The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / AW TOP ALBUM OF 2017: RESULTS.

AW TOP ALBUM OF 2017: RESULTS.

by 74 Comments

Right apart from the fact that it appears that Americana is very popular around here I`m going to stick to the facts. After a re-count Jason Isbell has been voted a close winner over St. Vincent in the AFTERWORD TOP ALBUM OF 2017 POLL. Over 90 of you voted for up to 20 artists each. Over 625 albums and 615 bands/artists were nominated, representing the diversity of musical tastes around here.

Thank you to all who took part and commented, this has been an enjoyable exercise for me. I would like to thank those Prog Rock giants The Flower Kings whose music has helped me in this endeavour.

Disclaimer: Any mistakes and missing umlauts are intentional. The results are in Comments. Admin could the results be displayed at the top of the column for a 7/8 days, thank you.

2

Comments

  1. THE AFTERWORD TOP 60(ish) ALBUMS OF 2017 RESULTS.
    Number of votes in brackets after Album title.
    1) Jason Isbell – The Nashville Sound (23)
    2) St. Vincent – MASSEDUCTION (22)
    3) Ryan Adams – Prisoner (19)
    4) The War On Drugs – A Deeper Understanding (18)
    5) The National – Sleep Well Beast (17)
    6) Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley (16)
    7) Aimee Mann – Mental Illness (15)
    8) Jane Weaver – Modern Cosmology (14)
    9) Laura Marling – Semper Femina (13)
    10) Michael Head – Adios Senor Pussycat (12)

    11) Robert Plant – Carry Fire (11)
    12) Four Tet – New Energy (10)
    LCD Soundsystem – American Dream
    Sparks – Hippopotamus
    15) Hurray For The Riff Raff – The Navigator (9)
    Little Steven – Soulfire
    Magnetic Fields – 50 Song Memoir
    Slowdive – S/T
    The Disappointment Choir – Vows
    Paul Weller – A Kind Revolution

    21) Courtney Marie Andrews – Honest Life (8)
    Beck – Colors
    Father John Misty – Pure Comedy
    Grandaddy – Last Place
    Lorde – Melodrama
    Offa Rex – The Queen Of Hearts
    Pheobe Bridges – Stranger In The Alps
    Rhiannon Giddens – Freedom Highway
    Steve Winwood – Greatest Hits: Live
    Steven Wilson – To The Bone
    31) Blue Rose Code – The Water Of Leith (7)
    Chuck Prophet – Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins
    Kendrick Lamar – DAMN
    Mavis Staples – If All I Was Was Black
    Penguin Café – The Imperfect Sea
    36) Arcade Fire – Everywhere Now (6)
    Beatles – Sgt. Pepper (Remix)
    Rodney Crowell – Close Ties
    Godspeed You Black Emperor – Lucifarian Towers
    Hiss Golden Messenger – Hallelujah Anyhow
    Mogwai – Every Country`s Sun
    John Moreland – Big Bad Luv
    Conor Oberst – Salutations
    David Rawlings – Poor David`s Almanac
    St. Etienne – Home Counties
    Waterboys – Out Of All This Blue
    Roger Waters – Is This The Life We Really Want?
    Lucinda Williams – This Sweet Old World (2017)
    49) Danny And The Champions Of The World – Brilliant Light (5)
    Steve Earle – So You Wanna Be An Outlaw
    Elbow – Little Fictions
    Neil Finn – Out Of Silence
    Valerie June – The Order Of Time
    Shelby Lynne & Alison Moorer – Not Dark Yet
    Kevin Morby – City Music
    Randy Newman – Dark Matter
    Songhoy Blues – Resistance
    The Clienetele – Music For The Age Of Miracles
    This Is The Kit – Moonshine Freeze
    Tinariwen – Elwan
    Liz Wright – Grace

    The Gallagher’s? They finished on 4 votes each.

