Frankie has been singing his lungs out all the way through December, and the closer we get to Christmas, the more I feel a motherly need to give him a break, and perhaps a couple of hot chocolates, too. The ones with a whole mountain full of whipped cream, marshmallows and a dash of cinnamon that's only acceptable around this time of the year. You know, the good ones. But before putting the ambulance number on speed dial while sipping on our third cup of hot chocolate and munching away on our second package of mince pies, let's turn off our annual Christmas playlist and take a look back on all of the months that have already passed in 2017, and see what they had to offer musically this year. Don't worry Frankie, we'll return to jingling all the bells you want after we're done here. Just put it on your wishlist.
1. Is Indie even still Indie at this point?
As every well-integrated foreign student would've done when going to England, I became highly engrossed in the indie culture, obviously forgetting about all of the other genres, that would've presented me with new sounds and more experimental depth, than what modern bands trying to sound just like The Kinks or The Who have done. In 2017, some of the first new additions to my indie playlists were Sundara Karma's new album Youth Is Only Ever Fun in Retrospect, having accompanied me greatly this whole summer. Credit also needs to be given to Mac Demarco, who sweetly whispered into my ears while I was laying on the grass, looking up to the sky without a single worry in the world. Of course, neither can we forget about Declan McKenna and his album What do you think about the new car?, which isn’t just a thought-out album with the kind of lyrical extravagance that made me both smile and feel slightly shit (in the cringy, melodramatic way), but also perfectly justifies my love for modern indie.
Although I am still a big fan of the aforementioned artists, my in-depth indie phase only lasted approximately three or four months. In those months, I went to my first Cage the Elephant concert with my friend Grace, and even managed to go to my first ever sect meeting aka indie concert, when Circa Waves performed their powerful new album 'Different Creatures' at Cambridge Junction. As if I couldn't have felt more indie dancing around hundreds of Sue Ryder jackets and glittered up faces, I was also fortunate enough to see the Magic Gang perform that same night, an ideal support act and contribution to making the night even more indie than it was in the first place. Luckily, I never went as far as wearing fishnets, since I’m too sure they would've made my legs look like two ham with feet. Although I did consider it, I decided it wasn't worth it since they'd only destroy my soccer mom image anyway.
2. The Gorillaz - Humanz. What more is there to say?
I feel like this band is dangerously close to being the equivalent to that one ex you keep holding on to, in hope that he might come back one day when he’s done teasing you. There's this constant tension and belief that as soon as he's with you again, everything will be greater than ever before, so it must be worth the wait. After teasing fans for long enough, the Gorillaz finally came back with an amazing new album, that kicked my brain right in the part where it tells me to demolish the repeat button, until I finally managed to add my favourites (Ascension, Strobelite, Saturnz Barz, The Apprentice) to my monthly playlists, instead of making the whole album one. I don't know what it really was that made the Gorillaz come back, but I'm sure they didn't hide political messages in their songs for no reason. Extraordinary times ask for extraordinary actions, and this album was probably the best proof that this time had finally come.
3. Is music slowly becoming a political and social activist again, or will it hold onto its stripper career?
Speaking of political changes, we probably need to point out that the beginning of the year really started with a bang. Let's just appreciate the fact that it wasn't a nuclear bang, and most of the explosions were happening within the borders of Twitter. However, there was still enough shit being thrown around for a lot of people to feel the desire to throw shit back. A snowball-like fight consisting of throwing piles of shit around, without it leading to any progress or positive change. Luckily, the good side of this is that outrage results in action and people finally wanting to engage again, and that's how I feel a lot of the music I listened to had progressed this year. The Gorillaz' new album Humanz for example, was a clear invitation to imagine what consequences the unthinkable or unpredictable, such as Trump's presidency, could have. What if the political apocalypse is closer than we think? What actions should we take? But it's not just political messages that have been incorporated in lyrical work this year. Circa Waves addressed the issues of excessive drinking, anxiety, Arcade Fire talked about a suicidal youth in Creature Comfort, and even rapper Logic made one of the possibly most powerful songs addressing mental health with his song 1-800-273-8255, named after the American Suicide Prevention Lifeline. After having seen excessive amounts of a$$ and music videos that are slightly too comparable to porn, it's been a breath of fresh air to see that there are still artists, who try to achieve something else with their music than giving teens the excuse to watch light porn in public.
4. From band member to solo artist - Two surprisingly good transformations
One of the biggest surprises that I'm incredibly happy about this year is the way that two particular former band members proved that you can make it as a solo artist and completely transform into a different, individual self, after abandoning something that used to be a big part of your identity. When Liam Gallagher came out with his debut album As You Were, I expected alternative versions of Champagne Supernova, which by the way, the public radio totally ruined my love for. To keep it short, my expectations were below zero, and the only thing that made me give his debut album a try was nothing else but curiosity. Well, thank God for that. I did certainly not expect the former Oasis brother to reinvent himself the way he did, and create an indie album that doesn't sound anything like the cheesy britpop band at all. I rocked out to You Better Run, Greedy Soul and I Get By throughout the whole month of October and beyond, and I don't regret a single second of it.
