Happy New Year!
At the end of the year my inbox and social feeds filled up with Best Albums and Best Songs lists. I mean there were a ton of them! So you know what I did? I opened a spreadsheet and built columns with the top 20 albums from each respective source. Then I found the albums that overlapped and built a master list of 20 albums and put them all into one giant playlist. Many of them I already knew and loved, such as Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. and Lorde’s Melodrama and many I had listened to previously once and rarely again like SZA’s Ctrl and St. Vincent’s Masseducation. And some I had never listened to at all. I had hours and hours of roadtrip driving ahead of me, so I dove in.
Here is what I learned. There were lots of good albums last year and lots of great songs too. I also learned that most pure pop albums don’t make the lists. Maybe critics don’t like Imagine Dragons or Niall Horan. I get that. Not a lot of ground being broken. But there is something comforting about a great collection of pop songs, even if those songs are written by the best writers in the world and not the artists themselves.
Something else you learn as a parent, kids LOVE catchy pop songs. As the father of a ten year old, when he likes something, he wants to hear it over and over. And when you listen to something enough, you too become a fan. I’m old enough now to be okay with that. Ha!
Therefore, what I decided to do is rather than create a list of Best Albums of 2017, I created a list of Most Listened To Albums of 2017. These were the albums I either listened to with my family on repeat, or I kept coming back to when I just needed some familiarity when I was seeking inspiration. I stand by this list (and yes, for most of those long car rides, I was listening to the ‘clean’ versions!).
Happy listening and here’s to another great musical year!
Larry’s 2017 Most Listened To Albums
Drake – More Life
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound
The XX – I See You
Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.
Imagine Dragons – Evolve
Odesza – A Moment Apart
Beck – Colors
Ed Sheeran – Divide
Linkin Park – One More Light
John Mayer – The Search for Everything
Jay Z – 4:44
Paramore – After Laughter
Rag N Bone Man – Human
Mondo Cozmo – Plastic Soul
Niall Horan – Flicker
Lorde – Melodrama
Killers – Wonderful Wonderful
The Weeknd – Starboy (technically 2016, but lots of airplay in 2017 for me)
Blink 182 – California (another 2016 album with tons of Larry airplay)
Green Day – Revolution Radio (yep, 2016 again)
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