Best new/most anticipated albums: 2017
 

(Thank you Moshe. You are the sweetest.)

So, it's a new year and I'd like to continue talking about new releases as they come out and as we await them with you fine people, as we did in 2016.

Again, this is meant to be an informational thread. We're all music lovers, and we all want to learn about new music, but most of us are grown ass adults with busy lives and jobs and the like, so we don't always have time to dig for new music, or keep up with news about upcoming releases from established artists.

So it's my hope that we can learn from each other here.

• If you hear an interesting new artist on bandcamp or on your local college radio station (assuming such things still exist), please, PLEASE, tell us about it here.

• If you read about an exciting new release from some massive band everyone knows about already, bring that shit up too!!

• And finally, share your thoughts on new records as you digest and process them. Keep us up to date on what's holding your attention. Conversely, if something you were looking forward to turns out to be terrible, share that information too!

So, for starters, I'll re-post what I put in Moshe's thread. Nothing truly new here, just some promising upcoming albums from artists that are well known to everyone. But hey, the year is young!

---

Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody (Jan. 13)


Bonobo - Migration (Jan. 13)


Sleater-Kinney - Live in Paris (Jan. 20)


There are also new albums on the way from Spiritualized (reportedly the band's swan song, so let's hope it kicks some ass) and Spoon (never a bad thing). Also "return" albums from LCD Soundsystem and The Jesus & Mary Chain. I am choosing to be optimistic about both of these albums even though they will likely be underwhelming.

Now, as for me, the one album I really want to drop in 2017 is DJ Koze's follow-up to 2013's Amygdala. The guy has released SOMETHING every year since (singles, a terrific remix album, a kickass DJ Kicks set, and just last year a great compilation for his PAMPA label), but Amygdala gets better with every listen, and it needs a proper follow-up from one of techno's most gifted and delightfully whimsical minds.

So my personal wish for 2017 is for a new full-length studio LP by this guy:


Cheers.

Also, new albums expected from William Basinkski, Arcade Fire, Nine Inch Nails, a possible debut album from Chance the Rapper, a couple albums from Lupe Fiasco, who is also reportedly retiring after this year.

New blood needed!

Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche - Pas pire pop, I Love You So Much
William Basinski - A Shadow In Time
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Divine Wind
Beck
Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore
Breeders
Brokeback - Illinois River Valley Blue
Broken Social Scene
Chastity Belt
Chrome - Techromancy ‎
Do Make Say Think
The Feelies - In Between
The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody
Fucked Up - Year of the Snake
Grails - Chalice Hymna
Grandaddy - Last Place
Kassel Jaeger & Jim O’Rourke - Wakes on Cerulean
Jesu/Sun Kil Moon - 30 Seconds To The Decline Of Planet Earth‎
Aimee Mann ‎
Pallbearer - Heartless
‎Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - 13 ‎
Six Organs Of Admittance - Burn The Threshold
Son Volt - Notes of Blue
Spoon
Sparks
Strand of Oaks - Hard Love
Sun Kil Moon - Common As Light And Love Are Red Valleys Of Blood
This Patch of Sky
Thurston Moore - Rock n Roll Consciousness
The Necks - Unfold
Charlemagne Palestine & Grumbling Fur
Lee Ranaldo - Electric Trim
Max Richter - Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works
‎Tears for Fears

Re: best new/most anticipated 2017:

Oh wow, I forgot about Pas Pire Pop, I Love You So Much. Thank you for reminding me! This drops Jan. 20, and I want to place my order with Constellation in time to get it that week.
I really liked Zubberdust! a lot, was a nice reminder that the kind of proggy, krauty, post-rocky stuff from the mid-to-late-'90s and early '00s is still around, that the scene hasn't died completely. I'd still really love a new Fly Pan Am album, or even a follow up to Fuck Off, Get Fee..., because I just have a special place in my heat for this stuff, but having Avec Le Soleil... around is nice.


There's a new Breeders album coming out?! I was not aware. Or I'd forgotten. But that seems like the kind of thing I would remember... a follow-up to the excellent Mountain Battles, finally!! Is this a sure thing, or .... ?


Also didn't know about DMST, but that's definitely something to look forward to. Again, love that whole extended family of Canadian post-rocky outfits, even if their "era" is kind of over (I blame Arcade Fire -- who's also coming out with something this year -- not because I hate them, but because they blew up in such a huge way, eclipsing their elders, and using their fame to channel Bruce Springsteen and U2, and kinda turning their back on the scene that birthed them.)


Six Organs of Admittance - Burning the Threshold will be out Feb. 24. Forgot about that one too. I'm excited about this one.
Here's artwork:



And of course I'm pumped about whatever Jim has cooking for the year, as well as the solo albums from Thurston and Lee.

