Almost Mainstream: Songs from 2017

Another year, another mixtape. As I wrote earlier today, I spent less time in 2017 worrying about being a completist and simply spending time with the music I wanted to listen to. This means there are a lot of albums and songs that I’m sure are very good that I simply didn’t here, which is why I’ve dropped any pretence of this being a “best of” list.

Instead what we’ve got are 65 songs that found their way to me in some form or another and made enough of an impression to stick. Some are favourite artists who released new material I liked. Some are new bands I discovered live, or listening to college radio stations, or flipping through Spotify. Some are simply big blockbuster songs that made up the soundtrack to good days I had.

This is still stripped down– the original longlist was around 200 tracks, so this does represent a curated view. I have, as always, followed the Said the Gramophone rules for year-end lists which is that these are songs I heard for the first time in 2017, and no artist is to appear more than once (the exception being DJ Khaled because I didn’t actually realize until after I was done this that both “Wild Thoughts” and “I’m The One” were from his album– I had attributed them to Rhianna and Justin Bieber, respectively. Since he is a producer, I think it’s fair?)

Anyways, these are the songs. If you are interested, my favourite albums of 2017 were:

Arcade Fire’s Everything Now;

Lorde’s Melodrama;

Snotty Nose Rez Kids Snotty Nose Rez Kids and The Average Savage;

Spoon’ Hot Thoughts; and

Joey Bada$$’s All-American Bada$$

Memorable concerts included seeing Carly Rae Jepsen perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; finally seeing Arcade Fire, who li ved up to the hype; a tribute show to Prince George singer-songwriter Raghu Lokanathan; and discovering the powerhouse that is Kitty and the Rooster when they performed at the Prince George Legion.

Other great local/regional acts who I saw once or more were Twin Peaks, Black Spruce Bog, Amy Blanding, Britt Meierhofer/Nathan Kelly/Crones, Frontal Lobotomy, Naomi Kavka, and Kym Gouchie.

I also saw Weezer, who were the first band to perform precisely as they sound on record with little to detract or enhance, Bob Dylan, who was played jazz standards and sounded nothing like on record, and Vanilla Ice, who was the strangest show I’ve seen in my life.

Anyways, here is my mix this year. It is 65 songs that come out to about an hour each, which means they could fit onto a single CDR or cassette tape if this were olden times. As it is you can stream the whole thing below, or find the playlist sans a few tracks on Spotify. I’ve denoted local/regional artists that you might not otherwise hear about with a †.

Previous year-end mixes: 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010

Side A

Weaves – Slicked

Selena Gomez – Bad Liar

Tove Styrke – Say My Name

Tennis – Ladies Don’t Play Guitar

Black Spruce Bog – Coyodel, No. 1 †

The Hold Steady – Entitlement Crew

DJ Khaled, Rihanna, Bryson Tiller – Wild Thoughts

Harry Styles – Sign of the Times

Kendrick Lamar – HUMBLE.

Lorde – Green Light

Buffy Sainte-Marie & Tanya Tagaq – You Got To Run (Spirit of the Wind)

Future – Mask Off

JAY-Z – The Story of O.J.

Vivek Shraya – Girl It’s Your Time

Destroyer – Tinseltown Swimming in Blood

Colter Wall – Thirteen Silver Dollars

Side B

Jamie Bell – Drink Hard †

Spoon – Hot Thoughts

The Shins – Mildenhall

Gorillaz – Let Me Out (feat. Mavis Staples & Pusha T)

Arcade Fire – Everything Now

Carly Rae Jepsen – Cut To The Feeling

The Blaze – Virile

Snotty Nose Rez Kids – Skoden Remix [feat. Drezus] †

JB the First Lady – O.O.T.G.

Milk & Bone – Daydream

Kitty & The Rooster – Paid a Million Dollars (To Live Like You’re Poor) †

Felix Cartal – Get What You Give

Jessie Reyez – Figures

Broken Social Scene – Hug Of Thunder

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Continental Breakfast

Émile Bilodeau – Hockey

Side C

Arkells – Knocking At The Door

Dirty Projectors – Little Bubble – edit

Weezer – Feels Like Summer

Rhye – Summer Days

Kiiara – Whippin’ (feat. Felix Snow)

Timber Timbre – Velvet Gloves & Spit

The xx – Say Something Loving

Joey Bada$$ – TEMPTATION

Zedd – Stay (with Alessia Cara)

HAIM – Want You Back

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Beacon Hill

Charli XCX – Boys

Bonzai – I Feel Alright

Whitney – Gonna Hurry (As Slow as I Can)

Bahamas – Way With Words

Daniel Caesar – We Find Love

Kym Gouchie – Cleansing the Highway †

Side D

Drake – Passionfruit

Wolf Alice – Don’t Delete The Kisses

Japandroids – North East South West

Swanes – Cheap Shots and Two Dollar Beers

Serena Ryder – Electric Love

Ed Sheeran – Shape of You

Shawn Mendes – There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back

DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper, Lil Wayne – I’m the One

Lights – Giants

The Weather Station – Thirty

The 1975 – By Your Side

Dead Obies – Allo Allo (feat. Naadei)

Bleachers – Hate That You Know Me

Big Boi – All Night

Hamilton Leithauser, Angel Olsen – Heartstruck – Wild Hunger

Frontal Lobotomy – Just As Close to Nothing †