50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EPs/Live Albums/Compilations

10. SOPHIE – Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides

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Artificiality gets a bad rap. Despite the divide between “natural” and “unnatural” being a nebulous and slippery one, many people are highly invested in establishing and maintaining a hierarchy between the two. These people affix the “unnatural” label onto a laundry list of new, scary phenomena, from smartphones to genetically modified foods, hoping everyone else shares their assumption that artificiality is inherently negative. Somewhere on that list, you’ll find pretty much everything queer people do. Same-gender relationships are “unnatural.” Lack of sexual desire is “unnatural.” Feeling that you’re a different gender than everyone says you are is “unnatural,” as is anything you might do to feel more like that gender: makeup, hormone replacement therapy, plastic surgery, etc.

SOPHIE has no regard for such condemnations; throughout Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, she revels in the artificial. She takes the raw electronic elements of club bangers and alternately fashions them into blasts of industrial surrealism or impressionist strokes of ambience. The voice that declares, “My face is the front of shop” and sings about “immaterial girls” is not her own; when she does grace the mic, her voice is so unintelligibly distorted that a listener can only just make out her command to “synthesize the real.” Not since Floral Shoppe has such…

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EPs/Live Albums/Compilations

10. Iglooghost – Clear Tamei

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By now Iglooghost has solidified himself as one of the most talented producers, being able to take the most frantic drums of Aphex Twin’s and molding it into something that’s altogether his own. Within the splashes of melody lines, one can hear influences of bubblegum bass, rap breakdowns, fluttering ambient passages, and at times even twinkly math rock arpeggios. All of these are on full display on Clear Tamei, yet he’s taken it a step further within the overall atmosphere of this EP; Iglooghost wants to become a world-builder. Instantly, you’re immersed into this alien land, filled with many characters speaking gibberish while metallic clangs of synths and samples elongate across the ground — much like blowing up a balloon, only to have it pop and burst into nonstop explosions of robotic sound effects. At times this world seems like it’s underwater, like an unimaginable Atlantis filled with multicolored sea life. Other times, it seems as if you’re in some jungle as birds chirp by your ears gracefully among the gorgeous chaos happening before your eyes. It’s meant to be confusing only in the sense that everything you are hearing and experiencing is completely and totally new, making it one of the most successful EPs for immersing you into foreign, dreamed up lands. While it’s…

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EPs/Live Albums/Compilations

30. Tim Hecker – Konoyo

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The location: an unnamed New Zealand city, a suburb which I will grant anonymity. A long-disused industrial warehouse, fallen into dilapidation, on the corner of a noisy major thoroughfare and a street which exclusively houses those kind of depots, tin expanses stowing wares no-one wants or needs, strange buildings which for whatever reason require constant power-tool sounds to screech from them. Some entrepreneur repurposed the place as a café without doing much to clean up, assuming perhaps that ghosts are less frightening when visible. The tables were arranged outside under a concrete awning with a prime view of the main road, which ran less than ten metres away. The place was invariably packed; people crowded the tables, sipping their coffees, viewing the traffic and maelstrom of cars they would rejoin in a matter of minutes, a constant drone of labour audible though impossible to echolocate.

It’s less that it was an oasis and more a signifier that there was no reprieve. The proximity to garish brutalist architecture and the transportational march of progress, people stifling in their cars, getting one place to the next, became a fixture. People were watching regurgitated, endlessly and recursively perpetuated versions of themselves: the ultimate postmodern experience. Not so much voyeurism as exhibitionism right? I remember going there once, drinking what I imagine the Allied forces in WWII…

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EPs/Live Albums/Compilations

50. Horrendous – Idol

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Horrendous’ ascension from rabid Swede-worshiping youngsters to trailblazing veterans has been one of the most compelling arcs to witness in all of death metal history. The way these four Philly natives have progressed over the last six years has been nothing short of awe-inspiring, and their latest offering, Idol, stands a monolith of modern death metal, an album by which all others should be measured. It will make you believe in the magic of metal again; bursting with youthful exuberance and a brash sense of adventure, yet maintaining a vice grip on classic death metal songwriting. Idol has the feeling of exploring the unknown while simultaneously holding true to the tenets of the genre. What really sells the album though is the apparent ease Horrendous manage to weave together these disparities. Whether in the epic “Golgothan Tongues”, which sees a transcendent combination of melody and groove, or “Devotion (Blood For Ink)”, which marries the group’s most progressive and guttural intentions, there isn’t a moment on Idol where Horrendous feel like they aren’t in total control of their forward-thinking death metal assault. Pushing the boundaries has become so inherent to what they do that each song finds new ways to express their ambitious craft. It’s this aptitude that has elevated them to the status of extreme metal gods, and why in 2018 the whole of the underground has bent a knee…

50-31 | 30-11 | EPs | 10-1

10. Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.

