2017 Midnight Oil: Music to Make Sure Beds are Murning

Honorable Mentions
Hey, my name is Murn. I’m a friend of Ironfish's (Editor's note: with excellent musical taste). This is my second year making one of these album rankings. My music consumption definitely increased from last year, thanks to Ironfish and Matt Else. We are constantly hitting each other with artists that pop up in our orbits. We all have an idea of the niche markets each of us tend to gravitate towards but mainly, we are just fans of good musicianship. We all share the same joy of finding something new and having the others dig it. My musical tastes vary quite a bit. I can pop on some Brazilian Jazz just as easy as some Alan Jackson or Mobb Deep. So here is a list of my top sixteen albums of 2017:

16) Wu Tang Clan – The Saga Continues - This is a throwback of sorts to the beats and rhyme styles you know and love. The last few Wu albums were weak in my opinion. This has heavy Redman throughout which is a plus. Majority of beats are done by DJ Mathematics, who has made many Wu beats you love. No U-God due to royalty beef.

15) Willie the Kid – Deutsch Marks - Though not as good as previous album Masterpiece Theater, this still is a solid record. MT had all tracks produced by The Alchemist, so of course there is going to be some drop off. In a day and age of 1,000 “Lil ____” named rappers rhyming over Casio keyboard beats made by third graders, this album has thoughtful tracks that actually engage the listener. Willie is cousins with La The Darkman, of Wu family tree.

14) Chaz Bundick Meets the Mattson 2 – Star Stuff - Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bundick teams up with the Mattson brothers for a funky psychedelic electronic instrumental album that is real solid. Wasn’t a huge fan of Toro y Moi’s album Boo Boo that was released in 2017, but I dug this a lot.









13) Electric Guest – Plural - This is a pure poppy record that might turn off some. Most of the songs could be plugged right into a Google or Apple commercial, but its well produced and I dig the vocals. Group has SNL ties to Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island project.








12) Real Estate – In Mind - Atmospheric mellow psychedelic jams that grab you and make for a good listen. The issue with me is that it all starts to blend together after a while. Good record overall through.











11) Island – All their EPs - This group came to me through an Apple recommendation. This is probably the best find of the year for me. Their full album will be released in 2018. The fact that a couple three song EPs made it to a rankings list says something. The guitar work is great. Song quality and lyrics are great. They are super British, and just sound amazing. Besides Gary Clark Jr., their collection of songs has probably gotten the most play from me.





TOP 10

10) Dan Auerbach – Waiting on a Song
Just when I thought I had enough of all things Black Keys, this album comes out and renews that feeling I had before. This is as catchy of an album I’ve heard in quite a while. Just some good toe tapping tunes. Nothing too deep. I love that 70’s throwback vibe that he puts out. This album nails that perfectly. The only knock on it, is it gets old pretty quick. One day, hopefully we get some muddy distorted blues back.
Key Tracks: "Malibu Man", "King of a One Horse Town", "Waiting on a Song"




9) BNQT – Volume 1
This was a late entry into the mix. Might have gone a little higher in the ranking if I had more time for my bias for others to slip. This album was a recommendation from Matt Else. I think it will be a few notches higher in his rankings. I had no prior knowledge of this group formed from members of Band of Horses, Franz F., Travis, Midlake, and Grandaddy. Another catchy album with some radio friendly tracks. The sharing of lead vocals works well, and there are only two tracks that don’t really do it for me. One being, "Hey Banana". Other being "Failing At Feeling". I am a fan of Alex Kapranos’ voice, just not the lyrics to Banana. And maybe I’m not a Grandaddy fan…
Key Tracks: "Restart", "L.A. On My Mind", "Tara"


8) Dawes – We’re All Gonna Live
Let me preface that this ranking doesn’t entirely make sense. My logic is skewed due to another artist
being ranked higher in my list when it falls under the same live album category as this Dawes record
does. But it’s my list, so suck it. This really is an amazing album. The attention to detail these guys put into their music is second to none. This was a huge musical victory for Ironfish. He turned me on to them a year or so ago. I’m sure this will be higher in his rankings so, I’ll let his review do the talking. There is no doubt that if this was an actual new album with new songs, it would be in the top two. The fact that I have heard most all of these songs before, albeit not live on a record like this; is the only reason this sits at number eight. Again, you will see my flawed logic when it comes to Gary Clark Jr.
Key Tracks: This basically a mini Dawes greatest hits, so doesn’t make much sense to list


