Year In ReView: Our favorite Boston-ish songs of 2017

It's December 21, and we're just finally getting around to our annual list of favorite songs to come out of Boston in 2017. Two conclusions can be drawn from this -- first, the year was so packed that our Year End obligations were pushed back to the very last minute, and secondly, we kind of hate these posts. Through our New Sounds features and pages of Boston News posts, it's virtually impossible to come up with a full portrait of Boston's year in music. We hope that our dedicated coverage from January to December acts as our compass of what's good around town; this list here can be best described as a loose collection of our "faves." It's in no order, it's by no preference; these tracks stuck with us over the course of the calendar, and if you missed one or two when released, perhaps it can help fill in some blanks. Because it was a crazy good year for Boston music, and 2018 feels as promising as ever.

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no hope/no harm, “Pony Boy”

Ever since The Good North disbanded sometime in the mid-2000s, we’ve been aching to see writer Luke O’Neil return to the stage. Late last year he did just that, fronting no hope/no harm (lower casing intended) alongside guitarist Aaron Perrino (The Sheila Divine, Dear Leader) and drummer Adam Hand (The Field Effect). In February the band released “Pony Boy,” and emotive guitar-rock jammer that we felt like was the necessary sequel to The Good North’s lost classic “The Weight Around Your Neck.” no hope/no harm went on to play in the Rumble, win the 617 Sessions, and perform at the Boston Music Awards, but it’s “Pony Boy” that stands out as their finest effort of 2017.

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