Monday, January 1, 2018

Front Burner 2017

It's pretty sad that this blog is only being used once a year these days. I have no excuse, and it's particularly odd because I'm usually thinking about music on a daily basis. If I spent half the time here that I spend on Facebook, this blog would look a lot different. (Something tells me that I'd be a lot less frustrated with the world, too.) Nevertheless, I'm back again for my annual roundup of the music I listened to the most; my musical 'Front Burner' for the year.

As has been the case for the past few years, I've been a contributor to my friend Bret Helm's "Best of..." blog posts. Every June, he asks us to list 10 new albums that rank as our favorites of the year so far. I mention this because, for some reason, my year-end list (I'll get to that soon) bares little resemblance to what I had picked out for the first six months. I can only surmise that this is because I listened to a lot of new music this year, and didn't spend a lot of time revisiting some of the albums on my "So Far" list from June. 


Top 10 as of June: (in order of release date, I believe)

Throwing Snow - Embers
PVT - New Spirit 
Ibibio Sound Machine - Uyai
Desperate Journalist - Grow Up
Clan of Xymox - Days of Black
Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
Ulver - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Robyn Hitchcock - Robyn Hitchcock 
Todd Rundgren - White Knight 
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound 

On a personal note, I've been buying much less music these days, and my increased use of Spotify for exploration (as opposed to buying a lot of physical product) has saved me both money and space. Its quite likely that this has also been one of the reasons I didn't cling to many of these albums during the second half of the year but instead moved on to other things. I still haven't decided if that last factor is good or bad. From the June list above, only the PVT, Robyn Hitchcock, Todd Rundgren, and Jason Isbell were purchased in a physical format (all vinyl LP.)

For whatever reason(s), I moved on from there. By the end of December, these are the recordings with which I spent the most time:


17 Favorite Albums of 2017
1 - Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit • The Nashville Sound *  **
2 - Gary Numan • Savage **
3 - Fever Ray • Plunge
4 - The Clientele • Music for the Age of Miracles ***
5 - The National • Sleep Well Beast
6 - St. Vincent • Masseduction
7 - Desperate Journalist • Grow Up *
8 - Pronto Mama • Any Joy
9 - Ride • Weather Diaries
10 - Columbia Mills • A Safe Distance To Watch 

11 - Joe Henry • Thrum ***
12 - Offa Rex • The Queen of Hearts **
13 - Karine Polwart • A Pocket of Wind Resistance ***
14 - This Is The Kit • Moonshine Freeze
15 - Out Lines • Buried Guns
16 - Beth Ditto • Fake Sugar
17 - Father John Misty • Pure Comedy *

*   Also appeared in the June list
**  Recordings purchased on vinyl LP
*** Recordings purchased on CD 

Offa Rex's 'The Queen of Hearts' is a collaboration between British folk singer Olivia Chaney and The Decemberists. Their collaboration is a celebration of traditional British folk songs. 

My #1 album of 2017, partially elevated to this position after seeing him at the Chicago Theater with my wife and daughter at the start of his North American Tour for this album, then again two days later in Madison, Wisconsin with a buddy of mine.


Last year, I created a Spotify playlist with two sample tracks from each of the albums in my list. If you'd like to hear a couple songs from these albums, check this out: 



Looking for more great music?

Since 2014, I have been contributing my Top 10 to Bret Helm's Life On This Planet blog. He and his partner Sarah Q do a fantastic job with it! This year, they gathered 13 friends from around the globe to contribute their lists, and the blog post contains a link to a massive Spotify playlist that is just chock full of great music. Please visit the link below to take you over to Bret & Sarah's Best of 2017 blog post! 



Enjoy!