the single best album of 2017 you feel is overlooked

Love the Beaches album; have had it on heavy rotation the past month or so. Not too long as far as I'm concerned!

thanks for the beaches link! loved the first album and completely forgot about them

2nd Algiers album much, much better than debut imo

I think the songwriting on the 2nd Algiers album is much, much stronger, as is the singing.

"Irony, Utility, Pretext" is probably still my favorite song of theirs (and I was bummed they didn't play it when I saw them) but overall I agree w/ this

damn, this beaches album is great, thanks.

If the rest of the Meglamancha album is as good as the first track, it's going to be very high on my album ballot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=675TUqcGlV8

Update: it is, and it will be.

I thought the Aimee Mann album was an obvious classic, and her second best, but I guess it's overlooked.

everything here is technically (I think?) from 2016, but if you (like me) were disappointed at the Susanne Sundfor album for not being over-the-top, Lena Cullen (formerly of She Is Danger, with Maya Jane Coles) exists: https://soundcloud.com/lenacullenmusic/

https://i.imgur.com/y1zu5cQ.jpg

The live looping afro R&B of violinist/vocalist Sudan Archives, featured on her eponymous EP Sudan Archives (bandcamp), really deserves more attention.

I regret I'll miss her West Coast / Midwest tour in February/March. This sample (which doesn't appear on the EP) is representative:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4aPe8f7Sn4

^ heard that for the first time yesterday, sounded really nice

Really enjoying that Justin Walter album.

Sudan Archives is good. Listened to it a while back thanks to some mention or other here.

I should spend more time with that, that guy is great

Thing I’m really into right now is the Pan Daijing album ‘Lack’, which is a noise album that’s full of interesting textures and rawness and horror and beauty

Xp

I like that Sudan Archives EP, several plays already now, thanks Sanpaku.

yes, listening now!

The live looping afro R&B of violinist/vocalist Sudan Archives, featured on her eponymous EP Sudan Archives (bandcamp), really deserves more attention.

Cosign this x100, one of the few artists I've heard this year who sounds like nothing else.

Dunno about "single best", but am a bit surprised that exactly zero of these zillions of yearend roundups mention Ouï by Camille. Of several enjoyable things about this album is her sense of melody, which I find to be akin to that of Liz Fraser.

not sure how much of a factor it is, but that was an album not available on Spotify until about 5 months after release. It seems like non-streaming albums suffer a bit on these lists.

Thanks to djp and this thread I checked out the Drab Majesty album today, liked it

Going back to beginning of thread, I was excited when the Shadow Band album first came out, but I've sort of neglected it. Need to revisit.

My #1 so far has not shown up on any other EOY list that I'm aware of:

Motorpsycho - The Tower
http://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-17/

ha, I listened to a few tracks off that on your recommendation - not my style, but definitely worth a listen!

that motorpsycho album is stellar as always. another proggy candidate ~ elbow little fictions

thanks to whoever mentioned beaches, into this

Yeh that beaches record is great, dunno if i listened to an extended one but it was a bit too long for me

Really love this release from Rings Around Saturn. Maybe not technically an album but it's 40 minutes of music. Just really emotive music from Drexciyan electro to balearic electro-funk.

https://firecrackerrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/unthank011

Deep Purple - In Rock

Dunno about "single best", but am a bit surprised that exactly zero of these zillions of yearend roundups mention Ouï by Camille. Of several enjoyable things about this album is her sense of melody, which I find to be akin to that of Liz Fraser.

Thanks, enjoying this on first listen in a way that makes me suspect I will be listening further.

Also, the vocals sometimes go off in unexpected directions (Twix).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP4tsnttO-k

Simple, but terrific video, I think.

Spellling from Oakland, CA arrive seemingly fully-formed making an amazing sound that brings to the tip of your mind many sonic reference points, but is good enough to quickly push that tendency away and just demand attention on its own merit:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1443573223_10.jpg

https://spellling.bandcamp.com/album/pantheon-of-me-2

(Since there's nothing on Youtube I can embed, I guess I'll play the references game to get anyone to check it out. The record has tones of Sade, Cocteau Twins, Erykah Badu, Portishead, This Mortal Coil, Nona Hendryx, Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook's 'Sleeps With the Fishes' record, The Knife, and my favorite record from last year (discovered this year), Serpentwithfeet. Really bracing, singular, confident stuff.)

^thank you Soundslike, that Spellling album is really good!

tonstartssbandht - sorcerer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vv2se_K_J0

they are terminally underrated and overlooked, great band

What about the album of 2016 that you feel is overcooked??

I don’t know the answer, but I feel it’s worth asking because it rhymes

Changing my answer from Nelly Furtado to The Rubs

https://therubsaretrash.bandcamp.com/album/impossible-dream-lp

yeah that Rubs record rulz

I like what Spellling is doing generally so much i have no idea after 2 listens if they are good. I think def yes.

Surprised there wasn't more love for the Rostam record. Pretty sure it's my fave of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66y8JMEvTas

I liked some tracks on the Rostam album but didn't really feel compelled to revisit it much, maybe I should though. Bike Dream was especially good

Spellling reminds me of some of His Name is Alive maybe?

xp - I love most of the tracks on the album. Fun, kitchen-sink production, sing-along harmonies - all the stuff I love.

pretty sure i have not seen this album getting any love, but i love its dirty beats and weird atmospherics.

https://ninjatune.net/release/kutmah/trobbb

sorry to perseverate, this is one of the better reimaginings of a classic i've heard:
https://spellling.bandcamp.com/track/higher-ground

the whole sequence of bolt from the blue/higher ground/blue (american dream)/place without a form is fucking nice imo.

I have a new favorite to replace the Mdou Moctar record, Eyvind Kang's Plainlight. maddeningly released in a non-streaming vinyl-only edition of 400

http://www.suncitygirls.com/abduction/Plainlight.php

whenuweremine nominated the Charlotte Dos Santos album Cleo. I had not seen it mentioned anywhere before that. Incredible voice, incredible singer. Might be too whimsical for some tastes (covering a 13th century song, writing new lyrics for Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay, doing a new 60s-sounding Latin soul song in English) but I think she makes it all work. File under vocal jazz and soul, I guess.

yasmine hamdan - al jamilat

https://yasminehamdan.bandcamp.com/album/al-jamilat

i came across a video for a song off this album while i was just clicking through a "recommended for you" playlist on youtube, so i don't really have any idea what the larger social or musical context for this artist is. she's lebanese, the lyrics aren't in english, the video i saw had subtitles that made the lyrics seem very apocalyptic and political, but the music is very beautiful and ethereal. it's not lo-fi but it doesn't seem to have any interest in being conventionally hooky and poppy. i guess i would say RIYL grimes' visions, maybe juana molina or susanne sundfør.

it's really good, i know the language barrier is a factor in why it isn't more well known, but i'm really surprised that i haven't seen it show up in any year-end discourse given the quality and how good the videos are.