#A lil tribute to the lizard that kept me going through this year

[dragons-and-art]

💙 Vinny through 2023 💙

[harbourcoates]

Top 100 Songs & Singles Of 2017

It’s list week my dudes! At the end of every year a lot of rock critics have the debate of how a year compared to others. I can say, at least for myself, this year *may* have shown up last year a bit - proven by my list sizes alone this year. We’ve got 15 EPs, 15 “best of the rest” releases (compilations, live albums, reissues), 15 honorable mentions, and finally 60 albums that ruled my listening world this year. For now, to begin, here are my favorite 100 songs of 2017. I’m only going to talk about the top ten in detail, but linked below the results is a Spotify playlist where you can listen to all 100 songs. On with the music, as they say.

10. Lil Peep - ‘Awful Things’ (from Come Over When You’re Sober Pt. 1)

Lil Peep was one of those musicians that really confused the hell out of me the first time I heard him, then as I got more into his material I realized how otherworldly the music was. I’m always actively seeking out different-sounding artists every year and Lil Peep’s emo/rap hybrid that brought him to the mainstream was unavoidably addictive - this track ‘Awful Things’ being the standout single of his this year. It’s super moody with equally dark production, and comes with one of the best music videos of the year as well. Lil Peep’s tragic passing earlier this year was such a shock and a complete bummer, but I’m happy that he at least got to release his major label debut before he left us - despite him deserving much more time to this world.

9. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - ‘Rattlesnake’ (from Flying Microtonal Banana)

Australia’s psych masters King Gizzard have thus far been good on 80% of their promise to deliver five albums this year. And the song that started it all, the first song to the first album of the series, made it to constant rotation throughout this year since its February release. ‘Rattlesnake’ is a catchy, groovy psych/kraut hybrid that is hyper-unstoppable - additionally with another one of the year’s best videos (something I should keep track of for next year it seems). King Gizzard will appear more than once on my albums of the year list, but here they’re getting their first praise with one of the best songs of 2017.

8. Ted Leo - ‘Can’t Go Back’ (from The Hanged Man)

Ted Leo is exactly the type of songwriter I aim to be. Both in musical style and process, he’s rock’s unsung hero of pop mastery. Though he released the self-titled effort from The Both with Aimee Mann in 2014, The Hanged Man is Leo’s first rock album under his own name since 2010′s The Brutalist Bricks with his longtime band The Pharmacists (with whom he still tours). On an album of wholly great tracks front to back, ‘Can’t Go Back’ became the standout song for me due to its simplicity, its Motown influence, and incredible vocal performance (and once again, killer video). This track proves that while Ted Leo might have been under the radar for a while, he’s still an absolute force.

7. The Mountain Goats - ‘Abandoned Flesh’ (from Goths)

Since 2009 The Mountain Goats have remained in my top three or five favorite bands of all time. Over their last stretch of albums, John Darnielle and company have really pushed themselves with every release for something new, whether its the pro-wrestling diary of Beat The Champ or the mystical and dark themes throughout Transcendental Youth (which I still think might be their crowning achievement). But this year they really won me over (more than usual) with their tribute to the music, the culture, and the history of the aptly-titled Goths. The album’s closing cut ‘Abandoned Flesh’ is a swing-influenced ballad praying for the respect of ‘80s goth stalwarts Gene Loves Jezebel with some of the most clever and intriguing lyrics on the entire album. And perhaps the greatest motif appears in the very final words of the record; “Because the world will never know or understand / the suffocated splendor of the once and future goth band.” A brilliant track in a set of equally brilliant cuts, this one stuck the landing for me the hardest.

6. Baths - ‘Yeoman’ (from Romaplasm)

Will Wiesenfeld hasn’t graced the world with new Baths music since 2014, but if there was any way for him to come back from the gap, he couldn’t have done it any better than Romaplasm. Perhaps his most bombastic and colorful release yet, the opening track and lead single ‘Yeoman’ became an instant hit for me. I played this at least twice a day for a few weeks straight after its release (and still listen to it pretty frequently now). The production is super bouncy and bright, the lyrics are super upfront and sharp; “Come kiss me swell / the feeling like a buoyant waltz / look goddammit no I don’t know how / I love it though your steps are never gonna make a lick of sense.” It’s a electro-pop love anthem for the eccentrics.

