Best of 2017: #1 - The Horrors - V (Wolf Tone)

The Horrors are no strangers to my year end Top 10 lists. In 2009, they were #2 with Primary Colours, and in 2014, they were #10, with Luminous. This year, they're #1, with V, appropriately, their fifth album. The Horrors have long been one of my favourite modern bands digging into the style of the 80s and merging it with a more modern style. 2014's Luminous was a nice return to form for the English band, with a punchy, garage tinged retro style, but this year's V was a remarkable leap forward. Intensely catchy and rooted in the giants of early new wave, the album is reminiscent of the best work of Gary Numan and Echo and the Bunnymen. "Hologram", the lead off track is vintage Numan, detached, dark, brooding and paranoid synth-rock. "Something to Remember Me By" plumbs Depeche Mode and Portishead for a catchy, shadowy dance floor vibe. "Machine" is one of the best tracks of 2017, equal parts crisp new wave and bruising post punk.

Best of 2017 #2: Woolworm - Deserve to Die (Mint)

One of the greatest joys of working in campus radio is following a band from their obscure beginnings, recording independently, and seeing them blossom into a full-fledged band with a focused sound. I got this experience with Vancouver's Woolworm, who I discovered in 2012 with their EP Everything Seems Obvious on the Hockey Dad label. Admittedly, they'd been around since 2009 by that time. I knew if they kept at it, they'd go from a great band to a fantastic band. Deserve to Die took them into the elite of Canadian college radio and got them some looks in the US and Europe too. Deserve to Die was their first album for the prestigious Mint record label, home to some of the best indy bands in Western Canada. Go see them live, I've seen them three times so far. Excellent merge of post punk with melodic indy rock.

Best of 2017 #3: Whimm - A Stare Ajar (Independent)

As life continues to kick my ass, I finally get back to the 2017 countdown. And as luck would have it, this band already has a new EP out, so there's that.

Whimm are a relatively new Canadian band, hailing from Toronto. They're an anthemic noise-rock band, melodic in parts, spacy in parts, and pummelling like METZ in parts. Their debut full length is an immensely enjoyable, tense and driving noise-rock excursion that holds up to multiple listens.

https://whimm.bandcamp.com/

Best of 2017 #4: Beck - Colors (Capitol Records)

After Beck's surprise win for the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2015, his next album became a focus of attention. Would he continue to explore his musical range, or would he rest on his laurels, and create another album like Mourning Phase? We got a glimpse when the first single came out in summer 2015. "Dreams" was an upbeat danceable pop track with the skewed funk Beck has done in the past. "Wow" followed a year later, with a dreamy, pop/funk/electronica vibe. It took another year before the album Colors finally came out, and it was a fairly experimental album, with lots of oddball electro-pop involved, but also remained pretty accessible, with some very dancy pop tracks. As predicted, Beck remained unpredictable. After a two year slow burn, Colors was well worth the wait.

Best of 2017 #5: Gesture - No Past, It Started All Over Again (Independent)

Vancouver's Gesture were a very short lived band, existing for just over a year. Their full-length album, No Past, It Started All Over Again, is a mix of low-fi indy rock, slow post punk and sheer weirdness that's incredibly captivating. Local taste-maker Andy Resto's vocals are extremely odd: reed-thin warbling on the edge of paranoid breakdown. If I could compare the band to another band, the closest I'd get would be The Residents, and that's only a tenuous comparison. A strange band with an even stranger album, you can't help but listen, if only for morbid curiosity.

https://gesture.bandcamp.com/album/no-past-it-started-all-over-again

Best of 2017 #6: Future Islands - The Far Field (4AD)

US band Future Islands are sort of like the indy rock's version of AC/DC. They tend to make the same album, but it's a pretty good album anyway. The band has this odd mix of playful electro-rock, usually with a prominent bassline, with Sam Herring's expressive crooning propelling the emotion of the band along. I rated their last album, Singles, as my favourite album of 2014. This album doesn't break a lot of new ground, but it's a pretty fine album anyway.

Best of 2017 #7: Alvvays - Antisocialites (Royal Mountain)

Toronto-based band Alvvays' 2014 debut was an album I didn't hear in time for it to make my best of list that year, but if I had heard it, rest assured, it would have been near the top of the chart. Their 2017 album Antisocialites sees the band tightening up their willowy post-punk tinged indy rock and smoothing down the edges of their punky debut's leaning. While their new album lacks the wild abandon of some of the more shambling bits of their debut, and also misses out on the transcendent feel of "Archie, Marry Me" (which seemed to be everywhere in 2014-5), it does have a focus the debut lacked. This album is a few steps behind and ahead of the debut, and is no less enjoyable.

Best of 2017 #8: LCD Soundsystem - American Dream (DFA)

A 2016 tour fueled the buzz around American Dream in 2017, LCD Soundsystems first album in more than 5 years. American Dream showed up on many critics Top 10 lists, often at #1, and for good reason. This wasn't just a comeback for nostalgia's sake. This was a full blown return, with all creative juices flowing. American Dream captures both the classic electro-rock sound of James Murphy's earliest work under the LCD name, but an update of the sound for the 2010s. It also channelled Murphy's deep love for the New York new wave scene, with many tracks looking back in love and detached horror to the stuttering new wave funk of the Talking Heads, the unhinged experimentation of Suicide and the crisp disco sheen of Blondie. LCD are back and better than ever.

Best of 2017 #9: Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent (Domino)

Detroit's Protomartyr made a huge splash on the college radio scene with their last album, 2014's The Agent Intellect. 2017's Relatives in Descent sees the band pulling back a bit, becoming more moody and textured, but no less caustic. This is pure post-punk, insistent, dark, noisy and disturbing. Singer Joe Casey is a near dead ringer for Mark E. Smith, if he were American. Casey is as pointed and accusing as MES, but a touch more smooth and less deadpan. The music is driving, moody and repetitive. Snarly and demanding your attention. Great album.

Best of 2017 #10: Gun Control - Volume 1 (Independent)

Getting a late start to the Top 10 albums countdown and review, but we're at it anyway...

Gun Control are a brand new group from our of Vancouver. Self-described as a noise-rock band, they're much more than that. They've got a melodic take on indy rock, merging that with a grungy, sloppy punk sound. Looking for bands they sound like: think early R.E.M, but with clearer vocals, The Thermals, complete with oddball Hutch Harris style vocals, The Connells, ("City of No" sounds a lot like "Stone Cold  Yesterday"), the melodic side of Sleater-Kinney maybe?

Volume 1 is available on Bandcamp at a the "Name Your Price" option, so give them some cash so they can keep making music!

Best of 2017

1) The Horrors - V (Wolf Tone)
2) Woolworm* - Deserve to Die (Mint)
3) Whimm* - A Stare Ajar (Pleasance)
4) Beck - Colors (Capitol)
5) Gesture* - No Past, It Started All Over Again (Independent)
6) Future Islands - The Far Field (4AD)
7) Alvvays* - Antisocialites (Royal Mountain)
8) LCD Soundsystem - American Dream (DFA)
9) Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent (Domino)
10) Gun Control* - Volume 1 (Independent)

Honourable Mentions: Hermetic* - Postscript (Big Smoke), Walrus* - Family Hangover (Madic), METZ* - Strange Peace (Royal Mountain), Algiers - The Underside of Power (Matador), Clark - Death Peak (Warp)