    • Finding myself ill with this blasted bug that’s flooring everyone I have had even more time to spare this week and once on the mend I set myself a task to rank the albums in a different manner – I hope, Baron, you will not see this as any slight on your efforts, I merely have a very anal mind and was curious to see what the results would throw up.
      It went like this
      If you specified an order of preference then that was reflected [your no.1 choice was given 20 points, no.2 19, etc]
      If you numbered your list and *didn’t* specify that it was in no particular order, and it didn’t appear to be alphabetical then that was scored the same way [No.1 = 20 points etc]
      If you didn’t number your list, or specify in some way that it was in order of preference then your choices all received one point

      Make sense?

      Jason Isbell and 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound 142
      The War On Drugs – A Deeper Understanding 126
      Ryan Adams – Prisoner 104
      Laura Marling – Semper Femina 100
      Conor Oberst – Salutations 96
      The Magnetic Fields – 50 Song Memoir 95
      St.Vincent – Masseduction 94
      Phoebe Bridgers – Stranger in the Alps 88
      The National – Sleep Well Beast 85
      Sparks – Hippopotamus 78
      Aimee Mann – Mental Illness 78
      Courtney Marie Andrews – An Honest Life 76
      Four Tet – New Energy 68
      Penguin Cafe – The imperfect Sea 62
      Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley 61
      Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Luciferian Towers 58
      John Moreland – Big Bad Luv 57
      Robert Plant – Carry Fire 57
      Father John Misty – Pure Comedy 54
      Michael Head – Adios Senor Pusycat 54
      Chuck Prophet – Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins 53
      Jane Weaver – Modern Kosmology 53
      Blue Rose Code – Water Of Leith 52
      The Disappointment Choir – Vows 52
      Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. 51
      Steven Wilson – To The Bone 51
      Offa Rex – The Queen of Hearts 50
      Zara McFarlane – Arise 50
      Randy Newman – Dark Matter 50
      Saint Etienne – Home Counties 49
      HURRAy FOR THE RIFF-RAFF – The Navigator 49
      Mavis Staples – If All I Was Was Black 48
      LCD SOUNDSYSTEM – American Dream 48
      Hannah Peel – Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia 47
      Lorde – Melodrama 45
      Hiss Golden Messenger – Halleleujah Anyhow 43
      PUGWASH – Silverlake 41
      Paul Weller – A Kind Revolution 41
      Real Estate – In Mind 39
      Big Thief – Capacity 39
      Neil Finn – Out of Silence 38
      Lucinda Williams – This Sweet Old World 38
      Aldous Harding – Party 34
      Grandaddy – The Last Place 34

        • Didn’t we do this last year? No matter how you rank your choices, no matter how many votes you allocate, this year Jason comes out on top? I personally think it’s a belter of an album but to be honest I cannot for one second imagine that in X years time I will be ranking it as One of the Best Ever. But that’s one of the joys of these polls – nobody is entirely happy?

          • And by the way, sometimes I feel as if my music tastes are , like, weird. Then I look at this poll and see Jason & Ryan in the top 3 and then espy the best album of 2017 (Lorde) at , roughly , 27 and think I Am The Walrus!

      • Fab, but you must have missed something or forgotten to include the entries on the Steve T’s thread, because both me and Sewer Robot had the excellent All The Beauty In This Whole Life by the equally excellent Brother Ali at number 1, so that makes 40. Only moaning because even HipHopDX overlooked it in their chart, which caused a minor outrage on their message board!

        • Paul, you’re quite right, you both had it at number 1, however having checked my workings again, I can see that I judged sewer robot’s list to be inconclusive with regard to the ranking. I have had to pass judgement on some lists which could have gone either way. I am happy to change it if he/she would like me to. Same goes for any one else – if you feel your list was in order of preference I will happily change the data accordingly.

          • Yeah, make it so that Micheal Head is in the Top 10. Then start a poll all over again so voters are aware that 1=20 points etc and your poll will again have different reasults. I made it one point per nominated album because I reckoned that most voters would not want to put albums thar are less than 12 months old into any sort of order until they had listened enough. Then get off, of my cloud. ; ))

    • Thanks Kid. The thing is I’m mostly made up that Mick Head has made the top 10. It really is a good album and I’m a fan of all his work from the Pale Fountains through MWofTS, Shack and his solo work. He’s had it rough, mostly his own making but he’s come back strong.

