The Retrographer 36 (1 0 0 2 0 1 7)

December 30, 2017

The top 100 songs of 2017, plus top albums, videos, weird internet stuff, and more.

The Retrographer, Issue 36 (1 0 0 2 0 1 7)

I can still feel the looming darkness surrounding us when I sent this list last year. The music world seemed to be contracting: Prince, Maurice White, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, George Martin, and many others had suddenly passed; Donald Trump had been nominated, but not inaugurated, president, unmasking a cravenness in the American psyche that portended an unpredictable future; Americans were demonstrating in the streets, ridiculing one another’s fear or foolishness, finding little in the way of direction or aspiration in leaders, art, discourse, neighbors. At other times in history, music had seemed to mirror our conflict, but now it seemed more like a distraction from it.2017 may not have yielded a clear path for reconciliation, and 2018 may not either. Whether we admit it or not, Americans are galled by a much older ethical crisis: The richest nation in the history of the world increasingly views its most vulnerable with disdain. Many of us are galled by its seemingly intractable decline, with fortunes and prospects dimmed. Animated for a quarter-millennia by expansion, Americans worry the future holds, for the first time, less.  

The first song I added for consideration for 2017’s list didn’t make the final cut – David Bowie’s posthumously released “No Plan”, which came out the first week in January of this waning year. I remember looking at the playlist, with just its first candidate and a full year of music lying ahead of me, I felt a familiar wonder: In just under a year’s time, this list would be full of hundreds of songs at that moment unreleased, maybe unwritten. That dream came true. Twelve months later, that vessel held so much amazing, inventive, beautiful new music I gladly spent countless hours agonizing over what deserving music to add, what to cut, and how to order these hundred favorites. From zero hours, up over thirty, then cut down to six and a half. In January, 2017, that was all in front of me, and now I’m ready to share it. 

Music can only frame life's changes. It isn’t politics, or community, or law, or love. But, like those things, it’s of our creating. Just as now, in December, 2017, we look back stunned at what the past year had in store from us, so too will we behold, in amazement, December 2018, a year's difference as foreign and familiar as every one before it. What happens between now and then is simply of our making. So let’s make it.

Listen here: 1 0 0 2 0 1 7 (Spotify / YouTube)

Top 10 Albums of the Year

Top 10 Songs of the Year

Top 10 Videos of the Year

Older Albums That Meant a Lot to Me in 2017

Amazing and Weird YouTube videos from 2017

And Finally: A Meticulously-Sequenced Playlist of the Top 100 Songs of 2017

Listen to these songs on Spotify and YouTube

  • “Supercut”, Lorde

  • “Biking”, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, and Tyler, the Creator

  • “Mayor”, Wiki

  • “Little of Your Love”, HAIM

  • “Hard Times”, Paramore

  • “I’m the One”, DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne

  • “Patty Cake”, Kodak Black

  • “Heartstroke”, Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande, Young Thug, and Pharrell

  • “Show You The Way”, Thundercat, Michael McDonald, and Kenny Loggins

  • “Birds of a Feather, We Rock Together”, Vulfpeck and Antwaun Stanley

  • “Look At What The Light Did Now”, Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White

