ÅRET ALBUMS 2017

9. Kendrick Lamar - Damn
(31 point)

Lamar's pensive self-doubt and modest buying habits are reassuring if you wish him well as a person, as why shouldn't you, and the simple keys-percussion-chorus beats flatter his cushiony timbre. Musically, Damn. is as calm as To Pimp a Butterfly is ebullient; lyrically, its only misstep is a pseudo-scriptural "don't call me black no more" that inspired Tate to quote Franz Fanon. Remaining skeptics should proceed directly to what vinyl fetishists know as side two, with its hit single, its "Lust"-to-"Love," its remembrance of ass-whuppings past, and its autobiographical miracle. He got what he wanted without squandering what he had.

8. Cigarettes After Sex - Cigarettes After Sex
(31 point, 1 førsteplads)

Much like relationships themselves, these songs are full of contradictions. The objects of Gonzalez’s desire are both achingly close and tantalizingly far, in his phone and in his bed, on his couch and in his head. Through wallowing in its own mire and coming out the other side, Cigarettes After Sex becomes one of those restrained, low-boil albums where tempo, repetition, and muted composition construct an entire story within the pauses between the notes and the ideas between the lines.

8. Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog
(31 point, 1 førsteplads)

The move to a more “classic” sound suits DeMarco’s music, and it’s also a reminder that what at first glance seems like laziness might actually be brutal efficiency. On a casual listen, DeMarco seems to kick back and let everything fall into place, but his music demonstrates a relentless devotion to craft, with all the fundamentals intact. Each melodic shift, every turnaround on the chords during the choruses, every bridge—all are exactly where they should be. Even though they are not derivative, you swear you’ve heard them before because they show such a proficiency for songwriting structure.

7. The National - Sleep Well Beast
(40 point)

While Sleep Well Beast offers more than its fair share of hushed moments -- the National design their music to be lean-in listening, requiring an investment from their audience not only so that the lyrics can be deciphered, but so the subdued shifts in emphasis seem dynamic -- this familiar signature seems enhanced by the fact that these soft, slow songs are surrounded by cuts where the darkness opens up slightly but significantly. It's enough to make Sleep Well Beast feel like a dramatic departure in the close quarters of the National's discography.

7. Kellermensch - Goliath
(40 point)

Kellermensch machen weiter ihr Ding. Das mag beinhalten, dass man als Fan acht Jahre kein neues Studioalbum zu Gehör bekommt. Vor allem bedeutet es aber, sich als Band einen wirklich frischen musikalischen Ansatz zu bewahren und dabei noch gute und bisweilen sogar tanzbare Songs zu schreiben. Keine Einwände. Wenn das dänische “Mediocre Men” sind, dann sei auf der Hut, musikalisches Europa!

6. Monolord - Rust
(40 point, to førstepladser)

I suspected this was coming from Monolord, after their first two albums hinted at greatness. They have gone and produced what could be the Platonic Form of doom. If you are familiar with classical philosophy (and doom), this will be all the knowledge you require to realise you need – yes, need – to purchase this album from the coffee-swilling trio from Sweden.

5. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me
(41 point, 1 førsteplads)

It would be easy to hear this album as sad. Certainly the facts of Elverum's story are. But facts aren’t art and art isn’t real, at least not the way cancer is. For an album so firmly anchored by death, Crow is suffused with life: The geese, the forest fires, the crows, the grocery-store lines where Elverum stumbles through awkward conversation with people from town. Tragedy hasn't stopped him from noticing the world; if anything, it seems to have pried his eyes open for good.

4. The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
(43 point)

So yes, Springsteen, Dylan, Tom Petty, and Neil Young all made songs between 1983 and 1988 that sounded something like the War on Drugs, but they often had these booming gated drums, a technique Granduciel mostly avoids. Instead, he favors a steady, muted pulse evocative of krautrock’s motorik groove. The arrangement of “In Chains” hums and explodes but the drums plow ahead with barely a fill or an accent, precisely marking the passing time. The approach to rhythm highlights the glide of the arrangement, creating a long rope of sound bound together so tightly it could never be pulled apart.

3. Destroyer - ken
(43 point, 1 førsteplads)

There’s a braveness in ken’s songwriting – in stripping his style down to its barest bones, Bejar almost invites ridicule. Certainly those who have not yet acquired the taste for his songwriting might find it hard to swallow ‘Sky’s Grey’, which repeats the line “I’ve been working on the new Oliver Twist” seven times in quick succession with only minor variations in cadence.

2. Big Thief - Capacity
(47 point, 1 førsteplads)

There are bands with stories to share, wounds to rub salt into, loves to relive, but few address every moment with such adroit care as Big Thief. You can hear it as they revel in the darkest moments, rejoice in the later lightness, and fumble around for a sense of closure. Capacity is human, which seems to be all Big Thief desire.

1. Lorde - Melodrama
(62 point, 1 førsteplads)

What Melodrama confirms most of all is Lorde’s uncanny ability to drill down so precisely on grand emotional themes that would fell lesser songwriters. Tackling a bad breakup certainly isn’t new in pop music, but it’s delivered here with an honesty and energy that is uniquely her own. She doesn’t generalize or hide from her feelings, and in doing so, she brings her listeners the comforting reminder that our messiest years yield some of the moments when we’re most alive (and for the olds, that they’re happily behind us). The greatest reward of Lorde’s music is recognizing her growth reflected in ourselves.