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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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Palehound, “If You Met Her”

It felt like more local records were celebrated nationally this year than in the past, and leading the charge from the corner aisle of indie rock is Palehound. The Allston group led by songwriting wiz Ellen Kempner released A Place I’ll Always Go in June via Polyvinyl (who owned the year pretty much), and our city’s pawprints are all over it. The album art is inspired by b fresh in Allston, and she even name-drops Dunks in standout track in “If You Met Her.” That song, in particular, is startling in its brilliant simplicity; a shadowy, clandestine number that strums along before gentle euphoria takes hold. It feels like it grows louder as it progresses, and that’s a fine metaphor for Kempner, as well.

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