10. Flower Boy – Tyler the Creator – A feeling of resolution is ever prominent throughout Flower Boy. The project peels back a lot of the violent, revolting nature that was so prevalent on Tyler’s earlier work in favor of a mellow tone. The opening track, “Foreword” is a moment of self-reflection, as Tyler poses questions about his life thus far, something we would never see during Tyler’s Goblin era. He brings heavy nostalgia vibes on the track “November” as he asks the listener to think about their November, or the time they were happiest. All these thoughtful tracks are not to say that Tyler has lost the edge that he built his brand off of. “Who Dat Boy” and “I Ain’t Got Time!” are both vintage Tyler the Creator, albeit with a little less sexual assault. From the warm, breezy, production to the superb rapping, Tyler the Creator has blossomed (boo me for this awful pun please) on Flower Boy. Regardless of how you feel about the authenticity of Tyler using this album as a coming out moment, it’s hard to deny that he has come a long way from his Goblin days.

Notable Tracks: Foreword, See You Again, I Ain’t Got Time!, November

9. Process – Sampha – The British singer/songwriter’s debut studio project was long anticipated as he built a reputation through his features and production credits with artists like Solange, Drake, and FKA Twigs (among others). To say that Sampha delivered on the hype is an understatement. Slow boiling production on tracks like “Plastic 100°C” and “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano” highlight Sampha’s talent as a singer. These tracks feel complete despite the minimalist approach to the backing instrumental. Speaking of “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano,” that track is a testament to Sampha as the complete package. His songwriting, piano playing, and lyricism come together in an intimate story about Sampha at his most vulnerable. Sampha brings a fine tuned ear for production, an elegant pen for songwriting, his honeyed voice, and of course his talent at the ivory keys. This collection of spacious sonic delights is a brief, but intimate journey with a musician that I can’t wait to hear more from.

Notable Tracks: Plastic 100°C, (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano, Reverse Faults, What Shouldn’t I Be?

8. Being You is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often – Quelle Chris – It’s hard not to draw parallels to Madvillainy on this project. But with all the bizarre samples that Quelle Chris pulls out of his arsenal for this album, I can’t help but at least make the comparison from a production standpoint. The album’s opening rap “Buddies” might just be my favorite track about self-love of all time, the heavy baseline is the perfect pairing for Chris’s lazy delivery as he explains to the listener that “he [expletive] with himself”. I find this album to be a relatable experience for anybody like myself that struggles with self confidence, most notably with tracks like “Dumb for Brains” or “The Dreamer in the Den of Wolves”. Chris gets personal throughout most of this project, and I find it to be a fascinating look into the mind of artistic genius that doesn’t think he is one.

Notable Tracks: Buddies, In Case I get Lost Inside the Crowd, The Dreamer in the Den of Wolves, Birthdaze

7. DAMN. – Kendrick Lamar – Can we just acknowledge the fact that this album is basically a Fox News dis album? I’m almost 100% certain that the idea for this project was born in response to the Fox New segment that distilled his hopeful track “Alright” down to an oversimplified, message of hate. When Kendrick realized that there is a sizable cross-section of Americans that wouldn’t want to listen to his thoughtful message on the black experience on his previous record, he responds with a message of anger. “DNA” feels like a conversation with the anchors disparaged his life work, essentially saying “I’ll show you what real anger looks like”. He follows it up with “YAH,” where he directly responds to Geraldo Rivera’s criticisms in the lyrics “Somebody tell Geraldo this [expletive] got some ambition, I’m not a politician, I’m not ’bout a religion”. But DAMN. is much more than Kendrick telling everybody how much he hates Fox News. Where “To Pimp a Butterfly” was an intense internal reflection of Kendrick’s experience as a successful black man in America, DAMN. is Kendrick’s contemplation on the hypothetical. What if he was killed before he realized his full potential (on “BLOOD.”)? What if his dad was shot by Top Dawg (on “DUCKWORTH”)? What if all of the fears of black America broke him down (on “FEAR”)? “DUCKWORTH” is a fusion of Lamar’s masterful storytelling and technical rapping ability, allowing for him to make what I think is his best track to date. While DAMN. is not my favorite Kendrick Lamar record, he continues his dominance of the genre with this latest release.

Notable Tracks: DNA., FEEL., FEAR., DUCKWORTH.

6. IWASVERYBAD – IDK – I’ve always been impressed with Jason Mill’s ability to make albums that explore one common theme in a nuanced, thoughtful way (i.e. drug dealing on Subtrap, or money on Empty Bank). On his third full-length album, IDK turns to his own experience growing up as a middle class black American through the lense of his relationship with his mother. “Mrs. Lynch, Your Son Is The Devil” is an unsettling introduction to the album, as the listener is treated to a cacophony of voicemails explaining IDK’s progressively worse behavior, all of which crescendo with a condemnation from a chorus telling him “[expletive] you gon’ be bad, forever.” IDK paints a haunting picture of a young man who is caught between two worlds, being told he was too dumb to be successful in school (with lyrics like “The first one in my family/to see the/penitentiary/when I should’ve seen Cs, Bs/As too” on “Maryland Ass [expletive]”), but too timid to really be a criminal (with lyrics like “Knowing I’m no killa/but f*ck it, I’m trying to be that [expletive]/So my acting skills kicked in/I’m Michael Jackson off of Thriller” on “Pizza Shop Extended”). IDK takes an uncharacteristic violent tone in the opening of the project, which eventually gives way to jazzy, instrumental production once we reach the emotional core of this album on tracks like “No Shoes On The Rug, Leave Them At The Door” or “Black Sheep, White Dove”. IWASVERYBAD is a testament to the ostracization that young, black, folks can experience growing up in the suburbs, and the negative impacts of that experience. Notable Tracks: Mrs. Lynch, Your Son Is The Devil, 17 Wit a 38, No Shoes On The Rug, Leave Them At The Door, Black Sheep, White Dove.

