Year In ReView: Our 30 favorite songs of 2017

At several points throughout 2017, a simple question was asked: What are you listening to? Whether we were fielding it or asking it, the reply was often specific to a singular song. With all due respect to the time-honored album and EP -- and from Slowdive's self-titled to Kendrick's DAMN. to Quiet Giant's You're in Heaven, there were quite a few of note -- this year was all about the song. Songs of passion, songs of empowerment, songs of not giving a damn and songs of giving every last damn imaginable soundtracked a year that tested the will of the people. As Daniel Brockman notes in his intense Year in Pop essay for Vanyaland, pop music is headed down a dangerous path; but it's also merging into one giant streamable playlist, where the underground battles for clicks and listens with Top 40, and this year's Vanyaland year-end recap -- a mere selection of our staff's favorites, and by no means a silly declaration of the absolute "best" -- reflects that. Our staff was asked to come up with their faves, and these are the responses, presented alphabetically. The lead entry, via Toronto's Alvvays, feels like an appropriate jump-off, and the featured image of the up top was shot by the late, great Eddy Leiva, from their October show at The Paradise.

Prev23 of 30Next
Swipe or use your ← → (arrow) keys

Muddy Magnolias, “American Woman (David Lynch Remix)”

The notion of a joint like The Roadhouse — a dilapidated bar located in a backwoods town with a population less than 5,000 — booking Nine Inch Nails, Eddie Vedder, and Sharon Van Etten seems pretty unlikely. But many aspects of Twin Peaks: The Return — including its very existence — test the threshold of plausibility, and the limited series provided some of 2017’s most memorable musical moments nevertheless. While star-studded Roadhouse performances grabbed all the headlines, background arrangements like “Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima” by Witold Rowicki and the awe-inducing finale credits number “Dark Space Low” by main composer Angelo Badalamenti did more of the show’s thematic heavy lifting. Meanwhile, the nefarious Mr. C’s unofficial theme song — a tidbit of Kentucky Fried Sleigh Bells reconceived into an unsettling dirge by David Lynch himself — hangs where The Return’s pop and ambient sensibilities intersect.

— Barry Thompson

Prev23 of 30Next
Swipe or use your ← → (arrow) keys