7) John Mayer – The Search For Everything
This is when the list started to get tough for me. I am, and always will be, a John Mayer homer. He could fart into a microphone and I’d download it. There is no bad track on this album. This album has the perfect amount of up tempo tracks mixed with the usual sad ones that make you feel so sorry for a guy that habitually dates models and actresses. Some poignant lyrics that hit me just right due my own personal relationship. This connection with real life comes up again in a major way with my third ranked artist. Anyway, it looks like John has escaped Bob Dylan’s basement and shed his coonskin cap to make an accessible record that seems to be about the music instead of trying to prove to everyone how much of a genius he is. Though you still are John…
Key Tracks: "Still Feel Like Your Man", "In the Blood", "Moving On and Getting Over", "Rosie"


6) Gary Clark Jr. – Live North America 2016
Back to the flawed logic. This is an album of previously released songs from a tour in 2016 and makes my number six spot. I feel like if I had more time, it would have gone higher… I freaking love this album. I was a casual fan of his for a little bit. The studio albums were good, but didn’t blow the doors off like this does. By the way, another shout out to my musical Yoda for turning me on to him. So being that I was a causal fan, many of the tracks on this live album were new to me. So, new to ME matters more than new to EVERYONE else. The guitar work on this, mixed with the bluesy lyrics and R&B delivery is enough to melt the thickest of cotton panties. His voice is made for live recording. You need those extended guitar riffs that you just can’t get on a polished studio album.
Key Tracks: "Our Love", "When My Train Pulls In", "You Saved Me"


5) Noah Gundersen – White Noise
This was a recommendation from Apple. I had never heard of this guy before this album. I’m glad I

stumbled upon this. Some synthy atmospheric vibes with the right amount of noise and reverb layered on top of pop folk. All things that make parts of me stand at attention. Lyrics seem to center around questioning life and what this is all worth. Nonconformity and the fact that he was raised in a strict Christian household. His voice lends itself to this but not in a whining way. This album gets better with each re-listen. I’m just a big fan of the rawness an emotion of his voice.
Key Tracks: "Bad Desire", "The Sound", "Fear & Loathing"


4) Dr. Dog – Abandoned Mansion
I first heard of Dr. Dog in our group chat a couple years ago. Started to listen to Be the Void and Shame, Shame, and was hooked. The harmonizing and back and forth songs of McMicken and Leaman is great on this. This album is more bare bones musically than past. The melodies on this album are great. Pair that with some folky acoustics and I’m all in. I judged these albums mainly based on how happy I was just to throw it on and let it go. This, like most other Dog records does just that. Puts you in a good mood to chill and listen. The strings on "I Saw Her For The First Time" is a real standout.
Key Tracks: "I Saw Her For the First Time", "Could’ve Happened to Me", "Ladada"


3) Ryan Adams – Prisoner
This album came along at a time in my life where I was going through some major relationship issues. It became the soundtrack of spring for me as I wallowed around trying to deal with the end of a marriage. The typical brooding and reflective lyrics of Adams got a shot in the arm after writing this on the dissolution of his own marriage. This was the only album I didn’t pop back on to re-listen. For good reason. I’ll save the sappy stuff and just standby my ranking of this record. If you’re down to reflect on a shitty time in your life, then this album is for you!! Haha...
Key Tracks: "Shiver and Shake", "Anything I Say to You Now", "Do You Still Love Me?"


2) Susto - & I’m Fine Today
This was another gift from Ironfish. I had no previous knowledge of them before this. This is a real fucking jewel of an album. The musical arrangements are top notch, the lyrics flow through you, and gritty yet smooth delivery of Justin Osborne vocals make this a joy to listen to. They are the perfect blend of country infused rock. There is not a single dull point on this album. Topics are so wide and diverse on here as well. Underpinning narrative of questioning our lives and existence is the cherry on top of this.
Key Tracks: "Gay in the South", "Jah Werx","Mountain Top"




1) The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding
I mentioned above that ease of listening is a major criterion for me with my rankings. Putting this album on and not moving for an hour is only way to do it justice. There is so much to pick up on each listen. On first listen, you get the charging tempo that you have come accustomed to. After that you uncover more and more musical nuggets. The production quality and texture of this album wow’d the shit out of me. Took Lost in a Dream and amplified it by 3x. The way the guitar work floats in and out of the synthy riffs is damn near perfect. I could gush about this more but I’ll leave it at that.
Key Tracks: "Strangest Thing" (the buildup on this song is phenomenal), "Thinking of a Place", "Pain"

The Real Sausage Party: 2016's Ten Plus

First and foremost I would like to say, Mr. Beck Hansen - what is your fucking deal?  Is this album going to be one of these never officially released hatchet jobs that fans have to piece together themselves after you scrap the project because you lost your vision or your mojo?  Is it going to fall into the dusty unknown with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot demos and Velvet Underground songs that end up getting shuffled to various other albums?  You are killing me bro.  You released two songs in two years, and unofficially released one by having it on a FIFA soundtrack.  I don’t have an XBox seeing as how my son is barely old enough to grip a cheerio.  So, I guess I will still wait - but if we ever needed a new Beck album, 2016 was the year.