I went to the bookies to put a bet on all releases this year being rubbish. Even odds so it could go either way but hey if you like to gamble I tell you I'm your man, win some lose some it's all the same to me...

However I do like a bit of Chastity Belt. Not bad for a bunch of Pavement bashing scruffy feminists. ..

Talking of Pavement - I heard a new Granddaddy song the other day and it wasn't totally shit. Just shit. And a shit Grandaddy song in the current climate is a good thing. Innit?

Demdike State - Circulation (out now)



Ordered and on the way.

Ariel Guzik - Cordiox (out Jan. 5, Von Archives)



Very interesting new dark ambient record. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Got the recommendation from Boomkat. It's eerie as hell. Recommended.

What in ALL THAT IS FUCK. This thread replaces the previous one? Why, because Severian is soooo special he just had to have HIS lame version of the thread instead of the one WHERE I HAD POSTED COOL SHIT WHICH NOW SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN LOST FOREVER? I will never forgive you, people.



GO FUCK A GOAT! :mad:

I didn't ask Moshe to delete his thread. Thought never even occurred to me. Moshe just did it. I told him I was only fucking around when a I complained about it. He was just being a sweetheart for some reason.

It would have been rude of me to not make a thread after he had deleted his just so I could make one. So I did.

I'm sure you remember the albums you listed.

Moshe if you're reading this, undelete your thread and delete this thread so things can be less frustrating for Soup Nazi. Poor guy's going to pop something.

rice and beans man. rice and beans. driverless cashless anyone,..anyone? huh!?!:confused:

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile: 2017 Definitive Edition + The Fragile: Diversions 1 (3xLP)

Definitive Edition:


Diversions 1:


I know it's excessive (this is not even my favorite NIN album... or my second favorite... maybe not even my third) but I appreciate this reissue with the extended, full tracklist and the additional Diversions 1 instrumental/remix/alternate mix LP. I'm ordering it now. It's expensive, but fuck it. You only live once.

if you only live once then why the fuck are you listening to nine inch nails

the new people skills record on BEB is really great, hadn't heard much outside of the lp for siltbreeze a few years back and an early tape. very much in that tradition of supremely bummed-out pop that tom lax seems to be so fond of and that blackest are starting to really tune into. acc. to the presser thurston is a fan so make of that what you will...

Because don't be a dick. That's why. Also, because I like Nine Inch Nails. Now tell me about how unhip that makes me or whatever-the-fuck so I can get the full internet discussion board fuckwad experience out of this exchange, and you can feel good.

Hey yeah, I like this!

It came out in 2016, but still. Thanks!

This part of the cover looks uncannily like some vintage 4AD artwork. :cool:

My mistake. Sorry guys.

Hoping for a new David Sylvian recording. Last year I heard from Magda Mayas that she was recording with him, later Burkhard Beins also told me a similar story of David Sylvian inviting a bunch of improvisers in Berlin for a recording session. Perhaps something in the direction of Manafon is the works - if that is the case - I am excited.

it's not about being hip, it's about nine inch nails being completely and inarguably shite innit and them being diametrically opposed to like everything a band like sonic youth would stand for....or whatever.

Don't apologize. Soup Nazi can handle it. You were just being nice.

I really didn't give a shit about the thread being *mine* ... and anyway, having a thread that's tied to a certain year is a shit way of getting oneself stickied! Would require un-stickying at year's end, and that sounds like a huge amount of work ;)

Seriously though, you were just being nice. Maybe a bit impulsively nice, but hey... niceness is rare. Look around you! People like to be dicks for whatever reason! I find your kindness refreshing.

Don't be an asshole. Nothing is "completely and inarguably" anything, and you damn well know it. Do you know how much some people hate Sonic Youth? Surely you've encountered folks who would say the same exact thing about them.

Wait... Look... watch this: I disagree, and argue that nin is not shite

There. Proof that NIN is not "inarguably shite."

To be completely honest, I don't listen to Nine Inch Nails a lot. Maybe once every couple years I'll run through the albums on a mini-binge. There is no question that Trent has released some truly godawful shit over the years, and I'd never argue that NIN is, like, undeniably brilliant. But I listened to them all the time in my teens, so there's a lot of nostalgic value in the music for me. Their albums hold up a hell of a lot better than a lot of the alt-rock of the '90s. And in adulthood I've found a lot to like about Reznor's scores with Atticus Ross. He's made some interesting music in this decade.

Also, I think NIN actually helped me get into Sonic Youth. The Downward Spiral was instrumental in making me aware of the value of noise and dissonance in music. Soon after, I'd sought out EJST&NS and Washing Machine. I may never have committed to sitting through an 18-minute "Diamond Sea" if I hadn't been turned on to lengthy cacophonous sound collages by artists including but not limited to Nine Inch Nails.

