2017's Best Tunes

I forgot to post a favourite tunes of 2017 list. This list has been sitting in my drafts since mid December but it was only a top 5 or 6 anyway. I've added a handful of other tracks since the Christmas/New Year period. I didn't listen to the radio or watch any music video channels in 2017 but I did check out probably a couple of hundred singles/tracks on youtube. Not hearing them in a radio context doesn't allow for a tune to insidiously worm its way into your brain though. I thought pop's reign had halted and r&b, rap etc. were in poor shape. I still do.

I just couldn't hear any innovations in rap at all, at least not vocally. It all just seemed to be rehashing what Gucci Mane, Future and Young Thug had pioneered years earlier. In times like these sometimes that can be ok because often newer artists consolidate on what the pioneers have already blueprinted. However it just seems like every newcomer is rather pale by comparison to their forefathers. God, Young Thug & Future even did an album together which left not a trace in my memory, that was not a good sign. Jay-Z sounded tired. Geez Tyler, The Creator was even sounding fresh with his old school Neptunes/NERD shtick, it stood out because everyone else sounded the same. Too Much (Vocal) from v1984 was classic b-boys on E stuff plus I quite liked tracks from these new feisty rappers with potential Rico Nasty and Sheff G.

The beauty of hip hop a few years ago was the fact that somehow even in this post-geographical internet age a regional flavour still came through in a lot of leading artists material. So distinctive styles were developing throughout the different neighbourhoods of America. Now you get New Yorkers sounding like wannabe southern trappers, people from LA moving to Atlanta, Rappers from Brooklyn wishing they were from Chicago etc. Where are Rae Sremmunrd from? Cardi B? Vince Staples? Is Travis Scott from Atlanta?  Who knows anymore? It's probably a cyclical thing. I mean you did have g-funk coming out of all sorts of places in the 90s, not just LA.

I didn't think I'd heard any good pop/rock songs last year, not that I tried very hard or at all. However, I actually heard the infectious Imagine Dragons tune, Whatever It Takes, in Emma's car on Boxing Day which I thought was a state of the art soft-rock anthem for the FM airwaves of 2017. No apologies hipsters.

Indie rock is just plain embarrassing now. It's the trad jazz of the 2010s.

Most R&B and their inter-zones sounded staid but there were a couple of things that grabbed my attention. The obvious standout was Kelela's two singles and LP. Apparently there's a Steve Gurley dub of her Truth Or Dare floating around the internet too. Thundercat, SZA and NERD featuring Rihanna had their retro moments.

There were one or two disparate electronic things that caught my ear but they were mainly just little 90s nostalgia trips for me like Lanark Artefacts' Touch Absence, Bicep's Glue, Loft's Funemployed and a few others that have slipped my mind. Other track-y things like Your Kiss Is Sour by Parris and Ploy's Unruly had their charms while Objekt's Theme From Q was almost something new. Oh and I've only just realised Rudeboyz came back with an EP but I missed it.

So below is my belated best tunes of 2017 list.

BEST TUNES OF 2017
Frontline - Kelela
LMK - Kelela
Slippery - Migos feat. Gucci Mane
Blue Light - Kelela
Bodak Yellow - Cardi B (Zora Jones & Sinjin Hawke Bootleg)
Magnolia - Playboi Carti
Too Much (Vocal) - v1984
Goosebumps - Travis Scott feat. Kendrick Lamar
Dark Matter - Jlin & Zora Jones
Mask Off - Future
DNA - Kendrick Lamar
Lemon - NERD feat. Rihanna

Rap Mixtapes - Influx Inertia

They were counting down the days by the second at Datpiff for the release of Luca Brasi 2 by Kevin Gates and I got caught up in the anticipation too. I think I ended up downloading it in the middle of the night. I mean I didn't set the alarm or anything, it just so happened I couldn't sleep. I was looking forward to it though. I still don't get why such quality releases are free. I guess it's hard to stop the pirates so why not? Some of these free mixtapes are for sale as well. In my list of best LPs/Mixtapes of 2014 sixteen of the thirty six were given away free via Datpiff, Live Mixtapes etc. They have become such quality documents I decided to put them along side the proper album releases. I think it was Lil Wayne who started the trend of making mixtapes of such high standard. He even used to say the accompanying mixtapes released around the same time as his proper LPs were better than the official releases.

I've still got around 20 mixtapes in my 'inbox of new mixtapes' playlist that I haven't had enough time to give proper listens to. They're just the recent 2014 ones I've downloaded. A stack more await downloading but it's starting to get ridiculous. Then there are the recommended classic mixtapes as well from like the past 15 years or so. I only got into this scene in the last few years so I've got a bit of catching up to do. I went off hip-hop post Ironman for some reason. I love Ironman so it was probably Wu Tang Forever that stopped me in my rap tracks.

It's starting to get a bit like DJs who I used to see in the specialist dance record shops in the 90s who'd play 20 seconds of a track and have to decide yay or nay, right then and there. I used to think they must miss heaps of good shit especially in the hardcore/jungle scene where the best bits might not happen until 2 or 3 minutes in. Anyway I've had to say nay to Salva, Blanco Huslah Kokane and Og Maco recently so they've been deleted. They may have grown on me but I feel I have to be ruthless. I've said Yay to Kevin Gates Luca Brasi 2, Travi$ Scott's Days Before Rodeo, Zuse's Illegal Immigrant, King Louie's Soprano and YP Spoelstra's Heat Vol 3. Those five artists have good track records though. So once they get the yay they have to await proper evaluation at a later date. Then we've got "the I dunno?" category which is kind of a purgatory for mixtapes. Starlito's Theories, WhoKid Woody's R.E.A.L, Archive Nation a compilation hosted by Lil Silk, AD's Comptonfornia 2 and Dej Loaf's Sell Sole all sound alright but they have to wait until their time comes after the Yays have had their proper listening time. By the time I get around to "the I dunnos" though a whole new batch of mixtapes will be vying for my attention as well as proper rap releases (like Starlito's Black Sheep Don't Grin which sounds pretty good!) and non rap zone releases (The Moon Wiring Club parcel finally arrived). So they may not get a second chance. Hey they are just the ones I've given a go! Still waiting in the wings we've got Archibald Slim, Cheif Keef, Boogie, Future, Sauce Twinz, The Guys, Goldlink, YG, Lil Herb, A$AP Ferg and the list goes on and on some more.

As good as Bullet?

So I can't even give proper reviews to Kevin Gates (sounds good so far, a bit of a cleaner sound but I dunno if it's up there with his past 3 classics: The Luca Brasi Story, Stranger Than Fiction or By Any Means. I mean that's a pretty hard task right there innit?) or Zuse (I don't know if it's as good as Bullet yet). I have finally given King Louie's Soprano a good listen and can say it's the goods. More like a trad rap companion to the more futuristic Tony. That's as deep as I can go at this point.

More good shit from King Louie.

It all reminds me a bit of that story (Sartre maybe?) of the guy who decided to read an entire library but by the time he died he was only up to the authors beginning with the letter E or something like that. This is just a microcosm of the information overload age. I have other interests too (er..well other types of music obviously, footy, wildlife documentaries, philosophy &....well that's about it really) but....

Swamped, inundated, overwhelmed!