the top 50 songs of 2017 (VIDEO)

And there we go. Massive videos, really proud with how they turned out - enjoy!

the top 50 best songs of 2017

I said on Twitter a few months ago that of all of my year-end lists, this one is always the most complicated - because it's by far the most personal. With the constraint of a list of hits or talking about records in aggregate, you've manufactured some distance - but if you're just going through the list of the songs that spoke the most to you regardless of whether they were a single or not, there's no separation or barrier.

And when you add to the fact that 2017 was a tumultuous year - not just for me but for most of the world, although I did have my own share of trying times - it's a little unnerving to go through the cutting process and realize how dark it truly got. There isn't much escapism in this top 50, and what escapism does show up is very much colored by consequences waiting in the wings. I'm not saying it's downbeat - in comparison to the melancholy that colored a lot of last year, there are more pronounced moments of joy and triumph - but it is by far the most unsettled, pulling the least punches and ultimately producing a psychological profile of my year in 2017 I'm still not quite sure what to do with. But hey, all of these came from albums I covered this year, and I wouldn't have spent a month pruning this list to its form now if I didn't have faith in it - even though I can guarantee there'll be a fair few conspicuous entries that aren't here if you're comparing to other critical lists. So let's get this started...

video review: 'felony blues' by jaime wyatt

Yeah, not a huge amount to say about this one - short, sweet, and awesome, definitely recommend this a lot.

But next up... okay, it looks like we have this Rag'n'Bone Man project before I get to Sun Kil Moon and Ed Sheeran, plus Logan, so stay tuned!

album review: 'felony blues' by jaime wyatt

So let's talk about the prison-industrial complex.

And believe it or not, that is a relevant topic to my content, specifically in a lot of the music I cover and not just because I've occasionally been told I remind people of John Oliver on Last Week Tonight - I'm extremely flattered, but he actually has production value and humor to back up his analysis. In this case, we're going to talk about how it relates to music and artists, because beyond the outlaw context, we should consider necessity in the modern age. Think about it: when you consider the percentage of the population that is incarcerated, especially for trumped-up drug offenses, and the fact that many companies will disqualify people based upon convictions during background checks, sometimes the DIY approach to the creation of art and music might be the only way to make a little money. Now that's not to say it's a method for everyone - music equipment is far from cheap, and not everyone has the means or talent to step into that arena, but as a possible path to avoid recidivism, it's not a bad one, especially if you can tell the story of your experience. 

And what's also notable is the historical precedent - many will make the obvious connection to hip-hop, but in one of the many, many parallels between the genres, these themes have been rooted in country music for decades, albeit a lot less so in the mainstream. Hell, if you read about how many times the greats in country were either in and out of jail because of their own wild lives, I'm always a little surprised that we don't see more of these themes continue, especially as the population percentage of incarceration continues to rise and with the growth and evolution of the truly horrible modern court and prison experience. So into the indie country scene comes Jaime Wyatt, who once had a few record deals that went nowhere before running afoul of the law and actually spending time in prison herself. And since she couldn't find conventional work after getting out, she turned to country music and put together a few projects along with some soundtrack work, with her first album From Outer Space coming 2015 and now this, aiming to tell more of her story. At seven tracks, it's a lean affair, but the critical acclaim it was receiving - to say nothing of themes that could often feel all the more relevant in modern America - meant that I had a vested interest in digging in. So on this project, did Jaime Wyatt deliver?