Besides, hating on NIN for being empty corporate alt-rock is soooo 2001.

this is such stupid shit. NIN has some great stuff. Downward Spiral is one of my fav albums ever. SY is my fav band ever. I don't care if someone thinks that they'd look down at me for liking NIN. I really thought everyone on this board was old enough to know that none of this shit matters.

Lemme go ahead and clarify (to these other folks) ... what you're saying, clearly, that what guest is saying is stupid shit. Don't wanna put words in your mouth, but I'm pretty sure you think what I'm saying is awesome. Right? Right. Ok it's settled then. ;)


This kind of thing is always in the air, man. I don't think it really has much to do with age. Maybe maturity to some extent, but really I think it's about manners.

Point being, if you hate music that someone else likes, you can say something disparaging and insulting about it, or you say something that gets your point across without being antagonistic ["I've never really cared for that myself, but ... (something neutral and conversational, like) it's cool that they're doing a high quality vinyl reissue! (Or whatever)] or you don't say anything.

Either way, it's a decision. You might make different decisions based on different company, but ... well, I can't really see the value in just being a dick and that's it. Not because you have to, but because you choose to.

But yeah, I kinda feel like with all the different music we listen to here, it's pretty silly to insult someone's musical preferences, since it's likely (probable) that we all listen to something that others think is utter crap. Shrug. Dumb shit, for sure.

Fine, let's see what I can remember...

Reflection — Brian Eno (out now)
Rock Pool EP — Cate Le Bon (January 27)
A Pink Sunset For No One [download only, apparently] — Noveller (February 10)
The Hired Hands: A Tribute To Bruce Langhorne — various artists (February 24)
Graveyard Whistling — Old 97's (February 24)
English Tapas — Sleaford Mods (March 3)
We All Want The Same Things — Craig Finn (March 24)
In The Same Room [live] — Julia Holter (March 31)
World On Sticks — Sam Phillips (date TBA)
Live At Largo At The Coronet concert film :eek: — Sam Phillips (date TBA)

Hot Thoughts (March 17 TBC)

Now, from the archival stuff department:

Buzzcocks announce 40th anniversary reissue of Spiral Scratch EP plus Time's Up studio bootleg and early years box set

but severian doesn't your being so insecure about this stuff at least to some degree highlight the issue? like half the time I do this for a piss-up, but I think speaking truthfully something like nine inch nails is (to me) so ideologically antithetical to not only a band like sonic youth but indeed so much of the stuff you post about on here; it's a dilution and commodification of that sense of 'outsider'-dom/alienation which strips the power from that form o' expression, and for someone to whom that element of singularity is so fucking central in enjoying music and who in some cases has taste that lines up with your own I'm sort of bemused by how we can be drawn to the same thing for such different reasons, whatever that might mean. like I might listen to a lot of broad music but I think it's bound by something, some sort of purity, but nine inch nails eg. are cynicism and posturing manifest in a preteen's crispy cum rag.


INTERESTING.

Hmm. Well. I see where you're coming from, and certainly I do come from a kind of "punk" background and philosophy which has informed a lot of my views about music today. But... man... I'm not an ideologue. My main thing about music is this: If it makes my brain feel good, fuck everything else.


Ok, well... listen man. Good for you and stuff, but "'outsider'-dom/alienation" is absolutely not "fucking central" to MY "enjoying music."

Fucking hell man... I'm closing in on 40. This isn't high school. I don't even remember high school.

You know what I listen to a fuck ton of? Unwound, Keiji Haino, Vladislav Delay, Fennesz, Fugazi, yeah... all of these... Know what else I listen to?

Fucking "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. Seriously. Love it. I love some LAME ASS SHIT. Some horrifyingly poppy music that is as far from cool, alienated punk as you can get.

I also have a thing for Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan (some, anyway), certain RRALLY lame McCartney solo albums (have you ever heard Flowers in the Dirt? No? Welcome to the world. But it's got some bangers).

I have my "core" musical identity, but I also just love music. At this point in my life it has nothing to do with sensibilities, philosophies, etc. I know... Thurston would think I'm a dick. Actually I don't think he would, but yeah -- this whole "alienation being crucial to the way you enjoy music" thing is a way in which we are entirely different.

Did you forget that Kanye West is pretty much my favorite current artist? I listen to TONS of music that is diametrically opposed to TONS of other music I listen to.

Again, if the music makes my brain feel good, all is well. Doesn't mean I'll listen to Twenty one Pilots or whatever, but I'm not going to deny my ears and brain pleasure on some dated need to be an outsider. Fuck that.