      • Hear Here… I am delighted that Mick Head made the top 10 – for anyone who has not also heard the ‘Artorius Revisited’ e.p. they really should get hold of a copy – though it may be only available digitally now..

  5. Chapeau enlevé (as they say in Germany)

    Diverse taste – I’ve got some investigating to do.
    I’ve got 1 of the Top 10, and only 4 of the Top 20.

    My first question to myself is: who is this Jason Isbell bloke, and what have I missed?

    • Former session guitarist and Drive By Truckers guitarist. Got fired from the band when his drink/drug problem got out of hand.
      Straightened himself out and made some solo albums that weren’t very good. Then Southeastern, Something More Than Free and The Nashville Sound were made in the last 3 years or so. Easily my favourite album from each of the last 3 years. He’s become my favourite new(to me) artist.
      Guitar based singer-songwriter music with country rock feel.

    • If I weren’t so busy Ret old chap I would have been happy to break the results down but seeing as you are just part-time these days would you like me to send you the list of the 600 or so albums for yourself toeruse over.

  11. Great work Baron, fascinating stuff and a good looking list. Amazingly 14 out of the 17 I listed appear so I am a lot more Afterword mainstream than I remember being last year – and if I’d heard it when I put my list in I probably would have named the St Vincent as well, which sounds impressive from the first few listens. Surprised Sampha doesn’t make the cut but delighted to see Laura Marling make the Top Ten.

  12. Conclusive proof that we should always vote! Two days before the deadline I am vacillating and wondering whether I can be bothered to join in this nonsense. I bother – place Mr Isbell at my number one –
    and it turns our EVERYONE agrees with me and my taste is validated…………I am CORRECT

    Thanks for all your work Baron

  13. Thanks for that. I like this kind of thing and I know how much time it will have taken you.

    However, and please don’t take this as me pooh-poohing everybody’s choices, as this isn’t my intention, but I actually find the end result to be, with all due respect to my fellow voters, rather dull. And I say this owning 18 of the top 50 myself (although a dozen of those are likely to sit there gathering dust – Ryan Adams, War On Drugs, The National, Public Service Broadcasting, etc). I have always enjoyed trawling through end of year lists, catching up on albums I might have missed, but this year I found the lists in Q, Mojo and Uncut all a little familiar and samey, particularly wondering what they all heard in the new LCD Soundsystem album that seems to be passing me by (not a patch on his earlier albums). But it was the same old names popping up year in year out that did for me. It seemed that some artists could release a CD of themself singing in the bath and it would make the Uncut top 50.

    I merrily jumped on the Alt. Country/Americana bandwagon of the late 90s and still love listening to Joe Pernice, Whiskeytown and a few more of the early torchbearers, but I think it was a growing boredom with that kind of thing that pushed me towards hip hop, electronica, post-rock, etc. I now find it quite difficult to listen to guitar bands and Americana, as I can’t help feeling I’ve heard it before, but better.

    This is not that I didn’t enjoy reading everyone’s top 20s, because I did, and I have bought quite a few albums on the back of it, as I have in previous years. It’s just a shame that the diverse tastes aren’t really represented in the final 50. Then again, I put an overweight blind white albino Muslim rapper and Gary Numan as my top 2, so what do I know?

    • The individual lists are where the interest lies. Each Afterworder’s little quirks and personalities show through. The collective vote is bound to result in the lowest common demoninator effect, especially when so many people voted.

      We weren’t ask to rank our twenty but I wonder which album was number one most frequently.

      • I can never get bored if the music music is good.

        Then it all comes down to each individuals tastes. I stated my tasted many times on this forum and I hope I`ve respected the tastes of others. I will NOT go on threads [that Ok Tiggs ; )) ] if they concern music I am not into to criticise. I will take a look and even listen to the music being discussed, you never know do you?

