3
Dec 17
The Freaky Trigger Readers’ Poll 2017
“Hi, I’m Barry Scott! Despite my reappearance in the nation’s ad breaks this year, the amount of grime in general circulation has actually *increased* somehow! I blame the millennials and their over-reliance on antibiotics made from avocados. Anyway, I’m here to announce that voting for the 2017 Readers’ Poll is now open!”
Thanks Barry. Rules are (almost) the same as last year:
– Choose up to 20 of your favourite tracks of 2017. I am extremely unlikely to check release dates, but if one of your choices appeared in last year’s poll, I’ll get in touch and ask you to choose another track.
– If you don’t have 20 tracks then 10 or 3 or even 1 is fine.
– If you like, put them in order (#1 will get more points than #20), otherwise I’ll assign them a random order (via the Mersenne Twister algorithm, none of yer linear congruential shite here).
– Email them to poptimistspoll2010@gmail.com by 23.59pm GMT on 31st December.
This year there is also optional new bonus orgafun: tell us ONE (1) 2017 album you enjoyed. These won’t be ranked, I’ll just post the list of everyone’s choices at the end.
That’s it. Pull on your marigolds and get scrubbing voting!
(Feel free to influence the voting by sharing your 2017 playlists/recommendations in the comments – as ever, this poll is about finding new stuff as much as determining which of it is best in a highly subjective fashion.)
Also: if you are reading this, then you count as a ‘reader’, even if this is literally the only FT post you have read all year. The more the merrier!
I would love to know what other readers have been listening to – this is the second year in row in which I have lost track of what songs/tracks/singles have been popular. My solution last year was only to vote for songs by Miranda Lambert, but that’s not an option this year. Without knowing what else has been ‘big’ amongst Freaky Trigger-ites, voting feels a bit random.
How about a collaborative Spotify playlist for suggestions/nominations? As long as nobody overloads it it could be quite a handy way of seeing what other people might vote for.
brb uploading the 11423 plays of THE HINDU TIMES that constitute my year on spotify
Or even just a campaigning thread for cool stuff we’ve found.
In the spirit of a campaign, Torres’s Skim, which didn’t make that many waves, was my fave song & vid. of the year:
https://youtu.be/9mSaYRd3iIo
Also liked Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Deadly Valentine a *lot*:
https://youtu.be/LkyIVKbCfG8
I assume that no one needs a heads-up about Kendrick Lamar.
I did a mid year round-up of my faves in June: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2017/06/halfway-house-2017/
The UK Singles Chart this year has been a relatively mixed bag (albeit with some true bangers lurking inside): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_top_10_singles_in_2017
The Lex (formerly of this parish) has put together a great 2017 playlist, which I’ve snaffled some tracks off for my own list: https://open.spotify.com/user/lexpretend/playlist/5TPafQ4nlpfkKNyJ8kaiVL
I have a list in the comments to the thread in the first link Kat posted @ 7.
For the second half of 2017, I’ll add these:
Kesha – Praying
The Japanese House – Saw You in a Dream
Wolf Alice – Beautifully Unconventional
Charli XCX – Boys
Maya Jane Coles – Weak
Jazmine Sullivan x Bryson Tiller – Insecure
Meridian Brothers – Yo Soy Tu Padre, Yo Te Fabriqué
Aly & AJ – Take Me
Kero Kero Bonito – Rock n Roll Star
Ride – Lateral Alice (original / Cavern of Anti-Matter remix)
GIRLI – Hot Mess
Deerhoof ft. Laetitia Sadier – Come Down Here & Say That
Prins Thomas – Apokalypso 1 (original / Øyvind Morken’s Trance Dance rework)
Prins Thomas – Montague Grant
ILoveMakkonen ft. Rae Sremmurd – Love
Tove Styrke – Mistakes
Barry Adamson – I Got Clothes (ACR:MCR rework)
FEMM – 浪漫飛行 (Roman Hikou)
Susanne Sundfør – The Sound Of War
Saint Etienne – London Like A Distant Sun
GIRLI – Can I Say Baby
Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions – Son of a Lady
tUnE-yArDs – Look At Your Hands
Brian Eno / Kevin Shields – Only once away my son
Shystie – Bluka
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Deadly Valentine (original / Soulwax remix)
Björk – saint
Prins Thomas – Here comes the band
Hyuna – Lip & Hip
Aly & AJ – The Distance
Great 2nd half albums: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith ‘The Kid’, Mura Masa s/t, Prins Thomas 5, Susanne Sundfør ‘Music For People In Trouble’, Björk ‘Utopia’, Meridian Brothers ‘¿Dónde Estás María?’, 0PN’s ‘Good Time’ OST and the new K. Michelle.
