Top Ten Albums of 2017 Part Two - Five to One

I can't write "Five to One" without hearing Jim Morrison in my head. Maybe that tells you something about my musical tastes, I'm not sure... We have reached the top five albums I liked best this year on my subjective list of favorites I share with you. These albums are each amazing in their own way!

Now... it's been brought to my attention I was a bit of a downer in the intro to part one. Well. Sorry about coming off cranky. Maybe it comes with turning fifty-two. Watching things going on in the world that are so wrong... ah, sorry again. Still, hope you enjoyed part one! And I certainly didn't mean to infer that the music wasn't up to par. If you listened to some tracks, you know. The music was good, wasn't it?

These five are just a bit better...

5. Steven Wilson - To the Bone - This album and #6, BNQT - Volume 1, are close together in my ranking. Decided Steven Wilson would get the higher spot because the early teaser track "Pariah" with Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb is so damn good! Someone asked, watching the video for the first time, "will there be an explosion of color?" Yes. Yes, there will be.

"Permanating" was another early-release track, along with "The Same Asylum As Before", "Refuge" and "Song of I" featuring Sophie Hunger - tracks two, three, four, five, six and nine - almost half the album, pre-released! Wild. Steven Wilson said To the Bone:

is in many ways inspired by the hugely ambitious progressive pop records that I loved in my youth (think Peter Gabriel’s So, Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, Talk Talk’s Colour of Spring and Tears for Fears’ Seeds of Love). Lyrically, the album’s eleven tracks veer from the paranoid chaos of the current era in which truth can apparently be a flexible notion, observations of the everyday lives of refugees, terrorists and religious fundamentalists, and a welcome shot of some of the most joyous wide-eyed escapism I’ve created in my career so far. Something for all the family! 

"Permanating" embodies the joyous side:

4. Dan Wilson - Re-Covered - Feels a little odd to include an album of cover tunes, but Dan Wilson did co-write all the songs on this album (he's also no relation to Brit Steven Wilson...). The erstwhile frontman for Semisonic & former member of Minneapolis alternative darlings Trip Shakespeare has been a songwriter-for-hire of late, brought in to co-write songs with artists looking to find a new groove or a helpful, fresh perspective.

"Big Hits and Lesser-Known Jams, Illustrated, Illuminated, and Re-interpreted" it says on the cover of my book edition. Get the book. I'm serious. If there are any still available, get the book. Dan Wilson did calligraphy and drew cool pictures that you find throughout, including his giant center spread with all the songs. But more than that, he writes about songwriting - a little about writing each song, and some about the process itself. There's all kinds of insight into the mind of one of modern music's more successful contemporary songwriters.

And then, there's Dan Wilson's versions of the songs! His take on "Someone Like You" - the huge hit for Adele - has a sweet, different aura, with him on acoustic guitar accompanied by the Kronos Quartet, instead of Wilson on piano on the original. Speaking of calligraphy, you can watch him at work in the video.

One of the other big hits Wilson "Re-Covers" is his own band Semisonic's "Closing Time", given a whole different feel here - this time, it is Wilson on solo piano, almost giving his old hit the "Adele treatment" - if only because it's him on piano, I suppose. "Home" - a huge Country hit for Dierks Bentley - also gets a new gloss. Some songs here weren't hits - "Never Meant to Love You", written with and for Wisconsin-based singer songwriter Cory Chisel, was unknown to me before hearing it here - makes it sound like a fresh, new Dan Wilson tune!

So, they are "covers", but they're also the song's co-writer offering new interpretations of songs he helped write. Beautiful tunes I might have missed, like his co-write with Chris Stapleton "When the Stars Come Out", and songs heard a bunch, like "Not Ready to Make Nice", given a new spin. It is an amazing collection. And, again, if you can? Buy the CD with the book!


3. The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding - like To The Bone, A Deeper Understanding also introduced itself with stellar teaser tracks before appearing in full. The 11+ minute long "Thinking of A Place" debuted first, as both sides of a 12" single on Record Store Day. It's a beautiful excursion in song, with exquisite moments of tension and release.

"Holding On" was the first official "single" from the album, also released in advance, as was the album track "Strangest Thing" and single "Pain". "Strangest Thing" has an amazing guitar solo ripping through its almost ethereal serenity, so striking!

2. Blitzen Trapper - Wild and Reckless - You want an album with a cool backstory? This one is pretty awesome. Back in the spring, word got out about a wild project singer and writer Eric Earley and the band were involved in, writing songs and music for a musical they were part of in their hometown of Portland, Oregon (follow the link to see video from the musical!). It was set in Portland and featured both old and new songs from the band, who also performed roles in the stageplay.

According to the band: "The half musical, half rock-opera dealt with heroin abuse, desperation, true love and western power structures. The story evoked a bygone era of Portland with this sci-fi love story."

The Oregonian wrote a review back in March:

Set in a drug-plagued, dystopian Portland in a vague future, "Wild & Reckless," a new concert-musical hybrid, nonetheless dives into famed Portland rock haunts from the 1990s. Here's Chopsticks restaurant, known for its karaoke nights, not its food. There's popular punk hangout Satyricon nightclub. Holman's Bar & Grill, where you can "spin the wheel for a free meal," gets a shout-out.

The band released an album only available (initially) at the stage shows, with early versions of seven new songs from the show and the older tunes used, as well. I'm a fan, so I picked one up when they finally offered it on their web site. Nice to have new Blitzen Trapper music! And then? They finally released an album of the same name, a regular ol' LP, at the beginning of November, preceded by the title cut and "Rebel". Oddly, there's also a video from the spring of the tune "Stolen Hearts" - but it's obviously an earlier version, almost a demo, and it doesn't show up on the show CD.

And "Stolen Hearts" is so good on the album! Hear it for yourself:

The title track has that certain something... the old classic rock power the great ones tapped into. As John Pareles wrote in the New York Times:

Missing Tom Petty? He lives on in Blitzen Trapper’s “Wild and Reckless,” an accomplished slice of classic rock that unabashedly sounds like Mr. Petty singing a Springsteen song with the Heartbreakers’ California guitars and a harmonica intro from Neil Young... ...It’s the title song of an album due Nov. 3 based on a stage musical by the band, completed long before Mr. Petty’s death. But now it sounds like a ghost returning.

To me? It just sounds like great Blitzen Trapper!

1. elbow - Little Fictions - When it arrived early in the year, I thought this album was the harbinger of an amazing year of music to come. Instead, it turned out to be my musical highlight for the entire year. In hindsight, it's perhaps not fair to compare albums that followed to Little Fictions - it set the bar far too high! I've enjoyed elbow's music in the past. Nothing has ever connected with me the way this album did. It stood up to repeated listening in my car on the commute to and from work. Which meant that for a little while, I didn't even listen to other releases. It helps that the first single "Magnificent (She Said)" paved the way for this album so joyously!

I pretty much love every song on this album. The title track is epic! "Firebrand & Angel" has its own power (though unwittingly incorporates a bit of a My Morning Jacket song, used by kind permission of...). "K2" is also strong. But for a second song here I share "Head for Supplies" - so good! You should hear it for yourself:

That wraps up my Top Ten Albums for 2017. Again, this is subjective - only my opinion. If you have a passion for music, post YOUR Top Ten for 2017 somewhere. Spread the word about what you love - spread the word about music!