Every once in a while, listening to albums, there are tracks that stand out above others. They aren’t always singles but sometimes are. Released as a preview single, Real Estate’s “Darling,” boded well for the new album with its layers of melodies — from bouncy bass line to plucked guitar hook — but no track on In Mind matched its casual intricacy. The same could be said about TORRES’ surreal and haunting “Three Futures” and the unrelenting drive of Arcade Fire’s “Creature Comfort,” off an album most agree has been the Canadian collective’s weakest.
Sometimes songs just transcended the rest of an album, like “Ich Bin Klang,” the hypnotic closing track of The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s latest, Don’t Get Lost. Then there’s the raw opener of (Sandy) Alex G’s Rocket, “Poison Root.” There’s nothing like the distant banjo and dog barks to accompany G’s languorous singing on the rest of the album, as far as subdued atmospherics. In the case of Lower Dens, there was nothing but the one song released this year. We eagerly await how the dreamy new wave of “Real Thing” fits into an upcoming album.
Below, you will find 10 tracks especially curated by this music and film writer via Spotify. These are simply some of the best songs of 2017 because they were even better than anything released by the artists that year. Tomorrow, I plan to reveal what I think were the actual 10 best albums of 2017.
