the single best album of 2017 you feel is overlooked

go stick your fist up someone's butt

Enjoyed all the albums on here that I've heard, especially Les Amazones d' Afrique---hope that got a fair amount of publicity via xgau's Expert Witness review.
Here's one I was raving about on Rolling Country, though really anybody who is into that folk-pop-rock-country radio crossover of the late 60s might enjoy it:

Don't want to say too much about Nicole Atkins' Goodnight Rhonda Lee yet, but,
following the opening Laura Nyro-in-Memphis-upside-the-head "A Little Crazy", which is maybe a little too persistent with the swooping, hijacked-countrypolitan strings of the chorus, behold "Darkness Falls So Quiet," which is somewhat misleadingly titled, being very persistently catchy and not that quiet, and she says when things get too spooky, she can rely on her friends and her records, and it seems like her friends might be her records and vice-versa, and if so, that's okay.
For she has not only absorbed 60s Nyro, Dusty In Memphis, Ode To Billie Joe, the production moves of Lee Hazlewood and his prodigious acolyte Suzi Jane Hokom (especially on her own records), Atkins has also seen how other popologists have fallen short(incl. falling back into compulsive replays/rehash; she's been through that, 'til "the grooves of my brain are wearing out") and how so many, even the best, are just nimbic names now, afterglow halos matter how good they were at certain things---who actually listens that much nowadays to Dwight Twilley, or even Harry Nilsson? It's sad. But the title track is vibrant and stoic: "When they stop listening, that's just the way it goes, don't let it crush you, say goodnight Rhonda Lee."
This track begins or makes more noticeable a recurring Heartbreaker of the Year vibe, in the sense that Whitney Rose and her producer/sometime duet partner Raul Malo drew from the Spanish tinge of late 50s-to mid-60s pop-rock hits (and their influence on some late 60s pop-country), with a Twin Peaks Senior Prom echo chamber.
So: unabashedly plush but well-tymed girlie swirls x restless drums, bass, rhythm guitar, tolerating bits of steel, keys, orchestra (the electric guitar is the orchestra on the last track--waking "from a nightmare to a dream"--- but not too much of one).
Whole thing's here, sounding better than Spotify to me:https://nicoleatkins.bandcamp.com/

― dow, Tuesday, October 31, 2017 12:32 AM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know about "single best" but the self-titled RIPS album is full of great tunes and I haven't seen a single mention of it anywhere

https://ripsnyc.bandcamp.com/releases

https://unfathomless.bandcamp.com/album/ten-years-under-the-earth

just released (exciting)

i still think this is one of the best songs of the year, album sunk like a stone

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

for how big and potent it is, Algier's album has been relatively overlooked. Bad Pitchfork review and absent from almost every EOTY list. Other than that, I would go with Jlin - Black Origami.

yeah I expect it do to well in the 77 poll but it's been slighted in the real world

BOB DYLAN TRIPLICATE

oooh otm, i'd add SAVAGE YOUNG DÜ to the list

(even though i wasn't able to get a copy before they sold out)

The 2nd Algiers album isn't as magical to me as the first one was? I kinda just stopped listening to it once that occurred to me.

Savage Young Du is incredible but IMO reissues (even of previously un-issued period material) are a separate beast entirely

tru

neil / promise of the real the visitor

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

Beaches - Second Of Spring
Massive and probably way too long double album of heavy motorik + girl group harmonies. I've listened to this more than any other album this year.
https://chaptermusic.bandcamp.com/album/second-of-spring

nice, thanks

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.