasn't worth releasing! She should just erase the whole damn thing and start all over again.! Not since the La's had a debut act seemed so paralyzed by self-doubt. But that insecurity isn't a bug; it's a feature. SZA's songs charm with their second-guessing and their third-guessing and fourth-guessing until you're thoroughly won over by her self-aware teen girl anxieties that aren't a sign of immaturity but the sign of a budding maturity. On the other hand, she also delivers an hilarious ode to the vagina called "Doves In The Wind" that is nutty and sexy and so awesome you can imagine Prince shaking his head in admiration and saying, "Damn!" Janet Jackson may have been the first woman to extol "Control," but SZA is doing it with fewer letters and more vulnerability and thus more strength. A very promising debut.
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Hadestown Original Cast Album (Off Bway)
Hadestown is a musical adaptation of the myth about Orpheus and Eurydice. That's the story of a singer who follows his beloved down to the Underworld. His voice is so beautiful he actually wins the right to lead her back to freedom...as long as he doesn't turn around. This classic tale has been turned into a marvelous rock and roll song cycle that would have been perfect for Jeff Buckley. The story is also a stinging indictment of multi-national corporations that chew up and spit out workers with indifference, all wrapped up in an immersive show brimming over with talented actors, great songs by composer Anaïs Mitchell and a villain for the ages embodied with relish by Patrick Page. It was easily one of my favorite shows of 2016 and I've been dying to see it again. Now, finally, they've released a live recording of the show from its Off Broadway run. Even better, they staged the show again in Canada last fall, figuring out a way to put this musical on Broadway without the prohibitive cost of tearing the theater apart a la Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet. Listen to this cast album and you'll hear the best rock musical since oh, Spring Awakening?
JOHN MORELAND -- Big Bad Luv
Here's an Okie who started out in punk, moved towards rock and then went stone cold acoustic after he heard Steve Earle and saw the (folk) light. Hell, anyone who can have a conversion experience thanks to Steve Earle is ok in my book. Now Moreland has recorded with a full band for the first time on his latest album. Apparently Rachel Maddow sung his praises (Moreland amusingly said it was the first time his dad ever agreed with a single thing Maddow ever said) and darned if she isn't right. Reading a review of the another-terrific-album variety, I said, "Wait, who? What?" and dove right in. About three seconds after it was over, I played it again and three seconds after that I downloaded "In the Throes," which is more acoustic but just as satisfying and now I'm headed on to "High On Tulsa Heat." Think Steve Earle, because he does.
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS -- 50 Song Memoir
True, it didn't garner quite the attention of "69 Love Songs" but this opus by Stephen Merritt has a terrific hook: he recorded one song for every year he's been alive, from 1966 right up to 2016. Clever! Merritt has a seemingly effortless gift for quirky pop songs that sound like nothing and everything else, jumping through stylistic hoops that lead you from one genre to the next but always anchored by deeply funny and piercing lyrics. But hold on a second. Aren't we just wowed by the meta-concept of it all? Yes and so what. While I've loved some of Merritt's more conventional albums under Magnetic Fields and other monikers -- albums of the 12 or so song variety, 35 minutes and then you're done --the fact is that Merritt benefits from the widescreen epic approach. His eclectic tunes thrive in context. Some film directors need the discipline of 90 minutes while others can't be appreciated until the three hour mark has been left in the dust. So it is with Merritt. His hopscotch through pop history sometimes feels forced and head-snapping on brief albums. But give him a few hours, let yourself be fully immersed in his world and the sheer variety of songs, the dazzling breadth of his musical landscape and the deadpan beauty of his lyrics develop their own giddy power. You need a dozen or so songs just to orient yourself to his sensibility and then you're off, giggling over hilarious song titles when you're not blindsided by his characters and before you know it Merritt-land doesn't feel quirky or disorienting but the most natural, lovely place in the world. He's also damn funny but humor may be the least appreciated element in pop music so I'll leave you to discover that for yourself.