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Let’s just forget for a moment that the Collector’s Edition of DAMN. ever happened. OK, is it out of your minds? Good. Now let’s also for a moment ignore the nearly invisible thread of a thematic composition, as it’s really the drops of blood that fall from Kendrick’s mouth throughout the record that help illuminate this thin string. It’s true, Kendrick embraces his own death and almost enjoys the metallic taste that society has caused to pool in his mouth. And damn if he doesn’t lash out right away with “DNA.”, easily the banger of the year solidified by the fervent extra verse that ends the track with silent mouths agape. Despite “HUMBLE.” also taking from the leftover rush of endorphins, Kendrick decides to expand off of his jazz rap endeavor, this time with a rosy filter of R&B rap and laid-back vibes. “ELEMENT.” is the front-runner when it comes to such a trial, with Rihanna-featured “LOYALTY.” coming close behind. While not every love-drenched track succeeds quite as much as the two, it’s hard to argue against this next logical step in Kendrick’s style and sound.

I’ll be completely honest, though, I’m not the biggest fan of this album as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, the product in its entirety is put together quite nicely, nonetheless tacked on with some buttons of…

50-31 | 30-11 | EPs | 10-1

15. The Wonder Years – Burst and Decay

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While not necessarily offering much in new material, The Wonder Years manage to affirm their intentions with this emotionally wrought collection of beautifully arranged acoustic renditions of previous material. Dan Campbell’s vocals ring as self-assured and vibrant as ever, and the band’s instrumentation adds many more colors to the pallet already established by the track listing. The production is intimate and the emotional tension is high on Burst and Decay, and The Wonder Years managed to create a nice batch of acoustic arrangements that arguably outshine their original renditions. –ianblxdsoe

14. Charli XCX – Number 1 Angel

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Baseball is my favorite sport, so when it comes to the end of the year and evaluating its yield, I like the idea of tidying up my thoughts in terms of individual contributions. For a team sport, baseball’s modern era permits (nay, encourages) an insane degree of focus on individual performance and contributions (and there is a litany of statistics to this effect). It’s a weird analogue to draw, for sure, but it is super clear to me that Charli XCX is the 2017 MVP. Like DAMN, talk about output… there were the twin mixtapes (this one, as well as Pop2, both of…

50-31 | 30-11 | EPs | 10-1

50. Ryuichi Sakamoto – Async

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It feels weird to be kicking off our best of the year list with async. After all, the opener “Andata” is the sort of song associated with endings; it’s a funeral dirge, a reflection of where Sakamoto’s mind was no doubt wandering during his three year battle with cancer. Perhaps this fear of death also led to the common day sounds present throughout async. The first words spoken on the album (“Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times”) is the sentiment that I think sums up the importance of these sounds we take for granted, yet may never hear again. “Walker”, for example, features the sound of grass crunched underfoot and the background noise of a town or city in the distance, provoking the sort of quiet contemplation that no doubt Sakamoto experienced while crafting async. But if most of async is the quiet reflection that comes with the reminder of one’s mortality, then the title track is the sweating painful fear that comes with all the pangs and doubts as to whether remission will come. And for that complex duality, I think async deserves a spot here. –Mort.

49. Alvvays – Antisocialites

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Many of you guys know the deal here. I’ve done the best album ranks for each year of sputnik’s existence starting here. Briefly, when users were complaining about the lack of charts, I made a post with the current year end rankings. For those who are too lazy to click links, these are the top 200 albums of 2017 as measured by calculating the weighted average of users’ ratings, with higher weight given proportional to a handful of user’s stats (number of comments, lists, reviews, and ratings). Afterword, a confidence interval is calculated based on the average and the number of ratings each album has (an album that is a 3.95 with 100 ratings is ranked higher than an album with 3.95 and 50 ratings, for instance). Finally, only albums with 50 or more ratings are included, and note that all types of albums are included in this: LPs, EPs, live albums, compilations, and I guess any singles that have snuck past our moderators.

