It just stopped raining I'm stepping out into the world

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2017.

#8 : Drunk - Thundercat

When the world outside is weird, let’s hear it for an album that processes it with absurdist humour and George Clinton-shaped surrealism. Drunk is the third release by LA jazz dude Steve Bruner, AKA Thundercat, and has finally taken him from being a kooky bass-playing Robin to super-producer Flying Lotus’s Batman all the way to headline solo artist and one of this year’s breakthrough names.

Our third visit with Thundercat and my opinion has gone all the way from "mediocre 70s funk" to "reasonably skilful mediocre 70s funk" - will the upward trend continue?

Nope - but it doesn't get any worse either. There is indeed plenty of skill involved but I just don't see why anyone would want to listen to it. It does have a George Clinton shape to it, but it's merged with Shalamar and Christopher Cross to make some kind of smoothie-yachty-funky thang. And who wants that? It's not an unpleasant sound, but it is most puzzling - I quite like the retro 70s album cover though.

Wikipedia tells us this is his third album and he has quite the list of guest artists involved including Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Pharrell Williams, Kamasi Washington and Louis Cole (allegedly half of Clown-Core, apparently). It also tells us the album cover is based upon Grover Washington's '75 album Mister Magic - they were originally going to shoot it in a bathtub but found that Thundercat wouldn't fit into it. One other fun fact about the album cover - the title font is Cooper Black, better known for its use on Pet Sounds and by easyJet (but they use lower case, which is cooler). 

Critically, it was very well received and made quite a few year-end lists, including being crowned Radio 6's Album Of The Year. Commercially, it made the top forty in more countries that I was expecting, getting to #39 in Belgium, #37 here and #35 in The Netherlands, but only #50 in the US.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a CD copy for eight quid but if you want the four disc 10" 45 rpm red vinyl box set it's going to set you back £60. I bet it looks lovely, but I would have no use for such a thing - it's all quite mystifying!

#7 : A Deeper Understanding - The War On Drugs

A Deeper Understanding contains an air of overwhelming but vague melancholy, yet for all Granduciel’s well-documented problems with anxiety and depression, it never threatened to tip over into anything more disturbing. Instead, the War on Drugs summoned that most delicious of moods: autumnal, slightly hungover, just a little sorry for oneself.

Our second visit with TWOD and last time we met them (on The Guardian's best of '21 list) I declared them as potentially likeable - I have, of course, never given them a chance since. So here goes...

Yeah, I really quite liked this because it's a bit like The National, but a bit woozier - The Guardian actually describes it quite well above. Someone else who, surprisingly, sprung to mind was Neil Young - but without all his annoyingness (and boy does he come with a whole heap of annoyingness). It's a bunch of decent songs which have enough variety across them and they're all skilfully played with some nice guitar and keyboard work - maybe 66 minutes was slightly too long, but I think they just about got away with it. And finally, I like the album cover - wow, I had a load of nice things to say about it!

Wikipedia tells us this is their fourth album - and that's pretty much your lot! Even checking their entry just adds the information that some singles were released from it. Interestingly, when attempting to categorise the album, Wikipedia uses the genres heartland rock, Americana, synth-pop and psychedelic rock - none of which feel to have a massive amount of overlap with the others (if pushed, I'd go for mildly-psychedelic-synth-rock). Critically, it was very well reviewed and won the Grammy award for Best Rock Album - I'm quite surprised they don't have a Best Mildly-Psychedelic-Synth-Rock Album category. And commercially, it did very well for itself globally, getting to #5 in Portugal, #4 in Ireland, #3 here, #2 in The Netherlands and #1 in Belgium - and a very decent #10 in the US. 

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a CD for eight quid, but if you want the numbered, limited edition yellow/orange double vinyl then it's going to set you back £150. Which might possibly be going somewhat overboard, but I really liked this and will make an effort to listen to it again.

#6 : American Dream - LCD Soundsystem

American Dream, for all its declarative intent, didn’t so much chronicle the state of the nation as James Murphy’s place in it now; the middle-aged cool guy in a middle-aged cool band, lamenting relationships and heroes, love and ageing. It is exquisite. A moody, pulsating epic that wears its references – Berlin-era Bowie, 80s Talking Heads, the entire first decade of DFA Records’ output – without being wearying.

I really like some LCD Soundsystem and find other bits totally frustrating - our only previous visit is generally viewed as their best album, so I'm hoping we're not going to get the annoying bits here.

Once again, The Guardian get's it right by calling out Bowie and Talking Heads - although they aren't exactly the hardest influences to spot. However, whilst I like that general sound, I can find a whole album of it somewhat tiresome, but that didn't happen here despite it being 66 minutes long. I can't quite bring myself to say I loved it, but it's certainly a well put together album which shows off his musical heroes, so I can see those that do love it will absolutely love it. 

Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album (275 milliPeppers) and it tells us this is their fourth album and was released after they reunited following a five year hiatus - which raises it even further in my opinion, although it's not clear whether they reunited to make the album or to take the festival dollar. The text contains an awful lot of nothing, but it does tell us of an interesting promotional technique - they had an ice cream truck driving around Coachella playing tracks from the album in the form of ice cream jingles. Critically, it was very well received and it made a load of year-end lists, but it's also fair to say people didn't like the album cover though with Billboard saying it "looks like it could have been concocted using a stock photo and some toying with Microsoft Word". Commercially, it did very well, getting to #3 here and #1 in Canada, Portugal and the US (their first #1 album over there). 

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a CD copy for £12 but if you want a sealed Pallas pressing then it's going to set you back £60 - if you don't know what a Pallas pressing is (and I certainly didn't) then it's a pressing made by Pallas, who are apparently renowned for their quality. This is an impressive album, particularly given their hiatus, but on first listen I couldn't quite bring myself to love it.

So obviously the round goes to Thundercat! Well, maybe not, but I have to admit that all the albums here were well put together (even if I didn't like them all) - but it's a win for The War On Drugs for me.

#11-9 - Quite the mix