It’s my 15th consecutive year of reviewing my favorite music—an unbelievable milestone. This time around, I’ll continue the concise format I launched last year with another curated, eclectic playlist. Look back with me at 2017 in music.
More than ever before, in 2017 we had to turn to music for an escape from the daily chaos—luckily, as ever, music delivered. In recent years, artists like Banks, Adele, Lights, and my sisters Tegan and Sara claimed #1 on my year-end music reviews—and now it’s time again to share my personal highlights from the past year. You might discover some music that you missed out on the first time.
Below, you’ll find a list of many of the year’s other hot tracks sorted by release date, followed by my top 40 albums. Tap or click on any track or album to listen to it on Apple Music and read their editors’ synopsis. Let’s get this going!
Hot tracks
Declan McKenna
“The Kids Don’t Wanna Come Home”
Grace Mitchell
“Kids (Ain’t All Right)”
Brooke Candy f/ Sia
“Living Out Loud”
Molly Kate Kestner
“Prom Queen”
Betty Who
“Some Kinda Wonderful”
Katy Perry f/ Skip Marley
“Chained to the Rhythm”
Kygo & Selena Gomez
“It Ain’t Me”
Bruno Mars
“That’s What I Like”
Ed Sheeran
“Castle On The Hill”
Jorja Smith
“Beautiful Little Fools”
The Chainsmokers & Coldplay
“Something Just Like This”
Father John Misty
“Total Entertainment Forever”
Alexandra Savior
“Vanishing Point”
Noah Cyrus f/ Labrinth
“Make Me Cry”
Clean Bandit f/ Zara Larsson
“Symphony”
First Aid Kit
“You Are The Problem Here”
Rebel and a Basketcase
“Today”
Tara Carosielli
“Holloway Road”
Chris Stapleton
“Second One to Know”
Kygo & Ellie Goulding
“First Time”
Harry Styles
“Sign of the Times”
Courtney Barnett
“How to Boil an Egg”
Katy Perry f/ Nicki Minaj
“Swish Swish”
Broken Social Scene
“Hug of Thunder”
Camila Cabello
“Crying in the Club”
Dan Auerbach
“Waiting on a Song”
Iggy Azalea f/ Anitta
“Switch”
Carly Rae Jepsen
“Cut To The Feeling”
Brooklyn and Bailey
“Simple Things”
Miya Folick
“Trouble Adjusting”
Calvin Harris f/ Pharrell, Katy…
“Feels”
Liam Gallagher
“Wall of Glass”
The City and Horses
“My Friends Don’t Know”
London Grammar
“Hell to the Liars”
Queens of the Stone Age
“The Way You Used to Do”
Royal Blood
“How Did We Get So Dark?”
Coldplay
“All I Can Think About Is You”
MNDR & Scissor Sisters
“SWERLK”
AlunaGeorge
“Turn Up the Love”
Adult Mom
“Steal the Lake From the Water”
Blonde f/ Astrid S
“Just For One Night”
Stefflon Don f/ French Montana
“Hurtin’ Me”
Portugal. The Man
“Feel It Still”
Death from Above 1979
“Freeze Me”
QUIÑ f/ Syd
“Sticky Situation”
Matthew Dear f/ Tegan and Sara
“Bad Ones”
The National
“The System Only Dreams in Total…”
Maty Noyes
“Say It to My Face”
Sofi Tukker f/ NERVO & Alisa Ueno
“Best Friend”
Nelly Furtado
“Cold Hard Truth”
Grace VanderWaal
“So Much More Than This”
ALMA & French Montana
“Phases”
Gryffin & Illenium f/ Daya
“Feel Good”
U2 & Kygo
“You’re the Best Thing About Me”
Selena Gomez & Marshmello
“Wolves”
Icona Pop
“Don’t Slam the Door”
Whitney Rose
“Better to My Baby”
Kate Voegele
“Shoot This Arrow”
Clean Bandit f/ Julia Michaels
“I Miss You”
Top 40 albums
39
Jessica Lea Mayfield
Sorry Is Gone
37
Halsey
Hopeless Fountain Kingdom
29
Foo Fighters
Concrete and Gold
28
EMA
Exile In The Outer Ring
27
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile
Lotta Sea Lice
26
LCD Soundsystem
American Dream
24
Waxahatchee
Out in the Storm
23
Samantha Urbani
Policies of Power
22
Tegan and Sara Present The Con X: Covers
20
Demi Lovato
Tell Me You Love Me
19
Cayetana
New Kind Of Normal
18
VÉRITÉ
Somewhere In Between
11
Alex Lahey
I Love You Like A Brother
10
PVRIS
All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell
8
k.flay
Every Where Is Some Where
7
Japandroids
Near To The Wild Heart Of Life
5
Michelle Branch
Hopeless Romantic
1
Phoebe Bridgers
Stranger In The Alps
Summary
There was a lot of notable music to go around in 2017—exciting work from new talents, a slate of powerful new albums from some of my old favorites, albums from established artists that brought my appreciation for them to astronomical new heights, and a rare selection of a debut album for my #1 of the year. Let’s face it, 2017 was a tough year for our world, and nobody spoke to me in it better than Phoebe Bridgers, whose album of “confessional folk rock marked by anger and fragility” struck the right notes—I went to it over and over again.
To hear more about why I chose some of the tracks and albums you saw here, listen to this year’s episode of TC & RED: LIVE. I hope you enjoy these selections as much as I did. Thanks for checking out my top 40 albums of 2017!