UserUsageRank 1, MeanRank: 4, Gang of Youths_Go Farther in Lightness
Number of Ratings: 285, UserUsageMean: 3.99 (CI: 3.78 – 4.17), Mean: 4.01, Diff: -0.02
Users with Biggest Weight: SowingSeason (2.4%), Willie (2.1%), klap (2.0%), BigHans (1.9%), Green+Baron (1.8%)

UserUsageRank 2, MeanRank: 1, Brand New_Science Fiction
Number of Ratings: 1262, UserUsageMean: 3.86 (CI: 3.77 – 3.96), Mean: 4.06, Diff: -0.20
Users with Biggest Weight: Trebor. (0.8%), SowingSeason (0.8%), Willie (0.7%), klap (0.7%), Hawks (0.6%)

UserUsageRank 3, MeanRank: 3, Chelsea…

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EPs

10. Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial

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“I’ve got no right to be depressed,” whines Will Toledo on Teens of Denial‘s cerebral and prescient opener, “Fill in the Blank”. In it, he complains about nothing in particular, lamenting nothing whilst refusing to form an intelligent or informed opinion on anything. In many ways, he’s symptomatic of white, liberal, twenty-something naval-gazing, always finding problems but never caring to see if there’s solutions. But, in denying the illegitimacy of his malaise, and proclaiming with a sort of disenfranchised aplomb that he indeed ‘has a right to be depressed,’ Toledo flips the narrative; he welcomes introversion and entertains its possibilities. It becomes the central thesis of Teens of Denial, kicking against the little things with a sincerely sarcastic bent. Toledo writes bedroom pop songs around knotty compositions, exercising guitar theatrics whilst never emerging from his humbled performance style. In effect, he’s living a maladaptive daydream, wherein his lonely nights become cathartic rock concerts, celebrating his emotional fragility whilst having at least one foot on the distortion pedal. If you’ve ever spent a Saturday night at home, then you’ll recognize the sound. –Elliott

9. Jeff Rosenstock – Worry.

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Worry. is essentially one of the most fun and upbeat albums of…

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EPs

10. Brand New – 3 Demos, Reworked

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There are some questions as to why 3 Demos, Reworked even exists. Was it a hastily-recorded fixer to smooth over the grumblings when LP5 was delayed once again? Or was it planned out in advance, part of a bigger scheme leading up to whatever Brand New have in store for 2017? The cynic in me thinks the former, but the music on display seems to bear up the latter. 3 Demos is the tightest, least-forced music we’ve heard from Brand New since Daisy, and the fact that the songs are more than ten years old doesn’t seem to hurt that in the least. “Brother’s Song” and “1996” are clean, crisp and beautiful, with the former’s raw acoustic appeal translating weirdly well to a full-band electric version. “1996” has definitely changed the least, with Lacey’s best Morrissey impression still in the forefront amongst some of the finest and most cynical lyrics he’s ever penned. Only “Missing You” is a dud, with the original’s dirty electronic drive totally lost amongst the too-polished, too-slow reinterpretation. But “Missing You” doesn’t stop this being one of the stronger EPs of the year, and hopefully a sign that Brand New are getting back in the headspace that gave us The Devil and God… all those years ago. –Rowan

9. JANK – Versace

…

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EPs

30. Jimmy Eat World – Integrity Blues

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Jimmy Eat World perhaps saw the biggest return to form of any artist this year. After three albums passed and faced mixed reception from fans and critics alike, Jim Adkins took a step back and dove into more personal lyricism, with the band following suit. There is a lot more emotion in everything this time around without feeling like they are trying too hard, and Jim replaces the “you”s that he has been singing about since Bleed American and replaces them with “I”s. While the album dives into some territory the band have previously delved into – such as the incredible post-rock bridge of “Sure and Certain” and the swaying acoustic ballad of “The End is Beautiful” – there is something new to be found, such as the progressive rock conclusion of “Pass the Baby”. If there are any doubts about the band’s ability to write strong material, the final two tracks could go down as some of their best. Integrity Blues sees the return of Jimmy Eat World to their absolute potential, showing that maybe the best has yet to come. –Hogan

29. Blood Incantation – Starspawn

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Given the prevalence of the OSDM revival recently, it’s refreshing to see a…

50-31 | 30-11 | 10-1 | EPs

50. SUMAC – What One Becomes

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With names such as Aaron Turner, Brian Cook, and Nick Yacyshyn at the helm, there’s no doubt SUMAC were born to create thunderous music. Few bands can make such a massive sound with only three members. What One Becomes sees their brand of sludge become less riff-oriented and move more towards a plodding, pummeling approach. SUMAC aren’t content to stay at one tempo though; the band are just as comfortable pounding out menacing chords in separate octaves as they are launching into breakneck passages or suddenly giving way to spacey, fuzzy moments. This behemoth of a record is out to crush you, and Kurt Ballou’s production ensures it’s as organic-sounding as they come. –RogueNine

48 (tie). Devin Townsend Project – Transcendence

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Some might argue that Devin Townsend is practically a god in the music industry. Ever since his debut album, Townsend has been creating some of the most surreal and entertaining music over these last twenty years, ranging from the modern pop-metal routines of the Devin Townsend Project albums to his more aggressive days in Strapping Young Lad. Transcendence is, in a way, the culmination of some of his best ideas thrown together into one hour-long record. While it certainly isn’t as reliable on…