At the time, I didn’t originally put together a year-end mix for 2017, though I did count down my 25 favorite tracks—I retained most of them here, with a few substitutions (“Losing All Sense” for Grizzly Bear instead of “Mourning Sound”; The xx’s “Replica” instead of “I Dare You”) and tracks from the year’s top albums.
A few other additions: a topical, propulsive anthem from the ever-unpredictable Canadian All-Star indie collective Broken Social Scene (with Metric’s Emily Haines on vocals), a gem from Slowdive’s surprisingly durable self-titled reunion album and a song from another British group’s own reunion album, The Clientele’s Music For The Age Of Miracles. I had never knowingly listened to them until “Lunar Days” once popped up on shuffle on Spotify and I immediately fell for it.
Iron & Wine’s slow-building “Call It Dreaming” leads this mix off and is still my favorite, but nothing encapsulates this year better than “Try Harder” by Mavis Staples. 2017 was personally a rather tough year to get through—in addition to this country’s awful new administration (there exists no kinder word to describe it), for the first time as an adult, I suddenly lost two close friends (one to a heart attack, the other, cancer.) Staples (then 78!) repeatedly wailing “Don’t do me no good to pretend / I’m as good as I can be,” over a primal, guttural guitar riff remains cathartic and still inspires me to keep moving forward.
Go here to listen to my favorite tracks of 2017 on Spotify:
- Iron & Wine, “Call It Dreaming”
- Laura Marling, “Soothing”
- The Clientele, “Lunar Days”
- Dua Lipa, “New Rules”
- Grizzly Bear, “Losing All Sense”
- Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie, “Sleeping Around The Corner”
- Perfume Genius, “Wreath”
- The War On Drugs, “Pain”
- Jessie Ware, “Your Domino”
- Sylvan Esso, “Die Young”
- Waxahatchee, “Never Been Wrong”
- Ted Leo, “Used To Believe”
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Deadly Valentine”
- Carly Rae Jepsen, “Cut To The Feeling”
- Tennis, “My Emotions Are Blinding”
- Goldfrapp, “Tigerman”
- Erasure, “Still It’s Not Over”
- Mavis Staples, “Try Harder”
- Aimee Mann, “Patient Zero”
- Lana Del Rey, “Love”
- Saint Etienne, “Magpie Eyes”
- Dan Croll, “Bad Boy”
- Alvvays, “Plimsoll Punks”
- St. Vincent, “MASSeduction”
- The xx, “Replica”
- Slowdive, “Sugar For The Pill”
- Stars, “We Called It Love”
- Spoon, “Tear It Down”
- Tori Amos, “Reindeer King”
- Sufjan Stevens, “Mystery Of Love”
- Joe Goddard feat. SLO, “Music Is The Answer”
- Emm Gryner, “Imagination”
- Lorde, “Perfect Places”
- Sparks, “Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)”
- The Mountain Goats, “Rain In Soho”
- Nicole Atkins, “If I Could”
- Alison Moyet, “The Rarest Birds”
- Jens Lekman, “Evening Prayer”
- Broken Social Scene, “Protest Song”
- Destroyer, “Le Regle du Jeu”
Haunted Jukebox 