#ContentQuake: Poorboyoftroy's best albums of 2017
Because the Internet is suffering from a dearth of content, especially from anonymous assholes with no journalist credentials, I have decided to throw my hat into the ring and contribute content at a staggeringly more aggressive pace than I have previously.
I'm talking listicles, I'm talking social commentary on the state of the contemporary Internet, I'm talking general social commentary, I'm talking...well, actually, that about covers all possible content permutations.
I'm kicking things off with my write-up of my top 5 albums of 2017.
Gird yourselves for a wild ride...
OK. Here we go. With the list.
Full disclosure: when this album released in May, I decided right then and there that it would be my favorite album of the year, that nothing could displace it from that accolade barring some sort of "OK Computer"-level event. I regret nothing. Jlin is peerless in both her particular toolkit, the footwork subgenre, and moreover, in her compositional abilities. To wit, "Nyakinyua Rise" builds a teeming soundscape layer upon layer, a frenzied palimpsest of constant, hopeless dislocation and frenzy. In a good way. This track feels like the 2017 news cycle, indefatigably insistent and in your face with new, troubling information and demanding a lot of you as a consumer of information (plus some level of fun/buoyancy not present in the news).
James Murphy eulogized the LCD Soundsystem project by burying the band in effigy on stage in their final performances a mere 8 years ago. Now they're back, and I mean, that's fine, whatever: he can do anything he wants, but it's just a little weird given the fanfare of the closure of their initial run.
Anyway, the songs are great, far better than we deserve. "Other Voices" is ripped straight from "Remain in Light" era Talking Heads, the keening guitars reminding me very much of "Houses in Motion." "How Do You Sleep?" is equal parts Joy Division's "Atmosphere" and "Achtung Baby" Bono, melodramatically belting it into the stratosphere.
3. GAS - "Narkopop"
One thing I hate about the contemporary Internet is the behavioral shift it has engendered wherein I'll often forego music that isn't available on streaming services (note: I still buy music I can stream) until, you know, it is. The back catalog of Wolfgang Voigt's seminal GAS project was not available online (and I believe was out of print in physical media) until this year, when he decided to emerge from whatever sinister (i.e., German) forest landscape in which he composed "Narkopop." I spent a lot of time with his back catalog, especially "Konigsforst," but I kept coming back to "Narkopop."
The title is a veritable in-joke for the "Sprockets" and Kraftwerk set. To be clear, the albums has no pop sensibility. What it has, rather, is an all-consuming sound world of dark, moody, yet strikingly beautiful ambient-drone and minimal techno that hits with the orchestral pomp of a Beethoven symphony.
4. Kendrick Lamar - "DAMN"
I think it's impossible to know, let alone articulate, just how massively talented Kendrick Lamar is. This is a masterful hip-hop album in an era of peak hip-hop. How does one person have the agility to deliver the lyrical beatdown at the end of "DNA" (starting around 3:10) and the considerate rumination on his place in the world in "Yeah Yeah"?
5. Fever Ray - "Plunge"
In the aftermath of the 2016 election, I've been spinning the final album by The Knife, 2013's sprawling, punishing "Shaking the Habitual," finding kinship with the dystopian landscape it depicts. Some found sections of it a bit overwrought, but I think tracks like the nearly 9-minute "A Cherry on Top" were absolutely prescient, prefiguring better than anything I've heard the terror of the current political moment. Maybe it just landed too early, but we should have been listening, damn it.
Thankfully, Karin Dreijer's side project, Fever Ray, is back with another pointedly weird and powerful synthpop album, its insistent beat work and twisted vocal effects encouraging us to keep it weird, and keep it vigilant.
I'm talking listicles, I'm talking social commentary on the state of the contemporary Internet, I'm talking general social commentary, I'm talking...well, actually, that about covers all possible content permutations.
I'm kicking things off with my write-up of my top 5 albums of 2017.
Gird yourselves for a wild ride...
OK. Here we go. With the list.
Full disclosure: when this album released in May, I decided right then and there that it would be my favorite album of the year, that nothing could displace it from that accolade barring some sort of "OK Computer"-level event. I regret nothing. Jlin is peerless in both her particular toolkit, the footwork subgenre, and moreover, in her compositional abilities. To wit, "Nyakinyua Rise" builds a teeming soundscape layer upon layer, a frenzied palimpsest of constant, hopeless dislocation and frenzy. In a good way. This track feels like the 2017 news cycle, indefatigably insistent and in your face with new, troubling information and demanding a lot of you as a consumer of information (plus some level of fun/buoyancy not present in the news).
James Murphy eulogized the LCD Soundsystem project by burying the band in effigy on stage in their final performances a mere 8 years ago. Now they're back, and I mean, that's fine, whatever: he can do anything he wants, but it's just a little weird given the fanfare of the closure of their initial run.
Anyway, the songs are great, far better than we deserve. "Other Voices" is ripped straight from "Remain in Light" era Talking Heads, the keening guitars reminding me very much of "Houses in Motion." "How Do You Sleep?" is equal parts Joy Division's "Atmosphere" and "Achtung Baby" Bono, melodramatically belting it into the stratosphere.
3. GAS - "Narkopop"
One thing I hate about the contemporary Internet is the behavioral shift it has engendered wherein I'll often forego music that isn't available on streaming services (note: I still buy music I can stream) until, you know, it is. The back catalog of Wolfgang Voigt's seminal GAS project was not available online (and I believe was out of print in physical media) until this year, when he decided to emerge from whatever sinister (i.e., German) forest landscape in which he composed "Narkopop." I spent a lot of time with his back catalog, especially "Konigsforst," but I kept coming back to "Narkopop."
The title is a veritable in-joke for the "Sprockets" and Kraftwerk set. To be clear, the albums has no pop sensibility. What it has, rather, is an all-consuming sound world of dark, moody, yet strikingly beautiful ambient-drone and minimal techno that hits with the orchestral pomp of a Beethoven symphony.
4. Kendrick Lamar - "DAMN"
I think it's impossible to know, let alone articulate, just how massively talented Kendrick Lamar is. This is a masterful hip-hop album in an era of peak hip-hop. How does one person have the agility to deliver the lyrical beatdown at the end of "DNA" (starting around 3:10) and the considerate rumination on his place in the world in "Yeah Yeah"?
5. Fever Ray - "Plunge"
In the aftermath of the 2016 election, I've been spinning the final album by The Knife, 2013's sprawling, punishing "Shaking the Habitual," finding kinship with the dystopian landscape it depicts. Some found sections of it a bit overwrought, but I think tracks like the nearly 9-minute "A Cherry on Top" were absolutely prescient, prefiguring better than anything I've heard the terror of the current political moment. Maybe it just landed too early, but we should have been listening, damn it.
Thankfully, Karin Dreijer's side project, Fever Ray, is back with another pointedly weird and powerful synthpop album, its insistent beat work and twisted vocal effects encouraging us to keep it weird, and keep it vigilant.
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