Spotify does this neat track all of your data thing, and probably sells digital info about me and my locations to advertisers and various law enforcement agencies, and Russia is probably stealing it all - but I think 2016 might be the year I gave up on the idea of ever getting privacy back without becoming Ted Kaczynski 2.0.  (Not the uni-bombing part, the being a crazy person who lives in a shack part).  So what I do get, is a yearly summary of all the music I’ve listened to.  I had anticipated several releases from artists I enjoy, and apparently spent the majority of my time in some odd places.  Joe Walsh, the Tragically Hip, the Grateful Dead, R.E.M., and Rage Against the Machine were the heaviest hitters - and what started as a fun year, ended as pretty angry one.

But as they say, out with old.  Here’s the new stuff, and be warned, it’s gonna get weird.  (I had a whole long thing written up about Justin Bieber’s album Purpose being straight fire, but double checked and it’s a 2015 release)

Leonard Cohen, Tribe Called Quest, Kanye, David Bowie, Rihanna all put out albums.

Cohen and Bowie were both too dark for me to get into, I couldn’t listen to Yeezy and Rihanna without blushing or giggling like a 10 year old hearing a bunch of synonyms for weiners and boobies, and admittedly I only gave Tribe a brief glance.

Honorable Mentions:

Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome

Haven’t even heard it yet, just impressed that to them not being dead means continuing to tour and continuing to record albums.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway
I probably set the bar too high for what to expect.  The radio singles are very radio friendly. Normally would have been in my top ten, but I have come to a point in my life where I can no longer look past the word salad.

Here are my top ten - with pairings:
10. Metallica - Hardwired...To Self-Destruct

What is that?  Say it louder, I can’t hear you.  What? I can’t make out what you're saying because this Metallica album is thunderously ripping my brain apart.  Did you say you don’t like metal? Metallica doesn't fucking care.  As a whole Hardwired is a little bloated with filler, and my personal preference would have been if they kept the gas down from the jump and recorded an album that put you in the hospital if you tried to listen to it from end to end.  But Metallica has been around for a good long while now and if you ask them to “return to form” they’re going to have to wear a lot of hats.  Write a song about Cthulu, have some slow intros here and there, add some D-Trump digs to be current, I get it.  The bookends to this album are what I’ve been waiting for these guys to put together for over a decade now.

*Are you about to go play middle linebacker in the Cotton Bowl? Listen to: “Spit Out the Bone” and chase a 5 hour energy with Vodka Redbull.

9. The Strokes - Future Present Past EP

It’s only four songs.  Technically it’s only three songs - but the caveat here is that I could argue all three of these songs fit on any album the Strokes have ever put out in their career.  Are these lyrics political?  Can anyone really understand exactly what Casablancas is saying?  The answer to both of those questions is, dealer’s choice.  

*Do you miss crazy robo-Daft Punk bridges? Listen to: “OBLIVIOUS” and have yourself a dry martini in a pint glass you lifted from Dave and Busters.

8.Radiohead - Moon Shaped Pool

Old Tommy and the boys are back.  It has to be difficult being the world’s most overrated band.  The album starts with a fairly frantic tune, “Burn the Witch” and then drops into to audible valium.  At the halfway point "Ful Stop" starts to crescendo, giving you the feeling that we’re going to pull out of the nosedive, but that too shall pass. On first run there doesn’t seem to be anything spectacular here, but the devil is in the details, the layers upon miniscule layers of Radiohead details.

*Opening your post-Christmas credit card statement? Listen to: “Daydreaming” and have a can of Heady Topper while you pretend you think it’s as good as everyone else says it is, and try and forget all the bad decisions you made in 2016.

7. Willie Nelson - Willie Nelson: The Demos Project Vol 1, and Vol 2

The Tragically Hip have a song called “Bobcaygeon” and it’s fantastic.  Songs can be about whatever you make them out to be, and to me it’s a love song where a dude reflects on how shitty his job is and quits.  There’s way more to it than that, but I always really liked the start "I left your house this morning, about a quarter after nine, could have been the Willie Nelson, could have been the wine."  I also discovered a Cake song that I liked was a Willie Nelson cover, so in 2016 I really “dug into Willie,” and I’m a better person for it.  This is kind of two albums.  Technically, neither is a proper album, but as the kids say “sorry not sorry.” If you haven’t spent time with Willie Nelson yet, I don’t know what to tell you here.  If you are looking for happy music, you have come to the wrong place.  (Side note: just now realized Gordon Downie might not have been referring to music when he penned “could have been the Willie Nelson”)

*Just got stood up on a Tinder Date at a Honky Tonk in San Antonio? Listen to: “I Gotta Get Drunk” and have a glass of whatever’s on draft with a whiskey chaser.