        However Paul, Tiggs is correct. If you take a look at each individuals nominations you will be heartened to see the diversity in musical tastes.
        I will be taking a listen to many of these.

        • Yes, some of the individual lists were great, although one or two seemed to have been written just to impress us! There wasn’t one where I knew all the choices (although Sewer Robot’s came close), but you can tell whether someone’s list deserved further scrutiny by the albums you did know on their list. Last year I picked up some great CDs as a direct result of this (Michael Kiwanuka and William Bell spring to mind), whilst this year Vic Mensa, Xordox and JuJu have been the best ones, and Ghostpoet, Endless Boogie and Cigarettes After Sex were all picked up after reading about them on end of year lists elsewhere.

      • I think if you look back over previous years, a certain school of Americana, rock, etc and artists of a certain age, or their followers, has tended to dominate the Afterword list because – well, because most of us are of a certain age and demographic. Might be interesting to trawl back over the last few years to see if our collective choices still stand up (although this incarnation of the site only goes back to 2014 I think). But as the Baron points out, the true diversity is incredible – over 600 albums. I’d love to follow up on all of these recommendations – I’ve never listened to Jason Isbell for example – but it would take several years to do so!

        • Maybe it would be interesting to see what everyone’s favourite album of each of the past 5 years was, now the dust has settled for previous years, although that may be tricky to work out for people who don’t have OCD like me and have all their music saved on a spreadsheet with the year of release noted. Then again, a quick look at my lists and I have Sophie Ellis-Bextor as having the 2014 album of the year, so maybe I should keep quiet about it!

      • Nope, not heard of them/it, but just had a 45 second flick through on Apple Music and it sounds like the kind of thing I’d listen to, so I shall add it to the ridiculous amount of albums I have on my 2017 list. Terrible cover though!

  14. Apart from the puzzling votes for the profoundly dull LCD thang, there’s one other obvious wobble in the musical appreciation vortex that leaps out of the listing which I simply don’t understand. That artist at number 2. Why?

  15. Worryingly I have 35 out of the 50. Saddo or what?
    Regarding the no.2 placing – it is considerably easier to listen to than that Kendrick Lamar crap that was here last year and this year. I bought the last KL album and to be honest it is dreadful.
    St.Vincent on the other hand can carry a tune and there are a couple of outstanding tracks on the album. Was only aware of her due to David Byrne and their album together whilst being quite good is not a match for MASSEDUCTION.

    • The St Vincent one is alright. Not as good as her previous album, but I like it enough for it to scrape into my top 50. Kendrick Lamar, however, is excellent, as is his new album. If the previous album you’re referring to is the Untitled Unmastered one, then I agree it wasn’t a particularly strong one, because even as a fan of his I felt the praise he got for that one was a little over the top, but then again it was made up from studio outtakes. If, however, you are referring to To Pimp A Butterfly, I couldn’t disagree with you more!

      • No it was To pimp a butterfly – too long, too self indulgent, too shouty/sweary. In fairness I didn’t give it the customary 6 listens – life is too short.

  19. Fantastic work Baron. I did not vote myself as I had not “Tigger Tested” enough albums.

    But I now look forward to dipping into the 600 albums that got nominated. That should keep me out of mischief.

    • If you mean @SteceT`s Albums of 2017 thread Junior, the lists from that thread were combined with the poll I ran.

      Underwhelming? I don`t see how you can apply that description. The lists are reflections of what various AW`ers are listening to. There are discussions all year round on most of these albums so it`s only to be expected these albums will feature in best of polls. If this blog featured 95% people hailing the latest `Blended Marshmallows & Shit` album which features a sax playing, clog dancing, keyboard noodling, dustbin lid banging player and Tuvan throat singing err, singer, as the greatest new music, I`d be outta here.

      If you look at the nominations you`ll find some very interesting albums, I and I think others around here will be investigating.

      By the way, a Happy New Year my friend.

  21. Sorry if my comment sounded churlish. No I’m referring to another thread where people nominated albums that disappointed. On Phone so a bit fiddley ( can’t be arsed) finding it. I recall listing the Isbell newie. Just doesn’t interest like the last 2.

