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The Wonderfish Presents: 2017's Best Albums

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish.

In this final post of the year, we look at the albums that most captivated me, The Wonderfish, in 2017.

Honorable Mentions:
As Heard mentioned, we saw a year of excellent music. There is just no way I could listen to all of the album releases. However, I will say I listened to a fair share of 2017's new music. First up are my honorable mentions. These are the albums I both thoroughly enjoyed and listened to repeatedly this year.

Fleet Foxes - Crack Up
Ryan Adams - Prisoner
Rhiannon Giddens - Freedom Highway
Foo Fighters - Concrete and Gold
The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
U2 - Songs of Experience
Ani DiFranco - Binary
Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau- Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau

Runner Up:
Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

 Words that come to mind when I think about this album: 
poetic, compelling, magnetic, storytelling, innovative, rhetorical

Why this album stands out:
Kendrick Lamar's story is interesting in itself. On this album he allows us to learn even more about him in an exceptionally creative manner. His lyrical prowess is unmatched in 2017. The storytelling design has me thinking about record albums in a new way. If you listen to the album from start to finish, and then listen to it again in reverse order, the mood changes while the heart of the story remains the same. I think this is quite the artistic accomplishment. This quality was discussed over the summer, but I found a more recent article about it, too, because the collector's edition of the album was released by Kendrick this month and the original song order is reversed.

Highlights:
HUMBLE. XXX. DNA.    

The Wonderfish's 2017 Album of the Year:
St. Vincent - Masseduction

Words that come to mind when I think about this album:
bright, electric, melodic, atypical, atmospheric, edgy

Why this album stands out:
St. Vincent's work turns the lights on in a room where distorted guitars mesh seamlessly with sounds of pop music and unrelenting melodic hooks. Listening to this album makes the examination of societal ills an exciting adventure. You begin with a sense of being an outcast, discuss why people are on so much medication, think about human desire, and just when you start to have a little fun, the rain comes pouring down as we realize what we've lost in the process. I don't know if there is a timelier work that throws our habits, as a culture, in our collective face this year. With Masseduction, Annie Clark holds up a significantly sized mirror. It's well-worth the look as we attempt to figure out our direction in 2018.

Highlights:
Los Ageless, Savior, Sugarboy, New York     
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