5. HAIM - ‘Little Of Your Love’ (from Something To Tell You)

California’s HAIM sisters are one of the most impressive pop acts out right now. Taking a four-year gap after a wildly successful major label debut could prove to be treacherous - although halfway through that break they were on the road opening for Taylor Swift on the massive 1989 tour. Most notably they’ve broken the “sophomore slump” cliché with their excellent follow-up Something To Tell You. On an album full of pop perfection, it was extremely difficult to pick one track for this list but ultimately ‘Little Of Your Love’ shined through. It’s an infectiously catchy track in the typical HAIM cannon that really explodes at the end with horns, strings and more. One of their most ambitious songs and one of their most fun and danceable - it’s impossible to keep your feet still for this one.

4. Filthy Friends - ‘Any Kind Of Crowd’ (from Invitation)

If I could give Filthy Friends an award, I’d give them as many as I could - but particularly the absolute best collaborative project of 2017. Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney matched with Peter Buck from R.E.M. is the absolute apex of a perfect indie rock band. ‘Any Kind Of Crowd’ was released in April for Record Store Day before the full-length album Invitation was even announced, but had the album not been released this song still would have made it into the top ten here. It is the catchiest song this year had to offer and sounds exactly what a Sleater / R.E.M. team-up would sound like. And I was even more thankful the group did release an LP this year that’ll make a fairly high appearance on the albums list at the end of this run.

3. Craig Finn - ‘God In Chicago’ (from We All Want The Same Things)

The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn released his third solo album this year and it’s easily his strongest one to date (outside of the THS catalog that is). We All Want The Same Things is a beautiful tribute of “songs about two people” (as he claimed many times during his Chicago live show), the most captivating of which is ‘God In Chicago,’ the almost entirely spoken word piano ballad closing out the album’s first side. This track might not have hit everyone as hard as it did to me, but having the two characters traveling around my home city and specific references to suburbs I used to hang out it was really moving the first time I heard it. It was even more moving to me once I saw the video which was filmed about ten minutes from where I grew up. While you could argue that all my lists are personal, this track specifically hits close to home (no pun intended).

2. Queens Of The Stone Age - ‘The Way You Used To Do’ (from Villains)

Other than Filthy Friends, 2017′s best team-up had to be Josh Homme and Mark Ronson. While the Queens’ last album Like Clockwork… may have been my least favorite of their output, they returned in full force this year on Villains with their grooviest, catchiest, and most upbeat record to date. All things considered, ‘The Way You Used To Do’ is a weird track for QOTSA. They’ve never embraced dance grooves and pop production like this before, but again a bulk of that is all at the hand of Ronson producing. This is a song that isn’t heavy enough for the metal fans but is too odd for mainstream rock fans - and I think a perfect song is one that’s gonna piss off both sides of a fanbase. Polarizing as this song and record may have been to most fans, I think Villains is an incredible album front to back and ‘The Way You Used To Do’ is this year’s best original composition. What does that mean, you might ask? The number one pick below should help explain.

1. Motörhead - ‘Heroes’ (from Under Cöver)

Singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet proclaimed on his new record this year, it was a “bad year for rock and roll.” The last couple years have been extremely rough as far as lost legends go - I won’t attempt to list them all here since there’s unfortunately too many and I don’t want to slight anyone. But I must talk about the back to back passings of Lemmy Kilmister and David Bowie for this entry. To some it might be disingenuous to list a cover as the #1 pick for this list, but there was no track more emotionally moving and ultimately encapsulating of the year than this recording. The version as a song is excellent; Motörhead has a pretty solid history of cover songs and this is among their best. The heavy guitars and bass are kept at roughly the same speed of the original, just “louder than everything else” as the band always said. Lemmy’s iconic vocals are delivered with grace and passion like no other. Perhaps the most haunting part of this track is that Lemmy’s death preceded Bowie’s by a couple weeks, which had this been released around that time, would’ve been far too heavy for a lot of listeners (myself included). This was one of the last recordings Lemmy would lay down before he died and it’s a beautiful testament to the legacy of both Motörhead and David Bowie alike.

COMPLETE PLAYLIST OF 100 SONGS