    Belatedly I should also say well done. Over 600 albums is a lot to work through.

    • I guess that what’s happened is quite a few people only bought/listened to a handful of new albums in 2017 and subsequently submitted them all, whether they thought they were worthy of a top 20 place or not (as they had nothing to compare them to). I saw plenty of comments along the lines of “well, I only bought 6 albums, so…”. If they were fans of Jason Isbell, St. Vincent, Ryan Adams, The National, The War On Drugs, etc, their albums benefited as a result of this.

      It’s something I might well have done in previous years before I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands so I could listen to loads of new music. I’ve got St. Vincent at number 24, The National at 97, Public Service Broadcasting at 102 and Ryan Adams at 116 in my list, for example, all four bought because I liked their previous work, although I was looking forward to the St. Vincent album.

      So I guess you could look at our final results and see 2 lists. One consisting of albums by artists that have long term fans who buy all their records (although I am not saying that’s the only reason those albums are at the top!) and one of albums that have mainly been bought on the strength of the album, rather than the artist (I’d put Jane Weaver, Lorde and Courtney Marie Andrews in that list).

      I hope this doesn’t sound condescending, cos it’s not meant to be! There’s nothing wrong with buying albums because you’ve always liked the artist or only buying/listening to a handful of new albums per year. However, if you fall into the latter group I’d encourage you to listen to more new music, cos there really is a lot of good stuff out there if you move out of your comfort zone. I’m certainly glad that I did.

  24. Not gonna bash that list but I’ve gotta say I find myself lamenting the lack of Algiers, Brockhampton, Sun Kil Moon, Big KRIT, Mount Eerie, Richard Dawson, Ariel Pink, Fleet Foxes, IGLOOGHOST… the list goes on and on. A lot of very good music came out last year and it saddens me to see what is blatantly Arcade Fire’s most inept album by far topping any list that includes the phrase “best of”.

    I have never heard of the no. 1 pick though so I will have to check that out.

    • Iglooghost and Saturation 1 were both debut albums proper, so a thread focusing on most impressive first outings might help redress the natural “big ups for the latest album for one of my favourite artists” bias.
      (I find I start most years excited by the prospect of new material by bands whose previous work I admire and finish them in love with acts I’ve only just heard of…)

  26. Thanks to the Baron et al for doing this. I am afraid I didn’t get around to voting as there were a few strong suspects I never got around to buying and hearing – Jason Isbell, Rhianna Giddens and Aimee Mann. I’ll get them eventually. I did prepare a shortlist though – it’s about 30 albums long.

    One surprising omission from anybody’s choices was How The West Was Won by Peter Perret. It is a very fine record indeed, and surprisingly so. One less surprising omission is the Edgelarks album. Hannah Martin’s voice is amazing, it stopped me in my tracks when I heard it on the radio. Stills Collins was a pleasant surprise too, though I don’t think it is out in the UK yet.

    I actually don’t think we are living in times of great albums any more, though there are a lot of very good ones. Certainly not the LCD Sound System one feted by the comics. OK but it never seemed to end… The Unthanks and Lisa Knapp records are brave successes IMO. Looking at the records I have just mentioned it may be that the Folk field is quite strong just now. Very little in Rock to recommend. The Waterboys could have been a much better single album (I bought the 3CD version), though it is ruined by the loud mastering, as was the otherwise excellent Steve Winwood record.

    I did enjoy the Roger Waters more than I expected to.

    I

  27. This note just to say thanks to the baron for all his hard work. Pleased to find that I have 5 of the top 50, including #1. Out of 625 artists mentioned, there are probably 500 that I have never even heard of, let alone heard albums by. So much music, so little time. I’m quite surprised that Neil’s Hitchhiker got less than 5 votes considering that a few folks here were raving about it.

  29. Ha. I have precisely 2 – the Sergeant Pepper re-issue and our friends over at the Disappointment Choir. I have to re-evaluate some life choices apparently. This is also why it was clear I was unqualified to vote…

Leave a Reply