Photo ANDREW PARKS
You’re probably wondering why we’re running a “Required Listening” roundup two days before we say goodbye to 2017. The answer is simple: We don’t believe in Top Anything’s anymore. Not when everyone has access to everything, and it takes something truly special to hold someone’s attention for more than 30 minutes.
Here it is, then: 100 in-no-particular-order records from the past year that moved us in some way, whether that meant a drawn-out dose of morose doom-metal (Bell Witch) or the welcome return of disco-punk’s reluctant don (LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, who is leading the band into battle during the ball drop portion of their ‘final show’ above).
Happy listening, and see ya next year!
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Actress – AZD (Ninja Tune)
Alessandro Cortini – Avanti (Point of Departure)
Algiers – The Underside of Power (Matador)
Arca – Arca (XL)
Ariel Pink – Dedicated to Bobby Jameson (Mexican Summer)
Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (Profound Lore)
Ben Frost – The Centre Cannot Hold (Mute)
Bicep – Bicep (Ninja Tune)
Bill MacKay & Ryley Walker – SpiderBeetleBee (Drag City)
Bing & Ruth – No Home of the Mind (4AD)
Björk – Utopia (One Little Indian)
Blanck Mass – World Eater (Sacred Bones)
Brainwaltzera – Poly-Ana (FILM)
Broken English Club – The English Beach (L.I.E.S.)
Bvdub – Heartless (n5MD)
Call Super – Arpo (Houndstooth)
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest (Because Music)
Charly Bliss – Guppy (Barsuk)
Chino Amobi – PARADISO (UNO NYC)
Colleen – A flame my love, a frequency (Thrill Jockey)
Converge – The Dusk in Us (Epitaph)
Death of Lovers – The Acrobat (Dais)
Delia Gonzalez – Horse Follows Darkness (DFA)
Dj Python – Dulce Compañia (Incienso)
DJ Sports – Modern Species (Firecracker Recordings)
Drab Majesty – The Demonstration (Dais)
Equiknoxx – Colón Man (DDS)
Ellen Arkbro – For Organ and Brass (Multiverse)
Ex Eye – Ex Eye (Relapse)
Felicia Atkinson – Hand in Hand (Shelter Press)
Fever Ray – Plunge (Mute)
Four Tet – New Energy (Text)
GAS – Narkopop (Kompakt)
Greg Fox The Gradual Progression (RVNG Intl.)
Iona Fortune – Tao of I (Optimo Music)
James Holden – The Animal Spirits (Border Community)
Jana Rush – Pariah (Objects Limited)
Jane Weaver – Modern Kosmology (Fire)
Japan Blues – Sells His Record Collection (Japan Blues)
JASSS – Weightless (iDEAL Recordings)
Jean-Michel Blais x CFCF – Cascades (Arts & Crafts)
Jlin – Black Origami (Planet Mu)
John Maus – Screen Memories (Ribbon Music)
Juana Molina – Halo (Crammed Discs)
Juju & Jordash – Sis-boom-bah! (Dekmantel)
Justin Walter – Unseen Forces (Kranky)
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Kid (Western Vinyl)
Kara-Lis Coverdale – Grafts (Boomkat Editions)
Karen Gwyer – Rembo (Don’t Be Afraid)
Kassel Jaeger – Aster (Editions Mego)
Kelela – Take Me Apart (Warp)
Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens (Smalltown Supersound)
King Krule – The OOZ (True Panther Sounds)
Konrad Sprenger – Stack Music (PAN)
Laurel Halo – Dust (Hyperdub)
Lawrence English – Cruel Optimism (Room40)
LCD Soundsystem – american dream (Columbia / DFA)
Lee Gamble – Mnestic Pressure (Hyperdub)
Liars – TFCF (Mute)
Molly Nilsson – Imaginations (Dark Skies / Night School)
Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked at Me (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
Mount Kimbie – Love What Survives (Warp)
Nabihah Iqbal – Weighing of the Heart (Ninja Tune)
Nathan Fake – Providence (Ninja Tune)
Ninos Du Brasil – Vida Eterna (Hospital Productions)
Not Waving – Good Luck (Diagonal)
Oneohtrix Point Never – Good Time Original Soundtrack (Warp)
Penelope Trappes – Penelope One (Optimo Music)
Perfume Genius – No Shape (Matador)
Pessimist – Pessimist (Blackest Ever Black)
Phase Fatale – Redeemer (Hospital Productions)
Philippe Hallais – An American Hero (Modern Love)
Porter Ricks – Anguilla Electrica (Tresor)
Priests – Nothing Feels Natural (Sister Polygon)
Protomartyr – Relatives in Descent (Domino)
Rafael Anton Irisarri – The Shameless Years (Umor-Rex)
Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement – Ambient Black Magic (Hospital Productions)
Rat Columns – Candle Power (Upset the Rhythm)
Richard Dawson – Peasant (Weird World)
Sannhet – So Numb (Profound Lore)
Sarah Davachi – All My Circles Run (Students of Decay)
Sevendeaths – Remote Sympathy (LuckyMe)
Shinichi Atobe From the Heart, It’s a Start, a Work of Art (DDS)
Sleaford Mods – English Tapas (Rough Trade)
Slowdive – Slowdive (Dead Oceans)
Steffi – World of the Waking State (Ostgut Ton)
SW. – The Album (R&S)
Talaboman – The Night Land (R&S)
Tarawangsawelas – Wanci (Morphine)
The Bug x Earth – Concrete Desert (Ninja Tune)
The Horrors – V (XL)
The Necks – Unfold (Ideologic Organ)
The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding (Atlantic)
Thurston Moore – Rock N Roll Consciousness (Caroline)
Tom Rogerson x Brian Eno – Finding Shore (Dead Oceans)
Tszuzing – In a Moment a Thousand Hits (Bedouin)
Varg – Nordic Flora Series Pt. 3: Gore-Tex City (Northern Electronics)
Vince Staples – Big Fish Theory (Def Jam)
Visible Cloaks – Reassemblage (RVNG Intl.)
Zola Jesus – Okovi (Sacred Bones)