EPs: Bugzy Malone’s “King of the North”, The Japanese House “Saw You In A Dream”, DMX Krew’s “The Wiggly Worm” and listening right now to the first Yaeji EP, which is super.
Good call on The Sound of War, Jeff – it’s incredible (though I’m not always in the mood to listen to it). C Gainsbourg not usually my cup of tea but I do like that Soulwax remix.
Stuff I will probably be voting for which other people might conceivably be voting for or might like:
Paramore – Hard Times
Sunny Sweeney – Pills
Angaleena Presley – Wrangled
Steps – Story Of A Heart
Spoon – Hot Thoughts
Harry Styles – Meet Me In The Hallway
The Mountain Goats – Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back To Leeds
Stuff which is a bit more of a longshot in terms of other people liking it OR it making my list.
Cherry Glazerr – Told You I’d Be With The Guys
cupcaKKe – 33rd
something by Ibibio Sound Machine (not sure which)
something by Sacred Paws (not sure which)
Blanck Mass – Rhesus Negative
Japanese Breakfast – Boyish
Miss Eaves – Thunder Thighs
Cardi B – Bodak Yellow
Lil Peep – Benz Truck (remix) (can’t be arsed to do the cyrillic nonsense)
Vince Staples – Crabs In A Bucket
Black Madonna – His Is The Voice I Hear
Camille – Les Loups
and there’s a load of other stuff which is firmly in my top 20 but unlikely to get a single vote elsewhere, such is life, but I’ll be writing it up at some point on here.
My list probably has more bacteria per square inch than anyone else’s, though not many people are going to vote for my top 20, either for the songs or the bacteria. Actually, I’m not going to vote for everything in my top 20 either, since I haven’t gotten around to reorganizing my list and instead just keep sticking things on the end. In any event, here’s my YouTube playlist, 71 songs as of this moment. Also, even though he didn’t list it Tom might end up voting for Omar Souleyman’s “Ya Bnayya” once he realizes it’s a single.
In any event, what the following singles have in common is that (a) they’re real good, (b) they’re hip-hop, and (c) they’re from Cameroon:
Jovi “Ou Même”
Mani Bella ft. Tenor “Déranger”
Yungtime ft. Mihney “Uh uh, uh hum”
Reniss “Pilon”
Jovi “Devil No Di Sleep”
Maahlox le vibeur “Un Bon Plantain”
Koppo “Gromologie”
Franko “On Sassoit Pas”
Olamide “Wo!!”
Tenor “Kaba Ngondo”
Reniss “Manamuh”
Tenor “Bahatland”
Tata “Ndaleh”
Stuff I’ve loved this year that I’m not sure has been discussed above:
MUNA’s “I know a place”. Best musical response to the nasty political atmosphere this year (and if that makes it sounds dull it’s not – it’s positive and empowering and has the best singalong chorus I’ve heard this year)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t5gGm3NWU4
Garage supergroup TQD’s ‘Ghosts’. Bounciest record of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CFkzNNUueg
Shakira’s Chantaje. In a year when latin pop was so huge I’m surprised this got missed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mgqbai3fKo
I need to revisit that Omar Souleyman LP to pick out tracks, I really liked it. I expect I’ll be revising my list until Dec 31 (well, I will at least be playing a new-to-me LP on Dec 31 so theoretically it might be my favourite of the year).