Keeping our safe seat on the solo debut hype train, let's jump right to one of the biggest surprises this year: Harry Styles. My God. Where do I even begin. I used to be slightly ashamed of admitting that I'm a big fan of the hairiest (Harryest?) and possibly most talented member of the boy band One Direction (even just typing their name makes me cringe), but after he came out with his self-titled solo album, shame was replaced with pride and my secret could finally transform into a public statement that says I f*cking love Harry Styles. I always had my suspicions that he would leave the boy band and finally start his solo career, but I did not expect the level of individualism he would show at his first solo attempt. Harry Styles is not just a wonderfully musical, but also lyrical piece of work, with surprisingly rocky, rhythmic songs like Kiwi and Carolina, and beautifully moving melodies like in Sweet Creature, Two Ghosts, and Sign of the Times. Particularly the latter is an impressive piece of music, not only showing Styles' musical depth, but also vocal range and power, that I think only a few of us would've expected from the former boy band member. Harry Styles did certainly not shy away from being bold in his first solo album, addressing love, relationships, women, but also death in Sign of the Times, his probably most successful song so far. Seeing this potential makes me really excited for the next year to come, but let's finish off reminiscing about this year first, shall we.
5. A massive yay for pushing musical boundaries
Thank whatever musical God exists out there for not letting me isolate myself in my indie rock and pop bubble, because there's so much that I would've otherwise missed out on. Rock is and always will be the drink you order at Starbucks which you know is safe and you're sure you won't waste your money on. However, sometimes it's good to explore a little bit, push yourself and dig a little deeper into what could build new additional layers to your music taste. Just because an Americano is safe, doesn't mean Costa's Gingerbread Latte can't be enjoyable, too (hint: it tastes like Christmas). So in the last couple of months, I decided to experiment and spice it up a little. As if my Spotify knew about the mission I was on, it showed me St Vincent's new album called Masseduction, a perfect summary of what the album sounds like. A seductive, electro pop/rock album that created a wonderful contrast to the genres I normally listen to. Even alt-j did very conveniently come out with their new album Relaxer, and I'm sure In Cold Blood will be one of my favourite songs of theirs for a long time. I love how both St Vincent and alt-j dared to push the boundaries of their own genre, creating new sounds and incorporating new elements that aren’t even considered status quo in their category. Thanks for giving me hope that sounds won’t stop developing and music just ends up becoming elevator music.
6. Rock is not dead (but cheesy pop nostalgia is allowed, too)
I could waffle on about this for a longer time than we've got left of 2017, so we'll make this our last point. I'm sure you, too, have had multiple conversations with some good-modern-rock denier, who's convinced that rock died at the beginning of this century. Well, thank God bands like Royal Blood and Queens of the Stone Age could prove him wrong. How did we get so dark? is heavier than ever before, and does, in my opinion, beat Better Strangers from Royal Blood’s debut album, with new releases like I Only Lie When I Love You, Lights Out and She's Creeping strengthening my love for this duo. Despite their two-piece sounding, they managed to make this album even tougher, definitely having given it more punch than the previous one.
You must already know about my love for Queens of the Stone Age's 2017 album Villains, since I already fell in love with it back in June when they released The Way You Used to Do. Since then, I've been listening to their new releases pretty much every month, and in case you haven't given it a listen after seeing it all over my blog, I highly encourage you to at least make it number one on your list of new year's resolutions. You can thank me next year.
One of the most obvious musical changes I've seen is that nostalgia has hit a lot of bands this year. I noticed it when both Foo Fighters and Nothing But Thieves came out with new albums that had a surprisingly huge dash of beatlesque elements in their new songs, almost turning a little soft the closer we got to autumn and the beginning of the darker months. Even way before that, the Killers came out with their new album Wonderful Wonderful, and unashamedly created almost reminiscent, but definitely wonderfully cheesy 80s pop sounds. It's an album so melodramatic, I'm not sure anyone had seen it coming, although it does make sense that the 80s are coming back in terms of fashion and series like Stranger Things and Glow, which incorporate soundtracks that perfectly reflect the 80s music era.
Perhaps I should've rephrased my introduction and pointed out that this whole list is one of those intensely self-indulgent blog posts where I look back on what’s made me feel good this year, and what has colonised my playlists on Spotify, without taking any qualitative information or knowledge about music into consideration. In case you actually managed to read through two thousand words of me pretending to know a thing or two about music and what's going on in the world, I highly congratulate you and hope you get all the presents you wished for this Christmas. Also, thanks for being so good this year and reading my blog. I just hope you received something positive in return, and that it transformed your musical and philosophical brain the way it did with me while I was analysing mine and writing about it. It's certainly been a year full of political, but also musical changes, and I hope 2018 will challenge us just as much, so I get to write an inhumanly long blog post about it again next year. But for now, I think it's time for Frank Sinatra to take over and jingle all the way. Have yourself a merry little Christmas, and a happy New Year.