SIA -- Everyday is Christmas
Confession: I haven't really paid much attention to Sia before. I admired her gimmick of sort of not showing her face most of the time, even when performing or appearing on a talk show. She hid her face behind wigs that would give Cousin Itt pause and I thought, "That's cool" but somehow I thought this commentary on popularity or our need to fixate on appearances meant her music wasn't as important as her shtick. But I'm a huge sucker for Christmas music (really, I own more Christmas albums on CD than you can shake a candy cane at). So I'll sample pretty much any Christmas album, hoping to discover a decent cover or a classic tune or an original worthy of being added to my Christmas playlists. Really, if I find one good song on a new Christmas album, I'm happily surprised. This is ten songs and 35 minutes long. The first track is the slightly demented "Santa's Coming For Us," a pop gem that is technically straightforward but has an air of menace that makes you think of the Santa from "Silent Night, Deadly Night" more than jolly old Saint Nick. But my god it's catchy. I played it again. And again. That's a terrific song, I thought. Then came "Candy Cane Lane," which Phil Spector would have given the thumbs up to and then "Snowman," which made me think of Kate Bush with its slightly loopy ode to a romance with a snowman. "Snowflake" had a similar wistful vein and I thought maybe it wasn't the smartest song to follow a similar Our-love-is-melting theme but what the heck was going on? I was four songs in and I liked, even loved, every single song. "Puppies Are Forever," a warning to those who think puppies make great gifts, should be adopted by PETA but from start to finish ("Underneath The Christmas Lights") I was delighted. Ten Christmas originals and while some are stone cold classics, they are all good to great. That just doesn't happen much when it comes to holiday albums. Clearly I need to go back and listen to Sia again for the first time. Think Phil Spector's "A Christmas Gift For You," but shinier and newer and all originals.
THE JOHN SALLY RIDE -- A New Set Of Downs
COURTNEY BARNETT AND KURT VILE -- Lotta Sea Lice
11-20-ish
KASEY CHAMBERS -- Dragonfly
BOB DYLAN -- Triplicate
DANIEL CAESAR -- Freudian
JASON ISBELL -- The Nashville Sound
KRONOS QUARTET AND TRIO DA KALI -- Ladilikan
STANTON MOORE -- With You In Mind
AIMEE MANN -- Mental Illness
JAKE XERSES FUSSELL -- What In The Natural World
LORDE -- Melodrama
DON BRYANT -- Don't Give Up On Love
ROBERT CRAY AND HI RHYTHM -- Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm
CURTIS HARDING -- Face Your Fears
21-30-ish
CHARLY BLISS -- Guppy
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Sunday in The Park With George (Bway 2017)
THE NATIONAL -- Sleep Well Beast
MOSES SUMNEY -- Aromanticism
SAMPHA -- Process
WESLEY STACE'S JOHN WESLEY HARDING -- Wesley Stace's John Wesley Harding
DORA FREEMAN -- Letter Never Sent
ANNA TIVEL -- Small Believer
KAMASI WASHINGTON -- Harmony of Difference
CHEAP TRICK -- We're All Alright!
SAZ'SIO -- At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me
INDIA.ARIE -- Songversation: Medicine
31-47
LARRY CAMPBELL AND TERESA WILLIAMS -- Contraband Love
KHALID -- American Teen
ZULI -- On Human Freakout Mountain
LEWIS CAPALDI -- Bloom
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Southern Soul Crate
VARIOUS ARTISTS -- Baby Driver OST
RODNEY CROWELL -- Close Ties
JOHN MELLENCAMP -- Sad Clowns and Hillbillies
OZUNA -- Odisea
LIAM GALLAGHER -- As You Were
DAVID RAWLINGS -- Poor David's Almanack
JUANES -- Mis Planes Son Amarte
FAIRPORT CONVENTION -- Come All Ye -- The First Ten Years (1968-1978)
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO -- Songs Of Peace and Love
