#bargou 08

I am an Old now and don’t listen to much new music because there’s...so much of it? all the time? let me instead listen to CHVRCHES for the 500th time. But here is a brief and very idiosyncratic list of my favorite songs of 2017 that were released in 2017. There is no genre through line, here. none.

The National - Walk It Back: lol obvsly. I love it despite how it makes me clench my jaw all too fuckin real, Matt.

I’m always thinking about useless things

I’m always checking out

Depeche Mode - Scum: lotta fucking shitbag pieces of scum filling the news this year! this song was great catharsis for that!

hey scum, what’re you gonna do when karma comes?

Ninet - Child: she’s got a hell of a voice. I also enjoyed singing along to this one in my car a lot. Runner up: Elinor, which goes pretty damn hard. Have mercy on me, girl indeed.

Bargou 08 - Roddih: Tunisian folk music + moog synths. I was very into this, I remain very into this. It is a legit banger.

Algiers - The Underside of Power: very catchy, very 2017 appropriate, #resist etc. Gospel + soul + punk.

I’ve seen the underside of power

It’s a game that can’t go on

Jlin - Holy Child: do you like Burial? you’ll like this. marginally less ghostly than Burial. a glitchy dance party in a cyber church.

Ex Eye - Anaitis Hymnal; the Arkose Disc: okay, yes, this is metal. But it’s post-metal, no screaming except for Colin Stetson howling into his saxophone (i am biased, i LOVE colin stetson howling into a saxophone). I think it’s astonishingly beautiful in an obliterative kind of way. Also, this is a Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier song. I would evangelize about that to Sebastian Stan himself if I could.

Tara Carosielli - Holloway Road: Apple Music stuck this on one of my weekly playlists, and Apple Music was very correct. A jam.

Is music an escape from the world or the key to it? Over and over, when we began considering the best music of the first half of 2017, politics seemed to intrude, whether in moments that echoed headlines or ones that spoke individual truths too often drowned out by that other, noisier machine. Maybe that's the case every time the calendar turns over. Probably not.

Rather than attempt to come to a consensus about the best albums or songs from the first six months of the year, we opted to select music that was meaningful to us as individuals, music that washed away all the background noise, songs and albums and performances that made sense to us, whether or not they made sense of the world. Moments like that are blessings, not to be taken for granted. Here are nearly four dozen blessings selected by NPR Music staff and our partners from around the public radio system. Let's count them.

NPR Music's Essential Songs, Albums, Performances And Videos Of 2017 (So Far)

Bargou 08 - “Mamchout”