5. SATURATION I, II, & III – BROCKHAMPTON – BROCKHAMPTON proved that boy bands aren’t just for tween girls. To simply call the 8-man collective a “rap group” does a real disservice to the diversity of their creative output in 2017. It’s a testament to the group’s chemistry that every member brings their own own creative flavor to a track without stepping on each other’s toes or cluttering any individual song. On any given track, you can have Merlyn’s yelpy, accented delivery, Ameer’s clever, stoner, bars (side note, Ameer proves that you can rap about drugs without resorting to the lazy bars that your typical Soundcloud rapper uses), Matt Champion’s antagonistic lyrics (see “HEAT”), and Kevin Abstract’s general charisma to bring it all together. There is a ton of emotion and enthusiasm across all three projects, with over 40 tracks on three albums, I guarantee that there is something in here for everybody.

Notable Tracks: HEAT, STAR, 2PAC, QUEER, JESUS, JUNKY

4. Rainbow – Kesha – Even though this album only came out a couple of months ago, I feel like it continues to get more relevant with each passing day. In the wake of a tidal wave of sexual abuse in entertainment coming to light via the Weinstein dam breaking, the story and success behind Kesha’s resurgence with Rainbow nearly encapsulates this cultural moment better than any other single work. After breaking free from the creative purgatory Sony and Dr. Luke kept her under, Kesha responded with a medley of genre experimentation and creativity that I did not expect. If you would have told me that an album that featured both The Eagles of Death Metal and Dolly Parton was going to be a creative success, I would have laughed you out of the room. She switches from fun, punk-pop tracks like “Let ‘em Talk” (which is the song that Swift’s “Shake it Off” always wanted to be) to the more thoughtful, acoustic, ballads like “Praying”. I even fully enjoyed her dips into experimenting with country crooning on tracks like “Spaceship”! Kesha is at her best when she gets to be herself. In spite of all the hardship, Rainbow allows her to do just that.

Notable Tracks: Let ‘em Talk, Praying, Spaceship

3. Laila’s Wisdom – Rapsody – Rapsody is bar for bar, one of the greatest modern day rappers, full stop. While she’s been a featured guest on many of my favorite projects throughout the past couple of years (see Anderson .Paak’s Malibu and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly), she finally takes center stage on Laila’s Wisdom and proves her talent through fourteen incredible tracks of pure rap goodness. The opening track of this album is three and a half minutes of Rapsody spitting over gospel vocals and piano chords, delivering self-confident bars like “God rested on day seven but worked on me on day four”. Her lyricism is impeccable, she has an infectious confidence on all of her tracks that keeps me coming back to this project. “Pay Up,” the first single released for the record, is a groovy, entertaining track about dealing with a deadbeat boyfriend who exploits her generosity. In a year full of vivid storytelling through music, Rapsody makes a heartbreaking track of her own with “Jesus Coming,” a song that explores three brief, yet biting vignettes of individuals dealing with their untimely demises. The features on this project are top notch, with contributions from Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Busta Rhymes, BJ the Chicago Kid, and Amber Navran. It’s safe to say that Rapsody has without a doubt put out her best work to date with Laila’s Wisdom.

Notable Tracks: Power, Pay Up, Black & Ugly, Jesus Coming

 

 

 

 

2. Common As Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood – Sun Kil Moon – Mark Kozelek, say what you may about him as a person, is the William Faulkner of modern music. Common As Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood (Common as Light) is a masterful experience of stream of consciousness, it is the closest you will ever get to hearing a person’s real-time thoughts over the course of a song. This thing is dense, almost two hours of music. It’s aimless ramblings aren’t for everyone, but one can’t deny that Kozelek makes some unique observations on mortality throughout this sprawling work. The best example that I can think of is “Chili Lemon Peanuts” a nine minute song about watching a Manny Pacquiao fight in Vegas, ultimately serving as a parable about coming to grips with the inevitability of aging. Several times on this project Kozelek does what I can only describe as “pausing” the main narrative of a song to provide his own commentary in the form of another song. “Butch Lullaby” is a perfect example of this in practice. Kozelek shares his personal experiences with the now deceased Butch in between the larger narrative about the song’s central character. The minimal instrumentation serves as the perfect backdrop to the narratives that Kozelek tells throughout this record. If you’re willing to be patient with this project, you’ll find plenty of nuggets of wisdom from start to finish.

Notable Tracks: Chili Lemon Peanuts, Butch Lullaby, Seventies TV Show Theme Song

1. A Crow Looked at Me – Mount Eerie – How do you make art when life loses its meaning? Why do we insist on finding symbolism when there is none to be found? In the wake of his wife’s sudden passing, these are questions that Phil Elverum seeks to answer on A Crow Looked At Me. There is no big swell of emotion, no grand, universal, conclusion like you would expect in big budget film or your favorite book, rather quite the opposite. A Crow Looked At Me is a muted, minimalist series of heartbreaking reminders that life forever changes in the wake of a personal tragedy, and a glimpse into the lonely journey that one must take. Everyday tasks are reminders to Phil, like receiving mail addressed to his deceased wife, cleaning out a wastebasket with her old tissues, closing the windows as the seasons change, all these mundane tasks are portrayed as insurmountable because they are just another wound that hasn’t quite closed. Listening to this album wallow through the motions is a moving experience that I cannot recommend enough. While it doesn’t have a tidy resolution, we are treated to the tiniest glimpses of hope as Phil begins his journey towards acceptance.

Notable tracks: Real Death, Seaweed, Toothbrush/Trash, Crow