{"id":171351,"date":"2020-11-12T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T05:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/25yearslatersite.com\/?p=171351"},"modified":"2023-01-26T22:28:03","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T03:28:03","slug":"ten-albums-from-2017-welcome-to-yesterday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/2020\/11\/12\/ten-albums-from-2017-welcome-to-yesterday\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Albums From 2017: Welcome to Yesterday"},"content":{"rendered":"
As might be expected, the first full year of the Trump presidency was culturally complicated. There was a decided uptick in political content across many genres, while much of the mainstream music scene retreated into irrelevance or very downbeat. It was a year of transition in Western culture, with the personality-driven pop of the first half of the decade dramatically burning out. Some of the biggest names in music delivered projects that were either miscalculated misfires like Eminem\u2019s Revival<\/em>, Katy Perry<\/a>\u2019s Witness<\/em> or Taylor Swift<\/a>\u2019s Reputation<\/em>, depressingly safe like many of the biggest radio hits, or simply depressing, but in a good way.<\/p>\n The success of singles like \u201cBad & Boujee\u201d and \u201cX0TourlLif3\u201d ushered in a new era of relevance for downtempo and melancholic emo trap music, which took over the mainstream like never before in the coming years. Crossover hits arrived courtesy of Latin and tropical house music, songs like \u201cStarving\u201d, \u201cShape of You\u201d and \u201cDespacito\u201d, which were as ubiquitous as they were eminently forgettable. Nearly everything of note in 2017 sounded ahead of, or behind the times.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, some artists still managed to make an impact. The closing days of 2016 delivered Run the Jewels 3<\/em> <\/a>and fired the starting pistol on a new era of political engagement both within hip-hop and beyond. The year that followed saw releases like Joey Bada$$\u2019s ALL-AMERIKKAN BADA$$<\/em>, Kendrick Lamar\u2019s DAMN.<\/em>, Open Mike Eagle<\/a>‘s\u00a0Brick Body Kids Still Daydream<\/em>, Vince Staples\u2019s Big Fish Theory<\/em>, N.E.R.D.\u2019s No One Ever Really Dies<\/em>, Logic\u2019s Everybody <\/em>and the aforementioned Revival<\/em>, all attempt to deal with the new political normal, to varying degrees of success. The underwhelming releases of pop\u2019s biggest names created a vacuum for some newer artists like Dua Lipa<\/a>, JID, Cardi B and Lil Uzi Vert to establish themselves while established artists were able to reimagine themselves and make comebacks, in some cases delivering their best work yet, which we\u2019ll be looking at on this list.<\/p>\n Other personal favourites that didn\u2019t quite leave the impact to make the cut include Japanese noise rock artist Harunemuri\u2019s Atom Heart Mother<\/em>, RnB star SZA\u2019s Ctrl<\/em>, IDK\u2019s conceptual and cinematic rap project IWASVERYBAD<\/em>, Princess Nokia\u2019s breakthrough album 1992 Deluxe<\/em>, Sadistik\u2019s phenomenal album Altars <\/em>and the terrific team-up of 21 Savage, Offset and Metroboomin, Without Warning<\/em>. For the sake of technical hair-splittery I\u2019m also not going to include mixtapes, thereby sadly leaving Joyner Lucas\u2019s fantastic and ambitious (508) 507 2209<\/em> and Murs\u2019s underrated Captain California <\/em>out in the cold. However, at least it spares you me praising Pop2 <\/em><\/a>or Number1Angel <\/em><\/a>any more than I have in past articles.<\/p>\n Phil Elverum had been married to his wife Genevieve Castree for eleven years when, shortly after the birth of their daughter, she was diagnosed with cancer. She died a year later and Elverum channelled his grief into his music, under the Mount Eerie name. A Crow Looked at Me <\/em>is the resulting folk album, a forty-minute lyrical exploration of death and grief, simply told through spartan instrumentation and recorded at home in the room where she died. To describe the album as moving would be a considerable understatement. It\u2019s a devastatingly raw confrontation with grief and death, not as abstract concepts, but as realities he has been forced to stare down by the permanent absence of the most important person in his life.<\/p>\n Elverum\u2019s inability to reconcile himself to his loss is explored in the lyrics, many of which are crushingly direct and relatable. Everyone has lost someone important to them and has someone they cannot imagine the pain it would be to lose, and remembering or imagining such a scenario is a frighteningly sobering experience, one that this album offers in as undiluted a form as artistically possible. There\u2019s some poetic imagery laced throughout, as Elverum protests against the natural order and his fading memories of his beloved, but it\u2019s the barest necessary to convey the raw emotion. It\u2019s otherwise packed with tender and soul-shaking details, about their life together leading up to her death, and his life alone with their daughter afterwards.<\/p>\n The first four tracks are possibly the saddest songs I\u2019ve ever heard, as Elverum\u2019s pain-numbed vocals murmur descriptions of packing away her things, still receiving her mail in the post and going to scatter her ashes. Describing the vast intangibility of what he has lost, singing: \u201cI poured out your ashes on [a chair on a hill], I guess so you can watch the sunset. But the truth is I don\u2019t think of that dust as you. You are the sunset.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n From the opening track \u201cReal Death\u201d, the album slowly retreats from the moment of passing, as the pain gradually recedes into something more background and less all-consuming, building to the final track \u201cCrow\u201d, where he describes a hiking trip with his daughter, both dreaming of the one they\u2019ve lost. It\u2019s a perfect ending to a perfect album and possibly the most visceral and honest artistic portrait of bereavement ever made.<\/p>\n The third and most ambitious studio album released by folk musician Josh Tillman under the Father John Misty name, Pure Comedy <\/em>continues the lustrous piano rock instrumentation and satirical songwriting of previous albums Fear Fun <\/em>and I Love You, Honeybear<\/em>. However, on this project, Tillman\u2019s mental state and attitudes read as more dejected than ever, with more lyrical savagery, bleaker imagery, and longer, more involved song structures. The album itself is a heftier meal than the previous works but doesn\u2019t come away feeling overwhelming or overstuffed. Tillman\u2019s playful and sardonic presence, and the sombre yet comforting sonic palate, keep the listener grounded throughout all thirteen minutes of a song like \u201cLeaving LA\u201d or ten minutes of \u201cSo I\u2019m Growing Old on Magic Mountain\u201d.<\/p>\nMount Eerie—A Crow Looked at Me<\/em><\/h2>\n
Released 24 March 2017<\/h2>\n
Father John Misty—Pure Comedy<\/em><\/h2>\n
Released 7 April 2017<\/h2>\n