  • “Everytime”, boy pablo

  • “Cool”, Zack Villere

  • “LOYALTY.”, Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna

  • “Rolls Royce Bitch”, 2 Chainz

  • “XO TOUR Llif3”, Lil Uzi Vert

  • “Magnolia”, Playboi Carti

  • “im closing my eyes”, potsu and shiloh

  • “Crew”, GoldLink, Brent Faiyaz, and Shy Glizzy

  • “Lil Thing”, Knox Fortune

  • “Boys”, Charli XCX

  • “Floating By”, Washed Out

  • “Turn Up On the Weekend”, Branchez and Big Wet

  • “Slide” Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, and Migos

  • “Boredom”, Tyler, the Creator, Rex Orange County, and Anna of the North

  • “Green Light”, Lorde

  • “Everything Now”, Arcade Fire

  • “Blood Under My Belt”, The Drums

  • “Diving Woman”, Japanese Breakfast

  • “Holding On”, The War on Drugs

  • “Lost Out in the Darkness”, Hiss Golden Messenger

  • “Want You Back”, HAIM

  • “Black Magick”, Ty Segall

  • “Flag Days”, The Feelies

  • “Walkaway”, Weaves

  • “The Sorcerer”, Twain

  • “Bus in These Streets”, Thundercat

  • “Go Gina”, SZA

  • “The Story of O.J.”, Jay-Z

  • “It’s a Vibe”, 2 Chainz, Ty Dolla $ign, Trey Songz, and Jhené Aiko

  • “911 / Mr. Lonely”, Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean

  • “Amphetamine”, Smino, Monte Booker, Phoelix, Bari, Jean Deaux, and Noname

  • “Peace of Mind”, Little Dragon and Faith Evans

  • “Perplexing Pegasus”, Rae Sremmurd

  • "Imidiwàn n-àkall-in", Tinariwen

  • “S.O”, Kelly Lee Owens

  • “Biscuit Town”, King Krule

  • “Glass Hillside”, Grizzly Bear

  • “Quarrel”, Moses Sumney

  • “Two Thousand and Seventeen”, Four Tet

  • “drink i’m sippin on”, yaeji

  • “SP12 Beat”, Mount Kimbie

  • “Automaton”, Jamiroquai

  • “DNA.”, Kendrick Lamar

  • “Slip Away”, Perfume Genius

  • “Frontline”, Kelela

  • “Pleasure”, Feist

  • “Dum Surfer”, King Krule

  • “Location”, Playboi Carti

  • “Mask Off”, Future

  • “Big Fish”, Vince Staples

  • “Ric Flair Drip”, Offset and Metro Boomin

  • “T-Shirt”, Migos

  • “Passionfruit”, Drake

  • “Delicate”, Taylor Swift

  • “Provider”, Frank Ocean

  • “Til The End”, Jessie Ware

  • “The Louvre”, Lorde

  • “We Find Love”, Daniel Caesar

  • “John the Gun”, Hiss Golden Messenger

  • “Proud”, (SANDY) Alex G

  • “Long Vacation”, Pat Kelly

  • “Dusty Eyes”, Bedouine

  • “Pure Comedy”, Father John Misty

  • “Solar Pilgrim”, Twain

  • “Bet She Looks Like You”, Nick Hakim

  • “Strangest Thing”, The War on Drugs

  • “1-800-273-8255”, Logic, Alessia Cara, and Khalid

  • “My Old Man”, Mac DeMarco

  • “Grass”, Weaves

  • “Baby Luv” Nilüfer Nanya

  • “Everybody Works”, Jay Som

  • “XXX.” Kendrick Lamar and U2

  • “Natural Blue”, Julie Byrne

  • “Bobby” (SANDY) Alex G

  • “What I Wanted to Hold”, Florist

  • “Country”, Porches

  • “Bam Sha Klam”, Lomelda

  • “Crow”, Mount Eerie

  • “A Man Is Not His Song”, Feist

  • “Hang On Me”, St. Vincent

  • “Cairo, Illinois”, Natalie Hemby

  • “From the Dining Table”, Harry Styles

  • “New Year’s Day”, Taylor Swift

  • “Love”, Lana Del Rey

  • “Night So Long”, HAIM

  • “Follow My Voice”, Julie Byrne

  • “Wolf”, Winston C.W.

  • “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano”, Sampha

  • “Mary”, Big Thief 

Best-Of Playlists

Though these playlists are all on Spotify, not every song (including many of my favorites) is available to stream. To see which tracks are missing, go to "Preferences", scroll down to "Display Options," and then switch on "Show unavailable tracks in playlists."