The Regrettes are precocious high-schoolers and stars in the making. A lot of their songs seem to be good, but ‘Seashore’ was their big statement of intent:
https://youtu.be/Iiqf2R462lo
I don’t have a lot of immensely interesting picks on my list, but for albums that are worth checking out, I’ll throw out
The Cornshed Sisters – Honey & Tar (’70sish AM pop with great vocal harmonies – not entirely dissimilar from HAIM but better in my opinion)
H. Hawkline – I Romanticize (Welsh indie-pop)
Charly Bliss – Guppy (pop-punkish, reminiscent of Weezer’s “Pinkerton”)
Saint Etienne – Home Counties (their best album in years)
New Pornographers – Whiteout Conditions (ditto – someone in the band called it “Krautrock bubblegum” which is a pretty good description)
Noga Erez – Junior (avant-pop)
GoldLink – At What Cost (I don’t listen to much hip hop but I liked this a lot)
Also Grace Mitchell put out a bunch of singles that are mostly good, so let’s lump those together.
Playlist (unordered) of my faves this year although the now standard disclaimers of it being ‘probably at least a third of stuff from the previous year that I didn’t hear until this year’ and ‘not being particularly poppy’ apply: https://open.spotify.com/user/stevem78/playlist/3JtZQ7pRCXwpUE20rOslvi
Also not hugely pop: my list of stuff from this year, which I enjoyed very much. First year in a while I’ve paid decent attention to music coming out and it felt like a very good year to be a fan of indie rock and neo-new wave. Particularly enjoyed the offerings from Steven Wilson, Temples, MUNA, Blanck Mass and Susanne Sundfør. https://open.spotify.com/user/cryptopian/playlist/52cPyRvi1f3Z2gIvr2aCu8
Here’s a playlist for the FACT Tracks list (barring non-Spotify tracks), which as usual has some amazing things on and some shonky rubbish for the Young People. https://open.spotify.com/user/freakytrigger/playlist/3c5cgXHYpT9pcIIy5tX2wk
& here’s a list of the stuff I’ve liked most…
https://open.spotify.com/user/geoffdeburca/playlist/0h2RQwj8IYkQ3T9tdHr9PT
2017 albums I’ve played a lot in 2017 (as opposed to, uh,)
Peatbog Faeries – Live@25 – Hooray, its much more lively than their last live album (which had a better track list but the energy was rather sucked out somewhere in the post-production/mixing/mastering stage). A very late-in-the-year contender for my Album of the Year
Cloudface – Variations – nice chilly ambient
OMD – The Punishment of Luxury – their best album since Junk Culture
Saint Etienne – Home Counties – their best since, um, I dunno but I loved it a lot and this was my favourite album of the year until December
Mark Kozelek & Sean Yeaton – Yellow Kitchen – Not the biggest Kozelek fan but I’ve heard this way more than his outher spoken word stream-of-consciousness recordings of recent, its really the dynamic between that and the rather peculiar music that does it for me (music that’s pretty subservient to his vocals, similar to, say, Bish Bosch in that sense; the friend who showed me Yellow Kitchen told me it was ‘sort of like’ BB hence why I listened, and why I made that comparison just then)
Paul Draper – Spooky Action – after the 5th listen
LCD Soundsystem – American Dream – “late era middle aged ramblings” but with squidgy synths and cowbells and all that
Squeeze – The Knowledge
TC&I – Great Aspirations – was eagerly anticipating this surprise EP and not only did I enjoy it a lot, I was also relieved to hear that Colin Moulding’s voice still sounds like it did in 2000
Visible Cloaks – Reassemblage
Some interesting voting so far! It’s still wide open in the top 10 though, so get your lists in if you haven’t already…
I put Olamide on my list of Cameroonian hip-hop; he’s actually Nigerian. I’m pretty sure the others are all from Cameroon. Anyway, all very worth listening to.
Dangnabit, just sent in my ballot but missed that corking Muna number. My number one is Lana Del Rey’s Lust for Life, shortly followed by St Vincent’s best LDR impersonation New York.
LAST DAY to get your votes in! Remember, no pick is too obscure – there are three acts in the current top 20 that I’d never even heard of before voting started…
about to email you, Kat, but my YT playlist is here. (Fair warning that apparently in 2017 I listened to Korean girl groups, Kazakhstani guy groups, and very little else.)
It’s still 2017 somewhere so hopefully my ballot will count!
VOTING CLOSED! Thank you everyone who submitted a ballot. The results are being crunched and verified as we speak – expect some countdown posts in the next few days.