Best New Albums of 2017 *

Sounds interesting, I might play it next!

Currently listening to New Spirit by PVT. It's another dark synth record as seems to be popular amongst certain artists these days, a little shapeless in parts but intriguing enough to warrant a re-listen further down the line and worth it for the majestic "Morning Mist, Rock Island Bend" that is somewhat reminiscent of Blackstar. Quite good on headphones.



Edit: Oh, I spoke to soon! Things really pick up after "Morning Mist". Metronomic beats ahoy!

 

All three of these are in my Bandcamp wish list waiting for the time to really give them a listen. I've sampled them enough to be intrigued.

 

I second those who mentioned this -



Really good album, highly recommended.

 

If you haven't heard this, definitely look it up immediately:


Very surreal concept album, absolutely fantastic production, and filled with strong songs. Easily my new #1 of the year, and that's saying something!

 

It is a good one. Funny thing, you may have noticed that right now there's also a Washington, D.C. based indie shoegaze band named VENN. Wonder what they will do, maybe expect to see VENN UK in the future on their US releases, or the English VENN. And these silly unimaginative boys, they also named their earlier 5-song EP Runes, same as this new LP. I guess because it was released via their own Rune label last year. You'd think that guys making such fresh and exciting music could better strategize their band and album names. Sheesh, it's like they intentionally try to confuse and frustrate people, some of these bands could use a clear head in the background handling the mundane logistics

But they got the stuff, so hope they get some more notice. I think they are split between London and Berlin for their base, and you can tell that motorik influence. Listening right now to the brand new record from the London-based Desperate Journalist called Grow Up. I think you may know this band based on a previous comment, have you seen them perform? I haven't, but this is a pretty great little record, they seem on the brink of getting some big attention, at least in your part of the world. Jo Bevan is a pretty powerful front-woman, cool guitars, lots of good stuff going on, just got a short little 5/5 review at The Skinny a couple days ago. Pretty lo-fi by many of our standards, but pretty exciting too.

 

Yea, this is pretty cool and intriguing ...

 

Yes I know them very well! We've played with them three times (headlined twice, supported once) and I saw one of their first gigs back in 2013. Their recorded sound is frustratingly low-fi and they're much better live. Just about to play the new album now.

 

... and very enjoyable it is! Lots of Mozzisms and it reminded me of Vauxhall And I in places. I think I prefer the slower tracks to the faster ones, "Be Kind" being a standout for me.

 

Son Volt - Notes Of Blue, any album that starts off with a Byrds vibe and then hits Lynyrd Skynyrd mode get my vote:

 

Jens Lekman. Don't know how he does it, but he seems to write indie pop songs absolutely effortlessly, classic after classic. And his lyrics are mindblowingly good considering English isn't his first language - writes better than 99% of natives.

 

Got a real soft spot for this song as well, might be my favorite tune of the year, but almost certain it isn't #SteveHofmanMessageBoardMusic...most of y'all will despise it!

 

I'm still waiting for The Shins to arrive from Amazon..

 

this is the thread where that doesn't happen.

 

C'mon Bobby! This group is really good and you can't even give a courtesy link?
What's up with that?
Grow Up, by Desperate Journalist

Listening to Be Kind...very good. I enjoy hearing the rhythm section very much in this group.

 

Barely two minute and smokes! This is a great short trip from his new album:


Courtesy links are great when people embed them.

 

Not to mention it's Mick Ronson's electric guitar debut, enlisted from a streetcorner, adding texture and colour to many of the songs...!

 

I've never met a Swede who doesn't speak excellent English. It's taught in schools from childhood. (Which is also why that urban legend that the members of ABBA learned their lyrics phonetically always bugged me.)

 

It's available from every musical outlet, on all formats and streaming sites. You can't use Google?

 

I think he means it's nice to present a Youtube clip when introducing people to a new artist. Many people won't go that far out of their way for new music they've never heard of so having the link there to a song that plays as they continue to read other posts on the page just may convert someone into a fan that otherwise would have just skimmed the post and moved to the next one.

 

More talk and less youtube makes a better thread, at least for me. I'd much rather read what @robertzombie has to say about the band and the album than just see a youtube link, like some of the posts above. But sure, one could do both, guess it depends on what you come here for.

 

Ah right. Personally I rarely listen to youtube links on here. I'd much rather read a user's description or impression of the music, however brief, and then listen myself later on.

 

Listening to Grow Up right now, really good album. As with other bands coming up these days there's a strong Siouxsie influence, but there's enough pop sense going on (nice choruses) to keep it a bit lighter. Am I hearing a bit of Kitchens of Distinction in the guitar? The Smiths influence is also pretty evident. Enjoying this quite a bit, thanks for the tip.

 

I could use Google.
This is my own little quirk; I find it irksome when someone says "Hey, have you heard the new one by X? It's a great one! ".

I did look up the band "Desperate Journalist" and did comment upon their album.
I am quite glad that you posted them, and wouldn't want to dissuade you from posting future great finds.
It is just my own issue. I was thinking, in the time it took it post a link to the album cover photo, a link to YouTube/bandcamp/soundcloud could have been inserted and my greedy little ears would already be checking out this cool band!
Darn you, RobertZombie!

 

Personally, I like it when people do both because you get a description and then a YouTube link to sample and see if it's worth further exploring. I see I didn't do that myself, although in all fairness, people had already posted YouTube links to several of the songs earlier. What is rather useless is when people just pop in and post what their favorite is, e.g. "★". For further checking out releases, Spotify is essential as well.