{"id":26959,"date":"2018-01-02T15:03:04","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T13:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/?p=26959"},"modified":"2019-01-03T00:15:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T22:15:25","slug":"music-2017-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/music-2017-in-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Music: 2017 in review"},"content":{"rendered":"
MUSIC<\/div>\n

Musically, 2017 was an odd one for me – I felt a big disconnect with new releases and instead immersed myself in nostalgia and the past, either via existing favourites or previously undiscovered gems. Usually I rely on my listening data from last.fm (today is\u00a0my 11th last.fm anniversary)<\/a>\u00a0but trawling it for 2017 releases is both depressing and a bit misleading, so I’m taking some liberties with the data* this year and going by feeling.<\/p>\n

So here’s the music I enjoyed in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

*check out the data over here<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

A L B U M S<\/strong><\/p>\n

Normally I struggle to narrow down a top 3 and this year was no exception, albeit for a sadder reason – as I said, 2017 was largely a year of musical indifference for me. I struggled particularly to connect to albums and several new releases from bands I love were disappointing. That said, the albums I enjoyed the most came from long-time favourite artists of mine and very few new artists feature.<\/p>\n

Most of this year’s music I found either ‘alright’ or ‘boring’, nothing really blew me away. That goes for The National’s\u00a0Sleep well beast<\/em>, which I enjoyed but nowhere near as much as their earlier work. Why?’s\u00a0Moh Lhean<\/em> is a similar case –\u00a0Alopecia\u00a0<\/em>is one of my all-time favourites and subsequent releases haven’t been great. This one came closer and I liked it but again, nothing life-changing. I like both of these albums on the whole and for their overall cohesion and mood; there are stronger tracks but nothing really sticks out too much and in that way nothing really jars either. Looking at the other albums I enjoyed this seems to be the common thread through all of them.<\/p>\n

I love the Knife and Fever Ray and\u00a0Plunge<\/em> was the only release I was truly excited about this year. I grew increasingly distanced from the Knife with their final releases and their more aggressive, political direction and in many ways Fever Ray’s new album feels like a continuation of this. It took me a while to get into Plunge<\/em>\u00a0(which I really feel tries too hard in many places) but it engaged me in a way that everything else failed to this year and grows on me with each listen. Plus Mustn’t hurry\u00a0<\/em>feels like Fever Ray 1.0 and in my year of feeling musically nostalgic this alone was probably what ultimately won me over.<\/p>\n

Favourite albums:<\/strong><\/p>\n