That sounds incredibly naïve to me, and a bit pretentious. But whatever floats your boat, man.

Nin's cover of Trent and Pigface's "Suck" is a synth rock storm. Sorry you don't like it, but I already explained that I liked it when I was young, and it stuck with me. Surely you understand nostalgia. Not that that's all it is that keeps me interested in NIN.

Bette Davis Eyes is a good song.

well, there's no room for 'cool' or 'uncool' anymore. there's a niche for everything.

It's a damn good song, with a melody that has — consciously or not — inspired generations of synth tinkerers. Most of them shit compared to Kim Carnes.

Fleetwood Mac also kinda aped it on the song "Seven Wonders" from '87. As did that tune from ROCKY IV (y'know, the one that plays when Rocky's sad-driving, thinking about Apollo, and a montage of all his Apollo moments plays over that terrible synth-butt song?).

Also, I think Kim Gordon would probably say the lyrics are dope. "All the boys think she's a spy" ... I could totally see Kim writing something like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOXaPE6gklI

I had the soundtrack on cassette and absolutely played that song to death.

Good times

got the new Flaming Lips ready to listen to... in a couple of hrs.

Chirst, it's like watching the Ricky Gervais video "If you don't know me by now"

Boring AF.

Really?

I disagree. I didn't expect it to blow my mind, and it didn't, but it's full of nice grooves, good songs and some surprisingly well-programmed electro-glitchy shit. An improvement in that respect over The Terror.

Also, there are moments that harken back to older Lips periods. "The Castle" could fit perfectly on Zaireeka, or even Soft Bulletin. "We A Family" has the sound of At War with the Mystics, but it's more mature and fleshed out.

Honestly, I listened to it first when it was still dark out, on my way to the dentist to have a two-hour mouth-fucking. Put it right back on in the chair and it held my interest. I'm a harsh critic of bands "going electro" (soooooo cliché at this point... it would be more interesting for "electro" to "go band" in my opinion), but the Lips have been toying with that sound for a while and at this point it's like half of what they do, and they're GOOD at it. That's rare.

Now, I will admit that there are some themes and sounds that they've been hammering away at with an almost NIN-like tenacity, and those things are getting old. Embryonic was 8 years ago.... not all the vocals have to be distorted, not all the bass lines have to be slow-Sabbath. Ugh. BUT it's not a bad album at all. Definitely didn't bore me. Would love to hear more about what you found "boring AF," because if you like the Lips at all, it's pretty goddamn Lipsy, and I don't see how it's any more "boring" than anything else since their real, honest to God glory days (basically everything from In a Priest-Driven Ambulance to Yoshimi... also Embryonic.)

Fixed.

The music video is not the correct way to experience the song. You must have Stallone angst, '85 style.

(Don't forget "Hearts on Fire" too! :) )

^^there's a really good Survivor song out there too and an album that will solve this.

really?!?!

Nothing on it was bad to me. But nothing stood out as a song I would have to hear again. I feel like after a song ended, I forgot what I just heard. Again not bad. But not memorable. A lot if felt samey.

Well, that makes you lame and stuff, you don't get it, it's all genius and you like Nine Inch Nails so how could you possibly understand, and all that.

(Psst... hey, it's me Severian. I'm just playing with ya, I don't really feel that way about you ... I'm still kinda trolling guest for being a bit of a snooty-pants, that's all. ;) )

AAAAnyway, I respect your opinion, but I'm kinda getting the impression that you may have not listened to the whole album, or skipped songs based on how they started or something. Not a judgement, and if I'm wrong, tell me, but my own experience was so dissimilar that I'm wondering if something didn't prevent you from giving it much attention.

I've picked out a few spots for you to revisit. Revisit them! These are some of the moments that made me sway away the dentist yesterday so I could check my phone and take note of the song that was playing:

"Listening to Frogs With Demon Eyes" (4:30 onward... gets fucking good.)
"One Night While Hunting for Færies and Witches and Wizards to Kill" (2:00 onward... nice slow-build before that, but it gets pretty intense there in the last stretch)
"The Castle" (whole thing please)
"We a Family" (see above)

Tell ya what... schedule a really long and excruciatingly painful dentist appointment like I did. Take full advantage of all the drugs they are willing to give you (tell them you have Banner's Syndrome, which causes you to aggressively attack anyone who causes you any pain... not a real thing by the way -- just made it up based on The Hulk, but if dentists were smart they'd be actual doctors ;) ), then suck in that gas, like I did, plug in them headphones and give it another go. Should only be a couple hundred dollars tops if you have insurance. Or... I guess you could just listen to the album more and spend zero dollars, but what fun is that?