Macromix 17

// songs of 2017 //

A

20. Aldous Harding – “Imagining My Man”
19. Marika Hackman – “My Lover Cindy”
18. Sampha – “Under”
17. Perfume Genius – “Wreath”
16. Lomelda – “Interstate Vision”
15. Syd – “Nothin To Somethin”
14. Chastity Belt – “This Time Of Night”
13. The Stevens – “Keep Me Occupied”
12. Arca – “Coraje”
11. Ride – “Cali”

B

10. Alvvays – “Not My Baby”
9. The Shins – “Fantasy Island”
8. Kehlani – “Undercover”
7. Vince Staples – “Party People”
6. St. Vincent – “Hang On Me”
5. Tyler, The Creator feat. Estelle – “Garden Shed”
4. The Proper Ornaments – “The Frozen Stare”
3. Moses Sumney – “Lonely World”
2. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton – “R.I.P.”
1. Slowdive – “Sugar For The Pill”


83 minutes, same as last year. Ask me for a tape, or listen here. Words at Big Takeover.


“Fucked up, anxious, full of fear,” begins one song, to which another asks, “How I’m supposed to have a good time when death and destruction’s all I see?” There’s more of that on the tape, certainly (just look at some of the song titles), but whether or not music and I were more anxiety-prone than usual this year, I never felt like my listening was a response to anything in particular. I sought good vibrations, like Mr. Staples, and found them.

indie rock — Sorry, I guess, for so much of it, but in such a strong year I could’ve included many, many more bands: new-to-me Japanese Breakfast (whose “Diving Woman” was the biggest sound I heard at the Slowdive show and whose recorded version is a perfect containment and miniaturization of that sound, electric current in a snow globe), Vagabon (an absurdly young and self-possessed artist, à la Julien Baker, whose every line is both crisis and solution, and whose “Mal à L’aise” is a mid-album analogue bubblebath, well-earned), Jay Som, Charly Bliss, The Courtneys, Girl Ray, Tomberlin (“Self-Help”), Business of Dreams and Stef Chura, plus ‘10s faves Girlpool, Waxahatchee, Big Thief (“Mythological Beauty”), Sleeping Bag (“Affection”), Frankie Rose (“Cage Tropical”), Real Estate (“Darling”) and Beach Fossils (“May 1st”). Among veteran artists, both Spiral Stairs and The Bats were chock full o’ tunes; the former’s were immediate pleasures, the latter’s a bit slower to unfold.

pop — I’m the dummy who cited Taylor Swift’s “naiveté” in 2012 and Justin Timberlake’s “generosity” in 2013 (and those were the first times I’d thought about either artist, respectively), so there’s a reason I feel nervous and stupid when considering the Billboard charts. Still I couldn’t fail to notice this year that, as popular music becomes less popular, there are more and more Hot 100 #1s I find tolerable or enjoyable. In the case of “Bodak Yellow” there’s even one I can imagine feeling wistful about in five years, and in the case of “Humble.” the best song was the single.

other — I could offer backhanded praise of the artists’ vitality but instead I should just say that I loved Randy Newman’s “Lost Without You” (even Newman in the ‘70s would be devastated by Newman in his 70s), Alison Moyet’s “Reassuring Pinches” (I can’t think of when the “synthpop legend reclaims electronics” lane has had a more commanding traveler), Jens Lekman’s “To Know Your Mission,” Aimee Mann’s “Patient Zero” and TLC’s “It’s Sunny.” And for an album that really does function foremost as memoir, The Magnetic Fields’s 50 Song Memoir ended up having a lot of tracks I play individually. Impulsive top five: “A Cat Called Dionysus,” “No!,” “Foxx & I,” “Dreaming In Tetris” and “Have You Seen It In The Snow?” (people overestimate Stephin Merritt’s sense of irony but, even so, the entire 9/11 sequence on disc 4 is startlingly sentimental and, uh, beautiful, you know).