6. Okkervil River - Away
Another sad one, but if there was ever a year I needed some slow brooding well crafted sad tunes, 2016 was it.  The album doesn’t sound like other Okkervil River outputs, due mostly to the fact that the only thing remaining the same is the frontman, Will Sheff.  He brought in the heaviest hitters/studio musicians he could get his hands on to record these songs, and it pays off. I read he recorded one of these tunes from inside a casket - don’t care to look up which one - you do you Will.

*Still sad about the passing of Robin Williams? Listen to “Okkervil River R.I.P” and drink a mix-12 pack of craft beer by yourself in the dark.

5. Wilco - Schmilco

Are you noticing a theme? As time passes, some things change, some things stay the same.  Would it be fair to say Jeff Tweedy tries his damndest to do both? There is no reinvention of sound here. Schmilco is a Wilco album that sounds like a Wilco album, produced by a band that know they aren’t spring chickens.  It has plenty sad parts, it has retrospective instrumental breaks, it has lyrics you need to rewind because they sound cool, and at the end of the day it has some beautiful weirdness. Only thing I’m not 100% behind is the album art.  Love the artwork on it’s own, but my brain always feels like it’s the wrong sleeve.

*Is turning into a werewolf taking longer than you had anticipated? Listen to “Cry All Day” and have yourself a stiff Southern Comfort and coke with a splash of lime.

4. The Weeknd - Starboy

This guy.  What this guy gets away with for lyrics is nothing short of amazing.  There is no way you can sustain a career by only writing songs about double entendres and how much cocaine you use, is there?  The Weeknd is going to crash at some point in a glorious mess, but until then he’s got my ear.  Gimmie a beat.  

“Star Trek roof in the Wraith of Kahn, girls get loose when they hear this song.”  Wraith...what?
“I seen her, take down that tequila, down by the liter, I knew I had to meet her.”  ...the whole liter?
*If this is what you’re listening to, you should probably poor yourself a glass of water.

3. Paul Simon - Stranger to Stranger
Paul Simon has been in the category of “I can do whatever to hell I want,” for quite some time now. A song about killing someone with a sushi knife and a werewolf.  A catchy, possibly autobiographical tale about a bouncer not knowing who he is. A one minute tune called the clock, that has zero lyrics and features the chimes of a clock.  There is a lot of nuance settled into Stranger to Stranger and it still comes off sounding like a really good Paul Simon album.  The highlight for me by far though is “Cool Papa Bell.” The “F” word!  Paul Simon worked the word motherfucker casually into a song.  I hope he did it to win a bet.

*Dreaming about that pool you’re going to have installed in your backyard with this year’s Christmas bonus? Listen to “Cool Papa Bell” and have yourself a tall Pina Colada.

2. R. Kelly - 12 Nights of Christmas

The holiday stretch from Thanksgiving to New Years can be stressful on it’s own.  This year I had added stress from work deadlines and my personal life on top of it and lo and behold the Christmas season was ushered in by the end of the world’s most God awful national election cycle.  I was at a breaking point.  Christmas music came on the radio and it was starting to get to me.  Any TV ad that had someone drinking a warm cup of coffee was making the lizard part of my brain want to drop kick my flat screen. Then magic happened. I was hoping for some “new” Christmas music and I stumbled into the R. Kelly album.  Remember R. Kelly?  What do you expect an R. Kelly album in 2016 to sound like?  The entire album from front to back follows three loose themes. 1.) Let’s get it on 2.) I need more time off from work 3.) Something something Christmas.  That is it.  It’s something you can dance in your car to, and each song might as well have been originally written for Bill Withers.  

*Finally have some alone time with your significant other? Listen to: “Christmas Lovin” and share a glass of Eggnog spiked with Cognac.

1. The Tragically Hip - Man Machine Poem

Some singles were floating around already when Gordon Downie, the lead singer, announced he had terminal brain cancer this year, and then the Hip announced they we going still to do a tour, because Downie is a God Damn warrior.  It was kind of in support of this album they recorded, but more realistically it was the grandest gesture they could possibly think of to give to the land they called home.  The are so Canadian that if you listened to them long enough your dog will turn into a grizzly bear and you’d bleed pure maple syrup when you cut yourself open, so I can’t be mad that the tour took place 100% inside Canada.  After tickets all got scooped up by the bots, fans asked the government to broadcast their final concert - and the federal government in Canada responded by saying “sure” and then airing it live on TV in it's fucking entirety with zero fucking commercials, broadcasting it on the radio and streaming it in like 4 spots on the internet.  Not only did the entire country for the most part come to a halt during this concert, but any Canadian abroad stopped what they were doing as well.

*Can’t get back to sleep after that 4:30am ice time your beer league ended up with?  Crack a Molson and Listen to: “In a World Possessed By the Human Mind”